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by Robert Browning

I: The Ring and the Book

DO YOU see this Ring?

'Tis Rome-workmade to match

(By Castellani's imitative craft)

Etrurian circlets foundsome happy morn

After a dropping April; found alive

Spark-like 'mid unearthed slope-side figtree-roots

That roof old tombs at Chiusi: softyou see

Yet crisp as jewel-cutting. There's one trick

(Craftsmen instruct me) one approved device

And but onefits such slivers of pure gold

As this was- such mere oozings from the mine

Virgin as oval tawny pendent tear

At beehive-edge when ripened combs o'erflow-

To bear the file's tooth and the hammer's tap:

Since hammer needs must widen out the round

And file emboss it fine with lily-flowers

Ere the stuff grow a ring-thing right to wear.

That trick isthe artificer melts up wax

With honeyso to speak; he mingles gold

With gold's alloyandduly tempering both

Effects a manageable massthen works.

But his work endedonce the thing a ring

Ohthere's repristination! Just a spirt

O' the proper fiery acid o'er its face

And forth the alloy unfastened flies in fume;

Whileself-sufficient nowthe shape remains

The rondure bravethe lilied loveliness

Gold as it wasisshall be evermore:

Prime nature with an added artistry-

No carat lostand you have gained a ring.

What of it? 'Tis a figurea symbolsay;

A thing's sign: now for the thing signified.

DO YOU see this square old yellow BookI toss

I' the airand catch againand twirl about

By the crumpled vellum covers- pure crude fact

Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard

And brainshigh-bloodedticked two centuries since?

Examine it yourselves! I found this book

Gave a lira for iteightpence English just

(Mark the predestination!) when a Hand

Always above my shoulderpushed me once

One day still fierce 'mid many a day struck calm

Across a Square in Florencecrammed with booths

Buzzing and blazenoontide and market-time;

Toward Baccio's marble- aythe basement-ledge

O' the pedestal where sits and menaces

John of the Black Bands with the upright spear

'Twixt palace and church- Riccardi where they lived

His raceand San Lorenzo where they lie.

This book- precisely on that palace-step

Whichmeant for lounging knaves o' the Medici

Now serves re-venders to display their ware-

'Mongst odds and ends of ravagepicture-frames

White through the worn giltmirror-sconces chipped

Bronze angel-heads once knobs attached to chests

(Handled when ancient dames chose forth brocade)

Modern chalk drawingsstudies from the nude

Samples of stonejetbrecciaporphyry

Polished and roughsundry amazing busts

In baked earth(brokenProvidence be praised!)

A wreck of tapestryproudly-purposed web

When reds and blues were indeed red and blue

Now offered as a mat to save bare feet

(Since carpets constitute a cruel cost)

Treading the chill scagliola bedward: then

A pile of brown-etched printstwo crazie each

Stopped by a conch a-top from fluttering forth

-Sowing the Square with works of one and the same

Masterthe imaginative Sienese

Great in the scenic backgrounds- (name and fame

None of you knownor does he fare the worse:)

From these... Ohwith a Lionard going cheap

If it should proveas promisedthat Joconde

Whereof a copy contents the Louvre!- these

I picked this book from. Five compeers in flank

Stood left and right of it as tempting more-

A dog's-eared Spicilegiumthe fond tale

O' the Frail One of the Flowerby young Dumas

Vulgarized Horace for the use of schools

The LifeDeathMiracles of Saint Somebody

Saint Somebody Elsehis MiraclesDeath and Life-

With thisone glance at the lettered back of which

And 'Stall!' cried I: a lira made it mine.

HERE it isthis I toss and take again;

Small-quarto sizepart print part manuscript:

A book in shape butreallypure crude fact

Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard

And brainshigh-bloodedticked two centuries since.

Give it me back! The thing's restorative

I' the touch and sight.

That memorable day

(June was the monthLorenzo named the Square)

I leaned a little and overlooked my prize

By the low railing round the fountain-source

Close to the statuewhere a step descends:

While clinked the cans of copperas stooped and rose

Thick-ankled girls who brimmed themand made place

For marketmen glad to pitch basket downDip a broad melon-leaf that holds thewet

And whisk their faded fresh. And on I read

Presentlythough my path grew perilous

Between the outspread straw-workpiles of plait

Soon to be flappingeach o'er two black eyes

And swathe of Tuscan hairon festas fine:

Through fire-ironstribes of tongsshovels in sheaves

Skeleton bedsteadswardrobe-drawers agape

Rows of tall slim brass lamps with dangling gear-

And worsecast clothes a-sweetening in the sun:

None of them took my eye from off my prize.

Still read I onfrom written title-page

To written indexonthrough street and street

At the Strozziat the Pillarat the Bridge;

Tillby the time I stood at home again

In Casa Guidi by Felice Church

Under the doorway where the black begins

With the first stone-slab of the staircase cold

I had mastered the contentsknew the whole truth

Gathered togetherbound up in this book

Print three-fifthswritten supplement the rest.

'Romana Homicidiorum' - nay

Better translate- 'A Roman murder-case:

Position of the entire criminal cause

Of Guido Franceschininobleman

With certain Four the cutthroats in his pay

Triedall fiveand found guilty and put to death

By heading or hanging as befitted ranks

At Rome on February Twenty Two

Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight:

Wherein it is disputed ifand when

Husbands may kill adulterous wivesyet 'scape

The customary forfeit.'

Word for word

So ran the title-page: murderor else

Legitimate punishment of the other crime

Accounted murder by mistake- just that

And no morein a Latin cramp enough

When the law had her eloquence to launch

But interfilleted with Italian streaks

When testimony stooped to mother-tongue-

Thatwas this old square yellow book about.

NOWas the ingotere the ring was forged

Lay gold(beseech youhold that figure fast!)

Soin this book lay absolutely truth

Fanciless factthe documents indeed

Primary lawyer-pleadings foragainst

The aforesaid Five; real summed-up circumstance

Adduced in proof of these on either side

Put forth and printedas the practice was

At Romein the Apostolic Chamber's type

And so submitted to the eye o' the Court

Presided over by His Reverence

Rome's Governor and Criminal Judge- the trial

Itselfto all intentsbeing then as now

Here in the book and nowise out of it;

Seeingthere properly was no judgment-bar

No bringing of accuser and accused

And whoso judged both partiesface to face

Before some courtas we conceive of courts.

There was a Hall of Justice; that came last:

For justice had a chamber by the hall

Where she took evidence firstsummed up the same

Then sent accuser and accused alike

In person of the advocate of each

To weigh that evidence' wortharrangearray

The battle. 'Twas the so-styled Fisc began

Pleaded (and since he only spoke in print

The printed voice of him lives now as then)

The public Prosecutor- 'Murder's proved;

With five... what we call qualities of bad

Worseworstand yet worse stilland still worse yet;

Crest over crest crowning the cockatrice

That beggar hell's regalia to enrich

Count Guido Franceschini: punish him!'

Thus was the paper put before the court

In the next stage(no noisy work at all)

To study at ease. In due time like reply

Came from the so-styled Patron of the Poor

Official mouthpiece of the five accused

Too poor to fee a better- Guido's luck

Or else his fellows'whichI hardly know-

An outbreak as of wonder at the world

A fury-fit of outraged innocence

A passion of betrayed simplicity:

'Punish Count Guido? For what crimewhat hint

O' the colour of a crimeinform us first!

Reward him rather! Recognizewe say

In the deed donea righteous judgment dealt!

All conscience and all courage- there's our Count

Charactered in a word; andwhat's more strange

He had companionship in privilege

Found four courageous conscientious friends:

Absolveapplaud all fiveas props of law

Sustainers of society!- perchance

A trifle over-hasty with the hand

To hold her tottering arkhad tumbled else;

But that's a splendid fault whereat we wink

Wishing your cold correctness sparkled so!'

Thus paper second followed paper first

Thus did the two join issue- naythe four

Each pleader having an adjunct. 'Truehe killed

-So to speak- in a certain sort- his wife

But laudablysince thus it happed!' quoth one:

Whereatmore witness and the case postponed.

'Thus it happed notsince thus he did the deed

And proved himself thereby portentousest

Of cutthroats and a prodigy of crime

As the woman that he slaughtered was a saint

Martyr and miracle!' quoth the other to match:

Againmore witnessand the case postponed.

'A miracleay- of lust and impudence;

Hear my new reasons!' interposed the first:

'-Coupled with more of mine!' pursued his peer.

'Besidethe precedentsthe authorities!'

From both at once a cry with an echothat!

That was a firebrand at each fox's tail

Unleashed in a cornfield: soon spread flare enough

As hurtled thither and there heaped themselvesFrom earth's four cornersallauthority

And precedent for putting wives to death

Or letting wives livesinful as they seem.

How legislatednowin this respect

Solon and his Athenians? Quote the code

Of Romulus and Rome! Justinian speak!

Nor modern BaldoBartolo be dumb!

The Roman voice was potentplentiful;

Cornelia de Sicariis hurried to help

Pompeia de Parricidiis; Julia de

Something-or-other jostled Lex this-and-that

King Solomon confirmed Apostle Paul:

That nice decision of Dolabellaeh?

That pregnant instance of Theodoricoh!

Down to that choice example AElian gives

(An instance I find much insisted on)

Of the elephant whobrute-beast though he were

Yet understood and punished on the spot

His master's naughty spouse and faithless friend;

A true tale which has edified each child

Much more shall flourish favoured by our court!

Pages of proof this wayand that way proof

And always- once again the case postponed.

THUS wrangledbrangledjangled they a month

-Only on paperpleadings all in print

Nor ever wasexcept i' the brains of men

More noise by word of mouth than you hear now-

Till the court cut all short with 'Judgedyour cause.

Receive our sentence! Praise God! We pronounce

Count Guido devilish and damnable:

His wife Pompilia in thoughtword and deed

Was perfect purehe murdered her for that:

As for the Four who helped the Oneall Five-

Whylet employer and hirelings share alike

In guilt and guilt's rewardthe death their due!'

SO WAS the trial at enddo you suppose?

'Guilty you find himdeath you doom him to?

Aywere not Guidomore than needsa priest

Priest and to spare!'- this was a shot reserved;

I learn this from epistles which begin

Here where the print ends- see the pen and ink

Of the advocatethe ready at a pinch!-

'My client boasts the clerkly privilege

Has taken minor orders many enough

Shows still sufficient chrism upon his pate

To neutralize a blood-stain: presbyter

Primae tonsuraesubdiaconus

Sacerdosso he slips from underneath

Your powerthe temporalslides inside the robe

Of mother Church: to her we make appeal

By the Popethe Church's head!'

A parlous plea

Put in with noticeable effectit seems;

'Since straight'- resumes the zealous orator

Making a friend acquainted with the facts-

'Once the word "clericality" let fall

Procedure stopped and freer breath was drawn

By all considerate and responsible Rome.'

Quality took the decent partof course;

Held by the husbandwho was noble too:

Orfor the matter of thata churl would side

With too-refined susceptibility

And honour whichtender in the extreme

Stung to the quickmust roughly right itself

At all risksnot sit still and whine for law

As a Jew wouldif you squeezed him to the wall

Brisk-trotting through the Ghetto. Nayit seems

Even the Emperor's Envoy had his say

To say on the subject; might not seeunmoved

Civility menaced throughout Christendom

By too harsh measure dealt her champion here.

Lastlywhat made all safethe Pope was kind

From his youth upreluctant to take life

If mercy might be just and yet show grace;

Much more unlikely thenin extreme age

To take a life the general sense bade spare.

'Twas plain that Guido would go scatheless yet.

BUT human promiseohhow short of shine!

How topple down the piles of hope we rear!

Now history proves... nayread Herodotus!

Suddenly starting from a napas it were

A dog-sleep with one shutone open orb

Cried the Pope's great self- Innocent by name

And nature tooand eighty-six years old

Antonio Pignatelli of NaplesPope

Who had trod many landsknown many deeds

Probed many heartsbeginning with his own

And now was far in readiness for God-

'Twas he who first bade leave those souls in peace

Those Jansenistsre-nicknamed Molinists

('Gainst whom the cry wentlike a frowsy tune

Tickling men's ears- the sect for a quarter of an hour

I' the teeth of the world whichclown-likeloves to chew

Be it but a straw 'twixt work and whistling-while

Taste some vituperationbite away

Whether at marjoram-sprig or garlic-clove

Aught it may sport withspoiland then spit forth)

'Leave them alone' bade he'those Molinists!

Who may have other light than we perceive

Or why is it the whole world hates them thus?'

Also he peeled off that last scandal-rag

Of Nepotism; and so observed the poor

That men would merrily say'Haltdeaf and blind

Who feed on fat thingsleave the master's self

To gather up the fragments of his feast

These be the nephews of Pope Innocent!-

His own meal costs but five carlines a day

Poor-priest's allowancefor he claims no more.'

-He cried of a suddenthis great good old Pope

When they appealed in last resort to him

'I have mastered the whole matter: I nothing doubt.

Though Guido stood forth priest from head to heel

Instead ofas allegeda piece of one-

And furtherwere hefrom the tonsured scalp

To the sandaled sole of himmy son and Christ's

Instead of touching us by finger-tip

As you assertand pressing up so closeOnly to set a blood-smutch on ourrobe-

I and Christ would renounce all right in him.

Am I not Popeand presently to die

And busied how to render my account

And shall I wait a day ere I decide

On doing or not doing justice here?

Cut off his head to-morrow by this time

Hang up his four matestwo on either hand

And end one business more!'

So saidso done-

Rather so writfor the old Pope bade this

I findwith his particular chirograph

His own no such infirm handFriday night;

And next dayFebruary Twenty Two

Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight

-Not at the proper head-and-hanging-place

On bridge-foot close by Castle Angelo

Where custom somewhat staled the spectacle

('Twas not so well i' the way of Romebeside

The noble Romethe Rome of Guido's rank)

But at the city's newer gayer end-

The cavalcading promenading place

Beside the gate and opposite the church

Under the Pincian gardens green with Spring

'Neath the obelisk 'twixt the fountains in the Square

Did Guido and his fellows find their fate

All Rome for witnessand- my writer adds-

Remonstrant in its universal grief

Since Guido had the suffrage of all Rome.

THIS is the bookful; thus far take the truth

The untempered goldthe fact untampered with

The mere ring-metal ere the ring be made!

And what has hitherto come of it? Who preserves

The memory of this Guidoand his wife

Pompiliamore than Ademollo's name

The etcher of those printstwo crazie each

Saved by a stone from snowing broad the Square

With scenic backgrounds? Was this truth of force?

Able to take its own part as truth should

Sufficientself-sustaining? Whyif so-

Yonder's a fireinto it goes my book

As who shall say me nayand what the loss?

You know the tale already: I may ask

Rather than think to tell youmore thereof-

Ask you not merely who were he or she

Husband and wifewhat manner of mankind

But how you hold concerning this and that

Other yet-unnamed actor in the piece.

The young frank handsome courtly Canonnow

The priestdeclared the lover of the wife

He whono questiondid elope with her

For certain bring the tragedy about

Giuseppe Caponsacchi;- his strange course

I' the matterwas it right or wrong or both?

