s: reduced to great distress; on which his wife, whose name was


s: pointed out enjoyed a healthy climate, though the soil was not so


s: afterwards became infamous for its voluptuousness and profligacy.


s: especially, enlarges on the transmigration of the soul, and the


s: “I, myself, for I remember it, in the days of the Trojan war, was


s: continues in the same state. All things are flowing {onward}, and


s: impelled by wave, and the one before is pressed on by that which


s: “These things too, which we call elements, are not of unchanging


s: “Thus, after the Lycus has been swallowed up by a chasm in the


s: surrounds it. Zancle, too, is said to have been united to Italy,


s: Athamanis is said to kindle wood when the waning moon has shrunk


s: “But these {which I have named} derive their origin from other


s: have fled from the tyranny of Polycrates, the king of Samos.]


s: the life of Pythagoras, says that Pythagoras affirmed, that he


s: was, first, Æthalides; secondly, Euphorbus, which he proved by


s: recognizing his shield hung up among the spoil in the temple of


s: Juno, at Argos; next, Hermotimus; then, Pyrrhus and fifthly,


s: translated by Clarke, ‘All things are in a flux.’]


s: portions of the trunk of a tree, which he was trying to cleave


s: asunder, he became a prey to wild beasts.]


s: Sicily, rising in Mount Ætna, and falling into the sea near the


s: which no fish could exist. Pausanias thinks that this smell


s: proceeded from the soil, and not the water. He adds, that some


s: said that Chiron, others that Polenor, when wounded by the arrow


s: of Hercules, washed the wound in the water of this river, which


s: became impure from its contact with the venom of the Hydra.]


s: separated from the shore by a strait, seven hundred paces in


s: width. Alexander the Great, when besieging it, united it to the


s: main land by a causeway. This, however, does not aid the argument


s: formerly a peninsula, on the coast of Acarnania.]


s: whole of the isle of Sicily, which was supposed to have once


s: the Elder and Orosius, that Helice and Buris, cities of Achaia at


s: earthquake, and that their remains could be seen in the sea.


s: A similar fate attended Port Royal, in the island of Jamaica, in


s: that in the time of Antigonus, king of Macedonia, warm waters


s: burst from the earth, through the action of subterranean fires,


s: near the city of Trœzen. Perhaps the ‘tumulus’ here mentioned


s: goat-skins, which formed the ‘utres,’ or leathern bottles, for


s: Libya, which is here referred to, is thus described by Quintius


s: Curtius (Book IV. c. 7)-- ‘There is also another grove at Ammon;


s: in the middle it contains a fountain, which they call ‘the water


s: warmer; at midnight, it boils and bubbles; and as the morning


s: here meant. The petrifying qualities of some streams is a fact


s: Elder, in his thirty-second Book, says-- ‘Theophrastus tells us


s: sensible of this difference; for those who drink of the Sybaris,


s: become more swarthy and hardy, with the hair curling; while those


s: the Indians. He says, that, according to their influence on the


s: person accused, when drunk of by him, he was acquitted or


s: physician, the son of Amithaon, cured Mera, Euryale, Lysippe, and


s: which Venus was said to have inflicted on them for boasting of


s: their superior beauty. Their derangement consisted in the fancy


s: that they were changed into cows. Melampus afterwards married


s: periods it was said to be fatal to men and cattle, to break


s: vessels with which it came in contact, and to melt all metals.


s: Ovid is the only author that mentions the difference in its


s: for Latona, when pregnant with Apollo and Diana. The Symplegades,


s: name of a mountain and a city of Thrace. Tritonis was a lake in


s: the neighbourhood. Vibius Sequester says, ‘When a person has nine


s: changed into a bird.’ The continuous fall of fleecy snow in that


s: neighbourhood is supposed by some to have given rise to the


s: recovery of his bees, in the Fourth Book of Virgil’s Georgics,


s: Nicander, and Varro state that bees and hornets are produced from


s: generated by the putrefying carcase of the ass.]


s: twenty-eighth Book of his History, says, ‘The moth, too, that


s: flies at the flame of the lamp, is numbered among the bad


s: potions,’ evidently alluding to their being used in philtres or


s: belief. Pliny says, speaking of the cub of the bear, ‘These are


s: white and shapeless lumps of flesh, a little bigger than mice,


s: probably, was invented with the praiseworthy object of securing


s: freedom from molestation for the bones of the dead.]


s: years. Aristotle took the pains to confute this silly notion.]


s: flies and small insects, its prey. That it changes colour


s: according to the hue of the surrounding objects, is a fact well


s: known. It receives its name from the Greek χάμαι λέων, ‘The lion


s: this becomes hard, and turns into gems, like the carbuncle, being


s: Beckmann (Hist. Inventions) thinks that this was probably the


s: jacinth, or hyacinth, while others suppose it to have been the


s: knowledge has shown that coral is not a plant, but an animal


s: looked upon by many Commentators as spurious, as they are omitted


s: time of Pythagoras. If they are genuine, Ovid is here guilty of a


s: translation is, ‘And let us not cram our g--ts with Thyestian


s: ‘formido;’ which was made of coloured feathers, and was used to


s: The Pythagorean philosophy was well-suited for the purpose of


s: heads; the first of which was the doctrine of the Metempsychosis,


s: irregular passions render us brutes; on examination, however, we


s: shall find that there is no ground to doubt that he intended his


s: Pythagoras. In consequence of this doctrine, it was a favourite


s: created an aversion to wine, that transformed men into birds, and


s: with precision on the subject, and to discover the true boundary


s: Egeria, the wife of Numa, is inconsolable after his death, and is


s: cornel-tree. Cippus becomes horned, and goes into voluntary


s: banishment, rather than his country should be deprived of its


s: “I suppose, in discourse it has reached thy ears that a certain


s: Phlegethon. Nor could life have been restored me, but through the


s: {spectators}, a shade that was not looked for.


s: As the murmur which arises among the groves of the slender pine,


s: the Sabine town of Cures, when the throne was pressed upon him by


s: consequently he was the great-grandfather of Hippolytus.]


s: physician, mentioned by Homer, in the Fifth Book of the Iliad.


s: Eustathius thinks that Apollo is meant under that name.]


s: son either of the Amazon Hippolyta, or Antiope.]


s: pinetis’ are rendered by Clarke, ‘the neat pine-groves.’]


s: Ovid, following the notion that was generally entertained of the


s: wisdom of Numa, pretends that before he was elected to the


s: sovereignty he went to Crotona, for the purpose of studying under


s: Numa is said to have been in the habit of retiring to the Arician


s: people to believe that his enactments were compiled under the


s: Dionysius of Halicarnassus has an interesting passage relative to


s: people in this opinion; but because some hesitated to believe his


s: invitation to come to sup with him on the same night. At the


s: appointed hour his guests arrived; they were received on stately


s: couches; the tables were decked with a variety of plate, and were


s: considering how impossible it was for any man to have made such


s: preparations in so short a time, were persuaded that his


s: performed by the aid of water, and was called Hydromancy.


s: voluptuousness. He spent his time in hunting and chariot racing,


s: with other exercises which formed the pursuits of youths of high


s: Theseus having been liberated by Hercules, Phædra, being fearful


s: lest the intrigue should come to his knowledge, hanged herself,


s: having first written a letter to inform him that she could not


s: survive an attempt which Hippolytus had made on her virtue.


s: Plutarch, Servius and Hyginus, following Euripides, give this


s: Seneca also differs from the other writers, in saying that Phædra


s: follows, added, that Æsculapius restored him to life, and that he


s: The ancient Etrurians were great adepts in the art of divination;


s: Marcellinus speaks of him as being said to have sprung out of the


s: soon after died. It is hardly probable that a cornel tree would


s: The story of Genucius Cippus is one of those strange fables with


s: afterwards called ‘Porta raudusculana,’ because the ancient Latin


s: however, as Ovid represents it, that Cippus was not going out of


s: Oxford, a substance much resembling the horn of a goat is shown,


s: which is said to have sprung from the forehead of a female named


s: which, of course, would be made the most of in those ages of


s: Here he stops; and seeming to dismiss his train, and the dutiful


s: Linternum, that bears mastick trees; and {then} Vulturnus, that


s: whom her foster-child erected the tomb, and the abode of


s: Antiphates, and Trachas, surrounded by the marsh, and the land


s: of Circe, and Antium, with its rocky coast.


s: Castrum, and the sacred abodes of Lavinium, and the mouths of the


s: priestess of Apollo or ‘Pythia,’ sat when inspired, was called


s: ‘Cortina,’ from the skin, ‘corium,’ of the serpent Python, which,


s: alte.’ This is rendered by Clarke, ‘The God rears up to a good


s: Calabrian coast; it was said to have been founded by an Athenian


s: the coast of Italy. It is most probably a corrupt reading.]


s: Achæa on the coast of Calabria. Narycia, or Naritium, or Naricia,


s: its mild climate, and the beauty of its roses, which are


s: fate from the eruption of that mountain.]


s: which was destroyed by Sylla in the Social war. It was afterwards


s: city of Baiæ, famed for its warm springs and baths.]


s: Campania, which flowed past the city of Capua.]


s: the marshes in its neighbourhood produced pestilential


s: ‘Anxur.’ Its present name is Terracina. Livy mentions it as lying


s: ‘the tents of Pan;’ an old town of the Rutulians.]


s: Under the consulate of Quintus Fabius Gurges, and Decimus Junius


s: Brutus Scæva, Rome was ravaged by a frightful pestilence. The


s: Julius Cæsar is assassinated in the Senate-house, and by the


s: Petreius, who had been partizans of Pompey, against Julius Cæsar,


s: words, ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici,’ ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’]


s: Gaul, where Augustus defeated Antony, and took his camp.]


s: and Philippi was in Thrace. He uses a poet’s license, in treating


s: the former kingdom of Macedonia. Pompey was defeated by Julius


s: Cæsar at Pharsalia, while Brutus and Cassius were defeated by


s: Augustus and Antony at Philippi. The fleet of the younger Pompey


s: was totally destroyed off the Sicilian coast.]


s: infatuated as to divorce his wife, Octavia, that he might be


s: situate on the Western mouth of the river Nile.]


s: married her. He adopted her son Tiberius, and constituted him his


s: slain when he was fifty-six years old. Augustus died in his


s: meaning the realms of the heavens, the æther and the air; but it


s: is difficult to guess exactly what is the Poet’s meaning here.]


s: refers to the Penates which Æneas brought into Latium. Dionysius


s: of Halicarnassus says that he had seen them in a temple at Rome,


s: and that they bore the figures of two youths seated and holding


s: reign. Augustus, however, had not to wait for death to receive


s: historical circumstances which Ovid here refers to were the


s: following:--After Julius Cæsar had been murdered in the Senate


s: supposed to have been caused by some spots which then appeared on


s: uttered words, and that the dead had risen from their graves.


