1. ۱You're my friend:
2. ۲ I was the man the Duke spoke to;
3. ۳ I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too;
4. ۴So here's the tale from beginning to end,
5. ۵My friend!
6. ۶
7. ۷Ours is a great wild country:
8. ۸ If you climb to our castle's top,
9. ۹ I don't see where your eye can stop;
10. ۱۰For when you've passed the cornfield country,
11. ۱۱Where vineyards leave off, flocks are packed,
12. ۱۲And sheep-range leads to cattle-tract,
13. ۱۳And cattle-tract to open-chase,
14. ۱۴And open-chase to the very base
15. ۱۵Of the mountain where, at a funeral pace,
16. ۱۶Round about, solemn and slow,
17. ۱۷One by one, row after row,
18. ۱۸Up and up the pine-trees go,
19. ۱۹So, like black priests up, and so
20. ۲۰Down the other side again
21. ۲۱ To another greater, wilder country,
22. ۲۲That's one vast red drear burnt-up plain,
23. ۲۳Branched through and through with many a vein
24. ۲۴Whence iron's dug, and copper's dealt;
25. ۲۵ Look right, look left, look straight before--
26. ۲۶Beneath they mine, above they smelt,
27. ۲۷ Copper-ore and iron-ore,
28. ۲۸And forge and furnace mould and melt,
29. ۲۹ And so on, more and ever more,
30. ۳۰Till at the last, for a bounding belt,
31. ۳۱ Comes the salt sand hoar of the great sea shore
32. ۳۲--And the whole is our Duke's country.
33. ۳۳
34. ۳۴I was born the day this present Duke was--
35. ۳۵ (And O, says the song, ere I was old!)
36. ۳۶In the castle where the other Duke was--
37. ۳۷ (When I was happy and young, not old!)
38. ۳۸I in the kennel, he in the bower:
39. ۳۹We are of like age to an hour.
40. ۴۰My father was huntsman in that day;
41. ۴۱Who has not heard my father say
42. ۴۲That, when a boar was brought to bay,
43. ۴۳Three times, four times out of five,
44. ۴۴With his huntspear he'd contrive
45. ۴۵To get the killing-place transfixed,
46. ۴۶And pin him true, both eyes betwixt?
47. ۴۷And that's why the old Duke would rather
48. ۴۸He lost a salt-pit than my father,
49. ۴۹And loved to have him ever in call;
50. ۵۰That's why my father stood in the hall
51. ۵۱When the old Duke brought his infant out
52. ۵۲ To show the people, and while they passed
53. ۵۳The wondrous bantling round about,
54. ۵۴ Was first to start at the outside blast
55. ۵۵As the Kaiser's courier blew his horn
56. ۵۶Just a month after the babe was born.
57. ۵۷"And," quoth the Kaiser's courier," since
58. ۵۸The Duke has got an heir, our Prince
59. ۵۹ Needs the Duke's self at his side:"
60. ۶۰The Duke looked down and seemed to wince,
61. ۶۱ But he thought of wars o'er the world wide,
62. ۶۲Castles a-fire, men on their march,
63. ۶۳The toppling tower, the crashing arch;
64. ۶۴ And up he looked, and awhile he eyed
65. ۶۵The row of crests and shields and banners
66. ۶۶Of all achievements after all manners,
67. ۶۷ And "ay," said the Duke with a surly pride.
68. ۶۸ The more was his comfort when he died
69. ۶۹At next year's end, in a velvet suit,
70. ۷۰With a gilt glove on his hand, his foot
71. ۷۱In a silken shoe for a leather boot,
72. ۷۲Petticoated like a herald,
73. ۷۳ In a chamber next to an ante-room,
74. ۷۴ Where he breathed the breath of page and groom,
75. ۷۵ What he called stink, and they, perfume:
76. ۷۶--They should have set him on red Berold
77. ۷۷Mad with pride, like fire to manage!
78. ۷۸They should have got his cheek fresh tannage
79. ۷۹Such a day as to-day in the merry sunshine!
80. ۸۰Had they stuck on his fist a rough-foot merlin!
81. ۸۱(Hark, the wind's on the heath at its game!
82. ۸۲Oh for a noble falcon-lanner
83. ۸۳To flap each broad wing like a banner,
84. ۸۴And turn in the wind, and dance like flame!)
85. ۸۵Had they broached a white-beer cask from Berlin
86. ۸۶--Or if you incline to prescribe mere wine
87. ۸۷Put to his lips, when they saw him pine,
88. ۸۸A cup of our own Moldavia fine,
89. ۸۹Cotnar for instance, green as May sorrel
90. ۹۰And ropy with sweet--we shall not quarrel.
91. ۹۱
92. ۹۲So, at home, the sick tall yellow Duchess
93. ۹۳Was left with the infant in her clutches,
94. ۹۴She being the daughter of God knows who:
95. ۹۵ And now was the time to revisit her tribe.
96. ۹۶Abroad and afar they went, the two,
97. ۹۷ And let our people rail and gibe
98. ۹۸At the empty hall and extinguished fire,
99. ۹۹ As loud as we liked, but ever in vain,
100. ۱۰۰Till after long years we had our desire,
101. ۱۰۱ And back came the Duke and his mother again.
102. ۱۰۲
103. ۱۰۳And he came back the pertest little ape
104. ۱۰۴That ever affronted human shape;
105. ۱۰۵Full of his travel, struck at himself.
106. ۱۰۶ You'd say, he despised our bluff old ways?
107. ۱۰۷--Not he! For in Paris they told the elf
108. ۱۰۸ Our rough North land was the Land of Lays,
109. ۱۰۹ The one good thing left in evil days;
110. ۱۱۰Since the Mid-Age was the Heroic Time,
111. ۱۱۱ And only in wild nooks like ours
112. ۱۱۲Could you taste of it yet as in its prime,
113. ۱۱۳ And see true castles, with proper towers,
114. ۱۱۴Young-hearted women, old-minded men,
115. ۱۱۵And manners now as manners were then.
116. ۱۱۶So, all that the old Dukes had been, without knowing it,
117. ۱۱۷This Duke would fain know he was, without being it;
118. ۱۱۸'Twas not for the joy's self, but the joy of his showing it,
119. ۱۱۹Nor for the pride's self, but the pride of our seeing it,
120. ۱۲۰He revived all usages thoroughly worn-out,
121. ۱۲۱The souls of them fumed-forth, the hearts of them torn-out:
122. ۱۲۲And chief in the chase his neck he perilled
123. ۱۲۳On a lathy horse, all legs and length,
124. ۱۲۴With blood for bone, all speed, no strength;
125. ۱۲۵--They should have set him on red Berold
126. ۱۲۶With the red eye slow consuming in fire,
127. ۱۲۷And the thin stiff ear like an abbey-spire!
128. ۱۲۸
129. ۱۲۹Well, such as he was, he must marry, we heard:
130. ۱۳۰And out of a convent, at the word,
131. ۱۳۱Came the lady, in time of spring.
