“This venom issued from Madonna’s mouth!”—
I should reply, “Rather, the soul of you
“Has issued from your body, like from like,
“By way of the ordure-corner!”
I tired of the same black teazing lie
Obtruded thus at every turn; the pest
Was far too near the picture, anyhow: (680)
One does Madonna service, making clowns
Remove their dung-heap from the sacristy.
“I will to the window, as he tempts,” said I:
“Yes, whom the easy love has failed allure,
“This new bait of adventure may,—he thinks.
“While the imprisoned lady keeps afar,
“There will they lie in ambush, heads alert,
“Kith, kin, and Count mustered to bite my heel.
“No mother nor brother viper of the brood
“Shall scuttle off without the instructive bruise!” (690)
“I stand beneath the terrace, see, above,
“The black of the ambush-window. Then, in place
“Of hand’s throw of soft prelude over lute
“And cough that clears way for the ditty last,”—
I began to laugh already—“he will have
“ ‘Out of the hole you hide in, on to the front,
“ ‘Count Guido Franceschini, show yourself!
“ ‘Hear what a man thinks of a thing like you,
“ ‘And after, take this foulness in your face!”’ (700)
The one turn more—and there at the window stood,
Framed in its black square length, with lamp in hand,
Pompilia; the same great, grave, griefful air
As stands i’ the dusk, on altar that I know,
Left alone with one moonbeam in her cell,
Our Lady of all the Sorrows. Ere I knelt—
Assured myself that she was flesh and blood—
She had looked one look and vanished.
“It was herself, they have set her there to watch— (710)
“Stationed to see some wedding-band go by,
“On fair pretence that she must bless the bride,
“Or wait some funeral with friends wind past,
“And crave peace for the corpse that claims its due.
“She never dreams they used her for a snare,
“And now withdraw the bait has served its turn.
“Well done, the husband, who shall fare the worse!”
And on my lip again was—“Out with thee,
“Guido!” When all at once she re-appeared; (720)
But, this time, on the terrace overhead,
So close above me, she could almost touch
My head if she bent down; and she did bend,
While I stood still as stone, all eye, all ear.
“I have read none, I can neither read nor write;
“But she you gave them to, a woman here,
“One of the people in whose power I am,
“Partly explained their sense, I think, to me
“Obliged to listen while she inculcates (730)
“That you, a priest, can dare love me, a wife,
“Desire to live or die as I shall bid,
“(She makes me listen if I will or no)
“Because you saw my face a single time.
“It cannot be she says the thing you mean;
“Such wickedness were deadly to us both:
“But good true love would help me now so much—
“I tell myself, you may mean good and true.
“You offer me, I seem to understand,
“Because I am in poverty and starve, (740)
“Much money, where one piece would save my life.
“The silver cup upon the altar-cloth
“Is neither yours to give nor mine to take;
“But I might take one bit of bread therefrom,
“Since I am starving, and return the rest,
“Yet do no harm: this is my very case.
“I am in that strait, I may not abstain
“From so much of assistance as would bring
“The guilt of theft on neither you nor me;
“But no superfluous particle of aid. (750)
“I think, if you will let me state my case,
“Even had you been so fancy- fevered here,
“Not your sound self, you must grow healthy now—
“Care only to bestow what I can take.
“That it is only you in the wide world,
“Knowing me nor in thought nor word nor deed,
“Who, all unprompted save by your own heart,
“Come proffering assistance now,—were strange
“But that my whole life is so strange: as strange
“It is, my husband whom I have not wronged (760)
“Should hate and harm me. For his own soul’s sake,
“Hinder the harm! But there is something more,
“And that the strangest: it has got to be
“Somehow for my sake too, and yet not mine,
“—This is a riddle—for some kind of sake
“Not any clearer to myself than you,
“And yet as certain as that I draw breath,—
“I would fain live, not die—oh no, not die!
“My case is, I was dwelling happily
“At Rome with those dear Comparini, called (770)
“Father and mother to me; when at once
“I found I had become Count Guido’s wife:
“Who then, not waiting for a moment, changed
“Into a fury of fire, if once he was
“Merely a man: his face threw fire at mine,
“He laid a hand on me that burned all peace,
“All joy, all hope, and last all fear away,
“Dipping the bough of life, so pleasant once,
“In fire which shrivelled leaf and bud alike,
“Burning not only present life but past, (780)
“Which you might think was safe beyond his reach.
“He reached it, though, since that beloved pair,
“My father once, my mother all those years,
“That loved me so, now say I dreamed a dream
“And bid me wake,
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