JC<>;»x<>i<5i %' ^-iK ^^ik^Xjji^J^t^ uK^ \ I K' ^ ^ ( frv^ n. 4 Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2008 witli funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/fifineatfairredcOObrowricli FIFINE AT THE FAIR RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY AND THE INN ALBUM ROBERT BROWNING BOSTON HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street (€!)c Rilicrsibc press, Camliritige i88^ . ^i\ t ■ /t * /xr>^<^ PKINTED AT THE KIVEKSIDE PRESS. / r CONTENTS. PAGE FiFIXE AT THE FaIR ...... I Prince Hohexstiel-Schwaxgau . . . 163 Herve Riel 271 Red Cotton Night-Cap Country . . . 2S5 The Inn Album . , 501 iyil01122 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Done Elvire. Vous plait-il, don Juan, nous eclaircir ces beaux mysteres ? Don Juan. Madame, a vous dire la ve'rite . . , Done Elvire. Ah ! que vous savez mal vous de'tendre pour un homme de cour, et qui doit etre accoutume' a, ces sortes de choses ! J"ai pitie' de vous voir la confusion que vous avez. Que ne vous armez-vous le front d"une noble effronterie .'' Que ne me jurez-vous que vous etes toujours dans les memes sentimens pour moi, que vous m'aimez toujours avec une ardeur sans e'gale, et que rien n'est capable de vous de'tacher de moi que la mort ? — Molieir, Don Juan, Act lier. Scene ^e. Do.xxA Elvira. Don Juan, might you please to help one give a guess, Hold up a candle, clear this fine mysteriousness ? Don Juan. Madam, if needs I must declare the truth, — in short . . . Donna Elvira. Fie ! for a man of mode, accustomed at the court To such a style of thing, how awkwardly my lord Attempts defence ! You move compassion, — that's the word, — Dumfoundered and chapfallen ! Why don't you arm your brow With noble impudence ? Why don't you swear and vow No sort of change is come to any sentiment You ever had for me ? Affection holds the bent ; You love me now as erst, with passion that makes pale All ardor else : nor aught in nature can avail To separate us two, save what, in stopping breath. May, peradventure, stop devotion likewise, — death ! k PROLOGUE, Amphibian. The fancy I had to-day, — Fancy which turned a fear ! I swam far out in the bav, Since waves laughed warm and clear. I lay and looked at the sun ; The noon-sun looked at me : Between us two, no one Live creature, that I could see. PROLOGUE. Yes ! — there came floating by Me, who lay floating too, Such a strange butterfly ! — Creature as dear as new ; IV. Because the membraned wings» So wonderful, so wide. So sun-suffused, were things Like soul, and nought beside. V. A handbreadth overhead ! All of the sea my own, It owned the sky instead : Both of us were alone. VI. I never shall join its flight ; For nought buoys flesh in air. If it touch the sea, good-night ! Death sure and swift waits there. PROLOGUE. VII. Can the insect feel the better For watching the uncouth play Of limbs that slip the fetter, Pretend as they were not clay ? VIII. Undoubtedly I rejoice That the air comports so well With a creature which had the choice Of the land once. Who can tell ? IX. What if a certain soul Which early slipped its sheath. And has for its home the whole Of heaven, thus look beneath ; X. Thus watch one, who, in the world Both lives, and likes life's way. Nor wishes the wings unfurled That sleep in the worm, they say ? PROLOGUE. XI. But sometimes, when the weather Is blue, and warm waves tempt To free one's self of tether, And try a life exempt From worldly noise and dust, In the sphere which overbrims With passion and thought, — why, just Unable to fly, one swims ! XIII. By passion and thought upborne, One smiles to one's self, " They fare Scarce better, they need not scorn Our sea, who live in the air." XIV. Emancipate through passion And thought, with sea for sky, We substitute, in a fashion, For heaven, poetry .- PROLOGUE. XV. Which sea, to all intent, Gives flesh such noon-disport As a nner element Affords the spirit-sort. XVI. Whatever they are, we seem ; Imagine the thing they know ; All deeds they do, we dream : Can heaven be else but so .-' XVII. And, meantime, yonder streak Meets the horizon's verge : That is the land to seek. If we tire, or dread the surge, — XVIII. Land the solid and safe. To welcome again (confess !) When, high and dry, we chafe The body, and don the dress. PROLOGUE. XIX. Does she look, pity, wonder, At one who mimics flight. Swims, — heaven above, sea under. Yet always earth in sight ? V FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Oh, trip and skip, Elvire ! Link arm in arm with me ; Like husband and Hke wife, together let us see The tumbling-troop arrayed, the strollers on their stage Drawn up and under arms, and ready to engage. Now, who supposed the night would play us such a prank ? — That what was raw and brown, rough pole and shaven plank, Mere bit of hoarding, half by trestle propped, half tub, Would flaunt it forth as brisk as butterfly from "-rub ? /\' "iwt X, ■ ^ ^^/Uuwa 0. !-« 8 FIFINE AT THE tAIR. This comes of sun and air, of autumn afternoon, And Pornic and Saint Gille, whose feast affords the boon, — This scaffold turned parterre, this flower-bed in full blow, Bateleurs, baladines ! We shall not miss the show ! They pace and promenade ; they presendy will dance : What good were else i' the drum and fife ? O pleasant land of France ! III. Who saw them make their entry? At wink of eve, be sure, They love to steal a march, nor lightly risk the lure. They keep their treasure hid, nor stale (improvident) Before the time is ripe, each wonder of their tent, — Yon six-legged sheep, to wit, and he who beats a gong, Lifts cap, and waves salute, exhilarates the throng, — Their ape of many years and much adventure, grim And gray with pitying fools who find a joke in him. Or, best, the human beauty, Mim^, Toinette, Fifine, Tricot fines down if fat, padding plumps up if lean. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 9 Ere, shedding petticoat, modesty, and such toys, They bounce forth, squalid girls transformed to game- some boys. IV. No, no, thrice, Pornic, no! Perpend the authentic tale! 'Twas not for every Gawain to gaze upon the Grail ! But whoso went his rounds when flew bat, flitted midge, Might hear across the dusk — w-here both roads join the bridge, Hard by the little port — creak a slow caravan, A chimneyed house on wheels ; so shyly-sheathed, began To broaden out the bud, which, bursting unaware, Now takes away our breath, queen-tulip of the Fair ! V. Yet morning promised much ; for, pitched and slung and reared On terrace 'neath the tower, 'twixt tree and tree appeared An air}' structure : how the pennon from its dome. Frenetic to be free, makes one red stretch for home! — lO FIFINE AT THE FAIR. The home far and away, the distance where lives joy, The cure, at once and ever, of world and worlds annoy ; Since what lolls full in front, a furlong from the booth, But ocean-idleness, sky-blue, and millpond-smooth ? VI. Frenetic to be free ! And do you know there beats Something within my breast as sensitive ? — repeats The fever of the flag ? My heart makes just the same Passionate stretch, fires up for lawlessness, lays claim To share the life they lead, — losels, who have and use The hour what way they will, — applaud them, or abuse Society, whereof myself am at the beck. Whose call obey, and stoop to burden stiffest neck ! VII. Why is it, that whene'er a faithful few combine To cast allegiance off, play truant, nor repine, Agree to bear the worst, forego the best in store For us, who, left behind, do duty as of yore, — Why is it, that, disgraced, they seem to relish life the more ? — FIFINE AT THE FAIR. II Seem as they said, " We know a secret passing praise Or blame of such as you ! Remain ! we go our ways With something you o'erlooked, forgot, or chose to sweep Clean out of door, — our pearl picked from your rub- bish-heap. You care not for your loss : we calculate our gain. All's right. Are you content? Why, so let things remain ! To the wood then, to the wild : free life, full liberty ! " And when they rendezvous beneath the inclement sky, House by the hedge, reduced to brute-companionship, — Misguided ones who gave society the slip. And find too late how boon a parent they despised, What ministration spurned, how sweet and civilized, — Then, left alone at last with self-sought wretchedness, No interloper else ! why is it — can we guess? — At somebody's expense goes up so frank a laugh ? As though they held the corn, and left us only chaff From garners crammed and closed ; and we indeed are clever If we get grain as good by thrashing straw forever. 12 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. VIII. Still, truants as they are, and purpose yet to be. That nowise needs forbid they venture — as you see — To cross confine, approach the once familiar roof O' the kindly race their flight estranged : half stand aloof. Half sidle up, press near, and proffer wares for sale. In their phrase ; make, in ours, white levy of black mail. They, of the wild, require some touch of us the tame ; Since clothing, meat, and drink mean money all the same. IX. If hunger, proverbs say, allures the wolf from wood. Much more the bird must dare a dash at something good ; Must snatch up, bear away in beak, the trifle-treasure To wood and wild, and then — oh, how enjoy at leisure ! Was never tree-built nest, you climbed and took, of bird, (Rare city-visitant, talked of, scarce seen or heard,) But, when you would dissect the structure piece by piece, ^ou found inwreathed amid the country-product — fleece FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 1 3 And feather, thistle-fluffs and bearded windlestraws — Some shred of foreisfn silk, unravellino: of gcauze. Bit, maybe, of brocade, 'mid fur and thistle-down ; Filched plainly from mankind, dear tribute paid by town, Which proved how oft the bird had plucked up heart of grace, Swooped down at waif and stray, made furtively our place Pay tax and toll, then borne the booty to enrich Her paradise i' the waste ; the how and why of which, That is the secret, there the mystery that stings. X. For what they traffic in consists of just the things We proud ones who so scorn dwellers without the pale, Bateleurs, baladines, white leviers of black mail, — I say, they sell what we most pique us that we keep : How comes it, all we hold so dear they count so cheap ? XI. What price should you impose, for instance, on repute, Good fame, your own good fame and family's to boot ? 14 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Stay start of quick mustache, arrest the angry rise Of eyebrow ! All I asked is answered by surprise. Now tell me : are you worth the cost of a cigar ? Go boldly, enter booth, disburse the coin at bar Of doorway where presides the master of the troop, And forthwith you sur\^ey his Graces in a group, — Live picture, picturesque no doubt, and close to life : His sisters, right and left ; the Grace in front, his wife. Next, who is this performs the feat of the trapeze ? Lo, she is launched : look, fie, the fairy ! — how she flees O'er all those heads thrust back ! — mouths, eyes, one gape and stare. No scrap of skirt impedes free passage through the air, Till, plumb on the other side, she lights, and laughs again, — That fair3--form, whereof each muscle, nay, each vein. The curious may inspect, — his daughter that he sells Each rustic for five sous. Desiderate aught else O' the vender ? As you leave his show, — why, joke the man : — '' You cheat : your six-legged sheep, I recollect, began FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 15 Both life and trade, last year, trimined properly and dipt As the Twin-headed Babe and Human Nondescript." What does he care? You paid his price, may pass your jest. So values he repute, good fame, and all the rest. XII. But \.T)r another tack : say, " I indulge caprice. Who am Don and Duke, and Knight, beside, o' the Golden Fleece, And never mind how rich. Abandon this career ; Have hearth and home ; nor let your womankind appear Without as multiplied a coating as protects An onion from the eye ; become, in all respects, God-fearing householder, subsistent by brain-skill. Hand-labor; win your bread whatever way you will, So it be honestly, — and, while I have a purse, Means shall not lack : " his thanks will be the roundest curse That ever rolled from lip. l6 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. X£II. Now, what is it — returns The question — heartens so this losel, that he spurns All we so prize ? I want put down in black and white What compensating joy, unknown and infinite, Turns lawlessness to law, makes destitution wealth, Vice virtue, and disease of soul and body health. XIV. Ah the slow shake of head, the melancholy smile, The sigh almost a sob ! What's wrong, was right ere while ? Why are we two at once such ocean-width apart ? Pale fingers press my arm, and sad eyes probe my heart. Why is the wife in trouble ? XV. This way, this way, Fifine ! Here's she shall make my thoughts be surer what they mean ! First let me read the signs, portray you past mistake The gypsy's foreign self, no swarth our sun could bake. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 17 Yet Where's a woolly trace, degrades the wiry hair ? And note the Greek-nymph nose, and — oh, my Hebrew pair Of eye and eye, — o'erarched by velvet of the mole, — That swim as in a sea, that dip and rise and roll, Spilling the light around ! while either ear is cut Thin as a dusk-leaved rose car\-ed from a cocoa-nut. And then her neck ! — now, grant you had the power to deck. Just as your fancy pleased, the bistre-length of neck ; Could lay, to shine against its shade, a moon-like row Of pearl, each round and white as bubble Cupids blow Big out of mother's milk : what pearl-moon would surpass That string of mock-turquoise, those almandines of glass, Where girlhood terminates ? for with breasts'-birth com- mence The boy, and page-costume, till pink and impudence End admirably all : complete, the creature trips Our way now, brings sunshine upon her spangled hips. As here she fronts us full, with pose half frank, hali fierce ! l8 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. XVI. Words urged in vain, Elvire ! You waste your carte and tierce, Lunge at a phantom here, try fence in fairy-land. For me, I own defeat ; ask but to understand The acknowledged victoi'y of whom I call my queen, Sexless and bloodless sprite : though mischievous and I mean, ; Yet free and flower-like too, with loveliness for law, \ And self-sustainment made morality. XVII. A flaw Do you account i' the lily, of lands which travellers know, That, just as a golden gloom supersedes northern snow I' the chalice, so, about each pistil, spice is packed. Deliriously-drugged scent, in lieu of odor lacked, With us, by bee and moth, their banquet to enhance At morn and eve, when dew, the chilly sustenance. Needs mixture of some chaste and temperate perfume ? I I ask, is she in fault who guards such golden gloom, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 19 Such dear and damning scent, by who cares what devices, And takes the idle life of insects she entices, When, drowned to heart's desire, they satiate the inside J O' the lily, mark her wealth, and manifest her pride ? XVIII. But, wiser, we keep off, nor tempt the acrid juice ; Discreet we peer and praise, put rich things to right use. No flavorous venomed bell, — the rose it is, I wot. Only the rose, we pluck and place, un\\Tonged a jot. No worse for homage done by everj'' devotee, I' the proper loyal throne, on breast where rose should be. Or if the simpler sweets we have to choose among Would taste between our teeth, and give its toy the tongue, — gorgeous poison-plague ! on thee no hearts are set ; We gather daisy meek, or maiden violet : 1 think it is Elvire we love, and not Fifine. • 20 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. XIX. " How does she make my thoughts be sure of what they mean ? " Judge, and be just ! Suppose an age and time long past Renew for our behoof one pageant more, the last O' the kind, sick Louis liked to see defile between Him and the yawning grave its passage ser\-ed to screen. With eye as gray as lead, with cheek as brown as bronze. Here where we stand, shall sit and suffer Louis Onze ; The while from yonder tent parade forth, not — oh, no I — Bateleurs, baladines, but range themselves a-row Those well-sung women-worthies whereof loud fame still finds Some echo linger faint, less in our hearts than minds. XX. See, Helen ! pushed in front o' the world's worst night and storm By Lady Venus' hand on shoulder ; the sweet form Shrinkingly prominent, though mighty, like a moon Outbreaking from a cloud, to put harsh things in tune, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 21 And magically bring mankind to acquiesce In its own ravage, — call no curse upon, but bless (Beldam a moment since) the outbreaking beauty, now, That casts o'er all the blood a candor from her brow. See, Cleopatra ! bared, the entire and sinuous wealth O' the shining shape ; each orb of indolent ripe health, Captured^ just where it finds a fellow-orb as fine I' the body ; traced about by jewels which outline, Fire-frame, and keep distinct, perfections, lest they melt To soft smooth unity ere half their hold be felt : Yet, o'er that white and wonder, a soul's predominance I' the head so high and haught, except one thievish glance. From back of oblong eye, intent to count the slain. Hush, oh ! I know, Elvire ! Be patient ; more remain. What say you to Saint — pish ! whatever saint you please, Cold-pinnacled aloft o' the spire, prays calm the seas From Pornic church, and oft at midnight (peasants say) Goes walking out to save from shipwreck : well she may; 2 2 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. For think how many a year has she been conversant With nought but winds and rains, sharp courtesy, and scant O' the wintry snow that coats the pent-house of *her shrine, Covers each knee, climbs near, but spares the smile benign Which seems to say, " I looked for scarce so much from earth." She follows, one long, thin pure finger in the girth O' the girdle, whence the folds of garment, eye and eye, Besprent with fleur-de-lis, flow down and multiply Around her feet ; and one pressed hushingly to lip, As if, while thus we made her march, some foundering ship Might miss her from her post, nearer to God half-way In heaven ; and she thought, " Who that treads earth can pray? I doubt if even she, the unashamed ! though, sure, She must have stripped herself only to clothe the poor." FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 23 XXI. This time, enough's a feast, not one more form, Elvire ! Provided you allow, that, bringing up the rear O' the bevy I am loath to — by one bird — curtail. First note may lead to last, an octave crown the scale, And this feminity be followed — do not flout ! — By — who concludes the mask with courtesy, smile, and pout, Submissive-mutinous ? No other than Fifine Points toe, imposes haunch, and pleads with tambourine. XXII. " Well, what's the meaning here, what does the mask intend, Which, unabridged, we saw file past us, with no end Of fair ones, till Fifine came, closed the catalogue ? " XXIII. Task fancy yet again. Suppose you cast this clog Of flesh away (that weeps, upbraids, withstands my arm), And pass to join your peers; paragon charm with charm, 24 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. As I shall show you may ; prove best of beauty there ; Yourself confront yourself. This help me to declare, That yonder-you, who stand beside these, braving each, And blinking none, beat her who lured to Troy-town beach The purple prows of Greece ; nay, beat Fifine, whose face Mark how I will inflame, when seigneur-like I place I' the tambourine, to spot the strained and piteous blank Of pleading parchment, see, no less than a whole franc ! XXIV. Ah ! do you mark the brown o' the cloud, made bright with fire Through and through? as, old wiles succeeding to desire. Quality (you and I) once more compassionate A hapless infant, doomed (fie on such partial fate !) To sink the inborn shame, waive privilege of sex, And posture as you see, support the nods and becks FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 2$ Of clowns that have their stare, nor always pay its price ; An infant born, perchance, as sensitive and nice As any soul of you, proud dames, whom destiny Keeps uncontaminate from stigma of the sty She wallows in ! You draw back skirts from filth like her. Who possibly braves scorn, if, scorned, she minister To age, want, and disease of parents one or both ; Nay, peradventure, stoops to degradation, loath That some just budding sister, the dew yet on the rose. Should have to share in turn the ignoble trade : who knows ? XXV. Ay, who indeed ! Myself know nothing, but dare guess That off she trips in haste to hand the booty — yes, Twixt fold and fold of tent there looms he, dim dis- cerned, The ogre, lord of all — those lavish limbs have earned ! 26 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Brute-beast- face — ravage, scar, scowl, and malig- nancy — O' the Strong Man, whom (no doubt, her husband) by and by You shall behold do feats, — lift up, nor quail beneath, A quintal in each hand, a cart-wheel 'twixt his teeth. Oh ! she prefers sheer strength to ineffective grace, Breeding, and culture ; seeks the essential in the case. To him has flown my franc ; and welcome, if that squint O' the diabolic eye so soften, through absinthe. That, for once, tambourine, tunic, and tricot 'scape Their customary curse, " Not half the gain of the ape ! ' Ay, they go in together. XXVI. Yet still her phantom stays Opposite, where you stand as steady 'neath our gaze, — The live Elvire's and mine, — though fancy-stuff and mere Illusion, to be judged, — dream-figures, — without fear Or favor, those the false, by you and me the true. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 2 J xxvir. "What puts it in my head to make yourself judge you ? " Well, it may be the name of Helen brought to mind A certain myth I mused in years long left behind : How she that fled from Greece with Paris, whom she loved, And came to Troy, and there found shelter, and so proved Such cause of the world's woe, — how she, old stories call This creature, Helen's self, never saw Troy at all. Jove had his fancy-fit ; must needs take empty air. Fashion her likeness forth, and set the phantom there I' the midst for sport, to try conclusions with the blind And blundering race, the game create for gods, man- kind : Experiment on these ; establish who would yearn To give up life for her, who, other-minded, spurn The best her eyes could smile ; make half the world sublime. And half absurd, for just a phantom all the time ; 28 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Meanwhile true Helen's self sat, safe and far away, By a great river-side, beneath a purer day, With solitude around, tranquillity within ; Was able to lean forth, look, listen, through the din And stir ; could estimate the worthlessness or worth Of Helen, who inspired such passion to the earth, A phantom all the time ! That put it in my head To make yourself judge you, — the phantom-wife, instead O' the tearful, true Elvire. XXVIII. I thank the smile at last Which thins away the tear. Our sky was overcast. And something fell ; but day clears up : if there chanced rain. The landscape glistens more. I have not vexed in vain Elvire ; because she knows, now she has stood the test. How, this and this being good, herself may still be best O' the beauty in review ; because the flesh that claimed Unduly my regard, she thought, the taste she blamed FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 29 In me for things externe, was all mistake, she finds, Or will find when I prove that bodies show me minds ; That, through the outward sign, the inward grace allures, And sparks from heaven transpierce earth's coarsest covertures, — All by demonstrating the value of Fifine ! " / XXIX. Partake my confidence. No creature's made so mean, But that, some way, it boasts, could we investigate. Its supreme worth ; fulfils, by ordinance of fate. Its momentary task ; gets glory all its own ; Tastes triumph in the world, pre-eminent, alone. Where is the single grain of sand, 'mid millions heaped Confusedly on the beach, but, did we know, has leaped. Or will leap would we wait, i' the century, some once. To the ver}' throne of things ? — earth's brightest for the nonce. When sunshine shall impinge on just that grain's facette Which fronts him fullest, first, returns his ray with jet 30 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Of promptest praise, thanks God best in creation's name. As firm is my belief, quick sense perceives the same Self-vindicating flash illustrate every man And woman of our mass, and prove, throughout the plan, No detail, but, in place allotted it, was prime And perfect. XXX. Witness her, kept waiting all this time ! What happy angle makes Fifine reverberate Sunshine, — least sand-grain, she, of shadiest social state ? No adamantine shield, polished like Helen there. Fit to absorb the sun, regorge him till the glare, Dazing the universe, draw Troy-ward those blind beaks Of equal-sided ships rowed by the well-greaved Greeks. No Asian mirror like yon Ptolematic witch Able to fix sun fast, and tame sun down, enrich. Not burn, the world with beams thus flatteringly rolled About her, head to foot, turned slavish snakes of gold ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 3» And, oh ! no tinted pane of oriel sanctity Does our Fifine afford, such as permits supply Of lustrous heaven, revealed, far more than mundane sight Could master, to thy cell, pure saint ! where, else too bright. So suits thy sense the orb, that what outside was noon Pales through thy lozenged blue to meek benefic moon ! What then ? — does that prevent each dunghill we may pass Daily from boasting, too, its bit of looking-glass, Its sherd, which, sun-smit, shines, shoots arrowy fire beyond That satin-muffled mope, your sulky diamond ? XXXI. And, now, the mingled ray she shoots I decompose. Her antecedents take for execrable ! Gloze No whit on your premise : let be there was no worst Of degradation spared Fifine, ordained from first To last, in body and soul, for one life-long debauch, — The Pariah of the North, the European Nautch ! ^2 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. This, far from seek to hide, she puts in evidence Calmly, displays the brand, bids pry without offence Your finger on the place. You comment, " Fancy us So operated on, maltreated, mangled thus ! Such torture in our case, had we survived an hour ? Some other sort of flesh and blood must be, with power Appropriate to the vile, unsensitive, tough-thonged, In lieu of our fine nerve ! Be sure she was not wronged Too much : you must not think she winced at prick as we ! " Come, come, that's what you say; or would, were thoughts but free. XXXII. Well then, thus much confessed, what wonder if there steal Unchallenged to my heart the force of one appeal She makes, and justice stamp the sole claim she asserts ? So absolutely good is truth, truth never hurts The teller, whose worst crime gets somehow grace avowed. To me, that silent pose and prayer proclaimed aloud, FIFIXE AT THE FAIR. 33 " Know all of me outside : the rest be emptiness For such as you ! I call attention to my dress, Coiffure, outlandish features, and memorable limbs, Piquant entreaty, all that eye-glance overskims. Does this much pleasure ? Then repay the pleasure ; 23 ut Its price i' the tambourine ! Do you seek farther? Tut ! I'm just my instrument, — sound hollow; mere smooth skin Stretched o'er gilt framework, I : rub-dub, nought else within — Always, for such as you ! — if I have use elsewhere ; If certain bells, now mute, can jingle, need you care ? Be it enough, there's truth i' the pleading, which com- ports With no word spoken out in cottages or courts ; Since all I plead is, ' Pay for just the sight you see, And give no credit to another charm in me.' Do I say, like your love, ' To praise my face is well ; But who would know my worth must search my heart to tell ' ? 3 34 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Do I say, like your wife ? — ' Had I passed in review The produce of the globe, my man of men were — you ! ' Do I say, like your Helen ? — ' Yield yourself up, obey Implicitly, nor pause to question, to survey Even the worshipful ; prostrate you at my shrine : Shall you dare controvert what the world counts divine ? Array your private taste, owb liking of the sense, Own longing of the soul, against the impudence Of history, the blare and bullpng of verse ? As if man ever yet saw reason to disburse The amount of what sense liked, soul longed for, — given, devised As love, forsooth, — until the price was recognized As moderate enough by divers fellow-men ! Then, with his warrant safe that these would love too, then, Sure that particular gain implies a public loss. And that no smile he buys but proves a slash across The face, a stab into the side of somebody ; Sure that, along with love's main purchase, he will buy Up the whole stock of earth's uncharitableness, En\y and hatred, — then decides he to profess FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 35 His estimate of one love had discerned, though dim To all the world beside : since what's the world to him ? ' Do I say, like your Queen of EgA-pt ? — ' Who foregoes My cup of witchcraft — fault be on the fool! He knows Nothing of how I pack my wine-press, turn its winch Three times three, all the time to song and dance, nor flinch From charming on and on, till at the last I squeeze Out the exhaustive drop that leaves behind mere lees And dregs, vapidit}^, thought essence heretofore ! Sup of my sorcery, old pleasures please no more ! Be great, be good, love, learn, have potency of hand Or heart or head, — what boots? You die, nor under- stand What bliss might be in life : you ate the grapes, but knew Never the taste of wine, such vintage as I brew ! ' Do I say, like your saint? — 'An exquisitest touch Bides in the birth of things : no after-time can muc h 36 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Enhance that fine, that faint, fugitive first of all ! What color paints the cup o' the May-rose like the small Suspicion of a blush which doubtfull}' begins ? What sound out-warbles brook, while, at the source, it wins That moss and stone dispart, allow its bubblings breathe? What taste excels the fruit, just where sharp flavors sheathe Their sting, and let encroach the honey that allays ? And so with soul and sense : when sanctity betrays First fear lest earth belov/ seem real as heaven above, And holy worship, late, change soon to sinful love, Where is the plenitude of passion which endures Comparison with that, I ask of amateurs ? ' Do I say, like Elvire " — XXXIII. (Your husband holds you fast. Will have you listen, learn your character at last !) — " Do I say ? — like her mixed unrest and discontent, Reproachfulness and scorn, with that submission bleiit F I FINE AT THE FAIR. 37 So strangely in the face by sad smiles and gay tears, — Quiescence which attacks, rebellion which endears, — Say ? — 'As you love me once, could you but love me now ! Years probably have graved their passage on my brow, Lips turn more rarely red, eyes sparkle less than erst ; Such tribute body pays to time : but, unamerced, The soul retains, nay, boasts old treasure multiplied. Though dew-prime flee, — mature at noonday, love defied Chance, the wind, change, the rain ; love, strenuous all the more For storm, struck deeper root, and choicer fruitage bore, Despite the rocking world. Yet truth struck root in vain : While tenderness bears fruit, you praise, not taste again. Why ? They are yours, which once were hardly yours, might go To grace another's ground ; and then — the hopes we know, The fears we keep in mind ! when, ours to arbitrate. Your part was to bow neck, bid fall decree of fate. 38 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Then, oh the knotty point ! — white-night's work to revolve, — What meant that smile, that sigh ? Not Solon's self could solve ! Then, oh the deep surmise what one word might express ! And if what sounded " No " may not have echoed " Yes ! " Then such annoy could cause cold welcome, such ac- quist Of rapture, that, refused the arm, hand touched the wrist ! Now, what's a smile to you ? Poor candle that lights up The decent household gloom which sends you out to sup. A tear ? worse ! warns that health requires you keep aloof From nuptial chamber, since rain penetrates the roof! For all is got and gained, inalienably safe, Your own, and, so, despised ; more worth has any waif Or stray from neighbor's pale : pouch that, — 'tis pleas- ure, pride, Novelty, property, and larceny beside ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 39 Preposterous thought ! to find no value fixed in things ; To covet all you see, hear, dream of, till fate brings About, that, what you want, you get ; then comes a change. Give you the sun to keep, forthwith must fancy range : A goodly lamp, no doubt ; yet might you catch her hair, And capture, as she frisks, the fen-fire dancing there ! What do I say ? at least, a meteor's half in heaven : Pro\'ided filth but shine, my husband hankers even After putridity that's phosphorescent ; cribs The rustic's tallow-rush ; makes spoil of urchins' squibs; In short, prefers to me — chaste, temperate, serene — \Miat sputters green and blue, this fizgig called Fifine ! ' " XXXIV. So all your sex mistake ! Strange that so plain a fact Should raise such dire debate ! Few families were racked By torture self-supplied, did Nature grant but tliis, — That women comprehend mental analysis ! 40 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. XXXV. Elvlre, do 3^011 recall when, years ago, our home The intimation reached, a certain pride of Rome, Authenticated piece, in the third, last, and best Manner, — whatever fools and connoisseurs contest, — No particle disturbed by rude restorer's touch, The palaced picture-pearl, so long eluding clutch Of creditor, at last the Raphael might — could we But come to terms — change lord, pass from the prince to me ? I think you recollect my fever of a year ; How^ the prince would, and how he would not : now, too dear That promise was he made his grandsire so long since, — Rather to boast "I own a Raphael " than " am prince ! " And now, the fancy soothed, — if really sell he must His birthright for a mess of pottage, — such a thrust I' the vitals of the prince were mollified by balm. Could he prevail upon his stomach to bear qualm. And bequeath Liberty (because a purchaser Was ready with the sum, — a trifle !); yes, transfer FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 4* His heart, at all events, to that land where, at least, Free institutions reign ! And so, its price increased Fivefold (Americans are such importunates !), Soon must his Raphael start for the United States. Oh alternating bursts of hope, and then despair ! At last, the bargain's struck; I'm all but beggared: there The Raphael faces me, in fine, no dream at all, My housemate, evermore to glorify my wall. A week I pass, before heart-palpitations sink, In gloating o'er my gain, so lately on the brink Of loss ; a fortnight more 1 spend in paradise : — " Was outline e'er so true, could coloring entice So calm, did harmony and quiet so avail ? How right, how resolute, the action tells the tale ! " A month, I bid my friends congratulate their best : — " You happy Don ! " (to me) " The blockhead ! " (to the rest) : " No doubt he thinks his daub original, poor dupe ! " Then I resume my life : one chamber must not coop My life in, though it boast a marvel like my prize. This year, I saunter past with unaverted eyes ; 42 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Nay, loll and turn my back ; perchance to overlook With relish, leaf by leaf, Dore's last picture-book. XXXVI. Imagine that a voice reproached me from its frame : — " Here do I hang, and may ! Your Raphael, just the same ; 'Tis only you that change : no ecstasies of yore ! No purposed suicide distracts you any more ! " Prompt would my answer turn such frivolous attack : — " You misappropriate sensations. What I lack. And labor to obtain, is hoped and feared about After a fashion : what I once obtain, makes doubt, Expectancy, old fret and fume, henceforward void. But do I think to hold my havings unalloyed By novel hope and fear, of fashion just as new, To correspond i' the scale ? Nowise, I promise you ! Mine you are, therefore mine will be, as fit to cheer My soul and glad my sense to-day as this-day-year. So, any sketch or scrap, pochade, caricature, Made in a moment, meant a moment to endure, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 43 I snap at, seize, and then forever throw aside, And find you in your place. But if a servant cried ' Fire in the gallery ! ' — methinks, were I engaged In Dore, elbow-deep, portfolios million-paged To the four winds would pack, sped by the heartiest curse Was ever launched from lip, to strew the universe ; While I would brave the best o' the burning, bear away Either my perfect piece in safety, or else stay And share its fate : if made a martyr, why repine ? Inextricably wed, such ashes mixed with mine ! " xxxvii. For which I get the eye, the hand, the heart, the whole O' the wondrous wife again ! XXXVIII. But no : play out your role [' the pageant ! 'Tis not fit your phantom leave the stage : I want you, there, to make you, here, confess you wage J 44 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Successful warfare, pique those proud ones, and advance Claim to — equality ? nay, but predominance In physique o'er them all, where Helen heads the scene Closed by its tiniest of tail-tips, pert Fifine. How ravishingly pure you stand in pale constraint I My new-created shape, without or touch or taint. Inviolate of life and worldliness and sin, — Fettered, I hold my flower, her own cup's weight would win From off the tall slight stalk a-top of which she turns And trembles, makes appeal to one who roughly earns Her thanks instead of blame (did lily only know), By thus constraining length of lily, letting snow Of cup-crown, that's her face, look from its guardian stake, Superb on all that crawls beneath, and mutely make Defiance, with the mouth's white movement of disdain, To all that stoops, retires, and hovers round again ! How windingly the limbs delay to lead up, reach Where, crowned, the head waits calm ! as if reluctant, each, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 4$ That eye should traverse quick such lengths of loveli- ness, From feet, which just are found embedded in the dress Deep swathed about with folds and Rowings virginal Up to the pleated breasts, rebellious 'neath their pall, As if the vesture's snow were moulding sleep, not death ; Must melt, and must release : whereat, from the fine sheath, The flower-cup-crown starts free, the face is unconcealed ; And what shall now divert, once the sweet face revealed. From all I loved so long, so lingeringly left ? XXXIX. Because, indeed, your face fits into just the cleft O' the heart of me, Elvire ; makes right and whole once more All that was half itself without you ! As before. My truant in its place ! Because e'en sea-shells yearn, Plundered by any chance : would have their pearl return. Let. negligently slip away into the wave ! Never may they desist, those eyes so gray and grave. 46 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. From their slow sure supply of the effluent soul within ! And — would you humor me ? — I dare to ask, unpin The web of that brown hair! O'erwash o' the sudden, but As promptly, too, disclose, on either side, the jut Of alabaster brow ! So part, those rillets dyed Deep by the woodland leaf, when down they pour, each side O' the rock-top, pushed by Spring ! XL. " And where i' the world is all This wonder, I detail so trippingly, espied ? Your mirror would reflect a tall, thin, pale, deep-eyed Personage, pretty once, it may be, doubtless still, Loving, — a certain grace yet lingers, if I will, — But all this wonder, where ? " XLI. Why, where but in the sense And soul of me, the judge of art? Art-evidence, FIFTNE AT THE FAIR. 47 That thing was, is, might be ; but no more thing itself Than flame is fuel. Once the verse-book laid on shelf, The picture turned to wall, the music fled from ear, Each beauty, born of each, grows clearer and more clear, Mine henceforth, ever mine ! XLII. But if I would retrace Effect in art to cause, corroborate, erase What's right or wrong i' the lines, test fancy in my brain By fact which gave it birth ? I reperuse in vain The verse ; I fail to find that vision of delight I' the Razzi's lost profile, eye-edge so exquisite. And music : what ? that burst of pillared cloud by day And pillared fire by night was product, must we say. Of modulating just by enharmonic change, — The augmented sixth resolved, — from out the straighter range Of D sharp minor, — leap of disimprisoned thrall, — Into thy light and life, D major natural ? 48 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. XLIII. Elvire, will you partake in what I shall impart ? I seem to understand the way heart chooses heart By help of the outside face, — a reason for our wild Diversity in choice, — why each grows reconciled To what is absent, what superfluous in the mask : Material meant to yield, — did Nature ply her task As artist should, — precise the features of the soul ; Which, if in any case they found expression, whole r the traits, would give a type, undoubtedly display A novel, true, distinct perfection in its way. Never shall I believe any two souls were made Similar : granting, then, each soul of every grade Was meant to be itself, and in itself complete, And in completion good, — nay, best o' the kind, — as meet Needs must it be that show on the outside correspond With inward substance, — flesh, the dress which soul has donned. Exactly reproduce, — were only justice done Inside and outside too, — t}'pes perfect every one. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 49 How happens it that here we meet a mystery InsoKible to man, a plaguy puzzle ? Why Either is each soul made imperfect, and deserves As rude a face to match, or else a bungler swen^es, And Nature, on a soul worth rendering aright, Works ill, or proves perverse, or, in her own de- spite, — Here too much, there too little, — makes each face more or less Retire from beautv', and approach to ugliness ? And yet succeeds the same : since, what is wanting to success, If somehow every face, no matter how deform, Evidence to some one of hearts on earth, that, warm Beneath the veriest ash, there hides a spark of soul, Which, quickened by love's breath, may yet pervade the whole O' the gray, and, free again, be fire? — of worth the same, Howe'er produced ; for, great or little, flame is flame. A myster)', whereof solution is to seek. 5© FIFINE AT THE FAIR. XLIV. I find it in the fact that each soul, just as weak Its own way as its fellow, — departure from design As flagrant in the flesh, — goes striving to combine With what shall right the wrong, the under or above The standard ; supplement unloveliness by love. Ask Plato else ! And this corroborates the sage, That art, — which I may style the love of loving, rage Of knowing, seeing, feeling the absolute truth of things For truth's sake, whole and sole, nor any good truth brings The knower, seer, feeler, beside, — instinctive art, Must fumble for the whole, once fixing on a part, However poor, surpass the fragment, and aspire To reconstruct thereby the ultimate entire. Art, working with a will, discards the superflux. Contributes to defect, toils on, till — fiat lux — There's the restored, the prime, the individual type ! XLV. Look, for example, now ! This piece of broken pipe FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 51 (Some shipman's solace erst) shall act as crayon ; and What tablet better serves my purpose than the sand ? — Smooth slab whereon I draw, no matter with what skill, A face, and yet another, and yet another still. There lie my three prime types of beauty ! XLVI. Laugh your best ! " Exaggeration and absurdity ? " Confessed ! Yet what may that face mean ? — no matter for its nose, A yard long ; or its chin, a foot short. XLVII. " You suppose. Horror ? " Exactly ! What's the odds, if, more or less By yard or foot, the features do manage to express Such meaning in the main .-' Were I of Gerome's force. Nor feeble as you see, quick should my crayon course O'er outline, curb, excite, till — so completion speeds With Gerome well at work — observe how brow recedes, 52 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Head shudders back on spine, as if one haled the hair, Would have the full-face front what pin-point eye's sharp stare Announces ; mouth agape to drink the flowing fate, While chin protrudes to meet the burst o' the wave : elate Almost, spurred on to brave necessity, expend All life left, in one flash, as fire does at its end. Retrenchment and addition effect a masterpiece, Not change i' the motive : here diminish, there increase ; And who wants Horror has it. XL VIII. Who wants some other show Of soul may seek elsewhere, — this second of the row ? What does it give for germ, monadic mere intent Of mind in face, faint first of meanings ever meant? Why, possibly, a grin, that, strengthened, grows a laugh ; That, softened, leaves a smile ; that, tempered, bids you quaff At such a magic cup as English Reynolds once Compounded : for the witch pulls out of you response FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 53 Like Garrick's to Thalia, however due may be Your homage claimed by that stiff-stoled Melpomene ! XLIX. And just this one face more ! Pardon the bold pre- tence ! May there not lurk some hint, struggle toward evidence. In that compressed mouth, those strained nostrils, stead- fast eyes Of utter passion, absolute self-sacrifice. Which — could I but subdue the wild grotesque, refine That bulge of brow, make blunt that nose's aquiline, And let, although compressed, a point of pulp appear I' the mouth — would give at last the portrait of Elvire ? L. Well, and if so succeed hand-practice on awry Preposterous art-mistake, shall soul-proficiency Despair, — when exercised on nature, which at worst Always implies success, — however crossed and curst 54 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. - By failure, — such as art would emulate in vain? Shall any soul despair of setting free again Trait after trait, until the type as wholly start Forth, visible to sense, as that minutest part, (Whate'er the chance,) which, first arresting eye, warned soul, That, under wrong enough and ravage, lay the whole O' the loveliness it " loved," — I take the accepted phrase ? LI. So I account for tastes : each chooses, none gainsays The fancy of his fellow, a paradise for him, A hell for all beside. You can but crown the brim O' the cup : if it be full, what matters less or more ? Let each i' the world amend his love, as I o' the shore My sketch, and the result as undisputed be ! Their handiwork to them, and my Elvire to me : Result more beautiful than Beauty's self, when, lo, What was my Raphael turns my Michelagnolo ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 55 / I - , . LII For we two boast, beside our pearl, a diamond. / ./^- ■- V the palace-gallery, the corridor beyond, r ^ ' Upheaves itself a marble, a magnitude man-shaped As snow might be. One hand — the Master's — smoothed and scraped That mass he hammered on and hewed at, till he hurled Life out of death, and left a challenge : for the world. Death still ; since who shall dare, close to the image, say If this be purposed Art, or mere mimetic play Of Nature ? — wont to deal with crag or cloud, as stuff To fashion novel forms, like forms we know, enough For recognition, but enough unlike the same To leave no hope ourselves may profit by her game : Death therefore to the world. Step back a pace or two ! And then who dares dispute the gradual birth its due Of breathing life, or breathless immortalit}-, Where out she stands, and yet stops short, half bold, half shy. 56 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Hesitates on the threshold of things, since partly blent With stuff she needs must quit, her native element r the mind o' the Master, — what's the creature, dear- divine Yet earthly-awful too, so manly-feminine. Pretends this white advance ? What startling brain- escape Of Michelagnolo takes elemental shape ? I think he meant the daughter of the old man o' the sea. Emerging from her wave, goddess Eidothee, — She who, in elvish sport, spite with benevolence Mixed ISIab-wise up, must needs instruct the hero whence Salvation dawns o'er that mad misery of his isle. Yes, she imparts to him by what a pranksome wile He may surprise her sire, asleep beneath a rock, When he has told their tale, amid his web-foot flock Of sea-beasts, " fine fat seals with bitter breath ! " laughs she At whom she likes to save, no less : Eidothee, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 57 Whom you shall never face evolved, in earth, in air, In wave; but, manifest i' the soul's domain, — why, there She ravishingly moves to meet you, all through aid O' the soul ! Bid shine what should, dismiss into the shade ^^'hat should not be, and there triumphs the paramount Emprise o' the Master ! But attempt to make account Of what the sense without the soul perceives ? 1 bought That work (despite plain proof whose hand it was had wrought I' the rough, I think we trace the tool of triple-tooth Here, there, and ever)'where), — bought dearly that un- couth, Unwieldy bulk, for just ten dollars, — " Bulk would fetch — Converted into lime — some five pauls ! " grinned a wretch. Who, bound on business, paused to hear the bargaining, 4nd would have pitied me " but for the fun o' the thing ! " $8 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. LIII. Shall such a wretch be — you ? Must — while I show Elvire Shaming all other forms, seen as I see her here I' the soul — this other-you perversely look outside, And ask me, " Where i' the world is charm to be descried I' the tall thin personage, with paled eye, pensive face, Any amount of love, and some remains of grace ? " See yourself in my soul ! LIV. And what a world for each Must somehow be i' the soul ! — accept that mode of speech, — Whether an aura gird the soul, wherein it seems To float and move, a belt of all the glints and gleams It struck from out that world its weaklier fellows found So dead and cold ; or whether these not so much sur- round As pass into the soul itself, add worth to worth, As wine enriches blood, and straightway send it forth, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 59 Conquering and to conquer, through all eternity : That's battle without end. LV. I search but cannot see What purpose serves the soul that strives, or world it tries Conclusions with, unless the fruit of victories Stay, one and all, stored up and guaranteed its own Forever b\^ some mode whereby shall be made known The gain of every life. Death reads the tide clear, — What each soul for itself conquered from out things here ; Since in the seeing soul all worth lies, I assert, And nought i" the world, which, save " for soul that sees, inert Was, is, and would be ever, — stuff for transmuting, — null And void until man's breath evoke the beautiful ; But, touched aright, prompt yields each particle it.s tongue Of elemental flame, no matter whence flame sprung 6o FIFINE AT THE FAIR. From gums and spice, or else from straw and rotten- ness, So long as soul has power to make them burn, express What lights and warms henceforth, leaves only ash behind, Howe'er the chance :\if soul be privileged to find Food so soon, that at first snatch of eye, suck of breath, It shall absorb pure life; or, rather, meeting death I' the shape of ugliness,' by fortunate recoil So put on its resource, it finds therein a foil For a new birth of life, the challenged soul's response To ugliness and death, — creation for the nonce. LVI. I gather heart through just such conquests of the soul Through evocation out of that, which, on the whole. Was rough, ungainly, pardal accomplishment at best. And — 'what, at worst, save failure to spit at and detest ? — Through transference of all, achieved in visible things, To rest, secure from wrong, 'mid mere imaginings ; FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 6 1 Through ardor to bring help just where completion halts, Do justice to the purpose, ignore the slips and faults ; And last, not least, with stark deformity through fight Wliich wrings thence, at the end, precise its opposite. I praise the loyalt}^ o' the scholar — stung by taunt Of fools, " Does this evince thy Master they so vaunt? Did he then perpetrate the plain abortion here ? " — Who cries, " His work am I ! full fraught by him, I clear His fame from each result of accident and time. And thus restore his work to its fresh morning-prime : Not daring touch the mass of marble, fools deride, But putting my idea in plaster by its side. His, since mine ; I, he made, vindicate who made me ! " LVII. For, you must know, I too achieve Eidothee, In silence and by night, — dared justify the lines Plain to my soul, although, to sense, tba^^pfe-titie's Achievement halt half-way, break down, or-4€ave-^ - blank. If she stood forth at last, the Master was to thank ! 62 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Yet may there not have smiled approval in his eyes, — That one at least was left, who, born to recognize Perfection in the piece imperfect, worked that night In silence, such his faith, until the apposite Design was out of him, truth palpable once more ; / And then — for at one blow its fragments strewed the ', floor — Recalled the same to live within his soul as heretofore. LVIII. And, even as I hold and have Eidothee, I say, I cannot think that gains, — which would not be Except a special soul had gained them, — that such gain Can ever be estranged, do aught but appertain Immortally, by right firm, indefeasible, To who performed the feat, through God's grace and man's will ! Gain never shared by those who practised with earth's stuff, And spoiled whate'er they touch, leaving its roughness rough, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 63 Its blankness bare, and, when the ugliness opposed, Either struck work, or laughed, "He doted or he 'dozed 1 " LIX. ' While, oh, how all the more will love become intense Hereafterj when " to love " means yearning to dispense. Each soul, its own amount of gain, through its own mode Of practising with life, upon some soul which owed Its treasure, all diverse, and yet in worth the same. To new work and changed way ! Things furnish you rose-flame, "Which burn up red, green, blue, nay, yellow, more than needs. For me, I nowise doubt : why doubt a time succeeds When each one may impart, and each receive, both share The chemic secret, learn, where^I lit force, — why, there You drew forth lambent pity ; where I found only food For self-indulgence, you still blew a spark at brood I' the grayest ember, stopped not till self-sacrifice im- bued 64 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Heaven's face with flame? What joy when eacli may supplement The other, changing each, as changed, till, wholly blent, The old things shall be new, and, what we both ignite, Fuse, lose the varicolor in achromatic white ! Exemplifying law, apparent even now In the eternal progress, — love's law, which I avow. And thus would formulate : each soul lives, longs, and works For itself, by itself, )because a loadstar lurks, An other than itself, — in whatsoe'er the niche Of mistiest heaven it hide, whoe'er the Glumdalclich May grasp the Gulliver : or it, or he, or she, — Theosutos e broteios eper kekramene, — (For fun's sake, where the phrase has fastened, leave it fixed ! So soft it says, — God^ man, or both together mixed !) This, guessed at through the flesh, by parts which prove the whole. This constitutes the soul discernible by soul, — Elvire, by me ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 65 '■"*'*' LX. " And then " (so you permit remain This hand upon my arm! — your cheek dried, if you deign, Choosing my shoulder) — " then ! " (stand up for, boldly state, The objection in its length and breadth !) — " you abdi- cate. With boast yet on your lip, soul's empire, and accept The rule of sense ; the man, from monarch's throne has stept, — Leaped, rather, at one bound, to base, and there lies, brute. You talk of soul, — how soul, in search of soul to suit. Must needs review the sex, the army rank and file Of womankind ; report no face nor form so vile But that a certain worth, by certain signs, may thence Evolve itself, and stand confessed — to soul — by sense. Sense ? Oh, the loyal bee endeavors for the hive ! Disinterested hunts the flower-field through, alive 66 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Not one mean moment, no, — suppose on flower he light, — To his pecuHar drop, petal-dew perquisite, Matter-of-course snatched snack : unless he taste, how try ? This, light on tongue-tip laid, allows him pack his thigh, Transport all he counts prize, provision for the comb, Food for the future da)', — a banquet, but at home ! Soul? Ere you reach Fifine's, some flesh may be to pass ! That bombed brow, that eye, a kindling chrysoprase. Beneath its stiff black lash, inquisitive how speeds Each functionar)- limb, how play of foot succeeds, And how you let escape or duly sympathize With gastro-knemian grace, — true, your soul tastes and tries, And trifles time with these, but, fear not, will arrive At essence in the core, bring honey home to hive. Brain-stock and heart-stuff both, — to strike objectors dumb, — Since only soul affords the soul fit pabulum ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 6f / Be frank for charity ! Who is it you deceive — ' Yourself or me or God — with all this make-believe ? " LXI. And frank I will respond as you interrogate. Ah, Music, wouldst thou help ! Words struggle with the weight So feebly of the False, thick element between Our soul, the True, and Truth ! which, but that intervene False shows of things, were reached as easily by thought Reducible to word, as now by yearnings wrought Up with thy fine, free force, O Music ! that canst thrid, Electrically win, a passage through the lid Of earthly sepulchre, our words may push against. Hardly transpierce as thou ! Not dissipate, thou deign'st. So much as tricksily elude what words attempt To heave away, i' the mass, and let the soul, exempt From all that vapory obstruction, view, instead Of glimmer underneath, a glory overhead. 68 F J FINE AT THE FAIR. Not feebly, like our phrase, against the barrier go In suspirative swell the authentic notes I know ; Ly help whereof, I would our souls were found without The pale, above the dense and dim which breeds the doubt ! But Music, dumb for you, withdraws her help from me; And, since to weary words recourse again must be, At least permit they rest their burthen here and there, Music-like : cover space ! My answer — need 3-ou care If it exceed the bounds, reply to questioning You never meant should plague ? Once fairly on the wing, Let me flap far and wide ! LXII. For this is just the time, The place, the mood in you and me, when all things chime, Clash forth life's common chord ; whence, list how there ascend Harmonics far and faint, till our perception end, — FIFINE AT THE FAIR. tf) Reverberated notes whence we construct the scale Embracing what we know and feel and are ! How fail To find, or, better, lose your question, in this quick Reply which Nature yields, ample and catholic ? For, arm in arm, we two have reached, nay, passed, you see. The village-precinct : sun sets mild on Saint-Marie, — We only catch the spire ; and yet I seem to know What's hid i' the turn o' the hill ; how all the graves must glow Soberly, as each warms its little iron cross, Flourished about with gold, and graced (if private loss Be fresh) with stiff rope-wreath of 3'ellow, crisp bead- blooms Which tempt down birds to pay their supper^ 'mid the tombs, With prattle good as song, amuse the dead a while. If couched they hear beneath the matted camo- mile ! 70 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. LXIII. Bid them good-by before last friend has sung and supped ! Because we pick our path, and need our eyes, — abrupt Descent enough ; but here's the beach, and there's the bay, And, opposite, the streak of Isle Noirmoutier. Thither the waters tend : they freshen as they haste. At feel o' the night-wind ; though, by cliff and cliff em- braced. This breadth of blue retains its self-possession still ; As you and I intend to do, who take our fill Of sights and sounds, — soft sound, the countless hum and skip Of insects we disturb, and that good fellowship Of rabbits our foot-fall sends huddling, each to hide He best knows how and where \ and what whirred past, wings wide ? That was an owl, their young may justlier apprehend ! Though you refuse to speak, your beating heart, my firiend, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Jl I feel against my arm ; though your bent head forbids A look into your eyes, yet on my cheek their lids, That ope and shut, soft send a silken thrill the same. Well, out of all and each these nothings comes— what came Often enough before — the something that would aim Once more at the old mark ; the impulse to at last Succeed where hitherto was failure in the past, And yet again essay the adventure. Clearlier sings No bird to its couched corpse, " Into the truth of things — Out of their falseness rise, and reach thou, and remain ! " LXIV. ^ " That rise into the true out of the false — explain ? " May an example serve ? In yonder bay I bathed This sunny morning ; swam my best ; then hung, half swathed With chill and half with warmth, i' the channel's miil- most deep : Vou know how one — not treads, but stands in water ? Keep 72 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Body and limbs below, hold head back, uplift chin, And, for the rest, leave care ! If brow, eyes, mouth, should win Their freedom, — excellent! If they must brook the surge, No matter though they sink, let but the nose emerge. So all of me in brine lay soaking : did I care One jot? I kept alive by man's due breath of air r the nostrils, high and dry. At times, o'er these would run The ripple, even wash the wavelet ; for the sun Tempted advance, no doubt : and always flash of froth. Fish-outbreak, bubbling by, would find me nothing loath To rise and look around ; then all was overswept With dark and death at once. But trust the old adept ! Back went again the head ; a merest motion made. Fin-fashion, either hand ; and nostril soon conveyed The news that light and life were still in reach as erst : Always the last, and — wait and watch — sometimes the first. