Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/366

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OTHO THE GREAT.
Their weak rebellion, winning me with lies, And pitying forsooth my many wrongs; Poor self-deceived wretches, who must think Each one himself a king in embryo, Because some dozen vassals cry'd—my lord! Cowards, who never knew their little hearts, Till flurried danger held the mirror up, And then they own'd themselves without a blush, Curling, like spaniels, round my father' feet. Such things deserted me and are forgiven, While I, least guilty, am an outcast still, And will be, for I love such fair disgrace.
 Sigifred. I know the clear truth; so would Otho see, For he is just and noble. Fain would IBe pleader for you—
 Ludolph.He'll hear none of it; You know his temper, hot, proud, obstinate; Endanger not yourself so uselessly. I will encounter his thwart spleen myself, To-day, at the Duke Conrad's, where he keeps His crowded state after the victory, There will I be, a most unwelcome guest, And parley with him, as a son should do, Who doubly loathes a father's tyranny; Tell him how feeble is that tyranny; How the relationship of father and son Is no more valid than a silken leash Where lions tug adverse, if love grow not From interchanged love through many years. Ay, and those turreted Franconian walls, Like to a jealous casket, hold my pearl—My fair Auranthe! Yes, I will be there.
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