A MIRACLE-PLAY
KING DAVID | |
Knights mine, all that be in hall, | |
I have a counsel to you all, | |
Because of this thing God lets fall | |
Among us for a sign. | |
For some days hence as I did eat | |
From kingly dishes my good meat, | |
There flew a bird between my feet | |
As red as any wine. | |
This bird had a long bill of red | |
10 | And a gold ring above his head; |
Long time he sat and nothing said, | |
Put softly down his neck and fed | |
From the gilt patens fine: | |
And as I marvelled, at the last | |
He shut his two keen eyën fast | |
And suddenly woxe big and brast | |
Ere one should tell to nine. | |
PRIMUS MILES | |
Sir, note this that I will say; | |
That Lord who maketh corn with hay | |
20 | And morrows each of yesterday, |
He hath you in his hand. | |
SECUNDUS MILES(Paganus quidam) | |
By Satan I hold no such thing; | |
For if wine swell within a king | |
Whose ears for drink are hot and ring, | |
The same shall dream of wine-bibbing | |
Whilst he can lie or stand. | |
QUEEN BERSABE | |
Peace now, lords, for Godis head, | |
Ye chirk as starlings that be fed | |
And gape as fishes newly dead; | |
30 | The devil put your bones to bed, |
Lo, this is all to say. | |
SECUNDUS MILES | |
By Mahound, lords, I have good will | |
This devil’s bird to wring and spill; | |
For now meseems our game goes ill, | |
Ye have scant hearts to play. | |
TERTIUS MILES | |
Lo, sirs, this word is there said, | |
That Urias the knight is dead | |
Through some ill craft; by Poulis head, | |
I doubt his blood hath made so red | |
40 | This bird that flew from the queen’s bed |
Whereof ye have such fear. | |
KING DAVID | |
Yea, my good knave, and is it said | |
That I can raise men from the dead? | |
By God I think to have his head | |
Who saith words of my lady’s bed | |
For any thief to hear. | |
Et percutiat eum in capite. | |
QUEEN BERSABE | |
I wis men shall spit at me, | |
And say, it were but right for thee | |
That one should hang thee on a tree; | |
50 | Ho! it were a fair thing to see |
The big stones bruise her false body; | |
Fie! who shall see her dead? | |
KING DAVID | |
I rede you have no fear of this, | |
For, as ye wot, the first good kiss | |
I had must be the last of his; | |
Now are ye queen of mine, I wis, | |
And lady of a house that is | |
Full rich of meat and bread. | |
PRIMUS MILES | |
I bid you make good cheer to be | |
60 | So fair a queen as all men see. |
And hold us for your lieges free; | |
By Peter’s soul that hath the key, | |
Ye have good hap of it. | |
SECUNDUS MILES | |
I would that he were hanged and dead | |
Who hath no joy to see your head | |
With gold about it, barred on red; | |
I hold him as a sow of lead | |
That is so scant of wit. | |
Tunc dicat NATHAN propheta | |
O king, I have a word to thee; | |
70 | The child that is in Bersabe |
Shall wither without light to see; | |
This word is come of God by me | |
For sin that ye have done. | |
Because herein ye did not right, | |
To take the fair one lamb to smite | |
That was of Urias the knight; | |
Ye wist he had but one. | |
Full many sheep I wot ye had, | |
And many women, when ye bade, | |
80 | To do your will and keep you glad, |
And a good crown about your head | |
With gold to show thereon. | |
This Urias had one poor house | |
With low-barred latoun shot-windows | |
And scant of corn to fill a mouse; | |
And rusty basnets for his brows, | |
To wear them to the bone. | |
Yea the roofs also, as men sain, | |
Were thin to hold against the rain; | |
90 | Therefore what rushes were there lain |
Grew wet withouten foot of men; | |
The stancheons were all gone in twain | |
As sick man’s flesh is gone. | |
Nathless he had great joy to see | |
The long hair of this Bersabe | |
Fall round her lap and round her knee | |
Even to her small soft feet, that be | |
Shod now with crimson royally | |
And covered with clean gold. | |
100 | Likewise great joy he had to kiss |
Her throat, where now the scarlet is | |
Against her little chin, I wis, | |
That then was but cold. | |
No scarlet then her kirtle had | |
And little gold about it sprad; | |
But her red mouth was always glad | |
To kiss, albeit the eyes were sad | |
With love they had to hold. | |
SECUNDUS MILES | |