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 73 Try to ascend breast-high? wave arms wide free of tether ? Be in the air, and leave the water altogether ? Under went all again, till I resigned myself To only breathe the air, that's footed by an elf; And only swim the water, that's native to a fish. But there is no denying, that ere I curbed my wish, And schooled my restive arms, salt entered mouth and e3-es Often enough, — sun, sky, and air so tantalize ! Still the adept swims, this accorded, that denied ; Can always breathe, sometimes see and be satisfied ! LXV. I liken to this play o' the body — fiuitless strife To slip the sea, and hold the heaven — my spirit's life 'Twixt false, whence it would break, and true, where it would bide. I move in, yet resist ; am upborne ever}- side By what I beat against, — an element too gross To live in, did not soul duly obtain her dose 74 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Of life-breath, and inhale from truth's pure plenitude Above her, snatch and gain enough to just illude With hope that some brave bound may baflfie evermore The obstructing medium, make who swam henceforward soar : Gain scarcely snatched, when, foiled by the very effort, sowse, Underneath ducks the soul, her truthward yearnings dowse Deeper in falsehood ! ay, but fitted less and less To bear in nose and mouth old briny bitterness Proved alien more and more ; since each experience proves Airtheessential good, not sea, wherein who moves Must thence, in the act, escape, apart from will oi wish. Move a mere hand to take waterweed, jelly-fish, Upward you tend ! And yet our business with the sea Is not with air, but just o' the water, water}'- : We must endure the false, no particle of which Do we acquaint us with, but up we mount a pitch FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 75 Above it, find our head reach truth, while hands explore The false below : so much while here we bathe, — no more ! LXVI. Now, there is one prime point, (hear and be edified !) One truth more true for me than any truth beside ; To wit, that I am I, who have the power to swim, The skill to understand the law whereby each limb May bear to keep immersed, since, in return, made sure That its mere movement lifts head clean through cover- ture. ^ By practice with the false, I reach the true ^ Why, thence It follows, that the more I gain self-confidence, j Get proof I know the trick, can float, sink, rise, at will. The better I submit to what I have the skill To conquer in my turn, even now, and by and by Leave wholly for the land, and there laugh, shake me dry To last drop, saturate with noondaj, — no need more Of wet and fret, plagued once : on Pornic's placid shore 76 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Abundant air to breathe, sufficient sun to feel ! Meantime I buoy myself: no whit my senses reel When over me there breaks a billow ; nor, elate Too much by some brief taste, I quaff intemperate The air, o'ertop breast-high the wave-environment. Full well I know, the thing I grasp, as if intent To hold, — my wandering wave, — will not be grasped at all : The solid-seeming grasped, the handful great or small Must go to nothing, glide through fingers fast enough ; But none the less, to treat liquidity as stuff — Though failure — certainly succeeds beyond its aim; Sends head above, far past the thing hands miss, the same. LXVII. So with this wash o' the world, wherein life-long we drift : We push and paddle through the foam by making shift To breathe above at whiles, when, after deepest duck Down underneath the show, we put forth hand, and pluck FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 77 At what seems somehow like reality, — - a soul^ _ r catch at this and that to capture and control ; Presume I hold a prize ; discover that my pains Are run to nought ; my hands are balked \ my head regains The surface, where I breathe and look about a space. The soul that helped me mount ? Swallowed up in the race O' the tide, come who knows whence, gone gayly who knows where ! I thought the prize was mine ; I flattered myself diere. It did its duty, though : I felt it j it felt me ; ^^ /U> l^''- Or where I look about and breathe I should not be. The main point is, the false fluidiU^ was bound Acknowledge that it frothed o'er substance nowise found Fluid, but firm and true. Man, outcast, " howls," — at rods ? — If " sent in playful spray a-shivering to his gods ! " Childishest childe, man makes thereby no bad exchange. Stay with the flat-fish, thou ! We like the upper range 78 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Where the " gods " live, perchance the demons also dwell, Where operates a Power, which every throb and swell Of human heart invites that human soul approach, " Sent" near and nearer still, however "spray " encro.ich On " shivering " flesh below, to altitudes, which gained, Evil proves good, wrong right, obscurity explained, And " howling " childishness. Whose howl have we to thank. If all the dogs 'gan bark, and puppies whine, till sank Each yelper's tail 'twixt legs ? for Huntsman Common- sense Came to the rescue ; caused prompt thwack of thong dispense Quiet i' the kennel ; taught that ocean might be blue, And rolling, and much more, and yet the soul have, too. Its touch of God's own flame, which he may so expand " Who measured the waters i' the hollow of his hand," That ocean's self shall dry, turn dew-drop in respect Of all-triumphant fire, matter with intellect FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 79 Once fairly matched ; bade him who egged on hounds to bay- Go curse i' the poultry-yard his kind : " there let him lay" The swan's one addled egg ; which yet shall put to use, Rub breast-bone warm against, so many a sterile goose ! LXVIII. . ■ -No, I want sky, not sea ; prefer the larks to shrimps ; And never dive so 'deep but that I get a glimpse O' the blue above, a breath of the air around. Elvire, I seize — by catching at that melted beryl here, The tawny wavelet just has trickled off — Fifine ! Did not we two trip forth to just enjoy the scene, — The tumbling-troop arrayed, the strollers on their stage Drawn up and under arms, and ready to engage ; Dabble, and there an end, with foam and froth o'er face. Till suddenly Fifine suggested change of place ? Now we taste ether, scorn the wave, and interchange apace 8o FIFINE AT THE FAIR. No ordinary thoughts, but such as evidence The cultivated mind in both ! On what pretence Are you and I to sneer at who lent help to hand, And gave the lucky lift ? LXIX. Still sour ? I understand ! One ugly circumstance discredits my fair plan, — That woman does the work : I waive the help of man. 'J^jsj ^ ;>»-^' Why should experiment be tried with only waves, When solid spars float round? Still some Thalassia saves Too pertinaciously, as though no Triton, bluff As e'er blew brine from conch, were free to help enough ! Surely, to recognize a man, his mates serve best ! Why is there not the same or greater interest o In the strong spouse as in the pretty partner, pray ? Were recognition just your object, as you say, Amid this element o' the false." FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 8 1 LXX. We come to terms. I need to be proved true ; and nothing so confirms One's faith in the prime point that one's ahve, not dead, In all descents to hell whereof I ever read, As when a phantom there, male enemy or friend, Or merely stranger-shade, is struck, is forced suspend His passage : " You that breathe, along with us the ghosts ? " Here why must it still be a woman that accosts ? LXXI. Because one woman's worth, in that respect, such hairy hosts Of the other sex and sort ! Men ? Say you have the power To make them yours, rule men, throughout life's little hour. According to the phrase ; what follows ? Men you make, By ruling them, your own : each man for his own sake 6 82 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Accepts you as his guide, avails him of what worth He apprehends in you to sublimate his earth With fire ; content, if so you convoy him through night, That you shall play the sun, and he, the satellite, Pilfer your light and heat and virtue, starry pelf. While, caught up by your course, he turns upon him- self. Women rush into you, and there remain absorbed. Beside, 'tis only men completely formed, full-orbed. Are fit to follow track, keep pace, illustrate so The leader : any sort of woman may bestow Her atom on the star, or clod she counts for such ; Each little making less bigger by just that much. Women grow you, while men depend on you at best 'And^what dependence ! Bring and put him to the test. Your specimen disciple, a handbreadth separate From you, he almost seemed to touch before ! Abate Complacency you will, I judge, at what's divulged ! Some flabbiness you fixed, some vacancy out-bulged. \J^ \» fcv J kw-^ FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 8$ Some, — much, — nay, all, perhaps, the outward man's your work ; But inside man ? — find him, wherever he may lurk, And Where's a touch of you in his true self? LXXII. I wish Some wind would waft this way a glassy bubble-fish O' the kind the sea inflates, and show you, once de- tached From wave — or no ; the event is better told than watched : Still may the thing float free, globose and opaline All over, save where just the amethysts combine To blue their best, rim-round the sea-flower with a tinge Earth's violet never knew ! Well, 'neath that gem-tipped fringe A head lurks — of a kind — that acts as stomach too ; Then comes the emptiness which out the water blew So big and belly-like, but, dry of water drained, vVithers away nine-tenths. Ah, but a tenth remained ! 84 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. That was the creature's self ; no more akin to sea, Poor rudimental head and stomach, you agree, Than sea's akin to who dips yonder his red edge. LXXIII. But take the rillet, ends a race o'er yonder ledge O' the fissured cliff, to find its fate in smoke below ! Disengage that, and ask — what news of life, you know It led, that long lone way, through pasture, plain, and waste ? All's gone to give the sea ! no touch of earth, no taste Of air, reserved to tell how rushes used to bring The butterfly and bee, and fisher-bird that's king O' the purple kind, about the snow-soft, silver-sweet Infant of mist and dew ; only these atoms fleet, Imbittered evermore, to make the sea one drop More big thereby, — if thought keep count where sense must stop. LXXIV. The full-blown ingrate, mere recipient of the brine. That takes all, and gives nought, is man : the feminine FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 85 Rillet, that taking all, and giving nought in turn, Goes headlong to her death i' the sea, without concern For the old inland life, snow-soft and silver-clear, — That's woman, typified from Fifine to Elvire. LXXV. Then how diverse the modes prescribed to who would deal With either kind of creature ! 'Tis man you seek to seal Your very own ? Resolve, for first step, to discard Nine-tenths of what you are ! To make, you must be ! marred; To raise your race, must stoop ; to teach them aught, must learn Ignorance, meet half way what most you hope to spurn I' the sequel. Change yourself, dissimulate the thought And vulgarize the word, and see the deed be brought To look like nothing done with any such intent As teach men, — though perchance it teach by accident ! So may you master men ; assured that if you show One point of mastery, departure from the low J-L 86 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. And level, — head or heart revolt at long disguise, Inimurementj stifling soul in mediocrities, — If inadvertently a gesture, much more, word. Reveal the hunter no companion for the herd, i His chance of capture's gone. Success means, they may snuff. Examine, and report, — a brother, sure enough, Disports him in brute-guise ; for skin is truly skin. Horns, hoofs, are hoofs and horns, and all, outside and in, Is veritable beast, whom fellow-beasts resigned May follow, made a prize in honest pride, behind One of themselves, and not creation's upstart lord ! Well, there's your prize i' the pound : much joy may it afford My Indian ! Make surv^ey, and tell me, — was it worth You acted part so well, went all-fours upon on earth The live-long day, brayed, belled, and all to bring to pass That stags should deign eat hay when winter stints them FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 87 LXXVI. So much for men, and how disguise may make them mind Their master. But you have to deal with womankind ? « Abandon stratagem for strategy ; cast quite t The vile disguise away ; Xxy truth clean-opposite Such creep-and-crawl ; stand forth all man, and, might it chance, Somewhat of angel too ! — whate'er inheritance, Actual on earth, in heaven prospective, be your boast, Lay claim to ! Your be st self r evealed at uttermost — That's the wise way o' the strong ! And, e'en should falsehood tempt The weaker sort to swerve, at least the lie's exempt From slur, that's loathlier still, of aiming to debase Rather than elevate its object. Mimic grace. Not make deformity your mask ! Be sick by stealth. Nor traffic with disease, — malingering in health ! No more of — " Countr}'men, I boast me one like you, — My lot, the common strength, the common weakness Jijt4.dU. too!_ c^9k- 88 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. I think the thoughts you think ; and if I have the knack Of fitting thoughts to words, you peradventure lack. Envy me not the chance, yourselves more fortunate ! Many the loaded ship self-sunk through treasure-freight ; Many the pregnant brain brings never child to birth ; Many the great heart bursts beneath its girdle-girth ! Be mine the privilege to supplement defect, Give dumbness voice, and let the laboring intellect Find utterance in word, or possibly in deed ! What though I seem to go before ? 'us you that lead ! I follow what I see so plain, — the general mind Projected pillar-wise, flame kindled by the kind, Which dwarfs the unit — me — to insignificance ! Halt you, I stop forthwith ; proceed, I too advance ! " LXXVII. Ay, that's the way to take with men you wish to lead, Instruct, and benefit. Small prospect you succeed With women so ! Be all that's great and good and wise, August, sublime ; swell out your frog the right ox-size : FIFINE AT THE FAIR. bp He's buoyed like a balloon^ to soar, not burst, you'll see ! The more you prove yourself, less fear the prize will flee The captor. Here you start after no pompous stag Who condescends be snared, with toss of horn, and brag Of bray, and ramp of hoof ; you have not to subdue The foe through letting him imagine he snares you : 'Tis rather with — LXXVIII. dipping disk Ah, thanks! quick! — where the Shows red against the rise and fall o' the fin ! there frisk In shoal the — porpoises ? Dolphins, they shall and must Cut through the freshening clear; dolphins, my in- stance just ! 'Tis fable, therefore truth : who has to do with these Needs never practise trick of going hands and knees As beasts require. Art fain the fish to captivate ? Gather thy greatness round, Arion ! Stand in state, k 90 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. As when the banqueting thrilled conscious, — like a rose Throughout its hundred leaves at that approacli it knows Of music in the bird, — while Corinth grew one breast A-throb for song and thee ; nay, Periander pressed The Methymnaean hand, and felt a king indeed, and guessed How Phcebus' self might give that great mouth of the gods Such a magnificence of song ! The pillar nods, Rocks roof, and trembles door, gigantic, post and jamb. As harp and voice rend air, — the shattering dithyramb ! So stand thou, and assume the robe that tingles yet With triumph ; strike the harp, whose every golden fret Still smoulders with the flame was late at finger's end : So, standing on the bench o' the ship, let voice expend Thy soul ; sing, unalloyed by meaner mode, thine own, The Orthian lay ; then leap from Music's lofty throne Into the lowest surge, make fearlessly thy launch ! Whatever storm may threat, some dolphin will be stanch ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 91 \ Whatever roughness rage, some exquisite sea-thing Will surelyjise to save, will bear — palpitating — One proud humility of love beneath its load. Stem tide, part wave, till both roll on, thy jewelled road Of triumph, and the grim o' the gulf grow wonder- white I' the phosphorescent wake ; and still the exquisite Sea-thing stems on, saves still, palpitatingly thus, Lands safe at length its love of load at Taenarus, True woman-creature ! LXXIX. Man ? Ah ! would you prove what power Marks man ; what fruit his tree may yield beyond the sour And stinted crab he calls love-apple, which remains After you toil and moil your utmost, — all, love gains By lavishing manure ? — try quite the other plan ! A.nd, to obtain the strong true product of a man, Set him to hate a little ! Leave cherishing his root, And rather prune his branch, nip off the pettiest shoot ^ ■ ' % \CVVrf 92 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Superfluous on his bough ! I promise, you shall learn By what grace came the goat, of all beasts else, to earn Such favor with the god o' the grape : 'twas only he Who, browsing on its tops, first stung fertility Into the stock's heart, stayed much growth of tendril- twine, Some faintish flower, perhaps, but gained the indignant wine, Wrath of the red press ! Catch the puniest of the kind, — Man-animalcule, starved body, stunted mind, — And, as you nip the blotch 'twixt thumb and finger- nail, Admire how heaven above and earth below avail No jot to soothe the mite, sore at God's prime offence In making mites at all ; coax from its impotence One virile drop of thought or word or deed, by strain To propagate for once, — which nature rendered vain, Who lets first failure stay, yet cares not to record Mistake that seems to cast opprobrium on the Lord ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 93 Such were the gain from love's best pains ! But let the elf Be touched with hate because some real man bears him- self Manlike in body and soul, and, since he lives, must thwart And furify and set a-fizz this counterpart O' the pismire that's surprised to effervescence, if, By chance, black bottle come in contact with chalk cliff. Acid with alkali ! Then thrice the bulk out blows Our insect, does its kind, and cuckoo-spits some rose ! LXXX. No : 'tis ungainly work, the ruling men, at best ! The graceful instinct's right : 'tis women stand con- fessed Auxiliaiy, the gain that never goes away, Takes nothing, and gives all : Elvire, Fifine, 'tis they Convince, — if little, much, no matter ! — one degree The more, at least, convince unreasonable me / 94 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. That I am, anyhow, a truth, though all else seem And be not : if I dream, at least I know I dream. The falsity, beside, is fleeting : I can stand Still, and let truth come back, — your steadying touch of hand Assists me to remain self-centred, fixed amid All on the move. Believe in me, at once you bid Myself believe, that, since one soul has disengaged Mine from the shows of things, so much is fact : I waged _ No foolish warfare, then, with shades, myself a shade, Here in the world ; may hope my pains will be repaid ! How false things are, I judge ; how changeable, I learn : When, where, and how it is I shall see truth return, That I expect to know, because Fifine knows me ! How much more, if Elvire ! LXXXI. ' ._^J " And why not, only she ? Ttv/ )ff Since there can be for each one Best, no more, such Best, For body and mind of him, abolishes the rest y^ FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 95 O' the simply Good and Better. You please select Elvire To give you this belief in truth ; dispel the fear Yourself are, after all, as false as what surrounds ; And why not be content ? When we two watched the rounds The boatman made 'twixt shoal and sandbank yesterday, As, at dead slack of tide, he chose to push his way With oar and pole across the creek, and reach the isle After a world of pains, my word provoked your smile. Yet none the less deserved reply : ' 'Twere wiser wait The turn o' the tide, and find conveyance for his freight — How easily — within the ship to purpose moored. Managed by sails, not oars ! But no : the man's allured By liking for the new and hard in his exploit ! First come shall serve ! He makes — courageous and adroit — The merest willow-leaf of boat do duty, bear His merchandise across : once over, needs he care 96 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. If folk arrive b}- ship six hours hence, fresh and gay ? ' No : he scorns commonplace ; affects the unusual way ; And good Elvire is moored, with not a breath to flap The yards of her ; no lift of ripple to o'erlap Keel, much less prow. What care? since here's a cockle-shell, Fifine, that's taut and crank, and carries just as well Such seamanship as yours ! " LXXXII. - ■ ' '" ■ Alack, our life is lent, From first to last, the whole, for this experiment Of proving what I say, — that we ourselves are true ! I would there were one voyage, and then no more to do But tread the firm land, tempt the uncertain sea no more ! I would we might dispense with change of shore for shore To evidence our skill, demonstrate — in no dream It was we tided o'er the trouble of the stream ! I would the steady voyage, and not the fitful trip, — Elvire, and not Fifine, — might test our seamanship ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 97 But why expend one's breath to tell you change of boat Means change of tactics too? Come see the same afloat 1 o-morrow, all the change, new stowage fore and aft O' the cargo ; then to cross requires new sailor-craft ! To-day one step from stern to bow keeps boat in trim : To-morrow some big stone — or woe to boat and him ! — Must ballast both. That man stands for Mind, para- mount Throughout the adventure : ay, howe'er you make account, 'Tis mind that navigates ; skips over, twists between The bales i' the boat; now gives importance to the mean, And now abates the pride of life, accepts all fact, Discards all fiction ; steers Fifine, and cries, in the act, " Thou art so bad, and yet so delicate a brown ! Wouldst tell no end of lies : I talk to smile or frown ! Wouldst rob me : do men blame a squirrel, lithe and sly, For pilfering the nut she adds to hoard ? Nor I. 7 98 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Elvire is true as truth, honesty's self, alack ! The worse ! too safe the ship, the transport there and back Too certain ! one may loll and lounge and leave the helm, Let wind and tide do work : no fear that waves o'er- whelm The steady-going bark, as sure to feel her way Blind-fold across, reach land, next year as yesterday ! How can I but suspect the true feat were to slip Down side, transfer myself to cockle-shell from ship, And try if, trusting to sea-tracklessness, I class With those around whose breast grew oak and triple brass ; Who dreaded no degree of death, but with dry eyes Surveyed the turgid main and its monstrosities. And rendered futile, so, the prudent Power's decree Of separate earth and disassociating sea? Since how is it observed, if impious vessels leap Across, and tempt a thing they should not touch, — the deep? FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 99 (See Horace to the boat, wherein, for Athens bound, When Virgil must embark — Jove keep him safe and sound ! — The poet bade his friend start on the water}- road, Much re-assured by this so comfortable ode.") LXXXIII. Then never grudge my poor Fifine her compliment ! The rakish craft could slip her moorings in the tent, And, hoisting ever}' stitch of spangled canvas, steer Through divers rocks and shoals ; in fine, deposit here Your Virgil of a spouse in Attica ; yea, thrid The mob of men, select the special virtue hid In him, forsooth, and say, or rather smile so sweet, " Of all the multitude, you — I prefer to cheat ! Are you for Athens bound ? I can perform the trip, Shove little pinnace off, while yon superior ship. The Elvire, refits in port ! " So off we push from beach Of Pornic Town : and lo, ere eye can wink, we reach The Long Walls, and I prove that Athens is no dream ; For there the temples rise ! they are ; they nowise seem \ lOO FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Earth is not all one lie, this truth attests me true ! Thanks, therefore, to Fifine ! Elvire, I'm back with you ! Share in the memories ! Embark I trust we shall Together some fine day, and so, for good and all, Bid Pornic Town adieu ; then just the strait to cross, And we reach harbor, safe, in lostephanos ! LXXXIV. How quickly night comes ! Lo ! already 'tis the land Turns sea-like : overcrept by gray, the plains expand, Assume significance ; while ocean dwindles, shrinks Into a pettier bound : its plash and plaint, methinks, Six steps away, how both retire, as if their part Were played, another force were free to prove her art, Protagonist in turn ! Are you unterrified ? All false, all fleeting too! And nowhere things abide. And everywhere we strain that things should stay, — the one Truth, that ourselves are true ( FIFINE AT THE FAlR. ic^T LXXXV. A word, and I have done. Is it not just our hate of falsehood, fleetingness, And the mere part things play, that constitutes express Tlie inmost charm of this Fifine and all her tribe ? Actors ! We also act ; but only they inscribe Their style and title so, and preface — only they — Performance with, "A lie is all we do or say." Wherein but there can be the attraction. Falsehood's bribe. That wins so surely o'er to Fifine and her tribe The liking, nay, the love, of who hate Falsehood most, Except that these alone of mankind make their boast, " Frankly, we simulate!" To feign means — to have grace, And so get gratitude ! This ruler of the race, Crowned, sceptred, stoled to suit, — 'tis not that you detect The cobbler in the king, but that he makes effect By seeming the reverse of what you know to be The man, the mind, whole form, fashion, and quality. TC2^ FliFINE AT THE FAIR. Mistake his false for true one minute, — there's an end Of the admiration ! Truth we grieve at or rejoice : 'Tis only falsehood, plain in gesture, look, and voice, That brings the praise desired, since profit comes thereby. The histrionic truth is in the natural lie. Because the man who wept the tears was, all the time, Happy enough ; because the other man, a-grime With guilt, was, at the least, as white as I and you ; Because the timid type of bashful maidhood, who Starts at her own pure shade, already numbers seven Born babes, and in a month will turn their odd to even ; Because the saucy prince would prove, could you unfurl Some yards of wrap, a meek and meritorious girl, — Precisely as you see success attained by each O' the mimes, do you approve, not foolishly impeach The falsehood ! LXXXVI. That's the first o' the truths found : all things, slow Or quick i' the passage, come at last to that, you know ! FIFIXE AT THE FAIR. 1 03 Each has a false outside, whereby a truth is forced To issue from within : truth, falsehood, are divorced By the excepted eye, at the rare season, for The happy moment. Lifejneans — learning to abhor The false, and love the true, — truth treasured snatch by snatch, Waifs counted at their worth. And when with strays they match I' the party-colored world; when under foul shines fair, And truth, displayed i' the point, flashes forth every- where I' the circle, manifest to soul, though hid from sense, And no obstruction more affects this confidence ; When faith is ripe for sight, — why, reasonably, then Comes the great clearing-up. Wait threescore years and ten! LXXXVII. Therefore I prize stage-play, the honest cheating ; thence The impulse pricked, when fife and drum bade Fair commence, ro4 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. To bid you trip and skip, link arm in arm with me, Like husband and like wife, and so together see The tumbling-troop arrayed, the strollers on their stage Drawn up and under arms, and ready to engage. And if I started thence upon abstruser themes — Well, 'twas a dream, pricked too ! LXXXVIII. A poet never dreams : We prose-folk always do : we miss the proper duct For thoughts on things unseen, which stagnate and obstruct The system, therefore : mind, sound in a body sane. Keeps thoughts apart from facts, and to one flowing vein Confines its sense of that which is not, but might be. And leaves the rest alone. What ghosts do poets see ? What demons fear? what man or thing misapprehend? Unchoked, the channel's flush, the fancy's free to spend Its special self aright in manner, time, and place. Never believe that who create the busy race FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 105 O' the brain, bring poetry to birth, such act performed, Feel trouble them, the same, such residue as warmed My prosy blood this morn, — intrusive fancies, meant For outbreak and escape by quite another vent ! Whence follows, that, asleep, my dreamings oft exceed The bound. But you shall hear. LXXXIX. I smoked. The webs o' the weed, With many a break i' the mesh, were floating to re-form Cupola-wise above ; chased thither by soft, warm Inflow of air without ; since I, — of mind to muse, to clench The gain of soul and body got by their noon-day drench In sun and sea, — I flung both frames o' the window wide. To soak my body still, and let soul soar beside. In came the country sounds and sights and smells, — that fine Sharp needle in the nose from our fermenting wine ! I Io6 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. In came a dragon-fly with whir and stir, then out, Off, and away ; in came — kept coming, rather, pout Succeeding smile, and take-away still close on give — One loose long creeper-branch, tremblingly sensitive To risk, which blooms and leaves, — each leaf tongue- broad, each bloom Mid-finger-deep, — must run by prying in the room Of one who loves and grasps and spoils and speculates. All, so far, plain enough to sight and sense : but weights, Measures, and numbers, — ah ! could one apply such test To other visitants that came at no request Of who kept open house ; to fancies manifold From this four-cornered world, the memories new and old, The antenatal prime experience — what know I ? — The initiatory love preparing us to die, — Such were a crowd to count, a sight to see, a prize To turn to profit, were but fleshly ears and eyes A-ble to cope with those o' the spirit ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. lO? XC. Therefore, — since Thought hankers after speech, while no speech may evince Feeling like music, — mine, o'erburthened with each gift From every visitant, at last resolved to shift Its burthen to the back of some musician dead And gone, who, feeling once what I feel now, instead Of words, sought sounds, and saved forever, in the same, Truth that escapes prose ; nay, puts poetry to shame. One reads the note^ one strikes the key, one bids record The instrument, — thanks for the veritable word ! And not in vain one cries, " O dead and gone away. Assist who struggles yet, thy strength become my stay. Thy record serve as well to register, — I felt And knew thus much of truth ! With me must knowl- edge melt Into surmise and doubt and disbelief, unless Thy music re-assure, — I gave no idle guess, But gained a certitude myself may hardly keep ! 'Vhat care ? since round is piled a monumental heap io8 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Of music that conserves the assurance thou as well Wast certain of the same ! — thou, master of the spell, Mad'st moonbeams marble, didst record what other men Feel only to forget!" Who was it helped me, then ? What master's work first came responsive to my call, Found my eye, fixed my choice ? xci. Why, Schumann's " Carnival " ! Choice chiming in, you see, exactly with the sounds And sights of yester-eve, when, going on my rounds. Where both roads join the bridge, I heard across the dusk Creak a slow caravan, and saw arrive the husk O' the spice-nut, which peeled off this morning, and dis- played 'Twixt tree and tree a tent whence the red pennon made Its vivid reach for home and ocean-idleness, A-nd where, my heart surmised, at that same moment, — • yes,— FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 109 Tugging her tricot on, yet tenderly, lest stitch Announce the crack of doom, reveal disaster which Our Pornic's modest stock of merceries in vain Were ransacked to retrieve, — there, cautiously a-strain, (My heart surmised) must crouch in that tent's corner, curved Like spring-month's russet moon, some beauty fate reserved To give me once again the electric snap and spark That prove, when finger finds out finger in the dark O' the world^ there's fire and life and truth there, link but hands. And pass the secret on ! till, link by link, expands The circle, lengthens out the chain ; and one embrace Of high with low is found uniting the whole race, — Not simply you and me and our Fifine, but all The world : the Fair expands into the Carnival, And Carnival again to — Ah, but that's my dream ! XCII. r somehow played the piece ; remarked on each old theme no FIFINE AT THE FAIR. V the new dress ; saw how food o' the soul, the stuff that's made To furnish man with thought and feeling, is purveyed Substantially the same from age to age, with change Of the outside only for successive feasters. Range The banquet-room o' the world, from the dim farthest head O' the table to its foot, for you and me bespread This merry morn, we find sufficient fare, I trow. But novel ? Scrape away the sauce, and taste, below, The verity o' the viand, you shall perceive there went To board-head just the dish which other condiment Makes palatable now : guests came, sat down, fell to. Rose up, wiped mouth, went way, — lived, died, — and never knew That generations yet should, seeking sustenance, Still find the selfsame fare, with somewhat to enhance Its flavor in the kind of cooking. As with hates And loves and fears and hopes, so with what emulates The same, expresses hates, loves, fears, and hopes in arf The forms, the themes, — no one without its counterpart FIFINE AT THE FAIR. HI Ages ago ; no one, but, mumbled the due time r the mouth of the eater, needs be cooked again in rhyme, Dished up anew in paint, sauce-smothered fresh in sound, To suit the wisdom-tooth, just cut, of the age, that's found With gums obtuse to gust and smack which rehshed so The meat o' the meal folks made some fifty years ago. But don't suppose the new was able to efface The old without a struggle, a pang ! The common- place Still clung about his heart long after all the rest O' the natural man, at eye and ear, was caught, con- fessed The charm of change, although wry lip and wrinkled nose Owned ancient virtue more conducive to repose Than modern nothing roused to something by some shred Of pungency, perchance garlic in amber's stead ? 112 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. And so on, till, one day, another age, by due Rotation, pries, sniffs, smacks, discovers oldjs new, And sauce our sires pronounced insipid proves again Sole piquant, and resumes its titillating reign. With music, most of all the arts, since change is there The law, and not the lapse : the precious means the rate. And not the absolute in all good save surprise. So I remarked upon our Schumann's victories Ove r the_ commonplace, how flided phrase grew fine, And palled perfection, piqued, upstartled by that brine, His pickle, bit the mouth and burnt the tongue aright; Beyond the merely good no longer exquisite ; Then took things as I found, and thanked without demur The pretty piece, — played through that movement, you prefer. Where dance and shuffle past, he scolding while she pouts. She canting while he calms, in those eternal bouts Of age, the dog — with youth, the cat — by rose- festoon Tied teasingly forever, — Columbine, Pantaloon, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 113 She, toe-tips and staccato, — legato, shakes his poll And shambles in pursuit, the senior. Fi la folic / Lie to him ! get his gold, and pay its price ! begin Your trade betimes, nor wait till you've wed Harlequin, And need, at the week's end, to play the duteous wife, And swear you still love slaps and leapings more than life! Pretty ! I say. XCIII. And so I somehow-nohow played The whole o' the pretty piece; and then — whatever weighed My eyes down, furled the films about my wits, — sup- pose. The morning-bath, — the sweet monotony of those Three keys, flat, flat and flat, never a sharp at all ; Or else the brain's fatigue, forced even here to fall Into the same old track, and recognize the shift From old to new, and back to old again, and, swift Or slow, no matter, still the certainty of change. Conviction we shall find the false, where'er we range. 114 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. In art no less than nature, — or what if wrist were numb, And over-tense the mucle, abductor of the thumb, A Taxed by those tenths' and twelfths' unconscionable stretch ? Howe'er it came to pass, I soon was far to fetch, — Gone off in company with Music ! xciv. Whither bound Except for Venice ? She it was, by instinct found. Carnival-country proper, who, far below the perch Where I was pinnacled, showed, opposite, Mark's Church, And, underneath, Mark's Square, with those two lines of street, Procu>'atie-s\des, each leading to my feet ; Since I gazed from above, however I got there. xcv. And what I gazed upon was a prodigious Fair, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. II5 Concourse immense of men and women, crowned oi casqued, Turbaned or tiar'd, wreathed, plumed, hatted or wigged, but masked, — Always masked, — only, how? No face-shape, beast or bird. Nay, fish and reptile even, but some one had preferred, From out its frojitispiece, feathered or scaled or curled, To make the vizard whence himself should view the world. And where the world believed himself was manifest. Yet, when you came to look, mixed up among the rest ]\Iore funnily by far were masks to imitate Humanity's mishap : the wrinkled brow, bald pate, And rheumy eyes of Age, peaked chin and parchment chap. Were signs of day-work done, and wage-time near, — ■ mishap Merely ; but Age reduced to simple greed and guile. Worn apathetic else as some smooth slab, erewhile Il6 F J FINE AT THE FAIR. A clear-cut man-at-arms i' the pavement, till foot's tread Effaced the sculpture, left the stone you saw instead, — Was not that terrible beyond the mere uncouth ? Well, and perhaps the next revolting you was Youth, Stark ignorance and crude conceit, half smirk, half stare, On that frank fool-face, gay beneath its head of hair Which covers nothing. xcvi. These, you are to understand, Were the mere hard and sharp distinctions. On each hand, I soon became aware, flocked the infinitude Of passions, loves and hates, man pampers till his mood Becomes himself, the whole sole face we name him by. Nor want denotement else, if age or youth supply The rest of him : old, young, — classed creature : in the main A. love, a hate, a hope, a fear, each soul a-strain FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 117 Some one way through the flesh, — the face the evidence O' the soul at work inside ; and, all the more intense, So much the more grotesque. XCVII. " Why should each soul be tasked Some one way, by one love or else one hate ? " I asked ; When it occurred to me, from all these sights beneath There rose not any sound : a crowd, yet dumb as death ! XCVIII. But I knew why. (Propose a riddle, and 'tis solved Forthwith — in dream I) They spoke ; but — since on me devolved To see, and understand by sight — the vulgar speech Might be dispensed with. " He who cannot see must_ reach As best he may the truth of men by help of words They please to speak ; must fare at will of who affords Il8 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. The banquet : " so I thought. " Who sees not, hears, and so Gets to believe : mj^self it is, that, seeing, know. And, knowing, can dispense with voice and vanity Of speech. What hinders then, tliat, drawing closer, I Put privilege to use, see and know better still These simulachra, taste the profit of my skill, Down in the midst ? " xcix. And plumb I pitched into the square, — A groundling like the rest. What think you happened there ? Precise the contrary of what one would expect ! For — whereas all the more monstrosities deflect From nature and the type the more yourself approach Their precinct — here I found brutality encroach I Less on the human, lie the lightlier as I looked The nearer on these faces that seemed but now so crooked FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 119 And clawed away from God's prime purpose. They diverged A little from the type, but somehow rather urged To pity than disgust : th e pro minent before Now dwindled into mere distinctness, — -nothing more. Still, at first sight, stood forth undoubtedly the fact Some deviation was : in no one case there lacked The certain sign and mark, say hint, say trick of lip Or twist of nose, that proved a fault in workmanship. Change in the prime design, some hesitancy here And there, which checked man's make, and let the beast appear ; But t hat was all. c. All ; yet enough to bid each tongue Lie in abeyan£e still. They talked, themselves among. Of themselves, to themselves : I saw the mouths at play, The gesture that enforced, the eye that strove to sa\ - The same thing as the voice, and seldom gained its point : Th at th is was so, I saw ; but all seemed out of joint I20 F I FINE AT THE FAIR. V the vocal medium 'twixt the world and me. I gained Knowledge by notice, not by giving ear ; attained To truth by what men seemed, not said: to me one glance "Was worth whole histories of noisy utterance ; At least, to me in dream. CI. And presently I found, That, just as ugliness had withered, so unwound Itself, and perished off, repugnance to what wrong Might linger yet i' the make of man. My will was strong I' the matter : I could pick and choose, project my weight, (Remember how we saw the boatman trim his freight !) Determine to observe, or manage to escape, Or make divergency assume another shape By shift of point of sight in me the observer : thus Corrected, added to, subtracted from, discuss Each variant quality, and brute-beast touch was turned Into mankind's safeguard ! Force, guile, were arms which earned FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 12 I My praise, not blame at all ! for we must learn to live, Case -harden ed at all points, not bare and sensitive. But plated for defence, nay, furnished for attack, With spikes at the due place, that neither front nor back May suffer in that squeeze with nature we find — life. Are we not here to learn the good of peace through strife, Of love through hate, and reach knowledge by igno- rance ? Why, those are helps thereto which late we eyed askance. And nicknamed unaware ! Just so, a sword we call Superfluous, and cry out against, at festival : Wear it in time of war, its clink and clatter grate O' the ear to purpose then ! CII. I found one must abate One's scorn of the soul's case, distinct from the soul's JX ^^^^ self,— Which is the centre-drop ; whereas the pride in pelf, ^d-d-M^ ,v *'-- ^^ 122 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. The lust to seem the thing it cannot be, the greed For praise, and all the rest seen outside, — these, indeed, Are the hard polished cold cr}-stal environment Of those strange orbs unearthed i' the Dmid tempie. meant For divination (so the learned lean to think). Wherein you may admire^ne dew-drop roll and wink, All unaffected by — quite alien to — what sealed And saved it long ago : though how it got congealed I shall not give a guess ; nor how, by power occult, The solid surface-shield w as outco me and result Of simple dew at work to save itself amid The unwatery force around : protected thus, dew slid Safe through all opposites impatient to absorb Its spot of life, and lasts forever in the orb We now from hand to hand pass with impunity. cm. And the delight wherewith I watch this crowd must be Akin to that which crowns the chemist when lie winds Thread up and up till clew be fairly clutched ; unbinds FJFINE AT THE FAIR. 123 The composite \ ties fast tlie simple to its mate ; And, tracing each effect back to its cause, elate, Constructs in fancy, from the fewest primitives, The complex and complete, all diverse life, that lives Not only in beast, bird, fish, reptile, insect, but The very plants and earths and ores. Just so I glut My hunger both to be and know the thing I am By contrast with the thing I am not ; so, through sham And outside, I arrive at inmost real, probe And prove how the nude form obtained the checkered robe. CIV. — Experience I am glad to master soon or late. Here, there, and everywhere i' the world, without debate \ Only in Venice why ? What reason for Mark's Square Rather than Timbuctoo ? cv. And I became aware, Scarcely the word escaped my lips, that swift ensued In silence and by stealth, and yet with certitude, 124 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. A formidable change of the amphitheatre Which held the Carnival ; although the human stir Continued just the same amid that shift of scene. cvi. For as on edifice of cloud i' the gray and green Of evening, — built about some glory of the west To barricade the sun's departure, — manifest. He plays, pre-eminently gold, gilds vapor, crag, and crest Which bend in rapt suspense abovQ the act and deed They cluster round and keep their very own, nor heed The world at watch ; while we, breathlessly at the base O' the castellated bulk, note momently the mace Of night fall here, fall there, bring change with every blow. Alike to sharpened shaft and broadened portico I' the structure ; heights and depths, beneath the leaden stress, Crumble and melt and mix together, coalesce. Re-form, but sadder still, subdued yet more and more By every fresh defeat, till wearied eyes need pore FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 125 No longer on the dull impoverished decadence Of all that pomp of pile in towering evidence So lately : — cvir. Even thus, nor otherwise, meseemed That if I fixed my gaze a w^hile on what I dreamed Was Venice' Square, Mark's Church, the scheme was straight unschemed, A subtle something had its way within the heart Of each and every house I watched, with counterpart Of tremor through the front and outward face, until Mutation was at end : impassive and stock-still Stood now the ancient house, grown, — new is scarce the phrase, Since older, in a sense, — altered to — what i' the ways Ourselves are won't to see, coerced by city, town, Or village, anj-where i' the world, pace up or down Europe ! In all the maze, no single tenement I saw, but I could claim acquaintance with ! 126 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. CVIII. There went Conviction to my soul, that what I took qfjate For Venice was the world ; its Carnival the_state Of mankind, masquerade in life-long permanence For all time, and no one particular feast-day. Whence 'Twas easy to infer what meant my late disgust At the brute-pageant, each grotesque of greed and lust And idle hate, and love as impotent for good. When from my pride of place I passed the interlude In critical review ; and what the wonder that ensued, When, from such pinnacled pre-eminence, I found Somehow the proper goal for wisdom was the ground, And not the sky, — so, slid sagaciously betimes Down heaven's baluster-rope, to reach the mob of mimes And mummers : whereby came discovery there was just Enough and not too much of hate, love, greed, and lust, Could one discerningly but hold the balance, shift The weight from scale to scale, do justice to the drift Of nature, and explain the glories by the shames Mixed up in man, one stuff miscalled by different names. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 12? According to what stage i' the process turned his rough, Even as I gazed, to smooth, — only get close enough ! — What was all this except the lesson of a life ? cix. And consequent upon the learning how from strife Grew peace, — from evil, good, — came knowledge, that, to get Acquaintance with the way o' the world, we must nor fret Nor fume on altitudes of self-sufficienc}'. But bid a frank farewell to what — we think — should be, And, with as good a grace, welcome what is — we find. ex. Js — for the hour, observe! Since something to my mind Suggested soon the fancy, nay, certitude, that changej^ Never suspending touch, contimied to derange ■\\Tiat architecture, we^ walled up within the cirque O' the world, consider fixed as fate, not fair}'-work. 'X h^%j^ /v- ifU" hjL^^ £28 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. For those were temples, sure, which trembUngly grew blank From bright, then broke afresh in triumph: ah! but sank As soon ; for liquid change through artery and vein O' the very marble wound its way ! And first a stain Would startle and offend amid the glory ; next Spot swift succeeded spot, but found me less perplexed By potents ; then, as 'twere, a sleepiness soft stole Over the stately fane, and shadow sucked the whole Facade into itself, made uniformly earth What was a piece of heaven ■ till, lo ! a second birth. And the veil broke away because of something new Inside, that pushed to gain an outlet, paused in view At last, and proved a growth of stone or brick or wood, Which, alien to the aim o' the Builder, somehow stood The test, could satisfy, if not the early race For whom he built, at least our present populace, Who must not bear the blame for what, blamed, proves mishap Of the Artist : his work gone, another fills the gap. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 129 Serv^es the prime purpose so. Undoubtedly there spreads Building around, above, which makes men lift then heads To look at, or look through, or look, for aught I care, Over, — if only up it is, not down, they stare, " Commercing with the skies," and not the pavement in the square. CXI. But are they only temples that subdivide, collapse. And tower again, transformed ? Academies, perhaps ! Domes where dwells Learning, seats of Science, bower and hall Which house Philosophy, — do these, too, rise and fall, Based though foundations be on steadfast moljher-earth, With no chimeric claim to supermundane birth ; No boast, that, dropped from cloud, they did not grow from ground ? Why, these fare worst of all : these vanish, and are found Nowhere, by who tasks eye some twice within his term Of threescore years and ten for tidings what each germ 13© FIUNE AT THE FAIR. Has burgeoned out into, whereof the promise stunned His ear with such acclaim, — praise-payment to refund The praises, never doubt, some twice before they die Whose days are long i' the land. CXII. Alack, Philosophy ! Despite the chop and change, diminished or increased, Patched up and plastered o'er, Religion stands at least I' the temple-t}-pe. But thou ? Here gape I, all agog These thirty years, to learn how tadpole turns to frog ; And thrice at least have gazed with mild astonishment, As, skyward up and up, some fire-new fabric sent Its challenge to mankind, that, clustered underneath, — They hear the word and straight believe, ay, in the teeth O' the Past, clap hands, and hail triumphant Truth's out- break, — Tadpole-frog-theory propounded past mistake ! In vain ! A something ails the edifice : it bends, It bows, it buries. . . . Haste ! cry " Heads below " to friends ; FIFINE AT THE FAIR. I3I But have no fear they find, when smother shall subside, Some substitution perk with unabated pride r the predecessor's place ! CXIII. No : the one voice which failed Never, the preachment's coigne of vantage nothing ailed, — That had the luck to lodge i' the house not made with hands ! And all it preached was this : " Truth builds upon the sands, Though stationed on a rockj and so her work decays, And so she builds afresh, with like result. Nought stays But just the fact that Truth not only is, but fain Would have men know she needs must be, by each so plain Attempt to visibly inhabit where they dwell." Her works are work, while she is she : that work does well 132 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Which lasts mankind their lifetime through, and lets believe One generation more, that, though sand run through sieve, Yet earth now reached is rock, and what we moderns find Erected here is Truth, who, 'stablished to her mind I' the fulness of the days, will never change in show More than in substance erst : men thought they knew ; we know ! cxiv. Do you, my generation ? Well, let the blocks prove mist r the main enclosure ; church and college, if they list. Be something for a time, and every thing anon, .\nd any thing a while, as fit is olT or on, Till they grow nothing, soon to re-appear no less As something, — shape reshaped, till out of shapeless- ness Come shape again as sure ! no doubt, or round or square Dr polygon its front, some building will be there, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 133 Do duty in that nook o' the wall o' the world where once The Architect saw fit precisely to ensconce College or church, and bid such bulwark guard the line O' the barrier round about, — humanity's confine. cxv. Leave watching change at work i' the greater scale, on these The main supports, and turn to their interstices Filled up by fabrics too, less costly and less rare, Yet of importance, yet essential to the Fair They help to circumscribe, instruct, and regulate ! See where each booth-front boasts, in letters small or great. Its specialty, proclaims its privilege to stop A breach beside the best ! cxvi. Here History keeps shop ; Tells how past deeds were done, so and not otherwise : — " Man, hold truth evermore ! forget the early lies ! " 134 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. There sits Morality, demure behind her stall, Dealing out life and death : " This is the thing to call \ Right ; and this other, wrong : thus think, thus do, thus \ say, Thus joy, thus suffer ! — not to-day as yesterday : Yesterday's doctrine dead, this only shall endure ! Obey its voice, and live ! " — enjoins the dame demure. While Art gives flag to breeze, bids drum beat, trumpet blow. Inviting eye and ear to yonder raree-show. Up goes the canvas, hauled to height of pole. I think We know the way — long lost, late learned — to paint ! A wink Of eye, and, lo, the pose ! the statue on its plinth! How could we moderns miss the heart o' the laby- rinth Perversely all these years, permit the Greek seclude His secret till to-day ? And here's another feud Now happily composed : inspect this quartet-score ! Got long past melody, no word has Music more FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 135 To say to mortal man ! But is the bard to be Behindhand ? Here's his book ; and now perhaps you see, At length, what poetry can do ! CXVII. Why, that's stability Itself, that change on change we sorrowfully saw Creep o'er the prouder piles ! We acquiesced in law When the fine gold grew dim i' the temple ; when the brass Which pillared that so brave abode where Knowledge was Bowed and resigned the trust : but bear all this caprice, Harlequinade where swift to birth succeeds decease Of hue at every turn o' the tinsel-flag which flames While Art holds booth in Fair ? Such glories chased by shames Like these distract beyond the solemn and august Procedure to decay, evanishment in dust, Of those marmoreal domes, — above vicissitude, \Ve used to hope ! 13^ FIFINE AT THE FAIR. CXVITI. . " So all is change, in fine," pursued \ The preachment to a pause. When — " x\ll is perma- nence ! " ) Returned a voice. Within ? without ? No matter whence The explanation came ; for, understand, I ought To simply say — I saw, each thing I say I thought. Since ever as, unrolled, the strange scene-picture grew Before me, sight flashed first, though mental comment too Would follow in a trice, come hobblingly to halt. CXIX. So what did I see next, but, — much as when the vault I' the west, — wherein we watch the vapory, manifold Transfiguration, — tired would turn to rest, — behold. Peak reconciled to base, dark ending feud with bright, The multiform subsides, is found the definite. Contrasting lives and strifes, where battle they i' the blank Severity of death and peace, for which we thank FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 137 One cloud that comes to quell the concourse, fall at last Into a shape befits the close of things, and cast Palpably o'er vexed earth heaven's mantle of repose ? cxx. Just so, in Venice' Square, that things were at the close Was signalled to my sense ; for I perceived arrest O' the change all round about. As if some impulse pressed Each gently into each, what was distinctness late Grew vague, and, line from line no longer separate, No matter what the style, edifice — shall I say, Died into edifice ? I find no simpler way Of saying how, without or dash or shock or trace Of violence, I found unity in the place Of temple, tower, and hall and house and hut, — one blank Severit}' of death and peace ; to which they sank Resigned enough, till — ah ! conjecture, I beseech, What special blank did they agree to, all and each ? 138 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. What common shape was that wherein they mutely merged Likes and dislikes of form, so plain before ? cxxi. I urged Your step this way, prolonged our path of enterprise To where we stand at last, in order that your eyes Might see the very thing, and save my tongue describe The Druid monument wl'ich fronts you. Could I bribe Nature to come in aid, illustrate what I mean, What wants there she would lend to solemnize the scene ? cxxir. How does it strike you, this construction gaunt and gray? Sole object, these piled stones, that gleam unground away By twilight's hungry jaw, which champs fine all beside r the solitary waste we grope through. Oh, no guide, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 139 However, need we now to reach the monstrous door Of granite ! Take my word, the deeper you explore That caverned passage, filled with fancies to the brim, The less will you approve the adventure ! such a grim Bar-sinister soon blocks abrupt your path, and ends All with a cold dread shape, — shape whereon Learning spends Labor, and leaves the text obscurer for the gloss ; While Ignorance reads right, — recoiling from that Cross ! Whence came the mass and mass, strange quality of stone Unquarried anywhere i' the region round ? Unknown ! Just as unknown how such enormit}^ could be Conveyed by land, or else transported over sea, And laid in order, so, precisely each on each As you and I would build a grotto where the beach Sheds shell, — to last an hour : this building lasts from age To age the same. But why ? 14° FIFINE AT THE FAIR. CXXIII. Ask Learning ! I engage Vou get a prosy wherefore shall help 3^011 to advance In knowledge just as much as helps you Ignorance Surmising, in the mouth of peasant lad or lass, — " I heard my father say he understood it was A building people built as soon as earth was made Almost, because they might forget (they were afraid) Earth did not make itself, but came of Somebody. They labored that their work might last, and sho\\ thereby ria stays, while we and earth and all things come and go- Come whence ? Go whither ? That, when come and gone, we know, Perhaps, but not while earth and all things need our best Attention : we must wait and die to know the rest. Ask, if that's true, what use in setting up the pile ? To make one fear and hope; remind us, all the while We come and go, outside there's Somebody that stays,— A circumstance which ought to make us mind our ways ; FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 141 Because, — whatever end we answer by this life, — Next time, best chance must be for who with toil and strife Manages now to live most like what he was meant Become : since who succeeds so far, 'tis evident. Stands foremost on the file ; who fails has less to hope From new promotion. That's the rule, — with even a rope Of mushrooms like this rope I dangle ! those that grew Greatest and roundest, all in life they had to do, Gain a reward, a grace they never dreamed, I think ; Since, outside white as milk, and inside black as ink, They go to the Great House to make a dainty dish For Don and Donna ; while this basket-load, I wish Well off my arm, it breaks, — no starveling of the heap But had his share of dew, his proper length of sleep r the sunshine : yet, of all, the outcome is, — this queer Cribbed quantity of dwarfs which burthen basket here Till I reach home ; 'tis there, that, having run their rigs, They end their earthly race, are flung as food for pigs. 142 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Any more use I see ? Well, you must know, there lies Something, the cure says, that points to mysteries Above our grasp : a huge stone pillar, once upright, Now laid at length, half lost, — discreetly shunning sight I' the bush and brier, because of stories in the air, — Hints what it signified, and why was stationed there. Once on a time. In vain the cure tasked his lungs ; Showed, in a preachment, how, at bottom of the rungs O' the ladder Jacob saw, where heavenly angels stept Up and down, lay a stone which served him, while he slept, For pillow ; when he woke, he set the same upright As pillar, and atop poured oil : things requisite To instruct posterity, there mounts from floor to roof A staircase, earth to heaven ; and also put in proof, When we have scaled the sky, we well may let alone What raised us from the ground, and — paying to the stone Proper respect, of course — take staff and go our way, Leaving the Pagan night for Christian break of day. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 143 For,' preached he, ' what they dreamed, these Pagans, wide-awake, We Christians may behold. How strange, then, were mistake, Did anybody style the stone — because of drop Remaining there from oil which Jacob poured atop — Itself the Gate of Heaven ; itself the end, and not The means thereto ! ' Thus preached the cure, and no jot The more persuaded people, but that, what once a thing Meant, and had right to mean, it still must mean. So cling Folk somehow to the prime authoritative speech. And so distrust report, it seems as they could reach Far better the arch-word, whereon their fate depends. Through rude charactery, than all the grace it lends. That lettering of your scribes ! who flourish pen apace, And ornament the text, they say ; we say, efface. Hence, when the earth began its life afresh in May, And fruit-trees bloomed, and waves would wanton, and the bay 144 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. RufHe its wealth of weed, and stranger-birds arrive, And beasts take each a mate, — folk, too, found sensi- tive. Surmised the old gray stone upright there, through such tracts Of solitariness and silence, kept the facts Intrusted it, could deal out doctrine, did it please : No fresh and frothy draught, but liquor on the lees, Strong, savage, and sincere, — first bleedings from a vine, Whereof the product now do cures so refine To insipidity, that, when heart sinks, we strive And strike from out the old stone the old restorative. * Which is ? ' — why, go and ask our grandams how they used To dance around it, till the cure disabused Their ignorance, and bade the parish in a band Lay flat the obtrusive thing that cumbered so the land ! And there, accordingly, in bush and brier, it ^ ' bides Its time to rise again ' (so somebody derides. That's pert from Paris); 'since yon spire, you keep erect V onder, and pray beneath, is nothing, I suspect, FIFINE A T THE FAIR. 145 But just the symbol's self, expressed in slate for rock, — Art's smooth for Nature's rough, new chip from the old block ! ' There, sir, my say is said! Thanks, and Saint Gille increase The wealth bestowed so well ! " — wherewith he pockets piece, Doffs cap, and takes the road. I leave in Learning's clutch More money for his book, but scarcely gain as much. . CXXIV. To this it was, tliis same primeval monument, That, in my dream, I saw building with building blent Fall : each on each they fast and founderingly went Confusion-ward ; but thence again subsided fast, Became the mound you see. Magnificently massed Indeed, those mammoth-stones, piled by the Protoplast Temple-wise in my dream ! beyond compare with fanes. Which, solid-looking late, had left no least remains I' the bald and blank, now sole usurper of the plains 146 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Of heaven, diversified and beautiful before. And yet simplicity appeared to speak no more Nor less to me than spoke the compound. At the core, One and no other word, as in the crust of late. Whispered, which, audible through the transition-state, Was no loud utterance in even the ultimate Disposure. For as some imperial chord subsists. Steadily underlies the accidental mists Of music springing thence, that run their mazy race Around, and sink, absorbed, back to the triad base ; So, out of that one word, each variant rose and fell, And left the same " All's change, but permanence as well." Grave note, whence — list aloft ! — harmonics sound, that mean, — " Truth inside ; and, outside, truth alao ; and^^between Each, falsehood tliat is change, as truth is permanence. The individual soul works through the sho ws of sen se (Which, ever proving false, still promise to be true) Up to an outer soul as individual too ; FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 147 And, through the fleeting, lives to die into the fixed. And reach at length ' God, man, or both together mixed,' Transparent through the flesh, by parts which prove a whole, By hints which make the soul discernible by soul, — Let on ly soul look up, not down, not hate, but love. As truth successively takes shape, one grade above Its last presentment, tempts as it were truth indeed Revealed this time ; so tempts, till we attain to read The signs aright, and learn, by failure, truth is forced To manifest itself through falsehood ; whence divorced By the excepted eye, at the rare season, for The happy moment, truth instructs us to abhor The false, and prize the true, obtainable thereby. Then do we understand the value of a lie : Its purpose served, its truth once safe deposited, Each lie, superfluous now, leaves, in the singer's stead, The indubitable song ; the historic personage Put by, leaves prominent the impulse of his age j 148 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Truth sets aside speech, act, time, place, indeed, but brings Nakedly forward now the principle of things Highest and least." cxxv. Wherewith change ends. What other change to dread, When, disengaged at last from every veil, instead Of type remains the truth ? Once — falsehood ; but anon Theosufon e broteion eper kekratfienon, — Something as true as soul is true, though veils be- tween Are false, and fleet away. As I mean, did he mean, The poet whose bird-phrase sits, singing in my ear A myster}^ not unlike ? What through the dark and drear Brought comfort to the Titan ? Emerging from the lymph, " God, man, or mixture," proved only to be a nymph : FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 1 49 " From whom the clink on clink of metal " (money, judged Abundant in my purse) " struck " (bumped at, till it budged) '• The modesty, her soul's habitual resident," (AVhere late the sisterhood were lively in their tent,) " As out of winged car " (that caravan on wheels) " Impulsively she rushed, no slippers to her heels," And " Fear not, friends we flock ! " soft smiled the sea- Fifine, — Primitive of the veils (if he meant what I mean) The poet's Titan learned to lift, ere " Three-formed Fate, Moirai Trimorphoi,'" stood unmasked the Ultimate. cxxvi. Enough o' the dream ! You see how poetry turns prose. Announcing wonder-work, I dwindle at the close Down to mere commonplace which everybody knows. But dreaming disappoints. The fresh and strange at first Soon wear to trite and tame, nor warrant the outburst 150 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Of heart with which we hail those heights, at very brink Of heaven, whereto one least of hfts would lead, we think ; But wherefrom quick decline conducts our step, we find, To homely earth, and fact familiar left behind. Did not this monument, for instance, long ago Say all it had to say, show all it had to show, Nor promise to do duty more in dream ? CXXVII. Awaking so, What if we, homeward-bound, all peace and some fa- tigue. Trudge, soberly complete our tramp of near a league, Last little mile which makes the circuit just, Elvire ? We end where we began : that consequence is clear. All peace and some fatigue, wherever we were nursed To life, we bosom us on death, find last is first, And thenceforth final too. FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 151 CXXVIII. " Why final ? Why the more Worth credence now than when such truth proved false before ? " Because a novel point impresses now : each lie Redounded to the praise of man, was victory Man's nature had both right to get, and might to gain, And by no means implied submission to the reign Of other quite as real a nature, that saw fit To have its way with man, not man its way with it. This time, acknowledgment and acquiescence quell Their contrary in man ; promotion proves as well Defeat; and Truth, unlike the False with Truth's outside. Neither plumes up his will, nor pufts him out with pride. I fancy there must lurk some cogency i' the claim, Man, such abatement made, submits to, all the same. Soul finds no triumph, here, to register like Sense, With whom 'tis ask and have, — the want, the evidence That the thing wanted, soon or late will be supplied. This indeed plumes up will, this, sure, puffs out with pride, •/. 152 F I FINE AT THE FAIR. When, reading records right, man's instincts still attest Promotion comes to Sense because Sense likes it best : For bodies sprouted legs, through a desire to run ; While hands, when fain to filch, got fingers one by one ; And nature, that's ourself, accommodative brings To bear, that, tired of legs which walk, we now bud wings, Since of a mind to fly. Such savor in the nose Of Sense would stimulate Soul sweetly, I suppose, — Soul with its proper itch of instinct, prompting clear To recognize Soul's self Soul's only master here Alike from first to last. But if time's pressure, light's, Or rather dark's, approach, wrest thoroughly the rights Of rule away, and bid the soul submissive bear Another soul than it play master everywhere 1 In great and small, — this time, I fancy, none_clisputes_^ \ There's something in the fact that such conclusion suits , \ Nowise the pride of man, nor yet chimes in with attributes Conspicuous in the lord of nature. He receives, \nd not demands, — not first likes faith, and then believes. ^ WPL ^-4«^..-. ^/^ ir^H^j^,-^ FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 153 CXXIX. And as with the last essence, so with its tirst faint type. Inconstancy means raw ; 'tis faith alone means ripe r the soul which runs its round : no matter how it range From Helen to Fifine, Elvire bids back the change To permanence. Here, too, love ends where love began. Such ending looks like law, because the natural man- Inclines the other way, feels lordlier free than bound. Poor pabulum for pride when the first love is found Last also ! and, so far from realizing gain. Each step aside just proves divergency in vain. The wanderer brings home no profit from his quest Beyond the sad surmise that keeping house were best Could life begin anew. His problem posed aright Was, " From the given point evolve the infinite ! " Not, " Spend thyself in space, endeavoring to joint Together, and so make infinite, point and point : 154 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Fix into one Elvire a Fair-ful of Fifines ! " Fifine, the foam-flake, she : Elvire, the sea's self, means Capacity at need to shower how many such ! And 3"et we left her calm profundit)', to clutch Foam-flutter, bell on bell, that, bursting at a touch. Blistered us for our pains. But, wise, we want no more O' the fickle element. Enough of foam and roar ! Land-locked, we live and die henceforth ; for here's the villa-door. cxxx. How pallidly you pause o' the threshold ! Hardly night. Which drapes you, ought to make real flesh and blood so white ! Touch me, and so appear alive to all intents ! Will the saint vanish from the sinner that repents ? Suppose you are a ghost ! — a memory, a hope, A fear, a conscience ! Quick ! — give back the hand I grope r the dusk for ! FIFINE AT THE FAIR. IS5 CXXXI. That is well. Our double horoscope I cast, while you concur. Discard that simile O' the fickle element ! Elvire is land, not sea, — The solid land, the safe. All these word-bubbles came O' the sea, and bite like salt. The unlucky bath's to blame. This hand of yours on heart of mine, no more the bay I beat, nor bask beneath the blue ! In Pornic, say. The mayor shall catalogue me duly domiciled, Contributable, good-companion of the guild And mystery of marriage. I stickle for the town, And not this tower apart ; because, though, half way down, Its mullions wink o'er-webbed with bloomy greenness yet, Who mounts to staircase top may tempt the parapet, And sudden there's the sea ! No memories to arouse. No fancies to delude ! Our honest civic house Of the earth be earthy too ! — or graced perchance with shell Made prize of long ago, picked haply where the swell 156 FIFINE AT THE FAIR. Menaced a little once ; or seaweed- branch that yet Dampens and softens, notes a freak of wind, a fret Of wave : though why on earth should sea-change mend or mar fyiC^ The calm contemplative household ers that we are? So shall the seasons fleet, while our two selves abide : E'en past astonishment how sunrise and springtide Could tempt one forth to swim ; the more if time ap- points That swimming grow a task for one's rheumatic joints. Such honest civic house, behold, I constitute Our villa ! Be but flesh and blood, and smile to boot! Enter for good and all ! then fate bolt fast the door. Shut you and me inside, never to wander more ! cxxxir. Only, you do not use to apprehend attack ! No doubt, the way I march, one idle arm, thrown slack Behind me, leaves the open hand defenceless at the back, FIFINE AT THE FAIR. 157 Should an impertinent on tiptoe steal, and stuff — Whatever can it be ? A letter sure enough, Pushed betwixt palm and glove! That largess of a franc ? Perhaps inconsciously, — to better help the blank O' the nest, her tambourine, and, laying egg, persuade A family to follow, the nest-egg that I laid May have contained — but just to foil suspicious folk — Between two silver whites a yellow double yolk ! Oh, threaten no farewell ! five minutes shall suffice To clear the matter up. I go, and in a trice Return ; five minutes past, expect me ! If in vain, — Why, slip from flesh and blood, and play the ghost EPILOGUE. The Householder. Savage I was sitting in my house, j ate, lone ; Drear}', weary with the long day's work ; Head of me, heart of me, stupid as a stone ; Tongue-tied now, now blaspheming like a Turk ; When, in a moment, just a knock, call, cry, Half a pang, and all a rapture, there again were we 1 " What, and is it really you again ? " quoth I. " I again ; what else did you expect ? " quoth She. is8 EPILOGUE. 159 II. " Never mind : hie away, from this old house, — Every crumbling brick imbrowned with sin and shame ! Quick ! in its comers ere certain shapes arouse ■ Let them — every devil of the night — lay claim, Make and mend, or rap and rend, for me ! Good-by ! God be their guard from disturbance at their glee, Till, crash, comes down the carcass in a heap ! " quoth I, " Nay ; but there's a decency required ! " quoth She. HI. " Ah, but if you knew how time has dragged, da3-s, nights ! All the neighbor-talk with man and maid, — such men ! All the fuss and trouble of street-sounds, window-sights ; All the worry of flapping door and echoing roof; and, then, All the fancies. . . . Who were they had leave, dared try Darker arts that almost struck despair in me ? If you knew but how I dwelt down here ! " quoth I. " And was I so better off up there ? " quoth She. XV. " Help and get it over ! Re-imiiedio his wife, (How draw up the paper lets the parish-people know .') Lies M. or N., departed from this life, Day the this or that, month and year the so aTid so. l6o EPILOGUE. Wliat i' the way of final flourish ? Prose, verse ? Try . Affliction sore long time he bore, or what is it to be ? Till God did please to grant him ease. Do end ! " quoth I. "I end with — Love is all, and Death is nought !" quoth She. PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. eJ J d^ 'Tdpav (jiovevaag, /ivpiuv r' aXkurv novcjv 6lt]A-&ov uyi/MQ . . . TO /lOiadiov 6i rovd' It'Atjv -ahaq tvovov, dCifia -dpiyKunat KaKoiQ. I slew the Hydra, and Irom labor passed To labor, — tribes of labors ! Till at last. Attempting one more labor, in a trice, Alack ! with ills I crozoncd the edifice. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. You have seen better days, clear ? So have I, — And worse too ; for thc)^ brought no such bud-mouth As yours to lisp, " You wish you knew me ! " Well, Wise men, 'tis said, have sometimes wished the same, And wished and had their trouble for their pains. Suppose my CEdipus should lurk at last Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline, And, latish, pounce on Sphinx in Leicester Square ? Or, likelier, what if Sphinx in wise old age. Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads, And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, — 163 1 64 PRINCE HOHENSTrEL-SCHWAiVGAU, Jealous that the good trick which served the turn Have justice rendered it, nor class one day Wirh friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware, What if the once redoubted Sphinx, I say, (Because night draws on, and the sands increase, And desert-whispers grow a prophecy,) Tell all to Corinth of her own accord. Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake, Who finds me hardly gray, and likes my nose, And thinks a man of sixty at the prime ? Good ! It shall be ! Revealment of myself! But listen ; for we must co-operate. I don't drink tea : permit me the cigar. First, how to make the matter plain, of course, — What was the law by which I lived. Let's see : Ay, we must take one instant of mv life Spent sitting by your side in this neat room : Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh. Here's paper on the table, pen and ink : Give me the soiled bit^ not the pretty rose. SAVIOUR OP SOCIETY. i6: See ! having sat an hour, I'm rested now, Therefore want work ; and spy no better work For eye and hand, and mind that guides them both, During this instant, than to draw my pen From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus — Which I at last reach, thus ; and here's my line Five inches long, and tolerably straight. Better to draw than leave undrawn, I think ; Fitter to do than let alone, I hold ; Though better, fitter, by but one degree. Therefore it was, that, rather than sit still Simply, my right hand drew it while my left Pulled smooth and pinched the mustache to a point. Now I permit your plumjD lips to unpurse : — " So far, one possibly may understand Without recourse to witchcraft." True, my dear. Thus folks begin with Euclid ; finish, how ? Trj'ing to square the circle ! — at any rate, Solving abstruser problems than this first, — " How find the nearest way 'twixt point and point." 1 66 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHVVANGAU, Deal but with moral mathematics so ; Master one merest moment's work of mine, Kven this practising with pen and ink ; Demonstrate why I rather plied the quill Than left the space a blank, — you gain a fact ; And God knows what a fact's worth ! So proceed By inference from just this moral fact ; I don't say to that plaguy quadrature, " What the whole man meant, whom you wish you knew," But what meant certain things he did of old Which puzzled Europe ; why, you'll find them plain, This way, not otherwise : I guarantee, Understand one, you comprehend the rest. Rays from all round converge to any point : Study the point, then, ere you track the rays. The size o' the circle's nothing : subdivide Earth, and earth's smallest grain of mustard-seed, You count as many p.^rts, small matching large, If you can use the mind's eye ; otherwise. Material optics, being gross at best. Prefer the large, and leave our mind the small. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 167 And pray how many folks have minds can see ? Certainly you, and somebody in Thrace Whose name escapes me at the moment. You — Lend me your mind, then. Analyze with me This instance of the line 'twixt blot and blot I rather chose to draw than leave a blank, Things else being equal. You are taught thereby That 'tis my nature, when I am at ease, '{Rather than idle out my life too long, To want to do a thirig, to put a thought, I Whether a great thought or a little one, ] Into an act, as nearly as may be. Make what is absolutely new, I can't ; Mar what is made already well enough, I won't : but turn to best account the thing That's half made, that I can. Two blots you saw I knew how to extend into a line Symmetric on the sheet they blurred before : Such little act sufficed, this time, such thought. Now we'll extend rays, widen out the verge, 1 68 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU.. Describe a larger circle, leave this first Clod of an instance we began with, rise To the complete world many clods effect. Only continue patient while I throw, Delver-like, spadeful after spadeful up, Just as truths come, the subsoil of me, mould Whence spring my moods : your object, — just to find, Alike from hand-lift and from barrow-load. What salts and silts may constitute the earth, If it be proper stuff to blow man glass. Or bake him pottery, bear him oaks or wheat ; What's born of me, in brief; which found, all's known. If it were genius did the digging job, Logic would speedily sift its product smooth. And leave the crude truths bare for poetry ; But I'm no poet, and am stiff i' the back. What one spread fails to bring, another may. In goes the shovel, and out comes scoop, — as here ! I live to please myself I recognize Power passing mine, immeasurable, God, — SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 169 Above me whom he made, as heaven beyond Earth, — to use figures which assist our sense. I know that he is there as I am here. By the same proof, which seems no proof at all, It so exceeds familiar forms of proof. Why " there," not " here " ? Because, when I say " there," I treat the feeling with distincter shape That space exists between us ; I, not he. Live, think, do human work here : no machine His will moves, but a being by myself, His, and not he who made me for a work, Watches my working, judges its effect, But does not interpose. He did so once, And probably will again some time, not now, Life being the minute of mankind, not God's, In a certain sense, like time before and time After man's earthly life, so far as man Needs apprehend the matter. Am I clear ? Suppose I bid a courier take to-night, — (Once for all, let me talk as if I smoked Yet in the Residenz, a personage : I70 PRINCE ROHENSTIEL-^ :FIWANGAU, I must still represent the thing I was, Galvanically make dead muscle play, Or how shall I illustrate muscle's use ?) — I could then, last Jul}^, bid courier take Message for me, post-haste, a thousand miles. I bid him, since I have the right to bid ; And, my part done so far, his part begins. He starts with due equipment, will and power, Means he may use, misuse, not use at all^ At his discretion, at his peril too. I leave him to himself: but, journey done, I count the minutes, call for the result In quickness and the courier quality, Weigh it s worth, and then punish or reward According to proved service ; not before. Meantime he sleeps through noontide, rides^ill dawn, Sticks to the straight road, tries the crooked path, Measures and manages resource, trusts,_doubts_ Advisers by the wayside, does his best_ At his discretion, lags, or launches forth (He knows and I know) at his peril too. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 171 You see? Exactly thus men stand to God, — I with my courier, God with me. Just so I have his bidding to perform ; but mind And body, all of me, though made and meant For that sole service, must consult, concert, With my own self, and nobody beside, How to effect the same : God helps not else. 'Tis I who, with my stock of craft and strength, Choose the directer cut across the hedge, Or keep the foot-track that respects a crop ; Lie down and rest; rise up and run ; live spare ; Feed freej_ — all that's my business : but arrive, Dehver message, bring the answer back, And make my bow, I must ; then God will speak, — Praise me, or haply blame, as service proves. To other men, to each and every one, Another law : what likelier ? God, perchance, Grants each new man, by some as new a mode, Intercommunication with himself, Wreaking on finiteness infinitude ; By such a series of effects gives each 172 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Last his own imprint : old, yet ever new, The process : 'tis the way of Deity. How it succeeds, he knows : I only know That varied modes of creatureship abound, Implying just as varied intercourse For each with the Creator of them all. Each has his own mind, and no other's mode. What mode may yours be ? I shall sympathize. No doubt, you, good young lady that you are, Despite a natural naughtiness or two, Turn eyes up like a Pradier Magdalen, And see an outspread providential hand Above the owl's-wing aigrette — guard and guide- Visibly o'er your path, about your bed. Through all your practisings with London-town. It points, you go ; it stays fixed, and you stop : You quicken its procedure by a word Spoken, a thought in silence, prayer, and praise. Well, I believe that such a hand may stoop. And such appeals to it may stave off harm, Pacify the grim guardian of this square, SA VIO UR OF SOCIE TV. 173 And stand you in good stead on quarter-day : Quite possible in your case, not in mine. " Ah ! but I clioose to make the difference, Find the emancipation?" No, I hope. If I deceive myself, take noon for night, Please to become determinedly blind To the true ordinance of human life Through mere presumption, that is my affair. And truly a grave one : but as grave I think Your affair, — yours, the specially observed ; Each favored person that perceives his path Pointed him inch by inch, and looks above For guidance, through the mazes of this world, In what we call its meanest life-career, — Not Jaow to jjianage Europe properly. But how keep open shop, and yet pay rent. Rear household, and make both ends meet, — the same, I say, such man is no less tasked than I To duly take the path appointed_him By whatsoever sign he recognize. Our insincerity on both our heads ! 174 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, No matter what the object of a life, Small work or large, — the making thrive a shop, Or seeing that an empire take no harm, — There are known fruits to judge obedience by. You've read a ton's weight, now, of newspaper, — Lives of me, gabble about the kind of prince : You know my work i' the rough : I ask you, then, Do I appear subordinated less To hand-impulsion, one prime push for all, Than little lives of men, the multitude That cried out ever}' quarter of an hour For fresh instructions, did or did not work, And praised in the odd minutes ? Eh, my dear ? Such is the reason why I acquiesced In doing what seemed best for me to do, So as to please myself on the great scale, Having regard to immortality No less than life ; did that which head and heart Prescribed my hand, in measure with its means Of doing ; used my special stock of power, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 175 Not from the aforesaid head and heart alone, But every sort of helpful circumstance, Some problematic, and some nondescript ; All regulated by the single care r the last resort, -»- that I made thoroughly serve The when and how, toiled where was need, reposed As resolutely to the proper point. Braved sorrow, courted joy, to just one end, — Namely, that just the creature I was bound To be I should become, nor thwart at all God's purpose in creation. I conceive No other duty possible to man, — Highest mind, lowest mind, — no other law By which to judge life failure or success. What folks call being saved or cast away. Such was my rule of life : I worked my best, Subject to ultimate judgment, — God's, not man's. Well, then, this settled, — take your tea, I beg. And meditate the fact "twixt sip and sip, — This settled, — why I pleased myself, you saw. 176 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, By turning blot and blot into a line O' the little scale, — we'll try now (as your tongue Tries the concluding sugar-drop) what's meant To please me most o' the great scale. Why, just now. With nothing else to do within my reach, Did I prefer making two blots one line To making j^et another separate Third blot, and leaving those I found unlinked ? It meant, I Hke to use the things I^nd, Rather than s trive at unfound novelty : I make the best of the old, nor try for new. Such will to act. such choice of action's way. Constitute — when at work on the great scale. Driven to their farthest natural consequence By aU_theJielpJrom all the nieans — my o wn Particular faculty of serving God, Instinct for putting power to exercise Upon some wish and want o" the time, I prove Possible to mankind as best I may. This constitutes my mission (grant the phrase) : Namely, to rule men, — men within my reach ; SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 177 To order, influence, and dispose them so As render solid, and stabilify Mankind in particles, the light and loose. For their good and my pleasure in the act. Such good accomplished proves twice good to me, — Good for its own sake, as the just and right ; And, in the effecting also, good again To me its agent, tasked as suits my taste. Is this much easy to be understood At first glance ? Now begin the steady gaze. My rank (if I must tell you simple truth : Telling were else not worth the whiff o' the weed I lose for the tale's sake), dear, my rank i' the world, Is hard to know and name precisely : err I may, but scarcely over-estimate My style and title. Do I class with men Most useful to their fellows ? Possibly, Therefore, in some sort, best ; but greatest mind And rarest nature? Evidently no. ryS PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHIVANGAU, A conservator calljne, if you please, Not a creator nor destroyer, — -one Who keeps the world safe. I profess to trace The broken circle of society ; Dim actual order I can redescribe, Not only where some segment silver-true Stays clear, but where the breaks of black commence Baffling you all who want the eye to probe. As I make out yon problematic thin White paring of your thumb-nail outside there, Above the plaster monarch on his steed ; See an inch ; name an ell ; and prophesy O' the rest that ought to follow, — the round moon Now hiding in the night of things : that round, I labor to demonstrate moon enough For the month's purpose ; that society, Render efficient for the age's need : Preserving you in either case the old, Nor aiming at a new and greater thing, — A sun for moon, a future to be made By first abolishing the present law : SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. \1C) No sucli proud task for me by any means ! History s hows you m en whose master-touch Not so much modifies as makes anew, — Minds that transmute, nor need restore at all. A breath of God made manifest in flesh Subjects the world to change from time to time ; Alters the whole conditions of our race Abruptly, not by unperceived degrees, Nor play of elements already there, But quite new leaven, leavening the lump. And liker, so, the natural process. See ! Where ^^'^inter reigned for ages, — by a turn I' the time, some star-change (ask geologists). The ice-tracts split, clash, splinter, and disperse, And there's an end of immobility, Silence, and all that tinted pageant, base To pinnacle, one flush from fairy-land Dead-asleep and deserted somewhere, — see ! — As a fresh sun, wave, spring, and joy outburst. Or else the earth it is, time starts from trance, Her mountains tremble into fire, her plains I So PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWAKGAU, Heave blinded by confusion : what result ? New teeming growth, surprises of strange life Impossible before, a world broke up And re-made, order^ained by law destroyed. Not otherwise, in our society, Follow like portents, all as absolute Regenerations : they have birth at rare, Uncertain, unexpected inter\^als O' the world, by ministry impossible Before and after fulness of the days : Some dervis desert-spectre, swordsman, saint. Law-giver, lyrist, — oh ! we know the names. Quite other these than I. Our time requires No such strange potentate, — who else would dawn, No fresh force till the old have spent itself. Such seems the natural economy. To shoot a beam into the dark assists : To make that beam do fuller service, spread And utilize such bounty to the height, — That assists also ; and that work is mine. I recognize, contemplate, and approve SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. i8i The general compact of society, Not simply as I see effected good, But good i' the germ, each chance that's possible r the plan traced so far; all results, in short. For better or worse of the operation due To those exceptional natures, unlike mine. Who, helping, thwarting, conscious, unaware, Did somehow manage to so far describe This diagram left ready to my hand, Waiting my turn of trial. I see success, See failure, see what makes or mars throughout. How shall I else but help complete this plan. Of which I know the purpose, and approve, By letting stay therein what seems to stand. And adding good thereto of easier reach To-day than yesterday ? So much, no more ' \Miereon, " No more than that ? " inquire aggrieved Half of my critics : " nothing new at all ? The old plan saved, instead of a sponged slate [82 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, And fresh-drawn figure ? " While, " So much as that ? " Object their fellows of the other faith : " Leave uneffaced the crazy labyrinth Of alteration and amendment, lines "Which every dabster felt in duty bound To signalize his power of pen and ink By adding to a plan once plain enough ? Why keep each fool's bequeathment, scratch and blur Which overscrawl and underscore the piece ; Nay, strengthen them by touches of your own ? " Well, that's my mission, so I serve the world. Figure as man o' the moment, — in default Of somebody inspired to strike such change Into society, — from round to square. The ellipsis to the rhomboid, — how you please, As suits the size and shape o' the world he finds. But this I can, — and nobody my peer, — Do the best with the least change possible ; Carry the incompleteness on a stage ; Make what was crooked straight, and roughness smooth, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 1 83 And weakness strong : wherein if I succeed, It will not prove the worst achievement, sure, In the ej-es at least of one man, — one I look Nowise to catch in critic company ; l"o wit, the man inspired, the genius' self, J3estined to come and change things thoroughly. He, at least, finds his business simplified. Distinguishes the done from undone, reads Plainly what meant and did not mean this time We live hi, and I work on, and transmit To such successor : he will operate On good hard substance, not mere shade and shine. Let all my critics, born to idleness And impotency, get their good, and have Their hooting at the giver : I am deaf. Who find great good in this society. Great gain, the purchase of great labor Touch The work I may and must, but — reverent In every fall o' the finger-tip, no doubt. Perhaps I find all good there's warrant for r the world as yet : nay, to the end of time ; l84 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Since evil never means part company Witli mankind, only shift side and change shape. I find advance i' the main, and notably The Present an improvement on the Past, And promise for the Future, which shall prove Only the Present with its rough made smooth, Its indistinctness emphasized : I hope No better, nothing newer, for mankind, But something equably smoothed everywhere, — Good, reconciled with hardly-quite-as-good. Instead of good and bad each jostling each. " And that's all ? " Ay, and quite enough for me ! We have toiled so long to gain what gain I find I' the Present, let us keep it ! We shall toil So long before we gain, if gain God grant, A Future with one touch of difference I' the heart of things, and not their outside face, Let us not risk the whiff of my cigar For Fourier, Comte, and all that ends in smoke ! This I see clearest probably of men, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 1 85 With power to act and influence, now alive : Juster than they to the true state of things ; In consequence, more tolerant, that, side By side, shall co-exist, and thrive alike In the age, the various sorts of happiness Moral, mark ! — not material, — moods o' the mind Suited to man and man his opposite : Say, minor modes of movement, — hence to there, Or thence to here, or simply round about, — So long as each toe spares its neighbor's kibe, Nor spoils the major march and main advance. The love of peace, care for the family. Contentment with what's bad, but might be worse, — Good movements these ! and good, too, discontent, SoJong_asJlmt spurs good, which might be best. Into becorning better anyhow : Good, — pride of country, putting hearth and home r the background, out of undue prominence ; Good, — y^earning after ch_ange, strife, victory, AiKiJriugiph. Each shall have its orbit marked, But no more, — none impede the other's path l86 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, [n this wide world ; though each and all alike, Save for me, fain would spread itself through space, And leave its fellow not an inch of way. I rule and regulate the course, excite, Restrain ; because the whole machine should march Impelled by those diversely-moving parts. Each blind to aught beside its little bent. Out of the turnings round and round inside Comes that straightforward world-advance I want, And none of them supposes God wants too. And gets through just their hinderance and my help. I think that to have held the balance straight For twenty years, say, weighing claim and claim, And giving each its due, no less, no more, — This was good service to humanity. Right usage of my power in head and heart, And reasonable piety beside. Keep those three points in mind while judging me. You stand, perhaps, for some one man, not men ; Represent this or the other interest, • Nor mind the general welfare ; so, impugn SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 187 My practice, and dispute my value : why ? You man of faith, I did not tread the world Into a paste, and thereof make a smooth Uniform mound whereon to plant your flag, The lily-white, above the blood and brains ; Nor yet did I, you man of faithlessness, So roll things to the level which you love, That you could stand at ease there, and survey The universal Nothing undisgraced By pert obtrusion of some old church-spire I' the distance. Neither friend would I content ; Nor, as the world were simply meant for him, Thrust out his fellow, and mend God's mistake. Why, you two fools, — my dear friends all the same, — Is it some change o' the world, and nothing else, Contents you ? Should whatever was, not be ? How thanklessly you view things ! There's the root Of the evil, source of the entire mistake : You see no worth i' the world, nature, and life. Unless we change what is to what may be ; Which means, — may be i' the brain of one of you ! 1 8 8 PR IXC E HOHENS TIEL-SCflWA NGA U, " Reject what is ? " — all capabilities, — Nay, you may style them chances if you choose, — All chances, then, of happiness that lie Open to anybody that is born, Tumbles into this life and out again, — All that may happen, good and evil too, I' the space between, to each adventurer Upon this 'sixt\% Anno Domini : A life to live, — and such a life ! a world To learn, one's lifetime in, — and such a world ! How ever did the foolish pass for wise By calling life a burden, man a fiy Or worm, or what's most insignificant ? " O littleness of man ! " deplores the bard ; And then, for fear the Powers should punish him, " O grandeur of the visible universe Our human litdeness contrasts withal ! O sun, O moon, ye mountains, and thou sea. Thou emblem of immensity, thou this. That, and the other ! — what impertinence In man to eat and drink and walk about, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 189 And have his little notions of his own, The while some wave sheds foam upon the shore ! " First of all, 'tis a lie some three times thick : The bard, — this sort of speech being poetry, — The bard puts mankind well outside himself, And then begins instructing them : " This way I and my friend the sea conceive of you ! What would you give to think such thoughts as ours Of you and the sea together ? " Down they go On the humbled knees of them : at once they draw Distinction, recognize no mate of theirs In one, despite his mock humility, So plain a match for what he plays with. Next The turn of the great ocean-playfellov»-, When the bard, leaving Bond Street very far From ear-shot, cares not to ventriloquize. But tells the sea its home-truths : " You, my match ? You, all this terror and immensity, And what not ? Shall I tell you what you are ? Just fit to hitch into a stanza : so Wake up and set in motion who's asleep icjo PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, O' the other side of you, in England, else Unaware, as folk pace their Bond Street now, Somebody here despises them so much ! Between us, — they are the ultimate ! to them And their perception go these lordly thoughts : Since what were ocean, — mane and tail to boot, — Mused I not here, how make thoughts thinkable ? Start forth my stanza, and astound the world ! Back, billows, to your insignificance ! Deep, you are done with ! " Learn, my gifted friend, There are two things i' the world, still wiser folk Accept, — intelligence and sympathy. You pant about unutterable power I' the ocean, all you feel but cannot speak ? Why, that's the plainest Ispeech about it all : You did not feel what was not to be felt. Well, then, all else but what man feels is nought, — The wash o' the liquor that o'erbrims the cup Called man, and runs to waste adown his side, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 191 Perhaps to feed a cataract : who cares ? I'll tell you : all the more I know mankind, The more I thank God, like my grandmother, For making me a little lower than The angels, honor-clothed and glorv-crowned. This is the honor, — that no thing I know, Feel, or conceive, but I can make my own Somehow, by use of hand or head or heart : This is the glon', — that in all conceived. Or felt or known, I recognize a mind Not mine, but like mine, — for the double joy, — Making all things for me, and me for Him. There's folly for you at this time of day ! f So think it ! and enjoy your ignorance 1 Of what — no matter for the worthy's name — I Wisdom set working in a noble heart, I When he, who was earth's best geometer \ Up to that time of day, consigned his life ( With its results into one matchless book, — I The triumph of the human mind so far, ■; A.11 in geometry man yet could do, — 192 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, \ And then wrote on the dedication-page, In place of name the universe applauds, i" But, God, what a geometer art thou ! " I suppose heaven is, through eternity, The equalizing, ever and anon. In momentary rapture, great with small, Omniscience with intelligency, God With man, — the thunder-glow from pole to pole Abolishing, a blissful moment-space. Great cloud alike and small cloud, in one fire, — As sure to ebb as sure again to flow When the new receptivity deserves The new completion. There's the heaven for me. And I sa}', therefore, to live out one's life r the world here, with the chance — whether by pain Or pleasure be the process, long or short The time, august or mean the circumstance To human eye — of learning how set foot Decidedly on some one path to heaven, Touch one point in the circle whence all lines Lead to the centre equally, — red lines SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 193 Or black lines, so they but produce themselves, — This, I do say, — and here my sermon ends, — This makes it worth our while to tenderly Handle a state of things which mend we might. Mar we may, but which meanwhile helps so far. Therefore my end is, save society. " And that's all ?" twangs the never-railing taunt O' the foe. " No novelty, creativeness, Mark of the master that renews the age ? " " Nay, all that ? " rather will demur my judge I look to hear some day, — nor friend nor foe, — " Did you attain, then, to perceive that God Knew what he undertook when he made things ? " Ay : that my task was to co-operate Rather than play the rival, chop and change The order whence comes all the good we know, With this, — good's last expression to our sense, — That there's a further good conceivable Beyond the utmost earth can realize ; 194 PRINCE HOHENSTI EL-SCHWA NGAU, And, therefore, that to change the agency, The evil whereby good is brought about, — Try to make good do good as evil does, — Were just as if a chemist, wanting white. And knowing black ingredients bred the dye, Insisted these, too, should be white forsooth. Correct the evil, mitigate your best. Blend mild with harsh, and soften black to gray If gray may follow with no detriment To the eventual perfect purity ; But as for hazarding the main result By hoping to anticipate one-half In the intermediate process, — no, my friends ! This bad world I experience and approve : Your good world, — with no pity, courage, hope, Fear, sorrow, joy, devotedness, in short, Which I account the ultimate of man. Of which there's not one day nor hour but brings, In flower or fruit, some sample of success Out of this same society I save, — SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 1 95 None of it for me ! That I might have none, I rapped your tampering knuckles twenty years : Such was the task imposed me, such my end. Now for the means thereto. Ah, confidence ! Keep we together, or part company ? This is the critical minute. " Such my end ? " Certainly : how could it be otherwise ? Can there be question which was the right task, — To save, or to destroy, society ? Why, even prove, that, by some miracle, Destruction were the proper work to choose. And that a torch best remedies what's wrong I' the temple, whence the long procession wound Of powers and beauties, earth's achievements all, — The human strength that strove and overthrew ; The human love, that, weak itself, crowned strength ; The instinct, crying, " God is whence I came ! " The reason laying down the law, " And such His will i' the world must be ! " the leap and shout Of genius, " For I hold his very thoughts, 196 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, The meaning of the mind of him ! " nay, more, The ingenuities ; each active force, That, turning in a circle on itself, Looks neither up nor down, but keeps the spot, Mere creature-like, and, for religion, works, Works only and works ever, makes and shapes And changes, still wrings more of good from less, Still stamps some bad out where was worst before, So leaves the handiwork, the act and deed. Were it but house and land and wealth, to show Here was a creature perfect in the kind, — Whether as bee, beaver, or behemoth, "Wliat's the importance ? he has done his work For work's sake, worked well, earned a creature's praise, — I say, concede that same fane, whence deploys. Age after age, all this humanity. Diverse but ever dear, out of the dark Behind the altar into the broad day By the portal ; enter, and concede there mocks Each lover of free motion and much space SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 197 A perplexed length of apse and aisle and nave, — Pillared roof and carved screen, and what care I ? — That irk die movement, and impede the march ; Nay, possibly, bring flat upon his nose At some odd break-neck angle, by some freak Of old-world artistry, that personage, Who, could he but have kept his skirts from grief, And, catching at the hooks and crooks about, Had stepped out on the daylight of our time Plainly the man of the age, — still, still, I bar Excessive conflagration in the case. " Shake the flame freely ! " shout the multitude : The architect approves I stuck my torch Inside a good stout lantern, hung its light Above the hooks and crooks, and ended so. To save society was well : the means Whereby to save it, — there begins the doubt Permitted you, imperative on me. Were mine the best means ? Did I Avork aright With powers appointed me ? since powers denied '>^'' Concern me nothing. iqS prince hohenstiel-schwangau. Well, my work, reviewed Fairly, leaves more hope than discouragement. First, there's the deed done : what I found I leave ; \\'hat tottered I kept stable : if it stand One month without sustainment, still thank me, The twenty years' sustainer ! Now, obser\-e, Sustaining is no brilliant self-display. Like knocking down, or even setting up. Much bustle these necessitate ; and still, To vulgar eye, the mightier of the myth Is Hercules, who substitutes his own For Atlas' shoulder, and supports the globe A whole day, — not the passive and obscure Atlas who bore ere Hercules was born, And is to go on bearing that same load When Hercules turns ash on QEta's top. 'Tis the transition-stage, the tug and strain. That strike men : standing still is stupid-like. My pressure was too constant on the whole For any part's eruption into space 'Mid sparkles, crackling, and much praise of me. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 199 I saw, that, in the ordinary life, Many of the Httle makes a mass of men Important beyond greatness here and there ; As certainly as, in life exceptional, When old things terminate, and riew commence, A solitary great man's worth the world. God takes the business into his own hands At such time : who creates the novel flower Contrives to guard, and give it breathing-room : I merely tend the corn-field, care for crop. And weed no acre thin to let emerge What prodigy may stifle there perchance ; No, though my eye have noted where he lurks. Oh those mute myriads that spoke loud to me ! — The eyes that craved to see the light ; the mouths That sought the daily bread, and nothing more ; The hands that supplicated exercise ; Men that had wives, and women that had babes ; And all these making suit to only live 1 Was I to turn aside from husbandry. Leave hope of harvest for the corn, my care, zoo PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, To play at horticulture, rear some rose Or poppy into perfect leaf and bloom, When, 'mid the furrows, up was pleased to sprout Some man, cause, system, special interest I ought to study, stop the world meanwhile ? '• But I am liberty, philanthropy, Enlightenment, or patriotism, the power Whereby you are to stand or fall ! " cries each : " Mine, and mine only, be the flag you flaunt ! " And when I venture to object, " Meantime, What of yon myriads with no flag at all, — My crop, which who flaunts flag must tread across ? " " Now, this it is to have a puny mind ! " Admire my mental prodigies : " down, down, Ever at home o' the level and the low, There bides he brooding ! Could he look above, With less of the owl, and more of the eagle eye, He'd see there's no way helps the little cause Like the attainment of the great. Dare first The chief emprise ; dispel yon cloud between riie sun and us ; nor fear, that, though our heads SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 2 Find earlier \Yarmth and comfort from his ray, What lies about our feet, the multitude, U'ill fail of benefaction presently. Come, now, let each of us a while cry truce '!o special interests ; make common cause Against the adversary ; or perchance Mere dullard to his own plain interest ! Which of us will you choose ? Since needs must be Some one o' the warring causes you incline To hold, i' the main, has right, and should prevail, Why not adopt and give it prevalence ? Choose strict faith or lax incredulit}', — King, caste, and cultus, — or the rights of man, Sovereignt}^ of each Proudhon o'er himself. And all that follows in just consequence ; Go free the stranger from a foreign yoke ; Or stay, concentrate energ}' at home ; Succeed ! — when he deserves, the stranger will ; Comply with the great nation's impulse, print By force of arms, — since reason pleads in vain, And, 'mid the sweet compulsion, pity weeps, — 202 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Hohenstiel-Schwangau on the universe ! Snub the Great Nation, cure the impulsive itch With smartest fillip on a restless nose Was ever launched by thumb and finger ! Bid Hohenstiel-Schwangau first repeal the tax On pig-tails and pomatum, and then mind Abstruser matters for next century ! Is your choice made ? Why, then, act up to choice ! Leave the illogical touch, now here, now there, I' the way of work ; the tantalizing help First to this, then the other opposite \ The blowing hot and cold, sham policy. Sure ague of the mind, and nothing more, Disease of the perception or the will, That fain would hide in a fine name ! Your choice ; Speak it out, and condemn yourself thereby ! " Well, Leicester Square is not the Residenz : Instead of shrugging shoulder, turning friend The deaf ear with a wink to the police, I'll answer — by a question, wisdom's mode. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 203 How many years, o' the average, do men Liv^e in this world ? Some score, say computists. Quintuple me that term, and give mankind The likely hundred, and with all my heart I'll take your task upon me, work your way, Concentrate energy on some one cause ; Since, counsellor, I also have my cause, My flag, my faith in its effect, my hope In its eventful triumph for the good O' the world. And once upon a time, when I Was like all you, — mere voice, and nothing more, — Myself took wings, soared sunward, and thence sajig, " Look where I live i' the loft ! come up to me, Groundlings, nor grovel longer ! gain this height, And prove you breathe here better than below ! Why, what emancipation far and wide Will follow in a trice ! They too can soar, Each tenant of the earth's circumference Claiming to elevate humanity ; They also must attain such altitude, Live in the luminous circle that surrounds 2 04 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, The planet, not the leaden orb itself. Press out, each point, from surface to yon verge Which one has gained and guaranteed your realm " Ay, still my fragments wander, music-fraught, Sighs of the soul, mine once, mine now, and mine Forever ! Crumbled arch, crushed aqueduct, Alive with tremors in the shagg}' growth Of wildwood, crevice-sown, that triumphs there, Imparting exultation to the hills ! Sweep oX the swath when only the winds walk, An^^aft my words above the grassy sea Under the blinding blue that basks^er Rome, — Hear ye not still, " Be Italy again " ? And ye — what strikes the panic to your heart? Decrepit council-chambers, where some lamp Drives the unbroken black three paces off From where the graybeards huddle in debate. Dim cowls and capes, and midmost glimmers one Like tarnished gold, and what they say is^doubt, And what they think is fear, and what suspends The breath in them is not the plaster-patch SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 205 Time disengages from the painted wall Where Raphael moulderingly bids adieu, Nor tick of the insect turning tapestry To dust, which a queen's finger traced of old j But some word, resonant, redoubtable, Of who once felt upon his head a hand Whereof the head now apprehends his foot. " Light in Rome, law in Rome, and liberty O' the soul in Rome, — the free Church, the free State! Stamp out the nature that's best typified By its embodiment in Peter's dome, The scorpion-body with the greedy pair Of outstretched nippers, either colonnade Agape for the advance of heads and hearts ! " There's one cause for you ! — one, and only one ; For I am vocal through the universe, I' the work-shop, manufactor}^, exchange And market-place, seaport and custom-house, O' the frontier : listen if the echoes die : — " Unfettered commerce ! Power to speak and hear, And print and read ! The universal vote ! 2o6 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Its rights for labor ! " This, with much beside, I spoke when I was voice, and nothing more, But altogether such a one as you My censors. " Voice, and nothing more, indeed ! " Re-echoes round me : " that's the censure ; there's Involved the ruin of you soon or late ! Voice, — when its promise beat the empt}- air ; And nothing more, — when solid earth's your stage, And we desiderate performance, deed For word, the realizing all you dreamed In the old days : now, for deed, we find at door O' the council-chamber posted, mute as mouse, Hohenstiel-Schwangau, sentry and safeguard O' the graybeards all a-chuckle, cowl to cape. Who challenge Judas — that's endearment's style — To stop their mouths, or let escape grimace. While they keep cursing Italy and him. The power to speak, hear, print, and read, is ours ? Av, we learn where and how, when clapped inside A convict-transport bound for cool Cayenne ! The universal vote we have ; its urn SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 207 V¥e also have, where votes drop, fingered o'er By the universal prefect. Say, Trade's free, And Toil turned master out o' the slave it was : What then ? These feed man's stomach ; but his sou. Craves finer fare, nor lives by bread alone, As somebody says somewhere. Hence you stand Proved and recorded either false or weak. Faulty in promise or performance : which ? " Neither, I hope. Once pedestalled on earth, To act, not speak, I found earth was not air. I saw that multitude of mine, and not The nakedness and nullity of air, Fit only for a voice to float in free. Such eyes I saw that craved the light alone ! Such mouths that wanted bread, and nothing^ else ! Such hands that supplicatedhandiwork ! Men with the wives, and women with the babes ; Yet all these pleading just to live, not die ! Did I believe one whit less in belief. Take truth for falsehood, wish the voice revoked That told the truth to heaven for earth to hear ? 2o8 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU. No : this should be, and shall ; but when and how * At what expense to these who average Your twenty years of life, my computists ? " Not bread alone," but bread before all else, For these : the bodily want serve first, said I : If earth-space and the lifetime help not here, Where is the good of body having been ? But helping body, if we somewhat balk The soul of finer fare, such food's to find Elsewhere and afterward, — all indicates, Even this selfsame fact, — that soul can starve, Yet body_still exist its twenty years : While, stint the body, there's an end at once O' the revel in the fancy that Rome's free, And superstition's fettered, and one prints Whate'er one pleases, and who pleases reads The same, and speaks out, and is spoken to ; And divers hundred thousand fools may vote A vote untampered with b y one wise m an, And so elect Barabbas deputy In lieu of his concurrent. I, who trace SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 209 The purpose written on the face of things For my behoof and guidance (whoso needs No such sustainment, sees beneath my signs, Proves what I take for writing, penmanship, Scribble, and flourish with no sense for me O' the sort I solemnly go spelling out : Let him ! there's certain work of mine to show Alongside his work ; which gives warranty Of shrewder vision in the workman, judge !), — I, who trace Providence without a break I' the plan of things, drop plumb on this plain print Of an intention with a view to good. That man is made in sympathy with man At outset_of existence, so to speak ; But in dissociation, more and more, Man from his fellow, as their lives advance In culture : still humanity, that's barn A mass, keeps flying off, fining away Ever into a multitude of points, A.nd ends in isolation, each from each : Peerless above i' the sky, the pinnaclej 2 10 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Absolute contact, fusion, all below I At the base of being. How comes this about ? — This stamp of God, characterizing man, ' And nothing else but man, in the universe, — .(' That while he feels with man (to use man's speech) I' the little things of life, — its fleshly wants Of food and rest and health and happiness, Its simplest spirit-motions, loves and hates, Hopes, fears, soul-cravings on the ignoblest scale, O' the fellow-creature, — owns the bond at base, — He tends to freedom and divergency In the upward progress, plays the pinnacle When life's at greatest ? (grant again the phrase ; Because there's neither great nor small in life.) " Consult thou for thy kind that have the eyes To see, the mouths to eat, the hands to work, I Men with the wives, and women with the babes," i ! Prompts Nature. " Care thou for thyself alone \ r the conduct of the mind God made thee with; \ Think as if man had never thought before ; \ Act as if all creation hung attent SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 2li On the acting of such faculty as thine, To take prime pattern from thy masterpiece." Nature prompts also : neither law obeyed To the uttermost by any heart and soul We know or have in record ; both of tliem Acknowledged blindly by whatever man We ever knew or heard of in this world. " Will you have why and wherefore, and the fact Made plain as pikestaff?" modern science asks. " That mass man sprung from was a jelly-lump Once on a time : he kept an after-course Through fish and insect, reptile, bird, and beast, Till he attained to be an ape at last, Or last but one. And if this doctrine shock In aught the natural pride " — Friend, banish fear, The natural humility replies. Do you suppose, even I, poor potentate, Hohenstiel-Schwangau, who once ruled the roast, — I was born able at all points to ply My tools? or did I have to learn my trade ? Practise as exile ere perform as prince ? 2 1 2 PRINCE HOIJENSTIEL-SCHWA .\GA i \ The world knows something of my ups and downs But grant me time, give me the management And manufacture of a model me, — Me fifty-fold, a prince without a flaw, — Why, there's no social grade, the sordidest, My embryo potentate should blink and 'scape. j King, all the better he was cobbler once, I He should know, sitting on the throne, how tastes I Life to who sweeps the doorway. But life's hard, Occasion rare : you cut probation short. And, being half instructed, on the stage You shuffle through your part as best you may, And bless your stars, as I do. God takes time . t I like the thought he should have lodged me once ' I' the hole, the cave, the hut, the tenement, The mansion, and the palace ; made me learn The feel o' the first, before I found myself Loftier i' the last, not more emancipate : From first to last of lodging, I was I, And not at all the place that harbored me. Do I refuse to follow farther yet I SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 213 r the backwardness ; repine if tree and flower, Mountain or streamlet, were my dwelling-place Before I gained enlargement, grew mollusk ? As well account that way for many a thrill Of kinship I confess to with the powers Called Nature : animate, inanimate. In parts or in the whole, there's something there Man-like, that, somehow, meets the man in me. r My pulse goes altogether with the heart , O' the Persian, that old Xerxes, when he stayed ' His march to conquest of the world, a day I' the desert, for the sake of one superb ! Plane-tree which queened it there in solitude ; ' Giving her neck its necklace, and each arm Its armlet, suiting soft waist, snowy side, AVith cincture and apparel. Yes, I lodged In those successive tenements ; perchance Taste yet the straitness of them while I stretch Limb, and enjoy new liberty the more. And some abodes are lost or ruinous ; Some patched up and pieced out, and so transformed, 214 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, They still accommodate the traveller His day of life-time. Oh ! you count the links ; Descry no bar of the unbroken man ? Yes ; and who welds a lump of ore, suppose He likes to make a chain, and not a bar, And reach by link on link, link small, link large, Out to the due length, — why, there's forethought still Outside o' the series, forging at one end ; While, at the other, there's — no matter what The kind of critical intelligence Believing that last link had last but one For parent, and no link was, first of all, Fitted to anvil, hammered into shape. Else I accept the doctrine, and deduce This duty, — that I recognize mankind In all its height and depth, and length and breadth. Mankind i' the main have little wants, not large : I, being of will and power to help, i' the main. Mankind, must help the least wants first. My friend, That is, my foe, without such power and will. May plausibly concentrate all he wields. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 215 And do his best at lielping some large want, Exceptionally noble cause, that's seen Subordinate enough from where I stand. As he helps, I helped once, when like himself, Unable to help better, work more wide ; And so would work with heart and hand to-day, Did only computists confess a fault, And multiply the single score by five, — Five only, — give man's life its hundred years. Change life, in me shall follow change to match. Time were, then, to work here, there, everywhere, By turns, and try experiment at ease ! Full time to mend as well as mar : why wait The slow and sober uprise all around O' the building ? Let us run up, right to roof, Some sudden marvel, piece of perfectness, And testify what we intend the whole ! Is the world losing patience ? " Wait ! " say we : "There's time : no generation needs to die Unsolaced : you've a century in store 1 " But no : I sadly let the voices wing 2i6 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, riieir way i' the upper vacancy, nor test Truth on this solid as I promised once. \^'ell, and what is there to be sad about ? The world's the world, life's life, and nothing else. 'Tis part of life, a property to prize, That those o' the higher sort engaged i' the world Should fancy they can change its ill to good, Wrong to right, ugliness to beauty ] find Enough success in fancy turning fact To keep the sanguine kind in countenance, And justify the hope that busies them: Failure enough, — to who can follow change Beyond their vision ; see new good prove ill r the consequence 3 see blacks and whites of life Shift square indeed, but leave the checkered face Unchanged i' the main, — failure enough for such To bid ambition keep the whole from change As their best service. I hope nought beside. No, my brave thinkers, whom I recognize Gladly, myself the first, as, in a sense, All that our world's worth, flower and fruit of man ! SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 217 Such minds myself award supremacy Over '.he common hisignificance, When only :Mind's in question : Body bows To quite another government, you know. Be Kant crowned king o' the castle in the air ! Hans Slouch — his own and children's mouths to feed r the hovel on the ground — wants meat, nor chews "The Pure Critique of Reason" in exchange. But, now, suppose I could allow your claims, And quite change life to please you : would it please ? Would life comport with change, and still be life ? Ask, now, a doctor for a remedy : There's his prescription. Bid him point you out Which of the five or six ingredients saves The sick man. " Such the efificacity ? Then why not dare and do things in one dose Simple and pure, all virtue, no alloy Of the idle drop and powder ? " What's his word ? The efficacity, neat, were neutralized : It wants dispersing and retarding ; nay, Is put upon its mettle, plays its part 2l8 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Precisely through such hinderance everywhere, Finds some mysterious give and take i' the case, Some gain by opposition, he foregoes Should he unfetter the medicament. So with this thought of yours that fain would work Free in the world : it w^ants just what it finds, — The ignorance, stupidity, the hate. Envy and malice and uncharitableness. That bar your passage, break the flow of you Down from those happy heights where many a cloud Combined to give you birth, and bid you be The royalest of rivers : on you glide Silverly till you reach the summit-edge ; Then over, on to all that ignorance, Stupidity, hate, envy, bluffs, and blocks, Posted to fret you into foam and noise. What of it ? Up you mount in minute mist. And bridge the chasm that crushed your quietude, 4 spirit-rainbow, earth-born jewelry Outsparkling the insipid firmament Blue above Terni and its orange-trees. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 219 Do not mistake me ! You, too, have your rights. Hans must not burn Kant's house above his head Because he cannot understand Kant's book ; And still less must Hans" pastor burn Kant's self Because Kant understands some books too well. But, justice seen to on this little point, Answer me, is it manly, is it sage. To stop and struggle with arrangements here It took so many lives, so much of toil. To tinker up into efficiency ? Can't you contriv'e to operate at once — Since time is short, and art is long — to show Your quality i' the world, whate'er you boast, Without this fractious call on folks to crush The world together just to set you free, Admire the capers you will cut perchance, Nor mind the mischief to your neighbors ? " Age ! Age and experience, bring discouragement," You taunt me : I maintain the opposite. Z20 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, A.m I discouraged, who — perceiving health, Strength, beauty, as they tempt the eye of soul, Are uncombinable with flesh and blood — - Resolve to let my body live its best, And leave my soul what better yet may be, Or not be, in this life or afterw^ard ? — In either fortune, wiser than who waits Till magic art procure a miracle. In virtue of my very confidence Mankind ought to outgrow its babyhood, I prescribe rocking, deprecate rough hands. While thus the cradle holds it past mistake. Indeed, my task's the harder, — equable Sustainment evervwhere, all strain, no push, — Whereby friends credit me with indolence, Apathy, hesitation. " Stand stock-still If able to move briskly ? ' All a-strain,' — So must we compliment your passiveness ? Sound asleep, rather ! " Just the judgment passed SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 221 Upon a statue, luckless like myself, I saw at Rome once ! 'Twas some artist's whim ' To cover all the accessories close i r the group^ and leave you only Laocoon, , With neither sons nor serpents to denote I The purpose of his gesture. Then a crowd Was called to try the question ; criticise 1 ! Wherefore such energy of legs and arms, 1 Nay, eyeballs starting from the socket. -.One, — I give him leave to write my histor}% — t Only one, said, " I think the gesture strives ; Against some obstacle we cannot see." ; All the rest made their minds up : " 'Tis a yawn \ Of sheer fatigue subsiding to repose ; ^ The statue's ' Somnolency ' clear enough ! " There, my arch stranger-friend, my audience both And arbitress, you have one-half your wish. At least, — you know the t hing I tried to do All, so far, to my praise and glory ; alj^ Told as befits the self-apologist, 22 2 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAUy Who ever promises a candid sweep And clearance of those errors, miscalled crimes, None knows more, none laments So mucli, as he, And ever rises from confession, proved A god whose fault was — trying to be man. Just so, fair judge, — if I read smile aright, — I condescend to figure in your eyes As biggest heart and best of Europe's friends. And hence my failure. God will estimate Success one day ; and, in the mean time, — you ! I dare say there's some fancy of the sort Frolicking round this final puff I send To die up yonder in the ceiling-rose, — Some consolation-stakes, we losers win ! A plague of the return to " I — ^j uj, Did this, meant that, hoped, feared, the j)ther thing ! " Autobio graphy, adieu ! The rest ' Shall make amends, be pure blame, history And falsehood ; not the ineffective truth, But Thiers-and-Victor-Hugo exercise. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 223 Hear what I never was, but mii^lit have_been r the better world where goes tobacco-smoke ! Here lie the dozen volumes of my life : (Did I say " lie"? the pregnant word will serve.) Cut on to the concluding chapter, though \ Because the little hours begin to strike. Hurry Thiers-Hugo to the labor's end ! Something like this the unwritten chapter reads. Exemplify the situation thus ! Hohenstiel-Schwangau, being, no dispute, Absolute mistress, chose the Assembly, first, To serve her \ chose this man, its president Afterward, to serve also, — specially To see that they did service one and all. And now the proper term of years was out When the head servant must vacate his place ; And nothing lay so patent to the world As that his fellow- servants one and all Were — mildly make we mention — knaves or fools. 2 24 PR IXC E HOHENSTTEL-SCHWAXGAU, Eich of them with his purpose flourished full I' the face of you by word and impudence, Or filtered slyly out by nod and wink, .'\nd nudge upon your sympathetic rib ; That not one minute more did knave or fool ]Mean to keep faith, and serve as he had sworn Hohenstiel-Schwangau, once that head away. Why did such swear, except to get the chance, When time should ripen and confusion bloom, Of putting Hohenstielers-Schwangauese To the true use of human property ? Restoring souls and bodies, — this to pope, And that to king, that other to his planned Perfection of a share-and-share-alike. That other still to empire absolute In shape of the head servant's very self Transformed to master whole and sole : each scheme Discussible, concede one circumstance, — That each scheme's parent were, beside himself, Hohenstiel-Schwangau, not her serving-man Sworn to do service in the v/av she chose SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 225 Ratlier '.ban his way, — way superlative, Only — by some infatuation — his And his and his, and every one's but hers Who stuck to just the Assembly and the head. I make no doubt the head, too, had his dream Of doing sudden duty swift and sure On all that heap of untrustworthiness ; Catching each vaunter of the villany He meant to perpetrate when time was ripe, Once the head servant fairly out of doors ; And caging here a knave, and there a fool. Cry, " Mistress of the servants, these and me, Hohenstiel-Schwangau ! I, their trusty head, Pounce on a pretty scheme concocting here. That's stopped, extinguished, by my vigilance. Your property is safe again ; but mark ! Safe in these hands, not yours, who lavish trust Too lightly. Leave my hands their charge a while ! I know your business better than yourself : Let me alone about it ! Some fine day, Once we are rid of the embarrassment, IS 226 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, You shall look up and see your longings crowned ! " Such fancy may have tempted to be false ; But this man chose truth, and was wiser so. He recognized, that, for great minds i' the world, There is no trial like the appropriateone Of leaving little minds their liberty Of littleness to blunder on through life ; Now aiming at right end by foolish means, Now at absurd achievement through the aid Of good and wise means, — trial to acquiesce In folly's life-long privilege, though with power To do the little minds the good they need, Despite themselves, by just abolishing Their right to play the part and fill the place I' the scheme of things He schemed who made alike Great minds and little minds, saw use for each. Could the orb sweep those puny particles It just half-lights at distance, hardly leads r the leash ; sweep out each speck of them from space They anticise in with their days and nights A.nd whirlings round and dancings off, forsooth, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 227 And all that fruitless individual life One cannot lend a beam to but they spoil ; Sweep them into itself, and so, one star, Preponderate henceforth i' the heritage Of heaven ! No ! in less senatorial phrase, The man endured to help, not save outright, The multitude, by substituting him For them, his knowledge, will, and way, for God's ; Not change the world, such as it is, and was. And will be, for some other, suiting all Except the purpose of the Maker. No ! He saw that weakness, wickedness, will be. And therefore should be ; that the perfect man. As we account perfection, — at most pure O' the special gold, whatever the form it take. Head-work or heart-work, fined and thrice-refined r the crucible of life, whereto the powers Of the refiner, one and all, were flung To feed the flame their utmost, — e'en that block, He holds out breathlessly triumphant, — breaks Into some poisonous ore, its opposite, 2 28 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, At the very purest, so compensating The Adversar}' — what if we believe ? — For earlier stern exclusion of his stuff. See the sage, with the hunger for the truth, And see his SN'stem that's all true, except The one weak place that's stanchioned by a lie ! The moralist, that walks with head erect I' the crystal charity of air so long, Until a stumble, and the man's one mire ! Philanthropy undoes the social knot With axe-edge ; makes love room 'twixt head and trunk ! Religion — but enough: the thing's too clear ! Well, if these sparks break out i' the greenest tree, Our topmost of performance, yours and mine, What will be done i' the drv ineptitude Of ordinary mankind, bark and bole, . ^^ '■^ All seems ashamed of but their mother-earth? Therefore throughout his term of servitude He did the appointed service, and forbore Extraneous action that were duty else. Done by some other servant, idle now SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 229 Or mischievous : no matter, eacli his own, — Own task, and, in the end, own praise or blame ! He suffered them strut, prate, and brag their best ; Squabble at odds on every point save one, And there shake hands ; agree to trifle time ; Obstruct advance with, each, his cricket-cry, " Wait till the head be off the shoulders here ! Then comes my king, my pope, my autocrat. My socialist republic to her own, — To wit, that propert}^ of only me, Hohenstiel-Schwangau, who conceits herself Free, forsooth, and expects I keep her so ! " — Nay, suffered when, perceiving with dismay His silence paid no tribute to that noise. They turned on him. " Dumb menace in that mouth, Malice in that unstridulosity ! He cannot but intend some stroke of state Shall signalize his passage into peace Out of the creaking ; hinder transference O' the Hohenstielers-Schwangauese to king, Pope, autocrat, or socialist republic ! That's 230 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Exact the cause his lips unlocked would ciy ! Therefore be stirring ; brave, beard, bull}- him ! Dock, by the million, of its friendly joints, The electoral body short at once ! who did May do again, and undo us beside. Wrest from his hands the sword for self-defence, The right to pariy any thrust in play We peradventure please to meditate ! " And so forth ; creak, creak, creak : and ne'er a line His locked mouth oped the wider, till at last, O' the long degraded and insulting day, Sudden the clock told it was judgment- time. Then he addressed himself to speak indeed To the fools, not knaves : they saw him walk straight down Each step of the eminence, as he first engaged, And stand at last o' the level, — all he swore. '' People, and not the people's varletry, — This is the task j^ou set myself and these ! Thus I performed my part of it, and thus They thwarted me throughout, here, here, and here : SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 231 Study each instance ! yours the loss, not mine. What they intend now is demonstrable As plainly : here's such man ; and here's such mode Of making you some other than the thing You, wisely or unwisely, choose to be, And only set him up to keep you so. Do you approve this ? Yours the loss, not mine. Do you condemn it? There's a remedy. Take me, — who know j-our mind, and mean your good, With clearer head and stouter arm than they, Or )^ou, or, haply, anybody else, — And make me master for the moment ! Choose What time, what power you trust me with : I, too. Will choose as frankly ere I trust myself With time and power : they must be adequate To the end and aim, since mine the loss, with yours, If means be wanting : once their worth approved, Grant them, and I shall forthwith operate — Ponder it well ! — to the extremest stretch O" the power you trust me ; if with unsuccess, God wills it, and there's nobody to blame." 232 PRINCE HOHEXSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Whereon the people answered with a shout, " The trusty one ! no tricksters any more ■ " How could they other ? He was in his place. Wliat followed ? Just what he foresaw, what proved The soundness of both judgments, — his, o' the knaves And fools, each trickster with his dupe ; and theirs, The people, in what head and arm should help. There was uprising, masks dropped, flags unfurled, Weapons outflourished in the wind, my faith ! Heavily did he let his fist fall plumb On each perturber of the public peace, No matter whose the wagging head it broke, — From bald-pate craft and greed and impudence Of night-hawk at first chance to prowl and prey For glory and a little gain beside, Passing for eagle in the dusk of the age, To florid head-top, foamy patriotism. And tribunitial daring, breast laid bare Through confidence in rectitude, with hand On private pistol in the pocket : these, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 233 And all the dupes of these, who lent themselves As dust and feather do to help offence O' the wind that whirls them at you, then subsides In safety somewhere, leaving filth afloat, Annoyance you may brush from eyes and beard, — These he stopped ; bade the wind's spite howl or whine Its worst outside the building, wind conceives Meant to be pulled together, and become Its natural playground so. What foolishness Of dust or feather proved importunate. And fell 'twixt thumb and finger, found them gripe To detriment of bulk and buoyancy. Then followed silence and submission. Next The inevitable comment came on work And work's cost : he was censured as profuse Of human life and liberty ; too swift And thorough his procedure, who had lagged At the outset, lost the opportunity Through timid scruples as to right and wrong. " There's no such certain mark of a small mind " (So did Sagacity explain the fault) 2 34 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHXVANGAU, " As when it needs must square away, and sink To its own small dimensions, private scale Of right and wrong, — humanity i' the large, The right and wrong of the universe, forsooth ! This man addressed himself to guard and guide Hohenstiel-Schwangau. When the case demands He frustrate villany in the egg, unhatched, With easy stamp and minimum of pang E'en to the punished reptile, ' There's my oath Restrains my foot,' objects our guide and guard ; ' I must leave guardianship and guidance now : Rather than stretch one handbreath of the law, I am bound to see it break from end to end. First show me death i' the body politic ; Then prescribe pill and potion, what may please Hohenstiel-Schwangau ! all is for her sake : 'Twas she ordained my service should be so. What if the event demonstrate her unwise, If she unwill the thing she willed before ? 1 hold to the letter, and obey the bond, And leave her to perdition loyally.' SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 235 Whence followed thrice the expenditure we blame Of human life and liberty : for want O' the by-blow came deliberate butcher's-work ! " " Elsewhere go cany your complaint," bade he. " Least, largest, there's one law for all the minds, Here or above : be true at any price ! 'Tis just o' the great scale that such happy stroke Of falsehood would be found a failure. Truth Still stands unshaken at her base by me, Reigns paramount i' the world, for the large good O' the long late generations, — I and you Forgotten like this buried foolishness ! Not so the good I rooted in its grave." This is why he refused to break his oath ; Rather appealed to the people ; gained the power To act as he thought best ; then used it once For all, no matter what the consequence To knaves and fools. As thus began his sway, So, through its twenty years, one rule of righ^t Sliced Jiim : govern for the manyfirst 236 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, The poorraean multitudej_^all mouths and ejes; Bid the few, better favored in the brain, Be patient, nor presume on privilege, Help him, or else be g^uiet, — never crave That he help them, — increase, forsooth, the gulf Yawning so terribly 'twixt mind and mind I' the world here, w-hich his purpose was to block At bottom, were it by an inch, and bridge. If by a filament, no more, at top. Equalize things a little ! And the way He took to work that purpose out was plain Enough to intellect and honesty And — superstition style it if \-ou please, So long as you allow there was no lack O' the quality_:mperative in man — Reverence. You see deeper ? thus saw he, And, by the light he saw, must walk : how else Was he to do his part ? the man's, with might And main, and not a faintest touch of fear, Sure he was in the hand of God, who comes Before and after, with a work to do SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 237 Which no man helps nor hinders. Thus the man, — So timid when the business was to touch The uncertain order of liumanity, Imperil, for a problematic cure Of grievance on the surface, any good I' the deep of things, dim yet discernible, — This same man, so irresolute before, Show him a true excrescence to cut sheer, A devil's-graft on God's foundation-stone, Then — no complaint of indecision more ! He wrenched out the whole canker, root and branch, Deaf to who cried the world would tumble in At its four corners if he touched a twig. Witness that lie of lies, arch-infamy. When the Republic, with all life involved In just this law, — " Each people rules itself Its own way, not as any stranger please," — Turned, and, for first proof she was living, bade Hohenstiel-Schwangau fasten on the throat Of the first neighbor that claimed benefit O' the law herself established : " Hohenstiel 238 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWAXGAU, For Hohenstielers ! Rome, by parity Of reasoning, for Romans ? That's a jest Wants proper treatment, — lancet-puncture suits The proud flesh : Rome ape Hohenstiel forsooth ! " And so the siege and slaughter and success, Whereof we nothing doubt that Hohenstiel Will have to pay the price in God's good time ; Which does not always fall on Saturday, When the world looks for wages. Anyhow, He found this infamy triumphant. Well, Sagacity suggested, make this speech : — " The work was none of mine : suppose wrong wait, Stand over for redressing ? Mine for me ; My predecessors' work on their own head ! Meantime, there's plain advantage, should we leave Things as we find them. Keep Rome manacled Hand and foot : no fear of unruliness ! Her foes consent to even seem our friends So long, no longer. Then there's glory got 1' the boldness and bravado to the world. The disconcerted world must grin and bear SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 239 The old saucy writing, — ' Grunt thereat who may : So shall things be, for such my pleasure is, — Hohenstiel-Schwangau.' How that reads in Rome, r the Capitol where Brennus broke his pate I And what a flourish for our journalists ! " Only it was nor read nor flourished of, Since not a moment did such glory stay Excision of the canker ! Out it came, Root and branch, with much roaring, and some blood, And plentiful abuse of him from friend And foe. Who cared? Not Nature, that assuaged The pain, and set the patient on his legs Promptly : the better ! — had it been the worse, 'Tis Nature you must try conclusions with. Not he ; since nursing canker kills the sick For certain, while to cut may cure at least. "Ah," groaned a second time Sagacity, " Again the little mind, precipitate. Rash, rude, when even in the right, as here ! The great mind knows the power of gentleness ; Only tries force because persuasion fails. 240 PRINCE HOHEA'STIEL-SCHWANGAU, Had this man, by prelusive trumpet-blast, Signified, 'Truth and Justice mean to come; Nay, fast approach your threshold ! Ere they knock, See that the house be set in order, swept And garnished, windows shut, and doors thrown wide. The free State comes to visit the free Church : Receive her! or — or — never mind what else !* Thus moral suasion heralding brute force, How had he seen the old abuses die, And new life kindle here, there, everywhere, Roused simply by that mild yet potent spell, — Beyond or beat of drum, or stroke of sword, — Public opinion !." " How, indeed ? " he asked, " When all to see, after some twenty years. Were your own fool-face waiting for the sight, Faced by as wide a grin from ear to ear ()" the knaves, that, while the fools were waiting, worked Broke yet another generation's heart, — 'i'wenty years' respite helping ! Teach your nurse SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 241 ' Compliance with, before you suck, the teat ! ' Find what that means, and meanwhile hold your tongue ! " Whereof the war came which he knew must be. Now, this had proved the dry-rot of the race He ruled o'er, that in the old day, when was need They fought for their own liberty and life, Well did they fight, none better : whence such love Of fighting somehow still for fighting's sake Against no matter whose the liberty And life, so long as self-conceit should crow And clap the wing, while Justice sheathed her claw, — That what had been the glory of the world, When thereby came the world's good, grew its plague Now that the champion-armor, donned to dare The dragon once, was clattered up and down Highway and by-path of the world at peace, I^.Ierely to mask marauding, or for sake O' the shine and rattle that apprised the fields 242 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWAA'GAU, Hohenstiel-Schwangau was a fighter yet, And would be till the weary world suppressed A peccant humor out of fashion now. Accordingly, the world spoke plain at last ; Promised to punish who next played with arms. So at his advent, such discomfiture Taking its true shape of beneficence, Hohenstiel-Schwangau, half sad and part wise, Sat : if with wistful eye reverting oft To each pet weapon rusty on its peg, Yet with a sigh of satisfaction too, That, peacefulness become the law, herself Got the due share of godsends in its train. Cried shame, and took advantage quietly. Still, so the dry-rot had been nursed into Blood, bones, and marrow, that, from worst to best. All, — clearest brains and soundest hearts, save here, All had this lie acceptable for law Plain as the sun at noonday, — " War is best, Peace is worst ; peace we only tolerate SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 243 As needful preparation for new war : War may be for whatever end we will ; Peace only as the proper help thereto. Such is the law of risjht and wrong for us, HohenstielSchwangau ; for the other world, As naturally, quite another law. Are we content ? — the world is satisfied. Discontent ? — then the world must give us leave Strike right and left to exercise our arm, Torpid of late, through overmuch repose. And show its strength is still superlative At somebody's expense in life or limb: Which done, let peace succeed, and last a year ! " Such devil's-doctrine was so judged God's law, We say, when this man stepped upon the stage, That it had seemed a venial fault at most Had be once more obeyed Sagacity. " You come i' the happy interval of peace, The favorable weariness from war : Prolong it! — artfully, as if intent On ending peace as soon as possible. 244 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Quietly so increase the sweets of ease And safet}^, so employ the multitude, Put hod and trowel so in idle hands, So stuff and stop the wagging jaws with bread, That Selfishness shall surreptitiously Do Wisdom's office ; whisper in the ear Of Hohenstiel-Schwangau, there's a pleasant feel In being gently forced down, pinioned fast To the easy arm-chair by the pleading arms O' the world beseeching her to there abide Content with all the harm done hitherto, And let herself be petted in return, Free to re-wage, in speech and prose and verse, The old unjust wars, nay, — in verse and prose And speech, — to vaunt new victories, as vile A plague o' the future, — so that words suffice For present comfort, and no deeds denote That — tired of illimitable line on line Of boulevard-building, tired o' the theatre \Vith the tuneful thousand in their thrones above, I'or glory of the male intelligence, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 245 And Nakedness in her due niche below, For illustration of the female use — She, 'twixt a yawn and sigh, prepares to slip Out of the arm-chair, wants seme blood again From over the boundary to color up The sheeny sameness, keep the world aware Hohenstiel-Schwangau mvist have exercise Despite the petting of the universe ! Come, you're a city-builder : what's the way Wisdom takes, when time needs that she entice Some fierce tribe, castled on the mountain-peak. Into the quiet and amenity O' the meadow-land below ? By crying, ' Done With fight now, down with fortress ' ? Rather, ' Dare On, dare ever, not a stone displaced ! ' Cries Wisdom, ' Cradle of our ancestors. Be bulwark ; give our children safety still ! Who of our children please may stoop and taste O' the valley-fatness, unafraid ; for why ? At first alarm, they have thy mother-ribs To run upon for refuge : foes forget 246 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Scarcely what Terror on her vantage-coigne, Couchant supreme among the powers of air, Watches — prepared to pounce — the country wide ! Meanwhile the encouraged valley holds its own, From the first hut's adventure in descent, Half home, half hiding-place, to dome and spire Befitting the assured metropolis : Nor means offence to the fort which caps the crag, All undismantled of a turret-stone, And bears the banner-pole that creaks at times, Embarrassed by the old emblazonment. When festal days are to commemorate. Otherwise left untenanted, no doubt, Since, never fear,, our myriads from below Would rush, if needs were, man the walls once more, Renew the exploits of the earlier time At moment's notice ! But, till notice sound, Inhabit we in ease and opulence ! ' And so, till one day thus a notice sounds. Not trumpeted, but in a whisper-gust Fitfully playing through mute city streets SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 247 At midnight weary of day's feast and game, — ' Friends, your famed fort's a ruin past repair ! Its use is, to proclaim it had a use Stolen away long since. Climb to study there How to paint barbican and battlement r the scenes of our new theatre ! We fight Now — by forbidding neighbors to sell steel Or buy wine, not by blowing out their brains ! Moreover, while we let time sap the strength O' the walls omnipotent in menace once. Neighbors would seem to have prepared surprise ; Run up defences in a mushroom growth, For all the world like what we boasted : brief, — Hohenstiel-Schwangau's policy is peace ! ' " Ay, so Sagacity advised him filch Folly from fools ; handsomely substitute The dagger o' lath, while gay they sang and danced For that long dangerous sword they liked to feel, Even at feast-time, clink and make friends start. No ! he said, " Hear the truth, and bear the truth, 248 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, And bring the truth to bear on all you are And do, assured that only good comes thence, Whate'er the shape good take ! While I have rule, Understand ! — war for war's sake, war for the sake O' the good war gets you as war's sole excuse, Is damnable, and damned shall be. You want Glor}'? Why, so do I, and so does God. Where is it found, — in this paraded shame, — One particle of glory ? Once you warred For liberty against the world, and won : There was the glory. Now you fain would war Because the neighbor prospers overmuch ; Because there has been silence half an hour, Like heaven on earth, without a cannon-shot Announcing Hohenstielers-Schwangauese Are minded to disturb the jubilee ; Because the loud tradition echoes faint, And who knows but posterity may doubt If the great deeds were ever done at all, Much less believe, were such to do again. So the event would follow : therefore prove SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 249 The old power at the expense of somebody ! O Glory ! — gilded bubble, bard and sage So nickname rightly, ^ would thy dance endure One moment, would thy mocking make believe Only one upturned eye thy ball was gold, Hadst thou less breath to buoy thy vacancy * Than a whole multitude expends in praise. Less range for roaming than from head to head Of a whole people ? Flit, fall, fly again ; Only fix never where the resolute hand May prick thee, prove the lie thou art, at once ! Give me real intellect to reason with, No multitude, no entity that apes One wise man, being but a million fools ! How and whence wishest glory, thou wise one ? Wouldst get it — didst thyself guide Providence — By stinting of his due each neighbor round In strength and knowledge and dexterity, So as to have thy littleness grow large By all those somethings once, turned nothings now, As children make a molehill mountainous 250 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, By scooping out the plain into a trench, And saving so their favorite from approach ? Quite otherwise the cheery game of life, True yet mimetic warfare, whereby man Does his best with his utmost, and so ends The victor most of all in fair defeat. Wlio thinks, — would he have no one think beside ? Who knows, who does, — must other learning die, And action perish ? Why, our giant proves No better than a dwarf, with rivalry Prostrate around him. ' Let the whole race stand And try conclusions fairly ! ' he cries first. Show me the great man would engage his peer Rather by grinning, ' Cheat, thy gold is brass ! ' Than granting, ' Perfect piece of purest ore ! Still is it less good mintage, this of mine ? ' Well, and these right and sound results of soul I' the strong and healthy one wise man, — shall such Be vainly sought for, scornfully renounced r the multitude that make the entity, — The people ? — to what purpose, if no less, S.4 VIO UR OF SOCIE TV. 2 5 T In power and purity of soul, below The reach of the unit than in multiplied Might of the body, vulgarized the more, Above, in thick and threefold brutishness ? See ! you accept such one wise man, myself: Wiser or less wise, still I operate From my own stock of wisdom, nor exact Of other sort of natures you admire, That whoso rhymes a sonnet pays a tax. Who paints a landscape dips brush at his cost, Who scores a septet true for strings and wind Mulcted must be : else how should I impose Properly, attitudinize aright. Did such conflicting claims as these divert Hohenstiel-Schwangau from observing me ? Therefore what I find facile, you be sure, With effort or without it, you shall dare, — You, I aspire to make my better self. And truly the Great Nation. No more war For war's sake, then ! and — seeing wickedness Springs out of folly — no more foolish dread 252 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, O' tlie neighbor waxing too inordinate A rival through his gain of weaUh and ease ! What ? — keep me patient, Powers ! — the people here, Earth presses to her heart, nor owns a pride Above her pride i' the race all flame and air And aspiration to the boundless Great, The incommensurably Beautiful, Whose very falterings groundward come of flight Urged by a pinion all too passionate For heaven and what it holds of gloom and glow: Bravest of thinkers, bravest of the brave Doers, exalt in science, rapturous In art, the — more than all — magnetic race To fascinate their fellows, mould mankind Hohenstiel-Schwangau-fashion, — these, what ? — these Will have to abdicate their primacy Should such a nation sell them steel untaxed, And such another take itself, on hire For the natural sen'night, somebody for lord Unpatronized by me whose back was turned ? Or such another yet would fain build bridge, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 253 Lay rail, drive tunnel, busy its poor self With its appropriate fancy : so there's — flash — Hohenstiel-Schwangau up in arras at once ! Genius has somewhat of the infantine ; But of the childish not a touch nor taint, Except through self-will, which, being foolishness, Is certain, soon or late, of punishment. Which Providence avert ! — and, that it may Avert what both of us would so deserve, No foolish dread o' the neighbor, I enjoin ! By consequence, no wicked war with him. While I rule ! Does that mean — no war at all When just the wickedness I here proscribe Comes, haply, from the neighbor ? Does my speech Precede the praying that you beat the sword To plough-share, and the spear to pruning-hook, And sit down henceforth under your own vine And fig-tree through the sleepy summer month. Letting what hurly-burly please explode 2 54 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHVVANGAU, On the other side the mountain-frontier ? No, Beloved ! I foresee and I announce Necessity of warfare in one case, For one cause : one way, I bid broach the blood O' the world. For truth and right, and only right And truth, — right, truth, on the absolute scale of God, No pettiness of man's admeasurement, — In such case only, and for such one cause, Fight your hearts out, whatever fate betide Hands energetic to the uttermost ! Lie not ! Endure no lie which needs your heart And hand to push it out of mankind's path ; No lie that lets the natural forces work Too long ere lay it plain and pulverized, Seeing man's life lasts only twenty years ! And such a lie, before both man and God. Being, at this time present, Austria's rule O'er Italy, — for Austria's sake the first, Italy's next, and our sake last of all. Come with me and deliver Italy ! Smite hip and thigh until the oppressor leave SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 255 Free from the Adriatic to the Alps The oppressed one ! We were they who laid her low In the old bad day when Villany braved Truth And Right, and laughed, ' Henceforward, God deposed, I'he Devil is to rule forevermore r the world ! ' — whereof to stop the consequence, And for atonement of false glory there Gaped at and gabbled over by the world. We purpose to get God enthroned again For what the world will gird at as sheer shame I' the cost of blood and treasure. ' All for nought, — Not even, say, some patch of province, splice O' the frontier ? — some snug honorarium-fee Shut into glove and pocketed apace ? ' (Questions Sagacity) ' in deference To the natural susceptibility Of folks at home, unwitting of that pitch You soar to, and misdoubting if Truth, Right, And the other such augustnesses, repay Expenditure in coin o' the realm, but prompt To recognize the cession of Savoy 256 PRhVCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, And Nice as marketable value ! ' No, Sagacity ! go preach to Metternich, And, sermon ended, stay where he resides ! Hohenstiel-Schwangau, you and I must march The other road ! war for the hate of war, Not love, this once ! " So Italy was free. What else noteworthy and commendable I' the man's career ? — that he was resolute No trepidation, much less treachery, On his part, should imperil from its poise The ball o' the world, heaved up at such expense Of pains so far, and ready to rebound, Let but a finger maladroitly fall Under pretence of making fast and sure The inch gained by late volubility, And run itself back to the ancient rest At foot o' the mountain. Thus he ruled, gave proof The world had gained a point, progressive so. By choice, this time, as will and power concurred, 0' the fittest man to rule ; not chauce of birth, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 257 Or such-like dice-throw. Oft Sagacity Was at his ear : " Confirm this clear advance ; Support this wise procedure ! You, elect O' the p>eople, mean to justify their choice, And out-king all the kingly imbeciles. But that's just half the enterprise : remains You find them a successor like yourself In head and heart and eye and hand and aim, Or all done's undone ; and whom hope to mould So like you as the pupil Nature sends, The son and heir's completeness which vou lack ? Lack it no longer ! Wed the pick o' the world Where'er you think you find it ! Should she be A queen, — tell Hohenstielers-Schwangauese, ' So do the old enthroned decrepitudes Acknowledge, in the rotten hearts of them, Their knell is knoUed, they hasten to make peace With the new order, recognize in me Your right to constitute what king you will, Cringe therefore crown in hand, and bride on arm, To both of us : we triumph, I suppose 1 ' 258 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Is it the other sort of rank ? — bright eye, Soft smile, and so forth, all her queenly boast ? Undaunted the exordium, ' I, the man O' the people, with the people mate myself; So stand, so fall. Kings, keep your crowns and brides Our progeny (if Providence agree) Shall live to tread the bawbles underfoot, And bid the scarecrows consort with their kin. For son, as for his sire, be the free wife In the free state ! ' " That is, Sagacit)' Would prop up one more lie, the most of all Pernicious fancy, that the son and heir Receives the genius from the sire, himself Transmits as surely, — ask Experience else ! Which answers, " Never was so plain a truth A.S that God drops his seed of heavenly flame Just where he wills on earth, — sometimes where man Seems to tempt — such the accumulated store Of faculties — one spark to fire the heap ; SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 259 Sometimes where, fire-ball-like, it falls upon The naked unprepared ness of rock, Burns, beaconing the nations through their night. Faculties, fuel for the flame ? All helps Come, ought to come, or come not, crossed by chance, From culture and transmission. What's your want I' the son and heir? Sympathy, aptitude. Teachableness, the fuel for the flame ? You'll have them for your pains ; but the flame's se /, The novel thought of God, shall light the world ? No, poet, though your offspring rhyme and chime I' the cradle ; painter, no, for all your pet Draws his first eye, beats Salvatore's boy ; And thrice no, statesman, should your progeny Tie bib and tucker wuth no tape but red. And make a foolscap-kite of protocols ! Critic and copyist and bureaucrat To heart's content ! The seed o' the apple-tree Brings forth another tree which bears a crab : 'Tis the great gardener grafts the excellence On wildings where he will." 26o PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SC HWANG AU, " How plain I view, Across those misty years 'twixt me and Rome," (Such the man's answer to Sagacity,) " The little wayside temple, half way down To a mild river that makes oxen white Miraculously, un-mouse-colors hide, Or so the Roman country people dream ! I view that sweet small shrub-embedded shrine On the declivity was sacred once To a transmuting Genius of the land Could touch and turn its dunnest natures bright ; Since Italy means the Land of the Ox, we know. Well, how was it the due succession fell From priest to priest who ministered i' the cool Calm fane o' the Clitumnian god ? The sire Brought forth a son and sacerdotal sprout, Endowed instinctively with good and grace To suit the gliding gentleness below, Did he ? Tradition tells another tale. Each priest obtained his predecessor's staff. Robe, fillet, and insignia, blamelessly, SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 261 By springing out of ambush, soon or late, And slaying him : the initiative rite Simply was murder, save that murder took, r the case, another and religious name. So it was once, is now, shall ever be, With genius and its priesthood in this world : The new power slays the old, but handsomely. There he lies, not diminished by an inch Of stature that he graced the altar with ; Though somebody of other bulk and build Cries, ' What a goodly personage lies here Reddening the water where the bulrush roots ! May I conduct the service in his place. Decently and in order, as did he, And, as he did not, keep a wary watch When meditating 'neath a willow shade ! ' Find out your best man ; sure the son of him W'ill prove best man again, and, better still Somehow than best, the grandson-prodigy ! You think the world would last another day, Did we so make us masters of the trick 262 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Whereby the works go, we could pre-arrange Their play, and reach perfection when we please ? Depend on it, the change and the surprise Are part o' the plan : 'tis we wish steadiness : Nature prefers a motion by unrest. Advancement through this force that jostles that. And so, since much remains i' the world to see. Here is it still, affording God the sight." Thus did the man refute Sagacity Ever at this one whisper in his ear : — " Here are you picked out by a miracle. And placed conspicuously enough, folks say, And you believe, by Providence outright Taking a new way — nor without success — To put the world upon its mettle : good ! But Fortune alternates with Providence : Resource is soon exhausted. Never count On such a happy hit occurring twice ! Try the old method next time ! " " Old enough," SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 263 (To whisper in his ear, the laugh outbroke,) " And most discredit* I of all the modes By just the men and women who make boast They are kings and queens thereby ! Mere self-defence Should teach them, on one chapter of the law Must be no sort of trifling, — chastity : They stand or fall as their progenitors Were chaste or unchaste. Xow, run eye around My crowned acquaintance ; give each life its look. And no more : v.-hy, \ou"d think each life was led Purposely for example of what pains Who leads it took to cure the prejudice, And prove there's nothing so unprovable As who is who, what son of what a sire, And, inferentialh', how faint the chance That the next generation needs to fear Another fool o" the selfsame t}-pe as he Happily regnant now by right divine And luck o' the pillow ! No : select your lord By the direct employment of your brains As best you may : bad as the blunder prove, 264 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, A far worse evil stank beneath the sun When some legitimate blockhead managed so Matters, that high time was to interfere, Though interference came from hell itself, And not the blind mad miserable mob Happily ruled so long by pillow-luck And divine right ; by lies, in short, not truth. And meanwhile use the allotted minute — One, Two, three, four, five, — yes, five the pendule warns ! Eh ? Why, this wild work wanders past all bound And bearing ! Exile, Leicester Square, the life I' the old gay miserable time, rehearsed, Tried on again like cast clothes, still to serve At a pinch, perhaps ? " Who's who ? " was aptly asked, Since certainly I am not I ! since when ? Where is the bud-mouthed arbitress ? A nod Out-Homering Homer ! Stay ! — there flits the clew SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 265 I fain would find die end of! Yes : " Meanwhile, Use the allotted minute ! " Well, you see, (Veracious and imaginary Thiers, Who map out thus the life I might have led, But did not, — all the worse for earth and me, — Doff spectacles, wipe pen, shut book, decamp !) You see 'tis easy in heroics ! Plain Pedestrian speech shall help me perorate. Ah, if one had no need to use the tongue ! How obvious and how easy 'tis to talk Inside the soul, a ghostly dialogue, — Instincts with guesses, — instinct, guess, again With dubious knowledge, half-experience ; each And all the interlocutors alike Subordinating, — as decorum bids. Oh, never fear ! but still decisively, — Claims from without that take too high a tone, — ("God wills this, man wants that, the dignity Prescribed a prince would wish the other thing,") — Putting them back to insignificance Beside one intimatest fact, — myself 266 PRINCE HOHENSTIEL-SCHWANGAU, Am first to be considered, since I live Twenty years longer, and then end, perhaps ! But, where one ceases to soliloquize, Somehow the motives, that did well enough I' the darkness, when you bring them into light Are found, like those famed cave-fish, to lack eye And organ for the upper magnitudes. The other common creatures, of less fine Existence, that acknowledge earth and heaven, Have it their own way in the argument. Yes, forced to speak, one stoops to say — one's aim Was — what it peradventure should have been, — To renovate a people \ mend or end That bane come of a blessing meant the world ; Inordinate culture of the sense made quick By soul ; the lust o' the flesh, lust of the eye, And pride of life ; and, consequent on these, The worship of that prince o' the power o' the air Who paints the cloud and fills the emptiness. And bids his votaries, famishing for truth. Feed on a lie. SAVIOUR OF SOCIETY. 267 Alack, one lies one's self Even in the stating that one's end was truth, Truth only, if one states as much in words ! Give me the inner chamber of the soul For obvious easy argument ! 'tis there One pits the silent truth against a lie, — Truth which breaks shell a careless, simple bird, Nor wants a gorget nor a beak filed fine, Steel spurs, and the whole armory o' the tongue. To equalize the odds. But, do your best. Words have to come ; and, somehow, words deflect As the best cannon ever rifled will. So, i' the Residenz yet, not Leicester Square, Alone, — no such congenial intercourse ! — My revery concludes, as dreaming should. With daybreak : nothing done and over yet, Except cigars ! The adventure thus may be. Or never needs to be at all : who knows ? My Cousin-Duke, perhaps, at whose hard head — Is it, now — is this letter to be launched. 268 PRINCE HOHENSriEL-SCHWANGAU. The sight of whose gray oblong, and whose seal, Set all these fancies floating for an hour ? Twenty years are good gain, come what come will 1 Double or quits I The letter goes ! Or stays ? HERVE RIEL. HERVE RIEL. On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety- two, Did the English fight the French, — woe to France ! And the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue. Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue, Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Ranee, With the English fleet in view. I 272 HERVE RIEL. 'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full chase : First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Damfreville ; Close on him fled, great and small, Twenty-two good ships in all ; And they signalled to the place, " Help the winners of a race ! Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick ; or, quicker still. Here's the English can and will ! " Then the pilots of the place put out brisk, and leaped on board : " Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass ? " laughed they : " Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred and scored, Shall the ' Formidable ' here with her twelve and eighty guns Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow way, HERVE RIEL. 273 Trust to enter where 'i-is ticklish for a craft of twenty tons, And with flow at full beside ? Now 'tis slackest ebb of tide. Reach the mooring ? Rather say, While rock stands, or water runs, Not a ship will leave the bay ! " Then was called a council straight : Brief and bitter the debate. " Here's the English at our heels : would you have them take in tow All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow, For a prize to Plymouth Sound ? Better run the ships aground ! " (Ended Damfreville his speech.) '•' Not a minute more to wait ! Let the captains all and each Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the beach ! France must undergo her fate." 274 HERVE KIEL. " Give the word ! " But no such word Was ever spoke or heard : For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck, amid all these, — A captain ? a lieutenant ? a mate, — first, second, third ? No such man of mark, and meet With his betters to compete ! But a simple Breton sailor pressed by Tourville for the fleet, A poor coasting-pilot he, — Herve Riel the Croisick- ese. And " What mockery or malice have we here ? " cries Herve Riel. " Are you mad, you Malouins ? Are you cowards, fools, or rogues ? Talk to me of rocks and shoals ? — me, who took the soundings, tell On my fingers every bank, every shallow, everj.- swell, 'Twixt the offing here and Greve, where the river dis embogues ? HERVE KIEL. 275 Are you bought by '^nglish gold? Is it love the lying's for? Morn and eve, night and day, Have I piloted your bay, Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor. Burn the fleet, and ruin France ? That were worse than fifty Hogues ! Sirs, they know I speak the truth! Sirs, believe me, there's a way ! Only let me lead the line. Have the biggest ship to steer. Get this ' Formidable ' clear. Make the others follow mine, A.nd I lead them, most and least, by a passage I know well. Right to Solidor, past Greve, And there lay them safe and sound ; And, if one ship misbehave, — Keel so much as grate the ground, — Why, I've nothing but my life : here's my head ! " cries Herve Riel. 276 HERVE RIEL. Not a minute more to wait. " Steer us in, then, small and great ! Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron ! " cried its chief. Captains, give the sailor place ! He is admiral, in brief. Still the north wind, by God's grace. See the noble fellow's face, As the big ship, with a bound, Clears the entry like a hound. Keeps the passage as its inch of way were the wide sea's profound ! See, safe through shoal and rock, How they follow in a flock ! Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the ground, Not a spar that comes to grief! The peril, see; is past ! All are harbored to the last ! And, just as Herve Riel hollas "Anchor! " sure as fate, Up the English come, — too late ! HERVE RIEL. ^77 So the storm subside^ to calm : They see the green trees wave On the heights o'erlooking Greve ; Hearts that bled are stanched with balm. " Just our rapture to enhance, Let the English rake the bay, Gnash their teeth, and glare askance As they cannonade away ! 'Neath rampired Solidor pleasant riding on the Ranee ! " How hope succeeds despair on each captain's counte- nance ! Outburst all with one accord, " This is paradise for hell ! Let France, let France's king, Thank the man that did the thing ! " What a shout, and all one word, " Herve Kiel ! " As he stepped in front once more ; Not a symptom of surprise In the frank blue Breton eyes, — Just the same man as before. 278 HERVE RIEL. Then said Damfreville, " My friend, I must speak out at the end, Though I find the speaking hard : Praise is deeper than the Hps : You have saved the king his ships ; You must name your own reward. 'Faith, our sun was near eclipse ! Demand whate'er you will, France remains your debtor still. Ask to heart's content, and have! or my name's not Damfreville." Then a beam of fun outbroke On the bearded mouth that spoke. As the honest heart laughed through Those frank eyes of Breton blue : — " Since I needs must say my say 3 Since on board the duty's done. And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point what is it but a run ? — NERVE KIEL. 279 Since 'tis ask and have, I may ; Since the others go ashore, — Come ! A good whole holiday ! Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle Aurore ! " That he asked, and that he got, — nothing more. Name and deed alike are lost : Not a pillar nor a post In his Croisic keeps alive the feat as it befell \ Not a head in white and black On a single fishing-smack In memor}^ of the man but for whom had gone to wrack All that France saved from the fight whence England bore the bell. Go to Paris ; rank on rank Search the heroes flung pell-mell On the Louvre, face and flank : You shall look long enough ere you come to Her\'e Riel. 2 8o HERVE KIEL. So, for better and for worse, Herve Riel, accept my verse ! In my verse, Herve Riel, do thou once more Save the squadron, honor France, love thy wife the Belle Aurore ! RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; OR, TURF AND TOWERS. To Miss Thackeray. Red Cotton Night-cap Country; OR, TURF AND TOWERS. I. And so, here happily we meet, fair friend ! Again once more, as if the years rolled back, And this our meeting-place were just that Rome Out in the champaign, say, o'er-rioted By verdure, ravage, and gay winds that war Against strong sunshine settled to his sleep ; Or on the Paris Boulevard, might it prove, ^'ou and I came together saunteringly, 284 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Bound for some shop-front in the Place Vendome — Gold-smithy and Golconda mine, that makes "The Firm-Miranda" blazed about the world — Or, what if it were London, where my toe Trespassed upon your flounce ? " Small blame," you smile, Seeing the Stair-case Party in the Square Was Small and Early, and you broke no rib. Even as we met where we have met so oft. Now meet we on this unpretending beach Below the little village : little, ay ! But pleasant, may my gratitude subjoin ? Meek, hitherto un-Murrayed bathing-place. Best loved of sea-coast-nook-full Normandy ! That, just behind you, is mine own hired house : With right of path-way through the field in front, No prejudice to all its growth unsheaved Of emerald luzern bursting into blue. Be sure I keep the path that hugs the wall, Of mornings, as I pad from door to gate ! OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 285 Von yellow — what if not wild-mustard flower? — Of that, my naked sole makes lawful prize, Bruising the acrid aromatics out. Till, what they preface, good salt savors sting From, first, the sifted sands, then sands in slab, Smooth save for pipy wreath-work of the worm: (Granite and mussel-shell are ground alike To glittering paste, — the live worm troubles yet.) Then, dry and moist, the varech limit-line. Burnt cinder-black, with brown uncrumpled swathe Of berried softness, sea-swoln thrice its size ; And, lo, the wave protrudes a lip at last. And flecks my foot with froth, nor tempts in vain. * Such is Saint-Rambert, wilder veiy much Than Joyeux, that famed Joyous-Gard of yours. Some five miles farther down ; much homelier too — • Right for me, — right for you the fine and fair ! Only, I could endure a transfer — wrought By angels famed still, through our countryside, For weights they fetched and carried in old time 286 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COITNTRY ; When nothing like the need was — transfer, just Of Joyeux church, exchanged for yonder prig, Our brand-new stone cream-colored masterpiece. Well — and you know, and not since this one yeir, The quiet seaside country ? So do I : And like it, in a manner, just because Nothing is prominently likable To vulgar eye without a soul behind, Which, breaking surface, brings before the ball Of sight, a beauty buried everywhere. If we have souls, know how to see and use, One place performs, like any other place. The proper service every pLace on earth Was framed to furnish man with: serves alike To give him note that, through the place he sees, A place is signified he never saw. But, if he lack not soul, may learn to know. Earth's ugliest walled and ceiled imprisonment May suffer, through its single rent in roof, Admittance of a cataract of light OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 287 Beyond attainment through earth's palace-panes Pinholed athwart their windowed filagree By twinklings sobered from the sun outside. Doubtless the High Street of our village here Imposes hardly as Rome's Corso could : And our projected race for sailing-boats Next Sunday, when we celebrate our Saint, Falls very short of that attractiveness, That artistry in festive spectacle, Paris insures you when she welcomes back (When shall it be?) the Assembly from Versailles; While the best fashion and intelligence Collected at the counter of our Mayor (Dry goods he deals in, grocery beside) What time the post-bag brings the news from Vire, — I fear me much, it scarce would hold its own. That circle, that assorted sense and wit, With Five o'clock Tea in a house we know. Still, 'tis the check that gives the leap its lift. The nullity of cultivated souls. 