Complete Poems and Plays (28 page)

T
EMPTER
.
Then I leave you to your fate.

I leave you to the pleasures of your higher vices,

Which will have to be paid for at higher prices.

Farewell, my Lord, I do not wait upon ceremony,

I leave as I came, forgetting all acrimony,

Hoping that your present gravity

Will find excuse for my humble levity.

If you will remember me, my Lord, at your prayers,

I’ll remember you at kissing-time below the stairs.

T
HOMAS
.
Leave-well-alone, the springtime fancy,

So one thought goes whistling down the wind.

The impossible is still temptation.

The impossible, the undesirable,

Voices under sleep, waking a dead world,

So that the mind may not be whole in the present.

[
Enter
S
ECOND
T
EMPTER
]

S
ECOND
T
EMPTER
.
Your Lordship has forgotten me, perhaps. I will remind you.

We met at Clarendon, at Northampton,

And last at Montmirail, in Maine. Now that I have recalled them,

Let us but set these not too pleasant memories

In balance against other, earlier

And weightier ones: those of the Chancellorship.

See how the late ones rise! You, master of policy

Whom all acknowledged, should guide the state again.

T
HOMAS
.
Your meaning?

T
EMPTER
.
                          The Chancellorship that you resigned

When you were made Archbishop — that was a mistake

On your part — still may be regained. Think, my Lord,

Power obtained grows to glory,

Life lasting, a permanent possession.

A templed tomb, monument of marble.

Rule over men reckon no madness.

T
HOMAS
.
To the man of God what gladness?

T
EMPTER
.
                                                        Sadness

Only to those giving love to God alone.

Shall he who held the solid substance

Wander waking with deceitful shadows?

Power is present. Holiness hereafter.

T
HOMAS
.
Who then?

T
EMPTER
.
                   The Chancellor, King and Chancellor.

King commands. Chancellor richly rules.

This is a sentence not taught in the schools.

To set down the great, protect the poor,

Beneath the throne of God can man do more?

Disarm the ruffian, strengthen the laws,

Rule for the good of the better cause,

Dispensing justice make all even,

Is thrive on earth, and perhaps in heaven.

T
HOMAS
.
What means?

T
EMPTER
.
                      Real power

Is purchased at price of a certain submission.

Your spiritual power is earthly perdition.

Power is present, for him who will wield.

T
HOMAS
.
Who shall have it?

T
EMPTER
.
                               He who will come.

T
HOMAS
.
What shall be the month?

T
EMPTER
.
                                           The last from the first.

T
HOMAS
.
What shall we give for it?

T
EMPTER
.
                                           Pretence of priestly power.

T
HOMAS
.
Why should we give it?

T
EMPTER
.
                                       For the power and the glory.

T
HOMAS
.
No!

T
EMPTER
.
      Yes! Or bravery will be broken,

Cabined in Canterbury, realmless ruler,

Self-bound servant of a powerless Pope,

The old stag, circled with hounds.

T
HOMAS
.
No!

T
EMPTER
.
       Yes! men must manœuvre. Monarchs also,

Waging war abroad, need fast friends at home.

Private policy is public profit;

Dignity still shall be dressed with decorum.

T
HOMAS
.
You forget the bishops

Whom I have laid under excommunication.

T
EMPTER
.
Hungry hatred

Will not strive against intelligent self-interest.

T
HOMAS
.
You forget the barons. Who will not forget

Constant curbing of petty privilege.

T
EMPTER
.
Against the barons

Is King’s cause, churl’s cause, Chancellor’s cause.

T
HOMAS
.
No! shall I, who keep the keys

Of heaven and hell, supreme alone in England,

Who bind and loose, with power from the Pope,

Descend to desire a punier power?

Delegate to deal the doom of damnation,

To condemn kings, not serve among their servants,

Is my open office. No! Go.

T
EMPTER
.
Then I leave you to your fate.

Your sin soars sunward, covering kings’ falcons.

T
HOMAS
.
Temporal power, to build a good world,

To keep order, as the world knows order.

Those who put their faith in worldly order

Not controlled by the order of God,

In confident ignorance, but arrest disorder,

Make it fast, breed fatal disease,

Degrade what they exalt. Power with the King —

I
was
the King, his arm, his better reason.

But what was once exaltation

Would now be only mean descent.

[
Enter
T
HIRD
T
EMPTER
]

T
HIRD
T
EMPTER
.
I am an unexpected visitor.

T
HOMAS
.
                                                              I expected you.

T
EMPTER
.
But not in this guise, or for my present purpose.

T
HOMAS
.
No purpose brings surprise.

T
EMPTER
.
                                               Well, my Lord,

I am no trifler, and no politician.

To idle or intrigue at court

I have no skill. I am no courtier.

I know a horse, a dog, a wench;

I know how to hold my estates in order,

A country-keeping lord who minds his own business.

It is we country lords who know the country

And we who know what the country needs.

It is our country. We care for the country.

We are the backbone of the nation.

We, not the plotting parasites

About the King. Excuse my bluntness:

I am a rough straightforward Englishman.

T
HOMAS
.
Proceed straight forward.

T
EMPTER
.
                                          Purpose is plain.

Endurance of friendship does not depend

Upon ourselves, but upon circumstance.

But circumstance is not undetermined.

Unreal friendship may turn to real

But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended.

Sooner shall enmity turn to alliance.

The enmity that never knew friendship

Can sooner know accord.

T
HOMAS
.
                              For a countryman

You wrap your meaning in as dark generality

As any courtier.

T
EMPTER
.
           This is the simple fact!

You have no hope of reconciliation

With Henry the King. You look only

To blind assertion in isolation.

That is a mistake.

T
HOMAS
.
                 O Henry, O my King!

T
EMPTER
.
                                                    Other friends

May be found in the present situation.

King in England is not all-powerful;

King is in France, squabbling in Anjou;

Round him waiting hungry sons.

We are for England. We are in England.

You and I, my Lord, are Normans.

England is a land for Norman

Sovereignty. Let the Angevin

Destroy himself, fighting in Anjou.

He does not understand us, the English barons.

We are the people.

T
HOMAS
.
To what does this lead?

T
EMPTER
.
                                        To a happy coalition

Of intelligent interests.

T
HOMAS
.
                          But what have you —

If you do speak for barons —

T
EMPTER
.
                                      For a powerful party

Which has turned its eyes in your direction —

To gain from you, your Lordship asks.

For us, Church favour would be an advantage,

Blessing of Pope powerful protection

In the fight for liberty. You, my Lord,

In being with us, would fight a good stroke

At once, for England and for Rome,

Ending the tyrannous jurisdiction

Of king’s court over bishop’s court,

Of king’s court over baron’s court.

T
HOMAS
.
Which I helped to found.

T
EMPTER
.
                                          Which you helped to found.