THIRD CITIZEN: 
Are these the marks with which
Laud thinks to improve the image of his Maker
Stamped on the face of man?  Curses upon him,
The impious tyrant!

SECOND CITIZEN: 
It is said besides 95
That lewd and papist drunkards may profane
The Sabbath with their
And has permitted that most heathenish custom
Of dancing round a pole dressed up with wreaths
On May-day. 100
A man who thus twice crucifies his God
May well ... his brother.—­In my mind, friend,
The root of all this ill is prelacy. 
I would cut up the root.

THIRD CITIZEN: 
And by what means?

SECOND CITIZEN: 
Smiting each Bishop under the fifth rib. 105

THIRD CITIZEN: 
You seem to know the vulnerable place
Of these same crocodiles.

SECOND CITIZEN: 
I learnt it in
Egyptian bondage, sir.  Your worm of Nile
Betrays not with its flattering tears like they;
For, when they cannot kill, they whine and weep. 110
Nor is it half so greedy of men’s bodies
As they of soul and all; nor does it wallow
In slime as they in simony and lies
And close lusts of the flesh.

NOTE:  78-114 A seasonable...of the flesh 1870; omitted 1824. 108 bondage cj.  Forman; bondages 1870.

A MARSHALSMAN: 
Give place, give place! 
You torch-bearers, advance to the great gate, 115
And then attend the Marshal of the Masque
Into the Royal presence.

A LAW STUDENT: 
What thinkest thou
Of this quaint show of ours, my aged friend? 
Even now we see the redness of the torches
Inflame the night to the eastward, and the clarions 120
[Gasp?] to us on the wind’s wave.  It comes! 
And their sounds, floating hither round the pageant,
Rouse up the astonished air.

NOTE: 
119-123 Even now...air 1870; omitted 1824.

FIRST CITIZEN: 
I will not think but that our country’s wounds
May yet be healed.  The king is just and gracious, 125
Though wicked counsels now pervert his will: 
These once cast off—­

SECOND CITIZEN: 
As adders cast their skins
And keep their venom, so kings often change;
Councils and counsellors hang on one another,
Hiding the loathsome 130
Like the base patchwork of a leper’s rags.

THE YOUTH: 
Oh, still those dissonant thoughts!—­List how the music
Grows on the enchanted air!  And see, the torches
Restlessly flashing, and the crowd divided
Like waves before an admiral’s prow!

NOTE: 
132 how the 1870; loud 1824.

A MARSHALSMAN: 
Give place 135
To the Marshal of the Masque!