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Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882

"The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow"


MERRY.
This woman, for the same offence.
EDITH comes forward.
ENDICOTT.
What is your name?
EDITH.
'T is to the world unknown,
But written in the Book of Life.
ENDICOTT.
Take heed
It be not written in the Book of Death!
What is it?
EDITH.
Edith Christison.
ENDICOTT (with eagerness).
The daughter
Of Wenlock Christison?
EDITH.
I am his daughter.
ENDICOTT.
Your father hath given us trouble many times.
A bold man and a violent, who sets
At naught the authority of our Church and State,
And is in banishment on pain of death.
Where are you living?
EDITH.
In the Lord.
ENDICOTT.
Make answer
Without evasion. Where?
EDITH.
My outward being
Is in Barbadoes.
ENDICOTT.
Then why come you here?
EDITH.
I come upon an errand of the Lord.
ENDICOTT.
'Tis not the business of the Lord you're doing;
It is the Devil's. Will you take the oath?
Give her the Book.
MERRY offers the Book.
EDITH.
You offer me this Book
To swear on; and it saith, "Swear not at all,
Neither by heaven, because it is God's Throne,
Nor by the earth, because it is his footstool!"
I dare not swear.


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