THE PRINCESS

A MEDLEY

Canto IV

  1.  The splendour falls on castle walls
  2.  And snowy summits old in story:
  3.  The long light shakes across the lakes,
  4.  And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
  5.  Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
  6.  Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

  7.  O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
  8.  And thinner, clearer, farther going!
  9.  O sweet and far from cliff and scar
  10.  The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
  11.  Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
  12.  Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

  13.  O love, they die in yon rich sky,
  14.  They faint on hill or field or river:
  15.  Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
  16.  And grow for ever and for ever.
  17.  Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
  18.  And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

  19. 'THERE sinks the nebulous star we call the Sun,
  20. If that hypothesis of theirs be sound,'
  21. Said Ida;' let us down and rest:' and we
  22. Down from the lean and wrinkled precipices,
  23. By every coppice-feather'd chasm and cleft,
  24. Dropt thro' the ambrosial gloom to where below
  25. No bigger than a glow-worm shone the tent
  26. Lamp-lit from the inner. Once she lean'd on me,
  27. Descending; once or twice she lent her hand,
  28. And blissful palpitations in the blood,
  29. Stirring a sudden transport rose and fell.

  30.  But when we planted level feet, and dipt
  31. Beneath the satin dome and enter'd in,
  32. There leaning deep in broider'd down we sank
  33. Our elbows: on a tripod in the midst
  34. A fragrant flame rose, and before us glow'd
  35. Fruit, blossom, viand, amber wine, and gold.

  36.  Then she, 'Let some one sing to us: lightlier move
  37. The minutes fledged with music:' and a maid,
  38. Of those beside her, smote her harp, and sang.

  39.    'Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
  40.    Tears from the depth of some divine despair
  41.    Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
  42.    In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
  43.    And thinking of the days that are no more.

  44.    'Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
  45.    That brings our friends up from the underworld,
  46.    Sad as the last which reddens over one
  47.    That sinks with all we love below the verge;
  48.    So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

  49.    'Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
  50.    The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
  51.    To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
  52.    The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
  53.    So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

  54.    'Dear as remember'd kisses after death,
  55.    And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd
  56.    On lips that are for others; deep as love,
  57.    Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
  58.    O Death in Life, the days that are no more.'

  59.  She ended with such passion that the tear
  60. She sang of shook and fell, an erring pearl
  61. Lost in her bosom: but with some disdain
  62. Answer'd the Princess, 'If indeed there haunt
  63. About the moulder'd lodges of the Past
  64. So sweet a voice and vague, fatal to men,
  65. Well needs it we should cram our ears with wool
  66. And so pace by: but thine are fancies hatch'd
  67. In silken-folded idleness; nor is it
  68. Wiser to weep a true occasion lost,
  69. But trim our sails, and let old bygones be,
  70. While down the streams that float us each and all
  71. To the issue, goes, like glittering bergs of ice,
  72. Throne after throne, and molten on the waste
  73. Becomes a cloud: for all things serve their time
  74. Toward that great year of equal mights and rights,
  75. Nor would I fight with iron laws, in the end
  76. Found golden: let the past be past; let be
  77. Their cancell'd Babels: tho' the rough kex break
  78. The starr'd mosaic, and the beard-blown goat.
  79. Hang on the shaft, and the wild fig-tree split
  80. Their monstrous idols, care not while we hear
  81. A trumpet in the distance pealing news
  82. Of better, and Hope, a poising eagle, burns
  83. Above the unrisen morrow.' Then to me:
  84. 'Know you no song of your own land,' she said,
  85. 'Not such as moans about the retrospect,
  86. But deals with the other distance and the hues
  87. Of promise; not a death's-head at the wine.'

  88.  Then I remember'd one myself had made,
  89. What time I watch'd the swallow winging south
  90. From mine own land, part made long since, and part
  91. Now while I sang, and maidenlike as far
  92. As I could ape their treble, did I sing.

  93.    'O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South,
  94.    Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,
  95.    And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee.

  96.    'O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,
  97.    That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,
  98.    And dark and true and tender is the North.

  99.    'O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light
  100.    Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill,
  101.    And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.

