STEWARD Lord I have walked by dale and hill And waited, as it was your will. The three kings have stolen away full still Through Bethlehem land. They will never, so please thee, 5 Come into the land of Galilee To see your fair city Nor the deeds of your hand. HEROD I ride royally, rich in my reign. Ribs full red with strokes shall I rend. 10 Poppets and sucklings I shall put in pain With my spear polished to pinch and to bend. The goons with the gold crowns come not again! To seek those sots soldiers shall I send. I shall make hussies hoot, harlots loose women 15 When their bairns bleed under the cradle band. Sharply I shall them shend -- The knave children that be In all Israel country They shall bloody be 20 For one I call unkind. It is told by a few His name should be Jesu. I have found To have him gone 25 I must hew flesh to the bone And give him a wound. Now keen knights, good at your craft That kill knave children and cast them in clay, Throw on your shoulders shields and shafts 30 Shaped among soldiers shrilling all day Make horses run with rippling neighs Till their ribs be all rent with red spray. Let no bairn remain unbeaten behind Till the beggars bleed in the beasts' way -- 35 Mahound that best may. I warn you my knights A bairn is born I will fight He will claim to be king by right And usurp my lordly lay. 40 My knights wise Chosen with price, Arise, arise And take your toll. And every page 45 Of two year age Where're you engage, Slay like a fool. One of them Was born in a stall. 50 Fools him call A king with crown. With bitter gall He shall down fall. My might in this hall 55 Shall never go down! FIRST SOLDIER I shall slay churls And queens with earls. Here knaves with curls I shall stick. 60 Forth will I speed To make him bleed With bloody greed Vengeance to wreak. SECOND SOLDIER For swords sharp 65 As a harp Queens shall karp And of sorrow sing. Bairns young Shall be stung! 70 Through liver and lung We shall them sting. ANGEL Awake Joseph and take thy wife, The child also. Run for your lives! For King Herod with sharp knives 75 His knights he doth send. The father of heaven hath to thee sent Into Egypt that thou be bent. For cruel knights thy child have meant With swords to slay and shend. 80 JOSEPH Awake, good wife, out of your sleep And of your child good care you keep, While I your clothes lay on a heap And tie them on the ass. King Herod the child will slay 85 Therefore to Egypt must we go An angel of God said me so And therefore let us pass.
Then the soldiers come to the children to be slain and the first woman says
FIRST WOMAN
Lovely lulling have I lorn,
Alas why was my baby born? 90
With sweeping sword now has he shorn
The head right from the neck.
Shank and shoulder are all totorn!
Sorrow I see behind and before
At midnight, midday and morn 95
Would my life were finished quick.
SECOND WOMAN
Certainly I say the same!
Gone is all my goodly game.
My little child lieth all lame
That suckled on my breast. 100
My forty weeks groaning
Has sent me seven years sorrowing,
Much is my mourning
Now may I have no rest.
FIRST SOLDIER
Lord on throne! 105
Make now no moan,
Queens now groan
In the country side
Upon my spear
A babe I bear 110
I dare well swear,
The mothers cried.
SECOND SOLDIER
Lord we have sped
As you bade
Babes have bled 115
And lie in the ditch!
Flesh and vein
Have suffered pain
And you shall reign
Ever more rich. 120
HEROD
Ye shall have steeds
To your needs
Lands and glebes,
Woods in fee.
Well have you wrought! 125
My foe is sought --
To death he is brought
Now come up to me.
In seat now am I set as king of mights most.
All this world for their love to me shall bow 130
Both in heaven and on earth and in hell's coast
For the worth of my dignity their reverence to show.
There is no lord now living to ask me to toast
Neither king nor kaiser in all this world about.
If any braggert do brag or blow against my boast, 135
I shall rap those ribalds and beat them on the snout
With my bright brand.
There shall be neither kaiser nor king
But that I shall them down ding
Unless he, at my bidding, 140
Obey at my hand.
Now my gentle and courteous knights, hark to me anon.
In good time, soon, methinketh at dinner that we were.
Smartly therefore set a table anon here full soon
Covered with a curious cloth and with rich worthy fare, 145
Service for the loveliest lord that is living on ground!
Rare meats and worthiest wines, look that you not spare.
Though a little pint should cost a thousand pound
Bring always the best and for the cost take no care
Quickly get it done. 150
STEWARD
My lord, the table is ready dight.
Here is water, now wash forthright.
Now blow up, minstrell, with all your might
The service comes in soon.