Then the old coupleslaughtered with the wife

By the husband as accomplices in crime

Those CompariniPietro and his spouse-

What say you to the right or wrong of that

Whenat a known name whispered through the door

Of a lone villa on a Christmas night

It opened that the joyous hearts inside

Might welcome as it were an angel-guest

Come in Christ's name to knock and entersup

And satisfy the loving ones he saved;

And so did welcome devils and their death?

I have been silent on that circumstance

Although the couple passed for close of kin

To wife and husbandwere by some accounts

Pompilia's very parents: you know best.

Also that infant the great joy was for

That Gaetanothe wife's two-weeks' babe

The husband's first-born childhis son and heir

Whose birth and being turned his night to day-

Why must the father kill the mother thus

Because she bore his son and saved himself?

WELLBritish Publicye who like me not

(God love you!) and will have your proper laugh

At the dark questionlaugh it! I laugh first.

Truth must prevailthe proverb vows; and truth

-Here is it all i' the book at lastas first

There it was all i' the heads and hearts of Rome

Gentle and simplenever to fall nor fade

Nor be forgotten. Yeta little while

The passage of a century or so

Decads thrice fiveand here's time paid his tax

Oblivion gone home with her harvesting

And all left smooth again as scythe could shave.

Far from beginning with you London folk

I took my book to Rome firsttried truth's power

On likely people. 'Have you met such names?

Is a tradition extant of such facts?

Your law-courts standyour records frown a-row:

What if I rove and rummage?' '-Whyyou'll waste

Your pains and end as wise as you began!'

Everyone snickered: 'names and facts thus old

Are newer much than Europe news we find

Down in to-day's Diario. Recordsquotha?

Whythe French burned themwhat else do the French?

The rap-and-rending nation! And it tells

Against the Churchno doubt- another gird

At the Temporalityyour Trialof course?'

'-Quite otherwise this time' submitted I;

'Clean for the Church and dead against the world

The flesh and the devildoes it tell for once.'

'-The rarer and the happier! All the same

Content you with your treasure of a book

And waive what's wanting! Take a friend's advice!

It's not the custom of the country. Mend

Your ways indeed and we may stretch a point:

Go get you manned by Manning and new-manned

By Newman andmayhapwise-manned to boot

By Wisemanand we'll see or else we won't!

Thanks meantime for the storylong and strong

A pretty piece of narrative enough

Which scarce ought so to drop outone would think

From the more curious annals of our kind.

Do you tell the storynowin oft-hand style

Straight from the book? Or simply here and there(The while you vault itthrough the loose and large)

Hang to a hint? Or is there book at all

And don't you deal in poetrymake-believe

And the white lies it sounds like?'

Yes and no!

From the bookyes; thence bit by bit I dug

The lingot truththat memorable day

Assayed and knew my piecemeal gain was gold-

Yes; but from something else surpassing that

Something of mine which mixed up with the mass

Made it bear hammer and be firm to file.

Fancy with fact is just one falt the more;

To-witthat fancy has informedtranspierced

Thridded and so thrown fast the facts else free

As right through ring and ring runs the djereed

And binds the looseone bar without a break.

I fused my live soul and that inert stuff

Before attempting smithcrafton the night

After the day when- truth thus grasped and gained-

The book was shut and done with and laid by

On the cream-coloured massive agatebroad

'Neath the twin cherubs in the tarnished frame

O' the mirrortall thence to the ceiling-top.

And from the readingand that slab I leant

My elbow onthe while I read and read

I turnedto free myself and find the world

And stepped out on the narrow terracebuilt

Over the street and opposite the church

And paced its lozenge-brickwork sprinkled cool;

Because Felice-church-side stretcheda-glow

Through each square window fringed for festival

Whence came the clear voice of the cloistered ones

Chanting a chant made for midsummer nights-

I know not what particular praise of God

It always came and went with June. Beneath

I' the streetquick shown by openings of the sky

When flame fell silently from cloud to cloud

Richer than that gold snow Jove rained on Rhodes

The townsmen walked by twos and threesand talked

Drinking the blackness in default of air-

A busy human sense beneath my feet:

While in and out the terrace-plantsand round

One branch of tall daturawaxed and waned

The lamp-fly lured therewanting the white flower.

Over the roof o' the lighted church I looked

A bowshot to the street's endnorth away

Out of the Roman gate to the Roman road

By the rivertill I felt the Apennine.

And there would lie Arezzothe man's town

The woman's trap and cage and torture-place

Also the stage where the priest played his part

A spectacle for angels- ayindeed

There lay Arezzo! Farther then I fared

Feeling my way on through the hot and dense

Romewarduntil I found the wayside inn

By Castelnuovo's few mean hut-like homes

Huddled together on the hill-foot bleak

Barebroken only by that tree or two

Against the sudden bloody splendour poured

Cursewise in his departure by the day

On the low house-roof of that squalid inn

Where they threefor the first time and the last

Husband and wife and priestmet face to face.

Whence I went on againthe end was near

Step by stepmissing none and marking all

Till Rome itselfthe ghastly goalI reached.

Whyall the while- how could it otherwise?-

The life in me abolished the death of things

Deep calling unto deep: as then and there

Acted itself over again once more

The tragic piece. I saw with my own eyes

In Florence as I trod the terracebreathed

The beauty and the fearfulness of night

How it had runthis round from Rome to Rome-

Becauseyou are to knowthey lived at Rome

Pompilia's parentsas they thought themselves

Two poor ignoble hearts who did their best

Part God's waypart the other way than God's

To somehow make a shift and scramble through

The world's mudcareless if it splashed and spoiled

Provided they might so hold highkeep clean

Their child's soulone soul white enough for three

And lift it to whatever star should stoop

What possible sphere of purer life than theirs

Should come in aid of whiteness hard to save.

I saw the star stoopthat they strained to touch

And did touch and depose their treasure on

As Guido Franceschini took away

Pompilia to be his for evermore

While they sang 'Now let us depart in peace

Having beheld thy gloryGuido's wife!'

I saw the star supposedbut fog o' the fen

Gilded star-fashion by a glint from hell;

Having been heaved uphaled on its gross way

By hands unguessed beforeinvisible help

From a dark brotherhoodand specially

Two obscure goblin creaturesfox-faced this

Cat-clawed the othercalled his next of kin

By Guido the main monster- cloaked and caped

Making as they were prieststo mock God more-

Abate PaulCanon Girolamo.

These who had rolled the starlike pest to Rome

And stationed it to suck up and absorb

The sweetness of Pompiliarolled again

That bloated bubblewith her soul inside

Back to Arezzo and a palace there-

Or saya fissure in the honest earth

Whence long ago had curled the vapour first

Blown big by nether fires to appal day:

It touched homebrokeand blasted far and wide.

I saw the cheated couple find the cheat

And guess what foul rite they were captured for-

Too fain to follow over hill and dale

That child of theirs caught up thus in the cloud

And carried by the Prince o' the Power of the Air

Whither he wouldto wilderness or sea.

I saw themin the potency of fear

Break somehow through the satyr-family

(For a grey mother with a monkey-mien

Mopping and mowingwas apparent too

Asconfident of captureall took hands

And danced about the captives in a ring)

-Saw them break throughbreathe safeat Rome again

Saved by the selfish instinctlosing so

Their loved one left with haters. These I saw

In recrudescency of baffled hate

Prepare to wring the uttermost revenge

From body and soul thus left them: all was sure

Fire laid and cauldron setthe obscene ring traced

The victim stripped and prostrate: what of God?

The cleaving of a clouda crya crash

Quenched lay their cauldroncowered i' the dust the crew

Asin a glory of armour like Saint George

Out again sprang the young good beauteous priest

Bearing away the lady in his arms

Saved for a splendid minute and no more.

Forwhom i' the path did that priest come upon

He and the poor lost lady borne so brave

-Checking the song of praise in mehad else

Swelled to the full for God's will done on earth-

Whom but a dusk misfeatured messenger

No other than the angel of this life

Whose care is lest men see too much at once.

He made the signsuch God-glimpse must suffice

Nor prejudice the Prince o' the Power of the Air

Whose ministration piles us overhead

What we callfirstearth's roof andlastheaven's floor

Now grate o' the trapthen outlet of the cage:

So took the ladyleft the priest alone

And once more canopied the world with black.

But through the blackness I saw Rome again

And where a solitary villa stood

In a lone garden-quarter: it was eve

The second of the yearand oh so cold!

Ever and anon there flittered through the air

A snow-flakeand a scanty couch of snow

Crusted the grass-walk and the garden-mould.

All was gravesilentsinister- whenha?

Glimmeringly did a pack of were-wolves pad

The snowthose flames were Guido's eyes in front

And all five found and footed itthe track

To where a threshold-streak of warmth and light

Betrayed the villa-door with life inside

While an inch outside were those blood-bright eyes

And black lips wrinkling o'er the flash of teeth

And tongues that lolled- Oh God that madest man!

They parleyed in their language. Then one whined-

That was the policy and master-stroke-

Deep in his throat whispered what seemed a name-

'Open to Caponsacchi!' Guido cried:

'Gabriel!' cried Lucifer at Eden-gate.

Wide as a heartopened the door at once

Showing the joyous coupleand their child

The two-weeks' motherto the wolvesthe wolves

To them. Close eyes! And when the corpses lay

Stark-stretchedand those the wolvestheir wolf-work done

Were safe-embosomed by the night again

I knew a necessary change in things;

As when the worst watch of the night gives way

And there comes dulyto take cognizance

The scrutinizing eye-point of some star-

And who despairs of a new daybreak now?

Lothe first ray protruded on those five!

It reached themand each felon writhed transfixed.

Awhile they palpitated on the spear

Motionless over Tophet: stand or fall?

'I saythe spear should fall- should standI say!'

Cried the world come to judgmentgranting grace

Or dealing doom according to world's wont

Those world's-bystanders grouped on Rome's crossroad

At prick and summons of the primal curse

Which bids man love as well as make a lie.

There prattled theydiscoursed the right and wrong

Turned wrong to rightproved wolves sheep and sheep wolves

So that you scarce distinguished fell from fleece;

Till out spoke a great guardian of the fold

Stood upput forth his hand that held the crook

And motioned that the arrested point decline:

Horribly offthe wriggling dead-weight reeled

Rushed to the bottom and lay ruined there.

Though still at the pit's mouthdespite the smoke

O' the burningtarriers turned again to talk

And trim the balanceand detect at least

A touch of wolf in what showed whitest sheep

A cross of sheep redeeming the whole wolf-

Vex truth a little longer:- less and less

Because years came and wentand more and more

Brought new lies with them to be loved in turn.

Till all at once the memory of the thing-

The fact thatwolves or sheepsuch creatures were-

Which hithertohowever men supposed

Had somehow plain and pillar-like prevailed

I' the midst of themindisputably fact

Granitetime's tooth should grate againstnot graze-

Whythis proved sandstonefriablefast to fly

And give its grain away at wish o' the wind.

Ever and ever more diminutive

Base goneshaft lostonly entablature

Dwindled into no bigger than a book

Lay of the column; and that littleleft

By the roadside 'mid the ordureshards and weeds.

Until I haplywandering that way

Kicked it upturned it overand recognized

For all the crumblementthis abacus

This square old yellow book- could calculate

By this the lost proportions of the style.

THIS was it frommy fancy with those facts

I used to tell the taleturned gay to grave

But lacked a listener seldom; such alloy

Such substance of me interfused the gold

Whichwrought into a shapely ring therewith

Hammered and filedfingered and favouredlast

Lay ready for the renovating wash

O' the water. 'How much of the tale was true?'

I disappeared; the book grew all in all;

The lawyers' pleadings swelled back to their size-

Doubled in twothe crease upon them yet

For more commodity of carriagesee!-

And these are lettersveritable sheets

That brought posthaste the news of Florencewrit

At Rome the day Count Guido diedwe find

To stay the craving of a client there

Who bound the same and so produced my book.

Lovers of dead truthdid ye fare the worse?

Lovers of live truthfound ye false my tale?

WELLnow; there's nothing in nor out o' the world

Good except truth: yet thisthe something else

What's this thenwhich proves good yet seems untrue?

This that I mixed with truthmotions of mine

That quickenedmade the inertness malleolable

O' the gold was not mine- what's your name for this?

Are means to the endthemselves in part the end?

Is fiction which makes fact alivefact too?

The somehow may be thishow.

I find first

Writ down for very A B C of fact

'In the beginning God made heaven and earth;'

From whichno matter with what lispI spell

And speak you out a consequence- that man

Man- as befits the madethe inferior thing-

Purposedsince madeto grownot make in turn

Yet forced to try and makeelse fail to grow-

Formed to risereach atif not grasp and gain

The good beyond him- which attempt is growth-

Repeats God's process in man's due degree

Attaining man's proportionate result-

Createsnobut resuscitatesperhaps.

Inalienablethe arch-prerogative

Which turns thoughtact- conceivesexpresses too!

No lessmanboundedyearning to be free

May so project his surplusage of soul

In search of bodyso add self to self

By owning what lay ownerless before-

So findso fill fullso appropriate forms-

Thatalthough nothing which had never life

Shall get life from himbenot having been

Yetsomething dead may get to live again

Something with too much life or not enough

Whicheither way imperfectended once:

An end whereat man's impulse intervenes

Makes new beginningstarts the dead alive

Completes the incomplete and saves the thing.

Man's breath were vain to light a virgin wick-

Half-burned-outall but quite-quenched wicks o' the lamp

Stationed for temple-service on this earth

These indeed let him breathe on and relume!

For such man's feat isin the due degree

-Mimic creationgalvanism for life

But still a glory portioned in the scale.

Why did the mage say- feeling as we are wont

For truthand stopping midway short of truth

And resting on a lie- 'I raise a ghost'?

'Because' he taught adepts'man makes not man.

Yet by a special giftan art of arts

More insight and more outsight and much more

Will to use both of these than boast my mates

I can detach from mecommission forth

Half of my soul; which in its pilgrimage

O'er old unwandered waste ways of the world

May chance upon some fragment of a whole

Rag of fleshscrap of bone in dim disuse

Smoking flax that fed fire once: prompt therein

I enterspark-likeput old powers to play

Push lines out to the limitlead forth last

(By a moonrise through a ruin of a crypt)

What shall be mistily seenmurmuringly heard

Mistakenly felt: then write my name with Faust's!'

OhFaustwhy Faust? Was not Elisha once?-

Who bade them lay his staff on a corpse-face.

There was no voiceno hearing: he went in

Thereforeand shut the door upon them twain

And prayed unto the Lord: and he went up

And lay upon the corpsedead on the couch

And put his mouth upon its mouthhis eyes

Upon its eyeshis hands upon its hands

And stretched him on the flesh; the flesh waxed warm:

And he returnedwalked to and fro the house

And went upstretched him on the flesh again

And the eyes opened. 'Tis a credible feat

With the right man and way.

Enough of me!

The Book! I turn its medicinable leaves

In London now tillas in Florence erst

A spirit laughs and leaps through every limb

And lights my eyeand lifts me by the hair

Letting me have my will again with these

-How title I the dead alive once more?