  102.    'O were I thou that she might take me in,
  103.    And lay me on her bosom, and her heart
  104.    Would rock the snowy cradle till I died.

  105.    'Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,
  106.    Delaying as the tender ash delays
  107.    To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?

  108.    'O tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown:
  109.    Say to her, I do but wanton in the South,
  110.    But in the North long since my nest is made.

  111.    'O tell her, brief is life but love is long,
  112.    And brief the sun of summer in the North,
  113.    And brief the moon of beauty in the South.

  114.    'O Swallow, flying from the golden woods,
  115.    Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine,
  116.    And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.'

  117.  I ceased, and all the ladies, each at each,
  118. Like the Ithacensian suitors in old time,
  119. Stared with great eyes, and laugh'd with alien lips,
  120. And knew not what they meant; for still my voice
  121. Rang false: but smiling 'Not for thee,' she said,
  122. 'O Bulbul, any rose of Gulistan
  123. Shall burst her veil: marsh-divers, rather, maid,
  124. Shall croak thee sister, or the meadow-crake
  125. Grate her harsh kindred in the grass: and this
  126. A mere love-poem! O for such, my friend,
  127. We hold them slight: they mind us of the time
  128. When we made bricks in Egypt. Knaves are men,
  129. That lute and flute fantastic tenderness,
  130. And dress the victim to the offering up,
  131. And paint the gates of Hell with Paradise,
  132. And play the slave to gain the tyranny.
  133. Poor soul! I had a maid of honour once;
  134. She wept her true eyes blind for such a one,
  135. A rogue of canzonets and serenades.
  136. I loved her. Peace be with her. She is dead.
  137. So they blaspheme the muse! But great is song
  138. Used to great ends: ourself have often tried
  139. Valkyrian hymns, or into rhythm have dash'd
  140. The passion of the prophetess; for song
  141. Is duer unto freedom, force and growth
  142. Of spirit than to junketing and love.
  143. Love is it? Would this same mock-love, and this
  144. Mock-Hymen were laid up like winter bats,
  145. Till all men grew to rate us at our worth,
  146. Not vassals to be beat, nor pretty babes
  147. To be dandled, no, but living wills, and sphered
  148. Whole in ourselves and owed to none. Enough!
  149. But now to leaven play with profit, you,
  150. Know you no song, the true growth of your soil,
  151. That gives the manners of your countrywomen?'

  152.  She spoke and turn'd her sumptuous head with eyes
  153. Of shining expectation fixt on mine.
  154. Then while I dragg'd my brains for such a song,
  155. Cyril, with whom the bell-mouth'd flask had wrought,
  156. Or master'd by the sense of sport, began
  157. To troll a careless, careless tavern-catch
  158. Of Moll and Meg, and strange experiences
  159. Unmeet for ladies. Florian nodded at him,
  160. I frowning; Psyche flush'd and wann'd and shook;
  161. The lilylike Melissa droop'd her brows;
  162. 'Forbear,' the Princess cried; 'Forbear, Sir,' I;
  163. And heated thro' and thro' with wrath and love,
  164. I smote him on the breast; he started up;
  165. There rose a shriek as of a city sack'd;
  166. Melissa clamour'd 'Flee the death;' 'To horse,'
  167. Said Ida; 'home! to horse!' and fled, as flies
  168. A troop of snowy doves athwart the dusk,
  169. When some one batters at the dovecote-doors,
  170. Disorderly the women. Alone I stood
  171. With Florian, cursing Cyril, vext at heart,
  172. In the pavilion: there like parting hopes
  173. I heard them passing from me: hoof by hoof,
  174. And every hoof a knell to my desires,
  175. Clang'd on the bridge; and then another shriek,
  176. 'The Head, the Head, the Princess, O the Head!'
  177. For blind with rage she miss'd the plank, and roll'd
  178. In the river. Out I sprang from glow to gloom:
  179. There whirl'd her white robe like a blossom'd branch
  180. Rapt to the horrible fall: a glance I gave,
  181. No more; but woman-vested as I was
  182. Plunged; and the flood drew; yet I caught her; then
  183. Oaring one arm, and bearing in my left
  184. The weight of all the hopes of half the world,
  185. Strove to buffet to land in vain. A tree
  186. Was half-disrooted from his place and stoop'd
  187. To drench his dark locks in the gurgling wave
  188. Mid-channel. Right on this we drove and caught,
  189. And grasping down the boughs I gain'd the shore.

