Wat Tyler: A Dramatic Poem in Three Acts |
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Adam delv'd ALICE ARCHBISHOP blasphemies blood brethren charters Cheerful city gates COLLECTOR Could'st court danger death of Tyler deed deserv'd his fate disorder Enter Mob Enter PIERS Eve span Exeunt fain father fear France groats a head hard toil hard-earn'd heart HOB CARTER insolent Insulted insurrection JACK STRAW JOHN BALL Justice kill'd King of England King's labour law of Christ lewd hand London lord Lord's anointed loving subjects mercy MILLER multitude murder neighbours nobility nobles old seditious oppress'd parley Parliament peace peasant Petitioning for pity PHILPOT plead poor populace preach prisoner proud rebel revelry revenge rich Richard rise for liberty royal sacred SCENE-SMITHFIELD Shouts SIR JOHN TRESILIAN Sir Judge SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH slave Smithfield straw-roof'd cot Tax-gatherers thee There's thou three groats thro TOM MILLER Tower trample truth tumult tyrants vassals vengeance virtuous Wat Tyler wild wretched young
Popular passages
Page vi - Ball, also, a seditious preacher, who affected low popularity, went about the country and inculcated on his audience the principles of the first origin of mankind from one common stock, their equal right to liberty and to all the goods of nature, the tyranny of artificial distinctions, and the abuses which had arisen from the degradation of the more considerable part of the species, and the...
Page 42 - Your subjects I lead to rebel against the Lord's anointed, Because his ministers have made him odious : His yoke is heavy, and his burden grievous. Why do...
Page 44 - ... government ? Think you that we should quarrel with the French ? What boots to us your victories, your glory ? We pay, we fight ; you profit at your ease. Do you not claim the country as your own ? Do you not call the venison of the forest, The birds of heaven, your own ? — prohibiting us, Even though in want of food, to seize the prey Which nature offers. King ! is all this just ? Think you we do not feel the wrongs we suffer ? The hour of retribution is at hand, And tyrants tremble, — mark...
Page 30 - The budding orchard perfumes the soft breeze, And the green corn waves to the passing gale. There is enough for all, but your proud baron Stands up, and, arrogant of strength, exclaims, " I am a lord — by nature I am noble : These fields are mine, for I was born to them, I was born in the castle — you, poor wretches, Whelp'd in the cottage, are by birth my slaves.
Page 10 - No fancied boundaries of mine and thine Restrain their wanderings : Nature gives enough For all ; but Man, with arrogant selfishness, Proud of his heaps, hoards up superfluous stores Robb'd from his weaker fellows, starves the poor, Or gives to pity what he owes to justice ! Piers.
Page x - It was pretended that the intentions of the mutineers had been to seize the king's person, to carry him through England at their head, to murder all the nobility, gentry, and lawyers, and even all the bishops and priests, except the mendicant friars ; to dispatch afterwards the king himself ; and having thus reduced all to a level, to order the kingdom at their pleasure.
Page 43 - Why is this ruinous poll-tax imposed But to support your court's extravagance, And your mad title to the crown of France ? Shall we sit tamely down beneath these evils, Petitioning for pity ? King of England ! Why are we sold like cattle in your markets, — Deprived of every privilege of man ? Must we lie tamely at our tyrant's feet, And, like your spaniels, lick the hand that beats us...
Page 6 - Hob, Curse on these taxes — one succeeds another — Our ministers — panders of a king's will — Drain all our wealth away — waste it in revels — And lure or force away our boys, who should be The props of our old age ! — to fill their armies, And feed the crows of France...
Page xi - It is not impossible, but many of them, in the delirium of their first success, might have formed such projects : But of all the evils incident to human society, the insurrections of the populace, when not raised and supported by persons of higher quality, are the least to be dreaded...