Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Fair cities, gallant mansions, castles old, And forests, where beside his leafy hold The sullen boar hath heard the distant

horn,

And whets his tusks against the gnarled thorn:

Palladian palace with its storied halls; Fountains, where Love lies listening to their falls;

Gardens, where flings the bridge its airy

span,

And Nature makes her happy home with man;

Where many a gorgeous flower is duly fed

With its own rill, on its own spangled

bed.

And wreathes the marble urn, or leans its head,

A mimic mourner, that with veil withdrawn

Weeps liquid gems, the presents of the

dawn:

Thine all delights, and every muse is thine :

And more than all, the embrace and intertwine

Of all with all in gay and twinkling dance!

Mid gods of Greece and warriors of

romance,

See! Boccace sits, unfolding on his knees

The new found roll of old Mæonides; But from his mantle's fold, and near the heart,

Peers Ovid's Holy Book of Love's sweet smart! 1

O all-enjoying and all-blending sage, Long be it mine to con thy mazy page, Where half conceal'd, the eye of fancy views

Fauns, nymphs, and winged saints, all

gracious to thy muse!

I know few more striking or more interesting proofs of the overwhelming influence which the study of the Greek and Roman classics exercised on the judgments, feelings, and imaginations of the literati of Europe at the commencement of the restoration of literature, than the passage in the Filocopo of Boccaccio, where the sage instructor, Racheo, as soon as the young prince and the beautiful girl Biancofiore had learned their letters, sets them to study the Holy Book, Ovid's Art of Love. "Incominciò Racheo a mettere il suo officio in esecuzione con intera sollecitudine E loro, in breve tempo, insegnato a conoscer le lettere, fece leggere il santo libro dovvidio, nel quale il sommo poeta mostra, come 1 santi fuochi di Venere si debbano ne' freddi cuori accendere."

Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks,

And see in Dian's vest between the ranks

Of the trim vines, some maid that half believes

The vestal fires, of which her lover grieves,

With that sly satyr peeping through the leaves ! 1828. 1829.

PHANTOM OF FACT

A DIALOGUE IN VERSE

AUTHOR

A LOVELY form there sate beside my bed,

And such a feeling calm its presence shed,

A tender love so pure from earthly leaven,

That I unnethe the fancy might control,

'Twas my own spirit newly come from heaven,

Wooing its gentle way into my soul! But ah! the change-It had not stirr'd, and yet

Alas! that change how fain would I forget!

That shrinking back, like one that had mistook!

That weary, wandering, disavowing look!

'Twas all another, feature, look, and frame,

And still, methought, I knew, it was the same!

FRIEND

This riddling tale, to what does it belong?

Is't history? vision? or an idle song?
Or rather say at once, within what

space

Of time this wild disastrous change took place?

AUTHOR

Call it a moment's work (and such it seems)

This tale's a fragment from the life of dreams;

But say, that years matur'd the silent

strife,

And 'tis a record from the dream of life. 1830. 1834.

SCOTT

LIST OF REFERENCES

EDITIONS

*

Moks edited by William Minto, 2 volumes, Edinburgh, al Works, edited, with revision of text, by W. J. Rolfe, Poetical Works, edited by Andrew Lang, 2 volumes, The pany. Poetical Works (Globe Edition), edited by F. T. Mcmillan Company (not complete). Complete Works stion), edited by II. E. Scudder, Houghton & Mifflin. Poems e Poets), 5 volumes, The Macmillan Company. Complete 6. Prmatie Works (Riverside Edition), 5 volumes, HoughMarmion (Students' Edition), edited by W. J. Rolfe, You& Vitlin. * Marmion (Longmans' English Classics), edited by

BIOGRAPHY

AVART (J. G.), Life of Sir Walter Scott (The standard biography). ex (R. H., Scott, English Men of Letters Series (containing two of excellent criticism on Scott's poetry). YONGE (C. D.) Scott, Wsturs Series. See also ScOTT's Journal and Letters.

CRITICAL ESSAYS, ETC.

Jerry (Lord Francis), Edinburgh Review, No. 32, Art. 1, Lady of Pe Lake ; No. 36, Art. 6, Vision of Don Roderick; No. 48, Art. 1, Lord of the Isles. Also in his Critical Essays. HUGO (V.), Littérature et Philosophie (1834). CARLYLE, Miscellanies, I. * RUSKIN, Fors Clavigera. *SHARP (John C.), Aspects of Poetry; Homeric Spirit of Scott. * PALGRAVE (F. T.), Introduction to Globe Edition of Scott's Poetical Works. SAINESBURY (G.), Essays on English Literature (Second Series). ROSSETTI (W. M.), Lives of Famous Poets. STEPHEN (Leslie), Hours in a Library, Vol. 1. PRESCOTT (W. H.), Biographical and Critical Miscellanies. LANG (A), Letters to Dead Authors. LANG (A.), Essays in Little. HOWELLS W. D.), My Literary Passions. HAY (John), Speech at the Unveiling of the Bust of Scott in Westminster Abbey. CROCKETT (S. R.), The Scott

Country.

BELL (C. D.), Some English Poets. BROOKS (S. W.), English Poetry and Poets. DAWSON (W. J.), Makers of Modern English. DEVEY (J.), Comparative Estimate of Modern English Poets. MINTO (W.), Literature of the Georgian Era. PIERSON (William), Epic Poems of Walter Scott, REED (H.), Lectures compared with the like Poetry of Thomas Moore. on British Poets. RUSHTON (W.), Afternoon Lectures. SWANWICK (A.), Poets the Interpreters of their Age. WILSON (J. G.), Poets of Scotland.

SCOTT

WILLIAM AND HELEN

See Lock

Imitated from Bürger's Lenore.
hart's Life of Scott, Volume I, Chap. 7.