COUNT Guido Franceschini the Aretine

Descended of an ancient housethough poor

A beak-nosed bushy-bearded black-haired lord

Leanpallidlow of stature yet robust

Fifty years old- having four years ago

Married Pompilia Compariniyoung

Goodbeautifulat Romewhere she was born

And brought her to Arezzowhere they lived

Unhappy liveswhatever curse the cause-

This husbandtaking four accomplices

Followed this wife to Romewhere she was fled

From their Arezzo to find peace again

In convoyeight months earlierof a priest

Aretine alsoof still nobler birth

Giuseppe Caponsacchi- and caught her there

Quiet in a villa on a Christmas night

With only Pietro and Violante by

Both her putative parents; killed the three

Agedtheyseventy eachand sheseventeen

Andtwo weeks sincethe mother of his babe

First-born and heir to what the style was worth

O' the Guido who determineddared and did

This deed just as he purposed point by point.

Thenbent upon escapebut hotly pressed

And captured with his co-mates that same night

Hebrought to trialstood on this defence-

Injury to his honour caused the act;

That since his wife was false(as manifest

By flight from home in such companionship)

Deathpunishment deserved of the false wife

And faithless parents who abetted her

I' the flight aforesaidwronged nor God nor man.

'Nor false shenor yet faithless they' replied

The accuser; 'cloaked and masked this murder glooms;

True was Pompilialoyal too the pair;

Out of the man's own heart this monster curled

This crime coiled with connivancy at crime

His victim's breasthe tells youhatched and reared;

Uncoil we and stretch stark the worm of hell!'

A month the trial swayed this way and that

Ere judgment settled down on Guido's guilt;

Then was the Popethat good Twelfth Innocent

Appealed to: who well weighed what went before

Affirmed the guilt and gave the guilty doom.

LET this old woe step on the stage again!

Act itself o'er anew for men to judge

Not by the very sense and sight indeed-

(Which take at best imperfect cognizance

Sincehow heart moves brainand how both move hand

What mortal ever in entirety saw?)

-No dose of purer truth than man digests

But truth with falsehoodmilk that feeds him now

Not strong meat he may get to bear some day-

To-witby voices we call evidence

Uproar in the echolive fact deadened down

Talked overbruited abroadwhispered away

Yet helping us to all we seem to hear:

For how else know we save by worth of word?

HERE are the voices presently shall sound

In due succession. Firstthe world's outcry

Around the rush and ripple of any fact

Fallen stonewiseplumb on the smooth face of things;

The world's guessas it crowds the bank o' the pool

At what were figure and substanceby their splash:

Thenby vibrations in the general mind

At depth of deed already out of reach.

This threefold murder of the day before-

SayHalf-Rome's feel after the vanished truth;

Honest enoughas the way is: all the same

Harbouring in the centre of its sense

A hidden germ of failureshy but sure

Should neutralize that honesty and leave

That feel for truth at faultas the way is too.

Some prepossession such as starts amiss

By but a hair's-breadth at the shoulder-blade

The arm o' the feelerdip he ne'er so brave;

And so leads waveringlylets fall wide

O' the mark his finger meant to findand fix

Truth at the bottomthat deceptive speck.

With this Half-Rome- the source of swervingcall

Over-belief in Guido's right and wrong

Rather than in Pompilia's wrong and right:

Who shall say howwho shall say why? 'Tis there-

The instinctive theorizing whence a fact

Looks to the eye as the eye likes the look.

Gossip in a public placea sample-speech.

Some worthywith his previous hint to find

A husband's side the saferand no whit

Aware he is not AEacus the while-

How such an one supposes and states fact

To whosoever of a multitude

Will listenand perhaps prolong thereby

The not-unpleasant flutter at the breast

Born of a certain spectacle shut in

By the church Lorenzo opposite. Sothey lounge

Midway the mouth o' the streeton Corso side

'Twixt palace Fiano and palace Ruspoli

Linger and listen; keeping clear o' the crowd

Yet wishful one could lend that crowd one's eyes

(So universal is its plague of squint)

And make hearts beat our time that flutter false:

-All for the truth's sakemere truthnothing else!

How Half-Rome found for Guido much excuse.

NEXTfrom Rome's other halfthe opposite feel

For truth with a like swervelike unsuccess-

Or if successby no more skill but luck:

This timethrough rather siding with the wife

However the fancy-fit inclined that way

Than with the husband. One wears drabonepink;

Who wears pinkask him 'Which shall win the race

Of coupled runners like as egg and egg?'

'-Whyif I must choosehe with the pink scarf.'

Doubtless for some such reason choice fell here.

A piece of public talk to correspond

At the next stage of the story; just a day

Let pass and new day bring the proper change.

Another sample-speech i' the market-place

O' the Barberini by the Capucins;

Where the old Tritonat his fountain-sport

Bernini's creature plated to the paps

Puffs up steel sleet which breaks to diamond dust

A spray of sparkles snorted from his conch

High over the caritellasout o' the way

O' the motley merchandizing multitude.

Our murder has been done three days ago

The frost is over and gonethe south wind laughs

Andto the very tiles of each red roof

A-smoke i' the sunshineRome lies gold and glad:

Solisten howto the other half of Rome

Pompilia seemed a saint and martyr both!

THENyet another day let come and go

With pause prelusive still of novelty

Hear a fresh speaker!- neither this nor that

Half-Rome aforesaid; something bred of both:

One and one breed the inevitable three.

Such is the personage harangues you next;

The elaborated producttertium quid:

Rome's first commotion in subsidence gives

The curd o' the creamflower o' the wheatas it were

And finer sense o' the city. Is this plain?

You get a reasoned statement of the case

Eventual verdict of the curious few

Who care to sift a business to the bran

Nor coarsely bolt it like the simpler sort.

Hereafter ignoranceinstruction speaks;

Hereclarity of candourhistory's soul

The critical mindin short: no gossip-guess.

What the superior social section thinks

In person of some man of quality

Who- breathing musk from lace-work and brocade

His solitaire amid the flow of frill

Powdered peruke on noseand bag at back

And cane dependent from the ruffled wrist-

Harangues in silvery and selectest phrase

'Neath waxlight in a glorified saloon

Where mirrors multiply the girandole:

Courting the approbation of no mob

But Eminence This and All-Illustrious That

Who take snuff softlyrange in well-bred ring

Card-table-quitters for observance' sake

Around the argumentthe rational word-

Stillspite its weight and wortha sample-speech.

How quality dissertated on the case.

SO MUCH for Rome and rumour; smoke comes first:

Once the smoke risen untroubledwe descry

Clearlier what tongues of flame may spire and spit

To eye and eareach with appropriate tinge

According to its foodpure or impure.

The actorsno mere rumours of the act

Intervene. First you hear Count Guido's voice

In a small chamber that adjoins the court

Where Governor and Judgessummoned thence

TommatiVenturini and the rest

Find the accused ripe for declaring truth.

Soft-cushioned sits he; yet shifts seatshirks touch

Aswith a twitchy brow and wincing lip

And cheek that changes to all kinds of white

He proffers his defencein tones subdued

Near to mock-mildness nowso mournful seems

The obtuser sense truth fails to satisfy;

Nowmovedfrom pathos at the wrong endured

To passion; for the natural man is roused

At fools who first do wrongthen pour the blame

Of their wrong-doingSatan-likeon Job.

Also his tongue at times is hard to curb;

Incisivenigh satiric bites the phrase

Rough-rawyet somehow claiming privilege

-It is so hard for shrewdness to admit

Folly means no harm when she calls black white!

-Eruption momentary at the most

Modified forthwith by a fall o' the fire

Sage acquiescence; for the world's the world

Andwhat it errs inJudges rectify:

He feels he has a fistthen folds his arms

Crosswise and makes his mind up to be meek.

And never once does he detach his eye

From those ranged there to slay him or to save

But does his best man's-service for himself

Despite- what twitches brow and makes lip wince-

His limbs' late taste of what was called the Cord

Or Vigil-torture more facetiously.

Even so; they were wont to tease the truth

Out of loath witness (toyingtrifling time)

By torture: 'twas a tricka vice of the age

Herethere and everywherewhat would you have?

Religion used to tell Humanity

She gave him warrant or denied him course.

And since the course was much to his own mind

Of pinching flesh and pulling bone from bone

To unhusk truth a-hiding in its hulls

Nor whisper of a warning stopped the way

Hein their joint behalfthe burly slave

Bestirred himmauled and maimed all recusants

Whileprim in placeReligion overlooked;

And so had done till doomsdaynever a sign

Nor sound of interference from her mouth

But that at last the burly slave wiped brow

Let eye give notice as if soul were there

Muttered ''Tis a vile trickfoolish more than vile

Should have been counted sin; I make it so:

At any rate no more of it for me-

Nayfor I break the torture-engine thus!'

Then did Religion start upstare amain

Look round for help and see nonesmile and say

'Whatbroken is the rack? Well done of thee!

Did I forget to abrogate its use?

Be the mistake in common with us both!

-One more fault our blind age shall answer for

Down in my book denounced though it must be

Somewhere. Henceforth find truth by milder means!'

Ah butReligiondid we wait for thee

To ope the bookthat serves to sit upon

And pick such place outwe should wait indeed!

That is all history: and what is not now

Was thendefendants found it to their cost.

How Guidoafter being torturedspoke.

ALSO hear Caponsacchi who comes next

Man and priest- could you comprehend the coil!-

In days when that was rife which now is rare.

Howmingling each its multifarious wires

Now heavennow earthnow heaven and earth at once

Had plucked at and perplexed their puppet here

Played off the young frank personable priest;

Sworn fast and tonsured plain heaven's celibate

And yet earth's clear-accepted servitor

A courtly spiritual Cupidsquire of dames

By law of love and mandate of the mode.

The Church's ownor why parade her seal

Wherefore that chrism and consecrative work?

Yet verily the world'sor why go badged

A prince of sonneteers and lutanists

Show colour of each vanity in vogue

Borne with decorum due on blameless breast?

All that is changed nowas he tells the court

How he had played the part excepted at;

Tells itmoreovernow the second time:

Sincefor his cause of scandalhis own share

I' the flight from home and husband of the wife

He has been censuredpunished in a sort

By relegation- exilewe should say

To a short distance for a little time-

Whence he is summoned on a sudden now

Informed that shehe thought to saveis lost

Andin a breathbidden re-tell his tale

Since the first telling somehow missed effect

And then advise in the matter. There stands he

While the same grim black-panelled chamber blinks

As though rubbed shiny with the sins of Rome

Told the same oak for ages- wave-washed wall

Whereto has set a sea of wickedness.

Therewhere you yesterday heard Guido speak

Speaks Caponsacchi; and there face him too

TommatiVenturini and the rest

Whoeight months earlierscarce repressed the smile

Forewent the wink; waived recognition so

Of peccadillos incident to youth

Especially youth high-born; for youth means love

Vows can't change naturepriests are only men

And love needs stratagem and subterfuge:

Which agethat once was youthshould recognize

May blamebut needs not press too hard against.

Here sit the old Judges thenbut with no grace

Of reverend carriagemagisterial port.

For why? The accused of eight months since- the same

Who cut the conscious figure of a fool

Changed countenancedropped bashful gaze to ground

While hesitating for an answer then-

Now is grown judge himselfterrifies now

Thisnow the other culprit called a judge

Whose turn it is to stammer and look strange

As he speaks rapidlyangrilyspeech that smites:

And they keep silencebear blow after blow

Because the seeming-solitary man

Speaking for Godmay have an audience too

Invisibleno discreet judge provokes.

How the priest Caponsacchi said his say.

THEN a soul sighs its lowest and its last

After the loud ones- so much breath remains

Unused by the four-days'-dying; for she lived

Thus longmiraculously long'twas thought

Just that Pompilia might defend herself.

Howwhile the hireling and the alien stoop

Comfortyet question- since the time is brief

And folkallowably inquisitive

Encircle the low pallet where she lies

In the good house that helps the poor to die-

Pompilia tells the story of her life.

For friend and lover- leech and man of law

Do service; busy helpful ministrants

As varied in their calling as their mind

Temper and age: and yet from all of these

About the white bed under the arched roof

Is somehowas it wereevolved a one-

Small separate sympathies combined and large

Nothings that weregrown something very much:

As if the bystanders gave each his straw

All he hadthough a trifle in itself

Whichplaited all togethermade a Cross

Fit to die looking on and praying with

Just as well as if ivory or gold.

Soto the common kindliness she speaks

There being scarce more privacy at the last

For mind than body: but she is used to bear

And only unused to the brotherly look.

How she endeavoured to explain her life.

THENsince a Trial ensueda touch o' the same

To sober usflustered with frothy talk

And teach our common sense its helplessness.

For why deal simply with divining-rod

Scrape where we fancy secret sources flow

And ignore lawthe recognized machine

Elaborate display of pipe and wheel

Framed to unchokepump up and pour apace

Truth in a flowery foam shall wash the world?

The patent truth-extracting process- ha?

Let us make all that mystery turn one wheel

Give you a single grind of law at least!

One oratorof two on either side

Shall teach us the puissance of the tongue

-That iso' the pen which simulated tongue

On paper and saved all except the sound

Which never was. Law's speech beside law's thought?

That were too stunningtoo immense an odds:

That point of vantagelaw let nobly pass.

One lawyer shall admit us to behold

The manner of the making out a case

First fashion of a speech; the chick in egg

And masterpiece law's bosom incubates.

How Don Giacinto of the Arcangeli

Called Procurator of the Poor at Rome

Now advocate for Guido and his mates-

The jolly learned man of middle age

Cheek and jowl all in laps with fat and law

Mirthful as mightyyetas great hearts use

Despite the name and fame that tempt our flesh

Constant to that devotion of the hearth

Still captive in those dear domestic ties!-

How he- having a cause to triumph with

All kind of interests to keep intact

More than one efficacious personage

To tranquillizeconciliate and secure

And above allpublic anxiety

To quietshow its Guido in good hands-

Alsoas if such burdens were too light

A certain family-feast to claim his care

The birthday-banquet for the only son-

Paternity at smiling strife with law-

How he brings both to buckle in one bond;

Andthick at throatwith waterish under-eye

Turns to his task and settles in his seat

And puts his utmost means to practice now:

Wheezes out law and whiffles Latin forth

Andjust as though roast lamb would never be

Makes logic levigate the big crime small:

Rubs palm on palmrakes foot with itchy foot

Conceives and inchoates the argument

Sprinkling each flower appropriate to the time

-Ovidian quip or Ciceronian crank

A-bubble in the larynx while he laughs

As he had fritters deep down frying there.

How he turnstwistsand tries the oily thing

Shall be- first speech for Guido 'gainst the Fisc.

THEN with a skip as it were from heel to head

Leaving yourselves fill up the middle bulk

O' the Trialreconstruct its shape august

From such exordium clap we to the close;

Give youif we dare wing to such a height

The absolute glory in some full-grown speech

On the other sidesome finished butterfly

Some breathing diamond-flake with leaf-gold fans

That takes the airno trace of worm it was

Or cabbage-bed it had production from.

Giovambattista o' the BottiniFisc

Pompilia's patron by the chance of the hour

To-morrow her persecutor- compositehe

As becomes who must meet such various calls-

Odds of age joined in him with ends of youth.

A man of ready smile and facile tear

Improvised hopesdespairs at nod and beck

And language- ahthe gift of eloquence!

Language that goes as easy as a glove

O'er good and evilsmoothens both to one.