s: heaven was almost over-peopled by him. Augustus, however, was not


s: Cicero and Dolabella. In the funeral oration which was delivered


s: over Julius Cæsar by Antony, he spoke of him as a God, and the


s: populace, moved by his eloquence, and struck at his blood-stained


s: indignation against the conspirators, and were about to take the


s: _Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_


s: Abbreviations in the form “II.XIV Exp.” mean “Book II, Fable XIV,


s: he ordered the halsers of the fleet to be loosened


s: They immediately sent ambassadors  [ambasssadors]


s: and do not trust thyself  [_invisible h_]


s: Fn. 22: _Branching holm oak._  [_body text has “holm-oak”_]


s: (if I could {only} recall what has been destined)  [recal]


s: for the newmade bride  [_elsewhere “new-made” with hyphen_]


s: Exp.: Orpheus, too, is supposed to have  [to]


s: Fn. 48: whether the festival  [_invisible e in “the”_]


s: with the steel {scissars},  [_attested variant spelling_]


s: Fn. 38: the two-fold form of the Centaurs


s: thou shouldst have a forgetfulness  [forgetfuless]


s: FABLE I.  [_error for “FABLES I. AND II.”?_]


s: who could better succeed the great Achilles  [succed]


s: An aged woman presented to Tarquinius Superbus three books


s: Fn. 28: so called from the whiteness  [ths]


s: Fn. 59: the apartments on the ground floor  [grouud]


s: and her agreable food  [_spelling unchanged_]


s: Fn. 10: _The goat is led._  [_body text has “was led”_]


s: Fn. 49: flourishing in the time of Pythagoras


s: This is not intended to be a complete list.


s: “Iarbas”, “Iapyx”, “Iapygia” are written without.


s: The forms “Lapithean” and “Lapithæan” both occur.


s: published by Joseph Davidson,  [. for ,]


s: ...the one resembled Minos, and the other Taurus.  [invisible .]


s: brandished with their broad points.  [, for .]


s: Fn. 33: ... the sons of Aphareus.  [invisible .]


s: “Come,” said he, “famous Cecropian  [second , invisible]


s: nor has any woman been standing {here}.’  [” for ’]


s: ----: ‘Tandem, demisso in viscera censu;’  [invisible ;]


s: ----: swallowed down all his estate into his g--ts.’


s: or take away from them, the polished quivers.”


s: Fn. 64: ‘... riding in her light chair.  [missing ’]


s: Exp.: during that festival.” / This notion of the mourning


s: After they, in their rage  [superfluous “ at beginning]


s: Fn. 39: ... ‘The ends or points of the sail-yards,  [missing ‘]


s: Fn. 42: ’tis the dreadful kind of death  [invisible ’ in ’tis]


s: Fn. 51: they lost all recollection  [invisible -coll-]


s: Fn. 21: a people of Thessaly, who,   [invisible ,]


s: Fn. 27: Clarke renders ... ‘goblets of blood.’


s: of the dispute to them all.  [superfluous ” at end]


s: Fn. 40: ... Helenus, the son of Priam.  [invisible ,]


s: “‘But didst thou {but} know me well  [missing inner ‘]


s: Exp.: Elpe, the daughter of the king, carried her off.  [, for .]


s: Exp.: which was in consequence called ‘Byrsa.’  [missing ‘]


s: ‘And yet thou shalt not escape me,’ she said


s: he sped more swiftly than usual,  [invisible ,]


s: Fn. 9: Clarke translates ‘Non utilis auctor,’


s: ‘But,’ as the same author says  [missing ‘]


s: ... that thou dost desert me?: extraneous footnote tag 7, no note


s: "Apollo heard, and granting half the prayer,


s: Shuffled to winds the rest and tossed in air."


s: A maiden in greenwood in month of sweet May,


s: With knights and squires of fairie chief,


s: There the ladye in white and the ladye in green


s: Sat on their thrones by the Fairie Queen,


s: When the skies grew hot and the ladies pale,


s: And the storm descended in lightning and hail,


s: "Sous la feuille, sous la feuille, meet."


s: Our Ladye of Leaf asked her of the Flower


s: All woe begone shivered the Ladye Flower,


s: The Ladye Leaf glittered in gems from the shower:


s: And knights and squires then wended forth,


s: And every knight bore _in chief_ on his shield


s: The _foyle en verte_ on an _argent_ field:


s: "Sous la feuille, sous la feuille, dorme."


s: The maiden then asked of the Fairie Queen


s: To tell her the moral of what she had seen:


s: The knight that is wise will lead from bower


s: The lasting Leaf--not the fading Flower:


s: The woods were grene, the earth was proud,


s: For now I send you forthe into the worlde.


s: And in a pette be in some cornere hurl'd;


s: Yet you by little fingeres will be greasèd


s: And known hereafter by the marke of thumbe;


s: At which, my little booke, be ye well pleasèd,


s: And there be some, perchance, will bidde you off


s: But be not you, my booke, abashed by scoff,


s: For I will teach you where you boun to go,--


s: Which is in Gloucestershire, there unto Bisley,


s: Where the church spire is spièd long afarre;


s: It is not either uncouth, square, or grisly,


s: But soareth high, as if to catch a starre;


s: Where shall the brother of the _Christian Yeare_,


s: Keble, hereafter tend the seven springs,


s: Above whose fountains doth The Grove uproar,


s: Like to Mount Helicon, where Clio sings,


s: Where rookès build, and peacocke spreadeth tail.


s: And there the wood-pigeon doth sobbe Coo coo;


s: Neither do sparrow, merle or mavis fail,


s: And there the owl at midnight singeth Whoo.


s: And where there are a Laurel and a Rose,


s: Beneath whose branches wide a broode doth haunt;


s: The whom high walls and fretted gates enclose,


s: Where goode may enter, badde are bidde avaunt.


s: For she must on some other hille be sette


s: And, little booke, it is to her you runne.


s: And sisters eight, for they, in soothe, are nine;


s: And in their bowere baske as in the suunne,


s: And beare Maid Marion's love to Catherine,


s: Who is her gossipe, and she is her pette;


s: And nought mote save us from a wrath condign,


s: If you, my booke, should haplessly forgette,


s: Nor bended knees, I trow, nor teares of Margarete.


s: DEDICATION                                      v


s: With wonder sought this shepherd's nest,


s: From books or from mankind sought learning,


s: For both will cheat the most discerning;


s: And to detest man's raids and mulctures,


s: From eagles, kites, goshawks, and vultures;


s: Friendship, which seldom nears a throne,


s: Truths which they slur in courtly speech.


s: They fought: he conquered in the strife;


s: And bleaching bones now strew the land."


s: If Heaven has made you great and strong,


s: "Halloa! you chap, who change your coat,


s: "Friend," said the sycophant, "'tis true


s: But Jove was wrath--loves not the liar--


s: Who wrung her hands and beat her breast.


s: "What is the matter, Nurse--this clatter:


s: She's changed the baby: here's a creature!--


s: "Woman," the mother said, "you're blind:


s: Jumped in head-foremost through the key-hole,


s: Think you that fairies would change places


s: The Thunderer, therefore, called his Eagle,


s: What are these ills which trouble air?--


s: The greyhound's course, how nerved his feet!


s: That lost, and all my chance has flown."


s: None their ambitious wish could smother,


s: And chop and change,--birds, beasts, and fishes."


s: Since drums and parchment were invented."


s: Gold raised the sword midst kith and kind,


s: Than bravoes and than cut-throats worse,


s: Wolves, bears, and tigers stoop and bend,


s: "Vast talents, trained in virtue's school,


s: She the last work of God's fair creatures,


s: Till Beauty's neck and face grew heated;


s: Where they thought dalliance fair was feathered.


s: They fluttered round her, sipped her tea,


s: That wasps had stings and felt the wound.


s: Spurned up the dust with dauntless heart,


s: From which, in main, contention springs,


s: Doubtless your paws with blood are stained--


s: Of parchment rolls--not modern binding--


s: Thought he had found a prize: "Dear sir,


s: Or, since 'tis plain that you know true Greek,


s: "Friend," said the elephant, "you're tipsy:


s: For, like to game cocks and such cattle,


s: Whilst there's a publisher to pay them."


s: He sought the praises they well merited.


s: Than rose their malice and their spleen.


s: "What hideous legs!" exclaimed the goose;


s: You might have spared detraction's vein.


s: And trimmed his bow and tipped his arrows,


s: And taught, to play with Lesbia, sparrows,


s: "How sleek its skin! how specked like ermine!


s: Thrusts at them with his levelled horns,


s: Then seeks to spread her conquering fame,


s: He twirled her knots and cracked her fan,


s: They praise his sleeve and coat, and hail


s: Weigh your own worth, assert your place,--


s: Don't stint--all will your scandal credit.


s: He grinned and bowed. With muttering jaws


s: And copies--reckless what their price is.


s: The sheep, that clothes him with her wool,


s: And where such acts and deeds are boasted,


s: From whence, thro' various turns of life,


s: "What's this thing in this box, dear sir?"


s: She would hem more and she would clem less."


s: "Pin!" said the needle, "cease to blunder:


s: The shepherd's dog, who searched the glen,


s: "Wolf," said the dog, "the whilst we rest on,


s: "Ask on," the wolf replied; "I'm ready."


s: "Wolf," said the dog, "with soul so steady


s: That you our lambs and ewes should touch.


s: "Friend," said the wolf, "I pray thee, hold!


s: But though men hear your deeds with phlegm,


s: And for the faulty features traced them.


s: "Ah well, ah well! you artists flatter."


s: "Ah well, ah well! you artists see best."


s: "My lord, I only (_aside_) earn my fee best."


s: And raised his price--which ends the story;--


s: But not the moral,--which, though fainter,


s: Nay, e'en with blockheads pass the night;


s: And when he spoke, with shout they praised,


s: Proclaims where you pass night and day,--


s: 'Midst coxcombs who, with shameless face,


s: 'Tis right, cocks should be brave and bold:


s: The cheese was nibbled, tarts were taken,


s: Nor war like beauties, kings, and squires;


s: 'Tis strange to see a new-launched fashion


s: "Confound my beard!" he thought, and said;


s: Who shaved mankind, drew teeth, and bled.


s: Pug shaved our friend and took his penny,


s: Now trim their beards and shave their chins;


s: "Friend," said a bearded chieftain, "you


s: How will you bear it from your brothers?"


s: Teased with their murmuring, out she flew


s: With brats I might perhaps have grown rich;


s: They nail the horse-shoe, hide the broom-stick,


s: "Dame," said a tabby, "cease your prate,


s: And yonder broom-stick's thought your nag;


s: To graft and prune for fruit with flavour


s: You praise his talk--smile at his squalling


s: "Parrots for prattling words are prized;


s: And took his leave with unfeigned sorrow


s: "My bargains--well, they were well made;


s: Your neighbours want, whilst you abound--


s: "Where is the haste?" the sick man whines;


s: "Who knows--who knows what Heaven designs:


s: "Whilst there is life, there's hope!" he cried;


s: "Then why such haste?"--he spoke, and died.


s: Smile on our fields, and bless our year."


s: Pray, then, to me--where praise is due--


s: Looked round, but saw there no such thing:


s: Though we should feed like harmless lambs,


s: And snuffed the breeze with nostrils wide;


s: "I might have known," the partridge said,


s: "The school where you were trained and bred;


s: From pleasures fraught with pains, forbear."


s: He turned his thoughts to lucre's thirst,


s: Therefore he turned his thoughts to power,


s: Groves, fields, and fruit-trees, filled each hour;


s: But droughts and rains, and blighting dews,


s: Our worth, which now is quite neglected,--


s: What they desired their schools to know,


s: There he builds schemes for others' ruin,


s: The courtier answered, friends had tricked him,


s: And cast, like you your skin,--their coat!