  190.  There stood her maidens glimmeringly group'd
  191. In the hollow bank. One reaching forward drew
  192. My burthen from mine arms; they cried 'She lives:'
  193. They bore her back into the tent: but I,
  194. So much a kind of shame within me wrought,
  195. Not yet endured to meet her opening eyes,
  196. Nor found my friends; but push'd alone on foot
  197. (For since her horse was lost I left her mine)
  198. Across the woods, and less from Indian craft
  199. Than beelike instinct hiveward, found at length
  200. The garden portals. Two great statues, Art
  201. And Science, Caryatids, lifted up
  202. A weight of emblem, and betwixt were valves
  203. Of open-work in which the hunter rued
  204. His rash intrusion, manlike, but his brows
  205. Had sprouted, and the branches thereupon
  206. Spread out at top, and grimly spiked the gates.

  207.  A little space was left between the horns,
  208. Thro' which I clamber'd o'er at top with pain,
  209. Dropt on the sward, and up the linden walks,
  210. And, tost on thoughts that changed from hue to hue,
  211. Now poring on the glowworm, now the star,
  212. I paced the terrace, till the bear had wheel'd
  213. Thro' a great arc his seven slow suns.
    A step
  214. Of lightest echo, then a loftier form
  215. Than female, moving thro' the uncertain gloom,
  216. Disturb'd me with the doubt 'if this were she,'
  217. But it was Florian. 'Hist, O hist,' he said,
  218. 'They seek us: out so late is out of rules.
  219. Moreover "seize the strangers" is the cry.
  220. How came you here?' I told him: 'I,' said he,
  221. 'Last of the train, a moral leper, I,
  222. To whom none spake, half-sick at heart, return'd.
  223. Arriving all confused among the rest
  224. With hooded brows I crept into the hall,
  225. And, couch'd behind a Judith, underneath
  226. The head of Holofernes peep'd and saw.
  227. Girl after girl was call'd to trial: each
  228. Disclaim'd all knowledge of us: last of all,
  229. Melissa: trust me, Sir, I pitied her.
  230. She, question'd if she knew us men, at first
  231. Was silent; closer prest, denied it not:
  232. And then, demanded if her mother knew,
  233. Or Psyche, she affirm'd not, or denied:
  234. From whence the Royal mind, familiar with her,
  235. Easily gather'd either guilt. She sent
  236. For Psyche, but she was not there; she call'd
  237. For Psyche's child to cast it from the doors;
  238. She sent for Blanche to accuse her face to face;
  239. And I slipt out: but whither will you now?
  240. And where are Psyche, Cyril? both are fled:
  241. What, if together? that were not so well.
  242. Would rather we had never come! I dread
  243. His wildness, and the chances of the dark.'

  244.  'And yet,' I said, 'you wrong him more than I
  245. That struck him: this is proper to the clown,
  246. Tho' smock'd, or furr'd and purpled, still the clown,
  247. To harm the thing that trusts him, and to shame
  248. That which he says he loves: for Cyril, howe'er
  249. He deal in frolic, as to-night--the song
  250. Might have been worse and sinn'd in grosser lips
  251. Beyond all pardon--as it is, I hold
  252. These flashes on the surface are not he.
  253. He has a solid base of temperament:
  254. But as the waterlily starts and slides
  255. Upon the level in little puffs of wind,
  256. Tho' anchor'd to the bottom, such is he.'

  257.  Scarce had I ceased when from a tamarisk near
  258. Two Proctors leapt upon us, crying, 'Names!'
  259. He, standing still, was clutch'd; but I began
  260. To thrid the musky-circled mazes, wind
  261. And double in and out the boles, and race
  262. By all the fountains: fleet I was of foot:
  263. Before me shower'd the rose in flakes; behind
  264. I heard the puff'd pursuer; at mine ear
  265. Bubbled the nightingale and heeded not,
  266. And secret laughter tickled all my soul.
  267. At last I hook'd my ankle in a vine,
  268. That claspt the feet of a Mnemosyne,
  269. And falling on my face was caught and known.