Rashness helps caution with himfires the straw

In free enthusiastic careless fit

On the first proper pinnacle of rock

Which happensas reward for all that zeal

To lure some bark to founder and bring gain:

While calm sits Cautionrapt with heavenward eye

A true confessor's gaze amid the glare

Beaconing to the breakerdeath and hell.

'Well donethou good and faithful!' she approves:

'Hadst thou let slip a faggot to the beach

The crew had surely spied thy precipice

And saved their boat; the simple and the slow

Who should have prompt forestalled the wrecker's fee:

Let the next crew be wise and hail in time!'

Just so compounded is the outside man

Blue juvenile pure eye and pippin cheek

And brow all prematurely soiled and seamed

With sudden agebright devastated hair.

Ahbut you miss the very tones o' the voice

The scrannel pipe that screams in heights of head

Asin his modest studioall alone

The tall wight Stands a-tiptoestrives and strains

Both eyes shutlike the cockerel that would crow

Tries to his own self amorously o'er

What never will be uttered else than so-

To the four wallsfor Forum and Mars' Hill

Speaks out the poesy whichpennedturns prose.

Clavecinist debarred his instrument

He yet thrums- shirking neither turn nor trill

With desperate finger on dumb table-edge-

The sovereign rondoshall conclude his Suite

Charm an imaginary audience there

From old Corelli to young Haendelboth

I' the flesh at Romeere he perforce go print

The cold black scoremere music for the mind-

The last speech against Guido and his gang

With special end to prove Pompilia pure.

How the Fisc vindicates Pompilia's fame.

THEN comes the all but endthe ultimate

Judgment save yours. Pope Innocent the Twelfth

Simplesagaciousmild yet resolute

With prudenceprobity and- what beside

From the other world he feels impress at times

Having attained to fourscore years and six-

Howwhen the court found Guido and the rest

Guiltybut law supplied a subterfuge

And passed the final sentence to the Pope

Hebringing his intelligence to bear

This last time on what ball behoves him drop

In the urnor white or blackdoes drop a black

Send five souls more to just precede his own

Stand him in stead and witnessif need were

How he is wont to do God's work on earth.

The manner of his sitting out the dim

Droop of a sombre February day

In the plain closet where he does such work

Withfrom all Peter's treasuryone stool

One table and one lathen crucifix.

There sits the Popehis thoughts for company;

Grave but not sad- naysomething like cheer

Leaves the lips free to be benevolent

Whichall day longdid duty firm and fast.

A cherishing there is of foot and knee

A chafing loose-skinned large-veined hand with hand-

What steward but knows when stewardship earns its wage

May levy praiseanticipate the lord?

He readsnoteslays the papers down at last

Musesthen takes a turn about the room;

Unclasps a huge tome in an antique guise

Primitive print and tongue half obsolete

That stands him in diurnal stead; opes page

Finds place where falls the passage to be conned

According to an order long in use:

Andas he comes upon the evening's chance

Starts somewhatsolemnizes straight his smile

Then reads aloud that portion first to last

And at the end lets flow his own thoughts forth

Likewise aloudfor respite and relief

Till by the dreary relics of the west

Wan through the half-moon windowall his light

He bows the head while the lips move in prayer

Writes some three brief linessigns and seals the same

Tinkles a hand-bellbids the obsequious Sir

Who puts foot presently o' the closet-sill

He watched outside ofbear as superscribed

That mandate to the Governor forthwith:

Then heaves abroad his cares in one good sigh

Traverses corridor with no arm's help

And so to sup as a clear conscience should.

The manner of the judgment of the Pope.

THEN must speak Guido yet a second time

Satan's old saw being apt here- skin for skin

All a man hath that will he give for life.

While life was graspable and gainablefree

To bird-like buzz her wings round Guido's brow

Not much truth stiffened out the web of words

He wove to catch her: when away she flew

And death camedeath's breath rivelled up the lies

Left bare the metal threadthe fibre fine

Of truthi' the spinning: the true words come last.

How Guidoto another purpose quite

Speaks and despairsthe last night of his life

In that New Prison by Castle Angelo

At the bridge-foot: the same mananother voice.

On a Stone bench in a close fetid cell

Where the hot vapour of an agony

Struck into drops on the cold wallruns down

Horrible worms made out of sweat and tears-

There crouchwell nigh to the knees in dungeon-straw

Lit by the sole lamp suffered for their sake

Two awe-struck figuresthis a Cardinal

That an Abateboth of old styled friends

Of the part-man part-monster in the midst

So changed is Franceschini's gentle blood.

The tiger-cat screams nowthat whined before

That pried and tried and trod so gingerly

Till in its silkiness the trap-teeth join;

Then you know how the bristling fury foams.

They listenthis wrapped in his folds of red

While his feet fumble for the filth below;

The otheras beseems a stouter heart

Working his best with beads and cross to ban

The enemy that comes in like a flood

Spite of the standard set upverily

And in no trope at allagainst him there:

For at the prison-gatejust a few steps

Outsidealreadyin the doubtful dawn

Thitherfrom this side and from thatslow sweep

And settle down in silence solidly

Crow-wisethe frightful Brotherhood of Death.

Black-hatted and black-hooded huddle they

Black rosaries a-dangling from each waist;

So take they their grim station at the door

Torches alight and cross-bones-banner spread

And that gigantic Christ with open arms

Grounded. Nor lacks there aught but that the group

Break forthintone the lamentable psalm

'Out of the deepsLordhave I cried to thee!'-

When insidefrom the true profounda sign

Shall bear intelligence that the foe is foiled

Count Guido Franceschini has confessed

And is absolved and reconciled with God.

Then theyintoningmay begin their march

Make by the longest way for the People's Square

Carry the criminal to his crime's award:

A mob to cleavea scaffolding to reach

Two gallows and Mannaia crowning all.

How Guido made defence a second time.

FINALLYeven as thus by step and step

I led you from the level of to-day

Up to the summit of so long ago

Herewhence I point you the wide prospect round-

Let meby like stepsslope you back to smooth

Land you on mother-earthno whit the worse

To feed o' the fat o' the furrow: free to dwell

Taste our time's better things profusely spread

For all who love the levelcorn and wine

Much cattle and the many-folded fleece.

Shall not my friends go feast again on sward

Though cognizant of country in the clouds

Higher than wistful eagle's horny eye

Ever unclosed forMid ancestral crags

When morning broke and Spring was back once more

And he diedheavensave by his heartunreached?

Yet heaven my fancy lifts toladder-like-

As Jack reachedholpen of his beanstalk-rungs!

A NOVEL country: I might make it mine

By choosing which one aspect of the year

Suited mood bestand putting solely that

On panel somewhere in the House of Fame

Landscaping what I savednot what I saw:

-Might fix youwhether frost in goblin-time

Startled the moon with his abrupt bright laugh

OrAugust's hair afloat in filmy fire

She fellarms wideface foremost on the world

Swooned there and so singed out the strength of things.

Thus were abolished Spring and Autumn both

The land dwarfed to one likeness of the land

Life cramped corpse-fashion. Rather learn and love

Each facet-flash of the revolving year!-

Redgreen and blue that whirl into a white

The variance nowthe eventual unity

Which make the miracle. See it for yourselves

This man's actchangeable because alive!

Action now shroudsnow shows the informing thought;

Manlike a glass ball with a spark a-top

Out of the magic fire that lurks inside

Shows one tint at a time to take the eye:

Whichlet a finger touch the silent sleep

Shifted a hair's-breadth shoots you dark for bright

Suffuses bright with darkand baffles so

Your sentence absolute for shine or shade.

Once set such orbs- white styledblack stigmatized-

A-rollingsee them once on the other side

Your good men and your bad men every one

From Guido Franceschini to Guy Faux

Oft would you rub your eyes and change your names.

SUCHBritish Publicye who like me not

(God love you!)- whom I yet have laboured for

Perchance more careful whoso runs may read

Than erst when allit seemedcould read who ran-

Perchance more careless whoso reads may praise

Than late when he who praised and read and wrote

Was apt to find himself the self-same me-

Such labour had such issueso I wrought

This arcby furtherance of such alloy

And soby one spirttake away its trace

Tilljustifiably goldenrounds my ring.

A ring without a posyand that ring mine?

O LYRIC Lovehalf-angel and half-bird

And all a wonder and a wild desire-

Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun

Took sanctuary within the holier blue

And sang a kindred soul out to his face-

Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart-

When the first summons from the darkling earth

Reached thee amid thy chambersblanched their blue

And bared them of the glory- to drop down

To toil for manto suffer or to die-

This is the same voice: can thy soul know change?

Hail thenand hearken from the realms of help!

Never may I commence my songmy due

To God who best taught song by gift of thee

Except with bent head and beseeching hand-

That stilldespite the distance and the dark

What wasagain may be; some interchange

Of gracesome splendour once thy very thought

Some benediction anciently thy smile:

-Never concludebut raising hand and head

Thither where eyesthat cannot reachyet yearn

For all hopeall sustainmentall reward

Their utmost up and on- so blessing back

In those thy realms of helpthat heaven thy home

Some whiteness whichI judgethy face makes proud

Some wanness whereI thinkthy foot may fall!

II: Half_Rome

WHATyouSircome too? (Just the man I'd meet.)

Be ruled by me and have a care o' the crowd:

This waywhile fresh folk go and get their gaze:

I'll tell you like a book and save your shins.

Fiewhat a roaring day we've had! Whose fault?

Lorenzo in Lucina- here's a church

To hold a crowd at needaccommodate

All comers from the Corso! If this crush

Make not its priests ashamed of what they show

For temple-roomdon't prick them to draw purse

And down with bricks and mortareke us out

The beggarly transept with its bit of apse

Into a decent space for Christian ease

Whyto-day's lucky pearl is cast to swine.

Listen and estimate the luck they've had!

(The right manand I hold him.)

Sirdo you see

They laid both bodies in the churchthis morn

The first thingon the chancel two steps up

Behind the little marble balustrade;

Disposed themPietro the old murdered fool

To the right of the altarand his wretched wife

On the other side. In trying to count stabs

People supposed Violante showed the most

Till somebody explained us that mistake;

His wounds had been dealt out indifferent where

But she took all her stabbings in the face

Since punished thus solely for honour's sake

Honoris causathat's the proper term.

A delicacy there isour gallants hold

When you avenge your honour and only then

That you disfigure the subjectfray the face

Not just take life and endin clownish guise.

It was Violante gave the first offence

Got therefore the conspicuous punishment:

While Pietrowho helped merelyhis mere death

Answered the purposeso his face went free.

We fancied evenfree as you pleasethat face

Showed itself still intolerably wronged;

Was wrinkled over with resentment yet

Nor calm at allas murdered faces use

Oncethe worst ended: an indignant air

O' the head there was- 'tis said the body turned

Round and awayrolled from Violante's side

Where they had laid it loving-husband-like.

If soif corpses can be sensitive

Why did not he roll right down altar-step

Roll on through naveroll fairly out of church

Deprive Lorenzo of the spectacle

Pay back thus the succession of affronts

Whereto this church had served as theatre?

For see: at that same altar where he lies

To that same inch of stepwas brought the babe

For blessing after baptismand there styled

Pompiliaand a string of names beside

By his bad wifesome seventeen years ago

Who purchased her simply to palm on him

Flatter his dotage and defraud the heirs.

Wait awhile! Also to this very step

Did this Violantetwelve years afterward

Bringthe mock-motherthat child-cheat full-grown

Pompiliain pursuance of her plot

And there brave God and man a second time

By linking a new victim to the lie.

Therehaving made a match unknown to him

Shestill unknown to Pietrotied the knot

Which nothing cuts except this kind of knife;

Yesmade her daughteras the girl was held

Marry a manand honest man beside

And man of birth to boot- clandestinely

Because of thisbecause of thatbecause

O' the devil's will to work his worst for once-

Confident she could top her part at need

Andwhen her husband must be told in turn

Ply the wife's tradeplay off the sex's trick

Andalternating worry with quiet qualms

Bravado with submissivenessquick fool

Her Pietro into patience: so it proved.

Ay'tis four years since man and wife they grew

This Guido Franceschini and this same

Pompiliafoolishly thoughtfalsely declared

A Comparini and the couple's child:

just at this altar wherebeneath the piece

Of Master Guido ReniChrist on cross

Second to nought observable in Rome

That couple he nowmurdered yestereve.

Even the blind can see a providence here.

FROM dawn till now that it is growing dusk

A multitude has flocked and filled the church

Coming and goingcoming back again

Till to count crazed one. Rome was at the show.

People climbed up the columnsfought for spikes

O' the chapel-rail to perch themselves upon

Jumped over and so broke the wooden work

Painted like porphyry to deceive the eye;

Serve the priests right! The organ-loft was crammed

Women were faintingno few fights ensued

In shortit was a show repaid your pains:

Forthough their room was scant undoubtedly

Yet they did manage mattersto be just

A little at this Lorenzo. Body o' me!

I saw a body exposed once... never mind!

Enough that here the bodies had their due.

No stinginess in waxa row all round

And one big taper at each head and foot.

SOPEOPLE pushed their wayand took their turn

Sawthrew their eyes upcrossed themselvesgave place

To pressure from behindsince all the world

Knew the old paircould talk the tragedy

Over from first to last: Pompilia too

Those who had known her- what 'twas worth to them!

Guido's acquaintance was in less request;

The Count had lounged somewhat too long in Rome

Made himself cheap; with him were hand and glove

Barbers and blear-eyedas the ancient sings.

Also he is alive and like to be:

Had he considerately died- aha!

I jostled Luca Cini on his staff

Mute in the midstthe whole man one amaze

Staring amain and crossing brow and breast.

'How now?' asked I. ''Tis seventy years' quoth he

'Since I first sawholding my father's hand

Bodies set forth: a many have I seen

Yet all was poor to this I live and see.

Here the world's wickedness seals up the sum;

What with Molinos' doctrine and this deed

Antichrist's surely come and doomsday near.

May I depart in peaceI have seen my see.'

'Depart then' I advised'nor block the road

For youngsters still behindhand with such sights!'

'Why no' rejoins the venerable sire

'I know it's horridhideous past belief

Burdensome far beyond what eye can bear;

But they do promisewhen Pompilia dies

I' the course o' the day- and she can't outlive night-

They'll bring her body also to expose

Beside the parentsonetwothree a-breast;

That were indeed a sight whichmight I see

I trust I should not last to see the like!'

Whereat I bade the senior spare his shanks

Since doctors give her till to-night to live

And tell us how the butchery happened. 'Ah

But you can't know!' sighs he'I'll not despair:

Beside I'm useful at explaining things-

Ashow the dagger laid there at the feet

Caused the peculiar cuts; I mind its make

Triangular i' the bladea Genoese

Armed with those little hook-teeth on the edge

To open in the flesh nor shut again:

I like to teach a novice: I shall stay!'

And stay he didand stay be sure he will.

A PERSONAGE came by the private door

At noon to have his look: I name no names:

Well thenHis Eminence the Cardinal

Whose servitor in honourable sort

Guido was oncethe same who made the match

(Will you have the truth?) whereof we see effect.

No sooner whisper ran he was arrived

Than up pops Curate Carloa brisk lad

Who never lets a good occasion slip

And volunteers improving the event.

