This text comes from The Poetical Works of John Keats, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.
Otho. Now Ludolph! Now. Auranthe! Daughter fair!
What can I find to grace your nuptial day
More than my love, and these wide realms in fee?
Ludolph. I have too much.
Auranthe.And I, my liege, by far.
Ludolph. Auranthe! I have! O, my bride, my love!
Not all the gaze upon us can restrain
My eyes, too long poor exiles from thy face,
From adoration, and my foolish tongue
From uttering soft responses to the love
I see in thy mute beauty beaming forth!
Fair creature, bless me with a single word!
All mine!
Auranthe. Spare, spare me, my Lord; I swoon else.
Ludolph. Soft beauty! by to-morrow I should die,
[They talk apart.Wert thou not mine.
1st Lady.How deep she has bewitch'd him!
1st Knight. Ask you for her recipe for love philtres.
2d Lady. They hold the Emperor in admiration.
Otho. If ever king was happy, that am I!
What are the cities 'yond the Alps to me.
The provinces about the Danube's mouth,
The promise of fair sail beyond the Rhone;
Or routing out of Hyperborean hordes,
To these fair children, stars of a new age?
Unless perchance I might rejoice to win
This little ball of earth, and chuck it them
To play with!
Auranthe. Nay, my Lord, I do not know.
Ludolph. Let me not famish.
Otho (to Conrad).Good Franconia,
You heard what oath I sware, as the sun rose,
That unless Heaven would send me back my son,
My Arab,—no soft music should enrich
The cool wine, kiss'd off with a soldier's smack;
Now all my empire, barter'd for one feast,
Seems poverty.
Conrad.Upon the neighbor-plain
The heralds have prepared a royal lists;
Your knights, found war-proof in the bloody field,
Speed to the game.
Otho.Well, Ludolph, what say you?
Ludolph. My lord!
Otho.A tourney?
Conrad.Or, if't please you best—
Ludolph. I want no more!
1st Lady.He soars!
2d Lady.Past all reason.
Ludolph. Though heaven's choir
Should in a vast circumference descend,
And sing for my delight, I'd stop my ears!
Though bright Apollo's car stood burning here,
And he put out an arm to bid me mount,
His touch an immortality, not I!
This earth, this palace, this room, Auranthe!
Otho. This is a little painful; just too much.
Conrad, if he flames longer in this wise,
I shall believe in wizard-woven loves
And old romances; but I'll break the spell.
Ludolph!
Conrad. He'll be calm, anon.
Ludolph.You call'd?
Yes, yes, yes, I offend. You must forgive me;
Not being quite recover'd from the stun
Of your large bounties. A tourney, is it not?
[A senet heard faintly.
Conrad. The trumpets reach us.
Ethelbert (without).On your peril, sirs,
Detain us!
1st voice (without). Let not the abbot pass.
2d voice (without).No,
On your lives!
1st voice (without). Holy father, you must not.
Ethelbert (without). Otho!
Otho.Who calls on Otho?
Ethelbert (without).Ethelbert!
Otho. Let him come in.
[Enter Ethelbert leading in Erminia.
Thou cursed abbot, why
Hast brought pollution to our holy rites?
Hast thou no fear of hangman or the faggot?
Ludolph. What portent—what strange prodigy is this?
Conrad. Away!
Ethelbert.You, Duke?
Erminia.Albert has surely fail'd me!
Look at the Emperor's brow upon me bent!
Ethelbert. A sad delay!
Conrad.Away, thou guilty thing!
Ethelbert. You again, Duke? Justice, most noble Otho!
You—go to your sister there and plot again.
A quick plot, swift as thought to save your heads;
For lo! the toils are spread around your den,
The world is all agape to see dragg'd forth
Two ugly monsters.
Ludolph.What means he, my lord?
Conrad. I cannot guess.
Ethelbert.Best ask you lady sister.
Whether the riddle puzzles her beyond
The power of utterance.
Conrad.Foul barbarian, cease;
The Princess faints!
Ludolph.Stab him! O, sweetest wife!
[Attendants bear off Auranthe.
Erminia. Alas!
Ethelbert.Your wife!
Ludolph.Ay, Satan! does that yerk ye?
Ethelbert. Wife! so soon!
Ludolph.Ay, wife! Oh, impudence!
Thou bitter mischief! Venomous bad priest!
How dar'st thou lift those beetle brows at me?
Me—the prince Ludolph, in this presence here,
Upon my marriage-day, and scandalize
My joys with such opprobrious surprise?
Wife! Why dost linger on that syllable.
As if it were some demon's name pronounced
To summon harmful lightning, and make yawn
The sleepy thunder? Hast no sense of fear?
