s: Long o'er his bent brows linger'd Averill,


s: His face magnetic to the hand from which


s: Livid he pluck'd it forth, and labor'd thro'


s: His brief prayer-prelude, gave the verse `Behold,


s: As half amazed half frighted all his flock:


s: Then from his height and loneliness of grief


s: Bore down in flood, and dash'd his angry heart


s: Never since our bad earth became one sea,


s: Which rolling o'er the palaces of the proud,


s: And all but those who knew the living God--


s: Eight that were left to make a purer world--


s: When since had flood, fire, earthquake, thunder wrought


s: Shot up their shadows to the Heaven of Heavens,


s: And worshipt their own darkness as the Highest?


s: `Gash thyself, priest, and honor thy brute Baal,


s: And to thy worst self sacrifice thyself,


s: For with thy worst self hast thou clothed thy God.'


s: Then came a Lord in no wise like to Baal.


s: The babe shall lead the lion.  Surely now


s: The wilderness shall blossom as the rose.


s: Crown thyself, worm, and worship thine own lusts!--


s: Stands at thy gate for thee to grovel to--


s: And princely halls, and farms, and flowing lawns,


s: And heaps of living gold that daily grow,


s: And title-scrolls and gorgeous heraldries.


s: In such a shape dost thou behold thy God.


s: Thou wilt not gash thy flesh for HIM; for thine


s: Is wounded to the death that cannot die;


s: And tho' thou numberest with the followers


s: Of One who cried `leave all and follow me.'


s: Thee therefore with His light about thy feet,


s: Thee with His message ringing in thine ears,


s: Thee shall thy brother man, the Lord from Heaven,


s: Born of a village girl, carpenter's son,


s: Wonderful, Prince of peace, the Mighty God,


s: Count the more base idolater of the two;


s: Bodies, but souls--thy children's--thro' the smoke,


s: The blight of low desires--darkening thine own


s: To thine own likeness; or if one of these,


s: Should, as by miracle, grow straight and fair--


s: Friends, I was bid to speak of such a one


s: By those who most have cause to sorrow for her--


s: Fairer than Ruth among the fields of corn,


s: Fair as the Angel that said `hail' she seem'd,


s: Who entering fill'd the house with sudden light.


s: For so mine own was brighten'd: where indeed


s: The roof so lowly but that beam of Heaven


s: Dawn'd sometime thro' the doorway? whose the babe


s: Warm'd at her bosom?  The poor child of shame,


s: The common care whom no one cared for, leapt


s: To greet her, wasting his forgotten heart,


s: In gambols; for her fresh and innocent eyes


s: Had such a star of morning in their blue,


s: Broke into nature's music when they saw her.


s: Low was her voice, but won mysterious way


s: Thro' the seal'd ear to which a louder one


s: Was all but silence--free of alms her hand--


s: The hand that robed your cottage-walls with flowers


s: Has often toil'd to clothe your little ones;


s: How often placed upon the sick man's brow


s: Cool'd it, or laid his feverous pillow smooth!


s: Had you one sorrow and she shared it not?


s: One burthen and she would not lighten it?


s: Or when some heat of difference sparkled out,


s: How sweetly would she glide between your wraths,


s: And steal you from each other! for she walk'd


s: Wearing the light yoke of that Lord of love,


s: Who still'd the rolling wave of Galilee!


s: And one--of him I was not bid to speak--


s: Was always with her, whom you also knew.


s: Him too you loved, for he was worthy love.


s: And these had been together from the first;


s: They might have been together till the last.


s: Friends, this frail bark of ours, when sorely tried,


s: May wreck itself without the pilot's guilt,


s: Without the captain's knowledge: hope with me.


s: Whose shame is that, if he went hence with shame?


s: Nor mine the fault, if losing both of these


s: I cry to vacant chairs and widow'd walls,


s: While thus he spoke, his hearers wept; but some,


s: Sons of the glebe, with other frowns than those


s: That knit themselves for summer shadow, scowl'd


s: At their great lord.  He, when it seem'd he saw


s: No pale sheet-lightnings from afar, but fork'd


s: Of the near storm, and aiming at his head,


s: Sat anger-charm'd from sorrow, soldierlike,


s: Erect: but when the preacher's cadence flow'd


s: Softening thro' all the gentle attributes


s: Of his lost child, the wife, who watch'd his face,


s: Paled at a sudden twitch of his iron mouth;


s: And `O pray God that he hold up' she thought


s: `Or surely I shall shame myself and him.'


s: `Nor yours the blame--for who beside your hearths


s: Can take her place--if echoing me you cry


s: But thou, O thou that killest, hadst thou known,


s: O thou that stonest, hadst thou understood


s: The things belonging to thy peace and ours!


s: Is there no prophet but the voice that calls


s: Doom upon kings, or in the waste `Repent'?


s: Who down to those that saunter in the broad


s: Cries `come up hither,' as a prophet to us?


s: Is there no stoning save with flint and rock?


s: Yes, as your moanings witness, and myself


s: Am lonelier, darker, earthlier for my loss.


s: Give me your prayers, for he is past your prayers,


s: Not past the living fount of pity in Heaven.


s: But I that thought myself long-suffering, meek,


s: Exceeding "poor in spirit"--how the words


s: Have twisted back upon themselves, and mean


s: Vileness, we are grown so proud--I wish'd my voice


s: To blow these sacrifices thro' the world--


s: To inflame the tribes: but there--out yonder--earth


s: Lightens from her own central Hell--O there


s: The heads of chiefs and princes fall so fast,


s: They cling together in the ghastly sack--


s: Flash from the bridge, and ever-murder'd France,


s: By shores that darken with the gathering wolf,


s: Runs in a river of blood to the sick sea.


s: Was this a time for these to flaunt their pride?


s: May Pharaoh's darkness, folds as dense as those


s: Which hid the Holiest from the people's eyes


s: Ere the great death, shroud this great sin from all:


s: Doubtless our narrow world must canvass it:


s: Who thro' their own desire accomplish'd bring


s: Their own gray hairs with sorrow to the grave--


s: Who broke the bond which they desired to break,


s: Which else had link'd their race with times to come--


s: Who wove coarse webs to snare her purity,


s: Grossly contriving their dear daughter's good--


s: Poor souls, and knew not what they did, but sat


s: Ignorant, devising their own daughter's death!


s: May not that earthly chastisement suffice?


s: Have not our love and reverence left them bare?


s: Will there be children's laughter in their hall


s: That I their guest, their host, their ancient friend,


s: Must cry to these the last of theirs, as cried


s: Christ ere His agony to those that swore


s: Not by the temple but the gold, and made


s: Their own traditions God, and slew the Lord,


s: And left their memories a world's curse--"Behold,


s: Ended he had not, but she brook'd no more:


s: Long since her heart had beat remorselessly,


s: Her crampt-up sorrow pain'd her, and a sense


s: Then their eyes vext her; for on entering


s: He had cast the curtains of their seat aside--


s: Black velvet of the costliest--she herself


s: Had seen to that: fain had she closed them now,


s: Yet dared not stir to do it, only near'd


s: Her husband inch by inch, but when she laid,


s: Wifelike, her hand in one of his, he veil'd


s: His face with the other, and at once, as falls


s: The woman shrieking at his feet, and swoon'd.


s: Her pendent hands, and narrow meagre face


s: Seam'd with the shallow cares of fifty years:


s: And here the Lord of all the landscape round


s: Who peer'd at him so keenly, follow'd out


s: Reel'd, as a footsore ox in crowded ways


s: Stumbling across the market to his death,


s: Unpitied; for he groped as blind, and seem'd


s: And oaken finials till he touch'd the door;


s: Yet to the lychgate, where his chariot stood,


s: Strode from the porch, tall and erect again.


s: Save under pall with bearers.  In one month,


s: The childless mother went to seek her child;


s: And when he felt the silence of his house


s: About him, and the change and not the change,


s: And those fixt eyes of painted ancestors


s: Staring for ever from their gilded walls


s: On him their last descendant, his own head


s: Dead for two years before his death was he;


s: But when the second Christmas came, escaped


s: His keepers, and the silence which he felt,


s: By wife and child; nor wanted at his end


s: At golden thresholds; nor from tender hearts,


s: And those who sorrow'd o'er a vanish'd race,


s: Then the great Hall was wholly broken down,


s: And the broad woodland parcell'd into farms;


s: And where the two contrived their daughter's good,


s: Lies the hawk's cast, the mole has made his run,


s: The hedgehog underneath the plaintain bores,


s: The rabbit fondles his own harmless face,


s: The slow-worm creeps, and the thin weasel there


s: Follows the mouse, and all is open field.


s: His wife, an unknown artist's orphan child--


s: One babe was theirs, a Margaret, three years old:


s: They, thinking that her clear germander eye


s: Droopt in the giant-factoried city-gloom,


s: Came, with a month's leave given them, to the sea:


s: For which his gains were dock'd, however small:


s: Small were his gains, and hard his work; besides,


s: Their slender household fortunes (for the man


s: Had risk'd his little) like the little thrift,


s: Trembled in perilous places o'er a deep:


s: And oft, when sitting all alone, his face


s: Would darken, as he cursed his credulousness,


s: And that one unctuous mount which lured him, rogue,


s: To buy strange shares in some Peruvian mine.


s: Now seaward-bound for health they gain'd a coast,


s: All sand and cliff and deep-inrunning cave,


s: At close of day; slept, woke, and went the next,


s: The Sabbath, pious variers from the church,


s: Not preaching simple Christ to simple men,


s: Announced the coming doom, and fulminated


s: Against the scarlet woman and her creed:


s: For sideways up he swung his arms, and shriek'd


s: `Thus, thus with violence,' ev'n as if he held


s: Were that great Angel; `Thus with violence


s: Then comes the close.'  The gentle-hearted wife


s: Had ended, forth they came and paced the shore,


s: Ran in and out the long sea-framing caves,


s: Drank the large air, and saw, but scarce believed


s: (The sootflake of so many a summer still


s: Clung to their fancies) that they saw, the sea.


s: So now on sand they walk'd, and now on cliff,


s: Till all the sails were darken'd in the west,


s: And rosed in the east: then homeward and to bed:


s: Where she, who kept a tender Christian hope


s: Returning, as the bird returns, at night,


s: `Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,'


s: Said, `Love, forgive him:' but he did not speak;


s: And silenced by that silence lay the wife,


s: Remembering her dear Lord who died for all,


s: And how they mar this little by their feuds.


s: But while the two were sleeping, a full tide


s: Rose with ground-swell, which, on the foremost rocks


s: Touching, upjetted in spirts of wild sea-smoke,


s: And scaled in sheets of wasteful foam, and fell


s: Dead claps of thunder from within the cliffs


s: Heard thro' the living roar.  At this the babe,


s: Their Margaret cradled near them, wail'd and woke


s: The mother, and the father suddenly cried,


s: `A wreck, a wreck!' then turn'd, and groaning said,


s: `Forgive!  How many will say, "forgive," and find


s: That neither God nor man can well forgive,


s: Is it so true that second thoughts are best?


s: Not first, and third, which are a riper first?


s: Too ripe, too late! they come too late for use.