132. ۱۳۲--Oh, old thoughts they cling, they cling!
133. ۱۳۳That day, I know, with a dozen oaths
134. ۱۳۴I clad myself in thick hunting-clothes
135. ۱۳۵Fit for the chase of urochs or buffle
136. ۱۳۶In winter-time when you need to muffle.
137. ۱۳۷But the Duke had a mind we should cut a figure,
138. ۱۳۸ And so we saw the lady arrive:
139. ۱۳۹My friend, I have seen a white crane bigger!
140. ۱۴۰ She was the smallest lady alive,
141. ۱۴۱Made in a piece of nature's madness,
142. ۱۴۲Too small, almost, for the life and gladness
143. ۱۴۳ That over-filled her, as some hive
144. ۱۴۴Out of the bears' reach on the high trees
145. ۱۴۵Is crowded with its safe merry bees:
146. ۱۴۶In truth, she was not hard to please!
147. ۱۴۷Up she looked, down she looked, round at the mead,
148. ۱۴۸Straight at the castle, that's best indeed
149. ۱۴۹To look at from outside the walls:
150. ۱۵۰As for us, styled the "serfs and thralls,"
151. ۱۵۱She as much thanked me as if she had said it,
152. ۱۵۲ (With her eyes, do you understand?)
153. ۱۵۳Because I patted her horse while I led it;
154. ۱۵۴ And Max, who rode on her other hand,
155. ۱۵۵Said, no bird flew past but she inquired
156. ۱۵۶What its true name was, nor ever seemed tired--
157. ۱۵۷If that was an eagle she saw hover,
158. ۱۵۸And the green and grey bird on the field was the plover.
159. ۱۵۹When suddenly appeared the Duke:
160. ۱۶۰ And as down she sprung, the small foot pointed
161. ۱۶۱On to my hand,--as with a rebuke,
162. ۱۶۲ And as if his backbone were not jointed,
163. ۱۶۳The Duke stepped rather aside than forward
164. ۱۶۴ And welcomed her with his grandest smile;
165. ۱۶۵ And, mind you, his mother all the while
166. ۱۶۶Chilled in the rear, like a wind to Nor'ward;
167. ۱۶۷And up, like a weary yawn, with its pullies
168. ۱۶۸Went, in a shriek, the rusty portcullis;
169. ۱۶۹And, like a glad sky the north-wind sullies,
170. ۱۷۰The lady's face stopped its play,
171. ۱۷۱As if her first hair had grown grey;
172. ۱۷۲For such things must begin some one day.
173. ۱۷۳
174. ۱۷۴In a day or two she was well again;
175. ۱۷۵As who should say, "You labour in vain!
176. ۱۷۶This is all a jest against God, who meant
177. ۱۷۷I should ever be, as I am, content
178. ۱۷۸And glad in his sight; therefore, glad I will be."
179. ۱۷۹So, smiling as at first went she.
180. ۱۸۰
181. ۱۸۱She was active, stirring, all fire--
182. ۱۸۲Could not rest, could not tire--
183. ۱۸۳To a stone she might have given life!
184. ۱۸۴ (I myself loved once, in my day)
185. ۱۸۵--For a shepherd's, miner's, huntsman's wife,
186. ۱۸۶ (I had a wife, I know what I say)
187. ۱۸۷Never in all the world such an one!
188. ۱۸۸And here was plenty to be done,
189. ۱۸۹And she that could do it, great or small,
190. ۱۹۰She was to do nothing at all.
191. ۱۹۱There was already this man in his post,
192. ۱۹۲ This in his station, and that in his office,
193. ۱۹۳And the Duke's plan admitted a wife, at most,
194. ۱۹۴ To meet his eye, with the other trophies,
195. ۱۹۵Now outside the hall, now in it,
196. ۱۹۶ To sit thus, stand thus, see and be seen,
197. ۱۹۷At the proper place in the proper minute,
198. ۱۹۸ And die away the life between.
199. ۱۹۹And it was amusing enough, each infraction
200. ۲۰۰ Of rule--(but for after-sadness that came)
201. ۲۰۱To hear the consummate self-satisfaction
202. ۲۰۲ With which the young Duke and the old dame
203. ۲۰۳Would let her advise, and criticise,
204. ۲۰۴And, being a fool, instruct the wise,
205. ۲۰۵ And, child-like, parcel out praise or blame:
206. ۲۰۶They bore it all in complacent guise,
207. ۲۰۷As though an artificer, after contriving
208. ۲۰۸A wheel-work image as if it were living,
209. ۲۰۹Should find with delight it could motion to strike him!
210. ۲۱۰So found the Duke, and his mother like him:
211. ۲۱۱The lady hardly got a rebuff--
212. ۲۱۲That had not been contemptuous enough,
213. ۲۱۳With his cursed smirk, as he nodded applause,
214. ۲۱۴And kept off the old mother-cat's claws.
215. ۲۱۵
216. ۲۱۶So, the little lady grew silent and thin,
217. ۲۱۷ Paling and ever paling,
218. ۲۱۸As the way is with a hid chagrin;
219. ۲۱۹ And the Duke perceived that she was ailing,
220. ۲۲۰And said in his heart, "'Tis done to spite me,
221. ۲۲۱But I shall find in my power to right me!"
222. ۲۲۲Don't swear, friend! The old one, many a year,
223. ۲۲۳Is in hell, and the Duke's self... you shall hear.
224. ۲۲۴
225. ۲۲۵Well, early in autumn, at first winter-warning,
226. ۲۲۶When the stag had to break with his foot, of a morning,
227. ۲۲۷A drinking-hole out of the fresh tender ice
228. ۲۲۸That covered the pond till the sun, in a trice,
229. ۲۲۹Loosening it, let out a ripple of gold,
230. ۲۳۰ And another and another, and faster and faster
231. ۲۳۱Till, dimpling to blindness, the wide water rolled:
232. ۲۳۲ Then it so chanced that the Duke our master
233. ۲۳۳Asked himself what were the pleasures in season,
234. ۲۳۴ And found, since the calendar bade him be hearty,
235. ۲۳۵He should do the Middle Age no treason
236. ۲۳۶ In resolving on a hunting-party.
237. ۲۳۷Always provided, old books showed the way of it!
238. ۲۳۸ What meant old poets by their strictures?
239. ۲۳۹And when old poets had said their say of it,
240. ۲۴۰ How taught old painters in their pictures?
241. ۲۴۱We must revert to the proper channels,
242. ۲۴۲Workings in tapestry, paintings on panels,
243. ۲۴۳And gather up woodcraft's authentic traditions:
244. ۲۴۴Here was food for our various ambitions,
245. ۲۴۵As on each case, exactly stated--
246. ۲۴۶ To encourage your dog, now, the properest chirrup
247. ۲۴۷ Or best prayer to Saint Hubert on mounting your stirrup--
248. ۲۴۸We of the household took thought and debated.