  270.  They haled us to the Princess where she sat
  271. High in the hall: above her droop'd a lamp,
  272. And made the single jewel on her brow
  273. Burn like the mystic fire on a mast-head,
  274. Prophet of storm: a handmaid on each side
  275. Bow'd toward her, combing out her long black hair
  276. Damp from the river; and close behind her stood
  277. Eight daughters of the plough, stronger than men,
  278. Huge women, blowzed with health, and wind, and rain,
  279. And labour. Each was like a Druid rock;
  280. Or like a spire of land that stands apart
  281. Cleft from the main, and wail'd about with mews.

  282.  Then, as we came, the crowd dividing clove
  283. An advent to the throne; and therebeside,
  284. Half-naked, as if caught at once from bed
  285. And tumbled on the purple footcloth, lay
  286. The lily-shining child; and on the left,
  287. Bow'd on her palms and folded up from wrong,
  288. Her round white shoulder shaken with her sobs,
  289. Melissa knelt; but Lady Blanche erect
  290. Stood up and spake, an affluent orator.

  291.  'It was not thus, O Princess, in old days
  292. You prized my counsel, lived upon my lips:
  293. I led you then to all the Castalies;
  294. I fed you with the milk of every Muse;
  295. I loved you like this kneeler, and you me,
  296. Your second mother: those were gracious times.
  297. Then came your new friend: you began to change--
  298. I saw it and grieved--to slacken and to cool;
  299. Till taken with her seeming openness
  300. You turn'd your warmer currents all to her,
  301. To me you froze: this was my meed for all.
  302. Yet I bore up in part from ancient love,
  303. And partly that I hoped to win you back,
  304. And partly conscious of my own deserts,
  305. And partly that you were my civil head,
  306. And chiefly you were born for something great,
  307. In which I might your fellow-worker be,
  308. When time should serve; and thus a noble scheme
  309. Grew up from seed we two long since had sown;
  310. In us true growth, in her a Jonah's gourd,
  311. Up in one night and due to sudden sun:
  312. We took this palace; but even from the first
  313. You stood in your own light and darken'd mine.
  314. What student came but that you planed her path
  315. To Lady Psyche, younger, not so wise,
  316. A foreigner, and I your countrywoman,
  317. I your old friend and tried, she new in all?
  318. But still her lists were swell'd and mine were lean;
  319. Yet I bore up in hope she would be known
  320. Then came these wolves: they knew her: they endured,
  321. Long-closeted with her the yestermorn,
  322. To tell her what they were, and she to hear:
  323. And me none told: not less to an eye like mine,
  324. A lidless watcher of the public weal,
  325. Last night, their mask was patent, and my foot
  326. Was to you: but I thought again: I fear'd
  327. To meet a cold "We thank you, we shall hear of it
  328. From Lady Psyche:" you had gone to her,
  329. She told, perforce; and winning easy grace,
  330. No doubt, for slight delay, remain'd among us
  331. In our young nursery still unknown, the stem
  332. Less grain than touchwood, while my honest heat
  333. Were all miscounted as malignant haste
  334. To push my rival out of place and power.
  335. But public use required she should be known;
  336. And since my oath was ta'en for public use,
  337. I broke the letter of it to keep the sense.
  338. I spoke not then at first, but watch'd them well,
  339. Saw that they kept apart, no mischief done;
  340. And yet this day (tho' you should hate me for it)
  341. I came to tell you; found that you had gone,
  342. Ridd'n to the hills, she likewise: now, I thought,
  343. That surely she will speak; if not, then I:
  344. Did she? These monsters blazon'd what they were,
  345. According to the coarseness of their kind,
  346. For thus I hear; and known at last (my work)
  347. And full of cowardice and guilty shame,
  348. I grant in her some sense of shame, she flies;
  349. And I remain on whom to wreak your rage,
  350. I, that have lent my life to build up yours,
  351. I that have wasted here health, wealth, and time,
  352. And talents, I--you know it--I will not boast:
  353. Dismiss me, and I prophesy your plan,
  354. Divorced from my experience, will be chaff
  355. For every gust of chance, and men will say
  356. We did not know the real light, but chased
  357. The wisp that flickers where no foot can tread.'

