The princess : a medley
3 1822 00142 9539 ,'^''^ .'•.v ." ^>/»fc^.H-. v^. V V "^ y .^ r^ *^ar^*^ .t,' VsereSt '^ ■ <scr' cf: < XT • < t • c-e-ix:. < < < «/• 4 c •C_ <-' •: <" ••'- ' -<l ■ < '■<C ■ « < - ^ ■ M cr < < c crc «: <: ••■ <:'< t G.: <■ C< ■ ' •c re ' 4 m < < ■*^ - ■p^^ K ■I'jr^^' ' '^- //// ':\'i (J PR.. / ^ ^f^.^C^ /v^iJL^/^ ^^C- THE PRINCESS A MEDLEY. THE PRINCESS A MEDLEY. ALFRED TENNYSON. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. MDCCCXLVIII. LONDON : BRADBDBT AND BTANS, PRINTERS, WHITEPRTABS. /l^ HENRY LUSHINGTON THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED BY HIS FRIEND A. TENNYSON. London, January, 1848. . THE PRINCESS A MEDLEY. PROLOGUE. Sir Walter Vivian all a summer's day Gave his broad lawns imtil the set of sun Up to the people : thither flock'd at noon His tenants, wife and child, and thither half The neighbouring borough with their Institute Of which he was the patron. I was there From college, visiting the son, — the son A Walter too, — with others of our set. And me that morning Walter show'd the house, B 2 PROLOGUE. Greek, set with busts : from vases in the hall Flo'svers of all heavens, and loveher than their names, Grew side by side ; and on the pavement lay Carved stones of the Abbej-ruin in the park. Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time ; And on the tables every chme and age Jimabled together ; celts and calumets. Claymore and snowshoe, toys in lava, fans Of sandal, amber, ancient rosaries. Laborious orient ivory sphere in sphere, The cursed Malayan crease, and battle-clubs From the isles of palm : and higher on the walls, Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer. His own forefathers' arms and armom- hung. And ' this ' he said ' was Husjh's at Agincourt ; And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon : A good knight he I we keep a chronicle With all about him ' — which he brought, and I Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knio:hts PROLOGUE. Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings \ATio laid about them at their wills and died ; And mixt with these, a lady, one that arm'd Her own fair head, and sallying thro' the gate, Had beat her foes with slaughter from her walls. And, I all rapt in this, ' Come out,' he said, ' To the Abbey : there is Aunt Elizabeth And sister Lilia with the rest. ' We went (I kept the book and had my finger in it) Down thro' the park : strange was the sight to me ; For all the sloping pasture murmur 'd sown With happy faces and with holiday. There moved the multitude, a thousand heads : The patient leaders of their Institute Taught them with facts. One rear'd a font of stone And drew, from butts of water on the slope, The fountain of the moment, playing now A twisted snake, and now a rain of pearls, Or steep-up spout whereon the gilded ball B 2 4 PROLOGUE. Danced like a wisp : and somewhat lower down A man with knohs and wires and vials fired A cannon : Echo answer 'd in her sleep From hollow fields : and here were telescopes For azure views ; and there a group of girls In circle waited, whom the electric shock Dislink'd with shrieks and laughter : round the lake A Uttle clock-work steamer paddling plied And shook the Ulies : perch 'd about the knolls A dozen angry models jetted steam : A petty railway ran : a fire-balloon Rose gem-like up before the dusky groves And dropt a fairy parachute and past : And there thi-o' twenty posts of telegraph They flash 'd a saucy message to and fro Between the mimic stations ; so that sport With Science hand in hand went ; otherwhere Pure sport : a herd of boys with clamour bowl'd And stump 'd the wicket ; babies roll'd about Like tumbled fruit in grass ; and men and maids PROLOGUE. Arranged a country dance, and flew thro' light And shadow, while the twangling violin Struck up with Soldier-laddie, and overhead The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime Made noise with bees and breeze from end to end. Strange was the sight and smacking of the time ; And long we gazed, but satiated at length Came to the ruins. High-arch 'd and ivy-claspt, Of finest Gothic, lighter than a fire, Thro' one wide chasm of time and frost they gave The park, the crowd, the house ; but all within The sward was trim as any garden lawn : And here we lit on Aunt Elizabeth, And Lilia with the rest, and Ralph himself, A broken statue propt against the