Becket And Other Plays Part 15

BECKET.

And why should not the parable of our blessed Lord be acted again?

Call in the poor! The Church is ever at variance with the kings, and ever at one with the poor. I marked a group of lazars in the marketplace--half-rag, half-sore--beggars, poor rogues (Heaven bless 'em) who never saw nor dreamed of such a banquet. I will amaze them.

Call them in, I say. They shall henceforward be my earls and barons-- our lords and masters in Christ Jesus.

[_Exit_ HERBERT.

If the King hold his purpose, I am myself a beggar. Forty thousand marks! forty thousand devils--and these craven bishops!

_A_ POOR MAN _(entering) with his dog_.

My lord Archbishop, may I come in with my poor friend, my dog? The King's verdurer caught him a-hunting in the forest, and cut off his paws. The dog followed his calling, my lord. I ha' carried him ever so many miles in my arms, and he licks my face and moans and cries out against the King.

BECKET.

Better thy dog than thee. The King's courts would use thee worse than thy dog--they are too b.l.o.o.d.y. Were the Church king, it would be otherwise. Poor beast! poor beast! set him down. I will bind up his wounds with my napkin. Give him a bone, give him a bone! Who misuses a dog would misuse a child--they cannot speak for themselves. Past help!

his paws are past help. G.o.d help him!

_Enter the_ BEGGARS _(and seat themselves at the Tables)_.

BECKET _and_ HERBERT _wait upon them_.

1ST BEGGAR.

Swine, sheep, ox--here's a French supper. When thieves fall out, honest men----

2ND BEGGAR.

Is the Archbishop a thief who gives thee thy supper?

1ST BEGGAR.

Well, then, how does it go? When honest men fall out, thieves--no, it can't be that.

2ND BEGGAR.

Who stole the widow's one sitting hen o' Sunday, when she was at ma.s.s?

1ST BEGGAR.

Come, come! thou hadst thy share on her. Sitting hen! Our Lord Becket's our great sitting-hen c.o.c.k, and we shouldn't ha' been sitting here if the barons and bishops hadn't been a-sitting on the Archbishop.

BECKET.

Ay, the princes sat in judgment against me, and the Lord hath prepared your table--_Sederunt principes, ederunt pauperes_.

_A Voice_.

Becket, beware of the knife!

BECKET.

Who spoke?

3RD BEGGAR.

n.o.body, my lord. What's that, my lord?

BECKET.

Venison.

3RD BEGGAR.

Venison?

BECKET.

Buck; deer, as you call it.

3RD BEGGAR.

King's meat! By the Lord, won't we pray for your lordship!

BECKET.

And, my children, your prayers will do more for me in the day of peril that dawns darkly and drearily over the house of G.o.d--yea, and in the day of judgment also, than the swords of the craven sycophants would have done had they remained true to me whose bread they have partaken.

I must leave you to your banquet. Feed, feast, and be merry. Herbert, for the sake of the Church itself, if not for my own, I must fly to France to-night. Come with me.

[_Exit with_ HERBERT.

3RD BEGGAR.

Here--all of you--my lord's health (_they drink_). Well--if that isn't goodly wine--

1ST BEGGAR.

Then there isn't a goodly wench to serve him with it: they were fighting for her to-day in the street.

3RD BEGGAR.

Peace!

1ST BEGGAR.

The black sheep baaed to the miller's ewe-lamb, The miller's away for to-night.

Black sheep, quoth she, too black a sin for me.

And what said the black sheep, my masters?

We can make a black sin white.

3RD BEGGAR.

Peace!

1ST BEGGAR.

'Ewe lamb, ewe lamb, I am here by the dam.'

But the miller came home that night, And so dusted his back with the meal in his sack, That he made the black sheep white.

3RD BEGGAR.

Be we not of the family? be we not a-supping with the head of the family? be we not in my lord's own refractory? Out from among us; thou art our black sheep.

_Enter the four_ KNIGHTS.

FITZURSE.

Sheep, said he? And sheep without the shepherd, too. Where is my lord Archbishop? Thou the l.u.s.tiest and lousiest of this Cain's brotherhood, answer.

3RD BEGGAR.

With Cain's answer, my lord. Am I his keeper? Thou shouldst call him Cain, not me.

FITZURSE.