HEROD
Now am I set at meat 155
And worthily served at my degree
Come forth knights, sit down and eat
And be as merry as you can be.
FIRST SOLDIER
Lord, at your bidding we take our seat.
With hearty will, obey we thee. 160
There is no lord of might so great
Through all this world, in no country
In worship to abide.
HEROD
I was never merrier here before
Since that I was first born 165
Than I am right now in this morn
In joy I begin to glide!
DEATH
Oh I heard a page make praisings of pride.
All princes he passes, he thinks great to be.
He thinks he is the worthiest of all this world wide, 170
King over all kings, that page thinks to be.
He sent into Bethlehem, to seek on every side
Christ for to quell if they might him see.
But of his wicked will, sluggard yet he lied.
God's son doth live. There is no lord but he, 175
Over all lords he is king.
I am Death, God's messenger,
Almighty God hath sent me here
Yon sluggard to slay without fear
For all his wicked working. 180
I am sent from God. Death is my name
All things now alive I bend to my will.
Both man and beast and birds wild and tame.
When I come to them, with death I do them kill.
Herbs, grass and trees strong, take them all the same. 185
Yea, the great and mighty oaks with my dart I spill.
What man that I wrestle with, he shall right soon have shame.
I trip him up so featly he shall ever more lie still.
For Death knows no sport.
Where I smite, there is no grace. 190
For after my stroke, man hath no space
To make amends for his trespass,
But God him grant comfort.
Oh see how proudly yon caitiff sits at meat.
Of death hath he no thought; he thinks to live evermore. 195
To him will I go and give him such a heat
That all the leeches of the land his life shall never restore.
Against my dreadful dents, it availeth never to fight.
Before I part from him, I shall him make full poor.
All the blood from his body I shall him out sweat. 200
For now I go to slay him with strokes sad and sore.
Both him and his knights all
This tide.
I shall them make to me but thrall
With my spear slay them I shall, 205
And so cast down his pride.
HEROD
Now kind knights be merry and glad
With all good spirit show now some mirth!
By gracious Mahound more mirth never I had
Nor never more joy from the time of my birth. 210
For now is my foe dead and taken as a toad.
Above me is no king alive here on earth.
Mirth, therefore, make ye and be ye not sad,
Spare neither meat nor drink and be there no dearth
Of wine nor of bread! 215
For now I am king alone!
As worthy as I, may there be none.
Therefore, knights, be merry each one.
For now is my foe dead!
FIRST SOLDIER
When the boys sprawled at my spears' end, 220
By Satan our sire, it was a good sight!
A good game it was, that boy for to shend
That would be our king and put you from your right.
SECOND SOLDIER
Now, truly, my lord king, we wicked had been
And never none of us able to be knight, 225
If to them any of us had been friend
And saved any lives against thy great might
From death them to keep.
HEROD
Amongst all that great rout,
He is dead, I have no doubt, 230
Therefore minstrells round about
Blow up, a merry fit!
Here while they are drinking, Death slays Herod and the two soldiers as well and the Devil receives them
DEVIL All ours! All ours! This castle is mine! I shall bring them into my cell. I shall teach them a place fine 235 And show them such mirth as is in hell. It were much better amongst swine That are ever more stinking, there to dwell For in our lodge is such great pain That no earthly tongue may tell. 240 With you I go my way. I shall you bear forth with me And show you the sports of our glee Of our mirths you now shall see And ever sing, well-a-way. 245 DEATH Of King Herod all men beware That hath rejoiced in pomp and pride. For all his boasts of bliss, full bare He lies now dead, on his side. For when I come, I do not spare 250 From me no person may him hide. Now is he dead and cast in care, In hell pit ever to abide. His lordship is all lorn. Now is he as poor as I 255 Worms meat is his body His soul in hell full painfully Of devils is all to-torn. All men living upon the ground, Beware of me, by my counsel, 260 For faint fellowship in me is found, I know no courtesy as I you tell. For be a man never so sound Of health, in heart never so well, I come suddenly and that anon. 265 Me withstand may no castle. My journey will I speed. Of my coming no man is aware, For when men make most merry fare Then suddenly I cast them in care, 270 And slay them even in deed. Though I be naked and in poor array And worms gnaw me all about Yet look you dread me night and day. For when death comes, you stand in doubt. 275 Even like to me as I you say Shall all you be, here in this rout. When I you challenge at my day, I shall make you right low to bow And naked for to be. 280 Amongst worms, as I you tell Under the earth shall you dwell And they shall you eat both flesh and fell As they have done to me.
Return to N-Town Pageant List.