Walter Map monologue (Act 2) — Becket and other plays

Glancing at the days when his father was only Earl of Anjou, he answered:--'Should not an earl's son wait on a king's son?' And when the cold corners of the King's mouth began to thaw, there was a great motion of laughter among us, part real, part childlike, to be freed from the dulness--part royal, for King and kingling both laughed, and so we could not but laugh, as by a royal necessity--part childlike again--when we felt we had laughed too long and could not stay ourselves--many midriff-shaken even to tears, as springs gush out after earthquakes--but from those, as I said before, there may come a conflagration--tho', to keep the figure moist and make it hold water, I should say rather, the lacrymation of a lamentation; but look if Thomas have not flung himself at the King's feet. They have made it up again--for the moment.