Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene II.] THE VARANGIAN. 273
LANFRANC.
Were it not better, good my royal liege,
To grant the boon these Earls so much desire ?
KING.
That, Lanfranc, were weak policy indeed.
Their powerful houses, knit by marriage bonds,
Would stir up endless strife, nay, I've decreed
The Lady Isabelle of Hereford
To Jaques of Normandy.
Enter Odo.
Bishop of Bayeux,
I hear, of late, that in thy soaring hopes
Thou, like the cedar, dost thy branches spread
High in the heavens, deep-shadowing us and all
Of humbler growth, whom thy transcendent pride
Accounts as weeds and brambles of the forest ;
That thy ambition swells like some full stream,
Whose wintry billows sweep o'er rock and shore :
But have a care, or 111 that flood embank,
And make its turbulence to foam and fret
In narrower bounds, o'er which it ne'er shall leap.
ODO.
I lack the skill such figures to divine,
Or read their meaning.
KING.
Meaning ? Why, my lord,
That bishoprics are but the humble steps
By which thou aim'st t' ascend that lofty throne
Whose footstool is above the seat of kings,
And reign, by virtue of elective right,
Sovereign o'er Christendom.
T