288 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Even advantaged by their news from Vire, Only conduces to enforce the truth That, thirty paces off, this natural blue Broods o'er a bag of secrets, all unbroached, Beneath the bosom of the placid deep. Since first the Post Director sealed them safe ; And formidable I perceive this fact — Little Saint-Rambert touches the great sea. From London, Paris, Rome, where men are men. Not mice, and mice not Mayors presumably, Thought scarce may leap so fast, alight so far. But this is a pretence, you understand. Disparagement in play, to pariy thrust Of possible objector : nullity And ugliness, the taunt be his, not mine Nor yours, — I think we know the world too well ! Did you walk hither, jog it by the plain, Or jaunt it by the highway, braving bruise From springless and uncushioned vehicle ? Much, was there not, in place and people both. To lend an eye to? and what eye like yours — OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 2S9 The learned eye is still the loving one ! Our land ; its quietude, productiveness, Its length and breadth of grain-crop, meadow-ground, Its orchards in the pasture, farms a-field, And hamlets on the road-edge, nought you missed Of one and all the sweet rusticities ! From stalwart strider by the wagon-side, Brightening the acre with his purple blouse, To those dark-featured comely women-folk, Healthy and tall, at work, and work indeed, On ever}' cottage door-step, plying brisk Bobbins that bob you ladies out such lace ! Oh, you obsen-ed ! and how that nimble play Of finger formed the sole exception, bobbed The one disturbance to the peace of things. Where nobody esteems it worth his while. If time upon the clock-face goes asleep, To give the rusted hands a helpful push. Nobody lifts an energetic thumb And index to remove some dead and gone Notice which, posted on the barn, repeats 290 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY: For truth what two years' passage made a lie. Still is for sale, next June, that same chateau With all its immobilities, — were sold Duly next June behind the last but last ; And, woe's me, still placards the Emperor His confidence in war he means to wage, God aiding and the rural populace. No : rain and wind must rub the rags away, And let the lazy land untroubled snore. Ah, in good truth ? and did the drowsihead So suit, so soothe the learned loving eye, That you were minded to confer a crown, (Does not the poppy boast such ?) call the land By one slow hither-thither stretching, fast Subsiding-into-slumber sort of name, Symbolic of the place and people too, '"■ JV/itie Cotton Night-cap Country?'' Excellent! For they do, all, dear women young and old, Upon the heads of them bear notably This badge of soul and body in repose ; OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 291 Nor its fine thimble fits the acorn-top, Keeps woolly ward above that oval brown, Its placid feature, more than muffler makes A safeguard, circumvents intelligence In — what shall evermore be named and famed, If happy nomenclature aught avail, " White Cotton Night-cap Country." Do I hear — Oh, better, very best of all the news — You mean to catch and cage the winged word, And make it breed and multiply at home Till Norman idlesse stock our England too ? Normandy shown minute yet magnified In one of those small books, the truly great. We never know enough, yet know so well ? How I foresee the cursive diamond-dints, — Composite pen that plays the pencil too, — As, touch the page and up the glamour goes, And filmily o'er grain-crop, meadow-ground. O'er orchard in the pasture, farm a-field, 292 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; And hamlet on the road-edge, floats and forms And falls, at lazy last of all, the Cap That crowns the countr}- ! we, awake outside, Farther than ever from the imminence Of what cool comfort, what close coverture Your magic, deftly weaving, shall surround The unconscious captives with. Be theirs to drowse Trammelled, and ours to watch the trammel-trick ! Ours be it, as we con the book of books. To wonder how is winking possible ! All hail, "White Cotton Night-cap Countr}'," then! And yet, as on the beach you promise book, — On beach, mere razor-edge 'twixt earth and sea, I stand at such a distance from the world That 'tis the whole world which obtains regard, Rather than any part, though part presumed A perfect little province in itself. When w^aj-fare made acquaintance first therewith. So standing, therefore, on this edge of things, What if the backward glance I gave, return OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 293 Loaded with other spoils of vagrancy Than I despatched it for, till I propose The question — puzzled by the sudden store Officious fancy plumps beneath my nose — "Which sort of Night-cap have you glorified?" You would be gracious to my ignorance : "\\niat other Night-cap than the normal one? — Old honest guardian of man's head and hair In its elastic yet continuous, soft, No less persisting, circumambient gripe, Night's notice, life is respited from day ! Its form and fashion vary suiting so Each seasonable want of youth and age. In infancy, the rosy naked ball Of brain, and that faint golden fluff it bears, Are smothered from disaster, — mu'ses know By what foam-fabric ; but when youth succeeds, The sterling value of the article Discards adornment, cap is cap henceforth Unfeathered by the futile row on row. \ 294 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Manhood strains hard a sturdy stocking-stiiff O'er w-ell-deser\-ing head and ears: the cone Is tassel-tipt, commendably takes pride, Announcing workday done and wages pouched, And libertv- obtained to sleep, nay, snore. Unwise, he peradventure shall essay The sweets of independency for once — Waive its advantage on his wedding-night: Fool, only to resume it, night the next, And never part companionship again. Since, with advancing years, night's solace soon Intrudes upon the daybreak dubious life, Persuades it to appear the thing it is. Half-sleep ; and so, encroaching more and more. It lingers long past the abstemious meal Of morning, and, as prompt to serve, precedes The supper-summons, gruel grown a feast. Finally, when the last sleep finds the eye So tired it cannot even shut itself. Does not a kind domestic hand unite Friend to friend, lid from lid to part no more. OR^ TURF AND TOWERS. 295 Consigned alike to that receptacle So bleak without, so warm and white within ? " Night-caps, night comfort of the human race : Their usage may be growing obsolete, Still, in the main, the institution stays. And though yourself may possibly have lived. And probably will die, undignified — The Never-night-capped — more experienced folk Laugh you back answer — What should Night-cap be Save Night-cap pure and simple ? Sorts of such ? Take cotton for the medium, cast an eye This side to comfort, lambswool, or the like. That side to frilly cambric costliness. And all between proves Night-cap proper." Add " Fiddle ! " and I confess the argument. Only, your ignoramus here again Proceeds as tardily to recognize Distinctions : ask him what a fiddle means, And " Just a fiddle " seems the apt reply. 296 RED COTTON N/GHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Yet, is not there, while we two pace the beach, This blessed moment, at your Kensington, A special Fiddle-Show and rare array Of all the sorts were ever set to cheek, 'Stablished on clavicle, sawn bow-hand-wise, Or touched lute-fashion and fore-finger-plucked? I doubt not there be duly catalogued Achievements all and some of Italy, Guarnerius, Straduarius, — old and new, Augustly rude, refined to finicking, This mammoth with his belly full of blare. That mouse of music — inch-long silver}- wheeze. And here a specimen has effloresced Into the scroll-head, there subsides supreme. And with the tail-piece satisfies mankind. Why should I speak of woods, grains, stains and streaks, The topaz varnish or the ruby gum ? We preferably pause where tickets teach, " Over this sample would Corelli croon, Grieving, by minors, like the cushat-dove, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 297 Most dulcet Giga, dreamiest Saraband." " From this did Paganini comb tlie fierce Electric sparks, or to tenuit}^ Pull forth the inmost wailing of the wire — No cat-gut could swoon out so much of soul ! " Three hundred violin-varieties Exposed to public view ! And dare I doubt Some future enterprise shall give the world Quite as remarkable a Night-cap-show ? Methinks, we, arm-in-arm, that festal day, Pace the long range of relics shrined aright, Framed, glazed, each cushioned curiosity, And so begin to smile and to inspect : "Pope's sickly head-sustainment, damped with dews Wrung from the all-unfair fight — such a frame — Though doctor and the devil helped their best — - Fought such a world that, waiving doctor's help, Had the mean devil at its service too ! Voltaire's imperial velvet ! Hogarth eyed The thumb-nail record of some alley-phiz, 298 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Then chucklingly clapped yonder cosiness On pate, and painted with true flesh and blood ! Poor hectic Cowper's soothing sarsnet-stripe ! " And so we profit by the catalogue, Somehow our smile subsiding more and more, Till we decline into . . but no ! shut eyes And hurry past the shame uncoffined here, The hangman's toilet ! If we needs must trench, For science' sake which craves completeness still, On the sad confine, not the district's self. The object that shall close review may be . . . Well, it is French, and here are we in France : It is historic, and we live to learn, And try to learn by reading story-books. It is an incident of 'Ninety-two, And, twelve months since, the Commune had the sway. Therefore resolve that, after all the Whites Presented you, a solitary Red Shall pain us both, a minute and no more ! OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 299 Do not you see poor Louis pushed to front Of pabce-window, in persuasion's name, A spectacle above the howling mob Who tasted, as it were, with tiger-smack, The outstart, the first spurt of blood on brow, The Phrygian symbol, the new crown of thorns, The Cap of Freedom ? See the feeble mirth At odds with that half-p\irpose to be strong And merely patient under misery ! And note the ejaculation, ground so hard Between his teeth, that only God could hear, As the lean pale proud insignificance With the sharp-featured liver-worried stare Out of the tAVO gray points that did him stead, And passed their eagle-owner to the front Better than his mob-elbowed undersize, — The Corsican lieutenant commented, "Had I but one good regiment of my ow^n. How soon should volleys to the due amount Lay stiff upon the street-flags this canaille 1 As for the droll there, he that plays the king, 300 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; And screws out smile with a Red night-cap on, He's done for ! somebody must take his place." White Cotton Night-cap Country : excellent ! Why not Red Cotton Night-cap Country too? " Why not say swans are black and blackbirds white, Because the- instances exist ? " you ask. " Enough that white, not red, predominates. Is normal, typical, in cleric phrase Quod semd, semper, et ubique." Here, Applying such a name to such a land. Especially you find inopportune, Impertinent, my scruple whether white Or red describes the local color best. " Let be," (you say) " the universe at large Supplied us with exceptions to the rule. So manifold, they bore no passing-by, — Little Saint-Rambert has conserved at least The pure tradition : white from head to heel, Where is a hint of the ungracious hue .'' OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 301 See, we have traversed with hop, step and jump, From heel to head, the main-street in a trice, Measured the garment (help my metaphor ! ) Not merely criticised the cap, forsooth; And were you pricked by that collecting-itch, That pruriency for wTiting o'er your reds 'Rare, rarer, rarest, not rare but unique,' — The shelf, Saint-Rambert, of your cabinet, Unlabelled, — virginal, no Rahab-thread For blushing token of the spy's success, — Would taunt with vacancy, I undertake ! What, yonder is your best apology. Pretence at most approach to naughtiness, Impingement of the ruddy on the blank? This is the criminal Saint-Rambertese Who smuggled in tobacco, half a pound ! The Octroi found it out and fined the wretch. This other is the culprit who despatched A hare, he thought a hedgehog, (clods obstruct) Unfurnished \vith Permission for the Chase ! As to the womankind — renounce from those 302 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; The hope of getting a companion-tinge, First faint touch promising romantic fault ! " Enough: there stands Red Cotton Night-cap shelf - A cavern's ostentatious vacancy — M}' contribution to the show; while yours — White, heaps your row of pegs from every hedge Outside, and house inside Saint-Rambert here — We soon have come to end of. See, the church With its white steeple gives your challenge point, Perks as it were the night-cap of the town, Starchedly warrants all beneath is matched By all above, one snowy innocence ! You put me on my mettle. British maid And British man, suppose we have it out Here in the fields, decide the question so? Then, British fashion, shake hands hard again, Go home together, friends the more confirmed That one of us — assuredly myself — Looks puffy about eye, and pink at nose? OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 303 "Which " pink " reminds me that the arduousness We both acknowledge in the enterprise, Claims, counts upon a large and liberal Acceptance of as good as victory In whatsoever just escapes defeat. You must be generous, strain point, and call Victory, any the least flush of pink Made prize of, labelled scarlet for the nonce — Faintest pretension to be wrong and red And picturesque, that varies by a splotch The righteous flat of insipidity. Quick to the quest, then — forward, the firm foot ! Onward, the quarry-overtaking eye ! For what is this, by way of march-tune, makes The musicalist buzzing at my ear By re-assurance of that promise old Though sins are scarlet they shall be as wool? Whence — what fantastic hope do I deduce ? I am no Liebig : when the dyer dyes A texture, can the red die prime the white ? 304 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; And if we washed well, wrung the texture hard, Would we arrive, here, there and everywhere, A.t a fierce ground beneath the surface meek ? I take the first chance, rub to threads what rag Shall flutter snowily in sight. For see ! Already these few yards upon the rise, Our back to brave Saint-Rambert, how we reach The open, at a dozen steps or strides ! Turn round and look about, a breathing-while 1 There lie, out-spread at equidistance, thorpes And villages and towns along the coast. Distinguishable, each and all alike, By white persistent Night-cap, spire on spire. Take the left : yonder town is — what say you If I say " Londres " ? Ay, the mother-mouse (Reversing fable, as truth can and will) Which gave our mountain of a London birth ! This is the Conqueror's country, bear in mind. And Londres-district blooms with London-pride. Turn round : La Roche, to right, where oysters thrive OR, TURP AND ROWERS. 305 Monlieu — the lighthouse is a telegraph; This, full in front, Saint-Rambert ; then succeeds Villeneuve, and Pons the Young with Pons the Old, And — ere faith points to Joyeux, out of sight, A little nearer — oh, La Ravissante ! There now is something like a Night-cap spire, Donned by no ordinary Notre-Dame ! For, one of the three safety-guards of France, You front now, lady ! Nothing intercepts The privilege, by crow-flight, two miles far. She and her sisters Lourdes and La Salette Are at this moment hailed the cynosure Of poor dear France, such waves have buffeted Since she eschewed infallibility. And chose to steer by the vague compass-box. This same midsummer month, a week ago, Was not the memorable day observ^ed For reinstatement of the misused Three In old supremacy forevermore ? Did not the faithful flock in pilgrimage 3o6 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; By railway, diligence and steamer — nay On foot with staff and scrip, to see the sights Assured them ? And I say best sight was here : And nothing justified the rival Two In their pretension to equality ; Our folk laid out their ticket-money best, And wiseliest, if they walked, wore shoe away; Not who went farther only to fare worse. For, what was seen at Lourdes and La Salette Except a couple of the common cures Such as all three can boast of, any day? While here it was, here and by no means there. That the Pope's self sent two great real gold crowns As thick with jewelr}'- as thick could stick, His present to the Virgin and her Babe — Provided for — who knows not? — by that fund. Count Alessandro Sforza's legacy, Which goes to crown some Virgin every year. But this year, Pope was in the prison-house, And money had to go for something else ; And therefore, though their present seemed the Pope's, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 307 The faithful of our iDrovince raised the sum Preached and prayed out of — nowise purse alone. Gentle and simple paid in kind, not cash, The most part : the great lady gave her brooch, The peasant-girl, her hair-pin ; 'twas the rough Bluff farmer mainly who, — admonished well By wife to care lest his new colewort-crop Stray sorrowfully sparse like last 3-ear's seed, — Lugged from reluctant pouch the fifty-franc, And had the Cure's hope that rain would cease. And so, the sum in evidence at length. Next step w'as to ol3tain the donative By the spontaneous bounty of the Pope — No easy matter, since his Holiness Had turned a deaf ear, long and long ago, To much entreaty on our Bishop's part, Commendably we boast. " But no," quoth he, " Image and image needs must take their turn : Here stand a dozen as importunate." Well, we were patient ; but the cup ran o'er When — who was it pressed in and took the prize 3o8 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; But our own offset, set far off indeed To grow by help of our especial name, She of the Ravissante — in Martinique ! "What?" cried our patience at the boiling-point, "The daughter crowned, the mother's head goes bare ? Bishop of Raimbaux ! " — that's our diocese — " Thou hast a summons to repair to Rome, Be efficacious at the Council there : Now is the time or never ! Right our wrong ! Hie thee away, thou valued Morillon, And have the promise, thou who hast the vote ! " So said, so clone, so followed in due course (To cut the story short) this festival. This famous Twenty-second, seven days since. Oh, but you heard at Joyeux ! Pilgrimage, Concourse, procession with, to head the host, Cardinal Mirecourt, quenching lesser lights : The leafy street-length through, decked end to end With August-strippage, and adorned with flags, That would have waved right well but that it rained OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 309 Just this picked day, by some perversity. And so were placed, on Mother and on Babe, The pair of crowns: the INIother's, you must see! Miranda, the great Paris goldsmith, made The marvel, — he's a neighbor: that's his park Before you, tree-topped wall we walk toward. His shop it was, turned out the masterpiece, Probably at his own expenditure ; Anyhow, his was the munificence Contributed the central and supreme Splendor that crowns the crown itself, The Stone. Not even Paris, ransacked, could supply That gem : he had to forage in New York, This jeweller, and country gentleman. And most undoubted devotee beside ! \Yorthily wived, too : since his wife it was Bestowed " with friendly hand '' — befitting phrase ! The lace which trims the coronation robe — Stiff wear — a mint of wealth on the brocade. Do go and see what I saw yesterday! • 3IO RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; And, for that matter, see in fancy still, Since . . There now ! Even for unthankful me. Who stuck to my devotions at high-tide That festal morning, never had a niind To trudge the little league and join the crowd — Even for me is miracle vouchsafed ! How pointless proves the sneer at miracles ! As if, contrariwise to all we want And reasonably look to find, they graced Merely those graced-before, grace helps no whit. Unless, made whole, they need physician still. I — sceptical in eveiy inch of me — Did I deserve that, from the liquid name "Miranda," — faceted as lovelily As his own gift, the gem, — a shaft should shine. Bear me along, another Abaris, Nor let me light till, lo, the Red is reached, And yonder lies in luminosity ! Look, lady ! where I bade you glance, but now ! OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 311 Next habitation, though two miles awaj', — No tenement for man or beast between, — That, park and domicile, is country-seat Of this same good Miranda! I accept The augury. Or there, or nowhere else, Will I establish that a Night-cap gleams Of visionary Red, not White for once ! '' Heaven," saith the sage, " is with us, here inside Each man:" "Hell also," simpleness subjoins, By White and Red describing human flesh. And yet as we continue, quicken pace, Approach the object which determines me Victorious or defeated, more forlorn My chance seems, — that is certainty at least. Halt midway, reconnoitre ! Either side The path we traverse (turn and see) stretch fields Without a hedge : one level, scallop-striped With bands of beet and turnip and luzern, Limited only by each color's end, Shelves down, — we stand upon an eminence, — 312 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; To where the earth-shell scallops out the sea, A sweep of semicircle ; and at edge — Just as the milk-white incrustations stud At intervals some shell-extremity, So do the little growths attract us here, Towns with each name I told you : say, they touch The sea, and the sea them, and all is said, So sleeps and sets to slumber that broad blue ! The people are as peaceful as the place. This, that I call " the path " is road, highway ; But has there passed us by a market-cart, Man, woman, child, or dog to wag a tail ? True, I saw weeders stooping in a field ; But — formidably white the Cap's extent ! Round again ! Come, appearance promises ! The boundary', the park-wall^ ancient brick, Upholds a second wall of tree-heads high Which overlean its top, a solid green. That surely ought to shut in mysteries ! A jeweller — no unsuggestive craft! OR, TURF AND TOWERS. l^Z Trade that admits of much romance, indeed. For, whom but goldsmiths used old monarchs pledge Regalia to, or seek a ransom from, Or pray to furnish do\vr\', at a pinch. According to authentic story-books? Why, such have revolutionized this land With diamond-necklace-dealing ! not to speak Of families turned upside-down, because The gay wives went and pawned clandestinely Jewels, and figured, till found out, with paste. Or else redeemed them — how, is horrible ! Then there are those enormous criminals That love their ware and cannot lose their love, And murder you to get your purchase back. Others go courting after such a stone, ISIake it their mistress, marry for their wife, And find out, some day, it was false the while, As ever wife or mistress, man too fond Has named his Pilgrim, Hermit, Ace of Hearts. Beside — what stvle of edifice begins 314 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; To grow in sight at last and top the scene ? That gray roof, with the range of lucarnes, four I count, and that erection in the midst — Clock-house, or chapel-spire, or what, above ? Conventual, that, beyond manorial, sure ! And reason good ; for Clairvaux, such its name, Was built of old to be a Priory, Dependence on that Abbey-for-the-Males Our Conqueror founded in world-famous Caen, And where his body sought the sepulture. It was not to retain : you know the tale. Such Priory was Clairvaux, prosperous Hundreds of years ; but nothing lasts below. And when the Red Cap pushed the Crown aside. The Priory became, like all its peers, A National Domain : which, bought and sold And resold, needs must change, with ownership, Both outside show and inside use ; at length The messuage, three and twenty years ago, Became the purchase of rewarded worth Impersonate in Father — I must stoop OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 315 To French phrase for precision's sake I fear — Father Miranda, goldsmith of renown : By birth, a Madrilene, by domicile And sojourning, accepted French at last. His energy it was which, trade transferred To Paris, throve as with a golden thumb, Established in the Place VendOme. He bought Not building only, but belongings far And wide, at Gonthier there, Monlieu, Villeneuve, A plentiful estate : which, twelve years since, Passed, at the good man's natural demise, To Son and Heir Miranda — Clairvaux here. The Paris shop, the mansion — not to say Palatial residence on Quai Rousseau, With money, movables, a mine of wealth — And young Leonce Miranda got it all. Ah, but — whose might the transformation be ? Were you prepared for this, now ? As we talked, We walked, we entered the half-privacy. The partly-guarded precinct : passed beside 3i6 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; The little paled-off islet, trees and turf, Then found us in the main ash-avenue Under the blessing of its brant^hage-roof. Till, on emergence, what affronts our gaze ? Priory — Conqueror — Abbey-for-the-Males — Hey, presto, pass, who conjured all away ? Look through the raihvork of the gate : a park — Yes, but a fAfiglaise, as they compliment ! Grass like green velvet, gravel-walks like gold. Bosses of shrubs, embosomings of flowers. Wind you — through sprinkled trees of tiny breed Disporting, within reach of coverture, By some habitual acquiescent oak Or elm, that thinks, and lets the youngsters laugh — ■ Wind, waft at last your soul that walks the air, Up to the house-front, or its back perhaps — Whether fa9ade or no, one coquetry Of colored brick and carved stone ! Stucco ? Well, The daintiness is cheery, that I know, And all the sportive floral framework fits The lightsome purpose of the architect. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 317 Those lucarnes which I called conventual, late, Those are the outlets in the mansard-roof ; And, underneath, what long light elegance Of windows here suggests how brave inside Lurk eyeballed gems they play the eyelids to ! Festive arrangements look through such, be sure ! And now the tower a-top, I took for clock's Or bell's abode, turns out a quaint device. Pillared and temple-treated Belvedere — Pavilion safe within its railed-about Sublimity of area — whence what stretch. Of sea and land, throughout the seasons' change, Must greet the solitary ! Or suppose, ^-If what the husband likes, the wife likes too — The happy pair of students cloistered high. Alone in April when the Spring arrives ! Or no, he mounts there by himself to meet Winds, welcome wafts of sea-smell, first white bird That flaps thus far to taste the land again, And all the promise of the youthful year ; Then he descends, unbosoms straight his store 3l8 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Of blessings in the bud, and both embrace, Husband and wife, since earth is Paradise, And man at peace with God. You see it all ? Let us complete our survey, go right round The place : for here, it may be, we surprise The Prior}-, — these solid walls, big barns. Gray orchard-grounds, huge four-square stores for stock, Betoken where the Church was busy once. Soon must we come upon the Chapel's self. No doubt next turn will treat us to . . Aha, Again our expectation proves at fault ! Still the bright graceful modern — not to say Modish adornment, meets us : Pare A?iglais, Tree-sprinkle, shrub-embossment as before. See, the sun splits on yonder bauble world Of silvered glass concentring, every side, All the adjacent wonder, made minute And touched grotesque by ball-convexity ! Just so a sense that something is amiss, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 319 Something is out of sorts in the display, Aifects us, past denial, everywhere. The right erection for the Fields, the Wood, (Fields — but Eljsees, wood — but de Boulogne) Is peradventure wrong for wood and fields When Vire, not Paris, plays the capital. So may a good man have deficient taste ; Since Son and Heir Miranda, he it was Who, six \-ears now elapsed, achieved the work, And truly made a wilderness to smile. Flere did their domesticity reside, A happy husband and as happy wife, Till . . how can I in conscience longer keep My little secret that the man is dead I, for artistic purpose, talk about As if he lived still ? No, these two years now, Has he been dead. You ought to sympathize — Not mock the sturdy effort to redeem My pledge, and wring you out some tragedy From even such a perfect commonplace ! 320 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Suppose I boast the death of such desert ♦ My tragic bit of Red? Who contravenes Assertion that a tragedy exists In any stoppage of benevolence, Utility, devotion above all ? Benevolent ? There never was his like : For poverty, he had an open hand . . Or stop — I use the wrong expression here — An open purse, then, ever at appeal ; So that the unreflecting rather taxed Profusion than penuriousness in alms. One, in his day and generation, deemed Of use to the community ? I trust Clairvaux thus renovate and regalized, Paris expounded thus to Normandy, Answers that question. Was the man devout? After a life — one mere munificence To Church and all things churchly, men or mice. Dying, his last bequeathment gave, land, goods. Cash, every stick and stiver, to the Church, And notably to that church yonder, that 0A\ 7UKF AND TOWERS. 321 Beloved of his soul, La Ravissante — Wherefrom, the latest of his gifts, the Stone Gratefully bore me as on arrow-flash To Clairvaux, as I told j'ou. "Ay, to find Your Red desiderated article, Where every scratch and scrape provokes my White To all the more superb a prominence ! Why, 'tis the stoiy served up fresh a^ain — How it befell the restive prophet old Who came and tried to curse but blessed the land. Come, your last chance ! he disinherited Children : he made his widow mourn too much By this endowment of the other Bride — Nor understood that gold and jewelry Adorn her in a figure, not a fact. You make the Wliite I want, so very white, 'Tis I say now — some trace of Red should be Somewhere in this Miranda-sanctitude ! " Not here, at all events, sweet mocking friend ! 322 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; For he was childless ; and what heirs he had Were an uncertain sort of Cousinry Scarce claiming kindred so as to withhold The donor's purpose though fantastical : Heirs, for that matter, wanting no increase Of wealth, since rich already as himself; Heirs that had taken trouble off his hands, Bought that productive goldsmith-business, he, With abnegation wise as rare, renounced Precisely at a time of life when youth. Nigh on departure, bids mid-age discard Life's other loves and likings in a pack. To keep, in lucre, comfort worth them all. This Cousinry are they who boast the shop Of "Firm-Miranda, London and New York." Cousins are an unconscionable kind ; But these — pretension surely on their part To share inheritance were too absurd ! " Remains then, he dealt wrongly by his wife, Despoiled her somehow by such testament ? " OR, TURF AND TOWERS. Z^l Farther than ever from the mark, fair friend ! The man's love for his wife exceeded bounds Rather than failed the limit. 'Twas to live Hers and hers only, to abolish earth Outside — since Paris holds the pick of earth — He turned his back, shut eyes, stopped ears, to all Delicious Paris tempts her children with, And fled away to this far solitude — She peopled solitude sufficiently ! She, partner in each heavenward flight sublime. Was, with each condescension to the ground, Duly associate also : hand in hand, . . Or side by side, I say by preference — On every good work sidlingly they went. Hers was the instigation — none but she Willed that, if death should summon first her lord, Though she, sad relict, must drag residue Of days encumbered by this load of wealth — (Submitted to with something of a grace So long as her surviving vigilance Might worthily administer, convert 324 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAJ COUNTRY; Wealth to God's glory and the good of man, Give, as in life, so now in death, effect To cherished purpose) — yet she begged and prayed That, when no longer she could supervise The House, it should become a Hospital : For the support whereof, lands, goods, and cash Alike will go, in happy guardianship, To yonder church, La Ravissante : who debt To God and man undoubtedly will pay. " Not of the world, your heroine ! " Do you know I saw her yesterday — set eyes upon The veritable personage, no dream ? I in the morning strolled this way, as oft. And stood at entry of the avenue. When, out from that first garden-gate, we gazed Upon and through, a small procession swept — Madame Miranda with attendants iive. First, of herself: she wore a soft and white OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 325 Engaging dress, with velvet stripes and squares Severely black, yet scarce discouraging : Fresh Paris-manufacture ! (Vire's would do ? I doubt it, but confess my ignorance.) Her figure ? somewhat small and darlinglike, Her face ? well, singularly colorless, For first thing : which scarce suits a blonde, you know. Pretty you would not call her : though perhaps Attaining to the ends of prettiness, And somewhat more, suppose enough of soul. Then she is forty full : you cannot judge What beauty was her portion at eighteen, The age she married at. So, colorless I stick to, and if featureless I add. Your notion grows completer : for, although I noticed that her nose was aquiline. The whole effect amounts with me to — blank ! I never saw what I could less describe. The eyes, for instance, unforgettable Which ought to be, are out of mind as sight. 326 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Yet is there not conceivably a face, A set of wax-like features, blank at first, ^Vhich, as you bendingly grow warm above, Begins to take impressment from your breath ? Which, as your will itself w'ere plastic here Nor needed exercise of handicraft. From formless moulds itself to correspond With all you think and feel and are — in fine Grows a ne^v revelation of yourself. Who know now for the first time what you want ? Here has been something that could wait a while, Learn your requirement, nor take shape before. But, by adopting it, make palpable Your right to an importance of your own. Companions somehow were so slow to see ! — Far delicater solace to conceit Than should some absolute and final face. Fit representative of soul inside. Summon you to surrender — in no way Your breath's impressment, nor, in stranger's guise, Yourself — or why offeree to challenge you? OR, TURF AND TOWERS. AVhy should your soul's reflection rule your soul ? (" You " means not you, nor me, nor any one Framed, for a reason I shall keep suppressed, To rather want a master than a slave : The slavish still aspires to dominate I) So, all I say is, that the face, to me One blurr of blank, might flash significance To who had seen his soul reflected there By that symmetric silvei7 phantom-like Figure, with other five processional. The first, a black-dressed matron — may be, maid Mature, and dragonish of aspect, — marched ; Then four came tripping in a joyous flock, Two giant goats and two prodigious sheep Pure as the arctic fox that suits the snow. Tripped, trotted, turned the march to merriment, But ambled at their mistress' heel — for why ? A rod of guidance marked the Chatelaine, And ever and anon would sceptre wave, And silky subject leave meandering. Nay, one great naked sheep-face stopped to ask 328 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COLW'TRY ; Who was the stranger, snuffed inquisitive j\Iy hand that made acquaintance with its nose. Examined why the hand — of man at least — Patted so lightly, warmly, so like life ! Are they such silly natures after all ? And thus accompanied, the paled-off space, Isleted shrubs and verdure, gained the group ; Till, as I gave a furtive glance, and saw Her back-hair was a block of solid gold. The gate shut out my harmless question — Hair So young and yellow, crowning sanctity. And claiming solitude . . can hair be false ? " Shut in the hair and with it your last hope Yellow might on inspection pass for Red ! — Red, Red, where is the tinge of promised Red In this old tale of town and country life, This rise and progress of a family? First comes the bustling man of enterprise. The fortune-founding father, rightly rough. As who must gmb and grab, play pioneer. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 3^0 Then, with a light and airy step, succeeds The son, surveys the fabric of his sire. And enters home, unsmirched from top to toe. Polish and education qualify Their fortunate possessor to confine His occupancy to the first-floor suite Rather than keep exploring needlessly Where dwelt his sire content with cellarage : Industr}' bustles underneath, no doubt ; The supervisor should not sit too close. Next, rooms built, there's the furniture to buy, And what adornment like a worthy wife? In comes she like some foreign cabinet. Purchased indeed, but purifying quick What space receives her, from its traffic-taint. She tells of other habits, palace-life ; Royalty may have pried into those depths Of sandal-wooded drawer, and set a-creak That pygmy portal pranked with lazuli. More fit by far, the ignoble Avere replaced By objects suited to such visitant. 330 liED COTTON NIGHT-CAF COUATRY; Than that her dignity be desecrate By neighborhood of vulgar table, chair, Which haply helped old age to smoke and doze. The end is, an exchange of city stir And too intrusive burgess-fellowship, For rural isolated elegance, Careless simplicity, how preferable ! There one may fairly throw behind one's back The used-up worn-out past, we want away, And make a fresh beginning of stale life. 'In just the place' — does any one object? — ' Where aboriginal gentility Will scout the upstart, twit him with each trick Of town, trade-mark that stamps each word and deed. And most of all resent that here the dirt Is daubed with money-color to deceive ! ' Rashly objected ! Is there not the Church To intercede and bring benefic truce At outset ? She it is shall equalize The laborers in the vineyard, last as first. OR, 'JURF AND TOWERS. 33 1 Pay court to her, she stops impertinence. ' Duke, once your sires crusaded it, we know : Our friend the new-comer observes, no less. Your chapel, rich with their emblazomy. Wants roofing — might he but supply the means! Marquise, you gave the honor of your name, Titulur patronage, abundant "will. To what should be an Orphan Institute : Gave every thing but funds, in brief ; and these. Our friend, the lady newly resident. Proposes to contribute, by your leave ! ' Brothers and sisters lie they in thy lap, Thou none-excluding, all-collecting Church ! Sure, one has half a foot i' the hierarchy Of birth, when ' Nay, my dear,' laughs out the Duke, ' I may be cushion-carrier, but the crown — Who gave its central glor}^, I or you ? ' When INIarquise jokes 'My quest, forsooth? Each doit I scrape together goes for Peter-pence To purvey bread and water in his bonds 332 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; For Peter's self imprisoned — Lord, liow long ? Yours, yours alone the bount}', dear my dame, You plumped the purse, Avhich, poured into the plate. Made the Archbishop open brows so broad ! And if you really mean to give that length Of lovely lace to edge the robe ! ' . . Ah, friends. Gem better serves so, than by calling crowd Round shop-front to admire the million's-worth ! Lace gets more homage than from lorgnette-stare, And comment coarse to match, (should one display One's robe a trifle o'er the baignoire-edge,) ' \Vell may she line her slippers with the like, If minded so ! their shop it was, produced That wonderful parurc, the other day. Whereof the Baron said, it beggared him.' And so the paired Mirandas built their house. Enjoyed their fortune, sighed for family, Found friends would serve their purpose quite as well, And come, at need, from Paris — anyhow, With evident alacrity, from A'ire — Endeavor at the chase, at least succeed I OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 333 In smoking, eating, drinking, laughing, and Preferring country, oh so much to town ! Thus lived the husband; though his wife w-ould sigh In confidence, when Countesses were kind, ' Cut off from Paris and society ! ' White, White, I once more round you in the ears ! Though you have marked it, in a corner, yours Henceforth, — red-lettered ' Failure,' very plain, I shall acknowledge, on the snowy hem Of ordinary Night-cap ! Come, enough ! We have gone round its cotton vastitude. Or half-round, for the end's consistent still, A cul-dc-sac with stoppage at the sea. Here we return upon our steps. One look May bid good-morning — properly good-night — To civic bliss, Miranda and his mate ! Are we to rise and go ? " No, sit and stay ! Now comes my moment, with the thrilling throw Of curtain from each side a shrouded case. 334 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY. Don't the rings shriek an ominous " Ha ! ha ! So you take Human Nature upon trust ? " List but with like trust to an incident Which speedily shall make quite Red enough Burn out of yonder spotless napeiy ! Sit on the little mound here, whence you seize The whole of the gay front sun-satisfied, One laugh of color and embellishment ! Because it was tLere, — past those laurustines, On that smooth gravel-sweep 'twixt flowers and sward. There tragic death befell ; and not one grace Outspread before you but is registered In that sinistrous coil, these last two years Were occupied in winding smooth again. " True ? " Well, at least it was concluded so. Sworn to be truth, allowed_by j^^w as such, (With my concurrence, if it matter here) A month ago : at Vire they tried the case. 11. Monsieur Leoxce Miranda, then, . . but stay ! Permit me a preliminar}- word, And, after, all shall so so straight to end ! Have you, the travelled lady, found yourself Inside a ruin, fane or bath or cirque. Renowned in story, dear through youthful dream ? If not, — imagination serves as well. Try fancy-land, go back a thousand years, Or forward, half the number, and confront Some work of art gnawn hollow by Time's tooth, - Hellenic temple, Roman theatre, Gothic cathedral, Gallic Tuileries, 33^ RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; But ruined, one and whichsoe'er you like. Obstructions choke what still remains intact, Yet proffer change that's picturesque in turn ; Since little life begins where great life ends, And vegetation soon amalgamates, Smooths novel shape from out the shapeless old, Till broken column, battered cornice block The centre with a bulk half weeds and flowers. Half relics you devoutly recognize. Devoutly recognizing, — hark, a voice Not to be disregarded ! " Man worked here Once on a time ; here needs again to work ; Ruins obstruct, v;hich man must remedy." Would you demur "Let Time fulfil his task, And, till the scythe-sweep find no obstacle. Let man be patient ? " The reply were prompt " Glisteningly beneath the May-night moon, Herbage and floral coverture bedeck Yon splintered mass amidst the solitude : Wolves occupy the background, or some snake OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 337 Glides by at distance : picturesque enough ! Therefore, preserve it? Nay, pour daylight in, — The mound proves swarming with humanity. There never was a thorough solitude, Now you look nearer: mortal busy life First of all brought the Grumblings down on pate. Which trip man's foot still, plague his passage much, And prove — what seems to you so picturesque To him is . . but experiment yourself On how conducive to a happy home Will be the circumstance, your bed for base Boasts tessellated pavement, — equally Affected by the scorpion for his nest, — While what o'erroofs bed is an architrave, Marble, and not unlikely to crush man To mummy, should its venerable prop. Some fig-tree-stump, play traitor underneath. Be wise ! Decide ! For conservation's sake, Clear the arena forthwith! lest the tread Of too-much-tried impatience trample out Solid and unsubstantial to one blank 338 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Mud-mixture, picturesque to nobody, — And, task done, quarrel with the parts intact Whence came the filtered fine dust, whence the crash Bides but its time to follow. Quick conclude Removal, time effects so tardily, Of what is plain obstruction ; rubbish cleared, Let partial ruin stand while ruin may, And serve world's use, since use is manifold. Repair wreck, stanchion wall to heart's content, But never think of renovation, pure And simple, which involves creation too : Transform and welcome ! Yon tall tower may help (Though built to be a belfry and nought else) Some Father Secchi, to tick Venus off In transit : never bring there bell again, To damage him aloft, brain us below, When new vibrations bury both in brick ! Monsieur Leonce Miranda, furnishing The application at his cost, poor soul ! Was instance how, — because the world lay strewn OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 339 With ravage of opinions in his path, And neither he, nor any friendly wit, Knew and could teach him which was firm, which frail, In his adventure to walk straight through life The partial-ruin, — in such enterprise, He straggled into rubbish, struggled on, And stumbled out again observably. "Yon buttress still can back me up," he judged: And at a touch down came both he and it. " A certain statue, I was warned against, Now, by good fortune, lies well under foot. And cannot tempt to folly any more : " So, lifting eye, aloft since safety lay. What did he light on 1 the Idalian shape, The undeposed, erectly Victrix still ! " These steps ascend the labyrinthine stair Whence, darkling and on all-fours, out I stand Exalt and safe, and bid low earth adieu — For so instructs ' Advice to who would climb : ' " And all at once the climbing landed him 34° RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; — Where, is my story. Take its moral first. Do you advise a climber? Have respect To the poor head, with more or less of brains To spill, should breakage follow your advice ! Head-break to him will be heart-break to you For having preached " Disturb no ruins here ! Are not they crumbling of their own accord ? Meantime, let poets, painters keep a prize ! Beside, a sage pedestrian picks his way." A sage pedestrian — such as you and I ! What if there trip, in merry carelessness, And come to grief, a weak and foolish child ? Be cautious how you counsel climbing then ! Are you adventurous and climb yourself ? Plant the foot warily, accept a staff. Stamp only where you probe the standing-point. Move for^vard, well assured that move you may: Where you mistrust advance, stop short and stick! OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 34^ This makes advancing slow and difficult ? Hear what came of endeavor of brisk youth To foot it fast and easy ! Keep this same Notion of outside mound and inside mash, Towers yet intact round turfy rottenness, Symbolic partial ravage, — keep in mind! Here fortune placed his feet who first of all Found no incumbrance, till head found . . But hear ! This son and heir then of the jeweller, ISIonsieur Leonce Miranda, at his birth, MLxed the Castilian passionate blind blood With answerable gush, his mother's gift. Of spirit, French and critical and cold. Such mixture makes a battle in the brain. Ending as faith or doubt gets uppermost; Then will has way a moment, but no more, So nicely balanced are the adverse strengths, And victory entails reverse next time. The tactics of the two are different And equalize the odds : for blood comes first, M2 RF.D COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Surrounding life with undisputed faith. But presently, a new antagonist, By scarce-suspected passage in the dark, Steals spirit, fingers at each crevice found Athwart faith's stronghold, fronts the astonished man : "Such pains to keep me far, yet here stand I, Your doubt inside the faith-defenefi_of_jou ! " With faith it was friends bulwarked him about From infancy to boyhood ; so, by youth, Faith stood the impenetrable circuit, high As heaven and low as hell : what lacked he there, Guarded against aggression, storm or sap? What foe v/ould dare approach? Historic Doubt? A}', were there some half-knowledge to attack ! Batter doubt's best, sheer ignorance will beat. Acumen metaphysic? — drills its way Through what, I wonder ! A thick feather-bed Of thoughtlessness, no operating tool — Framed to transpierce the flint-stone — fumbles at, With chance of finding an impediment ! OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 343 This Rav'ssante, now : when he saw the church For the first time, and to his clying-day, His firm belief was that the name fell fit From the Delivering Virgin, niched and known ; As if there wanted records to attest The appellation was a pleasantry, A pious rendering of Rare Vissante^ The proper name which erst our province bore. He would have told you that Saint Aldabert Founded the church, (Heaven early favored France,) About the second century from Christ ; Though the true man was Bishop of Raimbaux, Eleventh in succession, Eldobert, Who flourished after some six hundred years. He it was brought the image " from afar," (Made out of stone the place produces still) " Infantine Art divinely artless," (Art In the decrepitude of Decadence) And set it up a-working miracles Until the Northmen's fury laid it low, Not long, however : an egregious sheep, 344 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Zealous with scratching hoof and routing horn, Unearthed the image in good Maiileville's time, Count of the country. " If the tale be false, Why stands it carved above the portal plain?" Monsieur Leonce Miranda used to ask. To Londres went the prize in solemn pomp, But, liking old abode and loathing new, Was borne — this time by angels — back again. And, re-inaugurated, miracle Succeeded miracle, a lengthy list, Until indeed the culmination came — Archbishop Chaumont prayed a prayer and vowed A vow — gained prayer and paid vow properly — For the conversion of Prince Vertgalant. These facts, sucked in along with mother's milk. Monsieur Leonce Miranda would dispute As soon as that his hands were flesh and bone, Milk-nourished two and twenty years before. So fortified by blind Castilian blood. What say you to tlie chances of French cold OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 345 Critical spirit, should Voltaire besiege "Alp, Apenniiie, and fortified redoubt?" Ay, would such spirit please to play faith's game Faith's way, attack where faith defends so well ! But then it shifts, tries other strategy. Coldness grows warmth, the critical becomes Unquestioning acceptance. " Share and share Alike in facts, to truth add other truth ! Why with old truth needs new truth disagree?" Thus doubt was found invading faith, this time, By help of not the spirit but the flesh : Fat Rabelais chuckled, where faith lay in wait For lean Voltaire's grimace — French, either foe. Accordingly, while round about our friend Ran faith without a break which learned eye Could find at two and twenty j-ears of age. The Iwenty-two-years-old frank footstep soon Assured itself there spread a standing-space Flowery and comfortable, nowise rock Nor pebble-pavement roughed for champion's tread 346 RED COTTON NTGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Who scorns discomfort, pacing at his post. Tall, long-limbed, shoulder right and shoulder left, And 'twixt acromia such a latitude. Black heaps of hair on head, and blacker bush O'er-rioting chin, cheek and throat and chest, — His brown meridional temperament Told him — or rather pricked into his sense Plainer than language — " Pleasant station here ! Youth, strength, and lustihood can sleep on turf Yet pace the stony platform afterward: First signal of a ioghman Claudeum, rheatic in the joints, And spinster Jeanne, with megrim troubled much, — ■ If such an angel, with nought else to do. Had taken station on the pinnacle And simply said, " Leonce, look straight before ! Neither to the right hand nor to left : for why ? Being a stupid soul, you want a guide 430 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; To turn the goodness in you to account And make stupidity submit itself. Go to Saint-Rambert ! Straightway get such guide ! There stands a man of men. You, jeweller, Must needs have heard how once the biggest block Of diamond now in Europe lay exposed Mid siDCcimens of stone and earth and ore. On huckster's stall, — Navona names the Square, And Rome the city for the incident, — Labelled ' quartz-crystal, price one halfpenny.' Haste and secure, that ha'p'worth, on your life ! That man will read you rightly head to foot, Mark the brown face of you, the bushy beard, The breadth 'twixt shoulder blades, and through each black Castilian orbit, see into your soul. Talk to him for five minutes — nonsense, sense, No matter what — describe your horse, your hound, — Give your opinion of the policy Of Monsieur Rouher, — will he succor Rome? Your estimate of what may outcome be OR. TURF AND TOWERS. 431 From Ecumenical Assemblage there ! After which samples of intelligence, Rapidly run through those events you call Your past life, tell what once you tried to do, What you intend on doing this next May! There he stands, reads an English newspaper, Stock-still, and now, again upon the move. Paces the beach to taste the Spring, like you. Since both are human beings in God's eye. He will have understood you, I engage. Endeavor, for your part, to understand He knows more, and loves better, than the world That never heard his name, and never may. He will have recognized, ere breath be spent And speech at end, how much that's good in man. And generous, and self-devoting, makes Monsieur Leonce Miranda worth his help ; While sounding to the bottom ignorance Historical and philosophical And moral and religious, all one couch Of crassitude, a portent of its kind. 432 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Then, just as he would pityingly teach Your body to repair maltreatment, give Advice that you should make those stumps to stir With artificial hands of caoutchouc, So would he soon supply your crippled soul With crutches, from his own intelligence, Ablf; to help you onward in the path Of rectitude whereto your face is set, And counsel justice — to yourself, the first, To your associate, very like a wife Or something better, — to the world at large, Friends, strangers, horses, hounds and Cousinry — All which amount of justice will include Justice to God. Go and consult his voice ! " Since angel would not say this simple truth, What hinders that my heart relieve itself, O friend, who makest warm my wintiy world, And wise my heaven, if there we consort too ? Monsieur Leonce Miranda turned, alas. Or was turned, by no angel, t'other way, And got him guidance of The Ravissante. CR, TURF AND TOWERS. 43: Now, into the originals of faith, Yours, mine, Miranda's, no inquiry here, Of faith, as apprehended by mankind, The causes, were they caught and catalogued, Would too distract, too desperately foil Inquirer. How may analyst reduce Quantities to exact their opposites, Value to zero, then bring zero back To value of supreme preponderance ? How substitute thing meant for thing expressed ? Detect the wire-thread through that fluffy silk Men call their rope, their real compulsive power? Suppose effected such anatomy. And demonstration made of what belief Has moved believer — were the consequence Reward at all? would each man straight deduce, From proved reality of cause, effect Conformable? believe and unbelieve According to your True thus disengaged From all his heap of False called reason first? 434 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY: No : hand once used to hold a soft thick twist, Cannot now grope its way by wire alone : Childhood may catch the knack, scarce Youth, not Age! That's the reply rewards you. Just as well Remonstrate to yon peasant in the blouse That, had he justified the true intent Of Nature who composed him thus and thus, Weakly or strongly, here he would not stand Struggling with uncongenial earth and sky, But elsewhere tread the surface of the globe. Since one meridian suits the faulty lungs, Another bids the sluggish liver work. " Here I was born, for better or for worse : I did not choose a climate for myself ; Admit, my life were healthy, led elsewhere," (He answers) "how am I to migrate, pray?" Therefore the course to take is — spare your pains, And trouble uselessly with discontent Nor soul nor body, by parading proof OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 435 That neither haply had known aihncnt, placed Precisely where the circumstance forbade Their lot should fall to either of the pair. But tiy and, uhat you find wrong, remedy, Accepting the conditions : never ask " How came you to be born here with those lungs, That liver ? " But bid asthma smoke a pipe. Stramonium, just as if no Tropics were, And ply with calomel the sluggish duet. Nor taunt "The born Norwegian breeds no bile!" And as with body, so proceed v>'ith soul : Nor less discerningly, where faith you found, However foolish and fantastic, grudge To play the doctor and amend mistake, Because a wisdom were conceivable Whence faith had sprung robust above disease. Far beyond human help, that source of things ! Since, in the first stage, so to speak, — first stare Of apprehension at the invisible, Begins divergency of mind from mind, Superior from inferior : leave this first ! 436 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Little you change there ! What comes afterward — From apprehended thing, each inference With practicality concerning life, This you may test and try, confirm the right Or contravene the wrong which reasons there. The offspring of the sickly faith must prove Sickly act also : stop a monster-birth ! When water's in the cup, and not the cloud, Then is the proper time for chemic test: Belief permits your skill to operate When, drop by drop condensed from misty heaven, 'Tis wrung out, lies a bowl-full in the fleece. How dew came down to earth, let Gideon say: What purpose water serves, jour word or two May teach him, should he fancy it lights fire. Concerning, then, our vaporous Ravissante — How fable first precipitated faith — Silence you get upon such point from me. But when I see come posting to the pair At Clairvaux, for the cure of soul-disease, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 437 This Father of the Mission, Parish-priest, This Mother of the Convent, Nun I know — They practise in that second stage of things ; They boast no fresh distillery of faith ; 'Tis dogma in the bottle, bright and old, They bring ; and I pretend to pharmacy. They midertake the cure with all my heart! He trusts them, and they surely trust themselves. I ask no better. Never mind the cause. Fans et origo of the malady. Apply the drug with courage ! Here's our case. Monsieur Leonce ?