John Keats: Collected Lyrics
45 / 67
Public-domain lyrics

Otho the Great. A Tragedy/Act 5 Scene 3

John Keats

“Otho the Great. A Tragedy/Act 5 Scene 3” as printed in The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884).

John Keats: Collected Lyrics Text 45 1884 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsRomantic
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from The Poetical Works of John Keats, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

Scene III.—An inner Court of the Castle.

Verse 2

Enter Sigifred, Gonfred, and Theodore, meeting.

Verse 3

1st Knight. Was ever such a night?

Verse 4

Sigifred.What horrors more?

Things unbelieved one hour, so strange they are,

The next hour stamps with credit.

Verse 5

1st Knight.Your last news?

Verse 6

Gonfred. After the page's story of the death

Of Albert and Duke Conrad?

Verse 7

Sigifred.And the return

Of Ludolph with the Princess.

Verse 8

Gonfred.No more, save

Prince Gersa's freeing Abbot Ethelbert,

And the sweet lady, fair Erminia,

From prison.

Verse 9

1st Knight. Where are they now? Hast yet heard?

Verse 10

Gonfred. With the sad Emperor they are closeted;

I saw the three pass slowly up the stairs,

The lady weeping, the old abbot cowl'd.

Verse 11

Sigifred. What next?

Verse 12

1st Knight. I ache to think on't.

Verse 13

Gonfred.'Tis with fate.

Verse 14

1st Knight. One while these proud towers are hush'd as death.

Verse 15

Gonfred. The next our poor Prince fills the arched rooms

With ghastly ravings.

Verse 16

Sigifred.I do fear his brain.

Verse 17

Gonfred. I will see more. Bear you so stout a heart?

[Exeunt into the Castle.

Credits

Written by John Keats

Words by John Keats. Historical text published in The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884), “Otho the Great. A Tragedy/Act 5 Scene 3”

Every text in this 1884 collected edition is by John Keats (1795-1821), who died more than 200 years ago, so the text is in the public domain worldwide; the edition carries a Wikisource PD-old determination.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
Keep tracing

More from John Keats: Collected Lyrics.

01A PortraitPublic-domain lyrics02A Reminiscence of Claude's Enchanted CastlePublic-domain lyrics03A Spenserian StanzaPublic-domain lyrics04An Earlier Version of "HyperionPublic-domain lyrics