Canute, the Great, King of England and Denmark.
A Courtier.
An Irish Harper.
Queen Emma, the "Flower of Normandy."
Courtiers, Monks, and Gleemen.
PLACE.
Part I.—The palace of the king.
Part II.—The seashore at Southampton.
Time—About A.D. 1030.
As he proceeded with the reading he became greatly interested in it. He had a fine voice and had taken a prize for oratory at Harvard.
When he finished he turned to Alice and said, "And you wrote that?"
"Certainly," said she. "Can you forgive me?"
Quincy said seriously, "Miss Pettengill, that is a fine poem; it is grand when read, but it would be grander still if set to music. I can imagine," Quincy continued, "how those choruses would sound if sung by the Handel and Haydn Society, backed up by a full orchestra and the big organ." And he sang, to an extemporized melody of his own, the words:
God bless the king of the English,
The Lord of the land,
The Lord of the sea!
"I can imagine," said he, as he rose and stood before Alice, "King Canute as a heavy-voiced basso. How he would bring out these words!