s: And shook his mane and stirred the flood;


s: And courtiers hunt them, though they bray.


s: Bound him with cords, dragged to the sod,


s: Forth from the yard--which was a tanner's--


s: The master rushed--his name was Mutchers--


s: And kicks and clubs fell down like thunder.


s: And where their masters whacked they hurried,


s: Who sprung and shared the South Sea prey,


s: "Master, my heart and soul are wrung--till


s: And next to that vile dunghill place me?


s: "You talk about your heart and wrung-ill:


s: To breathe the fragrance of the morning,


s: "I've caught the villain--this here kite


s: That man who feasts on beef and mutton--


s: "Man," the sage answered, _sans_ sensation,


s: And that great rogues may hold their state,


s: "Why are those tears? Why droops your head?


s: "Dame," said the neighbour, "tremble not:


s: The while, at least, you eat your dinner


s: She, sprawling, said, 'You rascal craven!


s: 'Goody,' said raven, 'spare your clamour,


s: Had croaked till all the Hundred wondered,


s: Spare not, spare not. How blest were we,


s: Could we here live from poulterers free!


s: Prayers for a wife: his prayer was heard.


s: The granted prayer and doubtful blessing.


s: Last, for the daughter, prayed that graces


s: They forced a way through draggled folk,


s: The clown with entrance stopped the jar--


s: "They do their best--with us their guide;


s: And thence foretell, in wise and sure hope,


s: "Pshaw!" said the farmer: "lump of pride!


s: Why all on earth--man, beast, and fowl--


s: You and your train! 'midst Nature's rules,


s: You'd think, so far his art transcended,


s: Hatched and brought forth the mother-hen!


s: Vice then stepped forth, with look serene


s: Which pleased alike dame, lad, and lass;


s: Said: "See this bank-note--lo! a blessing--


s: Vice shook the dice, she smote the board,


s: The juggler, though with grief at heart,


s: The stud which grazed the mead, and fired


s: Proclaimed that a good scent would lie--


s: They scattered thro' the copse and glade;


s: By slandering, snatch themselves the bays;


s: How can soft souls, which sigh for sueings,


s: And quaffed the fragrant scents ascending,


s: He plucked a blossomed rose, transcending


s: On Chloë's bosom, and be there caressed;


s: And carking care, by which I am opprest.


s: Should you, as I, be subject to despair?"


s: I would you could write rhymes without me,


s: Nor left him till they reached the fields.


s: For the racked joints of tortured frame:


s: Whilst Palsy said: "I make them stumble;


s: But Drunkenness they think their friend,


s: He sucked his fill; then munched some grains,


s: "I ate the roots, not flowers, you priggy!"


s: The snail, 'midst bordering pinks and roses,


s: Where Laura's cheek vies with the peaches,


s: The snail regards both fruit and flower,


s: When other things, you know, give place.


s: Trust, trust you'll not think me unkind."


s: "There is the sheep," he said, "with fleece.


s: "Besides," she said, "hounds worry sheep."


s: Replied the bull-calf, "though I rue it,


s: My friends might take offence. My heart--


s: And language, by your skill made pliant,


s: Except in law deeds, where your gleaning


s: Sent the laugh round--they were so striking.


s: You shrink, my friend, and deem it shame.


s: Whom the cap fits, e'en let him wear it--


s: Ah! there are rogues midst men and foxes--


s: You see that where the parish stocks is.


s: For talk like that seemed good and just.


s: "Knave," said the dog, "your conscience tweaks:


s: Courtiers--a set of knaves--attend them,


s: Through thick and thin, o'er stock and stone,


s: Since plagues like these as storms may lower,


s: And favourites fall as falls the flower,


s: For they, you know, they must have tools;


s: And if they can't get knaves, get fools.


s: Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,


s: Approached the throne, his wings displaying,


s: And daws put in. "These birds, no doubt,"


s: Where'er are misdeeds, there are bevies;


s: Men who have trimmed the stocks, been rabbled,


s: In South Seas and in gold mines dabbled,


s: Madder than the maddest madman's dreams.


s: They gave the first-born of their low stock;


s: For look through courts, and you will find


s: Like the soap bubble, puffed and burst,--


s: Swans, turkeys, peacocks, ducks, and chicken.


s: Whilst he revolved in mind his new ties,


s: And thought "What is a place of trust?--


s: Court chaplains thus lawn sleeves pursue?


s: Less were their train of knaves and fools.


s: But that would swell the year's supplies;


s: Were things there were no need to mention;


s: Who gained the post whereto he strained--


s: "Are we but tools," he said, "of rogues?


s: Where have they vanished? nay, in bribes.


s: He stopped, and thus expressed his mind:


s: The beasts, astonished, lined the strand;


s: He weighed the anchor, slacked the sail,


s: But shipped no rudder: ill then met her;


s: From virtue's shield the shafts resound,


s: Could see, he'd kick those scamps away."


s: Then clap his tail, and fly with fright;


s: He deemed, if truth should get admittance,


s: And, as Miss Yaps there were, they thought


s: And, seeing the coast clear, he entered.


s: The brute does nought but bark and bite.


s: Would they not, think you, leave their stings?


s: Jove heard, and answered him: "My friend,


s: If you can mend your state, instruct me;


s: Fear, guilt, and conscience gnawed the heart;


s: For, whilst they starved, or whilst they fed,


s: "Well, Puss," says Man, "and what can you do?"


s: "Well, sir, and how can you earn bread?"


s: The house and fold the whilst you sleep;


s: "Well, sir; can you, sir, earn your bread?"


s: We all should starve when north winds blew


s: That bribes do blind; that present crimes


s: Should drive their nails on such conditions,


s: Stripped of their treasure, stripped of place;


s: What now is all their pride and boast,--


s: And false, aye false, the hireling tools.


s: Write, "Point d'argent et point de Suisse."


s: The generous brutes the jackall scorned.


s: For what you speak and what you write,--


s: Seeing small rogues by great ones thrive,


s: All conscience found with him discredit,


s: Wealth claimed distinction and found grace,


s: Stepped forth from the applauding swarm:


s: "These drones, who now oppress the State,


s: When they shall from this hive be chased."


s: * Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke, in 1714, are intended.


s: And bore at heart their country's cause:


s: Watched while his horses ate their corn:


s: Foamed at the mouth, and was in rack hoarse.


s: "Why, zounds!" he cried; "where have I got?


s: Good gracious me! why, here's old Ball!--


s: We have not been of race of Could-would,


s: Nor, by Dame Truth! I vow and pledge her,


s: "You stupid blockhead!" said the carrier;


s: And you--you feed the rogues with bread--


s: And scoundrel sharpers, how they cheat you.


s: Look round, and see the wreck of play,--


s: "Fools are the game which knaves pursue."


s: It is that hag's--that Fortune's--doing:


s: Than frost, in merry May, eats flowers."


s: "Old Pan," said Fortune, "what's this fuss?


s: "I wish all hours were _post meridiem_,"


s: Said Tom; "so that I were well rid of 'm.


s: And so my time, which you contemn, flies.


s: "Let kings or cobblers, for that matter,


s: Knaves have led senates, swayed debates,


s: Enriched themselves, and beggared states


s: Flatter yourselves no more: 'tis riches--


s: "Of human hearts, and of their yearnings,"


s: Those who have true love known and tried,


s: Then Time, who pulled his forelock, said:


s: And, if they could, would do without me.


s: Those hoards are his? So long--no more--


s: Nor caught me in my flight; and sorrowed


s: To see the springtide was but borrowed--


s: To college next; which left, he blunders


s: Who should have been, by right, a cobbler?


s: But what most roused the bird's conceit,


s: From which he thought himself descended.


s: They played their parts, the public railed:


s: Grudging the ploughman's strength and health.


s: The sirloin's spoiled: I'll give it him!"--


s: He feared the broomstick, too, with physics


s: That I should be born-slave?" he sighed:


s: Sagacious nostrilled, and called Daniel:


s: Grass of the field, which lives its hour?


s: He spoke, and said: "You blundering fowls,


s: And yet your sense of smell so coarse is


s: He called the ravens brutes and carrion!


s: And, though at last Death comes to slay them,


s: What different tastes suit different vermin!"


s: Know what was handsome, and would do 't.


s: But, my dear friend, this savage scene!--


s: May yield, all know, to strong temptation:


s: The guests withdrawn had left, though late,


s: And tastes of flesh, and fowl, and fish;


s: Tells all their names, lays down the law,


s: That jelly's rich, this malmsey's healing,


s: Pray dip your whiskers and your tail in!"


s: "But, please your honour," said the peasant,


s: How anxious is the pensive parents' thought,


s: How blest the lot of fondlings, early taught;


s: Joy strings her hours on pleasure's golden twine,


s: But ah! the charm must cease, or soon or late,


s: When chicks and misses rise to woman's state;


s: The little tyrant grows in turn a slave,


s: This truth, my pretty friend, an ancient sage,


s: Who wrote in tale and legend many a page,


s: When fables were the wisdom of the wise.


s: To careless notes I've tuned his Gothic style,


s: Content, if you approve, and LAURA smile.


s: And thought that she should seek the meat


s: "My loves," said she, "behold the plains,


s: Where stores of food, where plenty reigns;


s: "But, bless us!" cried the peevish chits,


s: "My dears," she said, and kissed their bills,


s: You, out of reach, may laugh and chatter:


s: "Ay, but"--"But what?" "Why, if the clown


s: 'Twas therefore thought by ancient sages,


s: That with the ills of life's last stages


s: Old Death, by you and those pale awnings:


s: His hand, just then, tough was this Dobson,


s: And "humble servants," "sirs," and "I's."


s: "Ay, ay," said Death, and raised his veil,


s: "Ay, lame; but then you have your sight?"


s: But Dobson said--"Not quite, not quite."


s: "Not quite; but still you have your hearing?"


s: Death on his brow then dropped the awnings,


s: And said--"Friend you can't stay behind:


s: You have had your three sufficient warnings."


s: The moralist, my dear niece, has said that--


s: "The man of sense will read a work of note


s: In the like humour as the author wrote."


s: "Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,


s: Tenets with books, and principles with times."


s: "When policy regained what arms had lost."


s: The age in which Gay wrote was eminently what we now designate as


s: "Nor light nor darkness brings his pains relief:


s: One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief."


s: Mr. Crabbe has portrayed the marvel of an honest inhabitant of


s: constitutional, both unvicious, which the other lacked.


s: Do not complain of this thy hard estate;


s: And, certes, there is for it reason great;


s: For though sometimes it makes thee weep and wail,


s: And curse thy star, and early drudge and late,


s: Withouten that would come a heavier bale,--


s: Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale."


s: You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace;


s: Through which Aurora shows her brightening face;


s: You cannot bar my constant feet to trace


s: The woods and lawns by living stream at eve.


s: Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,


s: And I their toys to the great children leave;


s: Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave."


s: "The chief replied, 'That post shall be my care;


s: Nor that alone, but all the works of war;


s: Still foremost let me stand to guard the throne,


s: Yet come it will, the day decreed by Fates--


s: How my heart trembles whilst my tongue relates--


s: That day when thou, imperial Troy, must bend,


s: Must see thy warriors fall, thy glories end.