We looked he'd give the history's self some help

Treat us to how the wife's confession went

(This morning she confessed her crimewe know)

Andmay-bethrow in something of the Priest-

If he's not ordered backpunished anew

The gallantCaponsacchiLucifer

I' the garden where PompiliaEve-likelured

Her Adam Guido to his fault and fall.

Think you we got a sprig of speech akin

To this from Carlowith the Cardinal there?

Too waryhe wastoo widely awakeI trow.

He did the murder in a dozen words;

Then said that all such outrages crop forth

I' the course of naturewhen Molinos' tares

Are sown for wheatflourish and choke the Church:

So slid on to the abominable sect

And the philosophic sin- we've heard all that

And the Cardinal too(who book-made on the same)

Butfor the murderleft it where he found.

Oh but he's quickthe Curateminds his game!

Andafter allwe have the main o' the fact:

Case could not well be simpler- mappedas it were

We follow the murder's maze from source to sea

By the red linepast mistake: one sees indeed

Not only how all was and must have been

But cannot other than be to the end of time.

Turn out here by the Ruspoli! Do you hold

Guido was so prodigiously to blame?

A certain cousin of yours has told you so?

Exactly! Here's a friend shall set you right

Let him but have the handsel of your ear.

THESE Wretched Comparini were once gay

And galiardof the modest middle class:

Born in this quarter seventy years ago

And married youngthey lived the accustomed life

Citizens as they were of good repute:

Andchildlessnaturally took their ease

With only their two selves to care about

And use the wealth for: wealthy is the word

Since Pietro was possessed of house and land-

And specially one housewhen good days were

In Via Vittoriathe aspectable street

Where he lived mainly; but another house

Of less pretension did he buy betimes

The villameant for jaunts and jollity

I' the Pauline districtto be private there-

Just what puts murder in an enemy's head.

Moreover- and here's the worm i' the corethe germ

O' the rottenness and ruin which arrived-

He owned some usufructhad moneys' use

Lifelongbut to determine with his life

In heirs' default: soPietro craved an heir

(The story always old and always new)

Shut his fool's-eyes fast on the visible good

And wealth for certainopened them owl-wide

On fortune's sole piece of forgetfulness

The child that should have been and would not be.

HENCEseventeen years agoconceive his glee

When first Violante'twixt a smile and a blush

With touch of agitation proper too

Announced thatspite of her unpromising age

The miracle would in time be manifest

An heir's birth was to happen: and it did.

Somehow or other- howall in good time!

By a tricka sleight of hand you are to hear-

A child was bornPompiliafor his joy

Plaything at once and propa fairy-gift

A saints' grace orsaygrant of the good God-

A fiddle-pin's end! What imbeciles are we!

Look now: if some one could have prophesied

'For love of youfor liking to your wife

I undertake to crush a snake I spy

Settling itself i' the soft of both your breasts.

Give me yon babe to strangle painlessly!

She'll soar to the safe: you'll have your crying out

Then sleepthen wakethen sleepthen end your days

In peace and plentymixed with mild regret

Thirty years hence when Christmas takes old folk'-

How had old Pietro sprung upcrossed himself

And kicked the conjuror! Whereas you and I

Being wise with after-withad clapped our hands;

Nayaddedin the old fool's interest

'Strangle the black-eyed babeso far so good

But on condition you relieve the man

O' the wife and throttle him Violante too-

She is the mischief!'

We had hit the mark.

Shewhose trick brought the babe into the world

She it waswhen the babe was grown a girl

Judged a new trick should reinforce the old

Send vigour to the lie now somewhat spent

By twelve years' service; lest Eve's rule decline

Over this Adam of herswhose cabbage-plot

Throve dubiously since turned fools'-paradise

Spite of a nightingale on every stump.

Pietro's estate was dwindling day by day

While herapt far above such mundane care

Crawled all-fours with his baby pick-a-back

Sat at serene cats'-cradle with his child

Or took the measured tallnesstop to toe

Of what was grown a great girl twelve years old:

Till sudden at the door a tap discreet

A visitor's premonitory cough

And poverty had reached him in her rounds.

THIS came when he was past the working-time

Had learned to dandle and forgot to dig

And who must but Violante cast about

Contrive and task that head of hers again?

She who had caught one fishcould make that catch

A bigger stillin angler's policy:

Sowith an angler's mercy for the bait

Her minnow was set wriggling on its barb

And tossed to the mid-stream; that isthis grown girl

With the great eyes and bounty of black hair

And first crisp youth that tempts a jaded taste

Was whisked i' the way of a certain manwho snapped.

COUNT Guido Franceschini the Aretine

Was head of an old noble house enough

Not over-richyou can't have everything

But such a man as riches rub against

Readily stick to- one with a right to them

Born in the blood: 'twas in his very brow

Always to knit itself against the world

So be beforehand when that stinted due

Service and suit: the world ducks and defers.

As such folks dohe had come up to Rome

To better his fortuneandsince many years

Was friend and follower of a cardinal;

Waiting the rather thus on providence

That a shrewd younger poorer brother yet

The Abate Paoloa regular priest

Had long since tried his powers and found he swam

With the deftest on the Galilean pool:

But then he was a web-footfree o' the wave

And no ambiguous dab-chick hatched to strut

Humbled by any fond attempt to swim

When fiercer fowl usurped his dunghill-top-

A whole priestPaolono mere piece of one

Like Guido tacked thus to the Church's tail!

Guido moreoveras the head o' the house

Claiming the main prizenot the lesser luck

The centre lilyno mere chickweed fringe.

HE WAITED and learned waitingthirty years;

Got promisemissed performance- what would you have?

No petty post rewards a nobleman

For spending youth in splendid lackey-work

And there's concurrence for each rarer prize;

When that fallsrougher hand and readier foot

Push aside Guido spite of his black looks.

The end wasGuidowhen the warning showed

The first white hair i' the glassgave up the game

Determined on returning to his town

Making the best of bad incurable

Patching the old palace up and lingering there

The customary life out with his kin

Where honour helps to spice the scanty bread.

JUST as he trimmed his lamp and girt his loins

To go his journey and be wise at home

In the right mood of disappointed worth

Who but Violante sudden spied her prey

(Where was I with that angler-simile?)

And threw her baitPompiliawhere he sulked-

A gleam i' the gloom!

What if he gained thus much

Wrung out this sweet drop from the bitter Past

Bore off this rose-bud from the prickly brake

To justify such torn clothes and scratched hands

Andafter allbrought something back from Rome?

Would not a wife serve at Arezzo well

To light the dark houselend a look of youth

To the mother's face grown meagreleft alone

And famished with the emptiness of hope

Old Donna Beatrice? Wife you want

Would you play family-representative

Carry you elder-brotherlyhigh and right

O'er what may prove the natural petulance

Of the third brotheryoungergreedier still

Girolamoalso a fledgeling priest

Beginning life in turn with callow beak

Agape for luckno luck had stopped and stilled.

Such were the pinks and greys about the bait

Persuaded Guido gulp down hook and all.

WHAT constituted him so choice a catch

You question? Past his prime and poor beside?

Ask that of any she who knows the trade.

Why firsthere was a nobleman with friends

A palace one might run to and be safe

When presently the threatened fate should fall

A big-browed master to block door-way up

Parley with people bent on pushing by

And praying the mild Pietro quick clear scores:

Is birth a privilege and power or no?

Also- but judge of the result desired

By the price paid and manner of the sale.

The Count was made woowin and wed at once:

Askedand was haled for answerlest the heat

Should coolto San Lorenzoone blind eve

And had Pompilia put into his arms

O' the sly thereby a hasty candle-blink

With sanction of some priest-confederate

Properly paid to make short work and sure.

SO DID old Pietro's daughter change her style

For Guido Franceschini's lady-wife

Ere Guido knew it well; and why this haste

And scramble and indecent secrecy?

'Lest Pietroall the while in ignorance

Should get to learngainsay and break the match:

His peevishness had promptly put aside

Such honour and refused the proffered boon

Pleased to become authoritative once.

She remedied the wilful man's mistake-'

Did our discreet Violante. Rather say

Thus did shelest the object of her game

Guido the gulled onegive him but a chance

A moment's respitetime for thinking twice

Might count the cost before he sold himself

And try the clink of coin they paid him with.

BUT passedthe bargain struckthe business done

Once the clandestine marriage over thus

All parties made perforce the best o' the fact;

Pietro could play vast indignation off

Be ignorant and astoundeddupe alike

At needof wifedaughter and son-in-law

While Guido found himself in flagrant fault

Must e'en do suit and servicesoothesubdue

A father not unreasonably chafed

Bring him to terms by paying son's devoir.

Pleasant initiation!

The endthis:

Guido's broad back was saddled to bear all-

PietroViolanteand Pompilia too-

Three lots cast confidently in one lap

Three dead-weights with one arm to lift the three

Out of their limbo up to life again:

The Roman household was to Strike fresh root

In a new soilgraced with a novel name

Gilt with an alien gloryAretine

Henceforth and never Roman any more

By treaty and engagement: thus it ran:

Pompilia's dowry for Pompilia's self

As a thing of course- she paid her own expense;

No loss nor gain there: but the coupleyou see

Theyfor their partturned over first of all

Their fortune in its rags and rottenness

To Guidofusion and confusionhe

And his with them and theirs- whatever rag

With a coin residuary fell on floor

When Brother Paolo's energetic shake

Should do the relics justice: since 'twas thought

Once vulnerable Pietro out of reach

Thatleft at Rome as representative

The Abatebacked by a potent patron here

And otherwise with purple flushing him

Might play a good game with the creditor

Make up a moiety whichgreat or small

Should go to the common stock- if anything

Guido'sso far repayment of the cost

About to be- and ifas looked more like

Nothing- whyall the nobler cost were his

Who guaranteedfor better or for worse

To Pietro and Violantehouse and home

Kith and kinwith the pick of company

And life o' the fat o' the land while life should last.

How say you to the bargain at first blush?

Why did a middle-aged not-silly man

Show himself thus besotted all at once?

Quoth Solomonone black eye does it all.

THEY went to Arezzo- Pietro and his spouse

With just the dusk o' the day of life to spend

Eager to use the twilighttaste a treat

Enjoy for once with neither stay nor stint

The luxury of lord-and-lady-ship

And realize the stuff and nonsense long

A-simmer in their noddles; vent the fume

Born there and bredthe citizen's conceit

How fares nobility while crossing earth

What rampart or invisible body-guard

Keeps off the taint of common life from such.

They had not fed for nothing on the tales

Of grandees who give banquets worthy Jove

Spending gold as if Plutus paid a whim

Served with obeisances as when... what God?

I'm at the end of my tether; 'tis enough

You understand what they came primed to see:

While Guido who should minister the sight

Stay all this qualmish greediness of soul

With apples and with flagons- for his part

Was set on life diverse as pole from pole:

Lust of the fleshlust of the eye- what else

Was he just now awake fromsick and sage

After the very debauch they would begin?-

Suppose such stuff and nonsense really were.

That bubblethey were bent on blowing big

He had blown already till he burst his cheeks

And hence found soapsuds bitter to the tongue.

He hoped now to walk softly all his days

In soberness of spiritif haply so

Pinching and paring he might furnish forth

A frugal boardbare sustenanceno more

Till timesthat could not well grow worseshould mend.

THUS minded thentwo parties mean to meet

And make each other happy. The first week

And fancy strikes fact and explodes in full.

'This' shrieked the Comparini'this the Count

The palacethe signorial privilege

The pomp and pageantry were promised us?

For this have we exchanged our liberty

Our competenceour darling of a child?

To house as spectres in a sepulchre

Under this black stone heapthe street's disgrace

Grimmest as that is of the gruesome town

And here pick garbage on a pewter plate

Or cough at verjuice dripped from earthenware?

Oh Via Vittoriaoh the other place

I' the Paulinedid we give you up for this?

Where's the foregone housekeeping good and gay

The neighbourlinessthe companionship

The treat and feast when holidays came round

The daily feast that seemed no treat at all

Called common by the uncommon fools we were!

Even the sun that used to shine at Rome

Where is it? Robbed and starved and frozen too

We will have justicejustice if there be!'

Did not they shoutdid not the town resound!

Guido's old lady-mother Beatrice

Who since her husbandCount Tommaso's death

Had held sole sway i' the house- the doited crone

Slow to acknowledgecurtsey and abdicate-

Was recognized of true novercal type

Dragon and devil. His brother Girolamo

Came next in order: priest was he? The worse!

No way of winning him to leave his mumps

And help the laugh against old ancestry

And formal habits long since out of date

Letting his youth be patterned on the mode

Approved of where Violante laid down law.

Or did he brighten up by way of change?

Dispose himself for affability?

The malaperttoo complaisant by half

To the alarmed young novice of a bride!

Let him go buzzbetake himself elsewhere

Nor singe his fly-wings in the candle-flame!

FOUR months' probation of this purgatory

Dog-snap and cat-clawcurse and counterblast

The devil's self had been sick of his own din;

And Pietroafter trumpeting huge wrongs

At church and market-placepillar and post

Square's cornerstreet's endnow the palace-step

And now the wine-house bench- whileon her side

Violante up and down was voluble

In whatsoever pair of ears would perk

From goodygossipcater-cousin and sib

Curious to peep at the inside of things

And catch in the act pretentious poverty

At its wits' end to keep appearance up

Make both ends meet- nothing the vulgar loves

Like what this couple pitched them right and left-

Thentheir worst done that waythey struck tentmarched:

-Renounced their share o' the bargainflung what dues

Guido was bound to payin Guido's face

Left their hearts'-darlingtreasure of the twain

And so forththe poor inexperienced bride

To her own devicesbade Arezzo rot

And the life signorialand sought Rome once more.

I SEE the comment ready on your lip

'The better fortuneGuido's- free at least

By this defection of the foolish pair

He could begin make profit in some sort

Of the young bride and the new quietness

Lead his own life nowhenceforth breathe unplagued.'

Could he? You know the sex like Guido's self

Learn the Violante-nature!

Once in Rome

By way of helping Guido lead such life

Her first act to inaugurate return

Wasshe got pricked in conscience: Jubilee

Gave her the hint. Our Popeas kind as just

Attained his eighty yearsannounced a boon

Should make us bless the factheld Jubilee-

Short shriftprompt pardon for the light offence

And no rough dealing with the regular crime

So this occasion were not suffered slip-

Otherwisesins commuted as before

Without the least abatement in the price.

Nowwho had thought it? All this whileit seems

Our sage Violante had a sin of a sort

She must compound for now or not at all:

Now be the ready riddance! She confessed

Pompilia was a fable not a fact:

She never bore a child in her whole life.

Had this child been a changelingthat were grace

In some degreeexchange is hardly theft;

You take your stand on truth ere leap your lie:

Here was all lieno touch of truth at all

All the lie hers-not even Pietro guessed

He was as childless still as twelve years since.

The babe had been a find i' the filth-heapSir

Catch from the kennel! There was found at Rome

Down in the deepest of our social dregs

A woman who professed the wanton's trade

Under the requisite thin coverture

Communis meretrix and washer-wife:

The creature thus conditioned found by chance

Motherhood like a jewel in the muck

And straightway either trafficked with her prize

Or listened to the tempter and let be-

Made pact abolishing her place and part

In womankindbeast-fellowship indeed-

She sold this babe eight months before its birth

To our ViolantePietro's honest spouse

Well-famed and widely-instanced as that crown

To the husbandvirtue in a woman's shape.