No ounce of man in thy mortality?
Tremble! for, at my nod, the sharpen'd axe
Will make thy bold tongue quiver to the roots,
Those gray lids wink, and thou not know it, monk!
Ethelbert. O, poor deceived Prince! I pity thee!
Great Otho! I claim justice—
Ludolph.Thou shalt have't!
Thine arms from forth a pulpit of hot fire
Shall sprawl distracted! O that that dull cowl
Were some most sensitive portion of thy life,
That I might give it to my hounds to tear!
Thy girdle some fine zealous-pained nerve
To girth my saddle! And those devil's beads
Each one a life, that I might, every day,
Crush one with Vulcan's hammer!
Otho.Peace, my son;
You far outstrip my spleen in this affair.
Let us be calm, and hear the abbot's plea
For this intrusion.
Ludolph.I am silent, sire.
Otho. Conrad, see all depart not wanted here.
[Exeunt Knights, Ladies, &c.
Ludolph be calm. Ethelbert, peace awhile.
This mystery demands an audience
Of a just judge, and that will Otho be.
Ludolph. Why has he time to breathe another word?
Otho. Ludolph, old Ethelbert, be sure, comes not
To beard us for no cause; he's not the man
To cry himself up an ambassador
Without credentials.
Ludolph.I'll chain up myself.
Otho. Old abbot, stand here forth. Lady Erminia,
Sit. And now, abbot! what have you to say?
Our ear is open. First we here denounce
Hard penalties against thee, if't be found
The cause for which you have disturb'd us here,
Making our bright hours muddy, be a thing
Of little moment.
Ethelbert.See this innocent!
Otho! thou father of the people call'd,
Is her life nothing? Her fair honor nothing?
Her tears from matins until even-song
Nothing? Her burst heart nothing? Emperor!
Is this your gentle niece—the simplest flower
Of the world's herbal—this fair lily blanch'd
Still with the dews of piety, this meek lady
Here sitting like an angel newly-shent,
Who veils its snowy wings and grows all pale,—
Is she nothing?
Otho.What more to the purpose, abbot?
Ludolph. Whither is he winding?
Conrad.No clue yet!
Ethelbert. You have heard, my Liege, and so, no doubt, all here,
Foul, poisonous, malignant whisperings;
Nay open speech, rude mockery grown common,
Against the spotless nature and clear fame
Of the princess Erminia, your niece.
I have intruded here thus suddenly,
Because I hold those base weeds, with tight hand,
Which now disfigure her fair growing stem,
Waiting but for your sign to pull them up
By the dark roots, and leave her palpable,
To all men's sight, a lady innocent.
The ignominy of that whisper'd tale
About a midnight gallant, seen to climb
A window to her chamber neighbor'd near,
I will from her turn off, and put the load
On the right shoulders; on that wretch's head,
Who, by close stratagems, did save herself,
Chiefly by shifting to this lady's room
A rope-ladder for false-witness.
Ludolph.Most atrocious!
Otho. Ethelbert, proceed.
Ethelbert.With sad lips I shall:
For, in the healing of one wound, I fear
To make a greater. His young highness here
To-day was married.
Ludolph.Good.
Ethelbert.Would it were good!
Yet why do I delay to spread abroad
The names of those two vipers, from whose jaw
A deadly breath went forth to taint and blast
This guileless lady?
Otho.Abbot, speak their names.
Ethelbert. A minute first. It cannot be—but may
I ask, great judge, if you to day have put
A letter by unread?
Otho.Does't end in this?
Conrad. Out with their names!
Ethelbert.Bold sinner, say you so?
Ludolph. Out, hideous monk!
Otho.Confess, or by the wheel—
Ethelbert. My evidence cannot be far away;
And, though it never come, be on my head
The crime of passing an attaint upon
The slanderers of this virgin.
Ludolph.Speak aloud!
Ethelbert. Auranthe! and her brother there.
Conrad. Amaze!
Ludolph.Throw them from the windows!
Otho. Do what you will!
Ludolph.What shall I do with them?
Something of quick dispatch, for should she hear,
My soft Auranthe, her sweet mercy would
Prevail against my fury. Damned priest!
What swift death wilt thou die? As to the lady,
I touch her not.
Ethelbert.Illustrious Otho, stay!
An ample store of misery thou hast,
Choke not the granary of thy noble mind
With more bad bitter grain, too difficult
A cud for the repentance of a man
Gray-growing. To thee only I appeal,
Not to thy noble son, whose yeasting youth
Will clear itself, and crystal turn again.
