Dare follow not another step I take. (2080)
Not with so much as those detested eyes,
No, though they follow but to pray me pause
On the incline, earth’s edge that’s next to hell!
None of your abnegation of revenge!
Fly at me frank, tug while I tear again!
There’s God, go tell Him, testify your worst!
Not she! There was no touch in her of hate:
And it would prove her hell, if I reached mine!
To know I suffered, would still sadden her,
Do what the angels might to make amends! (2090)
Therefore there’s either no such place as hell,
Or thence shall I be thrust forth, for her sake,
And thereby undergo three hells, not one—
I who, with outlet for escape to heaven,
Would tarry if such flight allowed my foe
To raise his head, relieved of that firm foot
Had pinned him to the fiery pavement else!
So am I made, “who did not make myself:”
(How dared she rob my own lip of the word?)
Beware me in what other world may be!— (2100)
Pompilia, who have brought me to this pass!
All I know here, will I say there, and go
Beyond the saying with the deed. Some use
There cannot but be for a mood like mine,
Implacable, persistent in revenge.
She maundered “All is over and at end:
“I go my own road, go you where God will!
“Forgive you? I forget you!” There’s the saint
That takes your taste, you other kind of men!
How you had loved her! Guido wanted skill (2110)
To value such a woman at her worth!
Properly the instructed criticise
“What’s here, you simpleton have tossed to take
“Its chance i’ the gutter? This a daub, indeed?
“Why, ’tis a Rafael that you kicked to rags!”
Perhaps so: some prefer the pure design:
Give me my gorge of colour, glut of gold
In a glory round the Virgin made for me!
Titian’s the man, not Monk Angelico
Who traces you some timid chalky ghost (2120)
That turns the church into a charnel: ay,
Just such a pencil might depict my wife!
She,—since she, also, would not change herself,—
Why could not she come in some heart- shaped cloud,
Rainbowed about with riches, royalty
Rimming her round, as round the tintless lawn
Guardingly runs the selvage cloth of gold?
I would have left the faint fine gauze untouched,
Needle-worked over with its lily and rose,
Let her bleach unmolested in the midst, (2130)
Chill that selected solitary spot
Of quietude she pleased to think was life:
Purity, pallor grace the lawn no doubt
When there’s the costly bordure to unthread
And make again an ingot: but what’s grace
When you want meat and drink and clothes and fire?
A tale comes to my mind that’s apposite—
Possibly true, probably false, a truth
Such as all truths we live by, Cardinal!
’Tis said, a certain ancestor of mine (2140)
Followed—whoever was the potentate,
To Paynimrie, and in some battle, broke
Through more than due allowance of the foe
And, risking much his own life, saved the lord’s
Battered and bruised, the Emperor scrambles up,
Rubs his eyes and looks round and sees my sire,
Picks a furze-sprig from out his hauberk-joint,
(Token how near the ground went majesty)
And says “Take this, and, if thou get safe home,
“Plant the same in thy garden-ground to grow: (2150)
“Run thence an hour in a straight line, and stop:
“Describe a circle round (for central point)
“The furze aforesaid, reaching every way
“The length of that hour’s run: I give it thee,—
“The central point, to build a castle there,
“The circumjacent space, for fit demesne,
“The whole to be thy children’s heritage,—
“Whom, for my sake, bid thou wear furze on cap!”
Those are my arms: we turned the furze a tree
To show more, and the greyhound tied thereto, (2160)
Straining to start, means swift and greedy both;
He stands upon a triple mount of gold—
By Jove, then, he’s escaping from true gold
And trying to arrive at empty air!
Aha! the fancy never crossed my mind!
My father used to tell me, and subjoin
“As for the castle, that took wings and flew:
“The broad lands,—why, to traverse them to-day
“Would task my gouty feet, though in my prime
“I doubt not I could stand and spit so far: (2170)
“But for the furze, boy, fear no lack of that,
“So long as fortune leaves one field to grub!
“Wherefore hurra for furze and loyalty!”
What may I mean, where may the lesson lurk?
“Do not bestow on man by way of gift
“Furze without some substantial framework,—grace
“Of purity, a furze- sprig of a wife,
“To me i’ the thick of battle for my bread,
“Without some better dowry,—house and land!”
No other gift than sordid muck? Yes, Sir! (2180)
Many more and much better. Give them me!
O those Olimpias bold, those Biancas brave,
That brought a husband will worth Ormuz’ wealth!
Cried “Thou being mine, why, what but thine am I?
“Be thou to me law, right, wrong, heaven and hell!
“Let us blend souls, be thou in me to bid
“Two bodies work one pleasure! What are these
“Called king, priest, father, mother, stranger, friend?
“They fret thee or they frustrate? Give the word—
“Be certain they shall frustrate nothing more! (2190)
“And who is this young florid foolishness
“That holds thy fortune in his pigmy clutch,
“—Being a prince and potency, forsooth!—
“And hesitates to let the trifle go?
“Let me but seal up eye, sing ear to sleep
“Sounder than Samson,—pounce thou on the prize
“Shall slip from off my breast, and down couch- side
“And on to floor, and far as my lord’s feet—
“Where he stands in the shadow with the sword
“Waiting to see what Delilah dares do! (2200)
“Is the youth fair? What is a man to me
“Who am thy call-bird? Twist his neck—my dupe’s,—
“Then take the breast shall turn a breast indeed!”
Such women are there; and
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