>Iiranda asks of God, — May a man, living in illicit tie. Continue, by connivance of the Church, No matter what amends he please to make Short of forthwith relinquishing the sin? Physicians, what do you propose for cure ? Father and Mother of The Ravissante, Read your own records, and you find prescribed As follows, when a couple out of sorts I 438 FED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Pvather tha^i gravel}^ suffering, sought your skill And thereby got their health again. Perpend! Two and a half good centuries ago, Luc de la Maison Rouge, a nobleman Of Claise, (the river gives this country name) And, just as noblewoman, Maude his wife, Having been married many happy years Spent in God's honor and man's service too, Conceived, while yet in flower of youth and hope, The project of departing each from each Forever, and dissolving marriage-bonds That both might enter a religious life. Needing, before they came to such resolve, Divine illumination, — course was clear, — They visited your church in pilgrimage. On Christmas morn, communicating straight, They heard three Masses proper for the day, " It is incredible with what eflect " — Quoth the Cistercian monk I copy from — And, next day, came, again communicants, Again heard Masses manifold, but now OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 439 With added thanks to Christ for special grace And consolation granted : in the night, Had been divorce from marriage, manifest By signs and tokens. So, they made great gifts, Left money for more Masses, and returned Homeward rejoicing — he, to take the rules, As Brother Dionysius, Capucin, She, to become first postulant, then nun According to the rules of Benedict, Sister Scolastica : so ended they, And so do I — not end nor yet commence One note or comment. What was done was done. Now, Father of the Mission, here's your case ! And, Mother of the Convent, here's its cure ! If separation was permissible, And that decree of Christ, " What God hath joined Let no man put asunder," nullified Because a couple, blameless in the world, Had the conceit that, still more blamelessly, Out of the world, by breach of marriage-vow, Their life was like to pass, — you oracles 440 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY: Of God, — since holy Paul says such you are, — Hesitate, not one moment, to pronounce When questioned by the pair now needing help *' Each from the other go, you guilty ones, Preliminary to your least approach Nearer the Power that thus could strain a point In favor of a pair of innocents Who thought their wedded hands not clean enough To touch and leave unsullied their souls' snow ! Are not your hands found filthy by the world, Mere human law and custom ? Not a step Nearer till hands be washed and purified ! " What they did say is immaterial, since Certainly it was nothing of the kind. There was no washing hands of him (alack, You take me? — in the figurative sense!) But, somehow, gloves were drawn o'er dirt and all. And practice with the Church procured thereby. Seeing that, — all remonstrance proved in vain, Persuasives tried and terrors put to use, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 44 • I nowise question, — when the guilt}' pair Only embraced the closelier, obstinate, — Father and Mother went from Clairvaux back Their wear}' way, with heaviness of heart, I grant you, but each palm well crossed with coin, And nothing like a smutch perceptible. Monsieur Leonce Miranda niight compound For sin? — no, surely! but by gifts — prepare His soul the better for contrition, say ! Gift followed upon gift, at all events. Good counsel was rejected, on one part : Hard money, on the other — may we hope Was unreflectingly consigned to purse? Two years did this experiment engage Monsieur Leonce Miranda: how by gifts -To God and to God's poor, a man might stay In sin and yet stave off sin's punishment. No salve could be conceived more nicely mixed For this man's nature, — generosity, — Susceptibility to human ills, 442 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Corporeal, mental, — self-devotedness Made up Miranda — whether strong or weak Elsewhere, may be inquired another time. In mercy, he was strong, at all events. Enough ! he could not see a beast in pain, Much less a man, without the will to aid ; And where the will was, there the means were too, Since that good bargain with the Cousinry. The news flew fast about the countryside That, with the kind man, it was ask and have; And ask and have they did. To instance you: — A mob of beggars at The Ravissante Clung to his skirts one day, and cried, " We thirst ! " Forthwith he bade a cask of wine be broached To satisfy all comers, till, dead-drunk And satisfied, they strewed the holy place. For this was grown religious and a rite : Such slips of judgment, gifts irregular, Showed but as spillings of the golden grist On either side the hopper, through blind zeal ; OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 443 Steadily the main stream went pouring on From mill to mouth of sack — held wide and close By Father of the Mission, Parish-priest, And Mother of the Convent, Nun I know, With such effect that, in the sequel, proof Was tendered to the Court at Virc, last month, That in these same two years, expenditure At quiet Clairvaux rose to the amount Of Forty Thousand English pounds : whereof A trifle went, no inappropriate close Of bount}', to supply the Virgin's crown With that stupendous jewel from New York, Now blazing as befits the Star of Sea. Such signs of grace, outward and visible, I rather give you, for your sake and mine, Than put in evidence the inward strife, Spiritual effort to compound for fault By payment of devotion — thank the phrase ! That payment was as punctual, do not doubt, As its far easier fjllow. Yesterday 444 KED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; I trudged the distance from The Ravissante To Clairvaux, with my two feet: but our friend, The more to edif}^ tlie countiy-folk, Was wont to make that journey on both knees. '' Maliciously perverted incident ! " Snarled the retort, when this was told at Vire : " The man paid mere devotion as he passed. Knelt decently at just each wayside shrine ! " Alas, my lawyer, I trudged yesterdaj' — On my two feet, and with both eyes wide ope, - The distance, and could find no shrine at all ! According to his lights, I praise the man. Enough ! incessant was devotion, say — With her, you know of, praying at his side. Still, there be relaxations of the tense : Or life indemnifies itself for strain. Or finds its very strain grow feebleness. Monsieur Leonce Miranda's days were passed Much as of old, in simple work and play. His first endeavor, on recovery From that sad ineffectual sacrifice, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 445 Had been to set about repairing loss: Never admitting, loss was to repair. No word at any time escaped his lips — Betrayed a lurking presence, in his heart, Of sorrow ; no regret for mischief done — Punishment suffered, he would rather say. Good-tempered schoolboj^-fashion, he preferred . To laugh away his flogging, fair price paid For pleasure out of bounds : if needs must be, Get pleasure and get flogged a second time ! A sullen subject would have nursed the scars And made excuse, for thi'owing grammar by, That bench was grown uneasy to the seat. No : this poor fellow cheerfully got hands Fit for his stumps, and what hands failed to do, The other members did in their degree — Unwonted service. With his mouth alone He wrote, nay, painted pictures — think of that? He played on a piano pedal-keyed, Kicked out — if it was Bach's — good music thence. He rode, that's readily conceivable, 446 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; But then he shot and never missed his bird, With other feats as dexterous : I infer He was not ignorant what hands are worth, When lie resolved on ruining his own. So the two years passed somehow — who shall say Foolishly, — as one estimates mankind. The work they do, the play they leave undone ? — Two whole years spent in that experiment I told you of, at Clairvaux all the time. From April on to April : why that month More than another, notable in life ? Does the awakening of the year arouse Man to new projects, nen^e him for fresh feats Of what proves, for the most part of mankind Playing or working, novel folly too? At any rate, I see no slightest sign Of folly (let me tell you in advance) Nothing but wisdom meets me manifest In the procedure of the Twentieth Day Of April, 'Seventy,— folly's year in France. I OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 447 It Was delightful Spring, and out of doors TcmiDtation to adventure. Walk or ride ? There was a wild young horse to exercise, And teach the way to go, and pace to keep: Monsieur Leonce Miranda chose to ride. So, while they clapped soft saddle straight on back, And bitted jaw to satisfaction, — since The partner of his days must stay at home, Teased by some trifling legacy of March To throat or shoulder, — visit duly paid And "farewell" given and received again, — As chamber-door considerately closed Behind him, still five minutes were to spend. How better, than by clearing, two and two, The staircase-steps and coming out aloft Upon the platform yonder (raise your e3res!) And tasting, just as those two years before. Spring's bright advance upon the tower a-top, The feature of the front, the Belvedere? Look at it for a moment while I breathe. IV. Ready to hear the rest ? How orood vou are ! Now for this Twentieth splendid day of Spring, All in a tale, — sun, wind, sky, earth and sea, — To bid man, " Up, be doing ! " Mount the stair, Monsieur Leonce Miranda mounts so brisk. And look — ere his elastic foot arrive — Your longest, far and wide, o'er fronting space. Yon white streak — Havre lighthouse ! Name and name, How the mind runs from each to each relay, Town after town, till Paris' self be touched. Superlatively big with life and death TURF AND TOWERS. 419 To all the world, that very day perhaps ! But who stepped out upon the platform here, Pinnacled over the expanse, gave thought Neither to Rouher nor Ollivier, Roon Nor Bismarck, Emperor nor King, but just To steeple, church, and shrine. The Ravissante ! He saw Her, whom myself saw, but when Spring Was passing into Fall : not robed and crowned As, thanks to him, and her you knov/ about. She stands at present; but She smiled the same. Thither he turned — to never turn away. He thought . . (Suppose I should prefer "He said"? Along with ever}' act — and speech is act — There go, a multitude impalpable To ordinar}' human facult}', The thoughts which give the act significance. Wlio is a poet needs must apprehend 45 o RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Alike both speech and thoughts which prompt to speak. Part these, and thouglit withdraws to poetry: Speech is reported in the newspaper.) He said, then, probably no word at all, But thought as follows — in a minute's space — One particle of ore beats out such leaf ! "This Spring morn, I am forty-three j-ears old: In prime of life, perfection of estate Bodily, mental, nay, material too, — My very worldly fortunes reach their height. Body and soul alike on eminence : It is not probable I ever raise Soul above standard by increase of worth, Nor reasonably may expect to lift Body beyond the present altitude. " Behold me, Lady called The Ravissante ! Such as I am, I — gave myself to you OR, TURF AXD TOWERS. 451 So long since, that I cannot say ' I give.' All my belongings, what is summed in life, I have submitted wholly — as man might. At least, as /might, who am weak, not strong, — Wholly, then, to your rule and governance, So far as I had strength. My weakness w^as — I felt a fascination, at each point And pore of me, a Power as absolute Claiming, my soul should recognize her sway. O you were no whit clearlier Queen, I see. Throughout the life that rolls out ribbon-like Its shot-silk length behind me, than the strange Mystery — how shall I denominate The unrobed One ? Robed you go and crowned as well, Named by the nations : she is hard to name, Though you have spelt out certain characters Obscure upon what fillet binds her brow, Lust of the fleshy lust of the eye, Ife 'j pride. ' So call her, and contemn the enchantress!' — * Crush The despot, and recover liberty ! ' 452 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; You were conspicuous and pre-eminent, Authoritative and imperial, — you Spoke first, claimed homage he : did I hesitate ? Born for no master}', but servitude, I cannot serve two masters, says the Book ; Master should measure strength with master, then. Before the servant be imposed a task. You spoke first, promised best, and threatened most ; The other never threatened, promised, spoke A single word, but, when your part was done, Lifted a finger, and I, prostrate, knew Films were about me, though you stood aloof Smiling or frowning, 'Where is power like mine To punish or reward thee ? Rise, thou fool ! WiR to be free, and, lo, I lift thee loose ! ' Did I not will, and could I rise a whit ? Lay I, at any time, content to lie ? 'To lie, at all events, brings pleasure: make Amends by undemanded pain ! ' I said. Did not you prompt me t ' Purchase now by pain Pleasure hereafter in the world to come ! ' OR, rURF AND TOWERS. 453 I could not pluck my heart out, as you bade : Unbidden, I burned off ray hands at least. My soul retained its treasure ; but my purse Lightened itself with much alacriL3^ Well, where is the reward ? what promised fruit Of sacrifice in peace, content ? what sense Of added strength to bear or to forbear ? What influx of new light assists me now Even to guess you recognize a gain In what was loss enough to mortal me ? But she, the less authoritative voice, Oh, how distinct enunciating, how Plain dealing ! Gain she gave was gain indeed ! That, you deny : that, you contemptuous call Acorns, swine's food not man's meat ! ' Spurn the draff! ' Ay, but those life-tree apples I prefer, Am I to die of hunger till they drop ? Husks keep flesh from starvation, anyhow. Give those life-apples ! — one, worth woods of oak, Worth acorns by the wagon-load, — one shoot Through heart and brain, assurance bright and brief 454 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; That you, my Lady, my own Ravissante, Feel, through my famine, served and satisfied, Own me, your starveling, soldier of a sort ! Your soldier ! do I read my title clear Even to call myself your friend, not foe ? What is the pact between us but a truce ? At best I shall have staved off enmity. Obtained a respite, ransomed me from wrath. I pay, instalment by instalment, life, Earth's tribute-money, pleasures great and small, Whereof should at the last one penny piece Fall short, the whole heap becomes forfeiture. You find in me deficient soldiership : Want the whole life or none. I grudge that whole Because I am not sure of recompense : Because I want faith. Whose the fault ? I ask. If insufficient faith have done thus much, Contributed thus much of sacrifice. More would move mountains, you are warrant. Well, Grant, you, the grace, I give the gratitude ! And what were easier? 'Ask and have' folk call OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 455 Miranda's method : ' Have, nor need to ask ! ' So do they formulate your quality Superlative beyond my human grace. The Ravissante, you ravish men away From jDuny aches and petty pains, assuaged By man's own art with small expenditure Of pill or potion, unless, put to shame, Nature is roused and sets things right herself. Your miracles are grown our common-place ; No day but pilgrim hobbles his last mile. Kneels down and rises up, flings crutch away, Or else appends it to the reverend heap Beneath you, votive cripple-carpentry. Some few meet failure — oh, they wanted faith, And may betake themselves to La Salette, Or seek Lourdes, so that hence the scandal limp ! The many get their grace and go their way Rejoicing, with a tale to tell, — most like, A staff to borrow, since die crutch is gone, Should the first telling happen at my house, And teller wet his whistle with my wine. 456 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; I tell this to a doctor and he laughs : ' Give me permission to cry — Out of bed, You loath rheumatic sluggard ! Cheat yon chair Of laziness, its gouty occupant ! — You should see miracles performed ! But now, I give advice, and take as fee ten francs, And do as much as does your Ravissante. Send her that case of cancer to be cured, I have refused to treat for any fee, Bring back my would-be patient sound and whole, And see me laugh on t'other side my mouth ! ' Can he be right, and are you hampered thus ? Such pettiness restricts a miracle Wrought by the Great Physician, who hears prayer. Visibly seated in your mother-lap ? He, out of notliing, made sky, earth, and sea, And all that in them is, man, beast, bird, fish, Down to this insect on my parapet. Look how the marvel of a minim crawls ! Were I to kneel among the halt and maimed, And pra}-, ' Who mad'st the insect with ten legs. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 457 Make me one finge r, grow where ten were once ! ' The very priests would thrust me out of church. ' What folly does the madman dare expect ? No faith obtains — in this late age, at least — Such cur e as that ! We ease rheumatics, though ! ' " Ay, bring the early ages back again, What prodigy were unattainable ? I read your annals. Here came Louis Onze, Gave thrice the sum he ever gave before At one time, some three hundred crowns, to wit — On pilgrimage to pray for — health, he found ? Did he ? I do not read it in Commines. Here sent poor joyous Marie-Antoinette To thank you that a Dauphin dignified Her motherhood — since Duke of Normandy And Martyr of the Temple, much the same As if no robe of hers had dressed you rich. No silver lamps, she gave, illumed your shrine ! Here, following example, fifty years Ago, in gratitude for birth again 45S RED COTTON NIGin-CAP COUNTRY ; Of yet another destined King of France, Did not the Duchess fashion with her hands, And frame in gold and crystal, and present A bouquet made of artificial flowers? And was he King of France, and is not he Still Count of Chambord? " Such the days of faith, And such their produce to encourage mine ! What now, if I too count without my host ? I too have given money, ornament. And ' artificial flowers' — which, when I plucked. Seemed rooting at my heart and real enough : What if I gain thereby nor health of mind, Nor youth renewed which perished in its prime. Burnt to a cinder 'twixt the red-hot bars, Nor gain to see my second baby-hope Of managing to live on terms with both Opposing potentates, the Power and you, Crowned with success, but dawdle out my days In exile here at Clairvaux, with mock love, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 459 That gives, while whispering 'Would I dared re- fuse ! ' — What the loud voice declares my heart's free gift ! Mock worship, mock superioritj' O'er those I style the world's benighted ones, That irreligious sort I pity so, Dumas and even Hertford, who is Duke? " Impiety ? Not if I know myself ! Not if you know the heart and soul, I bear, I bid you cut, hack, slash, anatomize. Till peccant part be found and flung away! Demonstrate where I need more faith ! Describe ^^^.lat act shall evidence sufficiency Of faith, your warrant for such exercise Of power, in my behalf, as all the world, Except poor praying me, declares profuse? Poor me? It is that world, not me alone, That world which prates of fixed laws and the J>ke, I fain would save, poor world so ignorant! And your part were — vrhat easy miracle? 460 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Oh, Lady, could I make your want like mine ! " Then his face grew one luminosity. "Simple, sufficient! Happiness at height! I solve the riddle, I persuade mankind. I have been just the simpleton who stands — Summoned to claim his patrimonial rights — At shilly-shally, may he knock or no At his own door in his own house and home Whereof he holds the very title-deeds ! Here is my title to this propert}'. This power you hold for profit of myself And all the world at need ^ which need is now! My title — let me hear who controverts I Count Mailleville built yon church. Why did he so? Because he found your image. How came that? His shepherd told him that a certain sheep Was wont to scratch with hoof and scrape with horn At ground where once the Danes had razed a church. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 461 Tliither he went, and there he dug, and thence He disinterred the image he conveyed In pomp to Londres yonder, his domain. You liked the old place better than the new. The Count might surely have divined as much: He did not ; some one might have spoke a word : No one did. A mere dream had warned enough, That back again in pomp you best were borne : No dream warned, and no need of convoy was ; An angel caught you up and clapped you down, — No mighty task, you stand one metre high, Aud people carry you about at times. Why, then, did you despise the simple course? Because you are the Queen of Angels : when You front us in a picture, there flock they, Angels around you, here and everywhere. " Therefore, to prove indubitable faith. Those angels that acknowledge you their queen, I summon them to bear me to your feet From Clairvaux through the air, an easy trip 1 462 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Faith without flaw! I trust your potency, Berevolence, your will to save the world — By such a simplest of procedures, too ! Not even by affording angel-help. Unless it please you : there's a simpler mode : Only suspend the law of gravity, And, whili at back, permitted to propel, The air helps onward, let the air in front Cease to oppose my passage through the midst ! " Thus I bestride the railing, leg o'er leg. Thus, lo, I stand, a single inch away, At dizzy edge of death, — no touch of fear, As safe on tower above as turf below ! Your smile enswathes me in beatitude, You lift along the votaiy — who vaults. Who, in the twinkling of an eye, revives, Dropped safely in the space before the church — How crowded, since this morn is market-day ! I shall not need to speak. The news v>'ill run Like wild-fire. ' Thousands saw Miranda's flight ! ' OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 463 'Tis telegraphed to Paris in a trice. The Boulevard is one buzz ' Do you believe ? Well, this time, thousands saw Miranda's flight : You know him, goldsmith in the Place Vendome.' In goes the Empress to the Emperor, ' Now — will you hesitate to make disgorge Your wicked King of Italy his gains, Give the Legations to the Pope once more ? ' Which done, — why, grace goes back to operate, They themselves set a good example first, Resign the empire twenty years usurped. And Henry, the Desired One, reigns o'er France! Regenerated France makes all things new ! My house no longer stands on Quai Rousseau, But Quai rechristened Alacoque : a quai Where Renan burns his book, and Veuillot burns Renan beside, since Veuillot rules the roast, Re-edits now indeed 'The Universe.' O blessing, O superlatively big With blessedness beyond all blessing dreamed By man ! for just that promise has effect, 464 RFD COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; * Old things shall pass away and all be new ! ' Then, for a culminating mercy-feat, "Wherefore should I dare dream impossible That I too have my portion in the change ? My past with all its sorrow, sin and shame, Becomes a blank, a nothing ! There she stands, Clara de Millefleurs, all deodorized, Twent)'- years' stain wiped ofE her innocence ! There never was Muhlhausen, nor at all Duke Hertford : nought that was, remains, except The beauty, — yes, the beauty is unchanged! Well, and the soul too, that must keep the same ! And so the trembling little virgin hand Melts into mine, that's back again, of course ! — Think not I care about my poor old self! I only want my hand for that one use, To take her hand, and say, 'I marry you — Men, women, angels, you behold my wife ! There is no secret, nothing wicked here, Nothing she does not wish the world to know ! ' None of vour married women have the right OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 465 To mutter, 'Yes, indeed, she beats us all In beaut)^, — but our lives are pure at least!' Bear witness, for our marriage is no thing Done in a corner ! 'Tis The Ravissante Repairs the wrong of Paris. See, She smiles, She beckons, She bids, ' Hither, both of you ! ' And may we kneel? And will j-ou bless us both? And may I worship you, and yet love her i Then ! " A sublime spring from the balustrade About the tower so often talked about, A flash in middle air, and stone-dead lay Monsieur Leonce Miranda on the turf. A gardener who watched, at work the while Dibbling a flower-bed for geranium-shoots, Saw the catastrophe, and, straightening back, Stood up and shook his brows. " Poor soul, poor soul. Just what I prophesied the end Avould be ! Ugh — the Red Night-cap ! " (as he raised the head) 466 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; "This must be what he meant by those strange words While I Avas weeding larkspurs, yesterday, ' Angels would take him ! ' Mad ! " No ! sane, I say. Such being the conditions of his life, Such en.d of life was not irrational. Hold a belief, you only half believe, With all-momentous issues either way, — And I advise you imitate this leap, Put faith to proof, be cured or killed at once ! Call you man, killed through cutting cancer out, The worse for such an act of bravery ? That's more than / know. In my estimate. Better lie prostrate on his turf at peace, Than, wistful, eye, from out the tent, the tower. Racked with a doubt, "Will going on bare knees All the way to The Ravissante and back. Saying my Ave Mary all the time, Somewhat excuse if I postpone my march? OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 467 — Make due amends for that one kiss I gave In gratitude to her who held me out Superioi Fricquot's sermon, hot from press, A-spread with hands so sinful yet so smooth ? '' And now, sincerely do I pray she stand, Clara, with interposing sweep of robe. Between us and this horror! Any screen Turns white by contrast with the tragic pall; And her dubiety distracts at least, As well as snow, from such decided black. With womanhood, at least, we have to do : Ending with Clara — is the word too kind ? Let pass the shock! There's poignancy enough When what one parted with, a minute since, Alive and happy, is returned a wreck — All that was, all that seemed about to be. Razed out and ruined now forevermore. Because a straw descended on this scale Rather than that, made death o'er-balance life. 468 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; But think of cage-mates in captivity, Inured to day-long, night-long vigilance Each of the other's tread and angry turn When, bolt on prison-bars, a captive came ! These two, society shut out, and thus Penned in, to settle down and regulate By the strange law^, the solitary life — When death divorces such a fellowship. This may pair off with that prodigious woe Imagined of a ghastly brotherhood — One watcher left in lighthouse out at sea. With leagues of surf between the land and him, Alive with his dead partner on the rock ; One galley-slave, whom curse and blow compel To labor on at oar — beside his chain. Encumbered with his corpse-companion now. Such these : although, no prisoners, self-intrenched. They kept the world off from their barricade. Memory, gratitude was poignant, sure. Though pride brought consolation of a kind. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 469 Twenty years long, had Clara been — of whom The rival, na}', the victor, past dispute ? What if in turn The Ravissante at length Proved victor — which was doubtful — anyhow, Here lay the inconstant with, conspicuous too. The fruit of his good fortune ! " Has he gained By leaving me ? " she might soliloquize : ''All love could do, I did for him. I learned By heart his nature, what he loved and loathed, Leaned to with liking, turned from with distaste. No matter what his least velleity, I was determined he should want no wish. And in conformity administered To his requirement ; most of joy I mixed With least of sorrow in life's daily draught, Twenty years long, life's proper average. And when he got to quarrel with my cup, Would needs out-sweeten honey, and discard That gall-drop we require lest nectar cloy, — 470 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; I did not call him fool, and vex my friend, But quietly allowed experiment. Encouraged him to dust his drink, and now Grate ligfuuti vifcB, now bruise so-called grains Of Paradise, and now, for perfume, pour Distilment rare, the rose of Jericho, Holy-thorn, passion-flower, and what know I ? Till beverage obtained the fancied smack. 'Twas wild-flower-wine that neither helped nor harmed Who sipped and held it for restorative — What harm ? But here has he been through the hedge Straying in search of simples, while my back Was turned a minute, and he finds a prize, Monkshood and belladonna ! O my child, My truant little bo}', despite the beard, The body two feet broad and six feet long, And v>'hat the calendar counts middle age — You wanted, did you, to enjoy a flight? Why not have taken into confidence OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 471 Me, that was_motherto you ? — never mind What mock disguise of mistress held you mine ! Had you come laughing, ciying, with request, ' Make me fly, mother ! ' I had run up stairs, And held you tight the while I danced you high In air from tower-top, singing, ' Off we go (On pilgrimage to Lourdes some day next month), And swift we soar (to Rome with Peter-pence), And low we light (at Paris where we pick Another jewel from our store of stones And send it for a present to the Pope) ! ' So, dropped indeed you were, but on my knees. Rolling and crowing, not a bit the worse For journey to your Ravissante and back. Now, no more Clairvaux — which I made you build, And think an inspiration of your own — No more fine house, trim garden, pretty park, Nothing I used to busy you about. And make believe you worked for my surprise ! What weariness to me will work become Now that I need not seem surprised again ! 472 RED COTTON NIGHT -CAT COUNT/iY; This boudoir, for example, witli the doves (My stupid maid has damaged, dusting one) Embossed in stucco o'er the looking-glass Beside the toilet-table ! dear — dear me i " Here she looked up from her absorbing grief. And round her, crow-l ike grouped, th e Cousinry, (She grew aware) sat witnesses at watch. For, two daj^s had elapsed since fate befel The courser in the meadow, stretched so stark. They did not cluster on the tree-tops, close Their sooty ranks, caw and confabulate For nothing : but, like calm determined crows. They came to take possession of their corpse. And who shall blame them ? Had not they the right ? One spoke. " They would be gentle, not austere. They understood, and were compassionate. Madame Muhlhausen lay too abject now For aught but the sincerest pity ; still, Since plain speech salves the wound it seems to make, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. ^-73 They must speak plainly — circumstances spoke ! Sin had conceived and brought forth death indeed. As the commencement, so the close of things : Just what might be expected all along ! Monsieur Lconce Miranda launched his youth Into a cesspool of debauchery, And, if he thence emerged all dripping slime, — " Where was the change except from thin to thick, One warm rich mud-bath, Madame ? — you, in place Of Paris-drainage and distilment, you He never needed budge from, boiled to rags ! True, some good instinct left the natural man, Some touch of that deep dye wherewith imbued By education, in his happier day. The hopeful offspring of high parentage Was fleece-marked moral and religious sheep, — Some ruddle, faint reminder, (we admit) Stuck to Miranda, rubbed he ne'er so rude Against the goatly coarseness ; to the last, Moral he styled himself, religious too ! Which means — what ineradicable good, 474 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; You found, you never left till good's self proved Perversion and distortion, nursed to growth So monstrous, that the tree-stock, dead and dry. Were seemlier far than such a heap grotesque Of fungous flourishing excresence. Here, Sap-like affection, meant for family, Stole off to feed one sucker fat — yourself ; While branchage, trained religiously aloft To rear its head in reverence to the sun, Was pulled down earthward, pegged and picketed, By topiary contrivance, till the tree Became an arbor where, at vulgar ease, Sat superstition grinning through the loops. Still, nature is too strong or else too weak For cockney treatment: either, tree springs back To pristine shape, or else degraded droops, And turns to touchwood at the heart. So here — Body and mind, at last the man gave way. His body — there it lies, what part was left Unmutilated ! for, the strife commenced Two years ago, when, both hands burnt to ash, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 475 A branch broke loose, by loss of what choice twigs! As for his mind — behold our register Of all its moods, from the incipient mad, Nay, mere erratic, to the stark insane, Absolute idiocy or what is worse ! All have we catalogued — extravagance In worldly matters, luxury absurd. And zeal as crazed in its expenditure Of nonsense called devotion. Don't we know — We Cousins, bound in duty to our kin, — Wliat mummeries were practised by you two At Clairvaux ? Not a servant got discharge But came and told his grievance, testified To acts which turn religion to a farce. And as the private mock, so patent — see — The public scandal ! Ask the neighborhood — Or rather, since we asked them long ago. Read w^hat they answer, depositions down. Signed, sealed and sworn to ! Brief, the man was mad. We are his heirs and claim our heritage. \ 476 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Madame Muhlhausen, — whom good taste forbids We qualify as do these documents, — I'ear not lest justice stifle mercy's prayer ! True, bad you lent a willing ear at first, Had you obeyed our call two years ago, Restrained a certain insolence of eye, A volubility of tongue, that time. Your prospects had been none the worse, perhaps. Still, fear not but a decent competence Shall smooth the way for j^our declining age ! What we propose, then . ." Clara dried her eyes, Sat up, surveyed the consistory, spoke, After due pause, with something of a smile. " Gentlemen, kinsfolk of my friend defunct, In thus addressing me — of all the world! — You much misapprehend what part I play. I claim no property you speak about. You might as well address the park-keeper, on, 7URF AND TOWERS. 477 Harangue him on some plan advisable For covering the park with cottage-plots. He is the sen-ant, no proprietor, His business is to see the sward kept trim, Untrespassed over by the indiscreet : Beyond that, he refers you to myself — Another servant of another kind — Who again — quite as limited in act — Refer you, with your projects, — can I else ? To who in mastery is ultimate. The Church. The Church is sole administrant, Since sole possessor of what worldly wealth Monsieur Leonce Miranda late possessed. Often enough has he attempted, nay. Forced me, well-nigh, to occupy the post You seemingly suppose I fill, — receive As gift the wealth intrusted me as grace. This — for quite other reasons than appear So cogent to your perspicacity, — This I refused ; and, firm as you could wish. Still was my answer, ' We t^vo understand 478 RED COTTON NIGIIT-CAP COUNTRY; Each one the other. I am intimate — As how can be mere fools and knaves — or say, Even your Cousins? — with your love to me, Devotion to the Churcli. Would Providence Appoint, and make me certain of the same. That I survive you (which is little like, Seeing you hardly overpass my age And more than match me in abundant health) In such case, certainly I would accept Your bounty : better I than alien hearts Should execute your planned benevolence To man, your proposed largess to the Church. But though I be survivor, — weakly frame, With only woman's wit to make amends, — When I shall die, or while I am alive. Cannot you figure me an easy mark For hypocritical rapacit}', Kith, kin and generation, couching low, Ever on the alert to pounce on prey ? Far be it I should say they profited By that first frenzj^-fit themselves induced, — OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 479 Cold-blooded scenical buffoons_at sport With horror and damnatio n o'er a grave : That were too shocking — I absolve them there ! Nor did they seize the moment of your swoon To rifle pocket, v/ring a paper thence, Their Cousinly dictation, and enrich Thereby each mother's son as heart could wish. Had nobody supplied a codicil. But when the pain, poor friend ! had prostrated Your body, though your soul was right again, I fear they turned your weakness to account ! Why else to me, who agonizing watched. Sneak, cap in hand, now bribe me to forsake jSIy maimed Leonce, now bully, cap on head, The impudent pretension to assuage Such sorrows as demanded Cousin's care? — For you rejected^ hated, fled 7ne, far. In foreign lands you laughed at ?ne ! — they judged. And, think you, will the unkind ones hesitate To tn,- conclusions with my helplessness, — To pounce on, misuse me, your derelict, 4&0 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY: Helped by advantage that bereavement lends Folks, who, while yet you lived, played tricks like these ? You only have to die, and they detect. In all you said and did, insanity ! Your faith was fetish-worship, your regard For Christ's prime precept which endows the poor And strips the rich, a craze from first to last ! They so would limn your likeness, paint your life, That if it ended by some accident, — For instance, if, attempting to arrange The plants below that dangerous Belvedere I cannot warn you from sufficiently. You lost 3'Our balance and fell headlong — fine Occasion, such, for ciying. Suicide! Non compos mentis, naturally next. Hands over Clairvaux to a Cousin-tribe Who nor like me nor love The Ravissante, Therefore be ruled by both ! Life-interest In Clairvaux, — conservation, guardianship Of earthly good for heavenly purpose, — give OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 48 1 Such and no other proof of confidence ! Let Clara represent The Ravissante ! " — To whom accordingly, he then and there Bequeathed each stick and stone, by testament In holograph, mouth managing the quill : Go, see the sam.e in Londres, if j'ou doubt ! " Then smile grew laugh, as sudden up she stood And out she spoke : intemperate the speech ! " And now, sirs, for your special courtesy, Your candle held up to the character Of Lucie Steiner, whom you qualify As coming short of perfect womanhood. Yes, kindly critics, truth for once you tell ! True is it that through childhood, poverty. Sloth, pressure of temptation, I succumbed. And, ere I found what honor meant, lost mine. So was tlie sheep lost, which the Shepherd found And never lost again. My friend found me ; Or better say, the Shepherd found us both — 482 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; Since he, my friend, was mucli in the same mire When first we made acquaintance. Each helped each, — A twofold extrication from the slough ; And, saving me, he saved himself. Since then, Unsmirched we kept our cleanliness of coat. It is his perfect constancy, you call My friend's main fault — he never left his love! While as for me, I dare your worst, impute One breach of loving bond, these twenty years. To me whom only cobwebs bound, you count ! ' He was religiously disposed in youth ! ' That may be, though we did not meet at church. Did he become Voltarian like your scamps, Under my teaching, fools who mock his faith? ' Infirm of body ! ' I am silent there : Even yourselves acknowledge service done, Whatever motive your own souls supply As inspiration. Love made labor light." Then laugh grevs' frown, and frown grew terrible. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 4^3 Do recollect what sort of person shrieked — " Such was I, saint or sinner, what you please : And who is it casts stone at me but you ? By your own showing, sirs, you bought and sold. Took what advantage bargain promised bag, Abundantly did business, and with whom ? Miranda! — you pronounce imbecile, push Indignantly aside if he presume To settle his affairs like other folk ! How is it you have stepped into his shoes, And stand there, bold as brass, ' Miranda, late, Now, Firm-Miranda?' Sane, he signed away That little birthright, did he ? Hence to trade ! I know you, and he knew who dipped and ducked. Truckled and plaj-ed the parasite in vain. As now one, now the other, here you cringed, Were feasted, took our presents, you — those drops, Just for your wife's adornment ! you — that spray Exactly suiting, as most diamonds do. Your daughter on her marriage ! No word then Of somebody the wanton ! Hence, I say, 484 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Subscribers to the ' Siecle,' every snob — For here the post brings me the ' Univers ' ! Home and make money in the Place Vendome, Sully yourselves no longer by my sight, And^ when next Schneider wants a new parure, Be careful lest you stick there by mischance That stone beyond compare intrusted you To kindle faith with, when, Miranda's gift, Crowning the very crown. The Ravissante Shall claim it ! As to Clairvaux — talk to Her ! She answers by the Chapter of Raimbaux ! " Vituperative, truly ! All this wrath Because the man's relations thought him mad ! Whereat, I hope you see the Cousinry Turn each to other, blankly dolorous, Consult a moment, more by shrug and shrug Than mere man's language, — finally conclude To leave the reprobate untroubled now In her unholy triumph, till the Law Shall right the injured ones ; for gentlemen Allow the female sex, this sort at least, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 48: Its privilege. So, simply " Cockatrice ! " — " Jezebel ! "' — " Queen of the Camellias ! " — cried Cousin to cousin, as yon hinge a-creak Shut out the party, and the gate returned To custody of Clairvaux. " Pretty place ! What say you, when it proves our propert}', To tr)'ing a concurrence with La Roche, And laying down a rival oyster-bed ? Where the park ends, the sea begins, you know." So took they comfort till they came to Vire. But I would linger, fain to snatch a look At Clara as she stands in pride of place. Somewhat more satisfying than my glance So furtive, so near futile, yesterday, Because one must be courteous. Of the masks That figure in this little history, She only has a claim to my respect, And one-eyed, in her French phrase, rules the blind. Miranda hardly did his best with life : He might have opened eye, exerted brain, 486 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Attained conception as to right and law In certain points respecting intercourse Of man with woman — love, one Hkes to say; \Vliich knowledge had dealt rudely with the claim Of Clara to play representative And from perdition rescue soul, forsooth ! Also, the sense of him should have sufficed For building up some better theory Of how God operates in heaven and earth, Than would establish Him participant In doings yonder at The Ravissante. The heart was wise according to its lights And limits ; but the head refused more sun, And shrank into its mew, and craved less space. Clara, I hold the happier specimen, — It may be, through that artist-preference For work complete, inferiorly proposed, To incompletion, though it aim aright. Morally, no ! Aspire, break bounds ! I say Endeavor to be good, and better still, And best ! Success is nought, endeavor's all. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 487 But intellect adjusts the means to ends, Tries the low thing, and leaves it done, at least y No prejudice to high thing, intellect Would do and will do, only give the means. Miranda, in my picture-gallery, Presents a Blake; be Clara — Meissonnier ! Merely considered so, by artist, mind ! For, break through Art and rise to poetry, Bring Art to tremble nearer, touch enough The verge of vastness to inform our soul What orb makes transit through the dark above. And there's the triumph ! — there the incomplete, More than completion, matches the immense, — Then, Michelagnolo against the world ! With this proviso, let me study her Approvingly, the finished little piece ! Born, bred, with just one instinct, — that of growth : Her quality was, caterpillar-like, To ail-unerringly select a leaf And without intermission feed her fill, Become the Painted Peacock, or belike 488 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY ; The Brimstone-wing, when time of year should suit ; And 'tis a sign (say entomologists) Of sickness, when the creature stops its meal One minute, either to look up at heaven, Or turn aside for change of aliment. No doubt there was a certain ugliness In the beginning, as the grub grew worm : She could not find the proper plant at once. But crawled and fumbled through a whole parterre. Husband Muhlhausen served for stuff not long : Then came confusion of the slimy track From London, " where she gave the tone a while," To Paris : let the stalks start up again, Now she is off them, all the greener they ! But, settled on Miranda, how she sucked, Assimilated juices, took the tint, Mimicked the form and te.xture of her food ! Was he for pastime ? Who so frolic-fond As Clara? Had he a devotion-fit? Clara grew serious with like qualm, be sure I In health and strength he, — healthy too and strong. I OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 4S9 She danced, rode, drove, took pistol-practice, fished. Nay, " managed sea-skifF with consummate skill." In pain and weakness, he, — she patient watched And whiled the slow drip-dropping hours away. She bound again the broken self-respect, She picked out the true meaning from mistake, Praised effort in each stumble, laughed, " Well-climbed ! " When otjiers groaned, " None ever grovelled so ! '' "Rise, you Jhave gained experience!" was her word : "Lie satisfied, the ground is just your place!" They thought appropriate counsel. " Live, n ot die. And t ake^jTiy, full life to eke out your own : That shall repay me and with interest ! Write ! — is your mojath not clever as my hand ? Paint! — the_Jast_ Exposition warrants me, Plentv of people must ply brush with toes. And as for music — look, what folks nickname A lyre, those ancients played to ravishment, — Over the pendule, see, Apollo grasps A three-stringed gimcrack which no Liszt could coax Such music from as jews-harp makes to-day ! 49° RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Do your endeavor like a man, and leave The rest to ' fortune who assists the bold ' — Learn, you, the Latin which you taught me first, You clever creature — clever, yes, I say 1 " If he smiled, " Let us love, love's wrong comes right, Shows reason last of all ! Necessity Must meanwhile serve for plea — so, mind not much Old Fricquot's menace ! " — back she smiled " Who minds ? " If he sighed, " Ah, but She is strict, they say, For all Her mercy at The Ravissante, She scarce will be put off so ! " — straight a sigh Returned, " My lace must go to trim Her gown ! " I nowise doubt she inwardly believed Smiling and sighing had the same effect Upon the venerated._image. What She did believe in, I as little doubt, Was — Clara, and her birthright to sustain Existence, grow from grub to butterfly, Upon unlimited Miranda-leaf; OR. TURF AND TOWERS. 491 In which prime article of faith confirmed, According to capacity, she fed On and on till the leaf was eaten up, That April morning. Even then, I praise Her forethought which prevented leafless stalk Bestowing any hoarded succulence On earwig and blackbeetle squat beneath ; — Clairvaux, that stalk whereto her hermitage She tacked by golden throv/ of silk, so fine. So any thing but feeble, that her sleep Inside it, through last winter, two years long, Recked little of the storm and strife without. "But — loved him?" Friend, I do not praise her love! True love works never for the loved one so, Nor spares skin-surface, smoothening truth away. Love bids touch truth, endure truth, and embrace Truth, though, embracing truth, love crush itself. ' " Worship not me, but God ! " the angels urge : That is love's grandeur : still, in pettier love The nice eye can distinguish grade and grade. Shall mine degrade the velvet green and puce 492 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Of caterpillar, palmer-worm — or what — Ball in and out of ball, each ball with brush Of Venus' eye-fringe round the turquoise egg That nestles soft, — compare such paragon With any scarabaeus of the brood That, born to fly, keeps wing in wing-case, walks Persistently a-trundling dung on earth ? Egypt may venerate such hierophants, Not I — the couple yonder. Father Priest And Mother Nun, who came and went and came, Beset this Clairvaux, trundled money-muck To midden and the main heap oft enough, But never bade unshut from sheath the gauze, Nor showed that, who would fly, should let fall filth. Warning, "Your jewel, brother, is a blotch: Sister, your lace trails ordure. Leave your sins, And so best gift the Crown and grace the Robe ! " The superstition is extinct, you hope? It were, with my good will ! Suppose it so, OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 493 Bethink you likewise of the hitest use Whereto a Night-cap is convertible, And draw your very thickest, thread and thrum, O'er such a decomposing face of things, Once so alive, it seemed immortal too ! This happened two j^ears since. The Cousinry Returned to Paris, called in help from Law, And in due form proceeded to dispute Monsieur Leonce Miranda's competence, Being insane, to make a valid Will. Much testimony volunteered itself ; The issue hardly could be doubtful — but For that sad 'Seventy which must intervene, Provide poor France with other work to mind Than settling lawsuits, even for the sake Of such a party as The Ravissante. It only was this Summer that the case Could come and be disposed of, two weeks since, At Vire — Tribunal Civil — Chamber First. 494 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; Here, issued with all regularity, I hold the judgment — just, inevitable, Nowise to be contested by what few Can judge the judges; sum and substance, thuS' "Inasmuch as we find, the Cousinry, During that very period when they take Monsieur Leonce Miranda for stark mad, Considered him to be quite sane enough For doing much important business with — Nor showed suspicion of his competence \ Until, by turning of the tables, loss \ Instead of gain accrued to them thereby, — Plea of incompetence we set aside. — " The rather, that the dispositions, sought To be impugned, are natural and right, Nor jar with any reasonable claim Of kindred, friendship or acquaintance here. ! Nobody is despoiled, none overlooked ; I Since the testator leaves his property \ To just that person whom, of all the world. OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 495 He counted he was most indebted to. In mere discharge, then, of conspicuous debt, Madame Muhlhausen has priority. Enjoys the usufruct of Clairvaux. " Next, Such debt discharged, such life determining. Such earthly interest provided for. Monsieur Leonce Miranda may bequeath, In absence of more fit recipient, fund And usufruct together to the Church Whereof he was a special devotee. — " Which disposition, being consonant With a long series of such acts and deeds Notorious in his life-time, needs must stand. Unprejudiced by eccentricity Nowise amounting to distemper : since, In every instance signalized as such, We recognize no over-leaping bounds, No straying out of the permissible: 496 RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COCJNTRY . Duty to the Religion of the Land, — Neither excessive nor inordinate. " The minor accusations are dismissed ; They prove mere freak and fancy, boyish mood In age mature of simple kindly man. Exuberant in generosities To all the world: no fact confirms the fear He meditated mischief to himself That morning when he met the accident Which ended fatally. The case is closed." How otherwise ? So, when I grazed the skirts, And had the glimpse of who made, yesterday, — Woman and retinue of goats and sheep, — The sombre path one whiteness, vision-like, As out of gate, and in at gate again. They v/avered, — she was lady there for life : And, after life — I hope, a white success Of some sort, wheresoever life resume ^Bchool interrupted by vacation — death ; OR, TURF AND TOWERS. 497 Seeing that home she goes with prize in hand, Confirmed the Chatelaine of Clairvaux. True, Such prize fades soon to insignificance. Though she have eaten her Miranda up, And spun a cradle-cone through which she pricks Her passage, and proves peacock-butterfly. This Autumn — wait a little week of cold ! Peacock and death's-head-moth end much the same. And could she still continue spinning, — sure, Cradle would soon crave shroud for substitute, And o'er this life of hers distaste would drop Red-cotton-Night-cap-wise. How say you, friend ? Have I redeemed my promise ? Smile assent Through the dark Winter-gloom between us both ! Already, months ago and miles away, I just as good as told you, in a flash, 498 RED COTTON NIGFIT-CAP COUNTRY. The while we paced the sands before my house, All this poor stor)^ — truth and nothing else. Accept that moment's flashing, amplified, Impalpability reduced to speech, Conception proved by birth, — no other change ! Can -what Saint-Rambert flashed me in a thought, Good gloomy London" make a poem of ? Such ought to be whatever dares precede. Play mddy herald-start to your white blaze About to bring us day. How fail imbibe Some foretase of effulgence ? Sun shall wax. And star shall wane : what matter, so star tell The drowsy world to start awake, rub eyes, And stand all ready for morn's joy a-blush? January 23, 1873. THE INN ALBUM, The Inn Album. I. " That oblong book's the Album ; hand it here ! Exactly ! page on page of gratitude For breakfast, dinner, supper, and the view ! I praise these poets : they leave margin-space ; Each stanza seems to gather skirts around, And primly, trimly, keep the foot's confine, Modest and maidlike ; lubber prose o'ersprawls And straddling stops the i^ath from left to right. Since I want space to do my cipher-work, Which poem spares a corner ? What comes first ? ' Hailjalm acclivity^ salubrious spot ! ' (Open the window, we burn daylight, boy !) 502 THE INN ALBUM. Or see — succincter beauty, brief and bold — '■ If a fdlow can dine On rmnpsteaks and port wine. He needs not despair Of dining well here ' — ' Here /' I myself could find a better rhyme ; That ba rd's a Browning ; he neglects the form : But ah, the sense, ye gods, the weighty sense ! Still, I prefer this classic. Ay, throw wide ! I'll quench the bits of candle yet unburnt. • A minute's fresh air, then to cipher-work ! Three little columns hold the v.-hole account : Ecarte, after which — Blind Hookey — then Cutting-the-Pack, five hundred pounds the cut. 'Tis easy reckoning : I have lost, I think.'"' Two personages occupy this room Shabby-genteel, that's parlor to the inn Perched on a view-commanding eminence ; — Inn which may be a veritable house Where somebody once lived and pleased good taste Till tourists found his coigne of vantage out, And fingered blunt the individual mark THE INN ALBUM. 503 And vulgarized things comfortably smooth. On a sprig-pattern-papered wall there brays Complaint to sky Sir Edwin's dripping stag; His couchant coast-guard creature corresponds ; They face the Huguenot and Light o' the World. Grim o'er the mirror on the mantlepiece, Varnished and coffined, Salmo ferox glares, — Possibly at the List of Wines which, framed And glazed, hangs somewhat prominent on peg. So much describes the stuffy little room — Vulgar flat smooth respectability : Not so the burst of landscape surging in. Sunrise and all, as he who of the pair Is, plain enough, the younger personage Draws sharp the shrieking curtain, sends aloft The sash, spreads wide and fastens back to wall Shutter and shutter, shows you England's best. He leans into a living glory-bath O' air and light where seems to float and move The wooded watered country, hill and dale And steel-bright thread of stream, a-smoke with mist 504 THE INN ALBUM. A-sparkle with May morning, diamond drift O' the sun-touched dew. Except the red-roofed patch Of half a dozen dwellings that, crept close For hill-side shelter, make the village-clump, This inn is perched above to dominate — Exxept such sign of human neighborhood, And this surmised rather than sensible. There's nothing to disturb absolute peace, The reign of English nature — which means art And civilized existence. Wildness' self Is just the cultured triumph. Presently Deep solitude, be sure, reveals a Place That knows the right way to defend itself : Silence hems round a burning spot of life. Now, where a Place burns, must a village brood, And where a village broods, an inn should boast — Close and convenient : here you have them both. This inn, the Something-arms — the family's — (Don't trouble Guillim : heralds leave out half) Is dear to lovers of the picturesque. And epics have been planned here ; but who plan THE INN ALBUM. 505 Take holy orders and find work to do. Painters are more productive, stop a week, Declare the prospect quite a Corot, — ay, For tender sentiment, — themselves incline Rather to handsweep large and liberal ; Then go, but not without success achieved — Haply some pencil-drawing, oak or beech, Ferns at the base and ivies up the bole, On this a slug, on that a butterfly. Nay, he who hooked the salmo pendent here, Also exhibited, this same May-month, '• Foxgloves : a study ' — so inspires the scene. The air, which now the younger personage Inflates him with till lungs o'erfraught are fain Sigh forth a satisfaction might bestir Even those tufts of tree-tops to the South I' the distance where the green dies off to gray, Which, easy of conjecture, front the Place ; He eyes them, elbows wide, each hand to cheek. His fellow, the much older — either say So6 THE INN ALBUM. A youngish-old man or man oldish young — Sits at the table : wicks are noisome-deep In wax, to detriment of plated Avare ; Above — piled, strewn — is store of playing-cards, Counters and all that's proper for a game. He sets down, rubs out figures in the book, Adds and subtracts, puts back here, carries there, Until the summed-up satisfaction stands Apparent, and he pauses o'er the work : Soothes what of brain was busy under brow, By passage of the hard palm, curing so Wrinkle and crow-foot for a second's space ; Then lays down book and laughs out. No mistake. Such the sum-total — ask Colenso else ! Roused by which laugh, the other turns, laughs too — The youth, the good strong fellow, rough perhaps. " Well, what's the damage — three, or four, or five ? How many figures in a row ? Hand here ! Come now, there's one expense all yours not mine — THE INN ALBUM. 507 Scribbling the people's Album over, leaf The first and foremost too ! You think, perhaps, They'll only charge you for a bran-new book. Nor estimate the literary loss ? Wait till the small account comes ! ' To one 7tighfs . . . Lodging' for — ' beds,' they can't say, — 'poutid or so; Dinner, Appoirmaris, — what they please, Attendance not ificluded ; ' last looms large ' Defacement of our Album late enriched With ' — let's see wlmt ! Here, at the window, though ! Ay, breathe the morning and forgive yovur luck ! Fine enough country for a fool like me To own, as next month, I suppose I shall ! Eh ? True fool's fortune ! so console yourself. Let's see, however — hand the book, I say ! Well, you've improved the classic by romance. Queer reading ! Verse with parenthetic prose — ' Hail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot ! ' (Three-two fives) ' life how profitably spent ^ (Five-nought, five-nine fives) '■yonder humble cot,* 5o8 THE INN ALBUM. (More and more noughts and fives) ^in mild content ; And did viy feelings find the natural vent In friendship and in love, how blest my lot /^ Then follow the dread figures — five ! ' Content I ^ That's apposite ! Are you content as he — Simpkin the sonneteer ? Ten thousand pounds Give point to his effusion — by so much Leave me the richer and the poorer you After our night's play ; who's content the most, I, you, or Simpldn ? " So the polished snob. The elder man, refinement every inch From brow to boot-end, quietly replies : " Simpkin's no name I know. I had my whim." " Ay, had you ! And such things make friendship thick. Intimates, I may boast we were ; henceforth, Friends — shall it not be ? — who discard reserve, Use plain words, put each dot upon each i, THE INN ALBUM. 509 Till death us twain do part ? The bargain's struck ! Old fellow, if you fancy — (to begin) — I failed to penetrate your scheme last week, You wrong 5'our poor disciple. Oh, no airs 1 Because you happen to be twice my age And twenty times my master, must perforce No blink of daylight struggle through the web There's no unwinding ? You entoil my legs, And welcome, for I like it : blind me, — no ! A very pretty piece of shuttle-work Was that — your mere chance question at the club — ' Do you go anywhere this Whitsuntide ? rm off for Paris, there's the Opera — thert^s The Salon, therms a china-sale, — beside Chantilly ; and, for good companionship. There's Such-and-such and So-and-so. Suppose We start together 7 ' ' P/o such holiday ! ' I told you : ' Paris and the rest be hanged ! Why plague me who am pledged to home-delights ? Tm the engaged now ; through whose fault but yours ? On duty. As you 7vell k?iow. Dofi't I drowse 5IO THE INN ALBUM. The week away down with the Aunt and Niece i No help : it's leisure, loneliness, and love. 'Wish I could take you ; but fame travels fast, — A man of much 7iewspaper-paragraph, You scare domestic circles ; and beside Would not you like your lot, that second taste Of nature and approval of the grounds / You might walk early or lie late, so shirk Week-day devotions : but stay Sunday o'er, And morning church is obligatory ; No mundane garb per77iissiblc or dread The butler's privileged monition I No / Pack off to Paris, nor wipe tear away /' Whereon how artlessly the happy flash Followed, by inspiration ! ' ' Tell you what — Lefs turn their flank, try things on f other side ! Inns for my money ! Liberty's the life I We'll lie in hiding: there's the crow-nest nook. The tourist's joy, the Inn they rave about. Inn thafs out — out of sight and out of mind And out of mischief to all four of us — THE INN ALBUM. 511 Aunt and niece, you and me. At night arrive ; At morn, find time for just a Pisgah-view Of my friend's Land of Promise ; then depart, And while Pm whizzing onward by first train, Bound for our own place {si?ice my Brother sulks And says I shun him like the plague) yourself — Why, you have stepped thence, start from platform, gay, Despite the sleepless journey, — love lends wings, — Hicg aunt and niece who, none the wiser, wait The faithful advent ! Eh ? ' ' With all my heart, ' Said I to you ; said I to mine own self : ' Does he believe I fail to comprehend He wants just one more final friendly snack At friend s exchequer ere friend ru?is to earth. Marries, renomices yielding friends such sport ? ' And did I spoil sport, pull face grim, '■ — nay, grave ? Your pupil does you better credit ! No ! I parleyed with my pass-book, — rubbed my pair At the big balance in my banker's hands, — Folded a check cigar-case-shape, — just wants Filling and signing, — and took train, resolved , 512 THE INN ALBUM. To execute myself with decency And let you win — if not Ten thousand quite, Something by way of wind-up, farewell burst Of firework-nosegay ! Where's your fortune fled ? Or is not fortune constant after all ? You lose ten thousand pounds : had I lost half Or half that, I should bite my lips, I think. You man of marble ! Strut and stretch my best On tiptoe, I shall never reach your height. How does the loss feel ? Just one lesson more ! " The more refined man smiles a frown away. " The lesson shall be — only boys like you Put such a question at the present stage. I had a ball lodge in my shoulder once, And, full five minutes, never guessed the fact ; Next day, I felt decidedly : and still. At twelve years' distance, when I lift my arm A twinge reminds me of the surgeon's probe. Ask me, this day month, how I feel my luck ! THE INN ALB UM. 5 1 3 And meantime please to stop impertinence, For — don't I know its object ? All this chaff Covers the corn ; this preface leads to speech, This boy stands forth a hero. * There, my lord ! Our play was true play, fun not ear f test I I Empty your purse, inside out, while my poke Bulges to bursting? You can badly spare A doit, confess Jiow, Duke though brother be / While Pm gold-daubed so thickly, spangles drop And show my father' s warehouse-apron : pshaw / Enough / JVe've had a palpitating night I Good morni?2g ! Breakfast and forget our dreams. My tnouth's shut, mind I I tell nor man nor mouse. ' There, see ! He don't deny it ! Thanks, my boy ! Hero and welcome — only, not on me Make trial of your 'prentice-hand ! Enough ! We've played, I've lost and owe ten thousand pounds. Whereof I muster, at the moment, — well. What's for the bill here and the back to town. Still, I've my little character to keep : You may expect your money at month's end." 514 THE INN ALBUM. The young man at the window turns round quick - A clumsy giant handsome creature ; grasps In his large red the little lean white hand Of the other, looks him in the sallow face. "I say now — is it right to so mistake A fellow, force him in mere self-defence To spout like Mister Mild Acclivity In album-language ? You know well enough Whether I like you — like's no album-word, Anyhow : point me to one soul beside In the wide world I care one straw about ! I first set eyes on you a year ago ; Since when you've done me good — I'll stick to it' More than I got in the whole twenty-five That make my life up, Oxford years and all — Throw in the three I fooled away abroad, Seeing myself and nobody more sage Until I met you, and you made me man Such as the sort is and the fates allow. I do think, since we two kept company. THE INN ALBUM. 