s: Ah love, there surely lives in man and beast


s: Something divine to warn them of their foes:


s: And such a sense, when first I fronted him,


s: Said, "trust him not;" but after, when I came


s: To know him more, I lost it, knew him less;


s: Fought with what seem'd my own uncharity;


s: Sat at his table; drank his costly wines;


s: Made more and more allowance for his talk;


s: Went further, fool! and trusted him with all,


s: All my poor scrapings from a dozen years


s: Of dust and deskwork: there is no such mine,


s: None; but a gulf of ruin, swallowing gold,


s: Not making.  Ruin'd! ruin'd! the sea roars


s: Said the good wife, `if every star in heaven


s: Can make it fair: you do but bear the tide.


s: Of such a tide swelling toward the land,


s: Swept with it to the shore, and enter'd one


s: Of those dark caves that run beneath the cliffs.


s: I thought the motion of the boundless deep


s: Bore through the cave, and I was heaved upon it


s: Larger and larger.  "What a world," I thought,


s: Bright with the sun upon the stream beyond:


s: Into a land all of sun and blossom, trees


s: As high as heaven, and every bird that sings:


s: And here the night-light flickering in my eyes


s: `And mused upon it, drifting up the stream


s: In fancy, till I slept again, and pieced


s: The broken vision; for I dream'd that still


s: The motion of the great deep bore me on,


s: And that the woman walk'd upon the brink:


s: I wonder'd at her strength, and ask'd her of it:


s: "It came," she said, "by working in the mines:"


s: O then to ask her of my shares, I thought;


s: And ask'd; but not a word; she shook her head.


s: And then the motion of the current ceased,


s: And there was rolling thunder; and we reach'd


s: A mountain, like a wall of burs and thorns;


s: But she with her strong feet up the steep hill


s: She pointed seaward: there a fleet of glass,


s: That not one moment ceased to thunder, past


s: In sunshine: right across its track there lay,


s: Or what seem'd gold: and I was glad at first


s: To think that in our often-ransack'd world


s: Still so much gold was left; and then I fear'd


s: Lest the gay navy there should splinter on it,


s: And fearing waved my arm to warn them off;


s: (I thought I could have died to save it) near'd,


s: Touch'd, clink'd, and clash'd, and vanish'd, and I woke,


s: I heard the clash so clearly.  Now I see


s: My dream was Life; the woman honest Work;


s: And my poor venture but a fleet of glass


s: `Nay,' said the kindly wife to comfort him,


s: `You raised your arm, you tumbled down and broke


s: The glass with little Margaret's medicine it it;


s: And, breaking that, you made and broke your dream:


s: A trifle makes a dream, a trifle breaks.'


s: `No trifle,' groan'd the husband; `yesterday


s: I met him suddenly in the street, and ask'd


s: That which I ask'd the woman in my dream.


s: Like her, he shook his head.  "Show me the books!"


s: He dodged me with a long and loose account.


s: "The books, the books!" but he, he could not wait,


s: When the great Books (see Daniel seven and ten)


s: Were open'd, I should find he meant me well;


s: And then began to bloat himself, and ooze


s: All over with the fat affectionate smile


s: That makes the widow lean.  "My dearest friend,


s: Have faith, have faith!  We live by faith," said he;


s: "And all things work together for the good


s: Of those"--it makes me sick to quote him--last


s: Gript my hand hard, and with God-bless-you went.


s: I stood like one that had received a blow:


s: I found a hard friend in his loose accounts,


s: A loose one in the hard grip of his hand,


s: A curse in his God-bless-you: then my eyes


s: Pursued him down the street, and far away,


s: Among the honest shoulders of the crowd,


s: And scoundrel in the supple-sliding knee.'


s: `Was he so bound, poor soul?' said the good wife;


s: `So are we all: but do not call him, love,


s: Before you prove him, rogue, and proved, forgive.


s: His gain is loss; for he that wrongs his friend


s: Wrongs himself more, and ever bears about


s: A silent court of justice in his breast,


s: The prisoner at the bar, ever condemn'd:


s: And that drags down his life: then comes what comes


s: Hereafter: and he meant, he said he meant,


s: Perhaps he meant, or partly meant, you well.'


s: ` "With all his conscience and one eye askew"--


s: Love, let me quote these lines, that you may learn


s: Too often, in that silent court of yours--


s: "With all his conscience and one eye askew,


s: So false, he partly took himself for true;


s: Whose pious talk, when most his heart was dry,


s: Made wet the crafty crowsfoot round his eye;


s: Made Him his catspaw and the Cross his tool,


s: And Christ the bait to trap his dupe and fool;


s: Nor deeds of gift, but gifts of grace he forged,


s: And snakelike slimed his victim ere he gorged;


s: And oft at Bible meetings, o'er the rest


s: Dropping the too rough H in Hell and Heaven,


s: To spread the Word by which himself had thriven."


s: `I loathe it: he had never kindly heart,


s: Who first wrote satire, with no pity in it.


s: But will you hear MY dream, for I had one


s: A belt, it seem'd, of luminous vapor, lay,


s: Swell'd up and died; and, as it swell'd, a ridge


s: Of breaker issued from the belt, and still


s: Grew with the growing note, and when the note


s: Had reach'd a thunderous fullness, on those cliffs


s: Broke, mixt with awful light (the same as that


s: That all those lines of cliffs were cliffs no more,


s: Grave, florid, stern, as far as eye could see.


s: One after one: and then the great ridge drew,


s: And past into the belt and swell'd again


s: The statues, king or saint, or founder fell;


s: Then from the gaps and chasms of ruin left


s: Came men and women in dark clusters round,


s: Some crying, "Set them up! they shall not fall!"


s: And others "Let them lie, for they have fall'n."


s: And still they strove and wrangled: and she grieved


s: In her strange dream, she knew not why, to find


s: Their wildest wailings never out of tune


s: With that sweet note; and ever as their shrieks


s: Ran highest up the gamut, that great wave


s: Returning, while none mark'd it, on the crowd


s: Broke, mixt with awful light, and show'd their eyes


s: Glaring, and passionate looks, and swept away


s: The men of flesh and blood, and men of stone,


s: Both crown'd with stars and high among the stars,--


s: The Virgin Mother standing with her child


s: High up on one of those dark minster-fronts--


s: Which mixt with little Margaret's, and I woke,


s: And my dream awed me:--well--but what are dreams?


s: Yours came but from the breaking of a glass,


s: And mine but from the crying of a child.'


s: `Child?  No!' said he, `but this tide's roar, and his,


s: Went both to make your dream: but if there were


s: Sphere-music such as that you dream'd about,


s: Why, that would make our passions far too like


s: The discords dear to the musician.  No--


s: One shriek of hate would jar all the hymns of heaven:


s: True Devils with no ear, they howl in tune


s: Here than ourselves, spoke with me on the shore;


s: While you were running down the sands, and made


s: The dimpled flounce of the sea-furbelow flap,


s: Good man, to please the child.  She brought strange news.


s: Why were you silent when I spoke to-night?


s: I had set my heart on your forgiving him


s: Before you knew.  We MUST forgive the dead.'


s: He suddenly dropt dead of heart-disease.'


s: `Dead? he? of heart-disease? what heart had he


s: And if he did that wrong you charge him with,


s: His angel broke his heart.  But your rough voice


s: (You spoke so loud) has roused the child again.


s: Sleep, little birdie, sleep! will she not sleep


s: Without her "little birdie?" well then, sleep,


s: The woman half turn'd round from him she loved,


s: Left him one hand, and reaching thro' the night


s: Her other, found (for it was close beside)


s: And half embraced the basket cradle-head


s: With one soft arm, which, like the pliant bough


s: That moving moves the nest and nestling, sway'd


s: The cradle, while she sang this baby song.


s: `She sleeps: let us too, let all evil, sleep.


s: He also sleeps--another sleep than ours.


s: He can do no more wrong: forgive him, dear,


s: `His deeds yet live, the worst is yet to come.


s: Yet let your sleep for this one night be sound:


s: `Your own will be the sweeter,' and they slept.


