University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

A Street in London.
Enter Underhill to Sandys, Weston, and Rioters.
UNDERHILL.
Why come you thus abroad? the times are wild—

SANDYS.
If the Lord be on my side, why should I fear?
Mysterious are his ways! I will endure
His chastisements—and blessed be his name!

UNDERHILL.
Pray you, retire. 'Tis an ill zeal that plucks
The beard of fortune.

SANDYS.
Edward Underhill!
I am ashamed to meet a man so changed!
That one who from the well-head undefiled
Hath tasted of eternal verities,
Should so backslide!

UNDERHILL.
I have not time to wrangle.
Firm is my faith, but I to her am loyal
Whom the Lord gives to rule o'er Israel.

SANDYS.
See ye the fruit!—A governor from God?—

UNDERHILL.
The Queen is not well served. You heard yourself,
How, leaning from the Holbein gallery,
Where she so long stood target to your shafts,
She bade her furious knights to spare; and spake
Peace to the suppliant throng.

SANDYS.
Yet your fierce captains
Do ramp along the streets with bloody staves
Hunting the white-faced citizens like rats;
Or at their own doors summarily hang them.
No house but sends forth lamentable wails
Of orphans and poor widows; wounding the ear
As harshly as their gashes do the dead.

UNDERHILL.
Not fifty thus have died—a sorrowful sum
If measured by domestic pangs—yet small
If balanced by the evil of their plots;
Small if contrasted with the precedents
Of former feuds. In Henry's time, they say,
Full seventy thousand their viaticum
Had from the hangman.

SANDYS.
Miserable Land!
See how God's wrath hath stricken! Now at length
Hath he begun to punish; as long since
Prophets have threatened. Lo! each heart, each hand,
Each tongue of Englishman is set against
His neighbour: the broad realm is rent asunder.
England! thou ship tossed on tempestuous waters!
Thy crew in mutiny—rocks on thy lee—
A maniac grasps thy helm! England! that knew'st not
When thou wert blest—now desolation sweeps thee!
Yet, yet, obey thy God—receive his Word.
So shalt thou yet find mercy!

WESTON.
Out upon thee!
Unmannerly Ranter!

SANDYS.
Ha! I will not shrink,
From the good fight. Say on, besotted man!

WESTON.
Were ye God's children, surely God would bless you,
And prosper your endeavours: but behold,
Your doctrine is abjured, and its professors
Most soundly rated by good men: and therefore
Ye cannot be of God.

SANDYS.
O thou Iscariot!

WESTON.
Nay, thou shalt hear me out. This is of God
Which our good Queen and Bishops do profess.
Lo! how God prospers them! How notable
The victory wherewith he hath enlarged her!
Ye Gospellers! how many have come back
From your vain texts—rejecting your vain doctrine!
Once we had plenty in the land: but now
There's nothing like as was. But let that pass.
You thought your Gospel was ensconced for ever
With statutes: welladay! new laws pass now
Contrariwise upholding what ye banned.
This shows your doctrine cannot be God's law.

UNDERHILL.
Be thou rebuked, O Sathanas!—If men
Had godly wit, in their Queen's victory
They might discern that God would hereby win her,
By kindness to his Gospel. Furthermore
Because that they who went against her put
Their trust in carnal weapons, not the Lord;
In this they erred. Some have recanted, say you?
Yea verily:—their seed was cast on stones,
And withered. Such for gain took up the Cross;
And, for gain, lay it down. Your Parliament
Pass laws (I say it stoutly), not by reason,
But clamour. 'Tis the many not the better
Who rule. We'll bleed for this in coming time!

A CITIZEN.
Away—away—is this a time for preaching?
Away! the pitiless Riders are upon us!

[Great uproar without—Exeunt dispersedly.