515 I've iearnt to know a little — all through you ! It's nature if I like you. Taunt away ! As if I need you teaching me my place — The snob I am, the Duke your brother is, When just the good you did was — teaching me My own trade, how a snob and millionnaire May lead his life and let the Duke's alone. Clap wings, free jackdaw, on his steeple-perch, Burnish his black to gold in sun and air, Nor pick up stray plumes, strive to match in strut Regular peacocks who can't fly an inch Over the court-yard-paling. Head and heart (That's album-st}de) are older than you know. For all your knowledge : boy, perhaps — ay, boy Had his adventure, just as he were man — His ball-experience in the shoulder blade, His bit of life-long ache to recognize, Although he bears it cheerily about, Because you came and clapped him on the back, Advised him ' Walk and wear the aching off! ' Why, I was minded to sit down for life 5i6 THE INN ALBUM. Just in Dalmatia, build a seaside tower High on a rock, and so expend my days Pursuing chemistry or botany Or, very like, astronomy because I noticed stars shone when I passed the place : Letting my cash accumulate the while In England — to lay out in lump at last As Ruskin should direct me ! All or some Of which should I have done or tried to do, And preciously repented, one fine day. Had you discovered Timon, climbed his rock And scaled his tower, some ten years thence, suppose, And coaxed his story from him ! Don't I see The pair conversing ! It's a novel w'rit Already, I'll be bound, — our dialogue ! * What?' cried the elder and yet youthful man — So did the eye flash 'ncath the lordly front. And the i7nposing presence swell with scorn, As the haught high-bred bearing and dispose Contrasted with his interlocutor The flabby low-born who, of bulk before. THE INN ALB UM. 5 1 7 Had steadily tJicr eased, one stone per week. Since his abstention from horse-exercise : — ' What ? yoii, as rich as Rothschild, left, you say, London the very year you came of age. Because your father manufactured goods — Commission-agent hight of Manchester — Partly, a?id partly through a baby case Of disappointment fve pu7nped out at last — And here you spend lifers prime in gaining flesh And giving science one more asteroid ? ' Brief, my dear fellow, you instructed me. At Alfred's and not Istria ! proved a snob May turn a million to account although His brother be no Duke, and see good days Without the girl he lost and some one gained. The end is, after one year's tutelage, Having, by your help, touched society, Polo, Tent-pegging, Hurlingham, the Rink — I leave all these delights, by your advice, And marr}' my young pretty cousin here Whose place, whose oaks ancestral you behold. 5l8 THE INN ALBUM. (Her father was in partnership with mine — Does not his purchase look a pedigree ?) My million will be tail and tassels smart To this plump-bodied kite, this house and land Which, set a-soaring, pulls me, soft as sleep, Along life's pleasant meadow, — arm left free To lock a friend's in, — whose, but yours, old boy ? Arm in arm glide we over rough and smooth, While hand, to pocket held, saves cash from cards. Now, if }'0u don't esteem ten thousand pounds ( — Which I shall probably discover snug Hid somewhere in the column-corner capped With ' Credit,' based on ^Balance,' — which, I swear, By this time next month I shall quite forget Whether I lost or won — ten thousand pounds. Which at this instant I would give . . . let's see, For Galopin — nay, for that Gainsborough Sir Richard won't sell, and if bought by me. Would get my glance and praise some twice a year, — ^) Well, if you don't esteem that price dirt-cheap For teaching me Dalmatia was mistake — THE nVN ALBUM. 519 Why then, my last illusion-bubble breaks, My one discovered phoenix proves a goose, My cleverest of all companions — oh, Was worth nor tenpence nor ten thousand pounds ! Come ! Be yourself again ! So endeth here The morning's lesson ! Never v/hile life lasts Do I touch card again. To brealcfast now ! To bed — I can't say, since you needs must start For station early — oh, the down-train still, First plan and best plan — townward trip be hanged ! You're due at your big brother's — pay that debt, Then owe me not a farthing ! Order eggs — And v.'ho knows but there's trout obtainable ? " The fine man looks well-nigh malignant : then — " Sir, please subdue your manner ! Debts are debts : I pay mine — debts of this sort — certainly. WTiat do I care how you regard your gains, Want them or want them not ? The thing / want Is — not to have a story circulate 52 o THE INN ALBUM. From club to club — how, bent on clearing out Young So-and-so, young So-and-so cleaned me, Then set the empty kennel flush again, Ignored advantage and forgave his friend — For why? There was no wringing blood from stone ! Oh, don't be savage ! You would hold your tongue, Bite it in two, as man may ; but those small Hours in tlie smoking-room, when instance apt Rises to tongue's root, tingles on to tip. And the tliinned company consists of six Capital well-known fellows one may trust ! Next week it's in the 'World.' No, thank you much. I owe ten thousand pound : I'll pay them ! " " Now, - This becomes funny. You've made friends with me : I can't help knowing of the ways and means ! Or stay ! they say your brother closets up Correggio's long lost Leda : if he means To give you that, and if you give it me ..." "/polished snob off to aristocrat? THE INN ALBUM. t;2l You compliment me ! father's apron still Sticks out from son's court-vesture ; still silk purse Roughs finger with some bristle sow-ear-bom ! Well, neither I nor you mean harm at heart ! I owe you and shall pay you : which premised, Why should what follows sound like flattery ? The fact is — you do compliment too much Your humble master, as I own I am ; You owe me no such thanks as you protest. The polisher needs precious stone no less Than precious stone needs polisher : believe I struck no tint from out you but I found Snug lying first 'neath surface hairbreadth-deep ! Beside, I liked the exercise : with skill Goes love to show skill for skill's sake. You see, I'm old and understand things : too absurd It were you pitched and tossed away your life, As diamond were Scotch pebble ! all the more, That I myself misused a stone of price. Bom and bred clever — people used to say Clever as most men, if not something more — 52 2 THE INN ALBUM. Yet here I stand a failure, cut awry Or left opaque, — no brilliant named and known. Whate'er my inner stuff, my outside's blank ; I'm nobody — or rather, look that same — I'm — who I am — and know it ; but I hold What in my hand out for the world to see ? What ministry, what mission, or what book — I'll say, book even ? Not a sign of these ! I began — laughing — * All these when I like I ' I end with — well, you've hit it ! — ' This bofs check For just as many thousands as he'll spare I ' The first — I could and would not ; your spare cash I would, and could not : have no scruple, pray, But, as I hoped to pocket yours, pouch mine — When you are able ! " " Which is — when to be ? I've heard, great characters require a fall Of fortune to show greatness by uprise : They touch the ground to jollily rebound, Add to the Album ! Let a fellow share THE INN ALBUM. 523 Your secret of superiority ! I know, my banker makes the money breed Money ; I eat and sleep, he simply takes The dividends and cuts the coupons off, Sells out, buys in, keeps doubling, tripling cash, While I do nothing but receive and spend But you, spontaneous generator, hatch A wind-egg ; cluck, and forth struts Capital As Interest to me from egg of gold. I am grown curious : pay me by all means ! How will you make the money ? " " Mind your own — Not my affair. Enough : or money, or Money's worth, as the case may be, expect Ere month's end, — keep but patient for a month ! Who's for a stroll to station ? Ten's the time ; Your man, with my things, follow in the trap ; At stoppage of the down-train, play the arrived On platform and you'll show the due fatigue Of the night-journey, — not much sleep, — perhaps, 524 THE INN ALBUM. Your thoughts were on before you — yes, indeed, You join them, being happily awake V/ith thought's sole object as she smiling sits At breakfast-table. I shall dodge meantime In and out station-precinct, while away The hour till up my engine pants and smokes. No doubt, she goes to fetch you. Never fear ! She gets no glance at me, who shame such saints ! " THE INN ALBUM, 5^5 II. So, they ring bell, give orders, pay, depart Amid profuse acknowledgment from host Who well knows what may bring the younger back, Light the cigar, descend in twenty steps The " calm acclivity" inhale — beyond Tobacco's balm — the better smoke of turf And wood fire, — cottages at cookery I' the morning, — reach the main road straightening on 'Twixt wood and wood, two black walls full of night Slow to disperse, though mists thin fast before The advancing foot, and leave the flint-dust fine Each speck with its fire-sparkle. Presently The road's end with the sky's beginning mix In one magnificence of glare, due East, So high the sun rides, — May's the merry month. 526 THE INN ALBUM. They slacken pace : the younger stops abrupt, Discards cigar, looks his friend full in face. " All right ; the station comes in view at end ; Five minutes from the beech-clump, there you are ! I say : let's halt, let's borrow yonder gate Of its two magpies, sit and have a talk ! Do let a fellow speak a moment ! More I think about and less I like the thing — No, you must let me ! Now, be good for once ! Ten thousand pounds be done for, dead and damned ! We played for love, not hate : yes, hate ! I hate Thinking you beg or borrow or reduce To str)xhnine some poor devil of a lord Licked at Unlimited Loo. I had the cash To lose — you knew that ! — lose and none the less Whistle to-morrow : it's not every chap Affords to take his punishment so well ! Now, don't be angry with a friend whose fault Is that he thinks — upon my soul, I do — Your head the best head going. Oh, one sees THE INN ALBUM. 527 Names in the newspaper — great this, great that, Gladstone, Carlyle, the Laureate : — much I care ! Others have their opinion, I keep mine : Which means — by right you ought to have the things I want a head for. Here's a pretty place, My cousin's place, and presently my place. Not yours ! I'll tell you how it strikes a man. My cousin's fond of music and of course Plays the piano (it won't be for long !) A bran-new bore she calls a ^ scmigrafid ' Rosewood and pearl, that blocks the drawing-room, And cost no end of money. Twice a week Down comes Herr Somebody and seats himself, Sets to work teaching — with his teeth on edge — I've watched the rascal. ' Does he play first rate ? ' I ask : ' I rather think so,' answers she — * He's Whaf s-his-Name r — ' Why give you lessons then 1 ' — * /pay three guineas and the train beside.^ ' Tliis instrument, has he one such at home ? * 528 THE INN ALBUM. * He 1 Has to practise on a tadle-top, When he cati't hire the proper thiiig.^ — *■ I see t You've the piano, he the skill, arid God The distribution of such gifts.' So here : After your teaching, I shall sit and strum Polkas on this piano of a Place You'd make resound with ' Ru'e Britannia ' /" " Thanks ! I don't say but this pretty cousin's place, Appendaged with your million, tempts my hand As key-board I might touch with some effect." " Then, why not have obtained the like ? House, land. Money, are things obtainable, you see. By clever head-work : ask my father else ! You, who teach me, why not have learned, your- self ? Played like Herr Somebody with power to thump And flourish and the rest, not bend demure THE INN ALBUM. 529 Pointing out blunders — ' Sharp, not natural! Permit me — on the black key use the thumb / ' There's some fatality, I'm sure ! You say ' Marry the cousin, thafs your proper move ! ' And I do use the thumb and hit the sharp : You should have listened to your own head's hint, As I to you ! The puzzle's past my power. How you have managed — with such stuff, such means — Not to be rich nor great nor happy man : Of which three good things where's a sign at all ? Just look at Dizzy ! Come, — what tripped your heels ? Instruct a goose that boasts wings and can't fly ! I wager I have guessed it! — never found. The old solution of the riddle fail ! * Who was the woman ? ' I don't ask, but — ' Where r the path of life stood she zvho tripped you ? ' " " Goose You truly are ! I own to fifty years. ,S30 THE INN ALBUM. Why don't I interpose and cut out — you? Compete with five and twenty ? Age, my boy ! " " Old man, no nonsense ! — even to a boy That's ripe at least for rationality Rapped into him, as may be mine was, once ! I've had my small adventure lesson me Over the knuckles ! — likely, I forget The sort of figure youth cuts now and then, Competing with old shoulders but young head Despite the fifty grizzling years ! ' "Aha! Then that means — just the bullet in the blade Which brought Dalmatia on the brain, — that, too. Came of a fatal creature ? Can't pretend Now, for the first time to surmise as much ! Make a clean breast ! Recount ! a secret's safe 'Twixt you, me and the gate-post ! " — " Can't pretend, Neither, to never have surmised your wish ! THE INN ALBUM. 531 It's no use, — case of unextracted ball — Winces at finger-touching. Let things be ! " " All, if you love your love still ! I hate mine." " I can't hate." " I won't teach you ; and won't tell You, therefore, what you please to ask of me As if I, also, may not have my ache ! " " My sort of ache ? No, no ! and yet — perhaps ! All comes of thinking you superior still. But live and learn ! I say ! Time's up ! Good jump You old, indeed ! I fancy there's a cut Across the wood, a grass-path: shall we try? It's venturesome, however ! " " Stop, my boy ! Don't think I'm stingy of experience ! Life — It's like this wood we leave. Should you and I 532 THE INN ALBUM. Go wandering about there, though the gaps We went in and came out by were opposed As the two poles, still, somehow, all the same, By nightfall we should probably have chanced On much the same main points of interest — Both of us measured girth of mossy tnink, Stripl ivy from its strangled prey, clapped hands At squirrel, sent a fir-cone after crow, And so forth, — never mind what tim^ betwixt. So in our lives ; allow I entered mine Another way than you : 'tis possible I ended just by knocking head against That plaguy, low-hung branch yourself began By getting bump from ; as at last you too May stumble o'er that stump which first of all Bade me walk circumspectly. Head and feet Are vulnerable both, and I, foot-sure. Forgot that ducking down saves brow from bruise. I, early old, played young man four years since And failed confoundedly : so, hate alike Failure and who caused failure, — curse her cant!' THE INN ALBUM. 533 " Oh, I see ! You, though somewhat past the prime, Were taken with a rosebud beaut}^ ! Ah — But how should chits distinguish ? She admired Your marvel of a mind, I"ll undertake ! But as to body . . . nay, I mean, . . . that is. When years have told on face and figure." . . . " Thanks, Mister sufficiently-instructed / Such No doubt was bound to be the consequence To suit your self-complacency : she liked My head enough, but loved some heart beneath Some head with plentv^ of brown hair a-top After my young friend's fashion ! What becomes Of that fine speech you made a minute since About the man of middle age you found A formidable peer at twent)'-one ? So much for your mock-modest}^ ! and yet I back your first against this second sprout Of observation, insight, what you please. My middle age, Sir, had too much success ! 534 THE INN ALBUM. It's odd : my case occurred four years ago — I finished just while you commenced tliat turn I' the wood of life, that takes us to the wealth Of honeysuckle, heaped for who can reach. Now, I don't boast : it's bad style, and beside, The feat proves easier than it looks : I plucked Full many a flower unnamed in that bouquet (Mostly of peonies and poppies, though !) Good nature sticks into my button-hole. Therefore it was with nose in want of snuff Rather than Ess or Psidium, that I chanced On what — so itixixova ^ rosebud beauty.' . . . Well She's dead : at least you never heard her name ; She was no courtly creature, had nor birth Nor breeding — mere fine-lady breeding ; but Oh, such a wonder of a woman ! Grand As a Greek statue ! Stick fine clothes on that, St)"le that a Duchess or a Queen, — you know, Artists would make an outer}' : all the more, That she had just a statue's sleepy grace Which broods o'er its o\vn beauty. Nay, her fault THE INN ALBUM. 535 (Don't laugh !) was just perfection : for suppose Only the little flaw, and I had peeped Inside it, learned what soul inside was like. At Rome some tourist raised the grit beneath A Venus' forehead with his whittling-knife — I ^vish, — now, — I had played that brute, brought blood To surface from the depths I fancied chalk ! As it was, her mere face surprised so much That I stopped short there, struck on heap, as stares The cockney stranger at a certain bust With drooped eyes, — she's the thing I have in mind, — Down at my Brother's. All-sufficient prize — Such outside ! Now, — confound me for a prig ! — Who cares ? I'll make a clean breast once for all ! Beside, you've heard the gossip. My life long I've been a woman-liker, — liking means Loving and so on. There's a lengthy list By this time I shall have to answer for — So say the good folks : and they don't guess half — For the worst is, let once collecting-itch 536 THE INN ALBUM. Possess you, and, with perspicacity Keeps growing such a greediness that theft Follows at no long distance, — there's the fact ! I knew that on my Leporello-list Might figure this, that and the other name Of feminine desirability, But if I happened to desire inscribe, Along with these, the only Beautiful — Here was the unique specimen to snatch Or now or never. ' Beautiful ' I said — 'Beautiful ' say in cold blood, — boiling then To tune of ' Haste, secure whate'er the cost This rarity, die in the act, be damned, So yon complete collection, crown your list! ' It seemed as though the whole world, once aroused By the first notice of such wonder's birth. Would break bounds to contest my prize with me The first discoverer, should she but emerge From that safe den of darkness, where she dozed Till I stole in, that country parsonage Where, country parson's daughter, motherless. THE INN ALBUM. Brotlierless, sisterless, for eighteen years She had been vegetating lilj'-Hke. Her father was my brother's tutor, got The living that way : him I chanced to see — Her I saw — her the world would grow one eye To see, I felt no sort of doubt at all ! *" Secure her r cried the devil : '■afterward Arrange for the disposal of the prize P The devil's doing ! yet I seem to think — Now, Avhen all's done, — think with 'a h.\id reposed' In French phrase — hope I think I meant to do All requisite for such a rarit}'' When I should be at leisure, have due time To learn requirement. But in evil day — Bless me, at week's end, long as any year, The fatlier must begin ' Young Somebody, Much recommended — for I break a rule — Comes here to read, next long vacation.^ ' Young I' That did it. Had the epithet been ' rich,^ '' Noble, ^ '' a genius^ even ''handsome,^ — but — ' Yowiz' I" 537 538 THE INN ALBUM. "I say — just a word ! I want to know — You are not married ? " I? " Nor ever were ? " "Never! Why?" " Oh, then — never mind ! Go on ! I had a reason for the question." " Come, — You could not be the young man ? " " No, indeed ! Certainly — if you never married her ! " " That I did not : and there's the curse, you'll see 1 Nay, all of it's one curse, my life's mistake Which, nourished with manure that's warranted THE INN ALBUM. :;39 To make the plant bear wisdom, blew out full In folly beyond field-flower-foolishness I The lies I used to tell my womankind, Knowing they disbelieved me all the time Though they required my lies, their decent due, This woman — not so much believed, I'll say. As just anticipated from my mouth : Since being true, devoted, constant — she Found constancy, devotion, truth, the plain And easy commonplace of character. No mock-lieroics but seemed natural To her who underneath the face, I knew Was fairness' self, possessed a heart, I judged Must correspond in folly just as far Beyond the common, — and a mind to match, — Not made to puzzle conjurors like me Who, therein, proved the fool who fronts you. Sir, And begs leave to cut short the ugly rest ! '■Trust me !^ I said: she trusted. '■ Marry 77ie T Or rather, ' We are married: when, the rite 2^ That brought on the collector's next-day qualm 540 THE INN ALBUM. At counting acquisition's cost. There lay My mangel, there my purse more light by much Because of its late lie-expenditure : Ill-judged such moment to make fresh demand — Bid cage as well as catch my rarity ! So, I began explaining. At first word Outbroke the horror. * Then, my truths were lies !^ I tell you, such an outbreak, such new strange All-unsuspected revelation — soul As supernaturally grand as face Was fair beyond example — that at once Either I lost — or, if it please you, found My senses, — stammered somehow — '' jcst 1 and now ^ Earnest .' Forget all else but — heart has loved, Does love, shall love you ever ! take the hand ! ' Not she ! no marriage for superb disdain, Contempt incarnate ! " " Yes, it's different, — It's only like in being four years since. I see now ! " THE INN ALBUM. 541 " Well, what did disdain do next, Think you ? " That's past me : did not many you ! — That's the main thing I care for, I suppose. Turned nun, or what ? " " Why, married in a month Some parson, some smug crop-haired smooth-chinned sort Of curate-creature, I suspect, — dived down, Down, deeper still, and came up somewhere else — I don't know where — I've not tried much to know, — In short, she's happy : what the clodpoles call * Countrified ' with a vengeance ! leads the life Respectable and all that drives you mad : Still — where, I don't know, and that's best for both." " Well, that she did not like you, I conceive. But why should you hate her, I want to know ? " 542 THE INN ALBUM. " My good young friend — because or her or else Malicious Providence I have to hate. For, what I tell you proved the turning-point Of my whole life and fortune toward success Or failure. If I drown, I lay the fault Much on myself who caught at reed not rope, But more on reed which, with a packthread's pith, Had buoyed me till the minute's cramp could thaw And I strike out afresh and so be saved. It's easy saying — I had sunk before. Disqualified myself by idle days And busy nights, long since, from holding hard On cable, even, had fate cast me such ! You boys don't know how many times men fail Perforce o' the little to succeed i' the large, Husband their strength, let slip the petty prey, Collect the whole power for the final pounce ! My fault was the mistaking man's main prize For intermediate boy's diversion ; clap Of boyish hands here frightened game away Which, once gone, goes forever. Oh, at first THE INN ALBUM 543 I took the anger easily, nor much Minded the anguish — having learned that storms Subside, and teapot-tempests are akin. Time would arrange things, mend whate'er might be Somewhat amiss : precipitation, eh ? Reason and rhyme prompt — rei^aration ! Tiffs End properly in marriage and a dance ! I said, ' We'll marr}', make the past a blank ' — And never was such damnable mistake ! That interview, that laying bare my soul, As it was first, so was it last chance — one And only. Did I write ? Back letter came Unopened as it went. Inexorable She fled, I don't know where, consoled herself With the smug curate-creature : chop and change ! Sure am I, when she told her shaveling all His Magdalen's adventure, tears were shed, Forgiveness evangelically shown, ' Loose hair and lifted eye,' — as some one says. And now, he's worshipped for his pains, the sneak ! " 544 "^HE ^^^ ALBUM. " Well, but your turning-point of life, — what's here To hinder you contesting Finsbury With Orton, next election ? I don't see."' . . , " Not you ! But / see. Slowly, surely, creeps Day by day o'er me the conviction — here Was life's prize grasped at, gained, and then let go ! — That with her — may be, for her — I had felt Ice in me melt, grow steam, drive to effect Any or all the fancies sluggish here I' the head that needs the hand she would not take And I shall never lift now. Lo, your wood — Its turnings which I likened life to ! Well, — There she stands, ending every avenue, Her visionary presence on each goal I might have gained had we kept side by side ! Still string nerve and strike foot ? Her frown forbids The steam congeals once more : I'm old again ! Therefore I hate myself — but how much worse Do not I hate who would not understand. Let me repair things — no, but sent a-slide THE INN ALBUM. 54.'j My folly falteringly, stumblingly Down, down and deeper down until I drop Upon the need of your ten thousand pounds And consequently loss of mine ! I lose Character, cash, na}^, common sense itself Recounting such a lengthy cock-and-bull Adventure, lose my temper in the act" . . . " And lose beside, — if I may supplement The list of losses, — train and ten-o'clock ! Hark, pant and puff, there travels the swart sign ! So much the better ! You're my captive now ! I'm glad you trust a fellow : friends grow thick This way — that's twice said ; we were thickish, though, Even last night, and, ere night comes again, I prophesy good luck to both of us ! For see now ! — back to ' balmy eminence ' Or ' calm acclivity ' or what's the word, Bestow you there an hour, concoct at ease A sonnet for the Album, while I put Bold face on, best foot forward, make for house, .;46 THE INN ALBUM. March in to aunt and niece, and tell tlie truth — (Even white-lying goes against my taste After your little stor}\) Oh, the niece Is rationality itself ! The aunt — If she's amenable to reason too — Why, you stopped short to pay her due respect, And let the Duke wait (I'll work well the Duke). If she grows gracious, I return for you ; If thunder's in the air, why — bear your doom, Dine on rump-steaks and port, and shake the dust Of aunty from your shoes as off you go By evening-train, nor give the thing a thought How you shall pay me — that's as sure as fate. Old fellow ! Off with you, face left about ! Yonder's the path I have to pad. You see, I'm in good spirits, God knows why ! Perhaps Because the woman did not marr}^ you — Who look so hard at me, — and have the right, One must be fair and own ! " The two stand still Under an oak. THE INN ALBUM. 547 " Look here ! " resumes the youth. " 1 never quite knew how I came to like You — so much — wliom I ought not court at all : Nor how you had a leaning just to me Who am assuredly not worth your pains, For there must needs be plenty such as you Somewhere about, — although I can't say where, — Able and willing to teach all you know ; While — how can you have missed a score like me With money and no wit, precisely each A pupil for your purpose, were it — ease Fool's poke of tutor's honor aruun-i^^ ? And yet, howe'er it came about, I felt At once my master : you as prompt descried Your man, I warrant, so was bargain struck. Now, these same lines of liking, loving, run Sometimes so close together they converge — Life's great adventures — you know what I mean — In people. Do you know, as you advanced, It got to be uncommonly like fact We two had fallen in with — liked and loved 548 THE INN ALBUM. Just the same woman in our different ways ? I began life — poor groundling as I prove — Winged and ambitious to fly high : why not ? There's something in ' Don Quixote ' to the point, My shrewd old father used to quote and praise — '■Am I bor?i man ? ' asks Sancho, '■ being man, By possibility I may be Pope I ' So, Pope I meant to make myself, by step And step, whereof the first should be to find A perfect woman ; and I tell you this — If what I fixed on, in the order due Of undertakings, as next step, had first Of all disposed itself to suit my tread, And I had been, the day I came of age. Returned at head of poll for Westminster — Nay, and moreover summoned by the Queen At week's end, when my maiden-speech bore fruit, To form and head a Tory ministry — It would not have seemed stranger, no, nor been More strange to me, as now I estimate. Than what did happen — sober truth, no dream. THE INN ALBUM. 549 I saw my wondei- of a woman, — laugh, I'm past that ! — in Commemoration-week. A plenty have I seen since, fair and foul, — With eyes, too, helped by your sagacious wink ; But one to match that marvel — no least trace, Least touch of kinship and community ! The end was — I did somehow state the fact, Did, with no matter what imperfect words, One way or other give to understand That woman, soul and body were her slave Would she but take, but try them — any test Of will, and some poor test of power beside : So did the strings within my brain grow tense And capable of . . . hang similitudes ! She answered kindly but beyond appeal. ' No sort of hope for rne, who came too late. She was another's. Love went — mine to her, Hers Just as loyally to some one else J Of course ! I might expect it ! Nature's law — Given the peerless woman, certainly Somewhere shall be the peerless man to match ! 55© THE INN ALBUM. I acquiesced at once, submitted me In something of a stupor, went my way. I fancy there liad been some talk before Of somebody — her father or the like — To coach me in the holidays, — that's how I came to get the sight and speech of her, — But I had sense enough to break off sharp, Save both of us the pain." " Quite right there ! " " Eh ? Quite Avrong, it happens ! Now comes worst of all ! Yes, I did sulk aloof and let alone The lovers — /disturb the angel-mates? " " Seraph paired oil with cherub ! " "Thank you! While I never plucked up courage to inquire Who he was, even, — certain-sure of this, THE INN ALBUM. 551 That nobody I knew of had blue wings And wore a star-crown as he needs must do, — Some little lady, — plainish, pock-marked girl, — Finds out my secret in my woeful face. Comes up to me at the Apollo Ball, And pityingly pours her wine and oil This way into the wound : ^ D ear f-f -friend. Why waste affection thus on — 7nust I say, A somewhat worthless object ? IFho's her choice — Irrevocable as deliberate — Out of the wide world 1 I shall name no naiiies — But there's a person in society. Who, blessed with rank and talent, has grown gray In idleness and sin of every sort Except hypocrisy : he's thrice her age, A byword for ' successes with the sex ' As the French say — and, as we ought to say. Consummately a liar and a rogue. Since — show me Where's the womaji won without The help of this one lie which she believes — That, never mind how things have come to pasSy 552 THE INN ALBUM. And let who loves have loved a thousand times — All the same he now loves her only, loves Her ever I if by ' won ' you just mean ' sold,^ Thafs quite another compact. Well, this scamp, Continuing descent from bad to worse. Must leave his fine aiid fashionable prey ( Who — fathered, brothered, husbanded, — are hedged About with thorny da?iger^ and apply His arts to this poor country ignorance. Who sees forthwith in the first rag of man Her model hero / IV hy continue waste On such a woman treasures of a heart Would yet fi7id solace, — yes, my ff friend — In soj7ie cojigenial — fiddle-diddle-dee ? ' " " Pray, is the pleasant gentleman described Exact the portrait which my '■ fffriends ' Recognize as so like ? 'Tis evident You half surmised the sweet original Could be no other than myself, just now! Your stop and start weie flattering ! " THE INN ALBUM. 553 " Of course Caricature's allowed for in a sketch ! The longish nose becomes a foot in length, The swarthy cheek gets copper-colored, — still Prominent beak and dark-hued skin are facts : And ^parsofi's daughter ' — '■ yo:mg man coachable ' — ' Elderly party ' — '■ four years since ' — were facts To fasten on, a moment ! Marriage, though — That made the difference, I hope." " All right ! ' I never married ; wish I had — and then Unwish it : people kill their wives, sometimes ! I hate my mistress, but I'm murder-free. In your case, where's the grievance ? You came last, The earlier bird picked up the worm. Suppose You, in the glory of your twenty-one. Had happened to precede myself ! 'tis odds But this gigantic juvenility, This offering of a big arm's bony hand — I'd rather shake than feel shake me, I know — 554 THE INN ALBUM. Had moved 7ny dainty mistress to admire An altogether new Ideal — deem Idolatry less due to life's decline Productive of experience, powers mature By dint of usage, the made man — no boy That's all to make ! I was the earlier bird — And what I found, I let fall j what you missed, Who is the fool that blames you for ? " " Myself - For nothing, every thing ! For finding out She, whom I worshipped, was a worshipper In turn of . . . but why stir up settled mud ? She married him — the fift}^-years-old rake — How you have teased the talk from me ! At last My secret's told you. I inquired no more. Nay, stopped ears when informants unshut mouth ; Enough that she and he live, deuce take where, Married and happy, or else miserable — It's ' Cut-the-pack ; ' she turned up ace or knave, \nd I left Oxford, England, dug my hole THE INN ALBUM. 555 Out in Dalmatia, till you drew me thence Badger-like, — ' Back to LoJidon ' was the word — ' Do t/iifigs, a many, there, you fancy hard, ^I II undertake are easy ! ' — the advice. I took it, had my twelvemonth's fling with you — (Little hand holding large hand pretty tight For all its delicacy — eh, my lord ?) Until when, t'other day, I got a turn Somehow and gave up tired: and '■ Rest T bade you, * Marry your cousin, double your estate, And take your ease by all fneans ! ' So, I loll On this the springy sofa, mine next month — Or should loll, but that you must needs beat rough The very down you spread me out so smooth. I wish this confidence were still to make ! Ten thousand pounds ? You owe me twice the sum For stirring up the black depths ! There's repose Or, at least, silence when misfortune seems All that one has to bear ; but folly — yes, Folly, it all was ! Fool to be so meek. So humble, — such a coward rather say 1 556 THE INN ALBUM. Fool, to adore the adorer of a fool ! Not to have faced him, tried (a useful hint) ]My big and bony, here, against the bunch Cf lily-colored five with signet-ring. Most like, for little-finger's sole defence — Much as you flaunt the blazon there ! I grind My teeth, that bite my very heart, to think — To know I might have made that woman mine But for the folly of the coward — know — Or what's the good of my apprenticeship This twelvemonth to a master in the art ? Mine — had she been mine — just one moment mine For honor, for dishonor — anyhow. So that my life, instead of stagnant . . . Well, You've poked and proved stagnation is not sleep — Hang you ! " *' Hang you for an ungrateful goose ! All this means — I who since I knew you first Have helped you to conceit yourself this cock O' the dunghill with all hens to pick and choose — THE INN ALBUM. 557 Ought to have helped you when shell first was chipped By chick tliat wanted prompting ' Use the spur T While I was elsewhere putting mine to use. As well might I blame you who kept aloof, Seeing you could not guess I was alive, Never advised me ' Do as I have done — Reverence such a jewel as your luck Has scratched tip to enrich unworihifiess / ' As your behavior was, should mine have been, — Faults which we both, too late, are sorr}- for — Opposite ages, each with its mistake : ' If youth but would — ?f age but could,' you know ! Don't let us quarrel ! Come, we're — young and old — Neitlier so badly off ! Go you your way Cut to the Cousin ! I'll to Inn, await The issue of diplomacy with Aunt, And wait my hour on ' cal?n acclivity ' In rumination manifold — perhaps About ten thousand pounds I have to pay ! " 55? THE INN ALBUM. III. Now, as the elder lights the fresh cigar Conducive to resource, and saunteringly Betakes him to the left-hand backward path, — - While, much sedate, the younger strides away To right and makes for — islanded in lawn And edged vrith shrubbeiy — the brilliant bit Of Barry's building that's the Place, — a pair Of women, at this nick of time, one young, One very young, are ushered with due pomp Into the same Inn-parlor — '■disengaged Entirely now I ' the obsequious landlord smiles, ' Since the late occupants — w/ief-eof but one Was quite a stranger ' — (smile enforced by bow) ''Left, a full tiuo hours since, to catch the traiti, Probably for the stranger'' s sake f (Bow, smile, THE INN ALBUM. 559 And backing out from door soft closed behind.) Woman and girl, the two, alone inside, Begin their talk : the girl, with sparkling eyes — " Oh, I forewent him purposely ! but you, Who joined at — journeyed from the Junction here — I wonder how he failed your notice ! Few Stop at our station : fellow-passengers Assuredly you were — I saw indeed His servant, therefore he arrived all right. I wanted, you know why, to have you safe Inside here first of all, so dodged about The dark end of the platform ; that's his way — To swing from station straight to avenue And stride the half a mile for exercise. I fancied you might notice the huge boy. He soon gets o'er the distance : at the house He'll hear I went to meet him and have missed ; He'll wait. No minute of the hour's too much Meantime for our preliminary talk j 560 THE INN ALBUM. First word of which must be — O good beyond Expression of all goodness — you to come! " The elder, the superb one, answers slow. " There was no helping that. You called for me, Cried, rather ; and my old heart answered you. Still, thank me ! since the effort breaks a vow — At least, a promise to myself." " I know ! How selfish get you happy folks to be ! If I should love my husband, must I needs Sacrifice straightway all the world to him, As you do ? Must I never dare leave house On this dread Arctic expedition, out And in again, six mortal hours, though you — You even, my own friend for evermore. Adjure me — fast your friend till rude love pushed Poor friendship from her vantage — just to grant The quarter of a whole day's company THE INjY album. 561 And counsel ? This makes counsel so much more Need and necessity. For here's my block Of stumbling : in the face of happiness So absolute, fear chills me. If such change In heart be but love's easy consequence, Do I love ? If to marry mean — let go All I now live for, should my marriage be ? " The other never once has ceased to gaze On the great elm-tree in the open, posed Placidly full in front, smooth bole, broad branch, And leafage, one green plenitude of May. The gathered thought runs into speech at last. " O you exceeding beauty, bosomful Of lights and shades, murmurs and silences, Sun-warmth, dew-coolness, — squirrel, bee and bird, High, higher, highest, till the blue proclaims Leave earth, there's nothing better till next step Heavenward ! ' — so, off flies what has wings to help ! " And henceforth they alternate. Says the girl — 562 THE INN ALBUM. " That's saved then : marriage spares the early taste." " Four years now, since my eye took note of tree ! " " If I had seen no other tree but this My hfe-long, while yourself came straight, you said, From tree which overstretched you, and was just One fairy tent with pitcher-leaves that held Wine, and a flowery wealth of suns and moons. And magic fruits whereon the angels feed — I looking out of window on a tree Like yonder — otherwise well-known, much-liked, Yet just an English ordinaiy elm — What marvel if you cured me of conceit My elm's bird bee, and squirrel tenantry Was quite the proud possession I supposed ? And there is evidence you tell me true. The fairy marriage-tree reports itself Good guardian of the perfect face and form, Fruits of four years' protection ! Married friend, You are more beautiful than ever ! " THE INN ALBUM. 563 "Yes — I think that likely. I could well dispense With all thought fair in feature, mine or no, Leave but enough of face to know me by — With all found fresh in youth except such strength As lets a life-long labor earn repose Death sells at just that price, they say ; and so, Possibly, what I care not for, I keep." " How you must know he loves you ! Chill, be- fore. Fear sinks to freezing. Could I sacrifice — Assured my lover simply loves my soul — One nose-breadth of fair feature ? No, indeed ! Your own love." . . . " The preliminary hour — Don't waste it ! " " But I can't begin at once ! The angel's self that comes to hear me speak 564 THE INN ALBUM. Drives away all the care about the speech. What an angelic mystery you are — Now — that is certain ! when I knew you first, No break of halo and no bud of wing ! I thought I knew you, saw you, round and through, Like a glass ball ; suddenly, four years since, You vanished, how and whither ? Mystery ! Wherefore ? No mystery at all : you loved. Were loved again, and left the world of course, — Who would not ? Lapped four years in faiiy-land, Out comes, by no less wonderful a chance, The changeling, touched athwart her trellised bliss Of blush-rose bower by just the old friend's voice That's now struck dumb at her own potency. / talk of m}'' small fortunes ? Tell me yours — Rather ! The fool I ever was — I am. You see that : the true friend you ever had, You have, you also recognize. Perhaps, Giving you all the love of all my heart. Nature, that's niggai'd in me, has denied The after-birth of love there's some one claims, THE INN ALBUM. 565 — This huge boy, s\\'inging up the avenue ; And I want counsel — is defect in me, ' Or him who has no right to raise the love ? My cousin asks my hand : he's young enough, Handsome, — my maid thinks, — manly's more the word : He asked my leave to * drop ' the elm-tree there, Some morning before breakfast. Gentleness Goes with the strength, of course. He's honest too, Limpidly truthful. For abilit}^ — All's in the rough j-et. His first taste of life Seems to have somehow gone against the tongue : He travelled, tried things — came back, tried still more — He says he's sick of all. He's fond of me After a certain careless-earnest way I like : the iron's crude, — no polished steel Somebody forged before me. I am rich — That's not the reason, he's far richer : no, Nor is it that he thinks me pretty, — frank Undoubtedly on that point ! He saw once 566 THE INN ALBUM. The pink of face-perfection — oh, not you — Content yourself, my beauty ! — for she proved So thoroughly a cheat, his charmer . . . nay, He runs into extremes, I'll say at once. Lest you say ! Well, I understand he wants Some one to serve, something to do : and both Requisites so abound in me and mine That here's the obstacle which stops consent — The smoothness is too smooth, and I mistrust The unseen cat beneath the counterpane. Therefore I thought — * Would she but judge for me^ Who, judging for herself, succeeded so ! ' Do I love him, does he love me, do both Mistake for knowledge — easy ignorance ? Appeal to the proficient in each art ! I got rough-smooth through a piano-piece, Rattled away last week till tutor came. Heard me to end, then grunted, ^ Ach, mein Gott ! Sagen Sie " easy " 7 Every note is wrong ! All thumped mit wrist — we'll trouble fingers now ! The Frdulein will please roll up Raff again THE INN ALBUM. 567 And exercise at Czerny for one month I ' Am I to roll up cousin, exercise At Trollope's novels for a month ? Pronounce ! " " Now, place each in the right position first, Adviser and advised one ! I perhaps Am three — nay, four years older ; am, beside, A wife : advantages — to balance which. You have a full fresh joyous sense of life That finds you out life's fit food everywhere, Detects enjoyment where I, slow and dull. Fumble at fault. Already, these four years. Your merest glimpses at the world without Have shown you more than ever met my gaze ; And now, by joyance you inspire joy, — learn While you profess to teach, and teach, although Avowedly a learner. I am dazed Like any owl by sunshine which just sets The sparrow preening plumage ! Here's to spy — Your cousin ! You have scanned him all your life, Little or much ; I never saw his face. 568 THE INN ALBUM. You have determined on a marriage — used Deliberation therefore — I'll believe No othen\dse, with opporti.mity For judgment so abounding ! Here stand I — Summoned to give my sentence, for a whim (Well, at first cloud-fleck thrown athwart your blue) On what is strangeness' self to me, — say ' Wed P Or * Wed not ! ' whom you promise I shall judge Presently, at propitious lunch-time, just While he car\-es chicken ! Sends he leg for wing ? That revelation into character And conduct must suffice me ! Quite as well Consult with yonder solitar}^ crow That eyes us from your elm-top ! " " Still the same ! Do you remember, at the library We saw together somewhere, those two books Somebody said were notice-worthy ? One Lay wide on table, sprawled its painted leaves For all the world's inspection ; shut on shelf THE INN ALBUM. 56Q Reclined the other volume, closed, clasped, locked — Clear to be let alone. Which page had we Preferred the turning over of ? You were. Are, ever will be the locked lady, hold Inside you secrets written, — soul absorbed, iSIy ink upon your blotting-paper. / — What trace of you have I to show in turn ? Dehcate secrets ! No one juvenile Ever essayed at croquet and performed Superiorly but I confided you The sort of hat he wore and hair it held. WTiile you ? One day a calm note comes by post — * lam just married, you may like to hear.' Most men would hate you, or they ought ; we love What we fear, — 7do ! ' Cold' I shall expect My cousin calls you. I — dislike not him, But (if I comprehend what loving means) Love you immeasurably more — more — more Than even he who, loving you his \^•ife, Would turn up nose at me impertinent, Frivolous, for^-ard — love that excellence 570 THE INN ALBUM. Of all the earth he bows in worship to ! And who's this paragon of privilege ? Simply a country parson : his the charm That worked the miracle ! Oh, too absurd — But that you stand before me as you stand ! Such beauty does prove something, every thing ! Beaut}''s the prize-power which dispenses eye From peering into what has nourished root — Dew or manure : the plant best knows its place. Enough, from teaching youth and tending age And hearing sermons, — haply writing tracts, — From such strange love-besprinkled compost, lo, Out blows this triumph ! Therefore, love's the soil Plants find or fail of. You, with wit to find, Exercise wit on the old friend's behalf, Keep me from failure ! Scan and scrutinize This cousin ! Surely he's as worth your pains To study as my elm-tree, crow and all, You still keep staring at ! I read your thoughts ! " "At last?" THE IN AT ALBUM. 571 " At first ! ' Would, tree, a-top of thee I winged were, like crow perched vioveless there. And so conld straightway soar, escape this bore. Back to my nest where broods who'ni I love best — The parson o'er his parish — garish — rarish ' — Oh I could bring the rhyme in if I tried : Tlie Album here inspires me ! Quite apart From lyrical expression, have I read The stare aright, and sings not soul just so ? " " Or rather so ? ' Cool co7nfort able elm That jnen make coffins out of, — noticfor me At thy expense, so thou permit I glide Under thy ferny feet, a fid there sleep, sleep. Nor dread awaking though in heaven itself I ' " The younger looks with face struck sudden white. The elder answers its inquiry. " Dear, You are a guesser, not a ' clazrvoyante.' 572 THE INN ALBUM. I'll SO far open you the locked and shelved Volume, my soul, that you desire to see, As let you profit by the titlepage" — '' Paradise Lost V " Inferno ! — All which comes Of tempting me to break my vow. Stop here ! Friend, whom I love the best in the whole world, Come at your call, be sure that I will do At your requirement — see and say my mind. It may be that by sad apprenticeship I have a keener sense : I'll task the same. Only indulge me — here let sight and speech Happen — this Inn is neutral ground, you know ! I cannot visit the old house and home, Encounter the old sociality Abjured forever. Peril quite enough In even this first — last, I pray it prove — Renunciation of my solitude ! Back, you, to house and cousin ! Leave me here. THE INN ALBUM. 573 Who want no entertainment, carry still ]\Iy occupation witli me. While I watch The shadow inching round those ferny feet, Tell him ' A school frietid wants a word with 7ne Up at the inn : time, tide and train won^t wait : I must go see her — OJi and off again — You'll keep me company ? ' Ten minutes' talk, With you in presence, ten more afterward With who, alone, convoys me station-bound, And I see clearly — to say honestly To-morrow : pen shall play tongue's part, you know ! Go — quick ! for I have made our hand-in-hand Return impossible. So scared you look, — If cousin does not greet you with, ' JFhat ghost Has crossed your path 1 ' I set him down obtuse." And after one more look, with face still white, The younger does go, while the elder stands Occupied by the elm at window tliere. 574 THE INN ALBUM. IV. Occupied by the elm ; and, as its shade Has crept clock-hand-wise till it ticks at fern Five inches farther to the south, — the door Opens abruptly, some one enters sharp. The elder man returned to wait the youth — Never observes the room's new occupant, Throws hat on table, stoops quick, elbow-propped Over the Album wide there, bends down brow A cogitative minute, whistles shrill. Then, — with a cheery-hopeless laugh-and-lose Air of defiance to fate visibly Casting the toils about him, — moths once more * Hail, cabn acclivity, salubrious spot ! ' Then clasps-to cover, sends book spinning off T'other side table, looks up, starts erect THE INN ALBUM. 575 Full-face with her who, — roused from that abstruse Question ' Will next tick tip the fern ornoV — Fronts him as fully. All her languor breaks, Away withers at once the weariness From the black-blooded brow, anger and hate Convulse. Speech follows slowlier, but at last — " You here ! I felt, I knew it would befall ! Knew, by some subtle undivinable Trick of the trickster, I should, silly-sooth, Late or soon, somehow be allured to leave Safe hiding and come take of him arrears. My torment due on four years' respite ! Time To pluck the bird's healed breast of down o'er wound ! Have your success ! Be satisfied this sole Seeing you has undone all heaven could do These four years, puts me back to you and hell ! What will next trick be, next success ? No doubt When I shall think to glide into the grave, 576 THE INN ALBUM. There will you wait disguised as beckoning Death, And catch and Capture me for evermore ! But, God, though I am nothing, be thou all ! Contest him for me ! Strive, for he is strong ! " Already his surprise dies palely out In laugh of acquiescing impotence. He neither gasps nor hisses : calm and plain — " I also felt and knew — but otherwise ! You out of hand and sight and care of me These four years, whom I felt, knew, all the while . . Oh, it's no superstition ! It's a gift O' the gamester that he snuffs the unseen powers Which help or harm him ! Well I knew what lurked, Lay perdue paralyzing me, — drugged, drowsed And damnified my soul and body both ! Down and down, see where you have dragged me to, You and your malice ! I was, four years since, — Well, a poor creature ! I become a knave. I squandered my own pence : I plump my purse THE INN ALBUM. 577 With other people's pounds. I practised play Because I liked it : play turns labor now Because there's profit also in the sport. I gamed with men of equal age and craft : I steal here with a boy as green as grass Whom I have tightened hold on slow and sure This long while, just to bring about to-day When the boy beats me hollow, buries me In ruin who was sure to beggar him. O time indeed I should look up and laugh, ' Surely she closes on mc ! ' Here you stand ! " And stand she does : while volubility, With him, keeps on the increase, for his tongue After long locking-up is loosed for once. "Certain the taunt is happy ! " he resumes: " So, I it was allured you — only I — I, and none other — to this spectacle — Your triumph, my despair — you woman-fiend That front me ! Well, I have my wish, then ! See 578 THE INN ALBUM. The low wide brow oppressed by sweeps of hair Darker and darker as they coil and swathe The crowned corpse-wanness whence the eyes burn black, Not asleep now ! not pin-points dwarfed beneath Either great bridging eyebrow — poor blank beads — Babies, I've pleased to pity in my time : How they protrude and glow immense with hate ! The long triumphant nose attains — retains Just the perfection ; and there's scarlet-skein My ancient enemy, her lip and lip. Sense-free, sense-frighting lips clenched cold and bold Because of chin, that based resolved beneath ! Then the columnar neck completes the whole Greek-sculpture-bafHing body ! Do I see ? Can I observe ? You wait next word to come ? Well, wait and want ! since no one blight I bid Consume one least perfection. Each and all, As they are rightly shocking now to me. So may they still continue ! Value them ? A)', as the vender knows the money-worth Of liis Greek statue, fools aspire to buy, THE INN ALBUM. 579 And he to see the back of ! Let us laugh ! You have absolved me from my sin at least ! You stand stout, strong, in the rude health of hate, No touch of the tame timid nullity My cowardice, forsooth, has practised on ! Ay, while you seemed to hint some fine fifth act Of tragedy should freeze blood, end the farce, I never doubted all was joke. I kept, May be, an eye alert on paragraphs, Newspaper-notice, — let no inquest slip, Accident, disappearance : sound and safe Were you, my victim, not of mind to die ! So, my worst fancy that could spoil the smooth Of pillow, and arrest descent of sleep Was ' Itito what dim hole can she have dived, She a7id her wrongs, her woe thafs wearing flesh And blood away ? " Whereas, see, sorrow swells ! Or, fattened, fulsome, have you fed on me, Sucked out my substance ? How much gloss, I pray, O'ei'bloomed those hair-swathes when there crept from you 580 THE INN ALBUM. To me that craze, else unaccountable, Which urged me to contest our county-seat With whom but my own brother's nominee ? Did that mouth's pulp glow ruby from carmine While I misused my moment, pushed, — one word, — One hair's breadth more of gesture, — idiot-like Past passion, floundered on to the grotesque, And lost the heiress in a grin ? At least, You made no such mistake ! You tickled fish. Landed your prize the true artistic way ! How did the smug young curate rise to tune Of * Friend, a fatal fact divides us ! Love Suits me no longer ! I have suffered shame. Betrayal : past is past ; the future — yours — Shall never be contaminate by mine ! I might have spared me this cojifession, not — O, never by some hideouscst of lies. Easy, impenetrable ! No I but say, By just the quiet answer — ''' I am cold." Falsehood avaunt, each shadow of thee, hence ! Had happier fortune willed . . . but dreams are vain I THE INN ALBU?.T. 5S1 N'ow, leave me — yes, for pity s sake T Aha, Who fails to see the curate as his face Reddened and whitened, wanted handkerchief At wrinkhng brow and twinkhng eye, until Out burst the proper ' Angel, whoin the fiend Has thought to smirch, — thy whiteness, at one wipe Of holy cambric, shall disgrace the swan ! Mine be the task ' . . . and so forth ! Fool ? not he ! Cunning in flavors, rather ! What but sour Suspected makes the sweetness doubly — sweet ? And what stings love from faint to flamboyant But the fear-sprinkle ? Even hon^or helps — ' Lovers fla?ne in me by such recited wrong Drenched, quenched, indeed 'I It burns the fi.ercelier thejice I ' Why, I have known men never love their wives Till somebody — myself, suppose — had ' drenc/ied And quenched love,' so the blockheads whined : as if The fluid fire that lifts the torpid limb Were a wrong done to palsy. But I thrilled No palsied person : half my age, or less 582 THE INN ALBUM. The curate v/as, I'll wager : o'er young blood Your beauty triumphed ! Eh, but — was it ha i Then, it was he, I heard of ! None beside ! How frank you were about the audacious boy Who fell upon you like a thunderbolt — Passion and protestation ! He it was Reserved 171 petto ! Ay, and * rich ' beside — ' Jikh ' — how supremely did disdain curl nose ! All that I heard was — ' wedded to a priest ; ' Informants sunk youth, riches and the rest. And so my lav/less love disparted loves. That loves m.ight come together with a rush ! Surel}^ this last achievement sucked me dr}'- : Indeed, that way my wits went ! Mistress-qu^een, Be merciful, and let your subject slink Into dark safety ! He's a beggar, see — Do not turn back his ship, Australia-bound, And bid her land him right amid some crowd Of creditors, assembled by your curse ! Don't cause tlie very rope to crack (j'ou can !) Whereon he spends his last (friend's) sixpence, just THE INN ALBUM. 5 S3 The moment when he hoped to hang himself ! Be satisfied you beat him ! " She replies — " Beat him ! I do. To all that you confess Of abject failure, I extend belief. Your very face confirms it : God is just ! Let my face — fix your eyes ! — in turn confirm What I shall sa3^ All-abject's but half truth ; Add to all-abject knave as perfect fool ! So is it you probed human nature, so Prognosticated of me ? Lay these words To heart then, or where God meant heart should lurk ! That moment when you first revealed yourself, My simple impulse prompted — end forthwith The ruin of a life uprooted thus To surely perish ! How should such a tree Henceforward balk the wind of its worst sport. Fail to go falling deeper, falling down From sin to sin until some depth were reached 5^4 THE INN ALBUM. Doomed to the weakest by the wickedest Of weak and wicked human kind ? But when, That self-display made absolute, — behold A new revealment ! — round you pleased to veer, Propose me what should prompt annul the past, Make me ' amends by 7narrlage ' — in your phrase, Incorporate me henceforth, body and soul, With soul and body which mere brushing past Brought leprosy upon me — ' marry ' these ! Why, then despair broke, reassurance dawned, Clear-sighted was I that who hurled contempt As I — thank God ! — at the contemptible. Was scarce an utter weakling. Rent away By treason from my rightful pride of place, I was not destined to the shame below. A cleft had caught me : I might perish there. But thence to be dislodged and whirled at last Where the black torrent sweeps the sewage — no ! * jBare breast be on hard rock,' laughed out my soul In gratitude, ' howe'cr rock's grip may grind / The plain, rough, wretched holdfast shall sicfice THE INN ALBUM. 585 This wreck of me ! ' The wind, — I broke in bloom At passage of, — whicli stripped me bole and branch, Twisted me up and tossed me here, — turns back And, playful ever, would replant the spoil ? Be satisfied, not one least leaf that's mine Shall henceforth help wind's sport to exercise ! Rather I give such remnant to the rock Wliich never dreamed a straw would settle there. Rock may not thank me, may not feel my breast, Even: enough that /feel, hard and cold, Its safety my salvation. Safe and saved, I lived, live. When the tempter shall persuade His prey to slip down, slide off, trust the wind, — Now that I know if God or Satan be Prince of the Power of the Air, — then, then, indeed, Let my life end and degradation too ! " " Good ! " he smiles, " true Lord Byron ! ' Tree and rock : ' ' J?ock ' — there's advancement ! He's at first a youtli, Rich, worthless therefore ; next he grows a priest : 586 THE INN ALBUM. Youth, riches prove a notable resource, When to leave me for their possessor gluts Malice abundantly ; and now, last change. The 3'oung rich parson represents a rock — Bloodstone, no doubt. He's evangelical ? Your Ritualists prefer the Church for spouse ! " She speaks. " I have a story to relate. There was a parish-priest, my father knew. Elderly, poor : I used to pity him Before I learned what woes are pity-worth. Elderly was grown old now, scanty means Were straitening fast to poverty, beside The ailments which await in such a case. Limited every way, a perfect man Within the bounds built up and up since birth Breast-high about him till the outside world Was blank save o'erhead one blue bit of sky — Faith : he had faith in dogma, small or great, As in the fact that if he clave his skull He'd find a brain there : such a fact who proves THE INN ALBUM. 587 No falsehood by experiment at price Of soul and body ? The one rule of life Delivered him in childhood was * Obey ! Labor I' He had obeyed and labored — tame, True to the mill-track blinked on from above. Some scholarship he may have gained in youth : Gone — dropt or flung behind. Some blossom-flake, Spring's boon, descends on every vernal head, I used to think ; but January joins December, as his year had known no j\Iay Trouble its snow-deposit, — cold and old ! I heard it was his will to take a wife, A helpmate. Duty bade him tend and teach — How ? with experience null, nor sympathy Abundant, — while himself worked dogma dead, Wlao would play ministrant to sickness, age, Womankind, childhood ? These demand a wife, Supply the want, then ! theirs the wife ; for him — No coarsest sample of the proper sex But would have served his purpose equally With God's own angel, — let but knowledge match 588 THE INN ALBUM. Her coarseness : zeal does only half the work. I saw this — knew the purblind honest drudge Was wearing out his simple blameless life, And wanted help beneath a burden — borne To treasure-house or dust-heap, what cared I ? Partner he needed : I proposed myself. Nor much surprised him — dut}' was so clear ! Gratitude ? What for ? Gain of Paradise — Escape, perhaps, from the dire penalty Of who hides talent in a napkin ! No. His scruple was — should I be strong enough — In body ? since of weakness in the mind, Weariness in the heart — what fear of these ? Pie took me as these Arctic voyagers Take an aspirant to their toil and pain : Can he endure them ? — that's the point, and not — Will he ? Who would not, rather ! Whereupon, I pleaded far more earnestly for leave To give myself away, than you to gain What you called priceless till you gained the heart And soul and body ! which, as beggars serve THE INN ALBUM. 589 Extorted alms, you straightway spat upon. Not so my husband, — for I gained my suit, And had my value put at once to proof. Ask him ! These four years I have died away In village life. The village ? Ugliness At best and filthiness at worst — inside. Outside, sterility — earth sown with salt. Or what keeps even grass from growing fresh. The life ? I teacia the poor and learn, myself, That commonplace to such stupidity Is all-recondite. Being brutalized Their true need is brute language, cheeiy grunts And kindly duckings, no articulate Nonsense that's elsewhere knowledge. Tend the sick, Sickened myself at pig perversity, Cat-craft, dog-snarling, — may be, snapping "... " Brief — You eat that root of bitterness called Man — Raw : I prefer it cooked, with social sauce ! So, he was not the rich youth after all ! 