s: And Willy, my eldest-born, is gone, you say, little


s: Ruddy and white, and strong on his legs, he looks like


s: And Willy's wife has written: she never was over-


s: Never the wife for Willy: he would n't take my


s: For, Annie, you see, her father was not the man to


s: Had n't a head to manage, and drank himself into his


s: Pretty enough, very pretty! but I was against it for


s: Eh!--but he would n't hear me--and Willy, you say,


s: Willy, my beauty, my eldest-born, the flower of the


s: Never a man could fling him: for Willy stood like a


s: `Here's a leg for a babe of a week!' says doctor; and


s: There was not his like that year in twenty parishes


s: Strong of his hands, and strong on his legs, but still of


s: I ought to have gone before him: I wonder he went


s: I cannot cry for him, Annie: I have not long to


s: Perhaps I shall see him the sooner, for he lived far


s: Why do you look at me, Annie? you think I am hard


s: But all my children have gone before me, I am so


s: I cannot weep for Willy, nor can I weep for the


s: Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the


s: For I remember a quarrel I had with your father, my


s: All for a slanderous story, that cost me many a


s: I mean your grandfather, Annie: it cost me a world


s: Seventy years ago, my darling, seventy years


s: For Jenny, my cousin, had come to the place, and I


s: That Jenny had tript in her time: I knew, but I


s: And she to be coming and slandering me, the base


s: But the tongue is a fire as you know, my dear, the


s: And the parson made it his text that week, and he


s: That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of


s: That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought


s: But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to


s: And Willy had not been down to the farm for a week


s: And all things look'd half-dead, tho' it was the middle


s: Jenny, to slander me, who knew what Jenny had


s: But soiling another, Annie, will never make oneself


s: And I cried myself well-nigh blind, and all of an


s: I climb'd to the top of the garth, and stood by the


s: The moon like a rick on fire was rising over the


s: And whit, whit, whit, in the bush beside me chirrupt


s: All of a sudden he stopt: there past by the gate of


s: Willy,--he did n't see me,--and Jenny hung on his


s: Out into the road I started, and spoke I scarce knew


s: Ah, there's no fool like the old one--it makes me


s: Willy stood up like a man, and look'd the thing that


s: Jenny, the viper, made me a mocking courtesy and


s: And I said, `Let us part: in a hundred years it'll all


s: You cannot love me at all, if you love not my good


s: And he turn'd, and I saw his eyes all wet, in the sweet


s: Sweetheart, I love you so well that your good name


s: And what do I care for Jane, let her speak of you well


s: But marry me out of hand: we two shall be happy


s: `Marry you, Willy!' said I, `but I needs must speak


s: And I fear you'll listen to tales, be jealous and hard


s: But he turn'd and claspt me in his arms, and answer'd,


s: Seventy years ago, my darling, seventy years


s: So Willy and I were wedded: I wore a lilac


s: And the ringers rang with a will, and he gave the


s: But the first that ever I bare was dead before he was


s: Shadow and shine is life, little Annie, flower and


s: That was the first time, too, that ever I thought of


s: There lay the sweet little body that never had drawn


s: I had not wept, little Anne, not since I had been a


s: But I wept like a child that day, for the babe had


s: His dear little face was troubled, as if with anger or


s: I look'd at the still little body--his trouble had all


s: For Willy I cannot weep, I shall see him another


s: But I wept like a child for the child that was dead


s: But he cheer'd me, my good man, for he seldom said me


s: Kind, like a man, was he; like a man, too, would have


s: Never jealous--not he: we had many a happy


s: And he died, and I could not weep--my own time


s: But I wish'd it had been God's will that I, too, then


s: I began to be tired a little, and fain had slept at his


s: And that was ten years back, or more, if I don't


s: But as to the children, Annie, they're all about me


s: Pattering over the boards, my Annie who left me at


s: Patter she goes, my own little Annie, an Annie like


s: Pattering over the boards, she comes and goes at her


s: While Harry is in the five-acre and Charlie ploughing


s: And Harry and Charlie, I hear them too--they sing


s: Often they come to the door in a pleasant kind of a


s: They come and sit by my chair, they hover about my


s: I am not always certain if they be alive or


s: And yet I know for a truth, there's none of them


s: For Harry went at sixty, your father at sixty-


s: And Willy, my eldest born, at nigh threescore and


s: I knew them all as babies, and now they're elderly


s: For mine is a time of peace, it is not often I


s: I am oftener sitting at home in my father's farm


s: And the neighbors come and laugh and gossip, and


s: I find myself often laughing at things that have long


s: To be sure the preacher says, our sins should make


s: But mine is a time of peace, and there is Grace to


s: And God, not man, is the Judge of us all when life


s: And in this Book, little Annie, the message is one of


s: And age is a time of peace, so it be free from


s: And happy has been my life; but I would not live


s: I seem to be tired a little, that's all, and long for


s: Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the


s: So Willy has gone, my beauty, my eldest-born, my


s: But how can I weep for Willy, he has but gone for


s: Gone for a minute, my son, from this room into the


s: I, too, shall go in a minute.  What time have I to


s: And Willy's wife has written, she never was over-


s: Get me my glasses, Annie: thank God that I keep


s: There is but a trifle left you, when I shall have past


s: But stay with the old woman now: you cannot have


s: Wheer 'asta bean saw long and mea liggin' 'ere


s: Noorse? thoort nowt o' a noorse: whoy, doctor's abean


s: Says that I moant 'a naw moor yaale: but I beant a


s: Git ma my yaale, fur I beant a-gooin' to break my


s: Doctors, they knaws nowt, for a says what's nawways


s: Naw soort o' koind o' use to saay the things that


s: I've 'ed my point o' yaale ivry noight sin' I bean


s: An' I've 'ed my quart ivry market-noight for foorty


s: Parson's a bean loikewoise, an' a sittin' ere o' my


s: `The amoighty's a taakin o' you to 'issen, my friend,'


s: An' a towd ma my sins, an's toithe were due, an' I gied


s: I done my duty by un, as I 'a done by the


s: Larn'd a ma' bea. I reckons I 'annot sa mooch to


s: But a cost oop, thot a did, 'boot Bessy Marris's


s: Thof a knaws I hallus voated wi' Squoire an' choorch


s: An' i' the woost o' toimes I wur niver agin the


s: An' I hallus comed to 's choorch afoor moy Sally wur


s: An' 'eerd un a bummin' awaay loike a buzzard-clock*


s: An' I niver knaw'd whot a mean'd but I thowt a 'ad


s: An I thowt a said whot a owt to 'a said an' I comed


s: Bessy Marris's barn! tha knaws she laaid it to


s: Mowt 'a bean, mayhap, for she wur a bad un,


s: 'Siver, I kep un, I kep un, my lass, tha mun under-


s: I done my duty by un as I 'a done by the


s: But Parson a comes an' a goos, an' a says it easy an'


s: I weant saay men be loiars, thof summun said it in


s: But a reads wonn sarmin a weeak, an' I 'a stubb'd


s: D'ya moind the waaste, my lass? naw, naw, tha was


s: Theer wur a boggle in it, I often 'eerd un


s: Moast loike a butter-bump,* for I 'eerd un aboot an


s: But I stubb'd un oop wi' the lot, an' raaved an


s: Keaper's it wur; fo' they fun un theer a laaid on 'is


s: Doon i' the woild 'enemies* afoor I comed to the


s: Noaks or Thimbleby--toner 'ed shot un as dead as


s: Noaks wur 'ang'd for it oop at 'soize--but git ma


s: Dubbut looak at the waaste: theer warn't not fead


s: Nowt at all but bracken an' fuzz, an' looak at it


s: Warn't worth nowt a haacre, an' now theer's lots o'


s: Fourscore yows upon it an' some on it doon in


s: Nobbut a bit on it's left, an' I mean'd to 'a stubb'd


s: Done it ta-year I mean'd, an' runn'd plow thruff it


s: If godamoighty an' parson 'ud nobbut let ma


s: Mea, wi' haate oonderd haacre o' Squoire's an' lond


s: Do godamoighty knaw what a's doing a-taakin' o'


s: I beant wonn as saws 'ere a bean an' yonder a


s: An' Squoire 'ull be sa mad an' all--a' dear a'


s: And I 'a monaged for Squoire come Michaelmas


s: A mowt 'a taaken Joanes, as 'ant a 'aapoth o'


s: Or a mowt a' taaken Robins--a niver mended a


s: But godamoighty a moost taake mea an' taake ma


s: Wi 'auf the cows to cauve an' Thornaby holms to


s: Looak 'ow quoloty smoiles when they sees ma a


s: Says to thessen naw doot `what a mon a be


s: For they knaws what I bean to Squoire sin fust a


s: I done my duty by Squoire an' I done my duty


s: Squoire's in Lunnon, an' summun I reckons 'ull 'a to


s: For who's to howd the lond ater mea thot muddles


s: Sartin-sewer I bea, thot a weant niver give it to


s: Noither a moant to Robins--a niver rembles the


s: But summun 'ull come ater mea mayhap wi' 'is kittle


s: Huzzin' an' maazin' the blessed fealds wi' the Divil's


s: Gin I mun doy I mun doy, an' loife they says is


s: But gin I mun doy I mun doy, for I couldn abear to


s: What atta stannin' theer for, an' doesn bring ma the


s: Doctor's a 'tottler, lass, an a's hallus i' the owd


s: I weant break rules for Doctor, a knaws naw moor


s: Git ma my yaale, I tell tha, an' gin I mun doy I


s: The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,


s: The vapors weep their burthen to the ground,


s: Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,


s: Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,


s: A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream


s: Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.


s: Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man--


s: So glorious in his beauty and thy choice,


s: Who madest him thy chosen, that he seem'd


s: To his great heart none other than a God!


s: Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile,


s: Like wealthy men who care not how they give.


s: But thy strong Hours indignant work'd their wills,


s: And beat me down and marr'd and wasted me,


s: And tho' they could not end me, left me maim'd


s: Close over us, the silver star, thy guide,


s: Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears


s: To hear me?  Let me go: take back thy gift:


s: Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?


s: A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes


s: A glimpse of that dark world where I was born.


s: Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals


s: From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,


s: Thy cheek begins to redden thro' the gloom,


s: Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,


s: Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team


s: Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,


s: And shake the darkness from their loosen'd manes,


s: And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.


s: In silence, then before thine answer given


s: Departest, and thy tears are on my cheek.


s: Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,


s: And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,


s: In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?


s: `The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.'


s: In days far-off, and with what other eyes


s: I used to watch--if I be he that watch'd--


s: The lucid outline forming round thee; saw


s: Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood


s: Glow with the glow that slowly crimson'd all


s: Thy presence and thy portals, while I lay,


s: Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm


s: With kisses balmier than half-opening buds


s: Of April, and could hear the lips that kiss'd


s: Whispering I knew not what of wild and sweet,


s: Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,


s: While Ilion like a mist rose into towers.


s: How can my nature longer mix with thine?


s: Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet


s: Upon thy glimmering thresholds, when the steam


s: Floats up from those dim fields about the homes


s: Of happy men that have the power to die,


s: Release me, and restore me to the ground;


s: Thou seest all things, thou wilt see my grave:


s: Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn;


s: I earth in earth forget these empty courts,


s: And thee returning on thy silver wheels.


s: Caught the shrill salt, and sheer'd the gale.


s: The broad seas swell'd to meet the keel,


s: Where those long swells of breaker sweep


s: Gloom'd the low coast and quivering brine


s: But we nor paused for fruit nor flowers.


s: For blasts would rise and rave and cease,


s: But whence were those that drove the sail


s: All along the valley, stream that flashest white,


s: Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night,


s: All along the valley, where thy waters flow,


s: I walk'd with one I loved two and thirty years ago.


s: All along the valley while I walk'd to-day,


s: The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away;


s: For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed


s: Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead,


s: And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree,


s: The voice of the dead was a living voice to me.


s: Where yon broad water sweetly slowly glides.


s: Her quiet dream of life this hour may cease.


s: And reach'd the ship and caught the rope,


s: And in thy heart the scrawl shall play.'


s: They are all to blame, they are all to blame.


s: For a score of sweet little summers or so'


s: The sweet little wife of the singer said,


s: On the day that follow'd the day she was wed,


s: With a crew that is neither rude nor rash,


s: To a sweet little Eden on earth that I know,


s: With many a rivulet high against the Sun


s: The facets of the glorious mountain flash


s: For in all that exquisite isle, my dear,


s: There is but one bird with a musical throat,


s: And his compass is but of a single note,


s: `Mock me not! mock me not! love, let us go.'


s: For the bud ever breaks into bloom on the tree,


s: And a storm never wakes on the lonely sea,


s: That pierces the liver and blackens the blood,


s: And then shall I know it is all true gold


s: To flame and sparkle and stream as of old,


s: And a lad may wink, and a girl may hint,


s: And I swear henceforth by this and this,


s: But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,


s: Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet!


s: Welcome her, thundering cheer of the street!


s: Welcome her, all things youthful and sweet,


s: Break, happy land, into earlier flowers!


s: Make music, O bird, in the new-budded bowers!


s: Blazon your mottos of blessing and prayer!


s: Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours!


s: Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers!


s: Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air!


s: Rush to the roof, sudden rocket, and higher


s: Roll as a ground-swell dash'd on the strand,


s: Roar as the sea when he welcomes the land,


s: And welcome her, welcome the land's desire,


s: The sea-kings' daughter as happy as fair,


s: Bride of the heir of the kings of the sea--


s: O joy to the people and joy to the throne,


s: Come to us, love us, and make us your own:


s: We are each all Dane in our welcome of thee,


s: Uplift a thousand voices full and sweet,


s: In this wide hall with earth's inventions stored,


s: And praise th' invisible universal Lord,


s: Who lets once more in peace the nations meet,


s: Where Science, Art, and Labor have outpour'd


s: Their myriad horns of plenty at our feet.


s: For this, for all, we weep our thanks to thee!


s: O ye, the wise who think, the wise who reign,


s: From growing commerce loose her latest chain,


s: And let the fair white-winged peacemaker fly


s: And mix the seasons and the golden hours,


s: Till each man finds his own in all men's good,


s: Breaking their mailed fleets and armed towers,


s: And gathering all the fruits of peace and crown'd with


s: Dear, near and true--no truer Time himself


s: Can prove you, tho' he make you evermore


s: Shoots to the fall--take this, and pray that he,


s: Who wrote it, honoring your sweet faith in him,


s: May trust himself; and spite of praise and scorn,


s: As one who feels the immeasurable world,


s: Attain the wise indifference of the wise;


s: Draw toward the long frost and longest night,


s: Wearing his wisdom lightly, like the fruit


s: Which in our winter woodland looks a flower.*


s: *The fruit of the Spindle-tree (Euonymus Europaeus).


s: While about the shore of Mona those Neronian legionaries


s: Burnt and broke the grove and altar of the Druid and Druidess,


s: Far in the East Boadicea, standing loftily charioted,


s: Mad and maddening all that heard her in her fierce volubility,


s: Girt by half the tribes of Britain, near the colony Camulodune,


s: Must their ever-ravening eagle's beak and talon annihilate us?


s: Tear the noble hear of Britain, leave it gorily quivering?


s: Bark an answer, Britain's raven! bark and blacken innumerable,


s: Blacken round the Roman carrion, make the carcase a skeleton,


s: Lo their colony half-defended! lo their colony, Camulodune!


s: There the horde of Roman robbers mock at a barbarous adversary.


s: `Hear it, Gods! the Gods have heard it, O Icenian, O Coritanian!


s: Doubt not ye the Gods have answer'd, Catieuchlanian, Trinobant.


s: These have told us all their anger in miraculous utterances,


s: Thunder, a flying fire in heaven, a murmur heard aerially,


s: Phantom sound of blows descending, moan of an enemy massacred,


s: Phantom wail of women and children, multitudinous agonies.


s: Lastly yonder yester-even, suddenly giddily tottering--


s: Shall we teach it a Roman lesson? shall we care to be pitiful?


s: Shall we deal with it as an infant? shall we dandle it amorously?


s: `Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant!


s: While I roved about the forest, long and bitterly meditating,


s: There I heard them in the darkness, at the mystical ceremony,


s: Loosely robed in flying raiment, sang the terrible prophetesses.


s: "Fear not, isle of blowing woodland, isle of silvery parapets!


s: Thine the lands of lasting summer, many-blossoming Paradises,


s: So they chanted in the darkness, and there cometh a victory now.


s: Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant!


s: Me the wife of rich Prasutagus, me the lover of liberty,


s: See they sit, they hide their faces, miserable in ignominy!


s: Wherefore in me burns an anger, not by blood to be satiated.


s: Lo the palaces and the temple, lo the colony Camulodune!


s: Shout Icenian, Catieuchlanian, shout Coritanian, Trinobant,


s: Till the victim hear within and yearn to hurry precipitously


s: Cut the Roman boy to pieces in his lust and voluptuousness,


s: Lash the maiden into swooning, me they lash'd and humiliated,


s: So the Queen Boadicea, standing loftily charioted,


s: Brandishing in her hand a dart and rolling glances lioness-like,


s: Madly dash'd the darts together, writhing barbarous lineaments,


s: Made the noise of frosty woodlands, when they shiver in January,


s: So the silent colony hearing her tumultuous adversaries


s: Till she felt the heart within her fall and flutter tremulously,


s: Then her pulses at the clamoring of her enemy fainted away.


s: Out of evil evil flourishes, out of tyranny tyranny buds.


s: Ran the land with Roman slaughter, multitudinous agonies.


s: Perish'd many a maid and matron, many a valorous legionary.


s: Fell the colony, city, and citadel, London, Verulam, Camulodune.


s: Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armouries,


s: Streams o'er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,


s: Like the skater on ice that hardly bears him,


s: Should I flounder awhile without a tumble


s: They should speak to me not without a welcome,


s: Hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble,


s: Wherefore slight me not wholly, nor believe me


s: Since I blush to belaud myself a moment--


s: As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost


s: Horticultural art, or half coquette-like


s: So Hector said, and sea-like roar'd his host;


s: Then loosed their sweating horses from the yoke,


s: And each beside his chariot bound his own;


s: And oxen from the city, and goodly sheep


s: In haste they drove, and honey-hearted wine


s: And bread from out the houses brought, and heap'd


s: Their firewood, and the winds from off the plain


s: Roll'd the rich vapor far into the heaven.


s: And these all night upon the bridge of war


s: Sat glorying; many a fire before them blazed:


s: As when in heaven the stars about the moon


s: Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid,


s: And every height comes out, and jutting peak


s: And valley, and the immeasurable heavens


s: Break open to their highest, and all the stars


s: Shine, and the Shepherd gladdens in his heart:


s: So many a fire between the ships and stream


s: Of Xanthus blazed before the towers of Troy,


s: A thousand on the plain; and close by each


s: And champing golden grain, the horses stood


s: Hard by their chariots, waiting for the dawn.


s: And eating hoary grain and pulse the steeds


s: Stood by their cars, waiting the throned morn.


s: (From the PUBLISHER'S NOTE: "The present Household Edition of Mr.


s: verse that he wished to preserve, and all his translations except


s: in chronological order . . . Boston, Autumn, 1902." Houghton


s: The Good Part, that shall not be taken away


s: Sonnet on Mrs. Kemble's Reading from Shakespeare


s: Song: "And whither goest thou, gentle sigh"


s: Will ever the dear days come back again?


s: Where, the long drooping boughs between,


s: And, loving still these quaint old themes,


s: That, crossed by shades and sunny gleams,


s: "Learn, that henceforth thy song shall be,


s: Our hopes, like withered leaves, fail fast;


s: "Look, then, into thine heart, and write!


s: I heard the trailing garments of the Night


s: I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light


s: I felt her presence, by its spell of might,


s: The calm, majestic presence of the Night,


s: I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,


s: That fill the haunted chambers of the Night


s: From the cool cisterns of the midnight air


s: The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,--


s: Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,


s: Peace!  Peace!  Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!


s: The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,


s: "Shall I have naught that is fair?" saith he;


s: Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me,


s: He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,


s: "My Lord has need of these flowerets gay,"


s: "They shall all bloom in fields of light,


s: 'T was an angel visited the green earth,


s: Like the stars, so still and saint-like,


s: Spake full well, in language quaint and olden,


s: When he called the flowers, so blue and golden,


s: Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.


s: Stars they are, wherein we read our history,


s: Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery,


s: Like the burning stars, which they beheld.


s: Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,


s: But not less in the bright flowerets under us


s: Written all over this great world of ours;


s: In these stars of earth, these golden flowers.


s: Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part


s: Which is throbbing in his brain and heart.


s: Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining,


s: Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining,


s: Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues,


s: Large desires, with most uncertain issues,


s: These in flowers and men are more than seeming;


s: Workings are they of the self-same powers,


s: Some like stars, to tell us Spring is born;


s: Others, their blue eyes with tears o'er-flowing,


s: But in arms of brave old Autumn's wearing,


s: Of sequestered pools in woodland valleys,


s: Where the slaves of nature stoop to drink;


s: On the tombs of heroes, carved in stone;


s: In ancestral homes, whose crumbling towers,


s: Tell us of the ancient Games of Flowers;


s: In all places, then, and in all seasons,


s: Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings,


s: Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons,


s: I have read, in some old, marvellous tale,


s: I have read, in the marvellous heart of man,


s: Crowned with wild flowers and with heather,


s: Of the soft air, like a daughter's breath,


s: Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,


s: 'T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springs


s: When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,


s: Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell


s: The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;


s: Though stricken to the heart with winter's cold,


s: Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings


s: Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along


s: The silver woods with light, the green slope throws


s: Its shadows in the hollows of the hills,


s: In the blue lake the sky, o'er-reaching far,


s: Is hollowed out and the moon dips her horn,


s: Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw,


s: And the fair trees look over, side by side,


s: Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,


s: With what a glory comes and goes the year!


s: The buds of spring, those beautiful harbingers


s: Of sunny skies and cloudless times, enjoy


s: Life's newness, and earth's garniture spread out;


s: Comes down upon the autumn sun, and with


s: His bright inheritance of golden fruits,


s: A pomp and pageant fill the splendid scene.


s: There is a beautiful spirit breathing now


s: Its mellow richness on the clustered trees,


s: And, from a beaker full of richest dyes,


s: And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds.


s: Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird,


s: Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales


s: The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,


s: Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life


s: Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned,


s: And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved,


s: Where Autumn, like a faint old man, sits down


s: By the wayside a-weary.  Through the trees


s: The golden robin moves.  The purple finch,


s: That on wild cherry and red cedar feeds,


s: A winter bird, comes with its plaintive whistle,


s: And pecks by the witch-hazel, whilst aloud


s: From cottage roofs the warbling blue-bird sings,


s: Sounds from the threshing-floor the busy flail.


s: For him who, with a fervent heart, goes forth


s: Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks


s: On duties well performed, and days well spent!


s: For him the wind, ay, and the yellow leaves,


s: Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teachings.


s: He shall so hear the solemn hymn that Death


s: To his long resting-place without a tear.


s: And through the hawthorn blows the gale,


s: Where, from their frozen urns, mute springs


s: And winds were soft, and woods were green,


s: And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while,


s: And it was his martial cloak and shroud!


s: I stood upon the hills, when heaven's wide arch


s: Was glorious with the sun's returning march,


s: And woods were brightened, and soft gales


s: The clouds were far beneath me; bathed in light,


s: They gathered mid-way round the wooded height,


s: As many a pinnacle, with shifting glance.


s: Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance,


s: Glowed the rich valley, and the river's flow


s: Where upward, in the mellow blush of day,


s: The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way.


s: And richly, by the blue lake's silver beach,


s: The woods were bending with a silent reach.


s: And the wild horn, whose voice the woodland fills,


s: Where, answering to the sudden shot, thin smoke,


s: Through thick-leaved branches, from the dingle broke.


s: If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep


s: Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,


s: That dwells where'er the gentle south-wind blows;


s: Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the glade,


s: The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air,


s: The leaves above their sunny palms outspread.


s: With what a tender and impassioned voice


s: It fills the nice and delicate ear of thought,


s: When the fast ushering star of morning comes


s: O'er-riding the gray hills with golden scarf;


s: Or when the cowled and dusky-sandaled Eve,


s: In mourning weeds, from out the western gate,


s: Departs with silent pace!  That spirit moves


s: In the green valley, where the silver brook,


s: From its full laver, pours the white cascade;


s: And, babbling low amid the tangled woods,


s: Slips down through moss-grown stones with endless laughter.


s: Its feet go forth, when it doth wrap itself


s: In all the dark embroidery of the storm,


s: And shouts the stern, strong wind.  And here, amid


s: Its presence shall uplift thy thoughts from earth,


s: As to the sunshine and the pure, bright air


s: Their tops the green trees lift.  Hence gifted bards


s: Have ever loved the calm and quiet shades.


s: For them there was an eloquent voice in all


s: The sylvan pomp of woods, the golden sun,


s: The flowers, the leaves, the river on its way,


s: Blue skies, and silver clouds, and gentle winds,


s: The swelling upland, where the sidelong sun


s: Aslant the wooded slope, at evening, goes,


s: Groves, through whose broken roof the sky looks in,


s: Mountain, and shattered cliff, and sunny vale,


s: The distant lake, fountains, and mighty trees,


s: And this is the sweet spirit, that doth fill


s: The world; and, in these wayward days of youth,


s: As a bright image of the light and beauty


s: That dwell in nature; of the heavenly forms


s: We worship in our dreams, and the soft hues


s: That stain the wild bird's wing, and flush the clouds


s: When the sun sets.  Within her tender eye


s: The heaven of April, with its changing light,


s: And when it wears the blue of May, is hung,


s: And on her lip the rich, red rose.  Her hair


s: Is like the summer tresses of the trees,


s: When twilight makes them brown, and on her cheek


s: With ever-shifting beauty.  Then her breath,


s: As, front the morning's dewy flowers, it comes


s: Full of their fragrance, that it is a joy


s: To have it round us, and her silver voice


s: Heard in the still night, with its passionate cadence.


s: Rose the blue hills.  One cloud of white,


s: Where the soft breath of evening stirred


s: Stripped of his proud and martial dress,


s: And whispered to my restless heart repose!


s: And the skipper had taken his little daughter,


s: And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,


s: And he watched how the veering flaw did blow


s: "Last night, the moon had a golden ring,


s: The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,


s: She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,


s: "Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,


s: He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat


s: "O father! I hear the church-bells ring,


s: "'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!"--


s: "Some ship in distress, that cannot live


s: Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,


s: The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow


s: Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed


s: And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,


s: And fast through the midnight dark and drear,


s: The breakers were right beneath her bows,


s: She struck where the white and fleecy waves


s: But the cruel rocks, they gored her side


s: Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,


s: Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,


s: And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,


s: Christ save us all from a death like this,


s: Week in, week out, from morn till night,


s: You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,


s: It sounds to him like her mother's voice,


s: Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,


s: All things are new;--the buds, the leaves,


s: For Time will teach thee soon the truth,


s: The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,


s: My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,


s: But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,


s: Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;


s: Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;


s: I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls


s: The burial-ground God's-Acre! It is just;


s: It consecrates each grave within its walls,


s: And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust.


s: God's-Acre! Yes, that blessed name imparts


s: Comfort to those, who in the grave have sown


s: The seed that they had garnered in their hearts,


s: Their bread of life, alas! no more their own.


s: In the sure faith, that we shall rise again


s: At the great harvest, when the archangel's blast


s: Shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain.


s: Then shall the good stand in immortal bloom,


s: In the fair gardens of that second birth;


s: And each bright blossom mingle its perfume


s: With that of flowers, which never bloomed on earth.


s: With thy rude ploughshare, Death, turn up the sod,


s: And spread the furrow for the seed we sow;


s: This is the place where human harvests grow!


s: The crowd, "What wilt thou at my hands?"


s: It gave new strength, and fearless mood;


s: Through all that dark and desperate fight


s: Be, too, for light,--for strength to bear


s: Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,


s: Of household fires gleam warm and bright;


s: "Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!


s: in the latter part of October, 1842.  I had not then heard of


s: Dr. Channing's death.  Since that event, the poem addressed to


s: him is no longer appropriate.  I have decided, however, to let


s: it remain as it was written, in testimony of my admiration for


s: Well done!  Thy words are great and bold;


s: Wide through the landscape of his dreams


s: They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,


s: At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel


s: From morn till night he followed their flight,


s: And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds


s: And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums,


s: And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud,


s: For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,


s: Where will-o'-the-wisps and glow-worms shine,


s: And the cedar grows, and the poisonous vine


s: He crouched in the rank and tangled grass,


s: On his forehead he bore the brand of shame,


s: And the rags, that hid his mangled frame,


s: Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,


s: No garment she wore save a kirtle bright,


s: For he knew whose passions gave her life,


s: Then pale as death grew the maiden's cheek,


s: The lion in his path,--when, poor and blind,


s: He saw the blessed light of heaven no more,


s: Shorn of his noble strength and forced to grind


s: His desperate hands, and in its overthrow


s: Destroyed himself, and with him those who made


s: The poor, blind Slave, the scoff and jest of all,


s: Expired, and thousands perished in the fall!


s: There is a poor, blind Samson in this land,


s: Shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel,


s: Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand,


s: And shake the pillars of this Commonweal,


s: A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies.


s: HYPOLITO                        Students of Alcala.


s: DON CARLOS                      Gentlemen of Madrid.


s: PEDRO CRESPO                    Alcalde.


s: PANCHO                          Alguacil.


s: FRANCISCO                       Lara's Servant.


s: CHISPA                          Victorian's Servant.


s: BALTASAR                        Innkeeper.


s: ANGELICA                        A poor Girl.


s: MARTINA                         The Padre Cura's Niece.


s: DOLORES                         Preciosa's Maid.


s: SCENE I.--The COUNT OF LARA'S chambers.  Night.  The COUNT in his


s: Lara.  You were not at the play tonight, Don Carlos;


s: The house was crowded; and the busy fans


s: Among the gayly dressed and perfumed ladies


s: Fluttered like butterflies among the flowers.


s: Brought down from Genesis to the Day of Judgment.


s: There were three duels fought in the first act,


s: Three gentlemen receiving deadly wounds,


s: Laying their hands upon their hearts, and saying,


s: Followed at twilight by an unknown lover,


s: Who looks intently where he knows she is not!


s: Don C.  Of course, the Preciosa danced to-night?


s: Lara.  And never better.  Every footstep fell


s: Don C.  Almost beyond the privilege of woman!


s: Her step was royal,--queen-like,--and her face


s: Lara.  May not a saint fall from her Paradise,


s: Lara.  Because I have heard it said this angel fell,


s: Within she is a sinner; like those panels


s: Painted in convents, with the Virgin Mary


s: On the outside, and on the inside Venus!


s: Don C.  You do her wrong; indeed, you do her wrong!


s: Lara.  How credulous you are!  Why look you, friend,


s: In this whole city!  And would you persuade me


s: That a mere dancing-girl, who shows herself,


s: Nightly, half naked, on the stage, for money,


s: And with voluptuous motions fires the blood


s: Dearer than life she holds it.  I remember


s: Whose craft was to betray the young and fair;


s: And yet this woman was above all bribes.


s: And when a noble lord, touched by her beauty,


s: Offered her gold to be what she made others,


s: She turned upon him, with a look of scorn,


s: Don C.  It proves a nobleman may be repulsed


s: When he thinks conquest easy.  I believe


s: Holds something sacred, something undefiled,


s: Some pledge and keepsake of her higher nature,


s: And, like the diamond in the dark, retains


s: Some quenchless gleam of the celestial light!


s: Lara.  Yet Preciosa would have taken the gold.


s: But why this haste?  Stay yet a little longer,


s: Don C.  'T is late.  I must begone, for if I stay


s: Don C.  No one so deaf as he who will not hear!


s: Lara.  No one so blind as he who will not see!


s: Don C.  And so good night.  I wish you pleasant dreams,


s: I have the greatest faith; for I believe


s: That I shall be to-morrow; and thereafter


s: She is not to be purchased by your gold.


s: Lara.  Then I will try some other way to win her.


s: To-morrow morning bring that ring to me.


s: SCENE II. -- A street in Madrid.  Enter CHISPA, followed by


s: musicians, with a bagpipe, guitars, and other instruments.


s: Chispa.  Abernuncio Satanas! and a plague on all lovers who


s: ramble  about at night, drinking the elements, instead of


s: sleeping quietly in  their beds.  Every dead man to his cemetery,


s: Victorian, yesterday a cow-keeper, and to-day a gentleman;


s: yesterday a student, and to-day a lover; and I must be up later


s: than the nightingale, for as the abbot sings so must the


s: sacristan respond.  God grant he may soon be  married, for then


s: shall all this serenading cease.  Ay, marry! marry!  marry!


s: Mother, what does marry mean?  It means to spin, to bear


s: children, and to weep, my daughter!  And, of a truth, there is


s: something more in matrimony than the wedding-ring.  (To the


s: musicians.)  And now, gentlemen, Pax vobiscum! as the ass said to


s: heads. It is no disgrace to have an old father and a ragged


s: shirt.  Now, look you,  you are gentlemen who lead the life of


s: crickets; you enjoy hunger by  day and noise by night.  Yet, I


s: beseech you, for this once be not loud, but pathetic; for it is a


s: Your object is not to arouse and terrify, but to soothe and bring


s: instrument as if it were the only one in the universe, but


s: gently, and with a certain modesty, according with the others.


s: First Mus.  Geronimo Gil, at your service.


s: Chispa.  Every tub smells of the wine that is in it.  Pray,


s: Geronimo, is not Saturday an unpleasant day with thee?


s: Chispa.  Because I have heard it said that Saturday is an


s: unpleasant day with those who have but one shirt.  Moreover, I


s: have seen thee at the tavern, and if thou canst run as fast as


s: thou canst  drink, I should like to hunt hares with thee.  What


s: Chispa.  Pray, art thou related to the bagpiper of Bujalance,


s: who  asked a maravedi for playing, and ten for leaving off?


s: Chispa.  I am glad of it.  What other instruments have we?


s: Second and Third Musicians.  We play the bandurria.


s: Chispa.  A pleasing instrument. And thou?


s: Chispa.  I like it; it has a cheerful, soul-stirring sound,


s: that soars up to my lady's window like the song of a swallow.


s: Other Mus.  We are the singers, please your honor.


s: Chispa.  You are too many.  Do you think we are going to sing


s: mass in the cathedral of Cordova?  Four men can make but little


s: use of one shoe, and I see not how you can all sing in one song.


s: But follow me along the garden wall.  That is the way my master


s: climbs to the lady's window, it is by the Vicar's skirts that the


s: SCENE III. -- PRECIOSA'S chamber. She stands at the open window.


s: Prec.  How slowly through the lilac-scented air


s: Descends the tranquil moon!  Like thistle-down


s: The vapory clouds float in the peaceful sky;


s: And sweetly from yon hollow vaults of shade


s: The nightingales breathe out their souls in song.


s: And hark! what songs of love, what soul-like sounds,


s: Vict.  Poor little dove!  Thou tremblest like a leaf!


s: Prec.  I am so frightened!  'T is for thee I tremble!


s: I hate to have thee climb that wall by night!


s: Prec. 'T is very dangerous; and when thou art gone


s: I chide myself for letting thee come here


s: Thus stealthily by night.  Where hast thou been?


s: Since yesterday I have no news from thee.


s: Vict.  Since yesterday I have been in Alcala.


s: Erelong the time will come, sweet Preciosa,


s: When that dull distance shall no more divide us;


s: And I no more shall scale thy wall by night


s: Prec.  An honest thief, to steal but what thou givest.


s: Vict.  And we shall sit together unmolested,


s: And words of true love pass from tongue to tongue,


s: As singing birds from one bough to another.


s: Prec.  That were a life to make time envious!


s: I knew that thou wouldst come to me to-night.


s: What hast thou done to make thee look so fair?


s: That I am jealous of all eyes that see thee,


s: When thou art present, I see none but thee!


s: Vict.  There's nothing fair nor beautiful, but takes


s: Something from thee, that makes it beautiful.


s: Prec.  And yet thou leavest me for those dusty books.


s: Vict.  Thou comest between me and those books too often!


s: The paintings in the chapel wear thy looks,


s: And with the leaned doctors of the schools


s: I dance with learned doctors of the schools


s: Prec.  A grave and reverend Cardinal, and his Grace


s: Thou knowest the Pope has sent here into Spain


s: Who for this purpose comes, would fain behold


s: With his own eyes these dances; and the Archbishop


s: Vict.  That thou mayst dance before them!


s: The fire of youth into these gray old men!


s: And yet I fear these dances will be stopped,


s: Vict.  The sweetest beggar that e'er asked for alms;


s: With such beseeching eyes, that when I saw thee


s: In the cathedral garden. Thou wast sitting


s: Under the orange-trees, beside a fountain.


s: Prec. 'T was Easter-Sunday.  The full-blossomed trees


s: Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy.


s: The priests were singing, and the organ sounded,


s: Under the orange boughs, and prayed together.


s: I never had been happy till that moment.


s: Vict.  Remember him no more.  Let not his shadow


s: Come between thee and me.  Sweet Preciosa!


s: I loved thee even then, though I was silent!


s: Prec.  I thought I ne'er should see thy face again.


s: Thy farewell had a sound of sorrow in it.


s: Vict.  That was the first sound in the song of love!


s: Scarce more than silence is, and yet a sound.


s: Hands of invisible spirits touch the strings


s: Of that mysterious instrument, the soul,


s: And play the prelude of our fate.  We hear


s: Prec.  That is my faith.  Dust thou believe these warnings?


s: Vict.  So far as this.  Our feelings and our thoughts


s: Tend ever on, and rest not in the Present.


s: As drops of rain fall into some dark well,


s: And from below comes a scarce audible sound,


s: So fall our thoughts into the dark Hereafter,


s: Prec.  I have felt it so, but found no words to say it!


s: But thou hast language for all thoughts and feelings.


s: Thou art a scholar; and sometimes I think


s: The distance that divides us is too great!


s: Henceforth thy pathway lies among the stars;


s: Dost thou still doubt?  What I most prize in woman


s: The intellect is finite; but the affections


s: Compare me with the great men of the earth;


s: But if thou lovest,--mark me! I say lovest,


s: The greatest of thy sex excels thee not!


s: The world of the affections is thy world,


s: Not that of man's ambition.  In that stillness


s: Which most becomes a woman, calm and holy,


s: Thou sittest by the fireside of the heart,


s: Is pure.  It cannot change nor hide its nature,


s: As in a palace hall.  Art thou convinced?


s: Prec.  Yes, that I love thee, as the good love heaven;


s: But not that I am worthy of that heaven.


s: Prec.  I cannot love thee more; my heart is full.


s: Vict.  Then let it overflow, and I will drink it,


s: Drink the swift waters of the Manzanares,


s: Doth scare the timid stag, or bark of hounds


s: I have no thoughts that do not think of thee.


s: And to remind thee of my love, take this;


s: A ruby,--say, a drop of my heart's blood.


s: Prec.  It is an ancient saying, that the ruby


s: Brings gladness to the wearer, and preserves


s: The heart pure, and, if laid beneath the pillow,


s: Drives away evil dreams.  But then, alas!


s: Vict.  What convent of barefooted Carmelites


s: Prec. (laying her hand upon his mouth).  Hush! hush!


s: Good night! and may all holy angels guard thee!


s: Vict.  Good night! good night!  Thou art my guardian angel!


s: I have no other saint than thou to pray to!


s: Prec.  Take care, and do not hurt thee.  Art thou safe?


s: Safe as my love for thee!  But art thou safe?


s: As well as I.  Pray shut thy window close;


s: I am jealous of the perfumed air of night


s: That from this garden climbs to kiss thy lips.


s: Prec.  (throwing down her handkerchief).


s: Thou silly child!  Take this to blind thine eyes.


s: Sweet fragrance from thy lips, as the soft wind


s: Wafts to the out-bound mariner the breath


s: Shall see me safe returned.  Thou art the star


s: To guide me to an anchorage.  Good night!


s: My beauteous star!  My star of love, good night!


s: Watchman (at a distance).  Ave Maria Purissima!


s: Scene IV. -- An inn on the road to Alcala.


s: BALTASAR asleep on a bench.  Enter CHISPA.


s: Chispa.  And here we are, halfway to Alcala, between cocks and


s: midnight.  Body o' me! what an inn this is!  The lights out, and


s: the  landlord asleep.  Hola! ancient Baltasar!


s: Chispa.  Yes, there you are, like a one-eyed Alcalde in a town


s: without inhabitants.  Bring a light, and let me have supper.


s: Chispo.  Do not trouble yourself about him.  We have stopped a


s: moment to breathe our horses; and, if he chooses to walk up and


s: down in the open air, looking into the sky as one who hears it


s: rain, that does not satisfy my hunger, you know.  But be quick,


s: for I am in a hurry, and every man stretches his legs according


s: to the length of his coverlet.  What have we here?


s: Bal. (setting a light on the table).  Stewed rabbit.


s: Chispa (eating).  Conscience of Portalegre! Stewed kitten, you


s: Bal.  And a pitcher of Pedro Ximenes, with a roasted pear in


s: Chispa (drinking).  Ancient Baltasar, amigo!  You know how to


s: cry wine and sell vinegar.  I tell you this is nothing but Vino


s: Tinto of La Mancha, with a tang of the swine-skin.


s: Bal.  I swear to you by Saint Simon and Judas, it is all as I


s: Chispa.  And I swear to you by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, that


s: it is no such thing.  Moreover, your supper is like the hidalgo's


s: Bal.  Ha! ha! ha!  You must have your joke, Master Chispa.  But


s: shall I not ask Don Victorian in, to take a draught of the Pedro


s: Chispa.  No; you might as well say, "Don't-you-want-some?" to a


s: Bal.  Why does he go so often to Madrid?


s: Chispa.  For the same reason that he eats no supper.  He is in


s: Bal.  I was never out of it, good Chispa.  It has been the


s: Chispa.  What! are you on fire, too, old hay-stack?  Why, we


s: Chispa.  Go to bed, Pero Grullo, for the cocks are crowing.


s: Chispa.  Ea! Senor.  Come with me, ancient Baltasar, and bring


s: water for the horses.  I will pay for the supper tomorrow.


s: SCENE V. -- VICTORIAN'S chambers at  Alcala.  HYPOLITO asleep in


s: Hyp.  I must have been asleep! ay, sound asleep!


s: And it was all a dream.  O sleep, sweet sleep


s: Whatever form thou takest, thou art fair,


s: Out of Oblivion's well, a healing draught!


s: The candles have burned low; it must be late.


s: The only place in which one cannot find him


s: Is his own cell.  Here's his guitar, that seldom


s: Feels the caresses of its master's hand.


s: And make dull midnight merry with a song.


s: Hyp.  What do you want of Padre Hypolito?


s: Vict.  Come, shrive me straight; for, if love be a sin,


s: I am the greatest sinner that doth live.


s: I will confess the sweetest of all crimes,


s: Who, while the pot boils, says, "Come here, my child;


s: I'll tell thee a story of my wedding-day."


s: Vict.  Nay, listen, for my heart is full; so full


s: Is like a scene in the old play; the curtain


s: Vict.  Nay, like the Sibyl's volumes, thou shouldst say;


s: Those that remained, after the six were burned,


s: Being held more precious than the nine together.


s: But listen to my tale.  Dost thou remember


s: Hyp.  And therefore in Madrid when thou shouldst be


s: If I so long have kept this secret from thee;


s: But silence is the charm that guards such treasures,


s: They sink again, they were not meant for us.


s: Hyp.  Alas! alas!  I see thou art in love.


s: Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak.


s: It serves for food and raiment.  Give a Spaniard


s: His mass, his olla, and his Dona Luisa--


s: Thou knowest the proverb.  But pray tell me, lover,


s: How speeds thy wooing?  Is the maiden coy?


s: Write her a song, beginning with an Ave;


s: Sing as the monk sang to the Virgin Mary,


s: Vict.  Pray, do not jest!  This is no time for it!


s: Hyp.  She was betrothed to one Bartolome,


s: The angels sang in heaven when she was born!


s: Among the filth and rubbish of the world.


s: I'll stoop for it; but when I wear it here,


s: Set on my forehead like the morning star,


s: The world may wonder, but it will not laugh.


s: Hyp.  If thou wear'st nothing else upon thy forehead,


s: With thy unseasonable jests!  Pray tell me,


s: What, think'st thou, is she doing at this moment;


s: And from her parted lips her gentle breath


s: Comes like the fragrance from the lips of flowers.


s: Her tender limbs are still, and on her breast


s: The cross she prayed to, ere she fell asleep,


s: Rises and falls with the soft tide of dreams,


s: She's sleeping with her mouth a little open!


s: Vict.  O, would I had the old magician's glass


s: To see her as she lies in childlike sleep!


s: Hyp.  Thou art courageous.  Hast thou e'er reflected


s: How much lies hidden in that one word, NOW?


s: Vict.  Yes; all the awful mystery of Life!


s: That could we, by some spell of magic, change


s: What fearful glances downward might we cast


s: What groups should we behold about the death-bed,


s: What joyful welcomes, and what sad farewells!


s: What stony tears in those congealed eyes!


s: What visible joy or anguish in those cheeks!


s: What bridal pomps, and what funereal shows!


s: What foes, like gladiators, fierce and struggling!


s: What lovers with their marble lips together!


s: Hyp.  Ay, there it is! and, if I were in love,


s: That is the very point I most should dread.


s: This magic glass, these magic spells of thine,


s: Might tell a tale were better left untold.


s: For instance, they might show us thy fair cousin,


s: Of love and anger, like the maid of Colchis,


s: Having won that golden fleece, a woman's love,


s: She cares not for me.  She may wed another,


s: Hyp. (rising).  And so, good night!  Good morning, I should say.


s: Hark! how the loud and ponderous mace of Time


s: Knocks at the golden portals of the day!


s: And so, once more, good night!  We'll speak more largely


s: Get thee to bed, and the magician, Sleep,


s: Shall show her to thee, in his magic glass,


s: (Throws himself into the arm-chair which HYPOLITO has left, and


s: The changing color of the waves that break


s: Visions of Fame! that once did visit me,


s: Making night glorious with your smile, where are ye?


s: O, who shall give me, now that ye are gone,


s: Juices of those immortal plants that bloom


s: Or teach me where that wondrous mandrake grows


s: Whose magic root, torn from the earth with groans,


s: At midnight hour, can scare the fiends away,


s: And make the mind prolific in its fancies!


s: I have the wish, but want the will, to act!


s: Souls of great men departed!  Ye whose words


s: Have come to light from the swift river of Time,


s: Like Roman swords found in the Tagus' bed,


s: Where is the strength to wield the arms ye bore?


s: Reflected shines the eternal light of Truth,


s: As from a mirror!  All the means of action--


s: Is the celestial fire to change the flint


s: Into transparent crystal, bright and clear.


s: That fire is genius!  The rude peasant sits


s: With charcoal uncouth figures on the wall.


s: The son of genius comes, foot-sore with travel,


s: And begs a shelter from the inclement night.


s: He takes the charcoal from the peasant's hand,


s: Transfigured, all its hidden virtues shine,


s: And, in the eyes of the astonished clown,


s: It gleams a diamond!  Even thus transformed,


s: Of some poor, houseless, homeless, wandering bard,


s: Who had but a night's lodging for his pains.


s: But there are brighter dreams than those of Fame,


s: Which are the dreams of Love!  Out of the heart


s: As from some woodland fount a spirit rises


s: Ere the enamored knight can touch her robe!


s: Like the enamored knight beside the fountain,


s: Waits for upon the margin of Life's stream;


s: Waits to behold her rise from the dark waters,


s: Must wait in vain!  The stream flows evermore,


s: But from its silent deeps no spirit rises!


s: Have found the bright ideal of my dreams.


s: Her gentle breathing! on my breast can feel


s: The pressure of her head!  God's benison


s: Rest ever on it!  Close those beauteous eyes,


s: Sweet Sleep! and all the flowers that bloom at night


s: With balmy lips breathe in her ears my name!


s: SCENE I. -- PRECIOSA'S chamber.  Morning.  PRECIOSA and ANGELICA.


s: Prec.  Why will you go so soon?  Stay yet awhile.


s: From hearts that shut against them with a sound


s: That will be heard in heaven.  Pray, tell me more


s: Of your adversities.  Keep nothing from me.


s: Prec.  The Count of Lara?  O, beware that man!


s: Mistrust his pity,--hold no parley with him!


s: And rather die an outcast in the streets


s: As you would keep your name without a blemish,


s: I cannot choose my friends.  Each word of kindness,


s: Come whence it may, is welcome to the poor.


s: Prec.  Make me your friend.  A girl so young and fair


s: Should have no friends but those of her own sex.