wall. As gay as any. Lilia, wild with sport, Half child half woman as she was, had wound A scarf of orange round the stony helm, And robed the shoulders in a rosy silk, 6 PROLOGUE. That made the old warrior from his ivied nook Glow hke a sunbeam : near his tomb a feast Shone, silver-set ; about it lav the guests, And there we join"d them : then the maiden Aunt Took this fair day for text, and from it preach'd An universal culture for the crowd, And all things great ; but we, imworthier, told Of college : he had climb 'd across the spikes, And he had squeez'd himself betwixt the bars. And he had breathed the Proctor's dogs ; and one Discussd his tutor, rough to common men But honeying at the whisper of a lord ; And one the Master, as a rogue in grain Veneer 'd with sanctimonious theory. But while they talk'd, above their heads I saw The feudal wamor lady-clad ; which brought My book to minji : and opening this I read Of old Sir Ralph a page or two that rang With tilt and tourney ; then the tale of her PROLOGUE. That drove her foes with slaughter from her walls, And much I praised her nobleness, and ' Where,' Ask'd Walter, ' lives there such a woman now ? ' Quick answer 'd Lilia ' There are thousands now Such women, hut convention beats them down : It is but bringing up ; no more than that : You men have done it : how I hate you all ! 0 were I some great Princess, I would build Far off from men a college of my own, And I would teach them all things : you should see. And one said smiling ' Pretty were the sight If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair. 1 think they should not wear our rusty gowns. But move as rich as emperor moths, or Ralph Who shines so in the corner ; yet I fear. If there were many Lilias in the brood, 8 PROLOGUE, However deep you miglit embower the nest, Some boy would spy it.' At this upon the sward She tapt her tiny silken-sandal'd foot : ' That 's your light way ; but I would make it death For any male thing but to peep at us. ' Petulant she spoke, and at herself she laugh'd ; A rosebud set with little wilful thorns. And sweet as English air could make her, she : But Walter hail'd a score of names upon her, And 'petty Ogress,' and 'ungrateful Puss,' And swore he long'd at College, only long'd. All else Avas well, for she-society. They boated and they cricketed ; they talk'd At wine, in clubs, of art, of politics ; They lost their weeks ; they vext the souls of deans ; They rode ; they betted ; made a himdred friends, And caught the blossom of the flying terms. PROLOGUE. But niiss'd the mignonette of Vivian-place, The Httle hearth-flower Lilia. Thus he spoke, Part banter, part affection. 'True,' she said ' We doubt not that. 0 yes, you miss'd us much. I '11 stake my ruby ring upon it you did. ' She held it out ; and as a parrot turns Up thro' gilt wires a crafty loving eye, And takes a lady's finger with all care, And bites it for true heart and not for harm. So he with Lilia 's. Daintily she shriek 'd And wrung it. ' Doubt my word again ! ' he said. ' Come, listen ! here is proof that you were miss'd : We seven stay'd at Christmas up to read ; We seven took one tutor. Never man So moulder 'd in a sinecure as he : For while our cloisters echo'd frosty feet, And our long walks were stript as bare as brooms, 10 PROLOGUE. We did but talk you over, pledge you all In wassail ; often, like as many girls — Sick for the hoUies and the yews of home — As many Utile trifling Lilias — play'd Charades and riddles as at Christmas here, And what's my thought and when and where and how, And often told a tale from mouth to mouth As here at Christmas.' * I remember that : A pleasant game,' she said ; ' I liked it more Than magic music, forfeits, all the rest. But these — what kind of tales do men tell men, I wonder, by themselves ? ' A half-disdaiu. Perch 'd on the pouted blossom, of her lips : And Walter nodded at me ; ' He began, The rest would follow ; so we tost the ball : What kind of tales ? why, such as served to kill Time by the fire in winter.' ' Kill him now ! PROLOGUE. 11 Tell one ' she said : ' kill him in summer too.'