59 o THE INN ALBUM. Well, I mistook. But somewhere needs must be The compensation. If not young nor rich "... " You interrupt ! " " Because you've daubed enough Bistre for background. Play the artist now, Produce your figure well-relieved in front ! The contrast — do not I anticijDate ? Though neither rich nor young — what then ? 'Tis all Forgotten, all this ignobility. In the dear home, the darling word, the smile, The something sweeter "... "Yes, you interrupt. I have my purpose and proceed. Who lives With beasts assumes beast-nature, look and voice, And, much more, thought, — for beasts think. Selfish- ness In us met selfishness in them, deserved Such answer as it gained. My husband, bent THE INN ALBUM. 591 On saving his o\vn soul by saving theirs, — They, bent on being saved if saving soul Included body's getting bread and cheese Somehow in life and somehow after death, — Both parties were alike in the same boat, One danger, therefore one equality. Safety induces culture : culture seeks To institute, extend and multiply The difference between safe man and man. Able to live alone now ; progress means Wliat but abandonment of fellowship ? We were in common danger, still stuck close. No new books, — were the old ones mastered yet ? No pictures and no music : these divert — What from ? the staving danger off ! You paint The waterspout above, you set to words The roaring of the tempest round you ? Thanks ! Amusement ? Talk at end of the tired day Of the more tiresome morrow ! I transcribed The page on page of sermon-scrawlings — stopped My intellectual eye to sense and sound — 592 THE INN ALBUM. Vainly : the sound and sense would penetrate To brain, and plague there in despite of me, Maddened to know more moral good were done Had we two simiDl}^ sallied forth and preached r the ' Green ' they call their grimy, — I with twang Of long-disused guitar, — with cut and slash Of much misvalued horsewhip he, — to bid The peaceable come dance, the peace-breaker Pay in his person ! Whereas — Heaven and Hell, Excite with that, restrain with this ! — so dealt His drugs my husband ; as he dosed himself. He drenched his cattle : and, for all my part Was just to dub the mortar, never fear But drugs, hand pestled at, have poisoned nose ! Heaven he let pass, left wisely undescribed : As applicable therefore to the sleep I want, that knows no waking — as to what's Conceived of as the proper prize to tempt Souls less world-weary : there, no fault to find ! But Hell he m.ade explicit. After death, Life : man created new, ingeniously THE INN ALBUM. 593 Perfect for a vindictive purpose now That man, first fashioned in beneficence, Was proved a faikn-e ] intellect at length Replacing old obtuseness, memory- Made mindful of delinquent's bygone deeds Now that remorse was vain, which life-long lay Dormant when lesson might be laid to heart ; New gift of observation up and down And round man's self, new power to apprehend Each necessary consequence of act In man for well or ill — things obsolete — Just granted to supplant the idiotcy Man's only guide while act was yet to choose, And ill or well momentously its fruit ; A faculty of immense suffering Conferred on mind and body, — mind, erewhile Unvisited by one compunctious dream During sin's drunken slumber, startled up. Stung through and through by sin's significance Now that the holy was abolished — just As body which, alive, broke down beneath 594 THE INN ALBUM. Knowledge, lay helpless in tlie path to good, Failed to accomplish aught legitimate. Achieve aught worth)', — which grew old in youth, And at its longest fell a cut-down flower, — Dying, this too revived by miracle To bear no end of burden now that back Supported torture to no use at all, And live imperishably potent — since Life's potency was impotent to ward One plague off which made earth a hell before. This doctrine, which one healthy view of things, One sane sight of the general ordinance — Nature, — and its particular object, — man, — Which one mere eye-cast at the character Of Who made these and gave man sense to boot, Had dissipated once and evermore, — This doctrine I have dosed our flock withal. Why ? Because none believed it. They desire Such Heaven and dread such Hell, whom every day "he alehouse tempts from one, a dog-fight bids Defy the other ? All tlie harm is done THE INN ALBUM. S95 Ourselves — done my poor husband who in youth Perhaps read Dickens, done myself who still Could play both Bach and Brahms. Such life I lead — Thanks to you, knave ! You learn its quality — Thanl<:s to me, fool ! " He eyes her earnestly, But she continues. " — Life which, thanks once more To you, arch-knave as exquisitest tool, I acquiescingly — I gratefully Take back again to heart ! and hence this speech Which yesterday had spared you. Four years long Life — I began to find intolerable, Only this moment. Ere your entry just, The leap of heart which answered, spite of me, A friend's first summons, first provocative Authoritative, nay, compulsive call To quit — though for a single day — my house Of bondage — made return seem horrible. 596 THE INN ALBUM. I heard again a human lucid laugh All trust, no fear j again saw earth pursue Its narrow busy way amid small cares, Smaller contentments, much weeds, some few flowers, Never suspicious of a thunderbolt Avenging presently each daisy's death. I recognized the beech-tree, knew the thrush Repeated his old music-phrase, — all right, How wrong was I, then ! But your entry broke Illusion, bade me back 1o bounds at once. I honestly submit my soul : which sprang At love, and losing love lies signed and sealed ^Failure.'' No love more ? then, no beauty more Which tends to breed love ! Purify my powers, Effortless till some other world procure Some other chance of prize ! or, if none be, — Nor second world nor chance, — undesecrate Die then this aftergrowth of heart, surmised Wlaere May's precipitation left June blank ! Better have failed in the high aim, as I, Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed THE INN ALBUM. 597 As, God be thanked, I do not ! Ugliness Had I called beauty, falsehood — truth, and you My lover ! No — this earth's unchanged for me, Ey his enchantment ^vhom God made the Prince O' the Power o' the Air, into a Heaven : there is Heaven, since there is Heaven's simulation — earth ; I sit possessed in patience ; prison-roof Shall break one day and Heaven beam overhead ! " His smile is done with ; he speaks bitterh\ " Take my congratulations, and peiTnit I v.ish myself had proved as teachable ! — Or, no ! until you taught me, could I learn A lesson from experience ne'er till now Conceded ? Please you listen while I show How thoroughly you estimate my worth And yours — the immeasurably superior ! I Believed at least in one thing, first to last, — Your love to me : I was the vile, and you The precious ; I abused you, I betraj'ed, 598 THE INN ALBUM. But doubted — never ! Why else go my way Judas-like plodding to this Potter's Field Where fate now finds me ? What has dinned my ear And dogged my step ? The spectre with the shriek ' Such she was, such were you, 7ohose puiiishmeiit Is Just !^ And such she was not, all the wlaile ! She never owned a love to outrage, faith To pay with falsehood ! For, myself know this — Love once and you love always. Why, it's down Here in the Album : every lover knows Love may use hate but — turn to hate, itself — Turn even to indifference — no, indeed! Well, I have been spell-bound, deluded like The witless negro by the Obeah-man Who bids him wither : so, his eye grows dim, His arm slack, arrow misses aim and spear Goes wandering wide, — and all the woe because He proved untrue to Fetish, who, he finds. Was just a feather-phantom ! I wronged love. Am ruined, — and there was no love to wrong ! " THE INN ALBUM. 599 " No love ? Ah, dead love ! I invoke thy ghost To show the murderer where thy heart poured life At summons of the stroke he doubts was dealt On pasteboard and pretence ! Not love, my love ! I changed for you the very laws of life : Made you the standard of all right, all fair. No genius but you could have been, no sage, No sufferer — which is grandest — for the truth ! My hero — where the heroic only hid To burst from hiding, brighten earth one day ! Age and decline were man's maturity ; Face, form were nature's type; more grace, more strength. What had they been but just superfluous gauds, Lawless divergence ? I have danced through day, On tiptoe at the music of a word. Have wondered vdiere was darkness gone as night Burst out in stars at brilliance of a smile ! Lonely, I placed the chair to help me seat Your fancied presence ; in companionship, I kept my finger constant to your glove ■'< /ni 6oo THE INN ALBUM. Glued to my breast ; then — where was all the world ? I schemed — not dreamed — how I might die some death Should save your finger aching ! Who creates Destroys, he only: I had laughed to scorn Whatever angel tried to shake my faith And make you seem unworthy : you yourself Only could do that ! With a touch 't\vas done. ' Give me all, tnist me wholly /' At the word, I did give, I did trust — and thereupon The touch did follow. All, the quiet smile, The masterfully folded arm in arm, As trick obtained its triumph one time more ! In turn, my soul too triumphs in defeat : Treason like faith moves mountains : love is gone ! " He paces to and fro, stops, stands quite close, And calls her by her name. Then — " God forgives { Forgive you, delegate of God, brought near As never priest could bring him to this soul THE INN ALBUM. 60 1 That prays you both — forgive me ! I abase — Know myself mad and monstrous utterly In all I did that moment ; but as God Gives me this knowledge — heart to feel and tongue To testify — so be you gracious too ! Judge no man by the solitary work Of — well, they do say and I can believe — The devil in him : his, the moment, — mine The life — your life ! " He names her name again "You were just — merciful as just, you were In giving me no respite : punishment Followed offending. Sane and sound once more, The patient thanks decision, promptitude, Which flung him prone and fastened him from hurt Haply to others, surely to himself. I Avake and would not you had spared one pang. . All's well that ends well ' " Yet asrain her name. 6o2 THE nViV ALBUM. " Had you no fault ? Why must you change, forsooth, Parts, why reverse positions, spoil the play ? Wh}^ did your nobleness look up to me, Not down on the ignoble thing confessed ? Was it your part to stoop, or lift tlie low ? Wherefore did God exalt you ? Who would teach The brute man's tameness and intelligence Must never drop the dominating eye : Wink — and what wonder if the mad fit break. Followed by stripes and fasting ? Sound and sane, My life, chastised now, couches at your foot. Accept, redeem me ! Do your eyes ask ' How ? ' I stand here penniless, a beggar ; talk What idle trash I may, this final blow Of fortune fells me. /disburse, indeed, This boy his winnings ? when each bubble scheme That danced athwart my brain, a minute since. The worse the better, — of repairing straight My misadventure by fresh enterprise, Capture of other boys in foolishness His fellows, — when these fancies fade away THE INN ALBUM. 603 At first sight of the lost so long, the found So late, the ladj^ of my life, before Whose presence I, the lost, am also found Incapable of one least touch of mean Expedient, I who teemed with plot and wile — That family of snakes your eye bids flee ! Listen ! Our troublesomest dreams die off In daylight : I awake and dream is — where ? I rouse up from the past : one touch dispels England and all here. I secured long since A certain refuge, solitary home To hide in, should the head strike work one day, The hand forget its cunning, or perhaps Society grow savage, — there to end My life's remainder, which, say what fools will. Is or should be the best of life, — its fruit, All tends to, root and stem and leaf and flower. Come with me, love, loved once, loved only, come, Blend loves there ! Let this parenthetic doubt Of love, in me, have been the ti-ial-test Appointed to all flesh at some one stage 6o4 THE INjV album. Of soul's achievement, — when the strong man doubts His strength, the good man Vvhether goodness be, The artist in the dark seeks, fails to find Vocation, and the saint forswears his shrine. What if the lover may elude, no more Than these, probative dark, must search the sky Vainly for love, his soul's star ? But the orb Breaks from eclipse : I breathe again : I love ! Tempted, I fell ; but fallen — fallen lie Here at )'our feet, see ! Leave this poor pretence Of union with a nature and its needs Repugnant to your needs and nature ! Nay, False, beyond falsity you reprehend In me, is such mock marriage with such mere Man-mask as — whom you witless wrong, beside, By that expenditure of heart and brain He recks no more of than would yonder tree If watered with your life-blood : rains and dews Answer its ends sufficiently, while me One drop saves — sends to flower and fruit at last The laggard virtue in the soul which else THE INN ALBUM. 605 Cumbers the ground ! Quicken me ! Call me yours — Yours and the world's — yours and the world's and God's ! Yes, for you can, you only ! Think ! Confirm Your instinct ! Say, a minute since, I seemed The castaway you count me, — all the more Apparent shall the angelic potency Lift me from out perdition's deep of deeps To light and life and love ! — that's love for you — Love that already dares match might with yours. You loved one worthy, — in your estimate, — When time was ; you descried the unworthy taint, And where was love then ? No such test could e'er Try my love : but 3^ou hate me and revile ; Hatred, revilement — had you these to bear, Would you, as I do, nor revile, nor hate. But simply love on, love the more, perchance ? Abide by your own proof ! ' Your love was love : Its ghost knows no fo}'getting ! ' Heart of mine. Would that I dared remember ! Too unwise Were he who lost a treasure, did himself 6o6 THE INN ALBUM. Enlarge upon the sparkling catalogue Of gems to her his queen who trusted late The keeper of her caskets ! Can it be That I, custodian of such relic still As 3-our contempt permits me to retain, All I dare hug to breast is — ' How your glove Burst and displayed the long thin lily-streak ! ' What may have followed — that is forfeit now ! I hope the proud man has grown humble ! True — • One grace of humbleness absents itself — Silence ! yet love lies deeper than all words, And not the spoken but the speechless love Waits answer ere I rise and go my way." Whereupon, yet one other time the name. To end she looks the large deliberate look. Even prolongs it somewhat ; then the soul Bursts forth in a clear Inugh that lengthens on, On, till — thinned, softened, silvered, one might say The bitter runnel hides itself in sand. THE INN ALBUM. 607 Moistens the hard gray grimly comic speech. " Ay — give the baffled angler even yet His supreme triumph as he hales to shore A second time the fish once 'scaped from hook — So artfully has new bait hidden old Blood-imbrued iron ! Ay, no barb's beneath The gilded minnow here ! You bid break trust, This time, with who trusts^ me, — not simply bid Me trust 3^ou, me who ruined but myself, In trusting but myself ! Since, thanks to you, I know the feel of sin and shame, — be sure, I shall obey you and impose them both On one who happens to be ignorant Although my husband — for the lure is love, Your love ! Try other tackle, fisher-friend ! Repentance, exiDiation, hopes and fears. What you had been, may yet be, would I but Prove helpmate to my hero — one and all These silks and worsteds round the hook, seduce Hardly the late torn throat and mangled tongue. Pack up, I pray, the whole assortment prompt ! 6o8 THE INN ALBUM. Who wonders at variety of wile In the Arch-cheat ? You are the Adversary ! Your fate is of 5'Our choosing : have your choice. Wander the world, — God has some end to serve, Ere he suppress you ! He v/aits : I endure, But interpose no finger-tip, forsooth. To stop y^ur passage to the pit. Enough That I am stable, uninvolved by you In the rush downward : free I gaze and fixed ; Your smiles, your tears, prayers, curses move alike My crowned contempt. You kneel ? Prostrate yourself ! To eartlx, and would the whole world saw you there ! " Whereupon — "All right ! " carelessly begins Somebody from outside, who mounts the stair, And sends his voice for herald of approach : Half in half out the doorway as the door Gives way to push. " Old fellow, all's no good ! The train's your portion ! Lay the blame on me ! THE INN ALBUM. 609 I'm no diplomatist, and Bismarck's self Had hardly braved the awful Aunt at broach Of proposition — so has world-repute Preceded the illustrious stranger ? Ah ! " — Quick the voice changes to astonishment, Then horror, as the youth stops, sees, and knows. The man who knelt starts up from kneeling, stands Moving no muscle, and confronts the stare. The lady's proud pale queenliness of scorn Buries with one red outbreak throat and brow — Then her great eyes that turned so quick, become Intenser : quail at gaze, not they indeed ! fiio THE INN ALBUM. V. It is the young man shatters silence first. " Well, my lord — for indeed my lord you are, I little guessed how rightly — thisjast proof Of lordship-paramount confounds too much My simple head-piece ! Let's see how we stand Each to the other ! how we stood i' the game Of life an hour ago, — the magpies, stile, And oak-tree witnessed. Truth exchanged for truth ■ My lord confessed his four-years-old affair — How he seduced and then forsook the girl Who married somebody and left him sad. My pitiful experience was — I loved A girl whose gown's hem had I dared to touch My finger would have failed me, palsy-fixed ; THE INN ALBUM. 6ii She left me, sad enough, to many — whom ? A better man, — then possibly not you ! How does the game stand ? Who is who and what Is what, o' the board now, since an hour went by ? My lord's ' seduced, forsaken, sacrificed^ — Starts up, my lord's familiar instrument. Associate and accomplice, mistress-slave — Shares his adventure, follows on the sly, — Ay, and since ' bag and baggage ' is a phrase — Baggage lay hid in carpet-bag belike, Was but unpadlocked when occasion came For holding council, since my back was turned, On how invent ten thousand pounds which, paid, Would lure the winner to lose twenty more, Beside refunding these ! Why else allow The fool to gain them ? So displays herself The lady whom my heart believed — oh laugh ! Noble and pure : whom my heart loved at once. And who at once did speak truth when she said * / am not mine 7iow hut another^ s ' — thus Being that other's ! Devil's marriage, eh ? 6l2 THE INN ALBUM. ''My lie weds thine till lucre us do part? ^ But pity me the snobbish simpleton, You two aristocratic tip-top swells At swindling? Quits, I cry! Decamp content With skin I'm peeled of : do not strip bones bare — As that you could, I have no doubt at all ! you two rare ones ! Male and female, Sir ! The male there smirked this morning, ' Co7ne, my boy — Out with it ! Yoii've been crossed in love, I think : 1 recognize the lover's hangdog look ; Make a cleafi breast and match my coiifidence, For, rilbefra7ik, I too have had my fling, Am punished for my fault, and smart enough ! Where now the victim hides her head, God knoivs ! ' Here loomed her head, life-large, the devil knew ! Look out, Salvini ! Here's your man, your match ! He and I sat applauding, stall by stall, Last Monday — * Here's Othello ' was our word, 'But Where's lago ? ' Where ? Why, there ! And now The fellow-artist, female specimen — Oh, lady, you must needs describe yourself ! THE INN ALBUM. 613 He's great in art, but you — how greater still — (If I can riglitly, out of all I learned, Apply one bit of Latin that assures * Art means just arfs concealment ' ) — tower yourself For he stands plainly visible henceforth — Liar and_scairip: while you, in artistry Prove so consummate — or I prove perhaps So absolute an ass — that — either way — You still do seem to me Vv'ho worshipped you, And see you take the homage of this man, Your master, who played slave and knelt, no doubt, Before a mistress in his very craft . . . Well, take the fact, I nor believe my eyes, Nor trust my understanding I Still you seem Noble and pure as when we had the talk Under the tower, beneath the trees, that day. And there's the key explains the secret : down He knelt to ask your leave to rise a grade I' the mystery of humbug : well he may ! For how you beat him ! Half an hour ago, I held your master for my best of friends ; 6 14 THE INN ALBUM. And now I hate him ! Four years since, you seemed My heart's one love : well, and you so remain ! What's he to you in craft ? " She looks him through. " My friend, 'tis just that friendship have its turn — Interrogate thus me whom one, of foes The worst, has questioned and is answered by. Take you as frank an answer ! answers both Begin alike so far, divergent soon World-wide — I own superiority Over you, over him. As him I searched, So do you stand seen through and through by me Who, this time, proud, report your cr}'stal shrines A dew-drop, plain as amber prisons round A spider in the hollow heart his house ! Nowise are you that thing my fancy feared When out you stepped on me, a minute since, — This man's confederate ! no, you step not thus Obsequiously at beck and call to help THE INN ALBUM. 515 At need some second scheme, and supplement Guile by force, use my shame to pinion me Ficm struggle and escape ! I fancied that ! Forgive me ! Only by strange chance, — most strange In even this strange world, — you enter now, Obtain your knowledge. ]\Ie you have not wronged Who never wTonged you — least of all, my friend, That day beneath the College tower and trees, When I refused to say, — ' not friend but, love ! ' Had I been found as free as air when first We met, I scarcely could have loved you. No — For where was that in you which claimed return Of love ? i\Iy eyes were all too weak to probe This other's seeming, but that_seeming^ loved The soul in me, and lied[ — I know too late ! While your truth was trutia : and I knew at once My power was just my beaut}' — bear tlie vrord — As I must bear, of all my qualities. To name the poorest one that sen-es my soul And simulates myself ! So much in me You loved, I know : the something that's beneath 6i6 THE INN ALBUM. Heard not your call, — uncalled, no answer comes I For, since in eveiy love, or soon or late Soul must awake and seek out soul for soul, Yours, overlooking mine then, would, some day, Take flight to find some other ; so it proved — Miss ing me, you were ready for this man. I apprehend the whole relation : his — The soul wherein you saw your t}^pe of worth At once, true object of your tribute. Well Might I refuse such half-heart's homage ! Love Divining, had assured you I no more Stand his participant in infamy 'J'han you — I need no love to recognize As simply dupe and nowise fellow-cheat ! Therefore accept one last f riend's-word, — your friend's, All men's friend, save a felon's. Ravel out The bad embroilment howsoe'er you may, Distribute as it please 3'ou praise or blame To me — so you but fling this mockeiy far — Renounce this rag-and-feather hero-sham, This poodle dipt to pattern, lion-like ! THE INN ALBUM. 617 Throw him his thousands back, and lay to heart The lesson I was sent, — if man discerned Ever God's message, — just to teach. I judge — Far to another issue than could dream Your cousin, — younger, fairer, as befits — Who summoned me to judgment's exercise. I find you, save in folly, innocent. And in my verdict lies your fate ; at choice Of mine your cousin takes or leaves you. ' Take/* I bid her — for you tremble backjo truth ! She turns the scale, — one touch of the pure hand Shall so press down, imprison past relapse Further vibration 'twixt veracity — That's honest solid earth — and falsehood, theft And air, that's one illusive emptiness ! That reptilecagture^ou ? I conquered him : You saw him cower before me ! Have no fear He shall offend you further ! Spare to spurn — Safe let him slink hence till some subtler Eve Than I, anticipate the snake — bruise head _ Ere he bruise heel — or, warier than the first, 6l8 THE INN ALBUM. Some Adam purge earth's garden of its pest Before the slayer spoil the Tree of Life ! " You ! Leave this youth, as he leaves you, as I Leave each ! There's caution surely extant yet Though conscience in you were too vain a claim. Hence quickly ! Keep the cash, but leave unsoiled The heart I rescue and would lay to heal Beside another's ! Never let her know How near came taint of your companionship ! " " Ah " — draws a long breath with a new strange lools The man she interpellates — soul a-stir Under its covert, as, beneath the dust, A coppery sparkle all at once denotes The hid snake has conceived a purpose. " Ah — Innocence should be crowned with ignorance ? Desirable indeed, but difficult ! As if yourself, now, had not glorified THE INN ALBUM. 619 Your helpmate by imparting him a hint Of how a monster made the victim bleed Ere crook and courage saved her — hint, I say, — Not the whole horror, — that were needless risk, — But just such inkling, fancy of the fact, As should suffice to qualify henceforth The shepherd, when another lamb would stray, For warning ' Ware the wolf ! ' No doubt at all, Silence is generosity, — keeps wolf Unhunted by flock's warder ! Excellent, Did — generous to me, mean — just to him ! But, screening the deceiver, lamb were found Outraging the deceitless ! So, — he knows ! And yet, unharmed I breathe — perchance, repent — Thanks to the mercifully-politic ! " " Ignorance is not innocence but sin — Witness your own ignoring after-pangs Pursue the plague-infected. Merciful Am I ? Perhaps ! the more contempt, the less Hatred ; and who so worthy of contempt 02 o THE INN ALBUM. As you that rest assured I cooled the spot I could not cure, by poisoning, forsooth. Whose hand I pressed there? Understand for once That, sick, of all the pains corroding me, This burnt the last and nowise least — the need Of simulating soundness. I resolved — No matter how the struggle tasked weak flesh — To hide the truth away as in a grave From — most of all — my husband : he nor knows Nor ever shall be made to know your part. My part, the devil's part, — I trust, God's part In the foul matter. Saved, I yearn to save And not destroy : and what destruction like The abolishing of faith in him, that's faith In me as pure and true ? Acquaint some child Who takes yon tree into his confidence, That, where he sleeps now, was a murder done, And that the grass which grows so thick, he thinks. Only to pillow him is product just Of what lies festering beneath ! 'Tis God Must bear such secrets and disclose them. Man ? THE INN ALBUM. 621 The miserable thing I have become By dread acquaintance with my secret — you — That thing had he become by learning me — The miserable, whom his ignorance Would wrongly call the wicked : ignorance Being, I hold, sin ever, small or great. No, he knows nothing ! " " He and I alike Are bound to you for such discreetness, then. What if our talk should terminate awhile ? Here is a gentleman to satisfy, Settle accounts with, pay ten thousand pounds Before we part — as, by his face, I fear. Results from your appearance on the scene. Grant me a minute's parley with my friend Which scarce admits of a third personage ! The room from which you made your entry first So opportunely — still untenanted — What if you please return there ? Just a word To my young friend first — then, a word to you, t)2 2 THE INN ALBUM. And you depart to fan away each fly From who, grass-pillowed, sleeps so sound at home ! " " So the old truth comes back ! A v.'holesome change, — At last the altered eye, the rightful tone ! But even to the truth that drops disguise And stands forth grinning malice w hich but n ow Whined so contritely — I refuse assent Just as to malice. I, once gone, come back ? No, my lord ! I enjoy the privilege Of being absolutely loosed from you Too much — the knowledge that 3'our power is null Which was omnipotent. A word of mouth, A wink of eye would have detained me once, Body and soul your slave ; and now, thank God, Your fawningest of prayers, your frightfullest Of curses — neither would avail to turn My footstep for a moment ! " " Prayer, then, tries No such adventure. Let us cast about THE INN ALBUM. 623 For something novel in expedient : take Command, — what say you ? I profess myself One fertile in resource. Commanding, then, I bid — not only wait there, but return Here, where I want 3'ou ! Disobey and — good ! On your own head the peril ! " " Come ! " breaks in The boy with his good glowing face. " Shut up ! None of this sort of thing while I stand here — Not to stand that ! No bullying, I beg! I also am to leave you presently, And never more set eyes upon your face — You won't mind that much ; but — I tell you frank — I do mind having to remember this For your last word and deed — my friend who were ! Bully a woman you have ruined, eh ? Do you know, — I give credit all at once To all those stories ever\'body told And nobody but I would disbelieve : They all seem likely now, — nay, certain, sure I 62 4 THE INN ALBUM. I dare say you did cheat at cards that night The row was at the Club : ' sauter la coiipe ' — That was your ' cut,' for which your friends 'cut ' you While I, the booby, ' cut ' — acquaintanceship With who so much as laughed when I said ' luck /' I dare say. you had bets against the horse They doctored at the Derby ; little doubt, That fellow with the sist er found you shir k His challenge, and did k ick y o u like a ball . Just as the story went about ! Enough : It only serves to show how well advised, Madam, you were in bidding such a fool As I, go hang. You see how the mere sight And sound of you suffice to tumble down Conviction topsy-tui-vy : no, — that's false, — There's no unknowing what one knows ; and yet Such is my foUy that, in gratitude For . . . well, Tm stupid; but you seemed to wish I should know gently Avhat I know, should slip Softly from old to new, not break my neck Between beliefs of what you were and are. ' THE INN ALBUM. .^25 Well then, for just the sake of such a wish To cut no worse a figure than needs must In even eyes like mine, I'd sacrifice Cody and soul ! But don't think danger — pray ! — Menaces either ! He do harm to us ? Let me say ' us ' this one time ! You'd allow I lent perhaps my hand to rid your ear Of some cur's yelping — hand that, fortified, Into the bargain, with a horsewhip ? Oh, One crack and you shall see how curs decamp ! My lord, you know your losses and my gains. Pay me my money at the proper time ! If cash be not forthcoming, — well, yourself Have taught me, and tried often, I'll engage. The proper course : I post you at the Club, Pillory the defaulter. Crack, to-day, Shall, slash, to-morrow, slice through flesh and bone ! There, Madam, you need mind no cur, I think ! " " Ah, what a gain to have an apt no less Than grateful scholar ! Nay, he brings to mind 62 6 THE INN ALBUM. My knowledge till he puts me to the blush, So long has it lain rusty ! Post my name ! That were indeed a wheal from whipcord ! Whew ! I wonder now if I could rummage out — — Just to match weapons — some old scorpion-scourge ! Madam, you hear my pupil, may applaud His triumph o'er the master. I — no mor e Bully, since I'm forbidden : but entreat — Wait and return — for my sake, no ! but just To save your own defender, should he chance Get thwacked through awkward flourish of his thone:. And what if — since all waiting's wear}'' work — I help the time pass 'twixt your exit now And entry then ? for — pastime proper — here's The very thing, the Album, verse and prose To make the laughing minutes launch away ! Each of us must contribute. I'll begin — * Hail calm acclivity, salubrious spot ! ' I'm confident I beat the bard, — for why? My young friend owns me an lago — him Confessed, among the other qualities, THE TNN ALBUM. 627 A ready rhymer. Oh, he rhymed ! Here goes ! — Something to end with 'horsewhip!' No, that rhyme Beats me \ there's 'cowslip' 'bolt sprit' nothing else ! So, Tennyson take my benison, — verse for bard, Prose suits the gambler's book best! Dared and done ! " Wherewitli he dips pen, writes a line or tAVO, Closes and clasps the cover, gives the book, Bowing the while, to her who hesitates. Turns halt away, turns round again, at last Takes it as you touch carrion, then retires. The door shuts fast the couple. 62 8 THE INN ALBUM, VI. With a change Of his whole manner, opens out at once The Adversary. " Now, my friend, for you ! You who, protected late, aggressive grown, Brandish, it seems, a weapon I must 'ware ! Plain speech in me becomes respectable Therefore, because courageous ; plainly, then — (Have lash well loose, hold handle tight and light ! ) Throughout my life's experience, you indulged Yourself and friend by passing in review So courteously but now, I vainly search To find one record of a specimen So perfect of the pure and simple fool THE INN ALBUr.r. 629 As this you furnish me. Ingratitude I lump with folly, — all's one lot, — so — fool ! Did I seek you, or you seek me ? Seek ? sneak For service to, and service you would st}de — And did style — godlike, scarce an hour ago ! Fool, there again, yet not precisely there First-rate in folly : since the hand you kissed Did pick you from the kennel, did plant firm Your footstep on the pathway, did persuade Your awkward shamble to true gait and pace, Fit for the world you walk in. Once a-strut On that firm pavement which your cowardice Was for renouncing as a pitfall, next Came need to clear your brains of their conceit They cleverly could distinguish who was who, Whatever folk might tramp the thoroughfare. Men, now — familiarly you read them off, Each phiz at first sight ! O you had an eye ! Who couched it ? made you disappoint each fox Eager to strip my gosling of his fluff So golden as he cackled ' Goose trusts lamb ? ' 030 THE nViV ALBUM. ' Ay, but I saved you — wolf defeated fox — Wanting to pick your bones myself 2 ' then, wolf Has got the worst of it with goose for once. I, penniless, pay you ten thousand pounds ( — No gesture, pray ! I pay ere I depart ! ) And how you turn advantage to account Here's the example ! Have I proved so wrong In my peremptory * debt must be discharged I ' O you laughed lovelily, were loath to leave The old friend out at elbows — pooh, a thing Not to be thought of ! I must keep my cash, And you forget your generosity ! Ha ha, I took your measure when I laughed My laugh to that ! First quarrel — nay, first faint Pretence at taking umbrage — ' Down with debt. Both interest and principal ! — The Club, Exposure and expulsion ! — stamp me out I ' That's the magnanimous magnificent Renunciation of advantage ! Well, But whence and why did you take umbrage, Sir ? Because your master, having made you know THE INN ALBUM. 631 Somewhat of men, was minded to advance, Expound you women, still a mystery ! ]\Iy pujDil pottered with a cloud on brow, A clod in breast : had loved, and vainly loved : Wlience blight and blackness, just for all the world As Byron used to teach us boys. Thought I — ' Quick rid him of that rubbish ! Clear the cloud, And set the heart a-pulsing I ' — heart, this time : 'Twas nothing but the head I doctored late For ignorance of Man j now heart's to dose. Palsied by over-palpitation due To woman-worship — so, to work at once On first avowal of the patient's ache ! This morning you described your malady, — How you dared love a piece of virtue — lost To reason, as the upshot showed : for scorn Fitly repaid your stupid arrogance ; And, parting, you went two ways, she resumed Her path — perfection, while forlorn you paced The world that's made for beasts like you and me. My remedy wai — tell the fool the truth ! 632 THE INN ALBUM. f Your paragon of purity had plumped '' Into these arms at their first outspread — '■fallen \_My victim,^ she prefers to turn the phrase — And, in exchange for that frank confidence, Asked for my whole life present and to come — Marriage : a thing uncovenanted for ! Never so much as put in question ! Life — Implied by marriage — throw that trifle in And round the bargain off, no otherwise Than if, when we played cards, because you won My money you should also want my head ! ■ That, I demurred to : we but played ^for love ' — She won my love ; had she proposed for stakes I '■Marriage,' — why, that's for whist, a wiser game. Wliereat she raved at me, as losers will. And went her way. So far the story's known, The remedy's applied, no f ardier — which Here's the sick man's first honoraritim for — Posting his medicine-monger at the Club ! That being. Sir, the whole you mean my fee — In gratitude for such munificence THE INN ALBUM. 633 I'm bound in common honesty to spare No droplet of the draught : so, — pinch your nose, Pull no wry faces ! — drain it to the dregs ! I say, ' She went off' — ' went off,' you subjoin, ' Since not to wedded bliss, as I supposed. Sure to some convent : solitude and peace Help her to hide the shame from mortal view, With prayer and fasting' No, my sapient Sir ! Far wiselier, straightway she betook herself I To a prize-portent from the donkey-show j Of leathern long-ears that compete for palm j In clerical absurdit}- : since he, 1 Good ass, nor practises the shaving-trick, 1 The candle-crotchet, nonsense which repays When you've young ladies congregant, — but schools The poor, — toils, moils and grinds the mill, nor means To stop and munch one thistle in this life Till next life smother him with roses : just The parson for her purpose ! Him she stroked Over the muzzle ; into mouth with bit. And on to back with saddle, — there he stood, 634 THE INN ALBUM. The serviceable beast who heard, believed And meekly bowed him to the burden, — borne Off in a canter to seclusion — ay, The lady's lost ! But had a friend of mine . — While friend he was — imparted his sad case To sympathizing counsellor, full soon One cloud at least had vanished from his brow. '• DofiH fear r had followed reassuringly — * The lost will in due time turn up again, Probably just when, weary of the world, You think of nothing less than settling-down To country life and golden days, beside A dearest best and brightest virtuousest Wife : who needs no more hope to hold her own Against the naughty-and-repentant — no. Than water-gruel against Roman punch ! ' And as I prophesied, it proves ! My youth, — Just at the happy moment when, subdued To spooniness, he finds that youth fleets fast, That town-life tires, that men should drop boy's-play, That property, position have, no doubt, THE INN ALBUM. 635 Their exigency with their privilege, And if the wealthy wed with wealth, how dire The double duty ! — in, behold, there beams Our long-lost lady, form and face complete ! And Where's my moralizing pupil now, Had not his master missed a train by chance ? But, by your side instead of whirled away. How have I spoiled scene, stopped catastrophe, Struck flat the stage-effect I know by heart ! Sudden and strange the meeting — improvised ? Bless you, the last event she hoped or dreamed ! But rude sharp stroke will crush out five from flint — Assuredly from flesh. ' ' Tis youV ' Myself! ' * Changed ? ' ' Changeless / ' ' Then, whafs earth to me? ' ' To me Whafs heaven ? ' 'So, — thine ! ' ' And thine ! ' ' And likewise mitie ! ' Had laughed ' Amen ' the devil, but for me Whose intermeddling hinders this hot haste. And bids you, ere concluding contract, pause — Ponder one lesson more, then sign and seal 636 THE INN ALBUM. At leisure and at pleasure, — lesson's price Being, if you have skill to estimate, — How say you ? — I'm discharged my debt in full ! Since paid you stand, to farthing uttermost, Unless I fare like that black majesty A friend of mine had visit from last Spring. Coasting along the Cape-side, he's becalmed Off an unchartered bay, a novel town Untouched at by the trader : here's a chance. Out paddles straight the king in his canoe, Comes over bulwark, says he means to buy Ship's cargo — being rich and having brought A treasure ample for the purpose. See ! Four dragons, stalwart blackies, guard the same Wrapped round and round : its hulls, a multitude, — Palm-leaf and cocoa-mat and goat's-hair cloth All duly braced about with bark and board, — Suggest how brave, 'neath coat, must kernel be ! At length the peeling is accomplished, plain The casket opens out its core, and lo — A bran new British silver sixpence — bid THE INN ALBUM. f^ii That's ample for the Bank, — thinks majesty ! You are the Captain ; call my sixpence cracked Or copper ; ' what I've said is calumny ; The lady's spotless ! ' Then, I'll prove my words, Or make you prove them true as truth — yourself, Here, on the instant ! I'll not mince my speech, Things at this issue. When she enters, then, Make love to her ! No talk of marriage now — The point-blank bare proposal ! Pick no phrase — Prevent all misconception ! Soon you'll see How different the tactics when she deals With an instructed man, no longer boy Who blushes like a booby. Woman's wit ! Because you have instruction, blush no more ! Such your five minutes' profit by my pains, /j 'Tis simply now — demand and be possessed! kJ t' Which means — you may possess — may strip the tree Of fruit desirable to make one wise! More I nor wish nor want : your act's your act, My teaching is but — there's the fruit to pluck, Or let alone at pleasure. Next advance 638 THE IN.Y ALBUM. In knowledge were beyond you ! Don't expect I bid a novice — pluck, suck, send sky-high Such fruit, once taught that neither crab nor sloe Falls readier prey to who but robs a hedge, Than this gold apple to my Hercules. Were you no novice but proficient — then, Then, truly, I might prompt you — Touch and taste, Tr)' flavor and be tired as soon as I ! Toss on the prize to greedy mouths agape. Betake yours, sobered as the satiate grow. To wise man's solid meal of house and land, Consols and cousin ! but my boy, my boy. Such lore's above you ! Here's the lady back ! So, Madam, you have conned the Album-page And come to thank its last contributor ? How kind and condescending ! I retire A moment, lest I spoil the interview. And mar my own endeavor to make friends — You with him, him with you, and boJtkjivith me^! IfX-Succeed — permit me to inquire THE INN ALBUM. 639 Five minutes hence ! Friends bid good-by, you know." And out he goes. 640 THE INN ALBUM. VII. She, face, form, bearing, one Superb composure — " He has told you all ? Yes, he has told you all, your silence says — What gives him, as he thinks, the mastery Over my body and my soul ! — has told That instance, even, of their servitude He now exacts of me ? A silent blush ! That's well, though better would white ignorance Beseem your brow, undesecrate before — Ay, when I left you ! I too learn at last — Hideously learned as I seemed so late — What sin may swell to. Yes, — I needed learn That, when my prophet's rod became the snake THE INN ALBUM. 641 I fled from, it would, one day, swallow up — Incorporate whatever serpentine Falsehood and treason and unmanliness Beslime earth's pavement : such the power of Hell, And so beginning, ends no otherwise The Advcrsar}' ! I was ignorant, Blameworthy — if you will ; but blame I take Nowise upon me as I ask myself — Yott — how can you, whose soul I seemed to read The limpid eyes through, have declined so deep Even with him for consort ? I revolve Much memory, pry into the looks and words Of that day's walk beneath the College wall, And nowhere can distinguish, in what gleams Only pure marble through my dusky past, A dubious cranny where such poison-seed Might harbor, nourish what should yield to-day This dread ingredient for the cup I drink. Did not I recognize and honor truth In seeming ? — take your truth and for return, ^ Give you my truth, a no less precious gift ? 642 THE INN ALBUM. You loved me : I believed you. I replied — How could I other ? ' / was not my own,* — No longer had the eyes to see, the ears To hear, the mind to judge, since heart and soul Now rt'cre another's. My own right in me, For well or ill, consigned away — my face Fronted the honest path, deflection whence Had shamed me in the furtive backward look At the late bargain — fit such chapman's phrase ! — As though — less hasty and more provident — Waiting had brought advantage. Not for me. The chapman's chance ! Yet while thus much was true, I spared you — as I knew you then — one more Concluding word which, truth no less, seemed best Buried away forever. Take it now Its power to pain is past ! Four years — that day — Those limes that make the College avenue ! I would that — friend and foe — by miracle, I had, that moment, seen into the heart Of either, as I now am taught to see ! THE INN ALBUM. I do believe I should have straight assumed My proper function, and sustained a soul, — Not aimed at being just sustained myself By some man's soul — the weaker woman's-want So had I missed the momentary thrill Of finding me in presence of a god, But gained the god's own feeling when h e gives Such thrill to what turns life from death before. ^Gods many and Lords 7na?ij,' says the Book : You would have yielded up your soul to me — Not to the false god who has burned its clay In his own image. I had shed my love Like Spring dew on the clod all flowery thence, Not sent up a wild vapor to the sun That drinks and then disperses. Both of us Blameworthy, — I first meet my punishment — And not so hard to bear. I breathe again ! Forth from those arms' enwinding leprosy At last I struggle — uncontaminate : Why must I leave you pressing to the breast That's all one plague-spot ? Did you love me once ? 643 644 THE INN ALBUM. Then take love's last and best return ! I think V/omanliness means only motherhood ; All love beg ins and ends there , — roams enough, But, having run the circle, rests at home. Why is your expiation yet to make ? Pull shame with your own hands from your own head Now, — never wait the slow envelopment Submitted to by unelastic age ! One fierce throe frees the sapling : flake on flake Lull till they leave the oak snow-stupefied. Your heart retains its vital warmth — or why That blushing reassurance ? Blush, young blood ! Break from beneath this icy premature Captivity of wickedness — I warn Back, in God's name ! No fresh encroachment here ! This May breaks all to bud — no Winter now ! Friend, we are both^ forgiven ! SinnojnoreJ I_am pa st sin now , soshalI_you become ! Meanwhile I testi^ that, lying once. My foe lied ever, most lied last of all. He, waking, whispered to your sense asleep THE INN ALBUM. 645 The wicked counsel, — and assent might seem ; But, roused, your healthy indignation breaks The idle dream-pact. You would die — not dare Confirm your dream-resolve, — nay, find the word That fits the deed to bear the light of day ! Say I have justly judged you ! then farewell To blushing — nay, it ends in smiles, not tears ! Why tears now ? I have justly judged, thank God ! " He does not blush boy-like, but the man speaks out, — Makes the due effort to sunnount himself. " I don't know what he wrote — how should I ? Nor How he could read my purpose which, it seems, He chose to somehow write — mistakenly Or else for mischief's sake. I scarce believe My purpose put before you fair and plain Would need annoy so much ; but there's my luck — From first to last I blunder. Still, one more Turn at the target, tiy to speak my thought ! Since he could guess my purpose, won't you read 646 THE INN ALBUM. Right what he set down Avrong ? He said — let's "~ think ! Ay, so ! — he did begin by telUng heaps Of tales about you. Now, you see — suppose Any one told me — my own mother died Before I knew her — told me — to his cost ! — Such tales about my own dead mother : why, You would not wonder surely if I knew. By nothing but my own heart's help, he lied, Would you ? No reason's wanted in the case. So with you ! In they burnt on me, his tales, Much as when madhouse-inmates crowd around, Make captive any visitor and scream All sorts of stories of their keeper — he's Both dwarf and giant, vulture, wolf, dog, cat, Serpent and scorpion, j^et man all the same ; Sane people soon see through the gibberish ! I just made out, you somehow lived somewhere A life of shame — I can't distinguish more — Married or single — how, don't matter much : Shame v/hich himself had caused — that point was clear, THE INN ALBUM. 647 That fact confessed — that thing to hold and keep. Oh, and he added some absurdity — That you were here to make me — ha, ha, ha ! — • Still love you, still of mind to die for you, Ha, ha — as if that needed mighty pains ! Now, foolish as . . . but never mind myself — What I am, what I am not, in the eye Of the world, is what I never cared for much. Fool then or no fool, not one single word_ In the whole string of lies did I believe, . But this — this only — if I choke, who minds ? — I believe so mehow in your purity Perfect a s ever ! Else w hat use is God ? He is God, and work miracles He can ! Then, what shall I do ? Quite as clear, my course ! They've got a thing they call their Labyrinth I' the garden yonder ; and my cousin played A pretty trick once, led and lost me deep Inside the briery maze of hedge round hedge ; And there might I be staying now, stock-still, But that I laughing bade eyes follow nose 648 THE INN ALBUM. And so straight pushed my path through let and stop And soon was out in the open, face all scratched, But well behind my back the prison-bars In Sony plight enough, I promise you ! So here : I won my way to truth through lies — Said, as I saw light, — if her shame be shame I'll rescue and redeem her, — shame's no shame ? Then, I'll avenge, protect — redeem m}[self The stupidest of sinners ! Here I stand ! Dear, — let me once dare call you so, — you said Thus ought you to have done, four years ago, Such things and such ! Ay, dear, and what ought I ? You were revealed to me : where's gratitude, Where's memory even, where the gain of you Discernible in my low after-life Of fancied consolation ? why, no horse Once fed on com, will, missing corn, go munch Mere thistles like a donkey ! I missedyou. And in your place found — him, made him my love, Ay, did I, — by this token, that he taught So much beast-nature that I meant . . . God knows THE INN ALBUM. 649 Wliether I bow me to the dust enough ! . . . To marry — yes, my cousin here ! I hope That was a master-stroke ! Take heart of hers, And give her hand of mine with no more heart Than now you see upon this brow I strike ! What atom of a heart do I retain Not all yours ? Dear, you know it ! Easily May she accord me pardon when I place My brow beneath her foot, if foot so deign, Since uttermost indignity is spjired — Mere marriage and no love ! And all this time Not one word to the purpose ! Are you free ? Only wait ! only let me serve — deserve Where you appoint and how you see the good ! I have the will — perhaps the power — at least Means that have power against the world. For time — Take my whole life for your experiment ! If you are bound — in marriage, say — why, still. Still, sure, there's something for a friend to do, Outside ? A mere well-wisher, unde rstan d^ I'll sit, my life long, at your gate, you know, 650 THE INN ALBUM. Swing it wide open to let you and him Pass freely, — and }i0u need not look, much less Fling me a ' Thank y on — arc you there, old friend V Don't say that even : I should drop like shot ! So I feel now at least : some day, who knows ? After no end of weeks and months and years You might smile ^ I believe you did your best T And that shall make my heart leap — leap such leap As lands the feet in Heaven to wait you there ! Ah, there's just one thing more ! How pale you look ! Why ? Are you angry? If there's, after all. Worst come to worst — if still there somehow be The shame — I said was no shame, — none, I swear ! — In that case, if my hand and what it holds, — jVIy name, — mi ght be your safeguard n ow — at onc e — Why, here's the hand — you have the heart! Of course — No cheat, no binding you, because I'm bound. To let me off probation by one day, Week, month, year, lifetime ! Prove as you propose ! Here's the hand with the name to take or leave ! THE INN ALBUM. 651 That's all — and no great piece of news, I hope ! " " Give me the hand, then ! " she cries hastily. " Quick, now ! I hear his footstep ! " Hand in hand The couple face him as he ent ers, stops Short, stands surprised a moment, laughs away Surprise, resumes the much-experi enced man. " So, you accept him ? " " Till us death do part ! " " No longer ? Come, that's right and rational 1 I fancied there was power in common sense. But did not know it worked thus promptly. Well — At last each understands the other, then ? Each drops disguise, then ? So, at supper-time These masquerading people doff their gear. Grand Turk his pompous turban, Quakeress 652 ■ THE INN ALBUM. Her stiff-starched bib and tucker, — make-believe That only bothers when, ball-business done, Nature demands champagne and mayonnaise. Just so has each of us sage three abjured His a nd her moral pet particular Ylto^ ".v Pretension to superiority, And, cheek by jowl, we henceforth munch and joke ! Go, happy pair, paternally dismissed To live and die together — for a month. Discretion can award no more ! Depart From whatsoe'er the calm sweet solitude Selected — Paris not improbably — At month's end, when the honeycomb's left wax, — You, daughter, with a pocketful of gold Enough to find your village bo3'S and girls In duffel cloaks and hobnailed shoes from May To — what's the phrase ? — Christmas-come-never-mas ! You, son and heir of mine, shall re-appear Ere Spring-time, that's the ring-time, lose one leaf, And — not without regretful smack of lip The while you wipe it free of honey-smear — THE INN ALBUM. 653 Many the cousin, play the magistrate, Stand for the count)', prove perfection's pink — Master of hounds, gay-coated dine — nor die Sooner than needs of gout, obesity. And sons at Christ Church ! As for me, — ah me, I abdicate — retire on my success, Four years well occupied in teaching youth — My son and daughter the exemplary !, Time for me to retire now, having placed Proud on their pedestal the pair : in turn. Let them do homage to their master ! You, — Well, your flushed cheek and flashing eye proclaim Sufficiently your gratitude : you paid The honorarium, the ten thousand pounds To purpose, did you not ? I told you so ! And you, — but, bless me, why so pale — so faint At influx of good fortune ? Certainly, No matter how or why or whose the fault, I save your life — save it, nor less nor more ! You blindly were resolved to welcome death In that black boor-and-bumpkin-haunted hole 654 THE INN ALBUM. Of his, the prig with all the preachments ! You Installed as nurse and matron to the crones And wenches, while there lay a world outside Like Paris (which again I recommend) In company and guidance of — first, this, Then — all in good time — some ncAv friend as fit- \Vliat if I were to say, some fresh myself, As I once figured ? Each dog has his day. And mine's at sunset : what should old dog do But eye young litters' frisky puppyhood ? I shall watch this beaut}' and this youth Frisk it in brilliance ! But don't fear ! Discreet, 1 shall pretend to no more recognize My quondam pupils than the doctor nods When certain old acquaintances may cross His path in Park, or sit down prim beside His plate at dinner-table : tip nor wink Scares patients he has put, for reason good, Under restriction, — maybe, talked sometimes Of douche or horsewhip to, — for why ? because The gentleman would crazily declare THE INiV ALBUM. 651 His best friend was — lago ! Ay, and worse — The lady, all at once grown lunatic, In suicidal monomania vowed, To save her soul, she had needs end herself ! They're cured now, both, and I tell nobody. Why don't you speak ? Nay, speechless, each of you Can spare, — without unclasping plighted troth, — At least one hand to shake ! Left-hands will do — Yours first, my daughter ! All, it guards — it gripes The precious Album fast — and prudently ! As well obliterate the record there '^ On page the last : allow me tear the leaf ! Pray, now ! And afterward, to make amends, What if all three of us contribute each A line to that prelusive fragment, — help The embarrassed bard who broke out to break down Dumbfoundered at such unforeseen success ? * Hail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot ' You begin — place aux dames ! — I'll prompt you then ! * Here do I take the good the gods allot/ ' Next you, sir ? What, still sulky ? Sing, O Muse ! JLUi ^/ 65*5 TJ/E INN ALBUM. * Here does my lord in full discharge his shot I ' Now for the crowning flourish ! mine shall be " . . . " Nothing to match your first effusion, mar What was, is, shall remahi your masterpiece ! Authorship has the alteration-itch ! No, I protest against erasure. B^ad, Myjrien^ " (she gasps out). " Read and quickly read 'Be/ore us death do part, ^ what made you mine And made me yours — the marriage-licej is e here ! Decide if he is like to mend the same ! " And so the lad}', white to ghastliness. Manages somehow to display the page With left hand only, while the right retains The other hand, the young man's, — dreaming-drunk He, with this drench of stupefying stuff, Eyes, wide, mouth open, — half the idiot's stare And half the prophet's insight, — holding tight, All the same, by his one fact in the world — The lady's right hand : he but seems to read — THE INN ALBUM. 6.S7 Does not, for certain ; yet, how understand Unless he reads ? So, unde rstand he does, For certain. Slowly, word by word, she rea ds Aloud that licensj — or that warrant, say. * One against two — and two that urge their odds To uttermost — I needs must try resource! Madam, I laid me prostrate , bad^youj^urfl^ Body and soul: you spurned and safely spume d So you had spared me the superfluous taunt ^^Prostration means 7io power to stand erect, Stand, trampling on who trampled — prostrate now ! " So, with my other fool-foe ; I was fain Let the boy touch me with the buttoned foil. And him the infection gains, he too must needs Catch up the butcher's cleaver. Be it so ! Since play turns earnest, here's my serious fence. He loves you; he de mands you rjove : both know V/hat love means in my language. Love him then / fjjAA 658 THE INN ALBUM. Pursuant to a pact, love pays my debt : Therefore, deliver me from him, thereby Likewise delivering from me yo u rself ! For, hesitate — much more, refuse consent — I tell the wJjole trut h to your husband . Flat Cards lie on table, in our gamester-phrase ! Coment — you stopmyj nouth, the o nly w ay.'' " I did well, trusting instinct : knew your hai.d Had never joined with his in fellowship Over this pact of infamy. You known — As he was known through every ner\'e of me. Therefore I ' stopped his mouth the only way ' But my way ! none was left for you, my friend — The loyal — near, the loved one ! No — no — no ! Threaten ? Chastise ? The coward would but quail. Conquer who can the cunning of the snake ! Stamp out his slimy strength from tail to head, And still you leave vibration of the tongue. His malice had redoubled — not on m e V\lio, myself, choose my own refining fire — l^IIE INN ALBUM. (^59 But on poor unsuspicious innocence ; And, — victim, — to turn executioner Also — that feat effected, forky tongue Had done indee d its offic e ! Once snake's ' mouth ' Thus ' open ' — how c ould mortal ' sto J> it\ ] " " So ! " A tiger-flash — y«l, spring, and scream : halloo ! Death's out and on him, has and holds him — ugh ! But ne trucidet coram populo jtuvenis senem ! Right the Horatian rule ! There, see how soon a quiet comes to pass ! 66o THE INN ALBUM. VIII. The youth is somehow by the lady's side. His right-hand grasps her right-hand once again. Both gaze on th e dead bod y. Hers the word. " And that was good but useless. Had I lived The danger was to dread ; but, dying now — Himself would hardly become talkative, Since talk no more means torture. Fools — what fooh These wicked men are ! Had I borne four years. Four years of weeks and months and days and nights, Inured me to the consciousness of life Coiled round by his life, with the tongue to ply, — But that I bore about me, for prompt use At urgent need, the thing that ' stops the mouth ' And stays the venom ? Since such need was now THE INN ALBUM. 66 1 Or never, — how should use not follow need ? Bear witness for me, I withdraw from life By virtue of the license — warrant^say. That blackens yet this Album — white again, Thanks still to my one friend who tears the page I Now, let me write the line of supplement, As counselled by my foe there : ' each a line !* And she does falteringly write to end. * / die now through the vtllatti who lies dead, \ Righteously slain. He would have outraged me, So, my defender slew him. God protect The right I Where wrong lay, I bear witness now. Let man believe me, whose last breath is spent In blessing my defender from my soulP And so ends the Inn Album. As she dies, Begins outside a voice that sounds like song, 662 THE INN ALBUM. And is indeed half song though meant for speech Muttered in time to motion — stir of heart That unsubduably must bubble forth To match the fawn-step as it mounts the stair. " All's ended and all's over! Verdict found ^ Not guilty^ — prisoner forthwith set free, Mid cheers the Court pretends to disregard ! Now Portia, now for Daniel, late severe, At last appeased, benignant ! ' This young matt — Hem — has the young man^ s foibles but no fault. He's virgin soil — afrie?id must cultivate. I think no plaiit called ' love ' grows wild — a friend May introduce, and name the bloom, the fruit I ' Here somebody dares wave a handkerchief — She'll want to hide her face with presently ! Good-by then ! ' Cigno fedel, cigno fedel, AddioT Now, was ever such mistake — Ever such foolish ugly omen ? Pshaw ! Wagner, beside ! ' Amo te solo, te Solo amair That's worth fifty such ! THE INN ALBUM. 663 But, mum, the grave face at the opened door ! " And so the good gay gal, with eyes and cheeks . Diamond and damask, — cheeks so white erewhile ^^ «*-*-'*'^ Because of a vague fancy, idle fear /- >(tt4 Chased on reflection ! — pausing, taps discreet ; And then, to give herself a countenance, Before she comes upon the pair inside, Loud — the oft-quoted, long-laughed-over-line — " ' Hail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot ! ' Open the door ! " *• No : let the curtain fall ! ^jM''^ '' U 'U'VtvW- ^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. JAN 20 1948 Jtw 'J"' ^TEH-U^^ ^t\ B-^^# ^^\\l t,S LD 21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 MlOil22 /^3 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY