Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/365

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OTHO THE GREAT.
349
Those days paternal from my memory, Though now upon my head he heaps disgrace.
 Sigifred. My prince, you think too harshly—
 Ludolph.Can I so? Hath he not gall'd my spirit to the quick? And with a sullen rigor obstinate Pour'd out a phial of wrath upon my faults? Hunted me as the Tartar does the boar, Driven me to the very edge o' the world, And almost put a price upon my head?
 Sigifred. Remember how he spared the rebel lords
 Ludolph. Yes, yes, I know he hath a noble nature That cannot trample on the fallen. But his Is not the only proud heart in his realm. He hath wrong'd me, and I have done him wrong; He hath loved me, and I have shown him kindness; We should be almost equal.
 Sigifred.Yet, for all this, I would you had appear'd among those lords, And ta'en his favor.
 Ludolph.Ha! till now I thought My friend had held poor Ludolph's honor dear. What! would you have me sue before his throne And kiss the courtier's missal, its silk steps? Or hug the golden housings of his steed, Amid a camp, whose steeled swarms I dared But yesterday? And, at the trumpet sound, Bow like some unknown mercenary's flag And lick the soiled grass? No, no, my friend, I would not, I, be pardon'd in the heap, And bless indemnity with all that scum,—Those men I mean, who on my shoulders propp'd
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