. And * tell one ' cried the solemn maiden aunt. ' Why not a summer's as a winter's tale ? A tale for summer, as befits fche time ; And something it should be to suit the place, Grave, moral, solemn, like the mouldering walls About us.' Walter warp'd his mouth at this To something so mock-solemn, that I laugh'd And Lilia woke with sudden-shrilling mirth An echo, like an April woodpecker. Hid in the ruins ; till the maiden aunt (A little sense of wrong had touch 'd her face With colour) turn'd to me : •' Well — as you will — Just as you will,' she said ; ' be, if you will, Yourself your hero. ' ' Look then ' added he ' Since Lilia would he princess, that you stoop No lower than a prince.' 12 PROLOGUE. To wliicli I said, * Take care then that my tale be follow'd out By all the lieges in my royal vein : But one that really suited time and place Were such a medley, we should have him back Who told the Winter's Tale to do it for us : A Gothic ruin, and a Grecian house, A talk of college and of ladies' rights, A feudal knight in silken masquerade, And there with shrieks and strange experiments, For which the good Sir Ralph had burnt them all, The nineteenth century gambols on the grass. No matter : we will say whatever comes : Here are we seven : if each man take his turn We make a sevenfold story : ' then began. A PRINCE I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face. With lengths of yellow ringlet, like a girl, For on my cradle shone the Northern star. My mother was as mild as any saint. And nearly canonized by all she knew, So gracious was her tact and tenderness : But my good father thought a king a king ; He held his sceptre like a pedant's wand To lash oflPence, and with long arms and hands Reach 'd out, and pick'd offenders from the mass For judgment. Now it chanced that I had been, While Hfe was yet in bud and blade, betroth 'd To one, a neighbouring Princess : she to me Was proxy-wedded with a bootless calf At eight years old ; and still from time to time 14 THE PRINCESS ; Came murmm'S of her beauty from the South, And of her brethren, knights of puissance ; And still I wore her picture by my heart, And one dark tress ; and all around them both Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their queen. But when the days drew nigh that I should wed, My father sent ambassadors with furs And jewels, gifts, to fetch her : these brought back A present, a great labour of the loom ; And therewithal an answer vague as wind : Besides, they saw the king ; he took the gifts ; He said there was a compact ; that was true : But then she had a will ; was he to blame ? And maiden fancies ; loved to live alone Among her women ; certain, would not wed. That morning in the presence room I stood With Cyril and with Florian, my two friends : The first, a gentleman of broken means A MEDLEY. 15 (His father's fault) but given to starts and bursts Of revel ; and the last, mj other heart, My shadow, my half-self, for still we moved Together, kin as horse's ear and eye. Now while they spake I saw my father's face Grow long and troubled like a rising moon. Inflamed with wrath : he started on his feet. Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and rent The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof From skirt to skirt ; and at the last he sware That he would send a hundred thousand men. And bring her in a whu'lwind : then he chew'd The thrice-turn'd cud of wrath, and cook'd his spleen Communing with his captains of the war. At last I spoke. ' My father, let me go. It cannot be but some gross error lies In this report, this answer of a king, Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable : 16 THE PRINCESS ; Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen, Wbate'er my grief to find her less tban fame, May rue the bargain made. ' And Florian said : ' I have a sister at the foreign com-t. Who moves about the Princess ; she, you know, Who wedded with a nobleman from thence : He, dying lately, left her, as I hear. The lady of three castles in that land. Thro' her this matter might be sifted clean.' Then whisper'd Cyril : ' Take me with you too. Trust me, I '11 serve you better in a strait ; I grate on rusty hinges here : ' but ' No ! ' Replied the king, ' you shall not ; I myself WiU crush these pretty maiden fancies dead In iron gauntlets : break the council up.' But when the council broke, I rose and past Thro' the wild woods that hung about the town ; Found a still place, and pluck 'd her likeness out ; Laid it on flowers, and watch'd it lying bathed A MEDLEY, 17 In the green gleam of dewy-tassell'd trees : What were those fancies ? wherefore break her troth ? Proud look'd the lips : but