249. ۲۴۹Blessed was he whose back ached with the jerkin
250. ۲۵۰His sire was wont to do forest-work in;
251. ۲۵۱Blesseder he who nobly sunk "ohs"
252. ۲۵۲And "ahs" while he tugged on his grandsire's trunk-hose;
253. ۲۵۳What signified hats if they had no rims on,
254. ۲۵۴ Each slouching before and behind like the scallop,
255. ۲۵۵ And able to serve at sea for a shallop,
256. ۲۵۶Loaded with lacquer and looped with crimson?
257. ۲۵۷So that the deer now, to make a short rhyme on't,
258. ۲۵۸ What with our Venerers, Prickers and Verderers,
259. ۲۵۹ Might hope for real hunters at length and not murderers,
260. ۲۶۰And oh the Duke's tailor, he had a hot time on't!
261. ۲۶۱
262. ۲۶۲Now you must know that when the first dizziness
263. ۲۶۳ Of flap-hats and buff-coats and jack-boots subsided,
264. ۲۶۴ The Duke put this question, "The Duke's part provided,
265. ۲۶۵Had not the Duchess some share in the business?"
266. ۲۶۶For out of the mouth of two or three witnesses
267. ۲۶۷Did he establish all fit-or-unfitnesses:
268. ۲۶۸And, after much laying of heads together,
269. ۲۶۹Somebody's cap got a notable feather
270. ۲۷۰By the announcement with proper unction
271. ۲۷۱That he had discovered the lady's function;
272. ۲۷۲Since ancient authors gave this tenet,
273. ۲۷۳ "When horns wind a mort and the deer is at siege,
274. ۲۷۴Let the dame of the castle prick forth on her jennet,
275. ۲۷۵ And with water to wash the hands of her liege
276. ۲۷۶In a clean ewer with a fair toweling,
277. ۲۷۷Let her preside at the disemboweling."
278. ۲۷۸Now, my friend, if you had so little religion
279. ۲۷۹ As to catch a hawk, some falcon-lanner,
280. ۲۸۰ And thrust her broad wings like a banner
281. ۲۸۱Into a coop for a vulgar pigeon;
282. ۲۸۲And if day by day and week by week
283. ۲۸۳ You cut her claws, and sealed her eyes,
284. ۲۸۴And clipped her wings, and tied her beak,
285. ۲۸۵ Would it cause you any great surprise
286. ۲۸۶If, when you decided to give her an airing,
287. ۲۸۷You found she needed a little preparing?
288. ۲۸۸--I say, should you be such a curmudgeon,
289. ۲۸۹If she clung to the perch, as to take it in dudgeon?
290. ۲۹۰Yet when the Duke to his lady signified,
291. ۲۹۱Just a day before, as he judged most dignified,
292. ۲۹۲In what a pleasure she was to participate,--
293. ۲۹۳ And, instead of leaping wide in flashes,
294. ۲۹۴ Her eyes just lifted their long lashes,
295. ۲۹۵As if pressed by fatigue even he could not dissipate,
296. ۲۹۶And duly acknowledged the Duke's fore-thought,
297. ۲۹۷But spoke of her health, if her health were worth aught,
298. ۲۹۸Of the weight by day and the watch by night,
299. ۲۹۹And much wrong now that used to be right,
300. ۳۰۰So, thanking him, declined the hunting--
301. ۳۰۱Was conduct ever more affronting?
302. ۳۰۲With all the ceremony settled--
303. ۳۰۳ With the towel ready, and the sewer
304. ۳۰۴ Polishing up his oldest ewer,
305. ۳۰۵ And the jennet pitched upon, a piebald,
306. ۳۰۶ Black-barred, cream-coated and pink eye-balled--
307. ۳۰۷No wonder if the Duke was nettled!
308. ۳۰۸And when she persisted nevertheless,--
309. ۳۰۹Well, I suppose here's the time to confess
310. ۳۱۰That there ran half round our lady's chamber
311. ۳۱۱A balcony none of the hardest to clamber;
312. ۳۱۲And that Jacynth the tire-woman, ready in waiting,
313. ۳۱۳
314. ۳۱۴Stayed in call outside, what need of relating?
315. ۳۱۵And since Jacynth was like a June rose, why, a fervent
316. ۳۱۶Adorer of Jacynth of course was your servant;
317. ۳۱۷And if she had the habit to peep through the casement,
318. ۳۱۸ How could I keep at any vast distance?
319. ۳۱۹ And so, as I say, on the lady's persistence,
320. ۳۲۰The Duke, dumb-stricken with amazement,
321. ۳۲۱Stood for a while in a sultry smother,
322. ۳۲۲ And then, with a smile that partook of the awful,
323. ۳۲۳Turned her over to his yellow mother
324. ۳۲۴ To learn what was held decorous and lawful;
325. ۳۲۵And the mother smelt blood with a cat-like instinct,
326. ۳۲۶As her cheek quick whitened thro' all its quince-tinct.
327. ۳۲۷Oh, but the lady heard the whole truth at once!
328. ۳۲۸What meant she?--Who was she?--Her duty and station,
329. ۳۲۹The wisdom of age and the folly of youth, at once,
330. ۳۳۰ Its decent regard and its fitting relation--
331. ۳۳۱In brief, my friend, set all the devils in hell free
332. ۳۳۲And turn them out to carouse in a belfry
333. ۳۳۳And treat the priests to a fifty-part canon,
334. ۳۳۴And then you may guess how that tongue of hers ran on!
335. ۳۳۵Well, somehow or other it ended at last
336. ۳۳۶And, licking her whiskers, out she passed;
337. ۳۳۷And after her,--making (he hoped) a face
338. ۳۳۸ Like Emperor Nero or Sultan Saladin,
339. ۳۳۹Stalked the Duke's self with the austere grace
340. ۳۴۰ Of ancient hero or modern paladin,
341. ۳۴۱From door to staircase--oh such a solemn
342. ۳۴۲Unbending of the vertebral column!
343. ۳۴۳
344. ۳۴۴However, at sunrise our company mustered;
345. ۳۴۵ And here was the huntsman bidding unkennel,
346. ۳۴۶And there 'neath his bonnet the pricker blustered,
347. ۳۴۷ With feather dank as a bough of wet fennel;
348. ۳۴۸For the court-yard walls were filled with fog
349. ۳۴۹You might have cut as an axe chops a log--
350. ۳۵۰Like so much wool for colour and bulkiness;
351. ۳۵۱And out rode the Duke in a perfect sulkiness,
352. ۳۵۲Since, before breakfast, a man feels but queasily
353. ۳۵۳ And a sinking at the lower abdomen
354. ۳۵۴ Begins the day with indifferent omen.
