Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

References to this poem

King Stephen: A Fragment of a Tragedy ACT I SCENE II

  • Gloc. Now may we lift our bruised visors up,
  • Gloc. And take the flattering freshness of the air,
  • Gloc. While the wide din of battle dies away
  • Gloc. Into times past, yet to be echoed sure
  • Gloc. In the silent pages of our chroniclers.
  • $1-knt. Will Stephen’s death be mark’d there, my good lord,
  • $1-knt. Or that we gave him lodging in yon towers?
  • Gloc. Fain would I know the great usurper’s fate.
  • $1-capt. My lord! 2-capt. Most noble Earl!
  • $1-capt. The King — 2-capt. The Empress greets —
  • Gloc. What of the King? 1-capt. He sole and lone maintains
  • $1-capt. A hopeless bustle mid our swarming arms,
  • $1-capt. And with a nimble savageness attacks,
  • $1-capt. Escapes, makes fiercer onset, then anew
  • $1-capt. Eludes death, giving death to most that dare
  • $1-capt. Trespass within the circuit of his sword!
  • $1-capt. And for the Duke of Bretagne, like a stag
  • $1-capt. He flies, for the Welsh beagles to hunt down.
  • $1-capt. God save the Empress!
  • Gloc. Now our dreaded Queen
  • Gloc. What message from her Highness? 2-capt. Royal Maud
  • $2-capt. From the throng’d towers of Lincoln hath look’d down,
  • $2-capt. Like Pallas from the walls of Ilion,
  • $2-capt. And seen her enemies havock’d at her feet.
  • $2-capt. She greets most noble gloster from her heart,
  • $2-capt. Intreating him, his captains, and brave knights,
  • $2-capt. To grace a banquet. The high city gates
  • $2-capt. Are envious which shall see your triumph pass;
  • $2-capt. The streets are full of music.
  • Gloc. Whence come you?
  • $2-knt. From Stephen, my good Prince, — Stephen! Stephen!
  • Gloc. Why do you make such echoing of his name?
  • $2-knt. Because I think, my lord, he is no man,
  • $2-knt. But a fierce demon, ’nointed safe from wounds,
  • $2-knt. And misbaptized with a Christian name.
  • Gloc. A mighty soldier! — does he still hold out?
  • $2-knt. He shames our victory. His valour still
  • $2-knt. Keeps elbow-room amid our eager swords,
  • $2-knt. His gleaming battle-axe being slaughter-sick,
  • $2-knt. Smote on the morion of a Flemish knight,
  • $2-knt. Broke short in his hand; upon the which he flung
  • $2-knt. The heft away with such a vengeful force,
  • $2-knt. It paunch’d the Earl of Chester’s horse, who then
  • $2-knt. Spleen-hearted came in full career at him.
  • Gloc. Did no one take him at a vantage then?
  • $2-knt. Three then with tiger leap upon him flew,
  • $2-knt. Whom, with his sword swift-drawn and nimbly held,
  • $2-knt. He stung away again, and stood to breathe,
  • $2-knt. Smiling. Anon upon him rush’d once more
  • $2-knt. A throng of foes, and in this renew’d strife,
  • $2-knt. My sword met his and snapp’d off at the hilts.
  • Gloc. Come, lead me to this Mars — and let us move
  • Gloc. In silence, not insulting his sad doom
  • Gloc. With clamorous trumpets. To the Empress bear
  • Gloc. My salutation as befits the time.

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MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “King Stephen: A Fragment of a Tragedy ACT I SCENE II.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, by G. Kim Blank. Edition 3.28 , University of Victoria, 24 September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_king_stephen_act_i_scene_ii.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “King Stephen: A Fragment of a Tragedy ACT I SCENE II,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_king_stephen_act_i_scene_ii.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “King Stephen: A Fragment of a Tragedy ACT I SCENE II.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_king_stephen_act_i_scene_ii.html.