Algernon Charles Swinburne

“ More like than thou and he—nor lovelier: yet
No twins were ye.
LUCREZIA
What ails thy Holiness?
ALEXANDER
I am ill at ease: my heart is sick. Last night
No revel here was held, and yet the day
Strikes heavier on me wearier, body and soul,
Than though we had rioted out with raging mirth
The lifelong length of darkness.
LUCREZIA
Evil hours
Fret somewhiles all folk living; none sees why:
No child sleeps always all night long.
ALEXANDER
Wast thou
Wakeful? No trouble clung about thee? Nought
Made the air of night heavier with presage felt
As joy feels fear and withers? ”

“ Galls not another’s. Fools and fiends are men
Who play the fiend that is not. Why shouldst thou,
Girt with the girdle of the church, and given
Power to preside on spirit and flesh—or thou,
Clothed with the glad world’s glory—priest or prince,
Turn on thy brother an evil eye, or deem
Your father God hath dealt his doom amiss
Toward either or toward any? Hath not Rome,
Hath not the Lord Christ’s kingdom, where his will
Is done on earth, enough of all that man
Thirsts, hungers, lusts for—pleasure, pride, and power—
To sate you and to share between you? ”

“ I am not
Afraid: methinks I am very fear itself.
Enter an Officer of the household
OFFICER
His holiness be gracious towards me.
ALEXANDER
Speak.
Thy face is death’s: let death upon thy lips
Live.
OFFICER
Sire, the humblest hireling knave in Rome—
A waterman that plies his craft all night—
Craves audience even of thee.
ALEXANDER
A Roman?
OFFICER
Nay.
Some outlander—some Greek—they call the knave
George the Slavonian. ”

“ The moonshine made his mane like dull white fire—
And on his crupper heavily hung a corpse,
Arms held from swaying on this side, legs on that,
I know not which on either—but the men
Held fast that held: and hard on Tiber side
They swung the crupper towards the water—sharp
And swift as man may steer a horse—and caught
And slung their dead into the stream: and he
Drifted, and caught the moon across his face
That shone like life against it: and the chief
Till then sat silent as the moon at watch,
And then bade hurl stones on the drifting dead
And sink him out of sight ”

“ Dost thou sleep
Here in his special keeping—here—to-night,
Brother?
FRANCESCO
What bids thee care to know?
CÆSAR
They say
These holy streets of heaven’s most holiest choice
Lie dangerous now in darkness if a man
Walk not on holiest errands. Thou, they say,
Wert scarce a Christlike sacrifice if slain. ”

“ Prayer never yet brought profit. Be not pale.
Fear strikes more deep into the fearful heart
The wound it heals not.
Enter Officers with the body of Francesco
What is he they bring?
O God! Thou livest! And my child is dead! ”