355. ۳۵۵And lo, as he looked around uneasily,
356. ۳۵۶The sun ploughed the fog up and drove it asunder
357. ۳۵۷This way and that from the valley under;
358. ۳۵۸ And, looking through the court-yard arch,
359. ۳۵۹Down in the valley, what should meet him
360. ۳۶۰ But a troop of Gipsies on their march?
361. ۳۶۱No doubt with the annual gifts to greet him.
362. ۳۶۲
363. ۳۶۳Now, in your land, Gipsies reach you, only
364. ۳۶۴ After reaching all lands beside;
365. ۳۶۵North they go, South they go, trooping or lonely
366. ۳۶۶ And still, as they travel far and wide,
367. ۳۶۷Catch they and keep now a trace here, a trace there,
368. ۳۶۸That puts you in mind of a place here, a place there.
369. ۳۶۹But with us, I believe they rise out of the ground,
370. ۳۷۰And nowhere else, I take it, are found
371. ۳۷۱With the earth-tint yet so freshly embrowned:
372. ۳۷۲Born, no doubt, like insects which breed on
373. ۳۷۳The very fruit they are meant to feed on.
374. ۳۷۴For the earth-not a use to which they don't turn it,
375. ۳۷۵ The ore that grows in the mountain's womb,
376. ۳۷۶ Or the sand in the pits like a honeycomb,
377. ۳۷۷They sift and soften it, bake it and burn it--
378. ۳۷۸Whether they weld you, for instance, a snaffle
379. ۳۷۹With side-bars never a brute can baffle;
380. ۳۸۰Or a lock that's a puzzle of wards within wards;
381. ۳۸۱Or, if your colt's fore-foot inclines to curve inwards,
382. ۳۸۲Horseshoes they hammer which turn on a swivel
383. ۳۸۳And won't allow the hoof to shrivel.
384. ۳۸۴Then they cast bells like the shell of the winkle
385. ۳۸۵That keep a stout heart in the ram with their tinkle;
386. ۳۸۶But the sand-they pinch and pound it like otters;
387. ۳۸۷Commend me to Gipsy glass-makers and potters!
388. ۳۸۸Glasses they'll blow you, crystal-clear,
389. ۳۸۹Where just a faint cloud of rose shall appear,
390. ۳۹۰As if in pure water you dropped and let die
391. ۳۹۱A bruised black-blooded mulberry;
392. ۳۹۲And that other sort, their crowning pride,
393. ۳۹۳With long white threads distinct inside,
394. ۳۹۴Like the lake-flower's fibrous roots which dangle
395. ۳۹۵Loose such a length and never tangle,
396. ۳۹۶Where the bold sword-lily cuts the clear waters,
397. ۳۹۷And the cup-lily couches with all the white daughters:
398. ۳۹۸Such are the works they put their hand to,
399. ۳۹۹The uses they turn and twist iron and sand to.
400. ۴۰۰And these made the troop, which our Duke saw sally
401. ۴۰۱Toward his castle from out of the valley,
402. ۴۰۲Men and women, like new-hatched spiders,
403. ۴۰۳Come out with the morning to greet our riders.
404. ۴۰۴And up they wound till they reached the ditch,
405. ۴۰۵Whereat all stopped save one, a witch
406. ۴۰۶That I knew, as she hobbled from the group,
407. ۴۰۷By her gait directly and her stoop,
408. ۴۰۸I, whom Jacynth was used to importune
409. ۴۰۹To let that same witch tell us our fortune.
410. ۴۱۰The oldest Gipsy then above ground;
411. ۴۱۱And, sure as the autumn season came round,
412. ۴۱۲She paid us a visit for profit or pastime,
413. ۴۱۳And every time, as she swore, for the last time.
414. ۴۱۴
415. ۴۱۵And presently she was seen to sidle
416. ۴۱۶Up to the Duke till she touched his bridle,
417. ۴۱۷So that the horse of a sudden reared up
418. ۴۱۸As under its nose the old witch peered up
419. ۴۱۹With her worn-out eyes, or rather eye-holes
420. ۴۲۰ Of no use now but to gather brine,
421. ۴۲۱ And began a kind of level whine
422. ۴۲۲Such as they used to sing to their viols
423. ۴۲۳When their ditties they go grinding
424. ۴۲۴Up and down with nobody minding
425. ۴۲۵And then, as of old, at the end of the humming
426. ۴۲۶Her usual presents were forthcoming
427. ۴۲۷--A dog-whistle blowing the fiercest of trebles,
428. ۴۲۸(Just a sea-shore stone holding a dozen fine pebbles)
429. ۴۲۹Or a porcelain mouth-piece to screw on a pipe-end--
430. ۴۳۰And so she awaited her annual stipend.
431. ۴۳۱But this time, the Duke would scarcely vouchsafe
432. ۴۳۲ A word in reply; and in vain she felt
433. ۴۳۳ With twitching fingers at her belt
434. ۴۳۴ For the purse of sleek pine-martin pelt,
435. ۴۳۵Ready to put what he gave in her pouch safe--
436. ۴۳۶Till, either to quicken his apprehension,
437. ۴۳۷Or possibly with an after-intention,
438. ۴۳۸She was come, she said, to pay her duty
439. ۴۳۹To the new Duchess, the youthful beauty.
440. ۴۴۰No sooner had she named his lady,
441. ۴۴۱Than a shine lit up the face so shady,
442. ۴۴۲And its smirk returned with a novel meaning--
443. ۴۴۳For it struck him, the babe just wanted weaning;
444. ۴۴۴If one gave her a taste of what life was and sorrow,
445. ۴۴۵She, foolish today, would be wiser tomorrow;
446. ۴۴۶And who so fit a teacher of trouble
447. ۴۴۷As this sordid crone bent well-nigh double?
448. ۴۴۸So, glancing at her wolf-skin vesture,
449. ۴۴۹ (If such it was, for they grow so hirsute
450. ۴۵۰ That their own fleece serves for natural fur-suit)
451. ۴۵۱He was contrasting, 'twas plain from his gesture,
452. ۴۵۲The life of the lady so flower-like and delicate
453. ۴۵۳With the loathsome squalor of this helicat.
454. ۴۵۴I, in brief, was the man the Duke beckoned
455. ۴۵۵ From out of the throng, and while I drew near
456. ۴۵۶He told the crone-as I since have reckoned
457. ۴۵۷ By the way he bent and spoke into her ear
458. ۴۵۸With circumspection and mystery--
459. ۴۵۹The main of the lady's history,
460. ۴۶۰Her frowardness and ingratitude:
461. ۴۶۱And for all the crone's submissive attitude
462. ۴۶۲I could see round her mouth the loose plaits tightening,
463. ۴۶۳And her brow with assenting intelligence brightening
464. ۴۶۴ As though she engaged with hearty goodwill
465. ۴۶۵ Whatever he now might enjoin to fulfil,
466. ۴۶۶And promised the lady a thorough frightening.
