O Garden
blossoming
out of English blood!
Tennyson
PAGET (_aside_).
Are we so sure of that?
ACCLAMATION. God save the Queen!
END OF QUEEN MARY.
HAROLD: A DRAMA.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HON. LORD LYTTON, VICEROY AND
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA.
My Dear Lord Lytton,--After old-world records--such as the Bayeux
tapestry and the Roman de Rou,--Edward Freeman's History of the Norman
Conquest, and your father's Historical Romance treating of the same
times, have been mainly helpful to me in writing this Drama. Your
father dedicated his 'Harold' to my father's brother; allow me to
dedicate my 'Harold' to yourself.
A. TENNYSON.
SHOW-DAY AT BATTLE ABBEY, 1876.
A garden here--May breath and bloom of spring--
The cuckoo yonder from an English elm
Crying 'with my false egg I overwhelm
The native nest:' and fancy hears the ring
Of harness, and that deathful arrow sing,
And Saxon battleaxe clang on Norman helm.
Here rose the dragon-banner of our realm:
Here fought, here fell, our Norman-slander'd king.
O Garden blossoming out of English blood!
O strange hate-healer Time! We stroll and stare
Where might made right eight hundred years ago;
Might, right? ay good, so all things make for good--
But he and he, if soul be soul, are where
Each stands full face with all he did below.
_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_
KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
STIGAND, _created Archbishop of Canterbury by the Antipope Benedict_.
ALDRED, _Archbishop of York_.
THE NORMAN BISHOP OF LONDON.
HAROLD, _Earl of Wessex, afterwards King of England, Son of Godwin_
TOSTIG, _Earl of Northumbria, Son of Godwin_
GURTH, _Earl of East Anglia, Son of Godwin_
LEOFWIN, _Earl of Kent and Essex, Son of Godwin_
WULFNOTH
COUNT WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.
WILLIAM RUFUS.
WILLIAM MALET, _a Norman Noble_. [1]
EDWIN, _Earl of Mercia, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_
MORCAR, _Earl of Northumbria after Tostig, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_
GAMEL, _a Northumbrian Thane_.
GUY, _Count of Ponthieu_.
ROLF, _a Ponthieu Fisherman_.
HUGH MARGOT, _a Norman Monk_.
OSGOD _and_ ATHELRIC, _Canons from Waltham_.
