Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Locrine: a tragedy by Algernon Charles Swinburne
page 78 of 141 (55%)
Worth less than royal guerdon?

MADAN.

Keep thine own,
And let the loud fierce knaves thy brethren quelled
Ward off the wolves whose hides should line thy throne,
Wert thou no coward, no recreant to the bone,
No liar in spirit and soul and heartless heart,
No slave, no traitor--nought of all thou art.
A thing like thee, made big with braggart breath,
Whose tongue shoots fire, whose promise poisons trust,
Would cast a shieldless soldier forth to death
And wreck three realms to sate his rancorous lust
With ruin of them who have weighed and found him dust.
Get thee to Wales: there strut in speech and swell:
And thence betimes God speed thee safe to hell.
[Exeunt severally.




ACT IV.




SCENE I.--The banks of the Ley.


DigitalOcean Referral Badge