She it wasbought and paid forpassed the thing

Off as the flesh and blood and child of her

Despite the flagrant fifty years- and why?

Partly to please old Pietrofill his cup

With wine at the late hour when lees are left

And send him from life's feast rejoicingly-

Partly to cheat the rightful heirsagape

Each uncle's cousin's brother's son of him

For that same principal of the usufruct

It vext him he must die and leave behind.

SUCH was the sin had come to be confessed.

Which of the talesthe first or lastwas true?

Did she so sin onceorconfessing now

Sin for the first time? Either way you win.

One sees a reason for the cheat: one sees

A reason for a cheat in owning cheat

Where no cheat had been. What of the revenge?

What prompted the contrition all at once

Made the avowal easythe shame slight?

Whyprove they but Pompilia not their child

No childno dowry; thissupposed their child

Had claimed what thisshown alien to their blood

Claimed nowise: Guido's claim was through his wife

Null then and void with hers. The biter bit

Do you see! For such repayment of the past

One might conceive the penitential pair

Ready to bring their case before the courts

Publish their infamy to all the world

Andarm in armgo chuckling thence content.

IS THIS your view? 'Twas Guido's anyhow

And colourable: he came forward then

Protested in his very bride's behalf

Against this lie and all it led toleast

Of all the loss o' the dowry; no! From her

And him alike he would expunge the blot

Erase the brand of such a bestial birth

Participate in no hideous heritage

Gathered from the gutter to be garnered up

And glorified in a palace. Peter and Paul!

But that who likes may look upon the pair

Exposed in yonder churchand show his skill

By saying which is eye and which is mouth

Thro' those Stabs thick and threefold- but for that-

A strong word on the liars and their lie

Might crave expression and obtain itSir!

-Though prematurelysince there's more to come

More that will shake your confidence in things

Your cousin tells you- may I be so bold?

THIS makes the first act of the farce- anon

The stealing sombre element comes in

Till all is black or blood-red in the piece.

Guidothus made a laughing-stock abroad

A proverb for the market-place at home

Left alone with Pompilia nowthis graft

So reputable on his ancient stock

This plague-seed set to fester his sound flesh

What did the Count? Revenge him on his wife?

Unfasten at all risks to rid himself

The noisome lazar-badgefall foul of fate

Andcareless whether the poor rag was ware

O' the part it playedor helped unwittingly

Bid it go burn and leave his frayed flesh free?

Plainlydid Guido open both doors wide

Spurn thence the cur-cast creature and clear scores

As man mighttempted in extreme like this?

Nobirth and breedingand compassion too

Saved her such scandal. She was younghe thought

Not privy to the treasonpunished most

I' the proclamation of it; why make her

A party to the crime she suffered by?

Then the black eyes were now her very own

Not any more Violante's: let her live

Lose in a new airunder a new sun

The taint of the imputed parentage

Truly or falselytake no more the touch

Of Pietro and his partner anyhow!

All might go well yet.

So she thoughtherself

It seemssince what was her first act and deed

When news came how these kindly ones at Rome

Had stripped her naked to amuse the world

With spots herespots there and spots everywhere?

-For I should tell you that they noised abroad

Not merely the main scandal of her birth

But slanders writtenprintedpublished wide

Pamphlets which set forth all the pleasantry

Of how the promised glory was a dream

The power a bubble and the wealth- whydust.

There was a picturepainted to the life

Of those rare doingsthat superlative

Initiation in magnificence

Conferred on a poor Roman family

By favour of Arezzo and her first

And famousestthe Franceschini there.

You had the Countship holding head aloft

Bravely although bespatteredshifts and straits

In keeping out o' the way o' the wheels o' the world

The comic of those home-contrivances

When the old lady-mother's wit was taxed

To find six clamorous mouths in food more real

Than fruit plucked off the cobwebbed family-tree

Or acorns shed from its gilt mouldered frame-

Cold glories served up with three-pauls' worth' sauce.

WhatI ask- when the drunkenness of hate

Hiccuped return for hospitality

Befouled the table they had feasted on

Or say- God knows I'll not prejudge the case-

Grievances thus distortedmagnified

Coloured by quarrel into calumny-

What side did our Pompilia first espouse?

Her first deliberate measure wasshe wrote

Pricked by some loyal impulsestraight to Rome

And her husband's brother the Abate there

Whohaving managed to effect the match

Might take men's censure for its ill success.

She made a clean breast also in her turn;

She qualified the couple handsomely!

Since whose departurehellshe saidwas heaven

And the houselate distracted by their peals

Quiet as Carmel where the lilies live.

Herself had oftentimes complained: but why?

All her complaints had been their promptingtales

Trumped updevices to this very end.

Their game had been to thwart her husband's love

And cross his willmalign his words and ways

So reach this issuefurnish this pretence

For impudent withdrawal from their bond-

Theftindeed murdersince they meant no less

Whose last injunction to her simple self

Had been- what parents'-precept do you think?

That she should follow after with all speed

Fly from her husband's house clandestinely

Join them at Rome againbut first of all

Pick up a fresh companion in her flight

Putting so youth and beauty to fit use

Some gaydare-devilcloak-and-rapier spark

Capable of adventure- helped by whom

Shesome fine eve when lutes were in the air

Having put poison in the posset-cup

Laid hands on moneyjewels and the like

Andto conceal the thing with more effect

By way of parting benediction too

Fired the house- one would finish famously

I' the tumultslip outscurry off and away

And turn up merrily at home once more.

Fact thisand not a dream o' the devilSir!

And more than thisa fact none dare dispute

Word for wordsuch a letter did she write.

And such the Abate readnor simply read

But gave all Rome to ruminate upon

In answer to such charges asI say

The couple sought to be beforehand with.

THE cause thus carried to the courts at Rome

Guido awaythe Abate had no choice

But stand forthtake his absent brother's part

Defend the honour of himself beside.

He made what head he might against the pair

Maintained Pompilia's birth legitimate

And all her rights intact- hersGuido's now-

And so far by his tactics turned their flank

The enemy being beforehand in the place

Thatthough the courts allowed the cheat for fact

Suffered Violante to parade her shame

Publish her infamy to heart's content

And let the tale o' the feigned birth pass for proved-

Yet they stopped thererefused to intervene

And dispossess the innocentsbefooled

By gifts o' the guiltyat guilt's new caprice:

They would not take away the dowry now

Wrongfully given at firstnor bar at all

Succession to the aforesaid usufruct

Established on a fraudnor play the game

Of Pietro's child and now not Pietro's child

As it might suit the gamester's purpose. Thus

Was justice ever ridiculed in Rome:

Such be the double verdicts favoured here

Which send away both parties to a suit

Nor puffed up nor cast down- for each a crumb

Of rightfor neither of them the whole loaf.

Whenceon the Comparini's partappeal-

Counter-appeal on Guido's- that's the game:

And so the matter standseven to this hour

Bandied as balls are in a tennis-court

And so might standunless some heart broke first

Till doomsday.

Leave it thusand now revert

To the old Arezzo whence we moved to Rome.

We've had enough o' the parentsfalse or true

Now for a touch o' the daughter's quality.

The start's fair henceforth- every obstacle

Out of the young wife's footpath- she's alone-

Left to walk warily now: how does she walk?

Whyonce a dwelling's doorpost marked and crossed

In rubric by the enemy on his rounds

As eligibleas fit place of prey

Baffle him henceforthkeep him out who can!

Stop up the door at the first hint of hoof

Presently at the window taps a horn

And Satan's by your firesidenever fear!

Pompilialeft alone nowfound herself;

Found herself young toosprightlyfair enough

Matched with a husband old beyond his age

(Though that was something like four times her own)

Because of cares pastpresent and to come:

Found too the house dull and its inmates dead

Solooked outside for light and life.

And lo

There in a trice did turn up life and light

The man with the aureolesympathy made flesh

The all-consoling CaponsacchiSir!

A priest- what else should the consoler be?

With goodly shoulder-blade and proper leg

A portly make and a symmetric shape

And curls that clustered to the tonsure quite.

This was a bishop in the budand now

A canon full-blown so far: priestand priest

Nowise exorbitantly overworked

The courtly Christiannot so much Saint Paul

As a saint of Caesar's household: there posed he

Sending his god-glance after his shot shaft

Apollos turned Apollowhile the snake

Pompilia writhed transfixed through all her spires.

Henot a visitor at Guido's house

Scarce an acquaintancebut in prime request

With the magnates of Arezzowas seen here

Heard therefelt everywhere in Guido's path

If Guido's wife's path be her husband's too.

Now he threw comfits at the theatre

Into her lap- what harm in Carnival?

Now he pressed close till his foot touched her gown

His hand brushed hers- how help on promenade?

Andever on weighty businessfound his steps

Incline to a certain haunt of doubtful fame

Which fronted Guido's palace by mere chance;

While- how do accidents sometimes combine!

Pompilia chose to cloister up her charms

Just in a chamber that o'erlooked the street

Sat there to prayor peep thence at mankind.

THIS passage of arms and wits amused the town.

At last the husband lifted eyebrow- bent

On day-book and the study how to wring

Half the due vintage from the worn-out vines

At the villatease a quarter the old rent

From the farmsteadtenants swore would tumble soon-

Pricked up his ear a-singing day and night

With 'ruinruin';- and so surprised at last-

Whywhat else but a titter? Up he jumps.

Back to mind come those scratchings at the grange

Prints of the paw about the outhouse; rife

In his head at once again are word and wink

Mum here and budget therethe smell o' the fox

The musk o' the gallant. 'Friendsthere's falseness here!

THE proper help of friends in such a strait

Is waggerythe world over. Laugh him free

O' the regular jealous-fit that's incident

To all old husbands that wed brisk young wives

And he'll go duly docile all his days.

'Somebody courts your wifeCount? Where and when?

How and why? Mere horn-madness: have a care!

Your lady loves her own roomsticks to it

Locks herself in for hoursyou say yourself.

And- whatit's Caponsacchi means you harm?

The Canon? We caress himhe's the world's

A man of such acceptance- never dream

Though he were fifty times the fox you fear

He'd risk his brush for your particular chick

When the wide town's his hen-roost! Fie o' the fool!'

So they dispensed their comfort of a kind.

Guido at last cried'Something is in the air

Under the earthsome plot against my peace:

The trouble of eclipse hangs overhead

How it should come of that officious orb

Your Canon in my systemyou must say:

I say- that from the pressure of this spring

Began the chime and interchange of bells

Ever one whisperand one whisper more

And just one whisper for the silvery last

Till all at once a-row the bronze-throats burst

Into a larum both significant

And sinister: stop it I must and will.

Let Caponsacchi take his hand away

From the wire!- disport himself in other paths

Than lead precisely to my palace-gate-

Look where he likes except one window's way

Wherecheek on handand elbow set on sill

Happens to lean and say her litanies

Every day and all day longjust my wife-

Or wife and Caponsacchi may fare the worse!'

ADMIRE the man's simplicity'I'll do this

I'll not have thatI'll punish and prevent!'-

'Tis easy saying. But to a frayyou see

Two parties go. The badger shows his teeth:

The fox nor lies down sheep-like nor dares fight.

Ohthe wife knew the appropriate warfare well

The way to put suspicion to the blush!

At first hint of remonstranceup and out

I' the face of the worldyou found her: she could speak

State her case- Franceschini was a name

Guido had his full share of foes and friends-

Why should not she call these to arbitrate?

She bade the Governor do governance

Cried out on the Archbishop- whythere now

Take him for sample! Three successive times

Had he to reconduct her by main-force

From where she took her station opposite

His shut door- on the public steps thereto

Wringing her handswhen he came out to see

And shrieking all her wrongs forth at his foot-

Back to the husband and the house she fled:

Judge if that husband warmed him in the face

Of friends or frowned on foes as heretofore!

Judge if he missed the natural grin of folk

Or lacked the customary compliment

Of cap and bellsthe luckless husband's fit!

So it went on and on till- who was right?

One merry April morningGuido woke

After the cuckooso latenear noonday

With an inordinate yawning of the jaws

Ears pluggedeyes gummed togetherpalatetongue

And teeth one mud-paste made of poppy-milk;

And found his wife flownhis scrutoire the worse

For a rummage- jewelry that waswas not

Some money there had made itself wings too-

The door lay wide and yet the servants slept

Sound as the deador dosed which does as well.

In shortPompiliashe whocandid soul

Had not so much as spoken all her life

To the Canonnayso much as peeped at him

Between her fingers while she prayed in church-

This lamb-like innocent of fifteen years

(Such she was grown to by this time of day)

Had simply put an opiate in the drink

Of the whole household overnightand then

Got up and gone about her work secure

Laid hand on this waif and the other stray

Spoiled the Philistine and marched out of doors

In company of the Canon whoLord's love

What with his daily duty at the church

Nightly devoir where ladies congregate

Had something else to mindassure yourself

Beside Pompiliaparagon though she be

Or notice if her nose were sharp or blunt!

Wellanyhowalbeit impossible

Both of them were together jollily

Jaunting it Rome-wardhalf-way there by this

While Guido was left go and get undrugged

Gather his wits upgroaningly give thanks

When neighbours crowded round him to condole.

'Ah' quoth a gossip'well I mind me now

The Count did always say he thought he felt

He feared as if this very chance might fall!

And when a man of fifty finds his corns

Ache and his joints throband foresees a storm

Though neighbours laugh and say the sky is clear

Let us henceforth believe him weatherwise!'

Then was the story toldI'll cut you short:

All neighbours knew: no mystery in the world.

The lovers left at nightfall- over night

Had Caponsacchi come to carry off

Pompilia- not alonea friend of his

One Guillichinithe more conversant

With Guido's housekeeping that he was just

A cousin of Guido's and might play a prank-

(Have not you too a cousin that's a wag?)

-Lord and a Canon also- what would you have?

Such are the red-clothed milk-swollen poppy-heads

That stand and stiffen 'mid the wheat o' the Church!-

This worthy came to aidabet his best.

And so the house was ransackedbooty bagged

The lady led downstairs and out of doors

Guided and guarded tillthe city passed

A carriage lay convenient at the gate.

Good-bye to the friendly Canon; the loving one

Could peradventure do the rest himself.

In jumps Pompiliaafter her the priest

'Whipdriver! Money makes the mare to go

And we've a bagful. Take the Roman road!'

So said the neighbours. This was eight hours since.

GUIDO heard allswore the befitting oaths

Shook off the relics of his poison-drench

Got horsewas fairly started in pursuit

With never a friend to followfound the track

Fast enough'twas the straight Perugia way

Trod soon upon their very heelstoo late

By a minute only at Camosciaat

ChiusiFolignoever the fugitives

Just aheadjust out as he galloped in

Getting the good news ever fresh and fresh

Tillloat the last stage of alllast post

Before Rome- as we sayin sight of Rome

And safety (there's impunity at Rome

For priestsyou know) at- what's the little place?