while I meditated A wind arose and rush'd upon the South, And shook the songs, the whispers, and the shrieks Of the wild woods together ; and a Voice Went with it • Follow, follow, thou shalt win.' Then, ere the silver sickle of that month Became her golden shield, I stole from court With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived. Down from the bastion'd walls we dropt by night. And flying reach 'd the fi'ontier : then we crost To a livelier land ; and so by town and thorpe, And tilth, and blowing bosks of wilderness, We gain'd the mother-city thick with towers. And in the imperial palace found the king. His name was Gama ; erack'd and small in voice ; A little dry old man, without a star. Not like a king : three days he feasted us, 18 THE PRINCESS ; And on the fourth I spake of why we came, And my betroth 'd. ' You do us, Prince ' he said, Airing a snowy hand and signet gem, ' All honour. We remember love om'selves In our sweet youth : there did a compact pass Long summers back, a kind of ceremony — I think the year in which our olives fail'd. I would you had her, Prince, with all my heart, With my full heart : but there were widows here, Two widows, Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche ; They fed her theories, in and out of place Maintaining that with equal husbandry The woman were an equal to the man. They harp'd on this ; with this our banquets rang ; Our dances broke and buzz'd in knots of talk ; Nothing but this : my very ears were hot To hear them. Last, my daughter begg'd a boon A certain summer-palace which I have Hard by your father's frontier : I said no, Yet being an easy man, gave it ; and there, A MEDLEY. ] 9 All wild to found an University For maidens, on the spur she fled ; and more We know not, — have not been ; they see no men, Not ev'n her brother Arae, nor the twins Her brethren, tho' they love her, look upon her As on a kind of paragon ; and I (Pardon me saying it) were much loth to breed Dispute betwixt myself and mine : but since (And I confess with right) you think me bound In some sort, I can give you letters to her ; And yet, to speak the truth, I rate your chance Almost at naked nothing.' Thus the king ; And I, tho' nettled that he seem'd to slur With garrulous ease and oily courtesies Our formal compact, yet not less all frets But chafing me on fire to find my bride. Set out once more with those two gallant boys ; Then pushing onward under sun and stars c 2 20 THE PRINCESS ; Many a long league back to tlie North, we came, ^^^len tlie first fern-owl whiiT'd about the copse. Upon a little town within a wood Close at the boundary of the liberties ; There entering in an hostel caU'd mine host To council, plied him with his richest wines, And show'd the late-writ letters of the king. He, with a long low sibUation, stared As blank as death in marble ; then exclaim 'd Averring it was clear against all rules For any man to go : but as his brain Began to meUow, ' If the king,' he said, ' Had given us letters, was he bound to speak ? The king would bear him out ; ' and at the last — The summer of the vine in aU his veins — ' No doubt that we might make it worth his while. For him, he reverenced his liege-lady there ; He always made a point to post with mares ; His daughter and his housemaid were the boys. A MEDLEY. 21 The land lie understood for miles about Was till'd by women ; all the swine were sows, And all the dogs' — But while he jested thus, A thought flash'd thro' me which I clothed in act, Remembering how we three presented Maid Or Nymph, or Goddess, at high tide of feast, In masque or pageant at my father's court. We sent mine host to purchase female gear ; Which brought and clapt upon us, we tweezer 'd out What slender blossom lived on lip or cheek Of manhood, gave mine host a costly bribe To guerdon silence, mounted our good steeds. And boldly ventured on the liberties. We rode till midnight when the college lights Began to glitter firefly-like in copse And linden alley ; and then we past an arch Inscribed too dark for legible, and gain'd 22 THE PRIXCESS ; A little street half garden and half house ; But could not hear each other speak for noise Of clocks and chimes, hke silver hammers falling On silver anvils, and the splash and stir Of fountains spouted up and showering down In meshes of the jasmme and the rose : And all about us peal'd the nightingale, Rapt in her song, and careless of the snare. There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign, By two sphere lamps blazon'd like Heaven and Earth With constellation and with continent, Above an archway : riding in, we call'd ; A plump-arm'd Ostleress and a stable wench Came running at the call, and help'd us down. Then stept a buxom hostess forth, and sail'd Full-blown before us into rooms which gave I pon a pillar'd porch, the bases lost In laurel : her we ask'd of that and this, And who were tutors. ' Lady Blanche ' she said. A MEDLEY. 