Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The poetical works of Alfred Tennyson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.
773/870 page 737
![Salisbury was a calf cowed by Mother Chuicli, and every now and theu glauciug about liiiii like a thief at night when he hears a door open iu the house and thinks the master. Herbert. And tlie father-kiug ? WnlUr Mu/i. The f.ither's eye was so :,ender it would havt- called a goose ott'the green, ami onee he strove tu hide his face, like the (ireek king when his daughter was sacrificed, hut he thought better of it: it was but the saerilice of a kingdom to his son, a smaller m;iiter; hut as lo the vouug crowuliiig hinisrlf, lie looked so inala])ert in the eyes, liiat had 1 fathered him I had given him more of the rod than the sceptre. Then followed the thunder of the captains and the shouting, and so we cauie on to the banquet, from whence there ))uH'ed out such an iuceuse of unctuosity into the nostrils of our Gods of Cliurch antl State, that Lucullus or Apicins might have sniffed it iu their Ha- des of heathenism, so that the smell of their own roa.st had not come across it — Ilcrber!. Map, iho' you make youi' butt too big, you overshoot it. Walter Map. — For as to the fish, they de-niiraeled the miraculous draught, and might have sunk a navy — llerhcrt. There again, Goliazing and Goliathizing! WdJttr .]f(ip. — And as for the flesh at table, a whole Peter's sheet, with all man- ner of game, and four-footed things, and fowls — Herbert. And all manner of creeping things too ? Wollrr Map. —Well, there were Ab- bots— l)nt they did not bring their wo- men ; and so we were dull enough at first, but in the end wc flourished out into a merriment ; for the old King would act servitor and hand a dish to his son ; whereupon my Lord of York — his fine- cut face bowinir and beaming with all that courtesy which hath less loyalty in it than the backward scrape of the clown's heel — great honor, says he, from the King's self to the King's son.' Did you hear the youni,^ King's quip ? Herbert. No, what was it ? Walter Map. Glancing at the days when his father was only Earl of Anjou, he answered : Should not an earl's son wait on a king's son ? And when the col<t corners of the King's mouth began 47 to thaw, there was a great motion of laughter among us, part real, part child- like, to be freed from the dulucss—part royal, for King and kingliug both laughed, and so we could not but laugh, as by a royal necessity — part childlike again — when we felt we had laughed too long and could not stay ourselves — many midriff-shaken even to tears, as springs, gush out after earthquakes — but from those, as I said before, there may come a conflagration—tho', to keep the figure moist and make it hold waier, I should say rather, the lachrymaliou of a lamenta- tion ; but look if Thomas have not flung himself at the King's feet. They have maile it up again — for the moment. Herbert. Thanks to the blessed Magda- len, whose day it is. Reenter Henry and Becket. (During their conference the Barons and Bish- ops of France and England come in at back of stage.) Becket. Ay, King! for in thy kingdom, as thou knowest. The spouse of the Great King, thy King; hath fallen — The daughter of Zion lies beside the way — The priests of Baal tread her underfoot — The golden ornaments are stolen from her — Henry. Have I not promised to restore her, Thomas, And send thee back again to Canter- bury ? Becket. 'Send back again those exiles of my kin Who wander famine - wasted thro' the world. Henry. Have I not promised, man, to send them back ? Becket. Yet one thing more. Thou hast broken thro' the jiales Of privilege, crowning thv young son by York, London, and Salisbury — not Canter- bury. Henry. York crown'd the Cou([iieror — not Canterbury. Becket. There was no Canterbury in William's time. Henry. But Hereford, you know, crown'd the first Henry. Becket. But Anselm crown'd this Henry o'er again.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20452597_0773.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
