“Yesterday, but for the sin,—ah, nameless be
“The deed I could have dared against myself!
“Now—see if I will touch an unripe fruit,
“And risk the health I want to have and use!
“Not to live, now, would be the wickedness,—
“For life means to make haste and go to Rome
“And leave Arezzo, leave all woes at once!”
Long ago had I tried to leave that house
When it seemed such procedure would stop sin;
And still failed more the more I tried—at first
The Archbishop, as I told you,—next, our lord
The Governor,—indeed I found my way,
I went to the great palace where he rules,
Though I knew well ’twas he who,—when I gave
A jewel or two, themselves had given me,
Back to my parents,—since they wanted bread,
They who had never let me want a nosegay,—he (1270)
Spoke of the jail for felons, if they kept
What was first theirs, then mine, so doubly theirs,
Though all the while my husband’s most of all!
I knew well who had spoke the word wrought this:
Yet, being in extremity, I fled
To the Governor, as I say,—scarce opened lip
When—the cold cruel snicker close behind—
Guido was on my trace, already there,
Exchanging nod and wink for shrug and smile,
And I—pushed back to him and, for my pains, (1280)
Paid with … but why remember what is past?
I sought out a poor friar the people call
The Roman, and confessed my sin which came
Of their sin,—that fact could not be repressed,—
The frightfulness of my despair in God:
And, feeling, through the grate, his horror shake,
Implored him, “Write for me who cannot write,
“Apprise my parents, make them rescue me!
“You bid me be courageous and trust God:
“Do you in turn dare somewhat, trust and write (1290)
“ ‘Dear friends, who used to be my parents once,
“ ‘And now declare you have no part in me,
“ ‘This is some riddle I want wit to solve,
“ ‘Since you must love me with no difference.
“ ‘Even suppose you altered,—there’s your hate,
“ ‘To ask for: hate of you two dearest ones
“ ‘I shall find liker love than love found here,
“ ‘If husbands love their wives. Take me away
“ ‘And hate me as you do the gnats and fleas,
“ ‘Even the scorpions! How I shall rejoice!’ (1300)
“Write that and save me!” And he promised—wrote
Or did not write; things never changed at all:
He was not like the Augustinian here!
Last, in a desperation I appealed
To friends, whoever wished me better days,
To Guillichini, that’s of kin,—“What, I—
“Travel to Rome with you? A flying gout
“Bids me deny my heart and mind my leg!”
Then I tried Conti, used to brave—laugh back
The louring thunder when his cousin scowled (1310)
At me protected by his presence: “You—
“Who well know what you cannot save me from,—
“Carry me off! What frightens you, a priest?”
He shook his head, looked grave—“Above my strength!
“Guido has claws that scratch, shows feline teeth;
“A formidabler foe than I dare fret:
“Give me a dog to deal with, twice the size!
“Of course I am a priest and Canon too,
“But … by the bye … though both, not quite so bold
“As he, my fellow-Canon, brother-priest, (1320)
“The personage in such ill odour here
“Because of the reports—pure birth o’ the brain—
“Our Caponsacchi, he’s your true Saint George
“To slay the monster, set the Princess free,
“And have the whole High-Altar to himself:
“I always think so when I see that piece
“I’ the Pieve, that’s his church and mine, you know:
“Though you drop eyes at mention of his name!”
Half-ominous, wholly enigmatic sense, (1330)
Like any bye- word, broken bit of song
Born with a meaning, changed by mouth and mouth
That mix it in a sneer or smile, as chance
Bids, till it now means nought but ugliness
And perhaps shame.
That, over-night, the notion of escape
Had seemed distemper, dreaming; and the name,—
Not the man, but the name of him, thus made
Into a mockery and disgrace,—why, she (1340)
Who uttered it persistently, had laughed,
“I name his name, and there you start and wince
“As criminal from the red tongs’ touch!”—yet now,
Now, as I stood letting morn bathe me bright,
Choosing which butterfly should bear my news,—
The white, the brown one, or that tinier blue,—
The Margherita, I detested so,
In she came—“The fine day, the good Spring time!
“What, up and out at window? That is best.
“No thought of Caponsacchi?—who stood there (1350)
“All night on one leg, like the sentry crane,
“Under the pelting of your water-spout—
“Looked last look at your lattice ere he leave
“Our city, bury his dead hope at Rome?
“Ay,
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