How! old thief, thy wits are lame; | |
110 | To clip such it is no shame; |
I rede you in the devil’s name, | |
Ye come not here to make men game; | |
By Termagaunt that maketh grame, | |
I shall to-bete thine head. | |
Hìc Diabolus capiat eum. | |
This knave hath sharp fingers, perfay; | |
Mahound you thank and keep alway, | |
And give you good knees to pray; | |
What man hath no lust to play, | |
The devil wring his ears, I say; | |
120 | There is no more but wellaway, |
For now am I dead. | |
KING DAVID | |
Certes his mouth is wried and black, | |
Full little pence be in his sack; | |
This devil hath him by the back, | |
It is no boot to lie. | |
NATHAN | |
Sitteth now still and learn of me; | |
A little while and ye shall see | |
The face of God’s strength presently. | |
All queens made as this Bersabe, | |
130 | All that were fair and foul ye be, |
Come hither; it am I. | |
Et hìc omnes cantabunt. | |
HERODIAS | |
I am the queen Herodias. | |
This headband of my temples was | |
King Herod’s gold band woven me. | |
This broken dry staff in my hand | |
Was the queen’s staff of a great land | |
Betwixen Perse and Samarie. | |
For that one dancing of my feet, | |
The fire is come in my green wheat, | |
140 | From one sea to the other sea. |
AHOLIBAH | |
I am the queen Aholibah. | |
My lips kissed dumb the word of Ah | |
Sighed on strange lips grown sick thereby. | |
God wrought to me my royal bed; | |
The inner work thereof was red, | |
The outer work was ivory. | |
My mouth’s heat was the heat of flame | |
For lust towards the kings that came | |
With horsemen riding royally. | |
CLEOPATRA | |
150 | I am the queen of Ethiope. |
Love bade my kissing eyelids ope | |
That men beholding might praise love. | |
My hair was wonderful and curled; | |
My lips held fast the mouth o’ the world | |
To spoil the strength and speech thereof. | |
The latter triumph in my breath | |
Bowed down the beaten brows of death, | |
Ashamed they had not wrath enough. | |
ABIHAIL | |
I am the queen of Tyrians. | |
160 | My hair was glorious for twelve spans, |
That dried to loose dust afterward. | |
My stature was a strong man’s length: | |
My neck was like a place of strength | |
Built with white walls, even and hard. | |
Like the first noise of rain leaves catch | |
One from another, snatch by snatch, | |
Is my praise, hissed against and marred. | |
AZUBAH | |
I am the queen of Amorites. | |
My face was like a place of lights | |
170 | With multitudes at festival. |
The glory of my gracious brows | |
Was like God’s house made glorious | |
With colours upon either wall. | |
Between my brows and hair there was | |
A white space like a space of glass | |
With golden candles over all. | |
AHOLAH | |
I am the queen of Amalek. | |
There was no tender touch or fleck | |
To spoil my body or bared feet. | |
180 | My words were soft like dulcimers, |
And the first sweet of grape-flowers | |
Made each side of my bosom sweet. | |
My raiment was as tender fruit | |
Whose rind smells sweet of spice-tree root, | |
Bruised balm-blossom and budded wheat. | |
AHINOAM | |
I am the queen Ahinoam. | |
Like the throat of a soft slain lamb | |
Was my throat, softer veined than his: | |
My lips were as two grapes the sun | |
190 | Lays his whole weight of heat upon |
Like a mouth heavy with a kiss: | |
My hair’s pure purple a wrought fleece, | |
My temples therein as a piece | |
Of a pomegranate’s cleaving is. | |
ATARAH | |
I am the queen Sidonian. | |
My face made faint the face of man, | |
And strength was bound between my brows. | |
Spikenard was hidden in my ships, | |
Honey and wheat and myrrh in strips, | |
200 | White wools that shine as colour does, |
Soft linen dyed upon the fold, | |
Split spice and cores of scented gold, | |
Cedar and broken calamus. | |
SEMIRAMIS | |
I am the queen Semiramis. | |
The whole world and the sea that is | |
In fashion like a chrysopras, | |
The noise of all men labouring, | |
The priest’s mouth tired through thanksgiving, | |
The sound of love in the blood’s pause, | |
210 | The strength of love in the blood’s beat, |
All these were cast beneath my feet | |
And all found lesser than I was. | |
HESIONE | |
I am the queen Hesione. | |
