“Devoir to-morrow morning after mass!
“Break that rash promise to preach, Passion-week!
“Has it escaped you the Archbishop grunts
“And snuffles when one grieves to tell his Grace
“No soul dares treat the subject of the day (360)
“Since his own masterly handling it (ha, ha!)
“Five years ago,—when somebody could help
“And touch up an odd phrase in time of need,
“(He, he!)—and somebody helps you, my son!
“Therefore, don’t prove so indispensable
“At the Pieve, sit more loose i’ the seat, nor grow
“A fixture by attendance morn and eve!
“Arezzo’s just a haven midway Rome—
“Rome’s the eventual harbour,—make for port,
“Crowd sail, crack cordage! And your cargo be (370)
“A polished presence, a genteel manner, wit
“At will, and tact at every pore of you!
“I sent our lump of learning, Brother Clout,
“And Father Slouch, our piece of piety,
“To see Rome and try suit the Cardinal.
“Thither they clump-clumped, beads and book in hand,
“And ever since ’tis meat for man and maid
“How both flopped down, prayed blessing on bent pate
“Bald many an inch beyond the tonsure’s need,
“Never once dreaming, the two moony dolts, (380)
“There’s nothing moves his Eminence so much
“As—far from all this awe at sanctitude—
“Heads that wag, eyes that twinkle, modified mirth
“At the closet-lectures on the Latin tongue
“A lady learns so much by, we know where.
“Why, body o’ Bacchus, you should crave his rule
“For pauses in the elegiac couplet, chasms
“Permissible only to Catullus! There!
“Now go do duty: brisk, break Priscian’s head
“By reading the day’s office—there’s no help. (390)
“You’ve Ovid in your poke to plaster that;
“Amen’s at the end of all: then sup with me!”
In prosecution of my calling, I
Found myself at the theatre one night
With a brother Canon, in a mood and mind
Proper enough for the place, amused or no:
When I saw enter, stand, and seat herself
A lady, young, tall, beautiful, strange, and sad.
It was as when, in our cathedral once, (400)
As I got yawningly through matin-song,
I saw facchini bear a burden up,
Base it on the high- altar, break away
A board or two, and leave the thing inside
Lofty and lone: and lo, when next I looked,
There was the Rafael! I was still one stare,
When—“Nay, I’ll make her give you back your gaze”—
Said Canon Conti; and at the word he tossed
A paper-twist of comfits to her lap,
And dodged and in a trice was at my back (410)
Nodding from over my shoulder. Then she turned,
Looked our way, smiled the beautiful sad strange smile.
“Is not she fair? ’Tis my new cousin,” said he:
“The fellow lurking there i’ the black o’ the box
“Is Guido, the old scapegrace: she’s his wife,
“Married three years since: how his Countship sulks!
“He has brought little back from Rome beside,
“After the bragging, bullying. A fair face,
“And—they do say—a pocket-full of gold
“When he can worry both her parents dead. (420)
“I don’t go much there, for the chamber’s cold
“And the coffee pale. I got a turn at first
“Paying my duty,—I observed they crouched
“—The two old frightened family spectres, close
“In a corner, each on each like mouse on mouse
“I’ the cat’s cage: ever since, I stay at home.
“Hallo, there’s Guido, the black, mean, and small,
“Bends his brows on us—please to bend your own
“On the shapely nether limbs of Light-skirts there
“By way of a diversion! I was a fool (430)
“To fling the sweetmeats. Prudence, for God’s love!
“To-morrow I’ll make my peace, e’en tell some fib,
“Try if I can’t find means to take you there.”
That night and next day did the gaze endure,
Burnt to my brain, as sunbeam thro’ shut eyes,
And not once changed the beautiful sad strange smile.
At vespers Conti leaned beside my seat
I’ the choir,—part said, part sung—“In ex-cel-sis—
“All’s to no purpose: I have louted low,
“But he saw you staring—quia sub—don’t incline (440)
“To know you nearer: him we would not hold
“For Hercules,—the man would lick your shoe
“If you and certain efficacious friends
“Managed him warily,—but there’s the wife:
“Spare her, because he beats her, as it is,
“She’s breaking her heart quite fast enough—jam tu—
“So, be you rational and make amends
“With little Light-skirts yonder—in secula
“Secu-lo-o-o-o-rum. Ah, you rogue! Every one knows
“What great dame she makes jealous: one against one,
“Play, and win both!” (451)
I saw and said to myself “Light-skirts hides teeth
“Would make a dog sick,—the great dame shows spite
“Should drive a cat mad: ’tis but poor work this—
“Counting one’s fingers till the sonnet’s crowned.
“I doubt much if Marino really be
“A better bard than Dante after all.
“’Tis more amusing to go pace at eve
“I’ the Duomo,—watch the day’s last gleam outside (460)
“Turn, as into a skirt of God’s own robe,
“Those lancet-windows’ jewelled miracle,—
“Than go eat the Archbishop’s ortolans,
“Digest
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