“I’ the person and the quality—nowise
“In the individual,—that’s the case in point!
“You go to the ground,—are met by a cross-suit
“For separation, of the Rachel here, (1320)
“From bed and board,—she is the injured one,
“You did the wrong and have to answer it.
“As for the circumstance of imprisonment
“And colour it lends to this your new attack,
“Never fear, that point is considered too!
“The durance is already at an end;
“The convent-quiet preyed upon her health,
“She is transferred now to her parents’ house
“—No-parents, when that cheats and plunders you,
“But parentage again confessed in full, (1330)
“When such confession pricks and plagues you more—
“As now—for, this their house is not the house
“In Via Vittoria wherein neighbours’ watch
“Might incommode the freedom of your wife,
“But a certain villa smothered up in vines
“At the town’s edge by the gate i’ the Pauline way,
“Out of eye-reach, out of ear-shot, little and lone,
“Whither a friend,—at Civita, we hope,
“A good half-dozen-hours’ ride off,—might, some eve,
“Betake himself, and whence ride back, some morn, (1340)
“Nobody the wiser: but be that as it may,
“Do not afflict your brains with trifles now.
“You have still three suits to manage, all and each
“Ruinous truly should the event play false.
“It is indeed the likelier so to do,
“That brother Paul, your single prop and stay,
“After a vain attempt to bring the Pope
“To set aside procedures, sit himself
“And summarily use prerogative,
“Afford us the infallible finger’s tact (1350)
“To disentwine your tangle of affairs,
“Paul,—finding it moreover past his strength
“To stem the irruption, bear Rome’s ridicule
“Of … since friends must speak … to be round with you …
“Of the old outwitted husband, wronged and wroth,
“Pitted against a brace of juveniles—
“A brisk priest who is versed in Ovid’s art
“More than his Summa, and a gamesome wife
“Able to act Corinna without book,
“Beside the waggish parents who played dupes (1360)
“To dupe the duper—(and truly divers scenes
“Of the Arezzo palace, tickle rib
“And tease eye till the tears come, so we laugh;
“Nor wants the shock at the inn its comic force,
“And then the letters and poetry—merum sal!)
“—Paul, finally, in such a state of things,
“After a brief temptation to go jump
“And join the fishes in the Tiber, drowns
“Sorrow another and a wiser way:
“House and goods, he has sold all off, is gone, (1370)
“Leaves Rome,—whether for France or Spain, who knows?
“Or Briton almost divided from our orb.
“You have lost him anyhow.”
Shift in their seat,—would I could do the same!
They probably please expect my bile was moved
To purpose, nor much blame me: now, they judge,
The fiery titillation urged my flesh
Break through the bonds. By your pardon, no, sweet Sirs!
I got such missives in the public place; (1380)
When I sought home,—with such news, mounted stair
And sat at last in the sombre gallery,
(’Twas Autumn, the old mother in bed betimes,
Having to bear that cold, the finer frame
Of her daughter-in-law had found intolerable—
The brother, walking misery away
O’ the mountain-side with dog and gun belike)
As I supped, ate the coarse bread, drank the wine
Weak once, now acrid with the toad’s-head-squeeze,
My wife’s bestowment,—I broke silence thus: (1390)
“Let me, a man, manfully meet the fact,
“Confront the worst o’ the truth, end, and have peace!
“I am irremediably beaten here,—
“The gross illiterate vulgar couple,—bah!
“Why, they have measured forces, mastered mine,
“Made me their spoil and prey from first to last.
“They have got my name,—’tis nailed now fast to theirs,
“The child or changeling is anyway my wife;
“Point by point as they plan they execute,
“They gain all, and I lose all—even to the lure (1400)
“That led to loss,—they have the wealth again
“They hazarded awhile to hook me with,
“Have caught the fish and find the bait entire:
“They even have their child or changeling back
“To trade with, turn to account a second time.
“The brother, presumably might tell a tale
“Or give a warning,—he, too, flies the field,
“And with him vanish help and hope of help.
“They have caught me in the cavern where I fell,
“Covered my loudest cry for human aid (1410)
“With this enormous paving-stone of shame.
“Well, are we demigods or merely clay?
“Is success still attendant on desert?
“Is this, we live on, heaven and the final state,
“Or earth which means probation to the end?
“Why claim escape from man’s predestined lot
“Of being beaten and baffled?—God’s decree,
“In which I, bowing bruised head, acquiesce.
“One of us Franceschini fell long since
“I’ the Holy Land, betrayed, tradition runs, (1420)
“To Paynims by the feigning of a girl
“He rushed to free from ravisher, and found
“Lay safe enough with friends in ambuscade
“Who flayed him while she clapped her hands and laughed:
“Let me end, falling by a like device.
“It will not be so hard. I am the last
“O’ my line which will not suffer any more.
“I have attained to my full fifty years,
“(About the average of us all, ’tis said,
“Though it seems longer to the unlucky man) (1430)
“—Lived through my share of life; let all end here,
“Me and the house and grief and shame at once.
“Friends my informants,—I can bear your blow!”
And I believe ’twas in no unmeet match
For the stoic’s mood, with something like a smile,
That, when morose December roused me next,
I took into my hand, broke seal to read
The new epistle from Rome. “All to no use!
“Whate’er the turn next
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