Andrew or Walter, you're a merry fellow;
I'll swear to that.
MERRY.
No swearing, let me tell you.
The other day one Shorthose had his tongue Put into a cleft stick for profane swearing.
COLE brings the ale.
KEMPTHORN.
Well, where's my flip? As sure as my name's Kempthorn--MERRY.
Is your name Kempthorn?
KEMPTHORN.
That's the name I go by.
MERRY.
What, Captain Simon Kempthorn of the Swallow?
KEMPTHORN.
No other.
MERRY (touching him on the shoulder).
Then you're wanted.I arrest you In the King's name.
KEMPTHORN.
And where's your warrant?
MERRY (unfolding a paper, and reading).
Here.
Listen to me."Hereby you are required, In the King's name, to apprehend the body Of Simon Kempthorn, mariner, and him Safely to bring before me, there to answer All such objections as are laid to him, Touching the Quakers." Signed, John Endicott.
KEMPTHORN.
Has it the Governor's seal?
MERRY.
Ay, here it is.
KEMPTHORN.
Death's head and cross-bones.That's a pirate's flag!
MERRY.
Beware how you revile the Magistrates;
You may be whipped for that.
KEMPTHORN.
Then mum's the word.
Exeunt MERRY and KEMPTHORN.
COLE.
There's mischief brewing! Sure, there's mischief brewing.
I feel like Master Josselyn when he found The hornet's nest, and thought it some strange fruit, Until the seeds came out, and then he dropped it.
[Exit.
Scene III.-- A room in the Governor's house, Enter GOVERNORENDICOTT and MERRY.
ENDICOTT.
My son, you say?
MERRY.
Your Worship's eldest son.
ENDICOTT.
Speaking against the laws?
MERRY.
Ay, worshipful sir.
ENDICOTT.
And in the public market-place?
MERRY.
I saw him With my own eyes, heard him with my own ears.
ENDICOTT.
Impossible!
MERRY.
He stood there in the crowd With Nicholas Upsall, when the laws were read To-day against the Quakers, and I heard him Denounce and vilipend them as unjust, And cruel, wicked, and abominable.
ENDICOTT.
Ungrateful son! O God! thou layest upon me A burden heavier than I can bear!
Surely the power of Satan must be great Upon the earth, if even the elect Are thus deceived and fall away from grace!
MERRY.
Worshipful sir! I meant no harm--
ENDICOTT.
'T is well.
You've done your duty, though you've done it roughly, And every word you've uttered since you came Has stabbed me to the heart!
MERRY.
I do beseech Your Worship's pardon!
ENDICOTT.
He whom I have nurtured And brought up in the reverence of the Lord!
The child of all my hopes and my affections!
He upon whom I leaned as a sure staff For my old age! It is God's chastisement For leaning upon any arm but His!
MERRY.
Your Worship!--
ENDICOTT.
And this comes from holding parley With the delusions and deceits of Satan.
At once, forever, must they be crushed out, Or all the land will reek with heresy!
Pray, have you any children?
MERRY.
No, not any.
ENDICOTT.
Thank God for that.He has delivered you From a great care.Enough; my private griefs Too long have kept me from the public service.
Exit MERRY, ENDICOTT seats himself at the table and arranges his papers.
The hour has come; and I am eager now To sit in judgment on these Heretics.
A knock.
Come in.Who is it? (Not looking up).
JOHN ENDICOTT.
It is I.
ENDICOTT (restraining himself).
Sit down!
JOHN ENDICOTT (sitting down).
I come to intercede for these poor people Who are in prison, and await their trial.
ENDICOTT.
It is of them I wished to speak with you.
I have been angry with you, but 't is passed.
For when I hear your footsteps come or go, See in your features your dead mother's face, And in your voice detect some tone of hers, All anger vanishes, and I remember The days that are no more, and come no more, When as a child you sat upon my knee, And prattled of your playthings, and the games You played among the pear trees in the orchard!
JOHN ENDICOTT.
Oh, let the memory of my noble mother Plead with you to be mild and merciful!
For mercy more becomes a Magistrate Than the vindictive wrath which men call justice!
ENDICOTT.
The sin of heresy is a deadly sin.
'T is like the falling of the snow, whose crystals The traveller plays with, thoughtless of his danger, Until he sees the air so full of light That it is dark; and blindly staggering onward, Lost and bewildered, he sits down to rest;There falls a pleasant drowsiness upon him, And what he thinks is sleep, alas! is death.
JOHN ENDICOTT.
And yet who is there that has never doubted?
And doubting and believing, has not said, "Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief"?
ENDICOTT.
In the same way we trifle with our doubts, Whose shining shapes are like the stars descending;Until at last, bewildered and dismayed, Blinded by that which seemed to give us light, We sink to sleep, and find that it is death,Rising.
Death to the soul through all eternity!
Alas that I should see you growing up To man's estate, and in the admonition And nurture of the law, to find you now Pleading for Heretics!
JOHN ENDICOTT (rising).
In the sight of God, Perhaps all men are Heretics.Who dares To say that he alone has found the truth?
We cannot always feel and think and act As those who go before us.Had you done so, You would not now be here.
ENDICOTT.
Have you forgotten The doom of Heretics, and the fate of those Who aid and comfort them? Have you forgotten That in the market-place this very day You trampled on the laws? What right have you, An inexperienced and untravelled youth, To sit in judgment here upon the acts Of older men and wiser than yourself, Thus stirring up sedition in the streets, And making me a byword and a jest?
JOHN ENDICOTT.
Words of an inexperienced youth like me Were powerless if the acts of older men Were not before them.'T is these laws themselves Stir up sedition, not my judgment of them.
ENDICOTT.
Take heed, lest I be called, as Brutus was, To be the judge of my own son.Begone!
When you are tired of feeding upon husks, Return again to duty and submission, But not till then.
JOHN ENDICOTT.
I hear and I obey!
[Exit.
ENDICOTT.
Oh happy, happy they who have no children!
He's gone! I hear the hall door shut behind him.
