[Verse 1] Male: At St Martin's Gate the shouting finally stops, A tailor drops his staff, a wife drops her pots, And Thomas More steps forward into the hush— Female: these are the words penned in Shakespeare's own rush, Hand D upon the page, the ink still holds its shape, The rest of the play's in other hands, no escape. [Chorus] Male/Female: "Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage," Picture the road, picture the weeping, Before you call for danger. [Verse 2] Male: You're shouting for the peace that you're breaking apart, What have you won, tell me, what has it bought your heart? Drive out the stranger and you teach every brute That the fist makes the law, that the sword wins the suit— Female: then "men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another," No harbour left to shelter you, No safety for a brother. Male: The king holds his crown as a gift from the skies— Rise up against him, and against heaven you rise. [Chorus] Male/Female: "Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage," Picture the road, picture the weeping, Before you call for danger. [Verse 3] Female: Now here's the turn — suppose the king sends you away, Banished for this riot, where would you stay? To France, to Flanders, to Germany, Spain, Portugal— Male: strangers yourselves, met with the same old wall. Female: "Why, you must needs be strangers"—feel how it stings, Male: "this is the strangers' case; And this your mountainish inhumanity"— Female: monstrous as a mountain, piled up so high, Picture that mountain blotting out the sky. [Verse 4] Male: The crowd falls silent, the weapons hit the ground, Off they march to prison, trusting More unbound. Female: Later Lord Shrewsbury rides back from the throne, More kneels and rises knighted, no longer on his own, Named to the Privy Council, his counsel now the crown's— Male: one voice at one gate still echoes down. [Verse 5] Female: Four hundred years on, the words still hold their call, Male: strangers at borders, walls built to stand tall, Female: the same old fear dressed in a modern coat, Male: still the ship breaks, still the children afloat. Female: More's plea becomes our plea, the stage becomes the street, Male: imagine every stranger standing on your feet, Female: the ink may fade, the hand may be unknown, Male: but the ache in that speech is still our own. [Bridge] Female: Mountainish — a word for monstrous, huge as any peak, Innovation — rebellion, the force of the weak, Harbour — a shelter, a place to hide and stay, Ruff — the swagger of pride, the puffed-up display. [Outro] Male/Female: One page in his hand, the only one that survived— "Imagine that you see the wretched strangers," Keep that picture alive. [Chorus] Male/Female: "Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage," Picture the road, picture the weeping, Before you call for danger.
← Act 2, Scene 4: The Riot at St Martin's Gate | Act 3, Scene 1: The Gallows in Cheapside →