'Love, I will guide thee.'
Whither, O whither? into the river,
Where we two may be lost together,
And lost for ever? 'Oh! never, oh! never,
Tho' we be lost and be found together.'
Some think they loved within the pale forbidden
By Holy Church: but who shall say? the truth
Was lost in that fierce North, where _they_ were lost,
Where all good things are lost, where Tostig lost
The good hearts of his people. It is Harold!
_Enter_ HAROLD.
Harold the King!
HAROLD. Call me not King, but Harold.
EDITH. Nay, thou art King!
HAROLD. Thine, thine, or King or churl!
My girl, thou hast been weeping: turn not thou
Thy face away, but rather let me be
King of the moment to thee, and command
That kiss my due when subject, which will make
My kingship kinglier to me than to reign
King of the world without it.
EDITH. Ask me not,
Lest I should yield it, and the second curse
Descend upon thine head, and thou be only
King of the moment over England.
HAROLD. Edith,
Tho' somewhat less a king to my true self
Than ere they crown'd me one, for I have lost
Somewhat of upright stature thro' mine oath,
Yet thee I would not lose, and sell not thou
Our living passion for a dead man's dream;
Stigand believed he knew not what he spake.
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