s: And yet no presage dire so wounds my mind--


s: My mother's death, the ruin of my kind--


s: As thine, Andromache, thy griefs I dread.


s: I see thee weeping, trembling, captive led.


s: Woes--of which woes so large a part was thine;


s: To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring


s: There, whilst you groan beneath the load of life,


s: They cry "Behold the Trojan Hector's wife!"


s: Some Argive, who shall live thy griefs to see,


s: The thoughts of glory past and present shame,


s: A thousand griefs, shall waken at the name.


s: May I lie cold before that dreadful day,


s: Thy Hector, wrapped in everlasting sleep,


s: Shall neither hear thee sigh nor see thee weep.'"


s: "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,


s: And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,


s: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.


s: Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?


s: Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust,


s: Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death?


s: The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;


s: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,


s: And waste its sweetness on the desert air.


s: Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile


s: The short and simple annals of the poor:


s: Their names, their years spelt by the untaught Muse,


s: Nursery rhymes, old ballads, odes, sonnets, epigrams, travesties,


s: She was in love: and he she loved proved mad,


s: And did forsake her. She had a song of willow,


s: An old thing 'twas; but it expressed her fortune,


s: And she died singing it. That song to-night


s: Will not go from my mind: I have much to do,


s: 'Gainst graver hours that bring constraint


s: Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,


s: "O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream


s: Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull,


s: Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full."


s: 'By my faith!' quoth the doughty Douglas then,


s: That doughty Douglas, Lyfftenant of Marches,


s: 'God have mercy on his soul!' said Kyng Harry,


s: Old men that known the ground well enough


s: Of rich and poor, make all the history"--


s: "Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail."


s: In 1726 he wrote these Fables, dedicating them to the Duke of


s: "Blest be the gods for those they took away,


s: And those they left me, for they left me Gay.


s: Of all his blameless life the sole return


s: My verse and Queensberry weeping o'er his urn."


s: "A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod;


s: An honest man's the noblest work of God."


s: instinctive, and far less explicit than in the Odyssey. It is


s: reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the poet has reached a


s: _The Invocation._ The first line speaks of the man, Ulysses, and


s: designates his main attribute by a word, which may be translated


s: _versatile_ or _resourceful_, though some grammarians construe it


s: Furthermore, there is a third trait which is still higher, also


s: mentioned here: he sought to save not only himself but also his


s: Mark again the emphatic word in this Invocation; it is the Return


s: gradations, from the shortest and simplest to the longest and


s: The second obstacle is Neptune, whom we at once think of as the


s: Such, then, are the two obstacles, both connected far back with


s: And even in the two present obstacles we may note that the one,


s: Neptune, seems more external--that of the physical sea; while the


s: concerning the work. The poet at the start summons before us the


s: successful criminal. It made a profound impression upon the Greek


s: freedom and that of justice. The latter, indeed, springs from the


s: Such is the structure of the poem, which is organized in its main


s: Very old and still very new is the problem of the Odyssey; with a


s: approaching conflict with the suitors in Ithaca.


s: Still their insolence goes on; the ethical world of justice and


s: _Appendix._ The reader will have observed that, in the preceding


s: The most celebrated of these dissectors is probably the German


s: The general relation between the First and Second Books is to be


s: congresses, and other cognate institutions, together with oratory


s: But the most interesting thing in his speech is to discover the


s: contemned, the call to a change of conduct goes unheeded.


s: Leiocrates, the third Suitor, responds in a speech which is the


s: education, which is at present the first object.


s: Already it has been remarked that the Goddess is made to command


s: Thus in general the Mythus shadows forth objective mind, not


s: objective forms translated into subjective thoughts; then we can


s: understand them better. But the Homeric man shows the opposite


s: reception; he must bring himself back to his own by his skill and


s: No accident is it that this Book of Nestor begins and ends with a


s: recognition of divinity in the events of the world.


s: narrative we behold the starting-point of the calamities, the


s: Nestor, though unable himself to give much information about the


s: Return, can point to the second grand Returner, Menelaus, who has


s: Several times Homer repeats in the Odyssey the tragic story of


s: The transition from Book Third to Book Fourth involves a very


s: restoration, because it has no alienation.


s: The account of the various Returns from Troy is continued. In the


s: ordinary real life we hear at the start in the reception and


s: Nor must we pass by that astonishing utterance of Menelaus to his


s: The Spartan king takes a short retrospect of life as it has been


s: Now for a true female trait. Helen at once recognizes the young


s: personally identified him. When the wife had spoken the words of


s: expressing thought; the day of philosophic reflection had not yet


s: Menelaus begins to feel sorrow, which is a penitent condition


s: When this one first principle is clearly revealed, then all is


s: fire--hold fast; he will become running water--hold fast; he will


s: sea-faring Hellene, but in the wilderness and desert, like the


s: Telemachus has graduated, he can now go home; so he asks to be


s: Pallas sends to the distressed mother a refreshing sleep and a


s: Here the Fourth Book, or rather the Telemachiad, reaches out and


s: connects with the Ithakeiad, which begins in the Thirteenth Book.


s: But before this task can be accomplished, the grand experience of


s: character. Here again we should observe the author employing his


s: education of the son, the practical discipline of the father;


s: Telemachus, the son of his father, Nausicaa, the daughter of her


s: These bonds of connection are so strong that they overbalance all


s: The first thing to be noticed is that there are two very distinct


s: The objective sweep with its three localities is coupled with


s: institutional life, into Phæacia, which then enters into certain


s: acknowledgment of error from first to last. He is the poetical


s: development, of a genetic process. These lands and peoples are


s: The first part of the Book gives the Council of the Gods and its


s: consequences reaching down to the mortal who is the subject of


s: Of this divine activity in removing the first obstacle we may


s: elaborate the former a little more fully.


s: environment for Calypso, and suggests her character.


s: The answer of Calypso is significant, she charges the Gods with


s: transcended. Appetite may preserve man, still he is to rise above


s: To be sure, the other side is not to be forgotten: it had to be


s: Island, where she rules; but she is a lesser deity who has to be


s: appearances thereof, specially in their relation to man. The


s: appearance; he runs up and down a scale of doubt, complaint,


s: resolution. His weakness he will show, yet also his strength;


s: Pallas also comes to the aid of her favorite, but in an indirect


s: water-gods. She plays in by the way in this marine emergency; her


s: underneath him. When he quits his raft, and is seen in the water,


s: recognition of the true nature of deity; no wonder that the River


s: conquers. The Gods come to his aid when he believes and acts. His


s: clinging to the mast, though he had just said: "Now I shall die a


s: conflicts of higher forms of society resulting from a pursuit of


s: somnolescent reader is only too ready to spare himself the poetic


s: In the present Book there is not by any means as much divine


s: (2.) Nausicaa, when she awakes, obeys the suggestion and


s: same spot, when Pallas starts the plan for his waking.


s: (2.) Meeting of Ulysses and Nausicaa, and the going to the city.


s: First is a short introduction giving a bit of the history of the


s: The storm-wind shakes it not, nor is it wet


s: By showers, and there the snow doth never fall;


s: The calm clear ether is without a cloud,


s: And over all is spread a soft white sheen.


s: altogether escaped from a tinge of disrelish.


s: Nausicaa obtains without difficulty wagon and mules and help of


s: Of course, the latter had at first his usual fit of doubt and


s: matter"--and so by an act of will he rescues himself from inner


s: innocent herself, what can she he afraid of? Thus does the poet


s: profoundest chord of her heart; he has divined her secretest yet


s: exhortation of the young maiden to the much-enduring man; she has


s: Family, its heart, as it were, full of the tender feelings of


s: comparatively, to be a prophecy unto us still at this late date?


s: So we catch a very fascinating glimpse of the Phæacian world. Two


s: We now begin to catch a hint of the sweep of the poem in these


s: beautiful for man. All this Ulysses now beholds.


s: Ulysses follows the direction of Nausicaa and passes to the city


s: The poet introduces his mythical forms; we hear also the fabulous


s: But not only the Fine Arts, the Industries also are touched upon.


s: After the palace the garden is described with its cultivated


s: raisin, and wine. Finally the last part is set off for kitchen


s: unfortunate wanderer and succor him to the fullest extent. More


s: impressive still is their religious faith; they live in intimate


s: hereafter, her part being finished; her husband takes the lead


s: In the sweep of the present Book, many origins are suggested. The


s: industrial arts are suggested, and to a degree are realized.


s: The artistic soul of Hellas is fully felt in Homer's Phæacia. The


s: King Alcinous; thy fair palace has had fairer offspring,


s: Thou art ruling the world still by the beautiful form;


s: Out of thy mansion majestic was born in a song the Greek Temple,


s: Sentineled round with a choir--Titans columnar of stone,


s: Bearing forever their burden to hymns of a Parian measure,


s: Wearing out heaviest Fate to a Pindaric high strain.


s: Look! those boys of thy garden with tapers are moving to statues,


s: Hellas springs out of thy palace all sculptured with actions


s: Even the God we discern turning to marble by faith.


s: Thou, old Homer, wert the first builder in Greece, the first


s: Afterward she could but turn fancies of thine into stone;


s: Architects followed thee, building thy poem aloft into temples,


s: Sculptors followed thee too, thinking in marble thy line.


s: Nor must we forget the Industrial Arts here suggested--weaving,


s: manifests itself in the Phæacian singer.


s: beautiful loving picture, painted with strong deep undertones of


s: Gods, corresponding to the story of Helen on earth. Sung by the


s: the market-place to the palace and into the presence of Arete.


s: Horse, not by the physical might and courage of Achilles. Sung by


s: We are now to witness two kinds of entertainment, both of which


s: physically, requiring also no little mental alertness.


s: Demodocus indicate a Pre-Iliad, an Iliad, and a Post-Iliad in due


s: In the second place one asks very emphatically: Why this present


s: treatment of the Gods on Homer's part? But here we must make an


s: inactive, quiet, self-indulgent phase, in decided contrast to the


s: dissension; no dispute with neighboring nations about commercial


s: presents--hospitable gifts, such as the host gives to his honored


s: The Wooden Horse is not employed in the Iliad, but is one of the


s: Ulysses in his strongest emotions unite himself with the Trojan


s: enterprise of aforetime. He is not simply a wanderer over the sea


s: Previously Ulysses wept at the first lay of Demodocus, now he


s: _Appendix._ It seems never to have been noticed what an important


s: Homer, therefore, in this Book as well as in the First Book where


s: A step further we may carry the thought. Homer is not only not a


s: world-builder, and then puts into his world a ballad-singer as a


s: passing character, he certainly emphasizes the difference between


s: Most emphatically, therefore, Homer shows himself not to be a


s: The transition from Phæacia to Fableland is, therefore, full of


s: What are these shapes and why? Man has created them that he may


s: indicate his own spiritual state when he has fallen out with the


s: The store of Fairy Tales in those four Books was unquestionably


s: It is now manifest that those who resolve these Tales into a


s: Olympians. There is no room in Pylos for a Circe or a Polyphemus.


s: transcendental Fairyland. There is as yet no Greek language of


s: Still deeper must we look into this act of self-revelation. "I am


s: The great sea with its tempests is now before them, heaving and


s: But there is one man among them, who, though not guiltless by any


s: forgetfulness; it must proceed to action, to virulent destructive


s: Cyclops, Polyphemus, in his conflict with Ulysses.