23 * And Lady Psyche.' ' Which was prettiest, Best natured ? ' ' Lady Psyche.' ' Her pupils we,' One voice, we cried ; and I sat down and wrote, In such a hand as when a field of corn Bows all its ears before the roaring East ; ' Three ladies of the Northern empire pray Your Highness would enroll them with your own, As Lady Psyche's pupils.' This I seal'd (A Cupid reading) to be sent with dawn ; And then to bed, where half in doze I seem'd To float about a glimmering night, and watch A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight, swell On some dark shore just seen that it was rich. 24 THE PRINCESS II. At break of clay tlie College Portress came : She brought us Academic silks, in hue The lilac, with a silken hood to each, And zoned with gold ; and now when these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons. She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know The Princess Ida waited : out we paced, I first, and following thro' the porch that sang All round with lam'el, issued in a court Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths Of.classic frieze, with ample awnings gay Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers. The Muses and the Graces, group'd in threes, Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst ; And here and there on lattice edges lay A MEDLEY. Or book or lute ; but hastily we past. And up a flight of stairs into the hall. There at a board by tome and paper sat, With two tame leopards couch 'd beside her throne. All beauty compass'd in a female form, The Princess ; liker to the inhabitant Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, Than om' man's earth : such eyes were in her head, And so much grace and power, breathing down From over her arch'd brows, with every turn Lived thx'o' her to the tips of her long hands, And to her feet. She rose her height, and said : ' We give you welcome : not without redound Of fame and profit unto yoiu-selves ye come. The first-fruits of the stranger : aftertime, And that full voice which circles round the grave, Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me. What ! are the ladies of your land so tall ? ' 26 THE PRINCESS ; ' We of the court ' said Cyi'il. ' From the court ' She answer 'd, ' then ye know the Prince ? ' and he * The cHmax of his age : as tho' there were One rose in all the world, your Highness that, He worships your ideal : ' and she replied : ' We did not think in our own hall to hear This barren verbiage, current among men, Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. We think not of him : when we set our hand To this great work, we purposed with ourselves Never to wed. You likewise will do well, Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling The tricks, which make us toys of men, that so, Some future time, if so indeed you will, You may with those self-styled our lords ally Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale. ' At those high words, we, conscious of ourselves, Perused the matting ; then an officer Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these : A MEDLEY. 27 Not for three years to correspond with home ; Not for three years to cross the liberties ; Not for three years to speak with any men ; And many more, which hastily subscribed. We enter'd on the boards : and ' Now ' she cried * Ye are green wood, see ye warp not. Look, om' hall I Our statues ! — not of those that men desire. Sleek Odalisques, or oracles of mode, Nor stunted squaws of West or East ; but she That taught the Sabine how to rule, and she The foundress of the Babylonian wall. The Carian Artemisia strong in war. The Rhodope that built the pyramid, Clelia, Cornelia, with the Palmyrene That fought Aurelian, and the Roman brows Of Agrippina. Leave us : you may go : To-day the Lady Psyche will harangue The fresh arrivals of the week before ; For they press in from all the provinces, And fiU the hive.' •28 THE PRINCESS ; So saying, she bow'd and waved Dismissal : back again we crost the court To Lady Psyche's : as we enter 'd in, There sat along the forms, like morning doves That sun their milky bosoms on the thatch, A patient range of pupils ; she herself Erect behind a desk of satin-wood, A quick brvmette, well-moulded, falcon-eyed, And on the hither side, or so she looked. Of twenty summers. At her left, a child, In shining draperies, headed like a star. Her maiden babe, a double April old, Aglaia slept. We sat : the Lady glanced : Then Florian, but no livelier than the dame That whisper' d ' Asses' ears ' among the sedge, ' My sister.' ' Comely too by all that 's fair' Said Cyril. ' 0 hush, hush ! ' and she began. ' This world was once a fluid haze of light. Till toward the centre set the starry tides. A MEDLEY. 29 And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast The planets : then the monster, then the man ; Tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins, Raw from the prime, and crushing down his mate ; As yet we find in harharous isles, and here Among the lowest.' Thereupon she took A hird's-eye-view of all the ungracious past ; Glanced at the legendary Amazon As emhlematic of a nohler age ; Appraised the Lycian custom, spoke of those That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo ; Ran down the Persian, Grecian, Roman lines Of empire, and the woman's state in each. How far from just ; till warming with her theme She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique And little- footed China, touch 'd on Mahomet With much contempt, and came to chivalry : When some respect, however slight, was paid 30 THE PRINCESS ; To woman, superstition all awrj : However then commenced the dawn : a beam Had slanted forward, falling in a land Of promise ; fruit would follow. Deep, indeed, Their debt of thanks to her who first had dared To leap the rotten pales of prejudice, Disyoke their necks from custom, and assert None lordlier than themselves but that which made Woman and man. She had founded ; they must build Here might they learn whatever men were tauo-ht : Let them not fear : some said their heads were less : Some men's were small ; not they the least of men ; For often fineness compensated size : Besides the brain was like the hand, and grew With using ; thence the man's, if more was more ; He took advantage of liis strength to be First in the field : some ages had been lost ; But woman ripen 'd earlier, and her life Was longer ; and albeit their glorious names Were fewer, scatter 'd stars, yet since in truth A MEDLEY. 31 The highest is the measure of the man, And not the Caffre, Hottentot, Malay, Nov those horn-handed breakers of the glebe, But Homer, Plato, Verulam ; even so With woman : and in arts of government Elizabeth and others ; arts of war The peasant Joan and others ; arts of grace Sappho and others vied with any man : And she, tho' last not least, who had left her place. And bow'd her state to them, that they might grow To use and power on this Oasis, lapt In the arms of leisure, sacred from the blight Of ancient influence and scorn. ' At last She rose upon a wind of prophecy Dilating on the future ; ' everywhere Two heads in council, two beside the hearth. Two in the tangled business of the world, Two in the liberal offices of life, 32 THE PRINCESS ; Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss Of science, and the secrets of the mind : Musician, painter, sculptor, critic, more : And everywhere the broad and bounteous Earth Should bear a double growth of those rare souls, Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world.' She ended here, and beckon'd us : the rest Parted ; and, glowing full-faced welcome, she Began to address us, and was moving on In gratulation, till as Avhen a boat Tacks, and her slacken'd sail flaps, aU her voice Faltering and fluttering in her throat, she cried ' My brother ! ' * Well, my sister.' ' 0 ' she said * What do you here ? and in this dress ? and these ? Why who are these ? a wolf within the fold ! A pack of wolves ! the Lord be gracious to me ! A plot, a plot, a plot to ruin all ! ' No plot, no plot,' he answer 'd. ' Wretched boy How saw you not the inscription on the gate. A MEDLEY. 