XIV. One dissertates, he is candid; Two must discept,-has distinguished ; Three helps the couple, if ever yet man did ; Four protests; Five makes a dart at the thing wished: Back to One, goes the case bandied. XV. says his One say with a difference; More of expounding, explaining ! Now there's a truce, all's subdued, self-restraining : Five, though, stands out all the stiffer hence. XVI. One is incisive, corrosive; Two retorts, nettled, curt, crepitant; Four overbears them all, strident and strepitant : XVII. Now, they ply axes, and crowbars; Now, they prick pins at a tissue Worked on the bone of a lie. To what issue? XVIII. Est fuga, volvitur rota. On we drift: where looms the dim port? One, Two, Three, Four, Five, contribute their quota; Something is gained, if one caught but the importShow it us Hugues of Saxe-Gotha ! XIX. What with affirming, denying, Holding, risposting, subjoining, All's like... it's like ... for an instance I'm trying ... There ! See our roof, its gilt moulding and groining Under those spider-webs lying ! XX. So your fugue broadens and thickens, Greatens and deepens and lengthens, Till we exclaim—“But where 's music, the dickens ? “ Blot ye the gold, while your spider-web strengthens " — Blacked to the stoutest of tickens ?" XXI. I for man's effort am zealous : Prove me such censure unfounded ! Seems it surprising a lover grows jealous Hopes 't was for something, his organ pipes sounded, Tiring three boys at the bellows? XXII. Is it your moral of Life ? Such a web, simple and subtle, Weave we on earth here in impotent strife, Backward and forward each throwing his shuttle, Death ending all with a knife ? XXIII. Over our heads truth and nature Still our life's zigzags and dodges, God's gold just shining its last where that lodges, XXIV. Cherub and trophy and garland ; Heaven's earnest eye: not a glimpse of the far land Gets through our comments and glozes. XXV. Ah but traditions, inventions, (Say we and make up a visage) So many men with such various intentions, Down the past ages, must know more than this age ! Leave we the web its dimensions ! XXVI. Who thinks Hugues wrote for the deaf, Proved a mere mountain in labour ? Better submit; try again ; what 's the clef? 'Faith, 't is no trifle for pipe and for taborFour flats, the minor in F. XXVII. Friend, your fugue taxes the finger : Learning it once, who would lose it ? Yet all the while a misgiving will linger, Truth 's golden o'er us although we refuse itNature, thro' cobwebs we string her. XXVIII. Hugues! I advise meå pæna (Counterpoint glares like a Gorgon) Bid One, Two, Three, Four, Five, clear the arena ! Say the word, straight I unstop the full-organ, Blare out the mode Palestrina. XXIX, While in the roof, if I'm right there, . . Lo you, the wick in the socket ! Hallo, you sacristan, show us a light there ! Down it dips, gone like a rocket. What, you want, do you, to come unawares, Sweeping the church up for first morning-prayers, And find a poor devil has ended his cares At the foot of your rotten-runged rat-riddled stairs ? Do I carry the moon in my pocket ? 1 ABT VOGLER. (AFTER HE HAS BEEN EXTEMPORIZING UPON THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF HIS INVENTION.) I. Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build, Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work, Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk, Man, brute, reptile, fly-alien of end and of aim, Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep removed, Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name, And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved ! II. Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of mine, This which my keys in a crowd pressed and impor tuned to raise ! Ah, one and all, how they helped, would dispart now and now combine, Zealous to hasten the work, heighten their master his praise ! |