The seasons that increased in me | |
Made my face fairer than all men’s. | |
I had the summer in my hair; | |
And all the pale gold autumn air | |
Was as the habit of my sense. | |
My body was as fire that shone; | |
220 | God’s beauty that makes all things one |
Was one among my handmaidens. | |
CHRYSOTHEMIS | |
I am the queen of Samothrace. | |
God, making roses, made my face | |
As a rose filled up full with red. | |
My prows made sharp the straitened seas | |
From Pontus to that Chersonese | |
Whereon the ebbed Asian stream is shed. | |
My hair was as sweet scent that drips; | |
Love’s breath begun about my lips | |
230 | Kindled the lips of people dead. |
THOMYRIS | |
I am the queen of Scythians. | |
My strength was like no strength of man’s, | |
My face like day, my breast like spring. | |
My fame was felt in the extreme land | |
That hath sunshine on the one hand | |
And on the other star-shining. | |
Yea, and the wind there fails of breath; | |
Yea, and there life is waste like death; | |
Yea, and there death is a glad thing. | |
HARHAS | |
240 | I am the queen of Anakim. |
In the spent years whose speech is dim, | |
Whose raiment is the dust and death, | |
My stately body without stain | |
Shone as the shining race of rain | |
Whose hair a great wind scattereth. | |
Now hath God turned my lips to sighs, | |
Plucked off mine eyelids from mine eyes, | |
And sealed with seals my way of breath. | |
MYRRHA | |
I am the queen Arabian. | |
250 | The tears wherewith mine eyelids ran |
Smelt like my perfumed eyelids’ smell. | |
A harsh thirst made my soft mouth hard, | |
That ached with kisses afterward; | |
My brain rang like a beaten bell. | |
As tears on eyes, as fire on wood, | |
Sin fed upon my breath and blood, | |
Sin made my breasts subside and swell. | |
PASIPHAE | |
I am the queen Pasiphae. | |
Not all the pure clean-coloured sea | |
260 | Could cleanse or cool my yearning veins; |
Nor any root nor herb that grew, | |
Flag-leaves that let green water through, | |
Nor washing of the dews and rains. | |
From shame’s pressed core I wrung the sweet | |
Fruit’s savour that was death to eat, | |
Whereof no seed but death remains. | |
SAPPHO | |
I am the queen of Lesbians. | |
My love, that had no part in man’s, | |
Was sweeter than all shape of sweet. | |
270 | The intolerable infinite desire |
Made my face pale like faded fire | |
When the ashen pyre falls through with heat. | |
My blood was hot wan wine of love, | |
And my song’s sound the sound thereof, | |
The sound of the delight of it. | |
MESSALINA | |
I am the queen of Italy. | |
These were the signs God set on me; | |
A barren beauty subtle and sleek, | |
Curled carven hair, and cheeks worn wan | |
280 | With fierce false lips of many a man, |
Large temples where the blood ran weak, | |
A mouth athirst and amorous | |
And hungering as the grave’s mouth does | |
That, being an-hungred, cannot speak. | |
AMESTRIS | |
I am the queen of Persians. | |
My breasts were lordlier than bright swans, | |
My body as amber fair and thin. | |
Strange flesh was given my lips for bread, | |
With poisonous hours my days were fed, | |
290 | And my feet shod with adder-skin. |
In Shushan toward Ecbatane | |
I wrought my joys with tears and pain, | |
My loves with blood and bitter sin. | |
EPHRATH | |
I am the queen of Rephaim. | |
God, that some while refraineth him, | |
Made in the end a spoil of me. | |
My rumour was upon the world | |
As strong sound of swoln water hurled | |
Through porches of the straining sea. | |
300 | My hair was like the flag-flower, |
And my breasts carven goodlier | |
Than beryl with chalcedony. | |
PASITHEA | |
I am the queen of Cypriotes. | |
Mine oarsmen, labouring with brown throats, | |
Sang of me many a tender thing. | |
My maidens, girdled loose and braced | |
With gold from bosom to white waist, | |
Praised me between their wool-combing. | |
All that praise Venus all night long | |
310 | With lips like speech and lids like song |
Praised me till song lost heart to sing. | |
ALACIEL | |
I am the queen Alaciel. | |
My mouth was like that moist gold cell | |
Whereout the thickest honey drips. | |
Mine eyes were as a grey-green sea; | |
The amorous blood that smote on me | |
