“Some one love-letter, infamy and all,
“As passport to the Paphos fit for such,
“Safe- conduct to her natural home the stews,—
“Good! One had recognised the power o’ the pulse.
“But when he stands, the stock-fish,—sticks to law—
“Offers the hole in his heart, all fresh and warm,
“For scrivener’s pen to poke and play about—
“Can stand, can stare, can tell his beads perhaps, (1150)
“Oh, let us hear no syllable o’ the rage!
“Such rage were a convenient afterthought
“For one who would have shown his teeth belike,
“Exhibited unbridled rage enough,
“Had but the priest been found, as was to hope,
“In serge, not silk, with crucifix, not sword:
“Whereas the grey innocuous grub, of yore,
“Had hatched a hornet, tickle to the touch,
“The priest was metamorphosed into knight.
“And even the timid wife, whose cue was—shriek, (1160)
“Bury her brow beneath his trampling foot,—
“She too sprang at him like a pythoness:
“So, gulp down rage, passion must be postponed,
“Calm be the word! Well, our word is—we brand
“This part o’ the business, howsoever the rest
“Befall.”
“This is the world’s way! So you adjudge reward
“To the forbearance and legality
“Yourselves begin by inculcating—ay, (1170)
“Exacting from us all with knife at throat!
“This one wrong more you add to wrong’s amount,—
“You publish all, with the kind comment here,
“‘Its victim was too cowardly for revenge.”’
Make it your own case,—you who stand apart!
The husband wakes one morn from heavy sleep,
With a taste of poppy in his mouth,—rubs eyes,
Finds his wife flown, his strong box ransacked too,
Follows as he best can, overtakes i’ the end.
You bid him use his privilege: well, it seems (1180)
He’s scarce cool-blooded enough for the right move—
Does not shoot when the game were sure, but stands
Bewildered at the critical minute,—since
He has the first flash of the fact alone
To judge from, act with, not the steady lights
Of after-knowledge,—yours who stand at ease
To try conclusions: he’s in smother and smoke,
You outside, with explosion at an end:
The sulphur may be lightning or a squib—
He’ll know in a minute, but till then, he doubts. (1190)
Back from what you know to what he knew not!
Hear the priest’s lofty “I am innocent,”
The wife’s as resolute “You are guilty!” Come!
Are you not staggered?—pause, and you lose the move!
Nought left you but a low appeal to law,
“Coward” tied to your tail for compliment!
Another consideration: have it your way!
Admit the worst: his courage failed the Count,
He’s cowardly like the best o’ the burgesses
He’s grown incorporate with,—a very cur, (1200)
Kick him from out your circle by all means!
Why, trundled down this reputable stair,
Still, the Church-door lies wide to take him in,
And the Court-porch also: in he sneaks to each,—
“Yes, I have lost my honour and my wife,
“And, being moreover an ignoble hound,
“I dare not jeopardise my life for them!”
Religion and Law lean forward from their chairs,
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant!” Ay,
Not only applaud him that he scorned the world, (1210)
But punish should he dare do otherwise.
If the case be clear or turbid,—you must say!
In the law-courts,—let’s see clearly from this point!—
Where the priest tells his story true or false,
And the wife her story, and the husband his,
All with result as happy as before.
The courts would nor condemn nor yet acquit
This, that, or the other, in so distinct a sense
As end the strife to either’s absolute loss: (1220)
Pronounced, in place of something definite,
“Each of the parties, whether goat or sheep
“I’ the main, has wool to show and hair to hide.
“Each has brought somehow trouble, is somehow cause
“Of pains enough,—even though no worse were proved.
“Here is a husband, cannot rule his wife
“Without provoking her to scream and scratch
“And scour the fields,—causelessly, it may be:
“Here is that wife,—who makes her sex our plague,
“Wedlock, our bugbear,—perhaps with cause enough: (1230)
“And here is the truant priest o’ the trio, worst
“Or best—each quality being conceivable.
“Let us impose a little mulct on each.
“We punish youth in state of pupilage
“Who talk at hours when youth is bound to sleep,
“Whether the prattle turn upon Saint Rose
“Or Donna Olimpia of the Vatican:
“ ’Tis talk, talked wisely or unwisely talked,
“I’ the dormitory where to talk at all,
“Transgresses, and is mulct: as here we mean. (1240)
“For the wife,—let her betake herself, for rest,
“After her run, to a House of Convertites—
“Keep there, as good as real imprisonment:
“Being sick and tired, she will recover so.
“For the priest, spritely strayer out of bounds,
“Who made Arezzo hot to hold him,—Rome
“Profits by his withdrawal from the scene.
“Let him be relegate to Civita,
“Circumscribed by its bounds till matters mend:
“There he at least lies out o’ the way of harm (1250)
“From foes—perhaps from the too friendly fair.
“And finally for the husband, whose rash rule
“Has but itself to blame for this ado,—
“If he be vexed that, in our judgments dealt,
“He fails obtain what he accounts his right,
“Let him go comforted with the thought, no less,
“That, turn each sentence howsoever he may,
“There’s satisfaction to extract therefrom.
“For, does he wish his wife proved innocent?
“Well, she’s not guilty, he may safely urge, (1260)
“Has missed the stripes dishonest
| Previous chapter/page | Back | Home | Email this | Search | Discuss | Bookmark | Next chapter/page |