  358.  She ceased: the Princess answer'd coldly,' Good:
  359. Your oath is broken: we dismiss you: go.
  360. For this lost lamb (she pointed to the child)
  361. Our mind is changed: we take it to ourself.'

  362.  Thereat the Lady stretch'd a vulture throat,
  363. And shot from crooked lips a haggard smile.
  364. 'The plan was mine. I built the nest,' she said,
  365. 'To hatch the cuckoo. Rise!' and stoop'd to updrag
  366. Melissa: she, half on her mother propt,
  367. Half-drooping from her, turn'd her face, and cast
  368. A liquid look on Ida, full of prayer,
  369. Which melted Florian's fancy as she hung,
  370. A Niobë an daughter, one arm out,
  371. Appealing to the bolts of Heaven; and while
  372. We gazed upon her came a little stir
  373. About the doors, and on a sudden rush'd
  374. Among us, out of breath, as one pursued,
  375. A woman-post in flying raiment. Fear
  376. Stared in her eyes, and chalk'd her face, and wing'd
  377. Her transit to the throne, whereby she fell
  378. Delivering seal'd dispatches which the Head
  379. Took half-amazed, and in her lion's mood
  380. Tore open, silent we with blind surmise
  381. Regarding, while she read, till over brow
  382. And cheek and bosom brake the wrathful bloom
  383. As of some fire against a stormy cloud,
  384. When the wild peasant rights himself, the rick
  385. Flames, and his anger reddens in the heavens;
  386. For anger most it seem'd, while now her breast,
  387. Beaten with some great passion at her heart,
  388. Palpitated, her hand shook, and we heard
  389. In the dead hush the papers that she held
  390. Rustle: at once the lost lamb at her feet
  391. Sent out a bitter bleating for its dam;
  392. The plaintive cry jarr'd on her ire; she crush'd
  393. The scrolls together, made a sudden turn
  394. As if to speak, but, utterance failing her,
  395. She whirl'd them on to me, as who should say
  396. 'Read,' and I read--two letters--one her sire's.

  397.  'Fair daughter, when we sent the Prince your way
  398. We knew not your ungracious laws, which learnt,
  399. We, conscious of what temper you are built,
  400. Came all in haste to hinder wrong, but fell
  401. Into his father's hands, who has this night,
  402. You lying close upon his territory,
  403. Slipt round and in the dark invested you,
  404. And here he keeps me hostage for his son.'

  405.  The second was my father's, running thus:
  406. 'You have our son: touch not a hair of his head:
  407. Render him up unscathed: give him your hand:
  408. Cleave to your contract: tho' indeed we hear
  409. You hold the woman is the better man;
  410. A rampant heresy, such as if it spread
  411. Would make all women kick against their Lords
  412. Thro' all the world, and which might well deserve
  413. That we this night should pluck your palace down;
  414. And we will do it, unless you send us back
  415. Our son, on the instant, whole.'
    So far I read;
  416. And then stood up and spoke impetuously.