467. ۴۶۷
468. ۴۶۸And so, just giving her a glimpse
469. ۴۶۹Of a purse, with the air of a man who imps
470. ۴۷۰The wing of the hawk that shall fetch the hernshaw,
471. ۴۷۱ He bade me take the Gipsy mother
472. ۴۷۲ And set her telling some story or other
473. ۴۷۳Of hill or dale, oak-wood or fernshaw,
474. ۴۷۴To wile away a weary hour
475. ۴۷۵For the lady left alone in her bower,
476. ۴۷۶Whose mind and body craved exertion
477. ۴۷۷And yet shrank from all better diversion.
478. ۴۷۸
479. ۴۷۹Then clapping heel to his horse, the mere curveter,
480. ۴۸۰ Out rode the Duke, and after his hollo
481. ۴۸۱Horses and hounds swept, huntsman and servitor,
482. ۴۸۲ And back I turned and bade the crone follow.
483. ۴۸۳And what makes me confident what's to be told you
484. ۴۸۴ Had all along been of this crone's devising,
485. ۴۸۵Is, that, on looking round sharply, behold you,
486. ۴۸۶ There was a novelty quick as surprising:
487. ۴۸۷For first, she had shot up a full head in stature,
488. ۴۸۸ And her step kept pace with mine nor faltered,
489. ۴۸۹As if age had foregone its usurpature,
490. ۴۹۰ And the ignoble mien was wholly altered,
491. ۴۹۱And the face looked quite of another nature,
492. ۴۹۲And the change reached too, whatever the change meant,
493. ۴۹۳Her shaggy wolf-skin cloak's arrangement:
494. ۴۹۴For where its tatters hung loose like sedges,
495. ۴۹۵Gold coins were glittering on the edges,
496. ۴۹۶Like the band-roll strung with tomans
497. ۴۹۷Which proves the veil a Persian woman's:
498. ۴۹۸And under her brow, like a snail's horns newly
499. ۴۹۹ Come out as after the rain he paces,
500. ۵۰۰Two unmistakeable eye-points duly
501. ۵۰۱ Live and aware looked out of their places.
502. ۵۰۲So, we went and found Jacynth at the entry
503. ۵۰۳Of the lady's chamber standing sentry;
504. ۵۰۴I told the command and produced my companion,
505. ۵۰۵And Jacynth rejoiced to admit any one,
506. ۵۰۶For since last night, by the same token,
507. ۵۰۷Not a single word had the lady spoken:
508. ۵۰۸They went in both to the presence together,
509. ۵۰۹While I in the balcony watched the weather.
510. ۵۱۰
511. ۵۱۱And now, what took place at the very first of all,
512. ۵۱۲I cannot tell, as I never could learn it:
513. ۵۱۳Jacynth constantly wished a curse to fall
514. ۵۱۴On that little head of hers and burn it
515. ۵۱۵If she knew how she came to drop so soundly
516. ۵۱۶ Asleep of a sudden and there continue
517. ۵۱۷The whole time sleeping as profoundly
518. ۵۱۸ As one of the boars my father would pin you
519. ۵۱۹'Twixt the eyes where life holds garrison,
520. ۵۲۰--Jacynth forgive me the comparison!
521. ۵۲۱But where I begin my own narration
522. ۵۲۲Is a little after I took my station
523. ۵۲۳To breathe the fresh air from the balcony,
524. ۵۲۴And, having in those days a falcon eye,
525. ۵۲۵To follow the hunt thro' the open country,
526. ۵۲۶ From where the bushes thinlier crested
527. ۵۲۷The hillocks, to a plain where's not one tree.
528. ۵۲۸ When, in a moment, my ear was arrested
529. ۵۲۹By--was it singing, or was it saying,
530. ۵۳۰Or a strange musical instrument playing
531. ۵۳۱In the chamber?--and to be certain
532. ۵۳۲I pushed the lattice, pulled the curtain,
533. ۵۳۳And there lay Jacynth asleep,
534. ۵۳۴Yet as if a watch she tried to keep,
535. ۵۳۵In a rosy sleep along the floor
536. ۵۳۶With her head against the door;
537. ۵۳۷While in the midst, on the seat of state,
538. ۵۳۸Was a queen-the Gipsy woman late,
539. ۵۳۹With head and face downbent
540. ۵۴۰On the lady's head and face intent:
541. ۵۴۱For, coiled at her feet like a child at ease,
542. ۵۴۲The lady sat between her knees
543. ۵۴۳And o'er them the lady's clasped hands met,
544. ۵۴۴And on those hands her chin was set,
545. ۵۴۵And her upturned face met the face of the crone
546. ۵۴۶Wherein the eyes had grown and grown
547. ۵۴۷As if she could double and quadruple
548. ۵۴۸At pleasure the play of either pupil
549. ۵۴۹ --Very like, by her hands' slow fanning,
550. ۵۵۰As up and down like a gor-crow's flappers
551. ۵۵۱They moved to measure, or bell-clappers.
552. ۵۵۲ I said, "Is it blessing, is it banning,
553. ۵۵۳Do they applaud you or burlesque you--
554. ۵۵۴ Those hands and fingers with no flesh on?"
555. ۵۵۵But, just as I thought to spring in to the rescue,
556. ۵۵۶ At once I was stopped by the lady's expression:
557. ۵۵۷For it was life her eyes were drinking
558. ۵۵۸From the crone's wide pair above unwinking,
559. ۵۵۹--Life's pure fire received without shrinking,
560. ۵۶۰Into the heart and ... whose heaving
561. ۵۶۱Told you no single drop they were leaving,
562. ۵۶۲--Life, that filling her, passed redundant
563. ۵۶۳Into her very hair, back swerving
564. ۵۶۴Over each shoulder, loose and abundant,
565. ۵۶۵ As her head thrown back showed the white throat curving;
566. ۵۶۶And the very tresses shared in the pleasure,
567. ۵۶۷Moving to the mystic measure,
568. ۵۶۸Bounding as the bosom bounded.
569. ۵۶۹I stopped short, more and more confounded,
570. ۵۷۰As still her cheeks burned and eyes glistened,
571. ۵۷۱As she listened and she listened:
572. ۵۷۲When all at once a hand detained me,
573. ۵۷۳The selfsame contagion gained me,
574. ۵۷۴And I kept time to the wondrous chime,
575. ۵۷۵Making out words and prose and rhyme,
576. ۵۷۶Till it seemed that the music furled
577. ۵۷۷ Its wings like a task fulfilled, and dropped
578. ۵۷۸ From under the words it first had propped,
579. ۵۷۹And left them midway in the world:
580. ۵۸۰Word took word as hand takes hand
581. ۵۸۱I could hear at last, and understand,
582. ۵۸۲And when I held the unbroken thread,
583. ۵۸۳The Gipsy said:
584. ۵۸۴"And so at last we find my tribe.
