If ancestry can be in aught believ'd,
Descending spirits have convers'd with man,
And told the secrets of the world unknown.
With gloom mysterious, shroud thy inner mind;
Already many a year we wait in vain
For one confiding utterance from thy breast.
Long as I've known thee in this holy place,
That look of thine hath ever made me shudder;
And, as with iron bands, thy soul remains
Lock'd in the deep recesses of thy breast.
I. As doth become the exile and the orphan.
A. Dost thou then here seem exil'd and an orphan?
I. Can foreign scenes our fatherland replace?
A. Thy fatherland is foreign now to thee.
314. When he perceiv'd me shrink, and on my knee,
His bloody sword he brandish'd over me,
And, like a hungry lion, did commence
Rough deeds of rage, and stern impatience;
But when my angry guardant stood alone,
Tend'ring my ruin, and assail'd of none,
Dizzy-ey'd fury, and great rage of heart,
Suddenly made him from my side to start
Into the clust'ring battle of the French:
And in that sea of blood my boy did drench
His overmounting spirit; and there died
My Icarus, my blossom, in his pride.
315. My doctrine's this; the fortunes of mankind
Are like that changeful element call'd air,
Whose qualities are these: a blaze of light
In summer it displays, and the thick clouds
Assembling, swells the unwelcome wintry gloom,
Causes the vernal flower to bloom and fade,
To live and die: such is the race of man.
A radiant calm of happy days to some
Is by the Fates allotted, but for others
The sky grows black with storms: some lead a life Of misery, some of bliss, and to events Which seem auspicious others owe their ruin. 316. Not one care-wanting hour my life has tasted; But from the very instant of my birth Incessant woes my tired breast have wasted, And my poor heart is ignorant of mirth.
Look how one wave another still pursueth,
When some great tempest holds their troops in
Or as one hour another close reneweth;
Or parting day supplies another's place:
So do the billows of affliction beat me,
And hand in hand the storms of mischief
Successive cares with utter ruin threat me;
Grief is enchain'd with grief, and woe with woe. 317. C. Think on the king. G. The king, the tyrant king?
C. Your father. G. Yes, the murderer of my love.
C. His force. G. The dead fear not the force of men.
C. His care and grief. G. That neither car'd for
Nor grieved at the murder of my love.
My mind is settled: you with these vain words
Withhold me but too long from my desire.
Depart ye to my chamber. C. We will haste
To tell the king hereof. G. I will prevent
Both you and him: lo, here! this hearty draught,
The last that in this world I mean to taste,
Dreadless of death, mine earl, I drink to thee.
318. How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,
Tune my distresses, and record my woes.
O, thou that dost inhabit in my breast,
Leave not the mansion so long tenantless;
Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall,
And leave no memory of what it was;
Repair me with thy presence, Sylvia:
Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain.
319. There's a perpetual spring, perpetual youth;
Nor joint-benumbing cold, nor scorching heat,
Famine, nor age, have any being there.
Forget, for shame, your Tempe; bury in
Oblivion your feign'd Hesperian orchards :
The golden fruit, kept by the watchful dragon,
Which did require a Hercules to get it,
Compar'd with what grows in all plenty there,
Deserves not to be nam'd. The Power I serve
Laughs at your happy Araby, or the
Elysian shades; for he hath made his bowers
Better in deed than you can fancy yours.
Is the physician that doth moderate
Desire, with reason bridling appetite.
Yonder's her cave, whose plain yet decent roof
Shines not with ivory or plates of gold:
No Tyrian purples cover her low couch,
Nor are the carv'd supporters artists' work
Bought at the wealth of provinces. She feeds not
On costly viands, in her gluttony
Wasting the spoils of conquests. From a rock
That weeps a running crystal she doth fill
Her shell-cup, and drinks sparingly.
321. Great Jove, Laodamia, doth not leave
His gifts imperfect. Spectre though I be,
I am not sent to scare thee or deceive,
But in reward of thy fidelity.
And something also did my worth obtain
For fearless virtue bringeth boundless gain.
Thou know'st the Delphic oracle foretold
That the first Greek who touch'd the Trojan strand
Should die; but me the threat could not withhold:
A generous cause a victim did demand,
And forth I leapt upon the sandy plain, A self-devoted chief, by Hector slain. 322. I. It is an honest scruple, which forbids That I should cunningly deceive the king, And plunder him who was my second sire. P. Him thou dost fly who would have slain thy brother.
I. To me, at least, he hath been ever kind.
P. What Fate commands is not ingratitude.
I. Necessity alone can justify it.
P. Thee before gods and men it justifies.
I. But my own heart is still unsatisfied.
P. Scruples too rigid are a cloak for pride.
I. I cannot argue, I can only feel.
P. Conscious of right, thou shouldst respect thy-
self.
323. Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have not been since the light that led
The holy elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the old Round Table is dissolv'd,
Which was an image of the mighty world;
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds.
324. Come hither, boy! come, come and learn of us
Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,
Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter has he told to thee,
Meet and agreeing with thy infancy.
In that respect then, like a loving child,
Shed now some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind Nature does require it so :
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe.
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave:
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.
325. As in September, when our year resigns
The glorious sun to the cold watery signs,
Which through the clouds looks on the earth in
The little bird yet, to salute the morn,
Upon the naked branches sets her foot,
The leaves then lying on the mossy root,
And then a silly chirripping doth keep,
As though she fain would sing, yet fain would weep,
Praising fair summer that too soon is gone,
Or sad for winter that too fast comes on;
In this strange plight I mourn for thy depart,
Because that weeping cannot ease my heart.
Seal'd up, and silent, as when rigid frosts
Have bound up brooks and rivers, forc'd wild beasts
Unto their caves, and birds into the woods,
Clowns to their houses, and the country sleeps ;
That, when the sudden thaw comes, we may break
Upon them like a deluge, bearing down
Half Rome before us, and invade the rest
With cries and noise, able to wake the urns
Of those are dead, and make their ashes fear.
The horrors that do strike the world, should come
Loud, and unlook'd for: till they strike, be dumb.
|