s: The main thing to be noticed in the present account is the


s: extraordinary number of negatives. No laws, no assemblies, no


s: At this point we can trace his connection with the great Trojan


s: experience, which, as already set forth, has begotten a negative


s: tendency in its participators. The war at Troy, like all war


s: negative side, as hostile to a civilized order; so the poet has


s: During the day the "man of many shifts" has an opportunity for


s: desperate efforts to grasp this slippery, double-doing and


s: Thus Ulysses nullifies the Cyclops, inflicting three deprivations


s: opportunity of learning, and was trying to get possession of his


s: dominating thought to the Book in which he or she appears.


s: As already stated, there are three different localities to which


s: necessity, a strict evolution. The work here, according our best


s: The first fact about the Æolian Isle is that it was afloat in the


s: So Ulysses tries again to get the bladder of winds from Æolus,


s: Æolus, therefore, refuses to receive Ulysses and his companions a


s: Many have been the interpretations of this marvelous King and his


s: Penelope. Such is his experience at present.


s: Onward the wanderer, now with his single ship, has to sail again;


s: This genealogy we have set down in full, as given by the poet, on


s: migration and ethnical kinship which had been in his time long


s: Ulysses in a certain sense; he sees her just now and not before,


s: because he has created her. Why is he thus repelled by Family and


s: Very famous has this story of Circe become in literature. It has


s: furnished proverbs, allusions, texts for exhortation; it has been


s: Now the main point to be seized in this tale is the movement, the


s: Of these three stages the last seems inappropriate to Circe's


s: however, be said in advance that Circe is not a man-eater, but a


s: man-transformer; she is a new phase of the great experience, she


s: thereof; her mighty spell can change character and shape.


s: There has been a difference of opinion from antiquity down to the


s: intelligence without body; Ulysses must now reach forth to the


s: supersensible world? If we watch her development through the two


s: The same transformation we may note on her artistic side, for she


s: The reader has now witnessed the three stages of this Tenth


s: It is one phase of the great Mythus of the Apocalypse, or the


s: uncovering of the Future State, which in some form belongs to all


s: We have, therefore, in the present Book the Greek glance into


s: The connection with the preceding Book can not be too strongly


s: expressed in the color of the animal and of Hades.


s: Thus is the Past linked into the Present, which to receive the


s: The common ground in these three cases of prophetic insight is


s: Ulysses should quit the watery element) give hecatombs to the


s: It is the beautiful instinct of the mother, that she flits in the


s: has already appeared, even before Tiresias came; now she is the


s: first after that prophet, who gives directions to Ulysses


s: return, while old age weighs hard upon him." Such is the father,


s: The mother died from longing for her son and "the memory of his


s: gentleness;" still her longing brings her to him in the life


s: beyond. The great revelation is concerning the future state: the


s: soul is immortal, this fact Ulysses is to tell in Phæacia. The


s: strong desire to behold the loved ones who have passed away is


s: indeed the impulse; but they too return, though insubstantial. It


s: broken by death. Still the mother is but a ghost and cannot be


s: embraced; this the son has to accept, though he would have her in


s: _b._ At once there is the transition to the famous mothers of


s: First is the group of mortal women who were embraced by some god,


s: himself will appear as the supreme example of the Greek Hero.


s: Such were three typical mothers, famed in Hellenic legend, being


s: child of divinity, with an immortal portion. This view, in its


s: purely sensuous aspect, is dubious enough to the modern ethical


s: mind, still its real meaning must be looked at with sympathetic


s: something more than divine license; it has indeed a wonderful


s: pre-Christian suggestiveness, and gives a glimpse of the movement


s: The second group of famous mothers are mortal women with mortal


s: husbands. The wedded wife brings up now the domestic relation,


s: which is passingly introduced by the spouse of Hercules, Megara,


s: who is simply mentioned. The two chief women of the group are


s: Epicaste and Chloris, the one supremely tragic in her motherhood,


s: marries her after slaying his own father who is her husband, both


s: world-famous use, in his two dramas on the subject of OEdipus.


s: Chloris is, on the contrary, the mother of Nestor, not a tragic


s: character by any means; also she is mother of Pero, the beautiful


s: happily won by an heroic deed. Mark the interest of those


s: listeners, Arete and Nausicaa, mother and daughter in this tale.


s: In the third group are two mothers who have a double honor; each


s: has borne twins and heroic ones at that; moreover the Gods again


s: brother to share his immortality with his mortal brother; hence


s: Iphidameia, who declares Neptune to be the father of Otus and


s: Ephialtes, of her monstrous twins, "who at the age of nine years


s: threatened war upon the Gods," and proposed to storm heaven by


s: piling Mount Ossa upon Olympus and Pelion on top of that. Such is


s: order, and are slain by the arrows of Apollo "ere the down


s: blossomed beneath their temples, and covered their chins with


s: whole of the present catalogue; the wives and maidens now come in


s: betrayer of woman, and in the other case woman is the betrayer of


s: But the singer is tired and sleepy; moreover has he not told the


s: essence of the matter in this portion of his song? He at once


s: the myth-making Imagination, are types, are the ghosts of Hades


s: which Ulysses must see and know, ere he return to the Upperworld.


s: heroism, and a warning also, to the living.


s: "fabricating lies, out of which we, looking into them, can get


s: nothing," can draw no meaning. Such at least is our view of this


s: certainly devoid of the noble spirit or worthy content.


s: The third heroic shade is that of Ajax, son of Telamon, with whom


s: certainly he shows himself no saint in his wanderings. Moreover


s: consciousness of Hellas in its complete cycle.


s: characters of Homer, ranging from guilt, through repentance, to


s: Unquestionably a punitive element enters now, there is guilt and


s: punishment in Hades. But who has not felt that in the preceding


s: explicit and organizes itself upon the same.


s: features akin to Hesiod; well, Homer is Hesiod and many more.


s: punishment is an eternal chase, the hunter is compelled to hunt


s: We hope the reader feels how inadequate Hades would be, and how


s: Thus Ulysses, the supreme spiritual Hero of the Greeks, is shown


s: important document. A many-sided production also; its poetic, its


s: Having the entire Book now before us, we observe that it shows a


s: ambiguous vesture. Moreover they are in profound harmony with the


s: subordinated to the rational, she is no longer the indulgence of


s: Thus Ulysses is now ready to listen to the coming event and to


s: Accordingly Circe foretells, and Ulysses foreknows; the two are


s: over-doing. Such then are the Plangctæ, which Ulysses must avoid


s: differentiation both in the mind and in the world; it hints the


s: fundamental form into which the whole Book is cast.


s: Such is the outlook upon the Future given by Circe, in the way of


s: We now have reached the second portion of the Book, which is the


s: transgress, and they will receive the penalty.


s: companions and tells them all that he dares about the approaching


s: anywhere, and his eyes grew weary, peering about at the mist-like


s: universality, to the all-seeing light within. Ulysses, having


s: transcended the limit he showed in his last experience, has gone


s: companions and even exacts an oath from them not to harm the holy


s: defiantly repeated their deed, "for six whole days they feasted,


s: One cannot help feeling that the poet in this description has a


s: Such are the main points in the structure of the present Book,


s: All these monsters have been supposed to represent perils of


s: captain to the mast? Surely some other peril is suggested.


s: phenomena. Already we have unfolded the ethical meaning which


s: creative act and present it in an image.


s: At this point we hear the cry of dissent: You make Homer too


s: introspective, you make him a self-introverted, self-torturing


s: nineteenth century man, whereas he is the most unreflective,


s: character: Prospero is at one time magician, that is, poet, and


s: suggestiveness, and is found in one form or other in the World's


s: greatest Books. Mind destroying mind may be shown as light


s: wherewith we enter upon a new grand division of the poem.


s: But Ulysses, before he can reform his country, has had to reform


s: himself. When he attacked the Ciconians, he was as negative to


s: The poet has, however, his wrongful set, the Suitors, about whose


s: We have already indicated the fact (p. 19) that Pallas starts to


s: institutional life of his country and the poem ends. This second


s: Telemachus to Ithaca, the transition from the long and elaborate


s: marvelous ship and at the marvelous land which has just been left


s: Why this interference from above? Wherein is the escort by the


s: The poem henceforth quits the sea, after marking the fate of the


s: steam-ship has taken its place in these Ithacan waters. Still the


s: compelled to assume a mask? Thus the poet brings before us the


s: wonderful interplay between the human and divine, till they fully


s: It is also to be noted by the reader that each, the man and the


s: Even the mist which hung over the landscape at first, has now


s: The scheme shows the structure of these four Books (XIII-XVI),


s: swineherd, but he has extracted from it his greatest blessing--an


s: contained in the first, which is the tale of Eumæus.


s: Indeed we are compelled to think that Homer here suggests his own


s: Moreover, it is a tale of providential escapes; thrice has the


s: content of the Odyssey, as the latter was sung to the whole Greek


s: slavery, with its accompaniment, man-stealing; the pirate and the


s: The fiction in the previous Book, which Ulysses began to tell to


s: Pallas, also started in Crete, looked back at the Trojan war, and


s: disguise is its title, here represented by the Hero in disguise.


s: But the other hint the swineherd did not take, the hint of the


s: The general theme of the Book is, accordingly, the Return of


s: situation; the divine and human side easily come together, with a


s: Interesting touches of the Phoenician traders are given: "Sharp


s: Phoenicians, whose workmanship is also suggested. "The palace


s: people seem not to have been sea-faring. His fundamental trait is


s: Phæacians, and with their love of the Trojan conflict.


s: It is interesting to note the significance of this Phoenician


s: background, with its universal commerce. The Phoenician traded


s: experts to return to Jerusalem, the holy city of his fathers. The


s: entertainment. A curious touch of policy; it was well to have the


s: wretched rags." He resumes his disguise "lest the swineherd might


s: organism of the poem, and then give a brief outline of each Book


s: It has already often been stated that the Odyssey is a Return, an


s: insolent, destructive conduct of the Suitors is set forth in all


s: institutional world in its three leading forms: (1) Property, (2)


s: Ulysses had to grapple repeatedly in Fableland, and of which the


s: introduces a kind of story, which we have called the Novelette in


s: The poet does not leave out of this Book the previous tendency of


s: The present Book is one of warnings; on all sides the Suitors are


s: Another note of warning is given specially to Amphinomus, who had


s: One other point we should note in this speech of Penelope to the


s: reckoning: such is his repeated warning to all these people.


s: In the second place, Penelope applies her test, for she is not so


s: At this point the disguised Ulysses makes his third and principal


s: Short is the life of man, and whoso bears


s: While living, and pursue him when he dies,


s: With scoffs. But whoso is of generous heart,


s: And harbors generous aims, his guests proclaim


s: His praises far and wide to all mankind,


s: And numberless are they who call him good.


s: _Book Twenty-first._ The test presented in many a tale is here


s: Suitors, "and to me ye shall be as companions and brothers of


s: punishment of the guilty women (servants) with the sparing of the


s: attendant can be found skulking anywhere, and none have escaped.


s: A still harsher and more ignoble punishment awaits the goatherd


s: corpses, is simply the Destroyer, the very picture and embodiment


s: The book may be divided into two portions--before and after the


s: In fact the complete restoration of Ulysses is both to Family and


s: Of the present Book there are two parts: the Underworld and the


s: Very hurried are these later incidents of the Book, but they are


s: Other matters may also be noticed. Pallas, the Goddess of Wisdom,


s: suggestion. She will remain with him ever afterwards, manifesting


s: Thus we may well hold to these unities in Homer: the unity of the


s: Such is the more external, the historical phase of the Iliad and


s: destroyer in deed and in spirit; home and country he is not only


s: separated from but is destructive of--he is a negative man.


s: himself, and, through his absence, in Ithaca?


s: (_b_) Stay at Troy for 10 years. This is also a long training to


s: destruction. Ulysses is an important man, but not the hero. Here


s: (_c_) Destruction of the city and the restoration of Helen to her


s: subordinately in the Odyssey. Thus is the separation from the


s: Orient completed on its negative side, that is, as far as


s: (_b_) It is no wonder that the journey home was very difficult.


s: Quarrels arose at the start (see Nestor's account Book III., and


s: that of Menelaus Book IV.). Many perished on the way; some were


s: (_c_) Those who reached home, the successful returners, were of


s: three main kinds, represented by Nestor, by Menelaus, and by


s: explicit, quite conscious. When Ulysses comes back to Ithaca, and


s: cyclical, and that both together make a cycle.


s: continues the story, installing Ulysses as hero over Ajax in the


s: training for the deed. This training has two very distinct


s: portions, as it pertains to a young man and a middle-aged


s: left without the influence of his father, when the latter went


s: to Troy. But he has his father's spirit, hence he must know;


s: from Ithaca he goes to Nestor and Menelaus for instruction. Four


s: been a man over 40 years old. He is to be trained out of the


s: negative spirit which he imbibed from the Trojan war. Herein


s: lies his analogy to Faust, who is also a middle-aged man, and


s: Both the Telemachiad and the Ulyssiad are essentially one great


s: Property, Family, State, the Gods; they are really in their way


s: Reconciliations; thus each division is subdivided:


s: (_a_) His wrath--both rightful and wrongful.


s: (_b_) His reconciliation with Agamemnon and his own people.


s: (_b_) His reconciliation with Priam and the Trojans.


s: (_a_) The ignorance of the son and its overcoming.


s: (_b_) The destructive tendency of the father and its overcoming.


s: (_a_) The hut of the swineherd (preparation).


s: (_b_) The palace of the King (execution).


s: That is, Ulysses and Telemachus have the double problem, which


s: For sale by A. G. McCLURG & CO., Chicago, Ill.


s: _And look upon the wonder-world of Art._


s: _How beautiful, how beautiful its hills!_


s: _And all its valleys, how surpassing fair!_


s: _The winding paths that lead up to the heights_


s: _Are polished by the footsteps of the great._


s: _The mountain-peaks stand very near to God:_


s: _The chosen few whose feet have trod thereon_


s: _Have talked with Him, and with the angels walked._


s: _Here are no sounds of discord--no profane_


s: _Or senseless gossip of unworthy things--_


s: _Only the songs of chisels and of pens._


s: _Of souls surcharged with music most divine._


s: _For time is counted precious, and herein_


s: _That tears turn into rainbows, and enhance_


s: _The beauty of the land where all is fair._


s: _Awed and afraid, I cross the border-land._


s: _Where the great artists of the world have trod--_


s: _The genius-crowned aristocrats of Earth?_


s: _Yet loving Art with such a mighty love_


s: _Just on the fair land's edge, to make my grave,_


s: _Than in the outer world of greed and gain_


s: I sat and sewed, and sang some tender tune,


s: Oh, beauteous was that morn in early June!


s: Mellow with sunlight, and with blossoms fair:


s: The climbing rose-tree grew about me there,


s: And checked with shade the sunny portico


s: Where, morns like this, I came to read, or sew.


s: I heard the gate click, and a firm quick tread


s: I would mistake, and doubt my own voice sounding,


s: Before his step upon the gravel bounding.


s: He stretched his comely form; and from his face


s: He tossed the dark, damp curls; and at my knees,


s: With his broad hat he fanned the lazy breeze,


s: And turned his head, and lifted his large eyes,


s: Of that strange hue we see in ocean dyes,


s: And call it blue sometimes, and sometimes green


s: And save in poet eyes, not elsewhere seen.


s: "Lest I should meet with my fair lady's scorning,


s: For calling quite so early in the morning,


s: I've brought a passport that can never fail,"


s: He said, and, laughing, laid the morning mail


s: Upon my lap. "I'm welcome? so I thought!


s: I'll figure by the letters that I brought


s: That, lightly skimmed, you'll think me _such_ a bore,


s: And wonder why I did not bring you four.


s: This little letter, precious if not long,


s: Is just the one, of all you might have brought,


s: To please me. You have heard me speak, I'm sure,


s: She's coming out to see me; and will stay


s: Till Autumn, maybe. She is, like her note,


s: Petite and dainty, tender, loving, pure.


s: You'd know her by a letter that she wrote,


s: For a sweet tinted thing. 'Tis always so:--


s: Letters all blots, though finely written, show


s: A slovenly person. Letters stiff and white


s: Bespeak a nature honest, plain, upright.


s: And tissuey, tinted, perfumed notes, like this,


s: Tell of a creature formed to pet and kiss."


s: My listener heard me with a slow, odd smile;


s: Stretched in abandon at my feet, the while,


s: He fanned me idly with his broad-brimmed hat.


s: "Then all young ladies must be formed for that!"


s: They're written in a dainty, spider scrawl,


s: To 'darling, precious Kate,' or 'Fan,' or 'Moll.'


s: The 'dearest, sweetest' friend they ever had.


s: They say they 'want to see you, oh, so bad!'


s: Vow they'll 'forget you, never, _never_, oh!'


s: And then they tell about a splendid beau--


s: A lovely hat--a charming dress, and send


s: And then to close, for lack of something better,


s: They beg you'll 'read and burn this horrid letter.'"


s: He watched me, smiling. He was prone to vex


s: He liked, he said, to have me flash and frown,


s: So he could tease me, and then laugh me down.


s: My storms of wrath amused him very much:


s: So he would talk--and so he watched me now,


s: To see the hot flush mantle cheek and brow.


s: Instead, I answered coolly, with a smile,


s: Felling a seam with utmost care, meanwhile.


s: "The caustic tongue of Vivian Dangerfield


s: Is barbed as ever, for my sex, this morn.


s: Still unconvinced, no smallest point I yield.


s: Woman I love, and trust, despite your scorn.


s: There is some truth in what you say? Well, yes!


s: Your statements usually hold more or less.


s: Some women write weak letters--(some men do;)


s: Some make professions, knowing them untrue.


s: And woman's friendship, in the time of need,


s: Giving from out her large heart's bounteous store


s: Than, through and by that love, she knows she can;


s: And living by her professions, _like a man_.


s: And such a tie, true friendship's silken tether,


s: Binds Helen Trevor's heart and mine together.


s: I love her for her beauty, meekness, grace;


s: She loves me, for my greater strength, may be;


s: Loves--and would give her heart's best blood for me


s: And I, to save her from a pain, or cross,


s: Such can be woman's friendship for another.


s: Could man give more, or ask more from a brother?"


s: I paused: and Vivian leaned his massive head


s: Smiled his slow, skeptic smile, then laughed, and said:


s: "Nay, surely not--if what you say be so.


s: You've made a statement, but no proof's at hand.


s: Wait--do not flash your eyes so! Understand


s: I think you quite sincere in what you say:


s: You love your friend, and she loves you, to-day;


s: But friendship is not friendship at the best


s: Man's, less demonstrative, stands strain and tear,


s: While woman's, half profession, fails to wear.


s: Two women love each other passing well--


s: At ball and concert, in the church and street,


s: They kiss and coo, they visit, chat, caress;


s: Their love increases, rather than grows less;


s: And all goes well, till 'Helen dear' discovers


s: That 'Maurine darling' wins too many lovers.


s: And then her 'precious friend,' her 'pet,' her 'sweet,'


s: Becomes a 'minx,' a 'creature all deceit.'


s: Let Helen smile too oft on Maurine's beaux,


s: Or wear more stylish or becoming clothes,


s: Or sport a hat that has a longer feather--


s: And lo! the strain has broken 'friendship's tether.'


s: Maurine's sweet smile becomes a frown or pout;


s: 'She's just begun to find that Helen out'


s: The breach grows wider--anger fills each heart;


s: They drift asunder, whom 'but death could part.'


s: You shake your head? Oh, well, we'll never know!


s: You'll live, and love; and, meeting twice a year,


s: While life shall last, you'll hold each other dear.


s: To shake your faith in woman by the test.


s: Keep your belief, and nurse it while you can.


s: I've faith in woman's friendship too--for man!


s: They're true as steel, as mothers, friends, and wives:


s: And that's enough to bless us all our lives.


s: That man's a selfish fellow, and a bore,


s: "But there is need of more!" I here broke in.


s: Who would not cling to, and defend another,


s: As nobly as she would stand by a brother.


s: Who would not suffer for a sister's sake,


s: And, were there need to prove her friendship, make


s: 'Most any sacrifice, nor count the cost.


s: Who would not do this for a friend is lost


s: Cried Vivian, laughing, "for you now defame


s: The whole sweet sex; since there's not one would do


s: The thing you name, nor would I want her to.


s: I hope my wife will be, and wholly human.


s: And if she wants to make some sacrifice,


s: I'll think her far more sensible and wise


s: Instead of some old maid or senseless chit.


s: Selfish? Of course! I hold all love is so:


s: And I shall love my wife right well, I know.


s: Now there's a point regarding selfish love,


s: You thirst to argue with me, and disprove.


s: But since these cosy hours will soon be gone


s: No more of these rare moments must be spent


s: (You see the selfishness begins to show.)


s: Will gain her wish, by taking you from me.


s: 'Come all the same?' that means I'll be allowed


s: To realize that 'three can make a crowd.'


s: With two girl cronies would I not be so?


s: My ring would interrupt some private chat.


s: You'd ask me in and take my cane and hat,


s: And think--'The lout! I wish he'd kept away.'


s: Miss Trevor'd smile, but just to hide a pout


s: And count the moments till I was shown out.


s: And, while I twirled my thumbs, I would sit wishing


s: That I had gone off hunting birds, or fishing.


s: No, thanks, Maurine! The iron hand of Fate,


s: (Or otherwise Miss Trevor's dainty fingers,)


s: And I shall be like some poor soul that lingers


s: At heaven's portal, paying the price of sin,


s: I laughed outright. "How well you act a part;


s: You've missed your calling, sir! suppose you start


s: Upon a starring tour, and carve your name


s: With Booth's and Barrett's on the heights of Fame.


s: But now, tabooing nonsense, I shall send


s: Unless you come without it. 'Cronies?' True,


s: Wanting our 'private chats' as cronies do


s: And we'll take those, while you are reading Greek,


s: Or writing 'Lines to Dora's brow' or 'cheek.'


s: But when you have an hour or two of leisure,


s: Call as you now do, and afford like pleasure.


s: For never yet did heaven's sun shine on,


s: Two maids so bound, by ties of mind and heart.


s: They did not feel the heavy weight of time


s: In weeks of scenes wherein no man took part.


s: Nor law of man, nor stern decree of Fate,


s: And, quite alone, make happy either one.


s: Has been denied one boon for which she pleaded.


