BECKET.
Ay, if he do not end in smoke again.
WALTER MAP.
My lord, the fire, when first kindled, said to the smoke, 'Go up, my
son, straight to Heaven.' And the smoke said, 'I go;' but anon the
North-east took and turned him South-west, then the South-west turned
him North-east, and so of the other winds; but it was in him to go up
straight if the time had been quieter. Your lordship affects the
unwavering perpendicular; but His Holiness, pushed one way by the
Empire and another by England, if he move at all, Heaven stay him, is
fain to diagonalise.
HERBERT.
Diagonalise! thou art a word-monger!
Our Thomas never will diagonalise.
Thou art a jester and a verse-maker.
Diagonalise!
WALTER MAP.
Is the world any the worse for my verses if the Latin rhymes be rolled
out from a full mouth? or any harm done to the people if my jest be in
defence of the Truth?
BECKET.
Ay, if the jest be so done that the people
Delight to wallow in the grossness of it,
Till Truth herself be shamed of her defender.
_Non defensoribus istis_, Walter Map.
WALTER MAP.
Is that my case? so if the city be sick, and I cannot call the kennel
sweet, your lordship would suspend me from verse-writing, as you
suspended yourself after subwriting to the customs.
Pages:
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89