Indeed! It is in all seriousness, then, that you praise my
low actions?
POET LAUREATE. Your Highness stands as high above low actions as
the sun above a mud-puddle!
PEHR. I know you and your gang, counterfeiter! You call me, who
foreswore my faith, the Defender of the Faith; you say that I, a
bell-ringer's son, am of royal descent; that I am generous, who
refused to grant the first humble petition presented since my
coming to the throne! I know you, for your kind is to be found the
world over. You live for thought and immortality, you say; but you
are never seen when a thought is to be born; you are never felt
when it comes to a question of immortality. But around heaped up
dishes, in the sunlight of affluence and power, there you swarm,
like fat meat flies, only to fly away that you may set black specks
upon those who can let themselves be slain for both thought and
immortality. Out of my sight, liar! I would have your head removed
did I not see the shadow of a purpose in your presence. A poor
ruler is forced by political considerations to do so many
despicable things that he would die of shame did he not have an
institution like you to dull his conscience continually. Go! I
would be alone.
CHAMBERLAIN. Your Highness, it cannot be.
PEHR. It can be! [All go out except Pehr and Royal Historian.]
PEHR. What are you waiting for? What do you do?
HISTORIAN. I am writing Your Highness' history.
PEHR. So you are Court Historian.
HISTORIAN.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67