  417.  'O not to pry and peer on your reserve,
  418. But led by golden wishes, and a hope
  419. The child of regal compact, did I break
  420. Your precinct; not a scorner of your sex
  421. But venerator, zealous it should be
  422. All that it might be: hear me, for I bear,
  423. Tho' man, yet human, whatsoe'er your wrongs,
  424. From the flaxen curl to the grey lock a life
  425. Less mine than yours: my nurse would tell me of you;
  426. I babbled for you, as babies for the moon,
  427. Vague brightness; when a boy, you stoop'd to me
  428. From all high places, lived in all fair lights,
  429. Came in long breezes rapt from inmost south
  430. And blown to inmost north; at eve and dawn
  431. With Ida, Ida, Ida, rang the woods;
  432. The leader wildswan in among the stars
  433. Would clang it, and lapt in wreaths of glowworm light
  434. The mellow breaker murmur'd Ida. Now,
  435. Because I would have reach'd you, had you been
  436. Sphered up with Cassiopë ia, or the enthroned
  437. Persephone in Hades, now at length,
  438. Those winters of abeyance all worn out,
  439. A man I came to see you: but, indeed,
  440. Not in this frequence can I lend full tongue,
  441. O noble Ida, to those thoughts that wait
  442. On you, their centre: let me say but this,
  443. That many a famous man and woman, town
  444. And landskip, have I heard of, after seen
  445. The dwarfs of presage; tho' when known, there grew
  446. Another kind of beauty in detail
  447. Made them worth knowing; but in you I found
  448. My boyish dream involved and dazzled down
  449. And master'd, while that after-beauty makes
  450. Such head from act to act, from hour to hour,
  451. Within me, that except you slay me here.
  452. According to your bitter statute-book,
  453. I cannot cease to follow you, as they say
  454. The seal does music; who desire you more
  455. Than growing boys their manhood; dying lips,
  456. With many thousand matters left to do,
  457. The breath of life; O more than poor men wealth,
  458. Than sick men health--yours, yours, not mine--but half
  459. Without you; with you, whole; and of those halves
  460. You worthiest; and howe'er you block and bar
  461. Your heart with system out from mine, I hold
  462. That it becomes no man to nurse despair,
  463. But in the teeth of clench'd antagonisms,
  464. To follow up the worthiest till he die:
  465. Yet that I came not all unauthorized
  466. Behold your father's letter.'
    On one knee
  467. Kneeling, I gave it, which she caught, and dash'd
  468. Unopen'd at her feet: a tide of fierce
  469. Invective seem'd to wait behind her lips,
  470. As waits a river level with the dam
  471. Ready to burst and flood the world with foam:
  472. And so she would have spoken, but there rose
  473. A hubbub in the court of half the maids
  474. Gather'd together: from the illumined hall
  475. Long lanes of splendour slanted o'er a press
  476. Of snowy shoulders, thick as herded ewes,
  477. And rainbow robes, and gems and gemlike eyes,
  478. And gold and golden heads; they to and fro
  479. Fluctuated, as flowers in storm, some red, some pale,
  480. All open-mouth'd, all gazing to the light,
  481. Some crying there was an army in the land,
  482. And some that men were in the very walls,
  483. And some they cared not; till a clamour grew
  484. As of a new-world Babel, woman-built,
  485. And worse-confounded: high above them stood
  486. The placid marble Muses, looking peace.

  487.  Not peace she look'd, the Head: but rising up
  488. Robed in the long night of her deep hair, so
  489. To the open window moved, remaining there
  490. Fixt like a beacon-tower above the waves
  491. Of tempest, when the crimson-rolling eye
  492. Glares ruin, and the wild birds on the light
  493. Dash themselves dead. She stretch'd her arms and call'd
  494. Across the tumult and the tumult fell.

  495.  'What fear ye, brawlers? am not I your Head?
  496. On me, me, me, the storm first breaks: I dare
  497. All these male thunderbolts: what is it ye fear?
  498. Peace! there are those to avenge us and they come:
  499. If not, --myself were like enough, O girls,
  500. To unfurl the maiden banner of our rights,
  501. And clad in iron burst the ranks of war,
  502. Or, falling, protomartyr of our cause,
  503. Die: yet I blame ye not so much for fear;
  504. Six thousand years of fear have made you that
  505. From which I would redeem ye: but for those
  506. That stir this hubbub--you and you--I know
  507. Your faces there in the crowd--to-morrow morn
  508. We hold a great convention: then shall they
  509. That love their voices more than duty, learn
  510. With whom they deal, dismiss'd in shame to live
  511. No wiser than their mothers, household stuff,
  512. Live chattels, mincers of each other's fame,
  513. Full of weak poison, turns pits for the clown,
  514. The drunkard's football, laughing-stocks of Time,
  515. Whose brains are in their hands and in their heels,
  516. But fit to flaunt, to dress, to dance, to thrum,
  517. To tramp, to scream, to burnish, and to scour,
  518. For ever slaves at home and fools abroad.'

