Alfred Act II Scene 4

Eulogy, Coronation, Monument

This scene consists entirely of Alfred speaking to his men - the men who remain after the battle of Ashdown Field. He speaks about his brother, about the other men, he takes the crown, pays the men, and orders them to build the White Horse monument facing Uffington Castle, both of which you can still visit today.

This capstone to Act II weighs in at a slim 74 lines, all from Alfred. There can be as much or little stage business as the director wants to add, but there should probably be some mount of coronation and paying out to the men.

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Act II Scene 4
A Chapel
ALFRED, his Men, Soldiers, a Priest.

ALFRED: Before the the ancient empire of Rome,
in Asia Minor, where our forebears dwelt,
The antebellum laureled poet, Homer1
Splayed out the marks of blessèd earthly men2:
"His herds will grow, and house be gilden-roof'd;
He shall achieve the status of a Prince."

My brother, King of that we all survey
Were of a kind delineated so. 
A man like Ethelred, struck from our Earth 
(The eldest Host, and mother to the last), 
His soul find perch above in holy Peace.
So sang the eldenbard in times long past.

Can any man escape the bonds of earth?
Can any heart soar 'ere above his clay?
Nay. From the lowliest of broken crone
To lords most high upon this Firmament,
Our lives are measured by the Lord alone.
Not one shall disregard the call of death.

Red rivulets of reclamation, which
Stream down from highlands, and then gather they
To issue mightily our homeland's blood
To that blue, icy skirt about this plane.
Today those runs shall flow for Ethelred, 
The highest of us all, our sove-reign. 

The men who died alongside Ethelred
Are Heroes to us all! And let their names
Be well-remembered in the mead-halls of
Our younger kin for ages down the years.
Their sacrifice secured our children's weal
And birth-rights: land and water for their years. 

And as for living heroes now in host
Pray, let the men about us now, our breth-eren,
Be take'd upon the horns of lab'rous pains: 
On one, beskewered that we could not die,
The other point, our friends we could not save. 
This epitaph the dead the living lend. 

But yea, in pain, rejoice, for all the dead we leave
Upon that bloody Ashdown field, feel naught.
The pain within our breast remind us all
Of this great day, our kingdom dearly saved. 
For dear's the price we pay. Our brothers and 
Our sons left on that cursèd field today.

To widows and their orphans made by Danes
Enfoeffed within their cottages and fields
I offer Christian charity, for theirs
Is sacrifice more costly than my own. 
The prophecy of geniture3 hath fulled:
I've lost a brother and we've gained a crown.

My all the men about now take their earthly pay
In closs-mined silver shillings from our purse4.
I take the Crown of Wessex here, inside the nave
of Uffington5, eternal shall it shine,
Kneel low before the King of All Surveyed,
And hold this scepter for my little time.

ALFRED crowned. 

ALFRED: And in inauguration We pronounce
Each man here hath well earn'd his liberty. 
Let Crown beseech thee, turn in to your roosts
As you have flown here in our time of need. 
You are for Easter let to home and hearth
To kneel afoot the greater Lord than me.

One other task commandeth I to you,
Let axemen make a canvass from our loam,
And let our tillermen and masons build
A White-Horse monument to last an age
Upon the hill that cordons off this fort,
To mock the failure of the heathen Danes.

This White Horse shall remember well the men
Who died, but alsewise all the men who lived,
Commemorating victory today. 
In times we cannot fathom down through time,
Our afterbears in Wessex shall remain
And shout the glory of this victory.

On Ashdown Field, here in our green demense6.
His life will sing throughout Eternity.

1. Feminine ending.
2. In Homeric Hymn 1.
3. Prophecy of geniture: The Pope pronounced Alfred the Crowned Prince and future king.
4. The royal treasury.
5. The chapel near Uffington Castle, near Ashdown Field