585. ۵۸۵ And so I set thee in the midst,
586. ۵۸۶And to one and all of them describe
587. ۵۸۷ What thou saidst and what thou didst,
588. ۵۸۸Our long and terrible journey through,
589. ۵۸۹And all thou art ready to say and do
590. ۵۹۰In the trials that remain:
591. ۵۹۱I trace them the vein and the other vein
592. ۵۹۲That meet on thy brow and part again,
593. ۵۹۳Making our rapid mystic mark;
594. ۵۹۴ And I bid my people prove and probe
595. ۵۹۵ Each eye's profound and glorious globe
596. ۵۹۶Till they detect the kindred spark
597. ۵۹۷In those depths so dear and dark,
598. ۵۹۸Like the spots that snap and burst and flee,
599. ۵۹۹Circling over the midnight sea.
600. ۶۰۰And on that round young cheek of thine
601. ۶۰۱ I make them recognize the tinge,
602. ۶۰۲As when of the costly scarlet wine
603. ۶۰۳ They drip so much as will impinge
604. ۶۰۴And spread in a thinnest scale afloat
605. ۶۰۵One thick gold drop from the olive's coat
606. ۶۰۶Over a silver plate whose sheen
607. ۶۰۷Still thro' the mixture shall be seen.
608. ۶۰۸For so I prove thee, to one and all,
609. ۶۰۹ Fit, when my people ope their ...,
610. ۶۱۰To see the sign, and hear the call,
611. ۶۱۱ And take the vow, and stand the test
612. ۶۱۲ Which adds one more child to the rest--
613. ۶۱۳When the ... is bare and the arms are wide,
614. ۶۱۴And the world is left outside.
615. ۶۱۵
616. ۶۱۶For there is probation to decree,
617. ۶۱۷And many and long must the trials be
618. ۶۱۸Thou shalt victoriously endure,
619. ۶۱۹If that brow is true and those eyes are sure;
620. ۶۲۰Like a jewel-finder's fierce assay
621. ۶۲۱ Of the prize he dug from its mountain tomb--
622. ۶۲۲Let once the vindicating ray
623. ۶۲۳ Leap out amid the anxious gloom,
624. ۶۲۴And steel and fire have done their part
625. ۶۲۵And the prize falls on its finder's heart;
626. ۶۲۶So, trial after trial past,
627. ۶۲۷Wilt thou fall at the very last
628. ۶۲۸Breathless, half in trance
629. ۶۲۹With the thrill of the great deliverance,
630. ۶۳۰ Into our arms for evermore;
631. ۶۳۱And thou shalt know, those arms once curled
632. ۶۳۲ About thee, what we knew before,
633. ۶۳۳How love is the only good in the world.
634. ۶۳۴Henceforth be loved as heart can love,
635. ۶۳۵Or brain devise, or hand approve!
636. ۶۳۶Stand up, look below,
637. ۶۳۷It is our life at thy feet we throw
638. ۶۳۸To step with into light and joy;
639. ۶۳۹Not a power of life but we employ
640. ۶۴۰To satisfy thy nature's want;
641. ۶۴۱Art thou the tree that props the plant,
642. ۶۴۲Or the climbing plant that seeks the tree--
643. ۶۴۳Canst thou help us, must we help thee?
644. ۶۴۴If any two creatures grew into one,
645. ۶۴۵They would do more than the world has done:
646. ۶۴۶Though each apart were never so weak,
647. ۶۴۷Ye vainly through the world should seek
648. ۶۴۸For the knowledge and the might
649. ۶۴۹Which in such union grew their right:
650. ۶۵۰So, to approach at least that end,
651. ۶۵۱And blend,--as much as may be, blend
652. ۶۵۲Thee with us or us with thee--
653. ۶۵۳As climbing plant or propping tree,
654. ۶۵۴Shall some one deck thee, over and down,
655. ۶۵۵ Up and about, with blossoms and leaves?
656. ۶۵۶Fix his heart's fruit for thy garland-crown,
657. ۶۵۷ Cling with his soul as the gourd-vine cleaves,
658. ۶۵۸Die on thy boughs and disappear
659. ۶۵۹While not a leaf of thine is sere?
660. ۶۶۰Or is the other fate in store,
661. ۶۶۱And art thou fitted to adore,
662. ۶۶۲To give thy wondrous self away,
663. ۶۶۳And take a stronger nature's sway?
664. ۶۶۴I foresee and could foretell
665. ۶۶۵Thy future portion, sure and well:
666. ۶۶۶But those passionate eyes speak true, speak true,
667. ۶۶۷Let them say what thou shalt do!
668. ۶۶۸Only be sure thy daily life,
669. ۶۶۹In its peace or in its strife,
670. ۶۷۰Never shall be unobserved;
671. ۶۷۱ We pursue thy whole career,
672. ۶۷۲ And hope for it, or doubt, or fear--
673. ۶۷۳Lo, hast thou kept thy path or swerved,
674. ۶۷۴We are beside thee in all thy ways,
675. ۶۷۵With our blame, with our praise,
676. ۶۷۶Our shame to feel, our pride to show,
677. ۶۷۷Glad, angry--but indifferent, no!
678. ۶۷۸Whether it be thy lot to go,
679. ۶۷۹For the good of us all, where the haters meet
680. ۶۸۰In the crowded city's horrible street;
681. ۶۸۱Or thou step alone through the morass
682. ۶۸۲Where never sound yet was
683. ۶۸۳Save the dry quick clap of the stork's bill,
684. ۶۸۴For the air is still, and the water still,
685. ۶۸۵When the blue ... of the dipping coot
686. ۶۸۶Dives under, and all is mute.
687. ۶۸۷So, at the last shall come old age,
688. ۶۸۸Decrepit as befits that stage;
689. ۶۸۹How else wouldst thou retire apart
690. ۶۹۰With the hoarded memories of thy heart,
691. ۶۹۱And gather all to the very least
692. ۶۹۲Of the fragments of life's earlier feast,
693. ۶۹۳Let fall through eagerness to find
694. ۶۹۴The crowning dainties yet behind?
695. ۶۹۵Ponder on the entire past
696. ۶۹۶Laid together thus at last,
697. ۶۹۷When the twilight helps to fuse
698. ۶۹۸The first fresh with the faded hues,
699. ۶۹۹And the outline of the whole,
700. ۷۰۰As round eve's shades their framework roll,
701. ۷۰۱Grandly fronts for once thy soul.
702. ۷۰۲And then as, 'mid the dark, a gleam
703. ۷۰۳ Of yet another morning breaks,
704. ۷۰۴And like the hand which ends a dream,
705. ۷۰۵Death, with the might of his sunbeam,
706. ۷۰۶ Touches the flesh and the soul awakes,
707. ۷۰۷Then--"
708. ۷۰۸ Ay, then indeed something would happen!
709. ۷۰۹ But what? For here her voice changed like a bird's;
710. ۷۱۰ There grew more of the music and less of the words;
711. ۷۱۱Had Jacynth only been by me to clap pen
712. ۷۱۲To paper and put you down every syllable
713. ۷۱۳ With those clever clerkly fingers,
714. ۷۱۴ All I've forgotten as well as what lingers
715. ۷۱۵In this old brain of mine that's but ill able
716. ۷۱۶To give you even this poor version
717. ۷۱۷ Of the speech I spoil, as it were, with stammering
718. ۷۱۸ --More fault of those who had the hammering
719. ۷۱۹ Of prosody into me and syntax
720. ۷۲۰ And did it, not with hobnails but tintacks!
721. ۷۲۱
722. ۷۲۲But to return from this excursion--
723. ۷۲۳Just, do you mark, when the song was sweetest,
724. ۷۲۴The peace most deep and the charm completest,
725. ۷۲۵There came, shall I say, a snap--
726. ۷۲۶ And the charm vanished!
727. ۷۲۷ And my sense returned, so strangely banished,
728. ۷۲۸And, starting as from a nap,
729. ۷۲۹I knew the crone was bewitching my lady,
730. ۷۳۰With Jacynth asleep; and but one spring made I
731. ۷۳۱Down from the casement, round to the portal,
732. ۷۳۲ Another minute and I had entered--
733. ۷۳۳When the door opened, and more than mortal
734. ۷۳۴ Stood, with a face where to my mind centred
735. ۷۳۵All beauties I ever saw or shall see,
736. ۷۳۶The Duchess: I stopped as if struck by palsy.
737. ۷۳۷She was so different, happy and beautiful,
738. ۷۳۸ I felt at once that all was best,
739. ۷۳۹ And that I had nothing to do, for the rest
740. ۷۴۰But wait her commands, obey and be dutiful.
741. ۷۴۱Not that, in fact, there was any commanding;
742. ۷۴۲ I saw the glory of her eye,
743. ۷۴۳And the brow's height and the ...'s expanding,
744. ۷۴۴ And I was hers to live or to die.
745. ۷۴۵As for finding what she wanted,
746. ۷۴۶You know God Almighty granted
747. ۷۴۷Such little signs should serve wild creatures
748. ۷۴۸ To tell one another all their desires,
749. ۷۴۹ So that each knows what his friend requires,
750. ۷۵۰And does its bidding without teachers.
751. ۷۵۱I preceded her; the crone
752. ۷۵۲Followed silent and alone;
753. ۷۵۳I spoke to her, but she merely jabbered
754. ۷۵۴ In the old style; both her eyes had slunk
755. ۷۵۵ Back to their pits; her stature shrunk;
756. ۷۵۶ In short, the soul in its body sunk
757. ۷۵۷Like a blade sent home to its scabbard.
758. ۷۵۸We descended, I preceding;
759. ۷۵۹Crossed the court with nobody heeding;
760. ۷۶۰All the world was at the chase,
761. ۷۶۱The courtyard like a desert-place,
762. ۷۶۲The stable emptied of its small fry;
763. ۷۶۳I saddled myself the very palfrey
764. ۷۶۴I remember patting while it carried her,
765. ۷۶۵The day she arrived and the Duke married her.
766. ۷۶۶And, do you know, though it's easy deceiving
767. ۷۶۷Oneself in such matters, I can't help believing
768. ۷۶۸The lady had not forgotten it either,
769. ۷۶۹And knew the poor devil so much beneath her
770. ۷۷۰Would have been only too glad for her service
771. ۷۷۱To dance on hot ploughshares like a Turk dervise,
772. ۷۷۲But, unable to pay proper duty where owing
773. ۷۷۳Was reduced to that pitiful method of showing it:
774. ۷۷۴For though the moment I began setting
775. ۷۷۵His saddle on my own nag of Berold's begetting,
776. ۷۷۶(Not that I meant to be obtrusive)
777. ۷۷۷ She stopped me, while his rug was shifting,
778. ۷۷۸ By a single rapid finger's lifting,
779. ۷۷۹And, with a gesture kind but conclusive,
780. ۷۸۰And a little shake of the head, refused me--
781. ۷۸۱I say, although she never used me,
782. ۷۸۲Yet when she was mounted, the Gipsy behind her,
783. ۷۸۳And I ventured to remind her
784. ۷۸۴I suppose with a voice of less steadiness
785. ۷۸۵ Than usual, for my feeling exceeded me,
786. ۷۸۶--Something to the effect that I was in readiness
787. ۷۸۷ Whenever God should please she needed me--
788. ۷۸۸Then, do you know, her face looked down on me
789. ۷۸۹With a look that placed a crown on me,
790. ۷۹۰And she felt in her bosom--mark, her bosom--
791. ۷۹۱And, as a flower-tree drops its blossom,
792. ۷۹۲Dropped me... ah, had it been a purse
793. ۷۹۳Of silver, my friend, or gold that's worse,
794. ۷۹۴Why, you see, as soon as I found myself
795. ۷۹۵ So understood,--that a true heart so may gain
796. ۷۹۶ Such a reward,--I should have gone home again,
797. ۷۹۷Kissed Jacynth, and soberly drowned myself!
798. ۷۹۸It was a little plait of hair
799. ۷۹۹ Such as friends in a convent make
800. ۸۰۰ To wear, each for the other's sake--
801. ۸۰۱This, see, which at my ... I wear,
802. ۸۰۲Ever did (rather to Jacynth's grudgment),
803. ۸۰۳And ever shall, till the Day of Judgment.
804. ۸۰۴And then-and then--to cut short--this is idle,
805. ۸۰۵ These are feelings it is not good to foster--
806. ۸۰۶I pushed the gate wide, she shook the bridle,
807. ۸۰۷ And the palfrey bounded--and so we lost her.
808. ۸۰۸
809. ۸۰۹When the liquor's out why clink the cannikin?
810. ۸۱۰I did think to describe you the panic in
811. ۸۱۱The redoubtable ... of our master the mannikin,
812. ۸۱۲And what was the pitch of his mother's yellowness,
813. ۸۱۳ How she turned as a shark to snap the spare-rib
814. ۸۱۴ Clean off, sailors say, from a pearl-diving Carib,
815. ۸۱۵When she heard, what she called the flight of the feloness
816. ۸۱۶--But it seems such child's play,
817. ۸۱۷What they said and did with the lady away!
818. ۸۱۸And to dance on, when we've lost the music,
819. ۸۱۹Always made me--and no doubt makes you--sick.
820. ۸۲۰Nay, to my mind, the world's face looked so stern
821. ۸۲۱As that sweet form disappeared through the postern,
822. ۸۲۲She that kept it in constant good humour,
823. ۸۲۳It ought to have stopped; there seemed nothing to do more.
824. ۸۲۴But the world thought otherwise and went on,
825. ۸۲۵And my head's one that its spite was spent on:
826. ۸۲۶Thirty years are fled since that morning,
827. ۸۲۷And with them all my head's adorning.
828. ۸۲۸Nor did the old Duchess die outright,
829. ۸۲۹As you expect, of suppressed spite,
830. ۸۳۰The natural end of every adder
831. ۸۳۱Not suffered to empty its poison-bladder:
832. ۸۳۲But she and her son agreed, I take it,
833. ۸۳۳That no one should touch on the story to wake it,
834. ۸۳۴For the wound in the Duke's pride rankled fiery,
835. ۸۳۵So, they made no search and small inquiry--
836. ۸۳۶And when fresh Gipsies have paid us a visit, I've
837. ۸۳۷Notice the couple were never inquisitive,
838. ۸۳۸But told them they're folks the Duke don't want here,
839. ۸۳۹And bade them make haste and cross the frontier.
840. ۸۴۰Brief, the Duchess was gone and the Duke was glad of it,
841. ۸۴۱ And the old one was in the young one's stead,
842. ۸۴۲ And took, in her place, the household's head,
843. ۸۴۳And a blessed time the household had of it!
844. ۸۴۴And were I not, as a man may say, cautious
845. ۸۴۵How I trench, more than needs, on the nauseous,
846. ۸۴۶I could favour you with sundry touches
847. ۸۴۷Of the paint-smutches with which the Duchess
848. ۸۴۸Heightened the mellowness of her cheek's yellowness
849. ۸۴۹(To get on faster) until at last her
850. ۸۵۰Cheek grew to be one master-plaster
851. ۸۵۱Of mucus and fucus from mere use of ceruse:
852. ۸۵۲In short, she grew from scalp to udder
853. ۸۵۳Just the object to make you shudder.
854. ۸۵۴
855. ۸۵۵You're my friend--
856. ۸۵۶What a thing friendship is, world without end!
857. ۸۵۷How it gives the heart and soul a stir-up
858. ۸۵۸ As if somebody broached you a glorious runlet,
859. ۸۵۹ And poured out, all lovelily, sparklingly, sunlit,
860. ۸۶۰Our green Moldavia, the streaky syrup,
861. ۸۶۱Cotnar as old as the time of the Druids--
862. ۸۶۲Friendship may match with that monarch of fluids;
863. ۸۶۳Each supples a dry brain, fills you its ins-and-outs,
864. ۸۶۴Gives your life's hour-glass a shake when the thin sand doubts
865. ۸۶۵Whether to run on or stop short, and guarantees
866. ۸۶۶Age is not all made of stark sloth and arrant ease.
867. ۸۶۷I have seen my little lady once more,
868. ۸۶۸ Jacynth, the Gipsy, Berold, and the rest of it,
869. ۸۶۹For to me spoke the Duke, as I told you before;
870. ۸۷۰ I always wanted to make a clean ... of it:
871. ۸۷۱And now it is made-why, my heart's blood, that went trickle,
872. ۸۷۲ Trickle, but anon, in such muddy driblets,
873. ۸۷۳Is pumped up brisk now, through the main ventricle,
874. ۸۷۴ And genially floats me about the giblets.
875. ۸۷۵
876. ۸۷۶I'll tell you what I intend to do:
877. ۸۷۷I must see this fellow his sad life through--
878. ۸۷۸He is our Duke, after all,
879. ۸۷۹And I, as he says, but a serf and thrall.
880. ۸۸۰My father was born here, and I inherit
881. ۸۸۱ His fame, a chain he bound his son with;
882. ۸۸۲Could I pay in a lump I should prefer it,
883. ۸۸۳ But there's no mine to blow up and get done with:
884. ۸۸۴So, I must stay till the end of the chapter.
885. ۸۸۵For, as to our middle-age-manners-adapter,
886. ۸۸۶Be it a thing to be glad on or sorry on,
887. ۸۸۷Some day or other, his head in a morion
888. ۸۸۸And ... in a hauberk, his heels he'll kick up,
889. ۸۸۹Slain by an onslaught fierce of hiccup.
890. ۸۹۰And then, when red doth the sword of our Duke rust,
891. ۸۹۱And its leathern sheath lie o'ergrown with a blue crust,
892. ۸۹۲Then I shall scrape together my earnings;
893. ۸۹۳ For, you see, in the churchyard Jacynth reposes,
894. ۸۹۴ And our children all went the way of the roses:
895. ۸۹۵It's a long lane that knows no turnings.
896. ۸۹۶One needs but little tackle to travel in;
897. ۸۹۷ So, just one stout cloak shall I indue:
898. ۸۹۸And for a staff, what beats the javelin
899. ۸۹۹ With which his boars my father pinned you?
900. ۹۰۰And then, for a purpose you shall hear presently,
901. ۹۰۱ Taking some Cotnar, a tight plump skinful,
902. ۹۰۲I shall go journeying, who but I, pleasantly!
903. ۹۰۳ Sorrow is vain and despondency sinful.
904. ۹۰۴What's a man's age? He must hurry more, that's all;
905. ۹۰۵ Cram in a day, what his youth took a year to hold:
906. ۹۰۶ When we mind labour, then only, we're too old--
907. ۹۰۷What age had Methusalem when he begat Saul?
908. ۹۰۸And at last, as its haven some buffeted ship sees,
909. ۹۰۹ (Come all the way from the north-parts with sperm oil)
910. ۹۱۰ I hope to get safely out of the turmoil
911. ۹۱۱And arrive one day at the land of the Gipsies,
912. ۹۱۲And find my lady, or hear the last news of her
913. ۹۱۳From some old thief and son of Lucifer,
914. ۹۱۴His forehead chapleted green with wreathy hop,
915. ۹۱۵Sunburned all over like an AEthiop.
916. ۹۱۶And when my Cotnar begins to operate
917. ۹۱۷And the tongue of the rogue to run at a proper rate,
918. ۹۱۸And our wine-skin, tight once, shows each flaccid dent,
919. ۹۱۹I shall drop in with--as if by accident--
920. ۹۲۰"You never knew, then, how it all ended,
921. ۹۲۱What fortune good or bad attended
922. ۹۲۲The little lady your Queen befriended?"
923. ۹۲۳--And when that's told me, what's remaining?
924. ۹۲۴This world's too hard for my explaining.
925. ۹۲۵The same wise judge of matters equine
926. ۹۲۶ Who still preferred some slim four-year-old
927. ۹۲۷ To the big-boned stock of mighty Berold
928. ۹۲۸And, for strong Cotnar, drank French weak wine,
929. ۹۲۹He also must be such a lady's scorner!
930. ۹۳۰ Smooth Jacob still robs homely Esau:
931. ۹۳۱ Now up, now down, the world's one see-saw.
932. ۹۳۲--So, I shall find out some snug corner
933. ۹۳۳Under a hedge, like Orson the wood-knight,
934. ۹۳۴Turn myself round and bid the world good night;
935. ۹۳۵And sleep a sound sleep till the trumpet blowing
936. ۹۳۶ Wakes me (unless priests cheat us laymen)
937. ۹۳۷To a world where will be no further throwing
938. ۹۳۸ Pearls before swine that can't value them. Amen!