s: A fragile thing, her lightest wish was heeded.


s: Would she pluck roses? they must first be shorn,


s: By careful hands, of every hateful thorn.


s: And loving eyes must scan the pathway where


s: Her feet may tread, to see no stones are there.


s: She'll grow dull here, in this secluded nook,


s: Of entertaining. Drop in with your book--


s: Read, talk, sing for her sometimes. What I ask,


s: Do once, to please me: then there'll be no need


s: For me to state the case again, or plead.


s: There's nothing like a woman's grace and beauty


s: Your slightest wish is law, Ma Belle Maurine,"


s: He answered smiling, "I'm at your command;


s: Point but one lily finger, or your wand,


s: And you will find a willing slave obeying.


s: There goes my dinner bell! I hear it saying


s: I've spent two hours here, lying at your feet,


s: All time is money; now were I to measure


s: The time I spend here by its solid pleasure,


s: And that were coined in dollars, then I've laid


s: Each day a fortune at your feet, fair maid.


s: There goes that bell again! I'll say good-bye,


s: I'll come again, as you would have me do,


s: And see your friend, while she is seeing you.


s: He drew his fine shape up, and trod the land


s: With kingly grace. Passing the gate, his hand


s: Leaped over like a leopard, and was gone.


s: And, going, took the brightness from the place,


s: Yet left the June day with a sweeter grace,


s: And my young soul so steeped in happy dreams,


s: Heaven itself seemed shown to me in gleams.


s: There is a time with lovers, when the heart


s: First slowly rouses from its dreamless sleep,


s: Ere yet have wakened jealousy and strife.


s: Just as a young, untutored child will start


s: Out of a long hour's slumber, sound and deep,


s: And lie and smile with rosy lips, and cheeks,


s: In a sweet, restful trance, before it speaks.


s: A time when yet no word the spell has broken,


s: Save what the heart unto the soul has spoken,


s: In quickened throbs, and sighs but half suppressed.


s: A time when that sweet truth, all unconfessed,


s: Gives added fragrance to the summer flowers,


s: And lends to life a new and tender grace.


s: When the full heart has climbed the heights of bliss,


s: And, smiling, looks back o'er the golden past,


s: I think it finds no sweeter hour than this


s: In all love-life. For, later, when the last


s: Translucent drop o'erflows the cup of joy,


s: And love, more mighty than the heart's control,


s: Surges in words of passion from the soul,


s: And vows are asked and given, shadows rise


s: Like mists before the sun in noonday skies,


s: Vague fears, that prove the brimming cup's alloy;


s: A dread of change--the crowning moment's curse,


s: Since what is perfect, change but renders worse:


s: Bearing our joys away, and bringing woes.


s: And later, doubts and jealousies awaken.


s: And plighted hearts are tempest-tossed, and shaken.


s: Doubt sends a test, that goes a step too far,


s: A wound is made, that, healing, leaves a scar,


s: Or one heart, full with love's sweet satisfaction,


s: Thinks truth once spoken always understood,


s: While one is pining for the tender action


s: And whispered word by which, of old, 'twas wooed.


s: But this blest hour, in love's glad, golden day,


s: Is like the dawning, ere the radiant ray


s: Warm with its fervor, mellow with its light,


s: While Care still slumbers in the arms of night.


s: But Hope, awake, hears happy birdlings sing,


s: And thinks of all a summer day may bring.


s: In this sweet calm, my young heart lay at rest,


s: Filled with a blissful sense of peace; nor guessed


s: That sullen clouds were gathering in the skies


s: To hide the glorious sun, ere it should rise.


s: To little birds that never tire of humming


s: About the garden, in the summer weather,


s: Aunt Ruth compared us, after Helen's coming,


s: As we two roamed, or sat and talked together.


s: Twelve months apart, we had so much to say


s: Of school days gone--and time since passed away;


s: Of that old friend, and this; of what we'd done;


s: Of how our separate paths in life had run;


s: Of what we would do, in the coming years;


s: Of plans and castles, hopes and dreams and fears.


s: All these, and more, as soon as we found speech,


s: We touched upon, and skimmed from this to that


s: But at the first, each only gazed on each,


s: Like lesser joys, to say, "Lo! I rejoice,"


s: With smiling eyes and clasping hands we sat


s: Wrapped in that peace, felt but with those dear,


s: But when this silent eloquence gave place


s: To words, 'twas like the rising of a flood


s: Above a dam. We sat there, face to face,


s: And let our talk glide on where'er it would,


s: Speech never halting in its speed or zest,


s: Save when our rippling laughter let it rest;


s: Just as a stream will sometimes pause and play


s: About a bubbling spring, then dash away.


s: No wonder, then, the third day's sun was nigh


s: Opened our eyes from slumber long and deep:


s: Spent in the portico, among the flowers,


s: Halves of two nights we should have spent in sleep.


s: So this third day, we breakfasted at one:


s: Then walked about the garden in the sun,


s: Hearing the thrushes and the robins sing,


s: And looking to see what buds were opening.


s: The clock chimed three, and we yet strayed at will


s: When Aunt Ruth came, with apron o'er her head,


s: At least his servant brought it. And now, girls,


s: You may think this is no concern of mine,


s: In morning wrappers, and with tangled curls,


s: 'Tis three o'clock, and time for you to dress.


s: Come! read your note and hurry in, Maurine,


s: And make yourself fit object to be seen."


s: And ere she looked up I had read the note,


s: And calmed my heart, that, bounding, sent a flush


s: To brow and cheek, at sight of aught _he_ wrote.


s: "Ma Belle Maurine:" (so Vivian's billet ran,)


s: "Is it not time I saw your cherished guest?


s: Banished from all that makes existence blest.


s: I'm dying to see--your friend; and I will come


s: And pay respects, hoping you'll be at home


s: Inside my belt I slipped the billet, saying,


s: "Helen, go make yourself most fair to see:


s: Quick! hurry now! no time for more delaying!


s: In just five hours a caller will be here,


s: And you must look your prettiest, my dear!


s: How long it takes you to arrange each bow--


s: To twist each curl, and loop your skirts aright.


s: And you must prove you are _au fait_ to-night,


s: And make a perfect toilet: for our caller


s: Is man, and critic, poet, artist, scholar,


s: Cried Helen with a well-feigned look of fear,


s: "You've frightened me so I shall not appear:


s: Of all my friends, my peaceful home I've left,


s: To meet the fate of poor Red Riding Hood.


s: No, Maurine, no! you've given me such a fright,


s: I'll not go near your ugly wolf to-night."


s: Meantime we'd left the garden; and I stood


s: In Helen's room, where she had thrown herself


s: Pouting and smiling, cheek upon her arm,


s: "Now sweet!" I coaxed, and knelt by her, "be good!


s: Go curl your hair; and please your own Maurine,


s: Nor Mephistopheles, you'll meet to-night,


s: But what the ladies call 'a nice young man'!


s: Yet one worth knowing--strong with health and might


s: Of perfect manhood; gifted, noble, wise;


s: And helpful hand; progressive, brave, refined,


s: "Now, now, Maurine!" cried Helen, "I believe


s: Why have you never written of him, pray?


s: Is the day set?--and when? Say, Maurine, say!"


s: The secret love that all my being stirred?


s: My lover? Ay! My heart proclaimed him so;


s: But first _his_ lips must win the sweet confession,


s: I must straightway erase the slight impression


s: I gayly cried, "your fancy's straying wild.


s: Just let a girl of eighteen hear the name


s: Of maid and youth uttered about one time,


s: And off her fancy goes, at break-neck pace,


s: And straightway builds romances so sublime


s: They put all Shakespeare's dramas to the shame.


s: This Vivian Dangerfield is neighbor, friend


s: And kind companion; bringing books and flowers.


s: And, by his thoughtful actions without end,


s: Helping me pass some otherwise long hours;


s: But he has never breathed a word of love.


s: If you still doubt me, listen while I prove


s: My statement by the letter that he wrote.


s: 'Dying to meet--my friend!' (she could not see


s: The dash between that meant so much to me.)


s: 'Will come this eve, at eight, and hopes we may


s: Be in to greet him.' Now I think you'll say


s: 'Tis not much like a lover's tender note."


s: We laugh, we jest, not meaning what we say;


s: We hide our thoughts, by light words lightly spoken,


s: And pass on heedless, till we find one day


s: They've bruised our hearts, or left some other broken.


s: I sought my room, and trilling some blithe air,


s: Opened my wardrobe, wondering what to wear.


s: More than all others, vexing mind of woman,


s: Since that sad day, when in her discontent,


s: To search for leaves, our fair first mother went.


s: My simplest robe, but Vivian's favorite one.


s: And placing a single flowret in my hair,


s: I crossed the hall to Helen's chamber, where


s: I found her with her fair locks all let down,


s: Brushing the kinks out, with a pretty frown.


s: 'T was like a picture, or a pleasing play,


s: To watch her make her toilet. She would stand,


s: And turn her head first this and then that way,


s: Then she would pick up something else, and curve


s: Her lovely neck, with cunning, bird-like grace,


s: And watch the mirror while she put it on,


s: With such a sweetly grave and thoughtful face;


s: And then to view it all would sway, and swerve


s: Her lithe young body, like a graceful swan.


s: Helen was over medium height, and slender


s: Even to frailty. Her great, wistful eyes


s: Were like the deep blue of autumnal skies;


s: And through them looked her soul, large, loving, tender.


s: Her long, light hair was lusterless, except


s: Upon the ends, where burnished sunbeams slept,


s: And on the earlocks; and she looped the curls


s: Back with a shell comb, studded thick with pearls,


s: That night, was heightened by her rich, black dress,


s: That trailed behind her, leaving half in sight


s: Her taper arms, and shoulders marble white.


s: Was shaped and colored like my grandsire's race;


s: For through his veins my own received the warm,


s: Red blood of southern France, which curved my form,


s: And glowed upon my cheek in crimson dyes,


s: And bronzed my hair, and darkled in my eyes.


s: And as the morning trails the skirts of night,


s: And dusky night puts on the garb of morn,


s: So we two glided down the hall and stair,


s: Arm clasping arm, into the parlor, where


s: Sat Vivian, bathed in sunset's gorgeous light.


s: He rose to greet us. Oh! his form was grand;


s: And he possessed that power, strange, occult,


s: Which moves the world, achieving great result


s: Where genius fails completely. Touch his hand,


s: It thrilled through all your being--meet his eye,


s: And you were moved, yet knew not how, or why.


s: Let him but rise, you felt the air was stirred


s: It leads to grand achievements; all things yield


s: Before its mystic presence, and its field


s: Is broad as earth and heaven. But abused,


s: It sweeps like a poison simoon on its course


s: And leaving all it touches struck with death.


s: Far-reaching science shall yet tear away


s: The mystic garb that hides it from the day,


s: And drag it forth and bind it with its laws,


s: We'll hear no more of seance, table-rapping,


s: And all that trash, o'er which the world is gaping,


s: Lost in effect, while science seeks the cause.


s: Or, if he was, knew not its full extent.


s: He knew his glance would make a wild beast cower,


s: And yet he knew not that his large eyes sent


s: Reached forth his hand, and in it clasped my own,


s: While I held Helen's; and he spoke some word


s: Of pleasant greeting in his low, round tone,


s: Just as the white cloud, at the sunrise, glows


s: Of Helen's cheek, like tinted sea-shells grew.


