Until they vanish'd by the fairy well That laughs at iron-as our warriors did

Where children cast their pins and nails, and cry,

"Laugh little well," but touch it with a sword,

It buzzes wildly round the point; and there

We lost him: such a noble song was that.

But, Vivien, when you sang me that sweet rhyme,

I felt as tho' you knew this cursed charm,

Were proving it on me, and that I lay And felt them slowiy ebbing, name and fame."

And Vivien answer'd, smiling mournfully;

"O mine have ebb'd away forevermore,

And all thro' following you to this wild wood,

Because I saw you sad, to comfort you. Lo now, what hearts have men! they

never mount

As high as woman in her selfless mood. And touching fame, howe'er you scorn

my song

Ran down the silken thread to kiss each other

On her white neck-so it is with this rhyme;

It lives dispersedly in many hands, And every minstrel sings it differently;

Yet there is one true line, the pearl of pearls ;

'Man dreams of Fame while woman wakes to love.'

True: Love, tho' Love were of the grossest, carves

A portion from the solid present, eats And uses, careless of the rest; but Fame,

The Fame that follows death is nothing to us;

And what is Fame in life but half-disfame,

And counterchanged with darkness? you yourself

Know well that Envy calls you Devil's

son,

And since you seem the Master of all Art,

They fain would make you Master of all Vice."

it-this:

'My name, once mine, now thine, is closlier mine,

For fame, could fame be mine, that

fame were thine,

And shame, could shame be thine, that shame were mine.

So trust me not at all or all in all.'

"Says she not well? and there is more-this rhyme

Is like the fair pearl necklace of the Queen,

That burst in dancing, and the pearls were spilt;

Some lost, some stolen, some as relics kept.

But nevermore the same two sister pearls

And Merlin lock'd his hand in hers once was looking for a magic weed, and said, And found a fair young squire who sat alone,

Had carved himself a knightly shield of wood,

And then was painting on it fancied

arms,

Azure, an Eagle rising, or, the Sun In dexter chief; the scroll 'I follow fame.'

And speaking not, but leaning over him,

I took his brush and blotted out the bird,

And made a Gardener putting in a graff,

With this for motto, 'Rather use than fame.'

You should have seen him blush; but afterwards

Whereof you prattle, may now assure you mine;

So live uncharm'd.

wrought it first,

For those who

The wrist is parted from the hand that waved,

The feet unmortised from their anklebones

Who paced it, ages back: but will you hear

The legend as in guerdon for your rhyme ?

"There lived a king in the most Eastern East,

Less old than I, yet older, for my blood

Hath earnest in it of far springs to be.

A tawny pirate anchor'd in his port, Whose bark had plunder'd twenty nameless isles;

And passing one, at the high peep of dawn,

He saw two cities in a thousand boats All fighting for a woman on the sea. And pushing his black craft among them all,

He lightly scatter'd theirs and brought her off,

With loss of half his people arrow

slain;

That carr kings in castles, bow'd black knees

Of homage, ringing with their serpent hands,

To make her smile, her golden anklebells.

[sent What wonder being jealous, that he His horns of proclamation out thro' all

The hundred under-kingdoms that he sway'd

To find a wizard who might teach the King

Some charm, which being wrought upon the Queen

Might keep her all his own: to such a

one

He promised more than ever king had given,

A league of mountain full of golden mines,

A province with a hundred miles of

coast,

A palace and a princess, all for him: But on all those who tried and fail'd, the King

Pronounced a dismal sentence, meaning by it

To keep the list low and pretenders back,