FROM heavy dreams fair Helen rose,
And eyed the dawning red ::
"Alas, my love, thou tarriest long!
O art thou false or dead?"

With gallant Frederick's princely power
He sought the bold crusade,

But not a word from Judah's wars
Told Helen how he sped.

With Paynim and with Saracen
At length a truce was made,
And every knight returned to dry
The tears his love had shed.

Our gallant host was homeward bound
With many a song of joy ;

Green waved the laurel in each plume,
The badge of victory.

And old and young, and sire and son,
To meet them crowd the way,
With shouts and mirth and melody,
The debt of love to pay.

Full many a maid her true-love met,
And sobbed in his embrace,
And fluttering joy in tears and smiles
Arrayed full many a face.

Nor joy nor smile for Helen sad,
She sought the host in vain ;

For none could tell her William's fate,
If faithless or if slain.

The martial band is past and gone;
She rends her raven hair,

And in distraction's bitter mood
She weeps with wild despair.

"0, rise, my child," her mother said, Nor sorrow thus in vain ;

A perjured lover's fleeting heart
No tears recall again."

"O, Mother, what is gone is gone,
What's lost forever lorn:

Death, death alone can comfort me ;
O had I ne'er been born!

"O, break, my heart, O, break at once! Drink my life-blood, Despair!

No joy remains on earth for me,
For me in heaven no share."

66

'O, enter not in judgment, Lord!"
The pious mother prays:
"Impute not guilt to thy frail child!
She knows not what she says.

"O, say thy pater-noster, child!
O, turn to God and grace!
His will, that turned thy bliss to bale,
Can change thy bale to bliss.”

"O mother, mother, what is bliss?
O mother, what is bale ?

My William's love was heaven on earth,
Without it earth is hell.

"Why should I pray to ruthless Heaven,
Since my loved William's slain?
I only prayed for William's sake,
And all my prayers were vain.”
"O, take the sacrament, my child,
And check these tears that flow;
By resignation's humble prayer,
O, hallowed be thy woe!"

"No sacrament can quench this fire,
Or slake this scorching pain;
No sacrament can bid the dead
Arise and live again.

"O, break, my heart, O, break at once! Be thou my god, Despair!

Heaven's heaviest blow has fallen on me, And vain each fruitless prayer."

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Forbear, my child, this desperate woe,
And turn to God and grace;
Well can devotion's heavenly glow
Convert thy bale to bliss."

"O mother, mother, what is bliss?
O mother, what is bale ?
Without my William what were heaven,
Or with him what were hell?"

Wild she arraigns the eternal doom,
Upbraids each sacred power,
Till, spent, she sought her silent room,
All in the lonely tower.

She boat her breast, she wrung her hands,

Till sun and day were o'er, And through the glimmering lattice

shone

The twinkling of the star.

Then, crash! the heavy drawbridge fell
That o'er the moat was hung;
And, clatter! clatter! on its boards
The hoof of courser rung.

The clank of echoing steel was heard
As off the rider bounded;

And slowly on the winding stair
A heavy footstep sounded,

And hark! and hark! a knock - tap! tap!

A rusting stifled noise : Dor latch and tirkling staples ring: At length a whispering voice,

*Twain awake, arise, my lore! Now, Nolen, dost thou fare? Wakse zion, or sleep'st! langa thon,

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

"Let the wind howl through hawthor bush!

This night we must away; The steed is wight, the spur is bright: I cannot stay till day.'

"Busk, busk, and boune! Thou mount'st behind

Upon my black barb steed: O'er stock and stile, a hundred miles, We haste to bridal bed."

"To-night-to-night a hundred miles!-O dearest William, stay!

The bell strikes twelve-dark, dismal hour!

O, wait, my love, till day!"

Look here, look here-the moon shines clear

Full fast I ween we ride : Mount and away! for ere the day We reach our bridal bed.

"The black barb snorts, the brid rings;

Haste, busk, and boune, and seat thee The feast is made, the chamber spread, The bridal guests await thee.”

Strong love prevailed: she busks, sh bounes,

She mounts the barb behind,
And round her darling William's wai
Her lily arms she twined.

And, hurry! hurry! off they rode.
As fast as fast might be;
Spurned from the courser's thunderi
heels

The flashing pebbles flee.

And on the right and on the left.
Fre they could snatch a view,
Fast, fast each mountain, mead,

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"With song and clang at morrow's dawn

Ye may inter the dead:

To-night I ride with my young bride

To deck our bridal bed.

"Come with thy choir, thou coffined guest,

To swell our nuptial song!

Come, priest, to bless our marriage feast!

Come all, come all along!"

Ceased clang and song; down sunk the bier;

The shrouded corpse arose :
And hurry! hurry! all the train
The thundering steed pursues.

And forward! forward! on they go;
High snorts the straining steed;
Thick pants the rider's laboring breath,
As headlong on they speed.

"O William, why this savage haste!
And where thy bridal bed?"
Tis distant far, low, damp, and chill,
And narrow, trustless maid."

No room for me?"-" Enough for both :

Speed, speed, my barb, thy course!" O'er thundering bridge, through boiling suige,

He drove the furious horse.

Tramp! ramp! along the land they rode.

Splash! splash! along the sea; The urge is wight, the spur is bright, he flashing pebbles flee.

led past on right and left how fast Each forest, grove, and bower! n right and left fled past how fast Each city, town, and tower!

Dost fear? dost fear? The moon shines clear,

Dost fear to ride with me?— urrah! hurrah! the dead can ride!”—__ O William, let them be!

See there, see there! What yonder swings

And creaks, mid whistling rain?"Gibbet and steel, the accursed wheel; A murderer in his chain.—

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »