Where gondolas convey guitars by pecks, And Love at casements climbeth up and down, Whom for his tricks and custom in that kind, Some have considered a Venetian blind. Howbeit, this difference was quickly taught, Amongst more youths who had this cruel jailor, To hapless Julio-all in vain he sought With each new moon his hatter and his tailor; In vain the richest padusoy he bought, And went in bran new beaver to assail herAs if to show that Love had made him smart All over-and not merely round his heart. In vain he labour'd thro' the sylvan park In vain complaining elegies he writ, And taught his tuneful instrument to grieve, She mock'd his wooing with her wicked wit, Bianca's heart was coldly frosted o'er With snows unmelting—an eternal sheet, But his was red within him, like the core Of old Vesuvius, with perpetual heat; And oft he long'd internally to pour His flames and glowing lava at her feet, BIANCA!-fair Bianca !-who could dwell With safety on her dark and hazel gaze, So that, wherever in her charms she shone, A thousand breasts were kindled into flame; Maidens who cursed her looks forgot their own, And beaux were turned to flambeaux where she came; All hearts indeed were conquer'd but her own, Which none could ever temper down or tame : In short, to take our haberdasher's hints, She might have written over it,-" From Flints." She was, in truth, the wonder of her sex, At least in Venice-where with eyes of brown Tenderly languid, ladies seldom vex An amorous gentle with a needless frown; Where gondolas convey guitars by pecks, And Love at casements climbeth up and down, Whom for his tricks and custom in that kind, Some have considered a Venetian blind. Howbeit, this difference was quickly taught, Amongst more youths who had this cruel jailor, To hapless Julio—all in vain he sought With each new moon his hatter and his tailor; In vain the richest padusoy he bought, And went in bran new beaver to assail herAs if to show that Love had made him smart All over-and not merely round his heart. In vain he labour'd thro' the sylvan park No one was touch'd or troubled by his flame, In vain complaining elegies he writ, And taught his tuneful instrument to grieve, And sang in quavers how his heart was split, Constant beneath her lattice with each eve; She mock'd his wooing with her wicked wit, And slashed his suit so that it match'd his sleeve, Till he grew silent at the vesper star, And quite despairing hamstringed his guitar. Bianca's heart was coldly frosted o'er With snows unmelting—an eternal sheet, But his was red within him, like the core Of old Vesuvius, with perpetual heat; And oft he long'd internally to pour His flames and glowing lava at her feet, Meanwhile he wasted in the eyes of men, So thin, he seem'd a sort of skeleton-key For people truly said as grief grew stronger, For why, he neither slept, nor drank, nor fed, Fire in his heart, and frenzy in his head, For hapless lovers always died of old, Sooner than chew reflection's bitter cud; So Thisbe stuck herself, what time 'tis told, The tender-hearted mulberries wept blood; And so poor Sappho, when her boy was cold, Drown'd her salt tear-drops in a salter flood, Their fame still breathing, tho' their death be past, For those old suitors lived beyond their last. So Julio went to drown,-when life was dull, But merely broke a window in his wrath; He tied a pack-thread to a beam of lath— A line so ample, 'twas a query whether 'Twas meant to be a halter or a tether. Smile not in scorn, that Julio did not thrust To leave life's pleasant city as we must, In Death's most dreary spunging-house to lie, Where even all our personals must go Το pay the debt of Nature that we owe! So Julio lived :-'twas nothing but a pet Meanwhile, Bianca dream'd-'twas once when Night The flow'rs had shut their eyes-the zephyr light Lone in her chamber sate the dark-eyed maid, That robb'd the saints a little of their shares; His Deh Vieni, and such amorous airs, Born only underneath Italian skies, Where every fiddle has a Bridge of Sighs. Sweet was the tune-the words were even sweeter- With all the common tropes wherewith in metre Her shape was like Diana's, but completer; Her brow with Grecian Helen's might compare: Cupid, alas! was cruel Sagittarius, Julio-the weeping water-man Aquarius. |