As if his answer could impose at all! He writeth, doth he? well, and he may write. Oh, the Jew findeth scholars! certain slaves Who touched on this same isle, preached him and Christ; And (as I gathered from a bystander) Their doctrine could be held by no sane man. INSTANS TYRANNUS. I OF the million or two, more or less, I rule and possess, One man, for some cause undefined, II I struck him, he grovelled of course- I pinned him to earth with my weight And persistence of hate; And he lay, would not moan, would not curse, III "Were the object less mean, would he stand "At the swing of my hand! "For obscurity helps him, and blots "The hole where he squats." So, I set my five wits on the stretch To inveigle the wretch. All in vain! Gold and jewels I threw, I tempted his blood and his flesh, Choicest cates and the flagon's best spilth: Still he kept to his filth. IV Had he kith now or kin, were access To his heart, did I press : Just a son or a mother to seize ! No such booty as these. Were it simply a friend to pursue 'Mid my million or two, Who could pay me, in person or pelf, What he owes me himself! No: I could not but smile through my chafe: For the fellow lay safe As his mates do, the midge and the nit, V Then a humour more great took its place The droop, the low cares of the mouth, The trouble uncouth 'Twixt the brows, all that air one is fain To put out of its pain. And, "no!" I admonished myself, "Is one mocked by an elf, "Is one baffled by toad or by rat? "The gravamen 's in that! "How the lion, who crouches to suit "His back to my foot, "Would admire that I stand in debate! "But the small turns the great "If it vexes you,—that is the thing! "Toad or rat vex the king? "Though I waste half my realm to unearth "Toad or rat, 't is well worth!" VI So, I soberly laid my last plan To extinguish the man. Round his creep-hole, with never a break Ran my fires for his sake; Over-head, did my thunder combine With my under-ground mine : Till I looked from my labour content VII When sudden . . . how think ye, the end? Did I say "without friend?" Say rather, from marge to blue marge The whole sky grew his targe With the sun's self for visible boss, While an Arm ran across Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast Where the wretch was safe prest! Do you see! Just my vengeance complete, The man sprang to his feet, Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed! -So, I was afraid! AN EPISTLE. CONTAINING THE STRANGE MEDICAL EXPERIENCE OF KARSHISH, KARSHISH, the picker-up of learning's crumbs, That puff of vapour from his mouth, man's soul) Breeder in me of what poor skill I boast, Like me inquisitive how pricks and cracks Befall the flesh through too much stress and strain, Whereby the wily vapour fain would slip And aptest in contrivance (under God) To baffle it by deftly stopping such : The vagrant Scholar to his Sage at home Sends greeting (health and knowledge, fame with peace) Three samples of true snake-stone-rarer still, (But fitter, pounded fine, for charms than drugs) My journeyings were brought to Jericho : I have shed sweat enough, left flesh and bone Since this poor covert where I pass the night, To void the stuffing of my travel-scrip In tertians, I was nearly bold to say; And falling-sickness hath a happier cure Take five and drop them . . . but who knows his mind, ... The Syrian run-a-gate I trust this to? Gather what most deserves, and give thee all- Yet stay! my Syrian blinketh gratefully, Suppose I write what harms not, though he steal? An itch I had, a sting to write, a tang! For, be it this town's barrenness—or else The Man had something in the look of him— His case has struck me far more than 't is worth. So, pardon if (lest presently I lose, In the great press of novelty at hand, The care and pains this somehow stole from me) |