s: Was given you, that you might be an angel


s: To her who bore you!  When your infant smile


s: Made her home Paradise, you were her angel.


s: O, be an angel still!  She needs that smile.


s: So long as you are innocent, fear nothing.


s: Whom chance has taken from the public streets.


s: I have no other shield than mine own virtue.


s: That is the charm which has protected me!


s: Here on my heart!  It is my guardian angel.


s: Ang. (rising).  I thank you for this counsel, dearest lady.


s: Prec.  Pray, do not go.  I have much more to say.


s: Ang.  My mother is alone.  I dare not leave her.


s: Prec.  Some other time, then, when we meet again.


s: Prec.  No thanks.  To-morrow come to me again.


s: I dance to-night,--perhaps for the last time.


s: But what I gain, I promise shall be yours,


s: If that can save you from the Count of Lara.


s: Ang.  O, my dear lady! how shall I be grateful


s: Ang.  I will.  And may the Blessed Virgin guard you,


s: And all the poor; for they have need of angels.


s: Now  bring me, dear Dolores, my basquina,


s: My richest maja dress,--my dancing dress,


s: Fairer than night e'er saw me!  I've a prize


s: Prec.  I gave thee yesterday; I have no more.


s: Cruz.  The gold of the Busne,--give me his gold!


s: Prec.  I gave the last in charity to-day.


s: Cruz.  Curses upon thee!  Thou art not my child!


s: Hast thou given gold away, and not to me?


s: I, who am housed worse than the galley slave;


s: I, who am fed worse than the kennelled hound;


s: I, who am clothed in rags,--Beltran Cruzado,--


s: Prec. Thou hast a stout heart and strong hands.


s: Thou canst supply thy wants; what wouldst thou more?


s: Cruz.  The gold of the Busne! give me his gold!


s: Prec.  Beltran Cruzado! hear me once for all.


s: I speak the truth.  So long as I had gold,


s: But to fulfil thine own.  Now go in peace!


s: Thou shalt no longer dwell here in rich chambers,


s: Wear silken dresses, feed on dainty food,


s: Dance the Romalis in the public streets,


s: And wander wild again o'er field and fell;


s: Cruz.  Ay, with all speed. I hate the crowded town!


s: I cannot breathe shut up within its gates


s: Air,--I want air, and sunshine, and blue sky,


s: The feeling of the turf beneath my feet,


s: And no walls but the far-off mountain-tops.


s: Then I am free and strong,--once more myself,


s: Prec.   God speed thee on thy march!--I cannot go.


s: Cruz.  Remember who I am, and who thou art


s: Prec. (with emotion).  O, I beseech thee


s: In all things hitherto, can move in thee


s: One look of her who bore me, or one tone


s: That doth remind thee of her, let it plead


s: Too feeble to resist, and do not force me


s: I do not love him! On my knees I beg thee


s: Thou hast betrayed thy secret, as a bird


s: Betrays her nest, by striving to conceal it.


s: I will not leave thee here in the great city


s: To be a grandee's mistress.  Make thee ready


s: Befall what may; they cannot take that from me.


s: SCENE II --  A room in the ARCHBISHOP'S Palace. The ARCHBISHOP


s: Arch.  Knowing how near it touched the public morals,


s: And that our age is grown corrupt and rotten


s: In curing the gross surfeit of the time,


s: To bull-fights and lewd dances on the stage.


s: Disgraceful to the land that calls itself


s: Murmur at this; and, if the public dances


s: Should be condemned upon too slight occasion,


s: Worse ills might follow than the ills we cure.


s: And therefore have induced your Grace to see


s: These national dances, ere we interdict them.


s: Serv.  The dancing-girl, and with her the musicians


s: Your Grace was pleased to order, wait without.


s: Arch.  Bid them come in.  Now shall your eyes behold


s: (Enter PRECIOSA, with a mantle thrown over her head.  She


s: advances slowly, in modest, half-timid attitude.)


s: Card. (aside).  O, what a fair and ministering angel


s: Was lost to heaven when this sweet woman fell!


s: Card. (aside).  Her acts are modest, and her words discreet!


s: I did not look for this!  Come hither, child.


s: Arch.  I have a dim remembrance of that man:


s: My childhood passed.  I can remember still


s: The river, and the mountains capped with snow


s: I told the traveller's fortune in the street;


s: The smuggler's horse, the brigand and the shepherd;


s: The march across the moor; the halt at noon;


s: The red fire of the evening camp, that lighted


s: The forest where we slept; and, further back,


s: But the time wears; and we would see thee dance.


s: (She lays aside her mantilla.  The music of the cachucha is


s: played, and the dance begins.  The ARCHBISHOP and the CARDINAL


s: look on with gravity and an occasional frown; then make signs to


s: each other; and, as the dance continues, become more and more


s: pleased and excited; and at length rise from their seats, throw


s: their caps in the air, and applaud vehemently as the scene


s: SCENE III. -- The Prado.  A long avenue of trees leading to the


s: gate of Atocha.  On the right the dome and spires of a convent.


s: A fountain. Evening, DON CARLOS and HYPOLITO meeting.


s: Don C.  Hola! good evening, Don Hypolito.


s: Hyp.  And a good evening to my friend, Don Carlos.


s: Some lucky star has led my steps this way.


s: Hyp. Do you remember, in Quevedo's Dreams,


s: The miser, who, upon the Day of Judgment,


s: Don C.  You mean to tell me yours have risen empty?


s: Hyp.  And amen! said my Cid the Campeador.


s: Made by the hand of some fair Madrilena;


s: Hyp.  Thank you again.  Lie there, good Chrysostom,


s: And with thy golden mouth remind me often,


s: Don C.  And pray, how fares the brave Victorian?


s: Hyp.  Indifferent well; that is to say, not well.


s: A damsel has ensnared him with the glances


s: Of her dark, roving eyes, as herdsmen catch


s: Hyp.  For many reasons.  First and foremost,


s: She floats upon the river of his thoughts!


s: Don C.  A common thing with poets.  But who is


s: This floating lily?  For, in fine, some woman,


s: Must wear the outward semblance of his thought.


s: But, look you, from the coffer of his heart


s: As pious priests adorn some favorite saint


s: With gems and gold, until at length she gleams


s: One blaze of glory.  Without these, you know,


s: And the priest's benediction, 't is a doll.


s: To ease his laboring heart, in the last storm


s: He threw her overboard, with all her ingots.


s: Don C.  I cannot guess; so tell me who it is.


s: Hyp. (mysteriously).  Why?  Because Mari Franca


s: Was married four leagues out of Salamanca!


s: Don C.  Impossible!  The Count of Lara tells me


s: But hist! I see him yonder through the trees,


s: Hyp.  It has been truly said by some wise man,


s: That money, grief, and love cannot be hidden.


s: Vict.  Where'er thy step has passed is holy ground!


s: These groves are sacred!  I behold thee walking


s: Under these shadowy trees, where we have walked


s: At evening, and I feel thy presence now;


s: Feel that the place has taken a charm from thee,


s: See how he strides away with lordly air,


s: Like that odd guest of stone, that grim Commander


s: Vict.  Hola! amigos!  Faith, I did not see you.


s: Vict.  How is that young and green-eyed Gaditana


s: Vict.  You are much to blame for letting her go back.


s: Just that soft shade of green we sometimes see


s: The slightest shade of green would be becoming,


s: And they who are in love are always jealous.


s: Farewell; I am in haste.  Farewell, Don Carlos.


s: I fear there is reason.  Be upon thy guard.


s: I hear it whispered that the Count of Lara


s: Then he will have his labor for his pains.


s: Hyp.  He does not think so, and Don Carlos tells me


s: Don. C.  Some hints of it I heard from his own lips.


s: He spoke but lightly of the lady's virtue,


s: I'll cut his lying tongue out of his mouth,


s: And throw it to my dog!  But no, no, no!


s: This cannot be.  You jest, indeed you jest.


s: We are no longer friends.  And so, fare well!


s: Hyp.  Now what a coil is here!  The Avenging Child


s: Hunting the traitor Quadros to his death,


s: Were nothing to him!  O hot-headed youth!


s: But come; we will not follow.  Let us join


s: The crowd that pours into the Prado.  There


s: SCENE IV. -- PRECIOSA'S chamber.  She is sitting, with a book in


s: her hand, near a table, on which are flowers.  A bird singing in


s: its cage. The COUNT OF LARA enters behind unperceived.


s: I know not what it is makes me so restless!


s: Thou little prisoner with thy motley coat,


s: That from thy vaulted, wiry dungeon singest,


s: Like thee I am a captive, and, like thee,


s: More hearts are breaking in this world of ours


s: Than one would say.  In distant villages


s: And solitudes remote, where winds have wafted


s: The barbed seeds of love, or birds of passage


s: Scattered them in their flight, do they take root,


s: And grow in silence, and in silence perish.


s: Who hears the falling of the forest leaf?


s: Or who takes note of every flower that dies?


s: (Turns to lay down her boot and perceives the COUNT.)


s: Lara.  Be not alarmed; I found no one in waiting.


s: Prec. (turning her back upon him).  You are too bold!


s: First hear me!  I beseech you, let me speak!


s: Prec. (turning toward him with indignation).  Begone! begone!


s: You are the Count of Lara, but your deeds


s: Would make the statues of your ancestors


s: Blush on their tombs!  Is it Castilian honor,


s: Upon a friendless girl, to do her wrong?


s: O shame! shame! shame! that you, a nobleman,


s: Should be so little noble in your thoughts


s: And think to buy my honor with your gold!


s: I have no words to tell you how I scorn you!


s: Begone!  The sight of you is hateful to me!


s: Therefore beware!  You are deceived in me.


s: In this false world, we do not always know


s: Who are our friends and who our enemies.


s: We all have enemies, and all need friends.


s: You might have spared the coming.  Raving spoken,


s: Once more I beg you, leave me to myself.


s: Lara.  I thought it but a friendly part to tell you


s: What strange reports are current here in town.


s: But there are many who, not knowing you,


s: That you should take upon yourself the duty


s: They wound me, yet I cannot shield myself.


s: I give no cause for these reports.  I live


s: Lara.  Nay, nay; I will not wound your gentle soul


s: What are these idle tales? You need not spare me.


s: Lara.  I will deal frankly with you.  Pardon me


s: This window, as I think, looks toward the street,


s: In yon high house, beyond the garden wall,--


s: You see the roof there just above the trees,--


s: There lives a friend, who told me yesterday,


s: That on a certain night,--be not offended


s: Climb to your chamber window.  You are silent!


s: I would not blame you, being young and fair--


s: (He tries to embrace her. She starts back, and draws a dagger


s: Lay not your hand upon me.  One step nearer


s: I come here as your friend,--I am your friend,--


s: To all those idle tales, and make your name


s: Spotless as lilies are.  Here on my knees,


s: I love you even to madness, and that love


s: Has driven me to break the rules of custom,


s: And force myself unasked into your presence.


s: Prec.  Rise, Count of Lara!  That is not the place


s: For such as you are.  It becomes you not


s: To kneel before me.  I am strangely moved


s: To see one of your rank thus low and humbled;


s: For your sake I will put aside all anger,


s: All unkind feeling, all dislike, and speak


s: And as my heart now prompts me.  I no more


s: Will hate you, for all hate is painful to me.


s: And that reserve which is a woman's glory,


s: I may speak freely, I will teach my heart


s: Far better than you love yourself or me.