Smote to my feet and finger-tips. | |
My throat was whiter than the dove, | |
Mine eyelids as the seals of love, | |
320 | And as the doors of love my lips. |
ERIGONE | |
I am the queen Erigone. | |
The wild wine shed as blood on me | |
Made my face brighter than a bride’s. | |
My large lips had the old thirst of earth, | |
Mine arms the might of the old sea’s girth | |
Bound round the whole world’s iron sides. | |
Within mine eyes and in mine ears | |
Were music and the wine of tears, | |
And light, and thunder of the tides. | |
Et hìc exeant, et dicat Bersabe regina; | |
330 | Alas, God, for thy great pity |
And for the might that is in thee, | |
Behold, I woful Bersabe | |
Cry out with stoopings of my knee | |
And thy wrath laid and bound on me | |
Till I may see thy love. | |
Behold, Lord, this child is grown | |
Within me between bone and bone | |
To make me mother of a son, | |
Made of my body with strong moan; | |
340 | There shall not be another one |
That shall be made hereof. | |
KING DAVID | |
Lord God, alas, what shall I sain? | |
Lo, thou art as an hundred men | |
Both to break and build again: | |
The wild ways thou makest plain, | |
Thine hands hold the hail and rain, | |
And thy fingers both grape and grain; | |
Of their largess we be all well fain, | |
And of their great pity: | |
350 | The sun thou madest of good gold, |
Of clean silver the moon cold, | |
All the great stars thou hast told | |
As thy cattle in thy fold | |
Every one by his name of old; | |
Wind and water thou hast in hold, | |
Both the land and the long sea; | |
Both the green sea and the land, | |
Lord God, thou hast in hand, | |
Both white water and grey sand; | |
360 | Upon thy right or thy left hand |
There is no man that may stand; | |
Lord, thou rue on me. | |
O wise Lord, if thou be keen | |
To note things amiss that been, | |
I am not worth a shell of bean | |
More than an old mare meagre and lean; | |
For all my wrong-doing with my queen, | |
It grew not of our heartès clean, | |
But it began of her body. | |
370 | For it fell in the hot May |
I stood within a paven way | |
Built of fair bright stone, perfay, | |
That is as fire of night and day | |
And lighteth all my house. | |
Therein be neither stones nor sticks, | |
Neither red nor white bricks, | |
But for cubits five or six | |
There is most goodly sardonyx | |
And amber laid in rows. | |
380 | It goes round about my roofs, |
(If ye list ye shall have proofs) | |
There is good space for horse and hoofs, | |
Plain and nothing perilous. | |
For the fair green weather’s heat, | |
And for the smell of leavès sweet, | |
It is no marvel, well ye weet, | |
A man to waxen amorous. | |
This I say now by my case | |
That spied forth of that royal place, | |
390 | There I saw in no great space |
Mine own sweet, both body and face, | |
Under the fresh boughs. | |
In a water that was there | |
She wesshe her goodly body bare | |
And dried it with her owen hair: | |
Both her arms and her knees fair, | |
Both bosom and brows; | |
Both shoulders and eke thighs | |
Tho she wesshe upon this wise; | |
400 | Ever she sighed with little sighs, |
And ever she gave God thank. | |
Yea, God wot I can well see yet | |
Both her breast and her sides all wet | |
And her long hair withouten let | |
Spread sideways like a drawing net; | |
Full dear bought and full far fet | |
Was that sweet thing there y-set; | |
It were a hard thing to forget | |
How both lips and eyen met, | |
410 | Breast and breath sank. |
So goodly a sight as there she was, | |
Lying looking on her glass | |
By wan water in green grass, | |
Yet saw never man. | |
So soft and great she was and bright | |
With all her body waxen white, | |
I woxe nigh blind to see the light | |
Shed out of it to left and right; | |
This bitter sin from that sweet sight | |
420 | Between us twain began. |
NATHAN | |
Now, sir, be merry anon, | |
For ye shall have a full wise son, | |
Goodly and great of flesh and bone; | |
There shall no king be such an one, | |
I swear by Godis rood. | |
Therefore, lord, be merry here, | |
And go to meat withouten fear, | |
And hear a mass with goodly cheer; | |
For to all folk ye shall be dear, | |
And all folk of your blood. | |
Et tunc dicant Laudamus. |