33 Let no man enter in on pain of death ? ' ' And if I bad ' lie answer 'd ' who could think The softer Adams of your Academe, 0 sister, Sirens tho' they be, were such As chanted on the blanching bones of men ? ' ' But you will find it otherwise ' she said. * You jest : ill jesting with edge-tools ! I am bound To tell her. 0, she has an iron will, An axehke edge unturnable, our Head, The Princess.' ' Well then. Psyche, take my life, And nail me like a weasel on a ffrange For warning : bury me beside the gate, And cut this epitaph above my bones ; Here lies a brother hy a sister slain, AH for the common good of womankind.' ' Let me die too ' said Cyril * having seen And heard the Lady Psyche.' I struck in : ' Albeit so mask'd, Madam, I love the truth ; 84 THE PRINCESS ; Receive it ; and La me behold the Prince Your countryman, affianced years ago To the Lady Ida : here, for here she vras, And thus (what other vraj was left) I came. ' ' 0 Sii% 0 Prince, I have no country ; none ; If any, this ; but none. Whate'er I was Disrooted, what I am is grafted here. Affianced, Sii- ? love-whispers may not breathe Within this vestal limit, and how should I, Who am not mine, say, live : the thimderbolt Hangs silent ; but prepare : I speak ; it falls. ' * Yet pause,' I said : ' for that inscription there, I think no more of deadly lurks therein, Than in a clapper clapping in a garth. To scare the fowl from fruit : if more there be. If more and acted on, what foUows ? war ; Your own work marr'd : for this your Academe, Whichever side be Victor, in the haUoo Will topple to the tnmipet down, and pass With all fair theories only made to gUd A MEDLEY. 35 A stormless summer.' ' Let the Princess judge Of that ' she said : ' farewell Sir — and to you. I shudder at the sequel, but I go, ' * Are you that Lady Psyche ' I rejoin'd, ' The fifth in line from that old Florian, Yet hangs his portrait in my father's hall (The gaunt old Baron with his beetle brow Sun-shaded in the heat of dusty fights) As he bestrode my Grandsire, when he fell, And all else fled : we point to it, and we say, The loyal warmth of Florian is not cold, But branches current yet in kindred veins. ' ' Are you that Psyche ' Florian added ' she With whom I sang about the morning hUls, Flung ball, flew kite, and raced the purple fly, And snared the sqviirrel of the glen ? are you That Psyche, wont to bind my throbbing brow, To smoothe my pillow, mix the foaming draught Of fever, tell me pleasant tales, and read 36 THE PRINCESS ; My sickness down to liappy di-eams ? are you That brother-sister Psyche, both in one ? You were that Psyche, but what are you now ? ' ' You are that Psyche,' Cyril said, ' for whom I would be that for ever which I seem, A woman, if I might sit beside your feet, And glean your scatter d sapience. ' Then once more, * Are you that Lady Psyche ' I began, * That on her bridal morn before she past From aU her old companions, when the king Kiss'd her pale cheek, declared that ancient ties Would stUl be dear beyond the southern hiUs ; That were there any of our people there In want or peril, there was one to hear And help them : look ! for such are these and L' * Are you that Psyche ' Florian ask'd ' to whom. In gentler days, your arrow- wounded fawn Came flying while you sat beside the well ? A MEDLEY. 37 The creature laid his muzzle on your lap, And sobb'd, and you sobb'd with it, and the blood Was sprinkled on your kirtle, and you wept. That was fawn's blood, not brother's, yet you wept. 0 by the bright head of my little niece, You were that Psyche, and what are you now ? ' ' You are that Psyche ' Cyril said again, ' The mother of the sweetest little maid, That ever crow'd for kisses.' ' Out upon it ! ' She answer 'd, ' peace ! and why should I not play The Spartan Mother with emotion, be The Lucius Junius Brutus of my kind ? Him you call great : he for the common weal. The fading politics of mortal Rome, As I might slay this child, if good need were. Slew both his sons : and I, shall I, on whom The secular emancipation turns Of half this world, be swerved from right to save 38 THE PRINCESS ; A prince, a brother ? a little vdll I yield. Best so, perchance, for us, and well for you. 0 hard, -when love and duty clash ! I fear My conscience wiU not count me fleckless ; yet — Hear my conditions : promise (otherwise You perish) as you came to slip away, To-day, to-morrow, soon : it shall he said, These women were too barbarous, would not learn ; They fled, who might have shamed us : promise, all.' What could we else, we promised each ; and she, Like some wUd creature newly-caged, commenced A to-and-fro, so pacing till she paused By Florian ; holding out her lily arms Took both his hands, and smiling faintly said : ' You are grown, and yet I knew you at the first. 