Your
father dedicated his 'Harold' to my father's brother; allow me to
dedicate my 'Harold' to yourself.
A. TENNYSON.
SHOW-DAY AT BATTLE ABBEY, 1876.
A garden here--May breath and bloom of spring--
The cuckoo yonder from an English elm
Crying 'with my false egg I overwhelm
The native nest:' and fancy hears the ring
Of harness, and that deathful arrow sing,
And Saxon battleaxe clang on Norman helm.
Here rose the dragon-banner of our realm:
Here fought, here fell, our Norman-slander'd king.
O Garden blossoming out of English blood!
O strange hate-healer Time! We stroll and stare
Where might made right eight hundred years ago;
Might, right? ay good, so all things make for good--
But he and he, if soul be soul, are where
Each stands full face with all he did below.
_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_
KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
STIGAND, _created Archbishop of Canterbury by the Antipope Benedict_.
ALDRED, _Archbishop of York_.
THE NORMAN BISHOP OF LONDON.
HAROLD, _Earl of Wessex, afterwards King of England, Son of Godwin_
TOSTIG, _Earl of Northumbria, Son of Godwin_
GURTH, _Earl of East Anglia, Son of Godwin_
LEOFWIN, _Earl of Kent and Essex, Son of Godwin_
WULFNOTH
COUNT WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.
WILLIAM RUFUS.
WILLIAM MALET, _a Norman Noble_.[1]
EDWIN, _Earl of Mercia, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_
MORCAR, _Earl of Northumbria after Tostig, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_
GAMEL, _a Northumbrian Thane_.
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