What some call Castelnuovosome just call

The Osteriabecause o' the post-house inn

Thereat the journey's all but endit seems

Triumph deceived them and undid them both

Secure they might foretaste felicity

Nor fear surprisal: sothey were surprised.

There did they halt at early eveningthere

Did Guido overtake them: 'twas day-break;

He came in time enoughnot time too much

Since in the courtyard stood the Canon's self

Urging the drowsy stable-grooms to haste

Harness the horseshave the journey end

The trifling four-hours'-runningso reach Rome.

And the other runawaythe wife? Upstairs

Still on the couch where she had spent the night

One couch in one roomand one room for both.

So gained they six hoursso were lost thereby.

SIRwhat's the sequel? Lover and beloved

Fall on their knees? No impudence serves here?

They beat their breasts and beg for easy death

Confess thisthat and the other?- anyhow

Confess there wanted not some likelihood

To the supposition so preposterous

ThatO Pompiliathy sequestered eyes

Had noticedstraying o'er the prayerbook's edge

More of the Canon than that black his coat

Buckled his shoes werebroad his hat of brim:

And thatO Canonthy religious care

Had breathed too soft a benedicite

To banish trouble from a lady's breast

So lonely and so lovelynor so lean!

This you expect? Indeedthenmuch you err.

Not to such ordinary end as this

Had Caponsacchi flung the cassock far

Doffed the priestdonned the perfect cavalier;

The die was cast: over shoes over boots:

And just as sheI presently shall show

Pompiliasoon looked Helen to the life

Recumbent upstairs in her pink and white

Soin the inn-yardbold as 'twere Troy-town

There strutted Paris in correct costume

Cloakcap and featherno appointment missed

Even to a wicked-looking sword at side

He seemed to find and feel familiar at.

Nor wanted words as ready and as big

As the part he playedthe bold abashless one.

'I interposed to save your wife from death

Yourself from shamethe true and only shame:

Ask your own conscience else!- orfailing that

What I have done I answeranywhere

Hereif you will; you see I have a sword:

Orsince I have a tonsure as you taunt

At Romeby all means- priests to try a priest.

Onlyspeak where your wife's voice can reply!'

And then he fingered at the sword again.

SoGuido calledin aid and witness both

The Public Force. The Commissary came

Officers also; they secured the priest;

Thenfor his more confusionmounted up

With hima guard on either sidethe stair

To the bed-room where still slept or feigned a sleep

His paramour and Guido's wife; in burst

The company and bade her wake and rise.

HER defence? This. She wokesawsprang upright

I' the midst and stood as terrible as truth

Sprang to her husband's sidecaught at the sword

That hung there uselesssince they held each hand

O' the loverhad disarmed him properly

And in a moment out flew the bright thing

Full in the face of Guido- but for help

O' the guards who held her back and pinioned her

With pains enoughshe had finished you my tale

With a flourish of red all round itpinked her man

Prettily; but she fought them one to six.

They stopped that- but her tongue continued free:

She spat forth such invective at her spouse

O'erfrothed him with such foam of murderer

Thiefpandar- that the popular tide soon turned

The favour of the very sbirristraight

Ebbed from the husbandset toward his wife

People cried 'Hands offpay a priest respect!'

And 'persecuting fiend' and 'martyred saint'

Began to lead a measure from lip to lip.

But facts are facts and flinch not; stubborn things

And the question 'Pritheefriendhow comes my purse

I' the poke of you?'- admits of no reply.

Here was a priest found out in masquerade

A wife caught playing truant if no more;

While the Countmortified in mien enough

Andnose to facean added palm in length

Was plain writ 'husband' every piece of him:

Capture once maderelease could hardly be.

Besidethe prisoners both made appeal

'Take us to Rome!'

Taken to Rome they were;

The husband trooping afterpiteously

Tail between legsno talk of triumph now-

No honour set firm on its feet once more

On two dead bodies of the guilty- nay

No dubious salve to honour's broken pate

From chance thatafter allthe hurt might seem

A skin-deep matterscratch that leaves no scar:

For Guido's first search- ferretingpoor soul

Herethere and everywhere in the vile place

Abandoned to him when their backs were turned

Found- furnishing a last and best regale-

All the love-letters bandied 'twixt the pair

Since the first timid trembling into life

O' the love-star till its stand at fiery full.

Mad prosemad versefearshopestriumphdespair

Avowaldisclaimerplansdatesnames- was nought

Wanting to proveif proof consoles at all

That this had been but the fifth act o' the piece

Whereof the due proemiummonths ago

These playwrights had put forthand ever since

Matured the middleadded 'neath his nose.

He might go cross himself: the case was clear.

THEREFORE to Rome with the clear case; there plead

Each party its bestand leave the law do right

Let her shine forth and showas God in heaven

Vice prostratevirtue pedestalled at last

The triumph of truth! What else shall glad our gaze

When once authority has knit the brow

And set the brain behind it to decide

Between the wolf and sheep turned litigants?

'This is indeed a business!' law shook head:

'A husband charges things hard on a wife

The wife as hard o' the husband: whose fault here?

A wife that flies her husband's housedoes wrong:

The male friend's interference looks amiss

Lends a suspicion: but suppose the wife

On the other handbe jeopardized at home-

Naythat she simply holdill-groundedly

An apprehension she is jeopardized-

And furtherif the friend partake the fear

Andin a commendable charity

Which trusteth alltrust her that she mistrusts-

What do they but obey the natural law?

Pretence may this be and a cloak for sin

And circumstances that concur i' the close

Hint as muchloudly- yet scarce loud enough

To drown the answer "strange may yet be true:"

Innocence often looks like guiltiness.

The accused declare that in thoughtword and deed

Innocent were they both from first to last

As male-babe haply laid by female-babe

At church on edge of the baptismal font

Together for minuteperfect-pure.

Difficult to believeyet possible

As witness Josephthe friend's patron-saint.

The night at the inn- there charity nigh chokes

Ere swallow what they both asseverate;

Though down the gullet faith may feel it go

When mindful of what flight fatigued the flesh

Out of its faculty and fleshliness

Subdued it to the soulas saints assure:

So long a flight necessitates a fall

On the first bedthough in a lion's den

And the first pillowthough the lion's back:

Difficult to believeyet possible.

Last come the letters' bundled beastliness-

Authority repugns give glance to twice

Turns headand almost lets her whip-lash fall;

Yet here a voice cries "Respite!" from the clouds-

The accusedboth in a taleprotestdisclaim

Abominate the horror: "Not my hand"

Asserts the friend- "Nor mine" chimes in the wife

"Seeing I have no handnor write at all."

Illiterate- for she goes on to ask

What if the friend did pen now verse now prose

Commend it to her notice now and then?

'Twas pearls to swine: she read no more than wrote

And kept no more than readfor as they fell

She ever brushed the burr-like things away

Orbetterburned themquenched the fire in smoke.

As for this fardelfilth and foolishness

She sees it now the first time: burn it too!

While for his part the friend vows ignorance

Alike of what bears his name and bears hers:

'Tis forgerya felon's masterpiece

Andas 'tis said the fox still finds the stench

Home-manufacture and the husband's work.

Though he confessesthe ingenuous friend

That certain missivesletters of a sort

Flighty and feeblewhich assigned themselves

To the wifeno less have fallenfar too oft

In his path: wherefrom he understood just this-

That were they verily the lady's own

Whyshe who penned themsince he never saw

Save for one minute the mere face of her

Since never had there been the interchange

Of word with word between them all their life

Whyshe must be the fondest of the frail

And fitshe for the "apage" he flung

Her letters for the flame they went to feed.

Butnow he sees her face and hears her speech

Much he repents him ifin fancy-freak

For a moment the minutest measurable

He coupled her with the first flimsy word

O' the self-spun fabric some mean spider-soul

Furnished forth: stop his films and stamp on him!

Never was such a tangled knottiness

But thus authority cuts the Gordian through

And mark how her decision suits the need!

Here's troublesomenessscandal on both sides

Plenty of fault to findno absolute crime:

Let each side own its fault and make amends!

What does a priest in cavalier's attire

Consorting publicly with vagrant wives

In quarters close as the confessional

Though innocent of harm? 'Tis harm enough:

Let him pay itand be relegate a good

Three yearsto spend in some place not too far

Nor yet too nearmidway 'twixt near and far

Rome and Arezzo- Civita we choose

Where he may lounge away timelive at large

Find out the proper function of a priest

Nowise an exile- that were punishment

But one our love thus keeps out of harm's way

Not more from the husband's anger thanmayhap

His own... sayindiscretionwaywardness

And wanderings when Easter eves grow warm.

For the wife- wellour best step to take with her

On her own showingwere to shift her root

From the old cold shade and unhappy soil

Into a generous ground that fronts the south:

Wheresince her callow soula-shiver late

Craved simply warmth and called mere passers-by

To the rescueshe should have her fill of shine.

Do house and husband hinder and not help?

Why thenforget both and stay here at peace

Come into our communityenroll

Herself along with those good Convertites

Those sinners savedthose Magdalens re-made

Accept their ministrationswell bestow

Her body and patiently possess her soul

Until we see what better can be done.

Last for the husband: if his tale prove true

Well is he rid of two domestic plagues-

The wife that aileddo whatsoever he would

And friend of hers that undertook the cure.

Seewhat a double load we lift from breast!

Off he may goreturnresume old life

Laugh at the priest here and Pompilia there

In limbo each and punished for their pains

And grateful tell the inquiring neighbourhood-

In Romeno wrong but has its remedy.'

The case was closed. Nowam I fair or no

In what I utter? Do I state the facts

Having forechosen a side? I promised you!

THE Canon Caponsacchithenwas sent

To change his garbre-trim his tonsuretie

The clerkly silk roundevery plait correct

Make the impressive entry on his place

Of relegationthrill his Civita

As Ovida like sufferer in the cause

Planted a primrose-patch by Pontus: where

What with much culture of the sonnet-stave

And converse with the aborigines

Soft savagery of eyes unused to roll

And hearts that all awry went pit-a-pat

And wanted setting right in charity

What were a couple of years to while away?

Pompiliaas enjoinedbetook herself

To the aforesaid Convertitesthe sisterhood

In Via Lungarawhere the light ones live

Spinpraythen sing like linnets o'er the flax.

'Anywhereanyhowout of my husband's house

Is heavencried she- was therefore suited so.

But Count Guido Franceschinihe-

The injured man thus righted- found no heaven

I' the house when he returned thereI engage

Was welcomed by the city turned upside down

In a chorus of inquiry. 'Whatback- you?

And no wife? Left her with the Penitents?

Ahbeing young and pretty'twere a shame

To have her whipped in public: leave the job

To the priests who understand! Such priests as yours-

(Pontifex Maximus whipped Vestals once)

Our madcap Caponsacchi: think of him!

Sohe fired upshowed fight and skill of fence?

Ayyou drew alsobut you did not fight!

The wiser'tis a word and a blow with him

True Caponsacchiof old Head-i'-the-Sack

That fought at Fiesole ere Florence was:

He had done enoughto firk you were too much.

And did the little lady menace you

Make at your breast with your own harmless sword?

The spitfire! Wellthank God you're safe and sound

Have kept the sixth commandment whether or no

The lady broke the seventh: I only wish

I were as saint-likecould contain me so.

I am a sinnerI fear I should have left

Sir Priest no nose-tip to turn up at me!'

YouSirwho listen but interpose no word

Ask yourselfhad you borne a baiting thus?

Was it enough to make a wise man mad?

Ohbut I'll have your verdict at the end!

WELLnot enoughit seems: such mere hurt falls

Frets awhileand aches longthen less and less

And so is done with. Such was not the scheme

O' the pleasant Comparini: on Guido's wound

Ever in due successiondrop by drop

Came slow distilment from the alembic here

Set on to simmer by Canidian hate

Corrosives keeping the man's misery raw.

First fire-drop- when he thought to make the best

O' the badto wring from out the sentence passed

Poorpitifulabsurd although it were

Yet what might eke him out result enough

And make it worth his while he had the right

And not the wrong i' the matter judged at Rome.

Inadequate her punishmentno less

Punished in some slight sort his wife had been;

Thenpunished for adulterywhat else?

On such admitted crime he thought to seize

And institute procedure in the courts

Which cut corruption of this kind from man

Cast loose a wife proved loose and castaway:

He claimed in due form a divorce at least.

THIS claim was met now by a counterclaim:

Pompilia sought divorce from bed and board

Of Guidowhose outrageous cruelty

Whose mother's malice and whose brother's hate

Were just the white o' the chargesuch dreadful depths

Blackened its centre- hints of worse than hate

Love from that brotherby that Guido's guile

That mother's prompting. Such reply was made

So was the engine loadedwound upsprung

On Guidowho received the bolt in breast;

But no less bore upgiddily perhaps.

He had the Abate Paolo still in Rome

Brother and friend and fighter on his side:

They rallied in a measuremet the foe

Manlikejoined battle in the public courts

As if to shame supine law from her sloth:

And waiting her awardlet beat the while

Arezzo's banterRome's buffoonery

On this ear and on that eardeaf alike

Safe from worse outrage. Let a scorpion nip

And never mind till he contorts his tail!

But there was sting i' the creature; thus it struck.

Guido had thought in his simplicity-

That lying declaration of remorse

That story of the child which was no child

And motherhood no motherhood at all

-That even this sin might have its sort of good

Inasmuch as no question could be more

Call it falsecall the story trueno claim

Of further parentage pretended now:

The parents had abjured all rightat least

I' the woman still his wife: to plead right now

Were to declare the abjuration false:

He was relieved from any fear henceforth

Their hands might touchtheir breath defile again

Pompilia with his name upon her yet.

Wellno: the next news wasPompilia's health

Demanded change after full three long weeks

Spent in devotion with the Sisterhood-

Rendering sojourn- so the court opined-

Too irksomesince the convent's walls were high

And windows narrownor was air enough

Nor light enoughbut all looked prison-like

The last thing which had come in the court's head.

Propose a new expedient therefore- this!

She had demanded- had obtained indeed

By intervention of whatever friends

Or perhaps lovers- (beauty in distress

In one whose tale is the town-talk beside

Never lacks friendship's arm about her neck)-

Not freedomscarce remitted penalty

Solely the transfer to some private place

Where better airmore lightnew food might be-

Incarcerated (call itall the same)

At some sure friend's house she must keep inside

Be found in at requirement fast enough-

Domus pro carcerein Roman Style.

You keep the house i' the mainas most men do

And all good women: but free otherwise

Should friends arriveto lodge and entertain.

And such a domumsuch a dwelling-place

Having all Rome to choose fromwhere chose she?

What house obtained Pompilia's preference?

Whyjust the Comparini's- justdo you mark

Theirs who renounced all part and lot in her

So long as Guido could be robbed thereby

And only fell back on relationship

And found their daughter safe and sound again

So soon as that might stab him: yesthe pair

Whoas I told youfirst had baited hook

With this poor gilded fly Pompilia-thing

Then caught the fishpulled Guido to the shore

And gutted him- now found a further use

For the baitwould trail the gauze wings yet again

I' the way of what new swimmer passed their stand.

They took Pompilia to their hiding-place-

Not in the heart of Rome as formerly

Under observancesubject to control-

But out o' the way- or in the waywho knows?