s: Through mine, his hand caused hers to tremble; such


s: Was the all-mast'ring magic of his touch.


s: Then we sat down, and talked about the weather,


s: The neighborhood--some author's last new book.


s: But, when I could, I left the two together


s: To make acquaintance, saying I must look


s: And ran away, and left them, laughing, there.


s: Knee-deep, through clover, to the poplar grove,


s: I waded, where my pets were wont to rove:


s: And there I found the foolish mother hen


s: Brooding her chickens underneath a tree,


s: Quoth I, while reaching for the downy things


s: That, chirping, peeped from out the mother-wings,


s: There waits a haven, pleasant, bright, and warm,


s: And one to lead you thither from the storm


s: And, thinking to be your own protector, stray


s: You thought safe shelter. Go now to your pen."


s: And, followed by the clucking, clamorous hen,


s: Moaning because a strong, protecting arm


s: Would shield her little ones from cold and harm,


s: Of chirping chickens, like white balls of wool,


s: A sound like gentle winds among the trees,


s: Or pleasant waters in the Summer, stirred


s: 'T was Helen singing: and, as I drew near,


s: Mingled with hers, as murmuring streams unite,


s: And flow on stronger in their wedded might.


s: The songs that other people sang. She took


s: Sometimes an extract from an ancient book;


s: Or else composed the music. One of these


s: She sang that night; and Vivian caught the strain,


s: And joined her in the chorus, or refrain,


s: The melody, so full of plaintive chords,


s: Sobbed into silence--echoing down the strings


s: Like voice of one who walks from us, and sings.


s: The while they sang. But, as he spoke those words,


s: "Love, I am near to thee, I come to thee,"


s: He turned his grand head slowly round, and bent


s: His lustrous, soulful, speaking gaze on me.


s: And my young heart, eager to own its king,


s: Sent to my eyes a great, glad, trustful light


s: Of love and faith, and hung upon my cheek


s: Hope's rose-hued flag. There was no need to speak.


s: I crossed the room, and knelt by Helen. "Sing


s: That song you sang a fragment of one night,


s: Out on the porch, beginning, 'Praise me not,'"


s: I whispered: and her sweet and plaintive tone


s: Rose, low and tender, as if she had caught


s: From some sad passing breeze, and made her own,


s: The echo of the wind-harp's sighing strain,


s: O praise me not with your lips, dear one!


s: O chide me not with your lips, dear one!


s: Words, at the best, are but hollow sounds;


s: Then breathe no vow with your lips, dear one;


s: But I read the truth of your noble heart


s: The twilight darkened 'round us, in the room,


s: While Helen sang; and, in the gathering gloom,


s: Vivian reached out, and took my hand in his,


s: And held it so; while Helen made the air


s: Languid with music. Then a step drew near,


s: Why Maurie, Helen, children! how is this?


s: I hear you, but you have no light in there.


s: For folks to visit!--Maurie, go, I pray,


s: And all the sweet dreams hovering around


s: The twilight shadows flitted in affright:


s: In pleasant converse passed an hour away:


s: And Vivian planned a picnic for next day--


s: A drive the next, and rambles without end,


s: That he might help me entertain my friend.


s: And then he rose, bowed low, and passed from sight,


s: Like some great star that drops out from the night;


s: And Helen watched him through the shadows go,


s: And turned and said, her voice subdued and low,


s: "How tall he is! in all my life, Maurine,


s: One golden twelfth-part of a checkered year;


s: One summer month, of sunlight, moonlight, mirth


s: With not a hint of shadows lurking near,


s: With her warm arms, upon her glowing breast,


s: Smiling and panting in his dream-stirred rest.


s: She bound him with her limbs of perfect grace,


s: And hid him with her trailing robe of green,


s: And wound him in her long hair's shimmering sheen,


s: And rained her ardent kisses on his face.


s: Through the glad glory of the summer land


s: Helen and I went wandering, hand in hand.


s: In winding paths, hard by the ripe wheat-field,


s: White with the promise of a bounteous yield,


s: Across the late shorn meadow--down the hill,


s: That like a pretty, placid infant, slept


s: Low at its base: and little ripples crept


s: Along its surface, just as dimples chase


s: Each other o'er an infant's sleeping face


s: A thousand pretty, feminine knick-knacks:


s: For brackets, ottomans, and toilet stands--


s: That morning she had been at work in wax,


s: Molding a wreath of flowers for my room,--


s: Taking her patterns from the living blows,


s: In all their dewy beauty and sweet bloom,


s: Fresh from my garden. Fuchsia, tulip, rose,


s: And trailing ivy, grew beneath her touch,


s: These lacking but the perfume, and that, breath.


s: And now the wreath was all completed, save


s: And 'twas in search of it that we had come


s: Down to the lake, and wandered on the beach,


s: Some broken stalks, where flowers late had been;


s: Some buds, with all their beauties folded in,


s: We found, but not the treasure that we sought


s: And then we turned our footsteps to the spot


s: Where, all impatient of its chain, my boat,


s: "The Swan," rocked, asking to be set afloat


s: It was a dainty row-boat--strong, yet light;


s: Each side a swan was painted snowy white:


s: He sailed, with Death, to that mysterious strand,


s: Where freighted ships go sailing evermore,


s: I freed the "Swan," and slowly rowed about,


s: Wherever sea-weeds, grass, or green leaves lifted


s: Their tips above the water. So we drifted,


s: And watched for lilies in the waves below,


s: And softly crooned some sweet and dreamy air,


s: That soothed me like a mother's lullabies.


s: I dropped the oars, and closed my sun-kissed eyes,


s: And let the boat go drifting here and there.


s: Oh, happy day! the last of that brief time


s: Of thoughtless youth, when all the world seems bright,


s: Leads the sad heart through valleys dark as night,


s: As golden as the summer noontide's beams,


s: "Strange ship, ahoy! Fair frigate, whither bound?"


s: And, starting up, I cast my gaze around,


s: And saw a sail-boat o'er the water glide


s: Close to the "Swan," like some live thing of grace;


s: And from it looked the glowing, handsome face


s: Come sail across the raging main with me!"


s: He laughed; and leaning, drew our drifting boat


s: Beside his own. "There, now! step in!" he said,


s: "I'll land you anywhere you want to go--


s: My boat is safer far than yours, I know:


s: And much more pleasant with its sails all spread.


s: The Swan? We'll take the oars, and let it float


s: Ashore at leisure. You, Maurine, sit there--


s: Miss Helen here. Ye gods and little fishes!


s: I've reached the height of pleasure, and my wishes.


s: 'T was done so quickly: that was Vivian's way.


s: He gave commands, and left you with no choice


s: But just to do the bidding of his voice.


s: His rare, kind smile, low tones, and manly face


s: And winning charm, completely stripping it


s: Of what might otherwise have seemed unfit.


s: That nameless force that seemed to say, "You must."


s: (So named, he said, that it might rhyme with "Swan,")


s: Vivian's sail-boat, was carpeted with blue,


s: While all its sails were of a pale rose hue.


s: The daintiest craft that flirted with the breeze;


s: His room was like some Sultan's in the East.


s: His board was always spread as for a feast.


s: Whereat, each meal, he was both host and guest.


s: He would go hungry sooner than he'd dine


s: To dine within the humble peasant's cot,


s: It was a time for dreams, and not for speech.


s: Helen leaned idly o'er the sail-boat's side,


s: And dipped her rosy fingers in the tide;


s: Half sat, and watched the fleecy clouds at play


s: While Vivian with his blank-book, opposite,


s: In which he seemed to either sketch or write


s: No time, no change, no scene, can e'er efface


s: My mind's impression of that hour and place;


s: It stands out like a picture. O'er the years,


s: Black with their robes of sorrow--veiled with tears,


s: Lying with all their lengthened shapes between,


s: Untouched, undimmed, I still behold that scene.


s: Replete with sunlight, crowned with amber haze,


s: Through all the months of winter we remember.


s: The sun slipped westward. That peculiar change


s: Which creeps into the air, and speaks of night


s: While yet the day is full of golden light,


s: Of dream-fraught silence, throwing down his book:


s: "Young ladies, please allow me to arrange


s: These wraps about your shoulders. I know well


s: Her smile swift followed by a frown or tear,--


s: And go prepared for changes. Now you look,


s: Like--like--oh, where's a pretty simile?


s: In shawling you. Red on the brunette maid;


s: Blue on the blonde--and quite without design


s: (Oh, where _is_ that comparison of mine?)


s: Well--like a June rose and a violet blue


s: And now I crave your patience and a boon,


s: Which is to listen, while I read my rhyme,


s: 'Tis neither witty, wonderful, nor wise,


s: And brought their precious freight to me,


s: Ah, well! the storm-clouds then might frown:


s: Weighed down with gems and wealth untold,


s: I stroked her hair, and watched the fleecy skies,


s: And when he finished, did not turn my eyes.


s: His gaze just then. I said, "'Tis very sweet,


s: And suits the day; does it not, Helen, dear?"


s: But Helen, voiceless, did not seem to hear.


s: "'Tis strange," I added, "how you poets sing


s: So well, it looks a living, breathing real!


s: Now, to a listener, your love song seemed


s: A heart's out-pouring; yet I've heard you say


s: Gained without loss of conscience or good name,


s: Laughed Vivian, "but 'twas years--or months ago!


s: And Solomon says wise men change, you know!


s: I now speak truth! if she I hold most dear


s: Slipped from my life, and no least hope were left,


s: My heart would find the years more lonely here.


s: Than if I were of wealth, fame, friends, bereft,


s: His voice was low, and measured: as he spoke,


s: With that sweet fullness born of love. I turned


s: To hide the blushes on my cheek that burned,


s: And leaning over Helen, breathed her name.


s: She lay so motionless I thought she slept:


s: But, as I spoke, I saw her eyes unclose,


s: And a slight tremor thrilled all through her frame.


s: "Sweet friend," I said, "your face is full of light:


s: What were the dreams that made your eyes so bright?"


s: Threw back the clust'ring ringlets from her face


s: With a quick gesture, full of easy grace,


s: And, turning, spoke to Vivian. "Will you guide


s: The boat up near that little clump of green


s: Off to the right? There's where the lilies grow.


s: We quite forgot our errand here, Maurine,


s: And our few moments have grown into hours.


s: What will Aunt Ruth think of our ling'ring so?


s: There--that will do--now I can reach the flowers."


s: "Hark! just hear that!" and Vivian broke forth singing,


s: "Row, brothers, row." "The six o'clock bell's ringing!


s: I could have sworn not over one had passed.


s: I thank you for the pleasure you have given;


s: This afternoon has been a glimpse of heaven.


s: Good night--sweet dreams! and by your gracious leave,


s: A smile, a bow, and he had gone his way:


s: Down cool, green lanes, and through the length'ning shadows,


s: Silent, we wandered back across the meadows.


s: The wreath was finished, and adorned my room;


s: Long afterward, the lilies' copied bloom


s: Staring upon me morning, noon, and night.


s: The sun went down. The sad new moon rose up,


s: And passed before me, like an empty cup,


s: The Great Unseen brims full of pain or bliss,


s: And gives His children, saying, "Drink of this."


s: A light wind, from the open casement, fanned


s: My brow and Helen's, as we, hand in hand,