HAROLD: A DRAMA.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HON. LORD LYTTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA.

My Dear Lord Lytton,--After old-world records--such as the Bayeux tapestry and the Roman de Rou,--Edward Freeman's History of the Norman Conquest, and your father's Historical Romance treating of the same times, have been mainly helpful to me in writing this Drama. Your father dedicated his 'Harold' to my father's brother; allow me to dedicate my 'Harold' to yourself.

A. TENNYSON.

SHOW-DAY AT BATTLE ABBEY, 1876.

A garden here--May breath and bloom of spring-- The cuckoo yonder from an English elm Crying 'with my false egg I overwhelm The native nest:' and fancy hears the ring Of harness, and that deathful arrow sing, And Saxon battleaxe clang on Norman helm.

Here rose the dragon-banner of our realm: Here fought, here fell, our Norman-slander'd king.

O Garden blossoming out of English blood!

O strange hate-healer Time! We stroll and stare Where might made right eight hundred years ago; Might, right? ay good, so all things make for good-- But he and he, if soul be soul, are where Each stands full face with all he did below.

_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_

KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.

STIGAND, _created Archbishop of Canterbury by the Antipope Benedict_.

ALDRED, _Archbishop of York_.

THE NORMAN BISHOP OF LONDON.

HAROLD, _Earl of Wess.e.x, afterwards King of England, Son of G.o.dwin_ TOSTIG, _Earl of Northumbria, Son of G.o.dwin_ GURTH, _Earl of East Anglia, Son of G.o.dwin_ LEOFWIN, _Earl of Kent and Ess.e.x, Son of G.o.dwin_ WULFNOTH COUNT WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.

WILLIAM RUFUS.

WILLIAM MALET, _a Norman n.o.ble_.[1]

EDWIN, _Earl of Mercia, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_ MORCAR, _Earl of Northumbria after Tostig, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_ GAMEL, _a Northumbrian Thane_.

GUY, _Count of Ponthieu_.

ROLF, _a Ponthieu Fisherman_.

HUGH MARGOT, _a Norman Monk_.

OSG.o.d _and_ ATHELRIC, _Canons from Waltham_.

THE QUEEN, _Edward the Confessor's Wife, Daughter of G.o.dwin_.

ALDWYTH, _Daughter of Alfgar and Widow of Griffyth, King of Wales_.

EDITH, _Ward of King Edward_.

Courtiers, Earls and Thanes, Men-at-Arms, Canons of Waltham, Fishermen, etc.

[Footnote 1: ... quidam partim Normannus et Anglus Compater Heraldi. (_Guy of Amiens_, 587.)]

HAROLD

ACT I.

SCENE I.--LONDON. THE KING'S PALACE.

(_A comet seen through the open window_.)

ALDWYTH, GAMEL, COURTIERS _talking together_.

FIRST COURTIER. Lo! there once more--this is the seventh night!

Yon grimly-glaring, treble-brandish'd scourge Of England!

SECOND COURTIER. Horrible!

FIRST COURTIER. Look you, there's a star That dances in it as mad with agony!

THIRD COURTIER. Ay, like a spirit in h.e.l.l who skips and flies To right and left, and cannot scape the flame.

SECOND COURTIER. Steam'd upward from the undescendable Abysm.

FIRST COURTIER. Or floated downward from the throne Of G.o.d Almighty.

ALDWYTH. Gamel, son of Orm, What thinkest thou this means?

GAMEL. War, my dear lady!

ALDWYTH. Doth this affright thee?

GAMEL. Mightily, my dear lady!

ALDWYTH. Stand by me then, and look upon my face, Not on the comet.

_Enter_ MORCAR.

Brother! why so pale?

MORCAR. It glares in heaven, it flares upon the Thames, The people are as thick as bees below, They hum like bees,--they cannot speak--for awe; Look to the skies, then to the river, strike Their hearts, and hold their babies up to it.

I think that they would Molochize them too, To have the heavens clear.

ALDWYTH. They fright not me.

_Enter_ LEOFWIN, _after him_ GURTH.

Ask thou Lord Leofwin what he thinks of this!

MORCAR. Lord Leofwin, dost thou believe, that these Three rods of blood-red fire up yonder mean The doom of England and the wrath of Heaven?