No More Learning

WILLIAM. Tear out his tongue.

OFFICER. He shall not rail again.
He said that he should see confusion fall
On thee and on thine house.

WILLIAM. Tear out his eyes, And plunge him into prison.

OFFICER. It shall be done.
[_Exit_ OFFICER.

WILLIAM. Look not amazed, fair earl! Better leave undone
Than do by halves--tongueless and eyeless, prison'd--

HAROLD. Better methinks have slain the man at once!

WILLIAM.
We have respect for man's immortal soul,
We seldom take man's life, except in war;
It frights the traitor more to maim and blind.

HAROLD. In mine own land I should have scorn'd the man,
Or lash'd his rascal back, and let him go.

WILLIAM. And let him go? To slander thee again!
Yet in thine own land in thy father's day
They blinded my young kinsman, Alfred--ay,
Some said it was thy father's deed.

HAROLD. They lied.

WILLIAM. But thou and he--whom at thy word, for thou
Art known a speaker of the truth, I free
From this foul charge--

HAROLD. Nay, nay, he freed himself
By oath and compurgation from the charge.
The king, the lords, the people clear'd him of it.

WILLIAM. But thou and he drove our good Normans out
From England, and this rankles in us yet.
Archbishop Robert hardly scaped with life.