"Let ine screw thee up a peg: Let me loose thy tongue with wine: Callest thou that thing a leg? Which is thinnest? thine or mine? "Thou shalt not be saved by works: Thou hast been a sinner too: Ruin'd trunks on wither'd forks, Empty scarecrows, I and you! "Fill the cup, and fill the can: Have a rouse before the moru: Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born. "We are men of ruin'd blood; "Name and fame! to fly sublime Through the courts, the camps, the schools, Is to be the ball of Time, Bandied in the hands of fools. "Friendship!-to be two in oneLet the canting liar pack! Well I know, when I am gone, How she mouths behind my back. "Virtue!-to be good and justEvery heart, when sifted well, Is a clot of warmer dust, Mix'd with cunning sparks of hell. "O! we two as well can look Whited thought and cleanly life As the priest, above his book Leering at his neighbor's wife. "Fill the cup, and fill the can: Have a rouse before the morn: Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born. "No, I love not what is new; "Let her go! her thirst she slakes And the glow-worm of the grave "Fear not thou to loose thy tongue; "Change, reverting to the years, When thy nerves could understand What there is in loving tears, And the warmth of hand in hand. "Tell me tales of thy first loveApril hopes, the fools of chance: Till the graves begin to move, And the dead begin to dance. "Fill the can, and fill the cup: All the windy ways of men Are but dust that rises up, And is lightly laid again. "Trooping from their mouldy dens The chap-fallen circle spreads: Welcome, fellow-citizens, Hollow hearts and empty heads. "You are bones, and what of that: "Death is king, and Vivat Rex! Tread a measure on the stones, Madam-if I know your sex, From the fashion of your bones. "No, I cannot praise the fire "Drink to Fortune, drink to Chance, "Thou art mazed, the night is long, "Youthful hopes, by scores, to all, When the locks are crisp and curl'd Unto me my maudlin gall And my mockeries of the world "Fill the cup, and fill the can! Mingle madness, mingle scorn! Dregs of life, and lees of man: Yet we will not die forlorn." 5. The voice grew faint: there came a further changc THE PRINCESS: A MEDLEY. ΤΟ HENRY LUSHINGTON THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED PROLOGUE. SIR WALTER VIVIAN all a summer's day And me that morning Walter show'd the house, Greek, set with busts: from vases in the hall Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names, Grew side by side; and on the pavement lay Carved stones of the Abbey-ruin in the park. Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time: And on the tables every clime and age Jumbled together: celts and calumets, Claymore and snow-shoe, 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 armor hung. And "this," he said, "was Hugh's at Agincourt; And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon: A good knight he! we keep a chronicle With all about him,"-which he brought, and I Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knights Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings Who 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. "O miracle of women," said the book, "O noble heart who, being strait-besieged By this wild king to force her to his wish, Nor bent, nor broke, nor shunn'd a soldier's death, But now when all was lost or seem'd as lostHer stature more than mortal in the burst Of sunrise, her arm lifted, eyes on fireBrake with a blast of trumpets from the gate, And, falling on them like a thunderbolt, She trampled some beneath her horses' heels, And some were whelm'd with missiles of the wall, And some were push'd with lances from the rock, And part were drown'd within the whirling brook: O miracle of noble womanhood!" So sang the gallant glorious chronicle; And, I all rapt in this, "Come out," he said, "To the Abbey: there is Aunt Elizabeth BY HIS FRIEND A. TENNYSON. And sister Lilia with the rest." We went There moved the multitude, a thousand heads; The patient leaders of their Institute Taught them with facts. One rear'd a font of stone Strange was the sight and smacking of the time: Took this fair day for text, and from it preach'd And all things great; but we, unworthier, told But while they talk'd, above their heads I saw The feudal warrior lady-clad; which brought My book to mind: and opening this I read Of old Sir Ralph a page or two that rang With tilt and tourney; then the tale of her That drove her foes with slaughter from her walls, And much I praised her nobleness, and "Where," Ask'd Walter, patting Lilia's head (she lay Beside him) "lives there such a woman now ?" Quick answer'd Lilia, "There are thousands now Such women, but convention beats them down: It is but bringing up; no more than that: You men have done it: how I hate you all! Ah, were I something great! I wish I were Some mighty poetess, I would shame you then, That love to keep us children! OI wish That I were some great Princess, I would build Far off from men a college like a man's, And I would teach them all that men are taught: We are twice as quick!" And here she shook aside The hand that play'd the patron with her curls. 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. I 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, However deep you might 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; They lost their weeks; they vext the souls of deans; "True," she said, "We doubt not that. O yes, you miss'd us much. I'll 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, So moulder'd in a sinecure as he: And what's my thought and when and where and how, She remember'd that: A pleasant game, she thought: she liked it more A half-disdain Perch'd on the pouted blossom of her lips: "Kill him now, The tyrant! kill him in the summer too," Walter warp'd his mouth at this Or be yourself your hero if you will." "Take Lilia, then, for heroine," clamor'd he, "And make her some great Princess, six feet high, Grand, epic, homicidal; and be you The Prince to win her!" "Then follow me, the Prince," A talk of college and of ladies' rights, So I began, And the rest follow'd: and the women sang Between the rougher voices of the men, Like linnets in the pauses of the wind: And here I give the story and the songs. I. A PRINCE I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, Of temper amorous, as the first of May, With lengths of yellow ringlet, like a girl, For on my cradle shone the Northern star. There lived an ancient legend in our house. Some sorcerer, whom a far-off grandsire burnt Because he cast no shadow, had foretold, Dying, that none of all our blood should know |