1 am very glad, and I am very vext To see you, Florian. /give thee to death My brother I it was duty spoke, not I. A MEDLEY. 39 My needful seeming harshness, pardon it. Our mother, is she well ? ' With that she kiss'd His forehead, and a moment after clung About him, and betwixt them blossom'd up From out a common vein of memory Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth. And far allusion, till the gracious dews Began to glisten and to fall : and while They stood, so rapt, we gazing, came a voice, * I brought a message here from Lady Blanche.' Back started she, and turning round we saw The Lady Blanche's daughter where she stood, Melissa, with her hand upon the lock, A rosy blonde, and in a college gown That clad her like an April daflfodiUy (Her mother's colour) with her Ups apart. And all her thoughts as fair within her eyes, As bottom agates seem to wave and float In crystal currents of clear morning seas. 40 THE PRINCESS ; So stood that same fair creature at the door. Then Lady Psyche ' Ah — Mehssa — you ! You heard us ? ' and Melissa, ' 0 pardon me ! I heard, I could not help it, did not mean : But, dearest Lady, I pray you fear me not, Nor think I bear that heart within my breast. To give three gallant gentlemen to death. ' ' I trust you ' said the other ' for we two Were always friends, none closer, elm and vine : But yet your mother's jealous temperament — Let not yom- prudence, dearest, drowse, or prove The Danaid of a leaky vase, for fear This whole foundation ruin, and I lose My honour, these their lives.' ' Ah, fear me not ' Replied Melissa ' no — I would not tell, No, not for all Aspasia's cleverness, No, not to answer. Madam, aU those hard things That Sheba came to ask of Solomon.' ' Be it so ' the other ' that we may live to lead The new light up, and culminate in peace, A MEDLEY. 41 For Solomon may come to Sheba yet.' Said Cyril ' Madam, he the wisest man Feasted the woman wisest then, in halls Of Lebanonian cedar : nor should you (Tho' madam you should answer, we would ask) Less welcome find among us, if e'er you came Among us, debtors for our lives to you. Myself for something more.' He said not what. But ' Thanks,' she answer'd ' go : we have been too long Together : keep yom* hoods about the face ; They do so that affect abstraction here. Speak httle ; mix not with the rest ; and hold Your promise : all, I trust, may yet be well,' We turn'd to go, but Cyril took the child. And held her round the knees against his waist, And blew the swoU'n cheek of a trumpeter. While Psyche watch' d them, smiling, and the child Push'd her flat hand against his face and laugh'd ; And thus our conference closed. 42 THE PRINCESS J And then we stroll'd From room to room : in each we sat, we heard The grave Professor. On the lecture slate The circle rounded under female hands With flawless demonstration : follow'd then A classic lecture, rich in sentiment. With scraps of thimdrous Epic lilted out By violet-hooded Doctors, elegies And quoted odes, and jewels five-words-long That on the stretch'd forefinger of all Time Sparkle for ever : then we dipt in all That treats of whatsoever is, the state, The total chronicles of man, the mind. The morals, something of the frame, the rock, The star, the hird, the fish, the shell, the flower. Electric, chemic laws, and all the rest, And whatsoever can be taught and known ; Till like three horses that have broken fence, And glutted aU night long breast-deep in com. We issued gorged with knowledge, and I spoke : A MEDLEY. 43 ' Why, Sirs, they do all this as well as we.' ' They hunt old trails ' said Cyril ' very well ; But when did woman ever yet invent ? ' * Ungracious ! ' answer'd Florian, ' have you learnt No more from Psyche's lecture, you that talk'd The trash that made me sick, and almost sad ? ' ' 0 trash ' he said ' but with a kernel in it. Should I not call her wise, who made me wise ? And learnt ? I learnt more from her in a flash. Than if my brainpan were an empty hull. And every Muse tumbled a science in. A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls. 