  519.  She, ending, waved her hands: thereat the crowd
  520. Muttering, dissolved: then with a smile, that look'd
  521. A stroke of cruel sunshine on the cliff,
  522. When all the glens are drown'd in azure gloom
  523. Of thunder-shower, she floated to us and said:

  524.  'You have done well and like a gentleman,
  525. And like a prince: you have our thanks for all:
  526. And you look well too in your woman's dress:
  527. Well have you done and like a gentleman.
  528. You saved our life: we owe you bitter thanks:
  529. Better have died and spilt our bones in the flood--
  530. Then men had said--but now--What hinders me
  531. To take such bloody vengeance on you both? --
  532. Yet since our father--Wasps in our good hive,
  533. You would-be quenchers of the light to be,
  534. Barbarians, grosser than your native bears--
  535. O would I had his sceptre for one hour!
  536. You that have dared to break our bound, and gull'd
  537. Our servants, wrong'd and lied and thwarted us--
  538. I wed with thee! I bound by precontract
  539. Your bride, your bondslave! not tho' all the gold
  540. That veins the world were pack'd to make your crown,
  541. And every spoken tongue should lord you. Sir,
  542. Your falsehood and yourself are hateful to us:
  543. I trample on your offers and on you:
  544. Begone: we will not look upon you more.
  545. Here, push them out at gates.'
    In wrath she spake.
  546. Then those eight mighty daughters of the plough
  547. Bent their broad faces toward us and address'd
  548. Their motion: twice I sought to plead my cause,
  549. But on my shoulder hung their heavy hands,
  550. The weight of destiny: so from her face
  551. They push'd us, down the steps, and thro' the court,
  552. And with grim laughter thrust us out at gates.

  553.  We cross'd the street and gain'd a petty mound
  554. Beyond it, whence we saw the lights and heard
  555. The voices murmuring. While I listen'd, came
  556. On a sudden the weird seizure and the doubt:
  557. I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts;
  558. The Princess with her monstrous woman-guard,
  559. The jest and earnest working side by side,
  560. The cataract and the tumult and the kings
  561. Were shadows; and the long fantastic night
  562. With all its doings had and had not been,
  563. And all things were and were not.
    This went by
  564. As strangely as it came, and on my spirits
  565. Settled a gentle cloud of melancholy;
  566. Not long; I shook it off; for spite of doubts
  567. And sudden ghostly shadowings I was one
  568. To whom the touch of all mischance but came
  569. As night to him that sitting on a hill
  570. Sees the midsummer, midnight, Norway sun
  571. Set into sunrise; then we moved away.

  572.  Thy voice is heard thro' rolling drums,
  573.  That beat to battle where he stands;
  574.  Thy face across his fancy comes,
  575.  And 'gives the battle to his hands:
  576.  A moment, while the trumpets blow,
  577.  He sees his brood about thy knee;
  578.  The next, like fire he meets the foe,
  579.  And strikes him dead for thine and thee.

  580.  So Lilia sang: we thought her half-possess'd,
  581. She struck such warbling fury thro' the words;
  582. And, after, feigning pique at what she call'd
  583. The raillery, or grotesque, or false sublime--
  584. Like one that wishes at a dance to change
  585. The music--clapt her hands and cried for war,
  586. Or some grand fight to kill and make an end:
  587. And he that next inherited the tale
  588. Half turning to the broken statue, said,
  589. 'Sir Ralph has got your colours: if I prove
  590. Your knight, and fight your battle, what for me?'
  591. It chanced, her empty glove upon the tomb
  592. Lay by her like a model of her hand.
  593. She took it and she flung it. 'Fight,' she said,
  594. 'And make us all we would be, great and good.'
  595. He knightlike in his cap instead of casque,
  596. A cap of Tyrol borrow'd from the hall,
  597. Arranged the favour, and assumed the Prince.

Canto III | Introduction | Canto V

Last updated July 23, 1997