The Dynasts. Томас Харди

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      RECORDING ANGEL

       And is this prophecy true?

      SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

       Occasion will reveal.

      SHADE OF EARTH

       What boots it, Sire,

       To down this dynasty, set that one up,

       Goad panting peoples to the throes thereof,

       Make wither here my fruit, maintain it there,

       And hold me travailling through fineless years

       In vain and objectless monotony,

       When all such tedious conjuring could be shunned

       By uncreation? Howsoever wise

       The governance of these massed mortalities,

       A juster wisdom his who should have ruled

       They had not been.

      SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

       Nay, something hidden urged

       The giving matter motion; and these coils

       Are, maybe, good as any.

      SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

       But why any?

      SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

       Sprite of Compassions, ask the Immanent!

       I am but an accessory of Its works,

       Whom the Ages render conscious; and at most

       Figure as bounden witness of Its laws.

      SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

       How ask the aim of unrelaxing Will?

       Tranced in Its purpose to unknowingness?

       [If thy words, Ancient Phantom, token true.]

      SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

       Thou answerest well. But cease to ask of me.

       Meanwhile the mime proceeds.—We turn herefrom,

       Change our homuncules, and observe forthwith

       How the High Influence sways the English realm,

       And how the jacks lip out their reasonings there.

       [The Cloud-curtain draws.]

      SCENE III

       LONDON. THE OLD HOUSE OF COMMONS

       [A long chamber with a gallery on each side supported by thin

       columns having gilt Ionic capitals. Three round-headed windows

       are at the further end, above the Speaker's chair, which is backed

       by a huge pedimented structure in white and gilt, surmounted by the

       lion and the unicorn. The windows are uncurtained, one being open,

       through which some boughs are seen waving in the midnight gloom

       without. Wax candles, burnt low, wave and gutter in a brass

       chandelier which hangs from the middle of the ceiling, and in

       branches projecting from the galleries.

       The House is sitting, the benches, which extend round to the

       Speaker's elbows, being closely packed, and the galleries

       likewise full. Among the members present on the Government

       side are PITT and other ministers with their supporters,

       including CANNING, CASTLEREAGH, LORD C. SOMERSET, ERSKINE,

       W. DUNDAS, HUSKISSON, ROSE, BEST, ELLIOT, DALLAS, and the

       general body of the party. On the opposite side are noticeable

       FOX, SHERIDAN, WINDHAM, WHITBREAD, GREY, T. GRENVILLE, TIERNEY,

       EARL TEMPLE, PONSONBY, G. AND H. WALPOLE, DUDLEY NORTH, and

       TIMOTHY SHELLEY. Speaker ABBOT occupies the Chair.]

      SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

       As prelude to the scene, as means to aid

       Our younger comrades in its construing,

       Pray spread your scripture, and rehearse in brief

       The reasonings here of late—to whose effects

       Words of to-night form sequence.

       [The Recording Angels chant from their books, antiphonally, in a

       minor recitative.]

      ANGEL I [aerial music]

       Feeble-framed dull unresolve, unresourcefulness,

       Sat in the halls of the Kingdom's high Councillors,

       Whence the grey glooms of a ghost-eyed despondency

       Wanned as with winter the national mind.

      ANGEL II

       England stands forth to the sword of Napoleon

       Nakedly—not an ally in support of her;

       Men and munitions dispersed inexpediently;

       Projects of range and scope poorly defined.

      ANGEL I

       Once more doth Pitt deem the land crying loud to him.—

       Frail though and spent, and an-hungered for restfulness

       Once more responds he, dead fervours to energize,

       Aims to concentre, slack efforts to bind.

      ANGEL II

       Ere the first fruit thereof grow audible,

       Holding as hapless his dream of good guardianship,

       Jestingly, earnestly, shouting it serviceless,

       Tardy, inept, and uncouthly designed.

      ANGELS I AND II

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