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Which is attorney? which is president?
I see no counsel pleading on each side,
One for the accused, the other for the Crown.
What safeguards of the law surround you here?
Know you enough of Latin to give judgment,
Confront the witnesses and question them?
In formal phraseology pronounce
The sentence to the hurdle or the gallows?
How many days since you began your term?
How will you date your sentence? Furthermore,
What is the corpus delicti? And where
Are the conspirators? The overt acts
Whereon you base the penalty imposed—
What are they?—'Tis the laws that I defend,
Not Cromwell.—Him, albeit still untried,
I deem him guilty. The allegiance due
The King his lord and master he forgot;
A case anticipated by the law,
Which in its vengeance smites the guilty man,
Qui lædit in rege majestatem Dei.
In fine, he England's laws hath disobeyed.
Their sacredness the better to attest
'Twere well that from its trunk the felon's head
Should severed be; but all formalities
Must be observed. You cannot thus condemn him.
Functions you claim, the which are never joined.
To be at once a witness and accuser,
To be both judge and executioner,
Is palpably absurd! and my poor voice
In the law's name protests against this crime!
Cromwell [aside.]Ha! there spoke Jenkins, th' upright magistrate!
Clifford [to the Cavaliers, with a scornful gesture.
What says the fellow in his piping voice?