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_ ACT V - SCENE I
CHASTELARD.
SCENE I.-Before Holyrood. A crowd of people;
among them Soldiers, Burgesses, a Preacher, &c.
1ST CITIZEN.
They are not out yet. Have you seen the man?
What manner of man?
2D CITIZEN.
Shall he be hanged or no?
There was a fellow hanged some three days gone
Wept the whole way: think you this man shall die
In better sort, now?
1ST CITIZEN.
Eh, these shawm-players
That walk before strange women and make songs!
How should they die well?
3D CITIZEN.
Is it sooth men say
Our dame was wont to kiss him on the face
In lewd folk's sight?
1ST CITIZEN.
Yea, saith one, all day long
He used to sit and jangle words in rhyme
To suit with shakes of faint adulterous sound
Some French lust in men's ears; she made songs too,
Soft things to feed sin's amorous mouth upon--
Delicate sounds for dancing at in hell.
4TH CITIZEN.
Is it priest Black that he shall have by him
When they do come?
3D CITIZEN.
Ah! by God's leave, not so;
If the knave show us his peeled onion's head
And that damned flagging jowl of his--
2D CITIZEN.
Nay, sirs,
Take heed of words; moreover, please it you,
This man hath no pope's part in him.
3D CITIZEN.
I say
That if priest whore's friend with the lewd thief's cheek
Show his foul blinking face to shame all ours,
It goes back fouler; well, one day hell's fire
Will burn him black indeed.
A WOMAN.
What kind of man?
'T is yet great pity of him if he be
Goodly enow for this queen's paramour.
A French lord overseas? what doth he here,
With Scotch folk here?
1ST CITIZEN.
Fair mistress, I think well
He doth so at some times that I were fain
To do as well.
THE WOMAN.
Nay, then he will not die.
1ST CITIZEN.
Why, see you, if one eat a piece of bread
Baked as it were a certain prophet's way,
Not upon coals, now--you shall apprehend--
If defiled bread be given a man to eat,
Being thrust into his mouth, why he shall eat,
And with good hap shall eat; but if now, say,
One steal this, bread and beastliness and all,
When scarcely for pure hunger flesh and bone
Cleave one to other--why, if he steal to eat,
Be it even the filthiest feeding-though the man
Be famine-flayed of flesh and skin, I say
He shall be hanged.
3D CITIZEN.
Nay, stolen said you, sir?
See, God bade eat abominable bread,
And freely was it eaten--for a sign
This, for a sign--and doubtless as did God,
So may the devil; bid one eat freely and live,
Not for a sign.
2D CITIZEN.
Will you think thus of her?
But wherefore should they get this fellow slain
If he be clear toward her?
3D CITIZEN.
Sir, one must see
The day comes when a woman sheds her sin
As a bird moults; and she being shifted so,
The old mate of her old feather pecks at her
To get the right bird back; then she being stronger
Picks out his eyes-eh?
2D CITIZEN.
Like enough to be;
But if it be--Is not one preaching there
With certain folk about him?
1ST CITIZEN.
Yea, the same
Who preached a month since from Ezekiel
Concerning these twain-this our queen that is
And her that was, and is not now so much
As queen over hell's worm.
3D CITIZEN.
Ay, said he not,
This was Aholah, the first one of these,
Called sisters only for a type--being twain,
Twain Maries, no whit Nazarine? the first
Bred out of Egypt like the water-worm
With sides in wet green places baked with slime
And festered flesh that steams against the sun;
A plague among all people, and a type
Set as a flake upon a leper's fell.
1ST CITIZEN.
Yea, said he, and unto her the men went in,
The men of Pharaoh's, beautiful with red
And with red gold, fair foreign-footed men,
The bountiful fair men, the courteous men,
The delicate men with delicate feet, that went
Curling their small beards Agag-fashion, yea
Pruning their mouths to nibble words behind
With pecking at God's skirts-small broken oaths
Fretted to shreds between most dainty lips,
And underbreath some praise of Ashtaroth
Sighed laughingly.
2D CITIZEN.
Was he not under guard
For the good word?
1ST CITIZEN.
Yea, but now forth again.--
And of the latter said he--there being two,
The first Aholah, which interpreted--
3D CITIZEN.
But, of this latter?
1ST CITIZEN.
Well, of her he said
How she made letters for Chaldean folk
And men that came forth of the wilderness
And all her sister's chosen men; yea, she
Kept not her lip from any sin of hers
But multiplied in whoredoms toward all these
That hate God mightily; for these, he saith,
These are the fair French people, and these her kin
Sought out of England with her love-letters
To bring them to her kiss of love; and thus
With a prayer made that God would break such love
Ended some while; then crying out for strong wrath
Spake with a great voice after: This is she,
Yea the lewd woman, yea the same woman
That gat bruised breasts in Egypt, when strange men
Swart from great suns, foot-burnt with angry soils
And strewn with sand of gaunt Chaldean miles,
Poured all their love upon her: she shall drink
The Lord's cup of derision that is filled
With drunkenness and sorrow, great of sides
And deep to drink in till the dreg drips out:
Yea, and herself with the twain shards thereof
Pluck off her breasts; so said he.
4TH CITIZEN.
See that stir--
Are not they come?
3D CITIZEN.
There wants an hour of them.
Draw near and let us hearken; he will speak
Surely some word of this.
2D CITIZEN.
What saith he now?
THE PREACHER.
The mercy of a harlot is a sword;
And her mouth sharper than a flame of fire. _
Read next: Act 5 - Scene 2
Read previous: Act 4 - Scene 1
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