s: Lara.  Give me some sign of this,--the slightest token.


s: The words I utter are its sign and token.


s: The love wherewith I love you is not such


s: As you would offer me.  For you come here


s: My honor.  You are wealthy, you have friends


s: And kindred, and a thousand pleasant hopes


s: That fill your heart with happiness; but I


s: Am poor, and friendless, having but one treasure,


s: And you would take that from me, and for what?


s: What you would most despise.  O sir, such love,


s: That seeks to harm me, cannot be true love.


s: Is of a different kind.  It seeks your good.


s: Your earthly passion, your unchaste desires,


s: And bids you look into your heart, and see


s: How you do wrong that better nature in you,


s: I would not harm you; I would only love you.


s: I would not take your honor, but restore it,


s: And in return I ask but some slight mark


s: Of your affection.  If indeed you love me,


s: Vict. (rushing forward).  Hold! hold!  This is too much.


s: Vict.  I too am noble, and you are no more!


s: Vict.  Ay, here and elsewhere, when the wrong of others


s: Prec. (to LARA).  Go! I beseech you, go!


s: Vict.  I shall have business with you, Count, anon!


s: 'T is I have been betrayed, not we!--not we!


s: I see how 't is thou whilest the time away


s: Prec.  Too well thou knowest the presence of that man


s: And listen to him, when he told his love.


s: I know too much already.  Thou art false!


s: Vict.  There let it rest!  I would not have thee wear it:


s: I thought thee spotless, and thou art polluted!


s: Take not the name of Heaven upon thy lips!


s: Vict.  I gave up all for thee; myself, my fame,


s: And thou hast been my ruin!  Now, go on!


s: And, sitting on the Count of Lara's knee,


s: Say what a poor, fond fool Victorian was!


s: SCENE V. -- The COUNT OF LARA'S rooms.  Enter the COUNT.


s: Lara.  There's nothing in this world so sweet as love,


s: And next to love the sweetest thing is hate!


s: I've learned to hate, and therefore am revenged.


s: The men you wanted.  They will all be there,


s: And at the given signal raise a whirlwind


s: Of such discordant noises, that the dance


s: Ah! little dost thou dream, sweet Preciosa,


s: What lies in wait for thee.  Sleep shall not close


s: Thine eyes this night!  Give me my cloak and sword. [Exeunt.


s: SCENE VI. -- A retired spot beyond the city gates.  Enter


s: Vict.  O shame! O shame!  Why do I walk abroad


s: By daylight, when the very sunshine mocks me,


s: And voices, and familiar sights and sounds


s: Cry, "Hide thyself!"  O what a thin partition


s: Doth shut out from the curious world the knowledge


s: Of evil deeds that have been done in darkness!


s: Disgrace has many tongues.  My fears are windows,


s: Through which all eyes seem gazing.  Every face


s: Hyp.  Did I not caution thee?  Did I not tell thee


s: Vict.  And yet, Hypolito, we may be wrong,


s: Hyp.  And therefore is she cursed, loving him.


s: Vid.  She does not love him! 'T is for gold! for gold!


s: Hyp.  Ay, but remember, in the public streets


s: Vict.  She had that ring from me!  God! she is false!


s: But I will be revenged!  The hour is passed.


s: A villain, if thou wilt, but not a coward.


s: I've seen him play with swords; it is his pastime.


s: He'll task thy skill anon.  Look, here he comes.


s: Lara.  I trust I have not kept you long in waiting.


s: Vict.  Not long, and yet too long.  Are you prepared?


s: Hyp.      It grieves me much to see this quarrel


s: Between you, gentlemen.  Is there no way


s: Stand not between me an my foe.  Too long


s: Our tongues have spoken.  Let these tongues of steel


s: End our debate.  Upon your guard, Sir Count.


s: (They fight. VICTORIAN disarms the COUNT.)


s: Your life is mine; and what shall now withhold me


s: From sending your vile soul to its account?


s: Vict.    You are disarmed.  I will not kill you.


s: I will not murder you.  Take up your sword.


s: (FRANCISCO hands the COUNT his sword, and HYPOLITO interposes.)


s: Hyp.  Enough!  Let it end here!  The Count of Lara


s: Has shown himself a brave man, and Victorian


s: A generous one, as ever.  Now be friends.


s: Put up your swords; for, to speak frankly to you,


s: Your cause of quarrel is too slight a thing


s: I sought no quarrel.  A few hasty words,


s: Spoken in the heat of blood, have led to this.


s: Therein I did not mean to cross your path.


s: To me the door stood open, as to others.


s: But, had I known the girl belonged to you,


s: Never would I have sought to win her from you.


s: The truth stands now revealed; she has been false


s: Lara.  In truth, I did not seek her; she sought me;


s: The hours when she was oftenest left alone.


s: Vict.  Say, can you prove this to me?  O, pluck out


s: These awful doubts, that goad me into madness!


s: Between us.  Question him.  Was it not so,


s: Is needful, I have here a ring she gave me.


s: Vict. Pray let me see that ring!  It is the same!


s: (Throws it upon the ground, and tramples upon it.)


s: Thus may she perish who once wore that ring!


s: Thus do I spurn her from me; do thus trample


s: Her memory in the dust!  O Count of Lara,


s: We both have been abused, been much abused!


s: I thank you for your courtesy and frankness.


s: Though, like the surgeon's hand, yours gave me pain,


s: Yet it has cured my blindness, and I thank you.


s: Though 't is, alas! too late.  So fare you well!


s: To-night I leave this hateful town forever.


s: Regard me as your friend. Once more farewell!


s: Thus have I cleared the field of my worst foe!


s: I have none else to fear; the fight is done,


s: The citadel is stormed, the victory won!


s: SCENE VII. -- A lane in the suburbs.  Night.  Enter CRUZADO and


s: Cruz.  And so, Bartolome, the expedition failed.  But where


s: Bart.  In the Guadarrama mountains, near San Ildefonso.


s: Cruz.  And thou bringest nothing back with thee?  Didst thou


s: Bart.  There was no one to rob, save a party of students from


s: Segovia, who looked as if they would rob us; and a jolly little


s: friar, who had nothing in his pockets but a missal and a loaf of


s: Cruz.  Pray, then, what brings thee back to Madrid?


s: Bart.  First tell me what keeps thee here?


s: Bart.  And she brings me back.  Hast thou forgotten thy


s: Cruz.  The two years are not passed yet.  Wait patiently.  The


s: Bart.  I do not like it.  I hate him,--the son of a Busne


s: harlot.  He goes in and out, and speaks with her alone, and I


s: must stand aside, and wait his pleasure.


s: Cruz.  Be patient, I say.  Thou shalt have thy revenge.  When


s: Cruz.  Come this way.  But thou wilt not find her.  She dances


s: SCENE VIII. -- The Theatre.  The orchestra plays the cachucha.


s: Sound of castanets behind the scenes.  The curtain rises, and


s: discovers PRECIOSA in the attitude of commencing the dance.  The


s: cachucha.  Tumult; hisses; cries of "Brava!" and "Afuera!"  She


s: falters and pauses.  The music stops.  General confusion.


s: SCENE IX. -- The COUNT OF LARA'S chambers.  LARA and his friends


s: Lara.  So, Caballeros, once more many thanks!


s: You have stood by me bravely in this matter.


s: How pale she looked, when first the noise began,


s: And then stood still, with her large eyes dilated!


s: Her nostrils spread! her lips apart! Her bosom


s: Lara.  Her pride is humbled; and this very night


s: Lara.  To tell the truth, then, I have bribed her maid.


s: Thou bright and flaming minister of Love!


s: Thou wonderful magician! who hast stolen


s: My secret from me, and mid sighs of passion


s: Caught from my lips, with red and fiery tongue,


s: Her precious name!  O nevermore henceforth


s: Shall mortal lips press thine; and nevermore


s: A mortal name be whispered in thine ear.


s: SCENE X. -- Street and garden wall.  Night.  Enter CRUZADO and


s: Cruz.  This is the garden wall, and above it, yonder, is her


s: house.  The window in which thou seest the light is her window.


s: Bart.  No matter; we can wait.  But how is this?  The gate is


s: bolted.  (Sound of guitars and voices in a neighboring street.)


s: Hark!  There comes her lover with his infernal serenade!  Hark!


s: Bart.  Woe be to him, if he comes this way!


s: Cruz.  Be quiet, they are passing down the street.


s: The cat has run away with the partridge!


s: (Exeunt.  On the opposite side enter the COUNT OF LARA and


s: Lara.  The gate is fast. Over the wall, Francisco,


s: And draw the bolt.  There, so, and so, and over.


s: Now, gentlemen, come in, and help me scale


s: Yon balcony.  How now?  Her light still burns.


s: Move warily.  Make fast the gate, Francisco.


s: (Exeunt.  Re-enter CRUZADO and BARTOLOME.)


s: Bart.  They went in at the gate.  Hark! I hear them in the


s: garden. (Tries the gate.)  Bolted again! Vive Cristo! Follow me


s: SCENE XI. -- PRECIOSA'S bedchamber.  Midnight. She is sleeping in


s: Prec.  Go tell them that I cannot dance to-night;


s: I am too ill!  Look at me!  See the fever


s: That burns upon my cheek!  I must go hence.


s: Dol.  I will undo the door.  Wait till I come.


s: Prec.  I must go hence.  I pray you do not harm me!


s: Shame! shame! to treat a feeble woman thus!


s: Be you but kind, I will do all things for you.


s: Where is Victorian?  Oh, those hateful lamps!


s: I cannot stay.  Hark! how they mock at me!


s: They hiss at me like serpents!  Save me! save me!


s: Prec.  We must be patient. Smooth this pillow for me.


s: (She sleeps again.  Noise from the garden, and voices.)


s: Dol. (shutting the window).  Jesu Maria!


s: SCENE I. -- A cross-road through a wood.  In the background a


s: distant village spire.  VICTORIAN and HYPOLITO, as travelling


s: students, with guitars, sitting under the trees.  HYPOLITO plays


s: Vict.  Yes, Love is ever busy with his shuttle,


s: Bright, gorgeous flowers and scenes Arcadian;


s: With tapestries, that make its walls dilate


s: Hyp.  Thinking to walk in those Arcadian pastures,


s: Thou hast run thy noble head against the wall.


s: Vict.  A very pretty song.  I thank thee for it.


s: I hope thou wilt profit by it; and in earnest


s: Vict.  I will forget her!  All dear recollections


s: Pressed in my heart, like flowers within a book,


s: Shall be torn out, and scattered to the winds!


s: I will forget her!  But perhaps hereafter,


s: When she shall learn how heartless is the world,


s: And she will say, "He was indeed my friend!"


s: O, would I were a soldier, not a scholar,


s: That the loud march, the deafening beat of drums,


s: The shattering blast of the brass-throated trumpet,


s: The din of arms, the onslaught and the storm,


s: And a swift death, might make me deaf forever


s: To the upbraidings of this foolish heart!


s: Hyp.  Then let that foolish heart upbraid no more!


s: To conquer love, one need but will to conquer.


s: Vict.  Yet, good Hypolito, it is in vain


s: With gemmed and flashing hilt, it will not sink.


s: There rises from below a hand that grasp it,


s: And waves it in the air; and wailing voices


s: This is not well.  In truth, it vexes me.


s: Instead of whistling to the steeds of Time,


s: To make them jog on merrily with life's burden,


s: Like a dead weight thou hangest on the wheels.