55 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
55 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
Area: Medieval, Msg #54, 13:13:06 31 Jul 90
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From: Ioseph of Locksley
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To: All
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Subject: Bardic Perogative
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On the subject of Bardic Immunity....herewith a little letter I wrote to HM of
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the West lo these many years ago, when I made a Satire on the West Kingdom's
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"no weapons longer than a cubit in the revel hall" rule.......
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Perhaps this might help to make the matter clearer.
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(I -still- sing the song to HM of the West every chance I get....:-) )
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BEING A MISSIVE IN VERSE TO JAMES I PT. I, KING IN THE WEST,
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FROM THE WHYTE BARD OF THE KINGDOM OF ATENVELDT, SENT IN THE
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HOPES OF HIS MOST SOVEREIGN MAJESTY'S SEEING Y BARDD GWYN'S
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POINT AND REASON.
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A King, upon His Royal Throne, in Majesty and Pomp
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Can make the Law, and hear it read, proclaimed by Herald's Trompe
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His Will is the Kingdom's Will, His Word, the Kingdom's Law
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Obeyed and loved by everyone, down to the last bourgeois.
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The people, on the other hand, who are the corner-stone
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of any Reign, have no real voice before the Royal Throne.
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And thus, it falls to lesser men to point out, in a Song,
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Where the Crown is doing Right...and where It's doing Wrong.
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And, if a Royal Counselor can tell the King: "Not so!"
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And speak up with impunity, and not expect a blow,
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And try to alter Royal Will in Curia, then why
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Cannot another voice at least be heard to testify?
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The Praise of Royal Counselors is cheap. Their Jobs depend
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Upon the King's most Royal Will..and, thus, they might pretend
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To praise and laud and glorify for fear of Favour's loss.
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...and Kings then hear no truthful word unbound by flattering dross.
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We know that Kings are NEVER wrong...they're only "ill-advised,"
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But, sometimes, error in Their Reign can win a Booby-Prize.
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A Bard MUST give this Prize, you see, and given it has been!
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Shall he then be frowned upon, or told that it's a Sin?
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Bards are BORN, not made by Kings. They call NO man "My Liege!"
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No Kingdom's Citizens are they; their Voice and Harp besiege
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The Ramparts of Stupidity...the Battlements of Wrong....
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AND THAT'S THE REASON, MY LORD KING, FOR NASTY LITTLE SONGS!
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And, if a Bard is told to cease, and cannot speak his will,
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Who then shall approach the King to give the bitter pill?
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And if Bards sing of other Lands, in tones derogative,
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Suffer them to sing UNSCATHED: it's their Perogative.
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They're Citizens of Everywhere, the People's Voice, you see,
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And, Bard I am, and Bard I was, and EVERMORE shall be:
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-The Whyte Bard
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January, 1974
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---
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* Origin: <Deus ex Machina-BBS Free Atenveldt! 602-439-8070> (Opus 1:114/29)
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