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120

Lords and ladies alike turned with loathing
From such a proved wolf in sheep's clothing.

To what "speeches like gold" were reducible,
And, finding the finest prove copper,

Felt the smoke in her face was but proper;
To know what she had not to trust to,
Was worth all the ashes and dust too.
She went out 'mid hooting and laughter;
Clement Marot stayed; I followed after,
And asked, as a grace, what it all meant?
If she wished not the rash deed's recalment?
"For I" so I spoke" am a poet :

Human nature behoves that I know it ! "

She told me," Too long had I heard

Of the deed proved alone by the word:

For my love

what De Lorge would not dare! With my scorn-what De Lorge could compare ! And the endless descriptions of death

He would brave when my lip formed a breath,

I must reckon as braved, or, of course,

Doubt his word - and moreover, perforce,
For such gifts as no lady could spurn,
Must offer my love in return.

When I looked on your lion, it brought
All the dangers at once to my thought,
Encountered by all sorts of men,

Before he was lodged in his den,

From the poor slave whose club or bare hands
Dug the trap, set the snare on the sands,
With no King and no Court to applaud,
By no shame, should he shrink, overawed,
Yet to capture the creature made shift,
That his rude boys might laugh at the gift,

- To the page who last leaped o'er the fence

Of the pit, on no greater pretence

Than to get back the bonnet he dropped,
Lest his pay for a week should be stopped.
So, wiser I judged it to make

One trial what death for my sake'

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140

Really meant, while the power was yet mine,
Than to wait until time should define

Such a phrase not so simply as I,

6

Who took it to mean just to die.'
The blow a glove gives is but weak:
Does the mark yet discolour my cheek?
But when the heart suffers a blow,

Will the pain pass so soon, do you know?"

I looked, as away she was sweeping,

And saw a youth eagerly keeping

As close as he dared to the doorway.

150

No doubt that a noble should more weigh
His life than befits a plebeian;

160

And yet, had our brute been Nemean

(I judge by a certain calm fervour

The youth stepped with, forward to serve her)

He'd have scarce thought you did him the worst turn
If you whispered, "Friend, what you 'd get, first earn!"
And when, shortly after, she carried

Her shame from the Court, and they married,
To that marriage some happiness, maugre
The voice of the Court, I dared augur.

For De Lorge, he made women with men vie,
Those in wonder and praise, these in envy;

And, in short, stood so plain a head taller

That he wooed and won ... how do you call her?
The beauty, that rose in the sequel

To the King's love, who loved her a week well.
And 't was noticed he never would honour

De Lorge (who looked daggers upon her)
With the easy commission of stretching
His legs in the service, and fetching
His wife, from her chamber, those straying
Sad gloves she was always mislaying,
While the King took the closet to chat in,
But of course this adventure came pat in.
And never the King told the story,
How bringing a glove brought such glory,
But the wife smiled- "His nerves are grown firmer:
Mine he brings now and utters no murmur."

Venienti occurrite morbo!

With which moral I drop my theorbo.

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190

Holds earth aught-speak truth - above her?
Aught like this tress, see, and this tress,
And this last fairest tress of all,

So fair, see, ere I let it fall?

II.

Because, you spend your lives in praising;
To praise, you search the wide world over:
Then why not witness, calmly gazing,

If earth holds aught-speak truth - above her?
Above this tress, and this, I touch

But cannot praise, I love so much!

ΙΟ

IC

IV.

What they could my words expressed,
O my love, my all, my one!
Singing helped the verses best,

And when singing's best was done,
To my lute I left the rest.

V.

So wore night; the East was gray,
White the broad-faced hemlock flowers:
There would be another day;

Ere its first of heavy hours

Found me, I had passed away.

VI.

What became of all the hopes,

Words and song and lute as well?

Say, this struck you: "When life gropes

Feebly for the path where fell

Light last on the evening slopes, –

VII.

"One friend in that path shall be,
To secure my step from wrong;
One to count night day for me,
Patient through the watches long,
Serving most with none to see.”

VIII.

Never say as something bodes
"So, the worst has yet a worse!
When life halts 'neath double loads,

Better the task-master's curse

Than such music on the roads!

IX.

"When no moon succeeds the sun,

Nor can pierce the midnight's tent

Any star, the smallest one,

While some drops, where lightning rent, Show the final storm begun

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30

40

Your trade was with sticks and clay,

You thumbed, thrust, patted and polished, Then laughed "They will see, some day, Smith made, and Gibson demolished."

III.

My business was song, song, song;

I chirped, cheeped, trilled and twittered, "Kate Brown 's on the boards ere long, And Grisi's existence embittered!