A young man's heart, by Heaven's blessing, is
A wide world, where a thousand new-born hopes
Empurple fresh the melancholy blood:
But an old man's is narrow, tenantless
Of hopes, and stuff'd with many memories,
Which, being pleasant, ease the heavy pulse—
Painful, clog up and stagnate. Weigh this matter
Even as a miser balances his coin;
And in the name of mercy, give command
That your knight Albert be brought here before you.
He will expound this riddle; he will show
A noon-day proof of bad Auranthe's guilt.
Otho. Let Albert straight be summon'd.
[Exit one of the Nobles.
Ludolph.Impossible!
I cannot doubt—I will not—no—to doubt
Is to be ashes!—wither'd up to death!
Otho. My gentle Ludolph, harbor not a fear;
You do yourself much wrong.
Ludolph.O, wretched dolt!
Now, when my foot is almost on thy neck,
Wilt thou infuriate me? Proof! Thou fool!
Why wilt thou tease impossibility
With such a thick-skull'd persevering suit?
Fanatic obstinacy! Prodigy!
Monster of folly! Ghost of a turn'd brain!
You puzzle me,—you haunt me,—when I dream
Of you my brain will split! Bold sorcerer!
Juggler! May I come near you? On my soul
I know not whether to pity, curse, or laugh.
Enter Albert, and the Nobleman.
Here, Albert, this old phantom wants a proof!
Give him his proof! A camel's load of proofs!
Otho. Albert, I speak to you as to a man
Whose words once utter'd pass like current gold;
And therefore fit to calmly put a close
To this brief tempest. Do you stand possess'd
Of any proof against the honorableness
Of lady Auranthe, our new-spoused daughter?
Albert. You chill me with astonishment. How's this?
My Liege, what proof should I have 'gainst a fame
Impossible of slur?
[Otho rises.
Erminia.O wickedness!
Ethelbert. Deluded monarch, 'tis a cruel lie.
Otho. Peace, rebel-priest!
Conrad.Insult beyond credence!
Erminia. Almost a dream!
Ludolph.We have awaked from!
A foolish dream that from my brow hath wrung
A wrathful dew. O folly! why did I
So act the lion with this silly gnat?
Let them depart. Lady Erminia!
I ever grieved for you, as who did not?
But now you have, with such a brazen front,
So most maliciously, so madly striven
To dazzle the soft moon, when tenderest clouds
Should be unloop'd around to curtain her;
I leave you to the desert of the world
Almost with pleasure. Let them be set free
For me! I take no personal revenge
More than against a nightmare, which a man
[Exit Ludolph. Forgets in the new dawn.
Otho. Still in extremes! No, they must not be loose.
Ethelbert. Albert, I must suspect thee of a crime
So fiendish—
Otho.Fear'st thou not my fury, monk?
Conrad, be they in your safe custody
Till we determine some fit punishment.
It is so mad a deed, I must reflect
And question them in private; for perhaps
By patient scrutiny, we may discover
In care of the physicians.
[Exeunt Otho and Nobles, Albert following.
Conrad. My guards, ho!
Erminia.Albert, will you follow there?
Will you creep dastardly behind his back,
And slink away from a weak woman’s eye?
Turn, thou court-Janus! thou forget’st thyself;
[Enter Guards.Here is the Duke, waiting with open arms,
To thank thee; here congratulate each other;
Wring hands; embrace; and swear how lucky ’twas
That I, by happy chance, hit the right man
Of all the world to trust in.
Albert.Trust! to me!
Conrad (aside). He is the sole one in this mystery.
Erminia. Well, I give up, and save my prayers for Heaven!
You, who could do this deed, would ne’er relent,
Though, at my words, the hollow prison-vaults
Would groan for pity.
Conrad.Manacle them both!
Ethelbert. I know it—it must be—I see it all!
Albert, thou art the minion!
Erminia.Ah! too plain—
Conrad. Silence! Gag up their mouths! I cannot bear
More of this brawling. That the Emperor
Had plac’d you in some other custody!
[Exeunt all but Albert.Bring them away.
Albert. Though my name perish from the book of honor,
Almost before the recent ink is dry,
And be no more remember’d after death,
Than any drummer’s in the muster-roll;
Yet shall I season high my sudden fall
With triumph o’er that evil-witted Duke!
He shall feel what it is to have the hand
Of a man drowning, on his hateful throat.
Enter Gersa and Sigifred.
Gersa. What discord is at ferment in this house
Sigifred. We are without conjecture; not a soul
We met could answer any certainty.
Gersa. Young Ludolph, like a fiery arrow, shot
By us.
Sigifred. The Emperor, with cross’d arms, in thought.
Gersa. In one room music, in another sadness,
Perplexity every where!
Albert.A trifle more!
Follow; your presences will much avail
[Exeunt.To tune our jarred spirits. I’ll explain.