Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/390

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374
OTHO THE GREAT.

Ethelbert.Bold sinner, say you so?

Ludolph. Out, hideous monk!

Otho.Confess, or by the wheel—

Ethelbert. My evidence cannot be far away;
And, though it never come, be on my head
The crime of passing an attaint upon
The slanderers of this virgin.

Ludolph.Speak aloud!

Ethelbert. Auranthe! and her brother there.

Conrad. Amaze!

Ludolph.Throw them from the windows!

Otho. Do what you will!

Ludolph.What shall I do with them?
Something of quick dispatch, for should she hear,
My soft Auranthe, her sweet mercy would
Prevail against my fury. Damned priest!
What swift death wilt thou die? As to the lady,
I touch her not.

Ethelbert.Illustrious Otho, stay!
An ample store of misery thou hast,
Choke not the granary of thy noble mind
With more bad bitter grain, too difficult
A cud for the repentance of a man
Gray-growing. To thee only I appeal,
Not to thy noble son, whose yeasting youth
Will clear itself, and crystal turn again.
A young man's heart, by Heaven's blessing, is
A wide world, where a thousand new-born hopes
Empurple fresh the melancholy blood:
But an old man's is narrow, tenantless
Of hopes, and stuff'd with many memories,
Which, being pleasant, ease the heavy pulse—