We thank your
Lordship
and your loyal city.
Tennyson
in the name of God!
The Queen of England or the rabble of Kent?
The reeking dungfork master of the mace!
Your havings wasted by the scythe and spade--
Your rights and charters hobnail'd into slush--
Your houses fired--your gutters bubbling blood--
ACCLAMATION. No! No! The Queen! the Queen!
WHITE. Your Highness hears
This burst and bass of loyal harmony,
And how we each and all of us abhor
The venomous, bestial, devilish revolt
Of Thomas Wyatt. Hear us now make oath
To raise your Highness thirty thousand men,
And arm and strike as with one hand, and brush
This Wyatt from our shoulders, like a flea
That might have leapt upon us unawares.
Swear with me, noble fellow-citizens, all,
With all your trades, and guilds, and companies.
CITIZENS. We swear!
MARY.
We thank your Lordship and your loyal city.
[_Exit_ MARY _attended_.
WHITE. I trust this day, thro' God, I have saved the crown.
FIRST ALDERMAN. Ay, so my Lord of Pembroke in command
Of all her force be safe; but there are doubts.
SECOND ALDERMAN. I hear that Gardiner, coming with the Queen,
And meeting Pembroke, bent to his saddle-bow,
As if to win the man by flattering him.
_Is_ he so safe to fight upon her side?
FIRST ALDERMAN. If not, there's no man safe.
WHITE. Yes, Thomas White.
I am safe enough; no man need flatter me.
SECOND ALDERMAN. Nay, no man need; but did you mark our Queen?
The Queen of England or the rabble of Kent?
The reeking dungfork master of the mace!
Your havings wasted by the scythe and spade--
Your rights and charters hobnail'd into slush--
Your houses fired--your gutters bubbling blood--
ACCLAMATION. No! No! The Queen! the Queen!
WHITE. Your Highness hears
This burst and bass of loyal harmony,
And how we each and all of us abhor
The venomous, bestial, devilish revolt
Of Thomas Wyatt. Hear us now make oath
To raise your Highness thirty thousand men,
And arm and strike as with one hand, and brush
This Wyatt from our shoulders, like a flea
That might have leapt upon us unawares.
Swear with me, noble fellow-citizens, all,
With all your trades, and guilds, and companies.
CITIZENS. We swear!
MARY.
We thank your Lordship and your loyal city.
[_Exit_ MARY _attended_.
WHITE. I trust this day, thro' God, I have saved the crown.
FIRST ALDERMAN. Ay, so my Lord of Pembroke in command
Of all her force be safe; but there are doubts.
SECOND ALDERMAN. I hear that Gardiner, coming with the Queen,
And meeting Pembroke, bent to his saddle-bow,
As if to win the man by flattering him.
_Is_ he so safe to fight upon her side?
FIRST ALDERMAN. If not, there's no man safe.
WHITE. Yes, Thomas White.
I am safe enough; no man need flatter me.
SECOND ALDERMAN. Nay, no man need; but did you mark our Queen?