That blind mute villa lurking by the gate

At Via Paulinanot so hard to miss

By the honest eyeeasy enough to find

In twilight by marauders: where perchance

Some muffled Caponsacchi might repair

Employ odd moments when he too tried change

Found that a friend's abode was pleasanter

Than relegationpenance and the rest.

Comehere's the last drop does its worst to wound

Here's Guido poisoned to the boneyou say

Your boasted still's full strain and strength: not so!

One master-squeeze from screw shall bring to birth

The hoard i' the heart o' the toadhell's quintessence.

He learned the true convenience of the change

And why a convent wants the cheerful hearts

And helpful hands which female straits require

Whenin the blind mute villa by the gate

Pompilia- what? sangdancedsaw company?

-Gave birthSirto a childhis son and heir

Or Guido's heir and Caponsacchi's son.

I want your word now: what do you say to this?

What would say little Arezzo and great Rome

And what did God say and the devil say

One at each ear o' the manthe husbandnow

The father? Whythe overburdened mind

Broke downwhat was a brain became a blaze.

In fury of the moment- (that first news

Fell on the Count among his vinesit seems

Doing his farm-work)- whyhe summoned steward

Called in the first four hard hands and stout hearts

From field and furrowpoured forth his appeal

Not to Rome's law and gospel any more

But this clown with a mother or a wife

That clodpole with a sister or a son:

Andwhereas law and gospel held their peace

What wonder if the sticks and stones cried out?

ALL five soon somehow found themselves at Rome

At the villa door: there was the warmth and light-

The sense of life so just an inch inside-

Some angel must have whispered 'One more chance!'

He gave it: bade the others stand aside:

Knocked at the door- 'Who is it knocks?' cried one.

'I will make' surely Guido's angel said

'One final essaylast experiment

Speak the wordname the name from out all names

Whichif- as doubtless strong illusions are

And strange disguisings whence even truth seems false

Andfor I am a manI dare not do

God's work until assured I see with God-

If I should bring my lips to breathe that name

And they be innocent- nayby one touch

Of innocence redeemed from utter guilt-

That name will bar the door and bid fate pass.

I will not say "It is a messenger

A neighboureven a belated man

Much less your husband's friendyour husband's self:"

At such appeal the door is bound to ope.

But I will say'- here's rhetoric and to spare!

WhySirthe stumbling-block is cursed and kicked

Block though it be; the name that brought offence

Will bring offence: the burnt child dreads the fire

Although that fire feed on a taper-wick

Which never left the altar nor singed fly:

And had a harmless man tripped you by chance

How would you wait himstand or step aside

When next you heard he rolled your way? Enough.

'GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI!' Guido cried;

And open flew the door: enough again.

Vengeanceyou knowburstlike a mountain-wave

That holds a monster in itover the house

And wiped its filthy four walls free again

With a wash of hell-fire- fathermotherwife

Killed them allbathed his name clean in their blood

Andreeking sowas caughthis friends and he

Haled hither and imprisoned yesternight

O' the day all this was.

Now the whole is known

And how the old couple come to lie in state

Though hacked to pieces- neverthe expert say

So thorough a study of stabbing- while the wife

Viper-likevery difficult to slay

Writhes still through every ring of herpoor wretch

At the Hospital hard by- surviveswe'll hope

To somewhat purify her putrid soul

By full confessionmake so much amends

While time lasts; since at day's end die she must.

FOR Caponsacchi- whythey'll have him here

The hero of the adventurewho so fit

To tell it in the coming Carnival?

'Twill make the fortune of whate'er saloon

Hears him recountwith helpful cheekand eye

Hotly indignant nownow dewy-dimmed

The incidents of flightpursuitsurprise

Capturewith hints of kisses all between-

While Guidothe most unromantic spouse

No longer fit to laugh at since the blood

Gave the broad farce an all too brutal air

Whyhe and those our luckless friends of his

May tumble in the straw this bitter day-

Laid by the heels i' the New PrisonI hear

To bide their trialsince trialand for the life

Follows if but for form's sake: yesindeed!

But with a certain issue: no dispute

'Try him' bids law: formalities oblige:

But as to the issue- look me in the face!-

If the law thinks to find them guiltySir

Master or men- touch one hair of the five

Then I say in the name of all that's left

Of honour in Romecivility i' the world

Whereof Rome boasts herself the central source-

There's an end to all hope of justice more.

Astraea's gone indeedlet hope go too!

Who is it dares impugn the natural law?

Deny God's word 'the faithless wife shall die'?

Whatare we blind? How can we fail to see

This crowd of miseries make the man a mark

Accumulate on one devoted head

For our exampleyours and mine who read

Its lesson thus- 'Henceforward let none dare

Standlike a natural in the public way

Letting the very urchins twitch his beard

And tweak his noseto earn a nickname so

Of the male-Grissel or the modern Job!'

Had Guidoin the twinkling of an eye

Summed up the reckoningpromptly paid himself

That morning when he came up with the pair

At the wayside inn- exacted his just debt

By aid of what first mattockpitchforkaxe

Came to hand in the helpful stable-yard

And with that axeif providence so pleased

Cloven each headby some Rolando-stroke

In one clean cut from crown to clavicle

-Slain the priest-gallantthe wife-paramour

Stickingfor all defencein each skull's cleft

The rhyme and reason of the stroke thus dealt

To-witthose letters and last evidence

Of shameeach package in its proper place-

Biddingwho pitiedundistend the skulls-

I saythe world had praised the man. But no!

That were too plaintoo straighttoo simply just!

He hesitatescalls law forsooth to help.

And lawdistasteful to who calls in law

When honour is beforehand and would serve

What wonder if law hesitate in turn

Plead her disuse to calls o' the kindreply

Smiling a little ''Tis yourself assess

The worth of what's lostsum of damage done:

What you touched with so light a finger-tip

You whose concern it was to grasp the thing

Why must law gird herself and grapple with?

Lawalien to the actor whose warm blood

Asks heat from law whose veins run lukewarm milk-

What you dealt lightly withshall law make out

Heinous forsooth?'

Sirwhat's the good of law

In a case o' the kind? Noneas she all but says.

Call in law when a neighbour breaks your fence

Cribs from your fieldtampers with rent or lease

Touches the purse or pocket- but wooes your wife?

No: take the old way trod when men were men!

Guido preferred the new path- for his pains

Stuck in a quagmirefloundered worse and worse

Until he managed somehow scramble back

Into the safe sure rutted road once more

Revenged his own wrong like a gentleman.

Once back 'mid the familiar printsno doubt

He made too rash amends for his first fault

Vaulted too loftily over what barred him late

And lit i' the mire again- the common chance

The natural over-energy: the deed

Maladroit yields three deaths instead of one

And one life left: for where's the Canon's corpse?

All which is the worse for Guidobutbe frank-

The better for you and me and all the world

Husbands of wivesespecially in Rome.

The thing is put rightin the old place- ay

The rod hangs on its nail behind the door

Fresh from the brine: a matter I commend

To the noticeduring Carnival that's near

Of a certain what's-his-name and jackanapes

Somewhat too civil of eves with lute and song

About a house herewhere I keep a wife.

(Youbeing his cousinmay go tell him so.)

III: The Other Half-Rome

ANOTHER DAY that finds her living yet

Little Pompiliawith the patient brow

And lamentable smile on those poor lips

Andunder the white hospital-array

A flower-like bodyto frighten at a bruise

You'd thinkyet nowstabbed through and through again

Alive i' the ruins. 'Tis a miracle.

It seems thatwhen her husband struck her first

She prayed Madonna just that she might live

So long as to confess and be absolved;

And whether it was thatall her sad life long

Never before successful in a prayer

This prayer rose with authority too dread-

Or whetherbecause earth was hell to her

By compensationwhen the blackness broke

She got one glimpse of quiet and the cool blue

To show her for a moment such things were-

Or else- as the Augustinian Brother thinks

The friar who took confession from her lip-

When a probationary soul that moves

From nobleness to noblenessas she

Over the rough way of the worldsuccumbs

Bloodies its last thorn with unflinching foot

The angels love to do their work betimes

Staunch some wounds here nor leave so much for God.

Who knows? However it beconfessedabsolved

She lieswith overplus of life beside

To speak and right herself from first to last

Right the friend alsolamb-purelion-brave

Care for the boy's concernsto save the son

From the sireher two-weeks' infant orphaned thus

And- with best smile of all reserved for him-

Pardon that sire and husband from the heart.

A miracleso tell your Molinists!

There she lies in the long white lazar-house.

Rome has besiegedthese two daysnever doubt

Saint Anna's where she waits her deathto hear

Though but the chink o' the bellturn o' the hinge

When the reluctant wicket opes at last

Lets inon now this and now that pretence

Too many by half- complain the men of art-

For a patient in such plight. The lawyers first

Paid the due visit- justice must be done;

They took her witnesswhy the murder was;

Then the priests followed properly- a soul

To shrive; 'twas Brother Celestine's own right

The same who noises thus her gifts abroad:

But many morewho found they were old friends

Pushed in to have their stare and take their talk

And go forth boasting of it and to boast.

Old Monna Baldi chatters like a jay

Swears- but thatprematurely trundled out

Just as she felt the benefit begin

The miracle was snapped up by somebody-

Her palsied limb 'gan prick and promise life

At touch o' the bedclothes merely- how much more

Had she but brushed the body as she tried!

Cavalier Carlo- wellthere's some excuse

For him- Maratta who paints Virgins so-

He too must fee the porter and slip by

With pencil cut and paper squaredand straight

There was he figuring away at face-

'A lovelier face is not in Rome' cried he

'Shaped like a peacock's eggthe pure as pearl

That hatches you anon a snow-white chick.'

Thenoh that pair of eyesthat pendent hair

Black thisand black the other! Mighty fine-

But nobody cared ask to paint the same

Nor grew a poet over hair and eyes

Four little years ago whenask and have

The woman who wakes all this rapture leaned

Flower-like from out her window long enough

As much uncomplimented as uncropped

By comers and goers in Via Vittoria: eh?

'Tis just a flower's fate: past parterre we trip

Till peradventure someone plucks our sleeve-

'Yon blossom at the briar's endthat's the rose

Two jealous people fought for yesterday

And killed each other: seethere's undisturbed

A pretty pool at the rootof rival red!'

Then cry we'Ahthe perfect paragon!'

Then crave we'Just one keepsake-leaf for us!'

TRUTH lies between: there's anyhow a child

Of seventeen yearswhether a flower or weed

Ruined: who did it shall account to Christ-

Having no pity on the harmless life

And gentle face and girlish form he found

And thus flings back: go practise if you please

With men and women: leave a child alone

For Christ's particular love's sake!- so I say.

SOMEBODYat the bedsidesaid much more

Took on him to explain the secret cause

O' the crime: quoth he'Such crimes are very rife

Explode nor make us wonder now-a-days

Seeing that Antichrist disseminates

That doctrine of the Philosophic Sin:

Molinos' sect will soon make earth too hot!'

'Nay' groaned the Augustinian'what's there new?

Crime will not fail to flare up from men's hearts

While hearts are men's and so born criminal;

Which one factalways old yet ever new

Accounts for so much crime thatfor my part

Molinos may go whistle to the wind

That waits outside a certain churchyou know!'

THOUGH really it does seem as if she here

Pompilialiving so and dying thus

Has had undue experience how much crime

A heart can hatch. Why was she made to learn

-Not younot Inot even Molinos' self-

What Guido Franceschini's heart could hold?

Thus saintship is effected probably;

No sparing saints the process!- which the more

Tends to the reconciling usno saints

To sinnershipimmunity and all.

FOR see now: Pietro and Violante's life

Till seventeen years agoall Rome might note

And quote for happy- see the signs distinct

Of happiness as we yon Triton's trump.

What could they be but happy?- balanced so

Nor low i' the social scale nor yet too high

Nor poor nor richer than comports with ease

Nor bright and enviednor obscure and scorned

Nor so young that their pleasures fell too thick

Nor old past catching pleasure when it fell

Nothing abovebelow the just degree

All at the mean where joy's components mix.

So againin the couple's very souls

You saw the adequate half with half to match

Each having and each lacking somewhatboth

Making a whole that had all and lacked nought;

The round and soundin whose composure just

The acquiescent and recipient side

Was Pietro'sand the stirring striving one

Violante's: both in union gave the due

Quietudeenterprisecraving and content

Which go to bodily health and peace of mind.

Butas 'tis said a bodyrightly mixed

Each element in equipoisewould last

Too long and live for ever- accordingly

Holds a germ- sand-grain weight too much i' the scale-

Ordained to get predominance one day

And so bring all to ruin and release-

Not otherwise a fatal germ lurked here:

'With mortals much must gobut something stays;

Nothing will stay of our so happy selves.'

Out of the very ripeness of life's core

A worm was bred- 'Our life shall leave no fruit.'

Enough of blissthey thoughtcould bliss bear seed

Yield its likepropagate a bliss in turn

And keep the kind up; not supplant themselves

But put in evidencerecord they were

Show themwhen done withi' the shape of a child.

''Tis in a childman and wife grow complete

One flesh: God says so: let him do his work!'

NOWone reminder of this gnawing want

One special prick o' the maggot at the core

Always befell whenas the day came round

A certain yearly sum- our Pietro being

As the long name runsan usufructuary-

Dropped in the common bag as interest

Of moneyhis till deathnot afterward

Failing an heir: an heir would take and take

A child of theirs be wealthy in their place

To nobody's hurt- the stranger else seized all.

Prosperity rolled river-like and stopped

Making their mill go; but when wheel wore out

The wave would find a space and sweep on free

Andhalf-a-mile offgrind some neighbour's corn.

ADAM-LIKEPietro sighed and said no more:

Eve saw the apple was fair and good to taste

Soplucked ithaving asked the snake advice.

She told her husband God was merciful

And his and her prayer granted at the last:

Let the old mill-stone moulder- wheel unworn

Quartz from the quarryshot into the stream

Adroitlyshould go bring grist as before-

Their house continued to them by an heir

Their vacant heart replenished with a child.

We have her own confession at full length

Made in the first remorse: 'twas Jubilee

Pealed in the ear o' the conscience and it woke.

She found she had offended God no doubt

So much was plain from what had happened since

Misfortune on misfortune; but she harmed

No one i' the worldso far as she could see.

The act had gladdened Pietro to the height

Her husband- God himself must gladden so

Or not at all- (thus much seems probable

From the implicit faithor rather say

Stupid credulity of the foolish man

Who swallowed such a tale nor strained a whit

Even at his wife's far-over-fifty years

Matching his sixty-and-under). Him she blessed

And as for doing any detriment

To the veritable heir- whytell her first

Who was he? Which of all the hands held up

I' the crowdwould one day gather round their gate

Did she so wrong by intercepting thus

The ducatspendthrift fortune thought to fling

For a scramble just to make the mob break shins?

She kept itsaved them kicks and cuffs thereby.

While at the least one good work had she wrought

Goodclearly and incontestably! Her cheat-

What was it to its subjectthe child's self

But charity and religion? See the girl!

A body most like- a soul too probably-

Doomed to deathsuch a double death as waits

The illicit offspring of a common trull

Sure to resent and forthwith rid herself

Of a mere interruption to sin's trade

In the efficacious way old Tiber knows.

Was not so much proved by the ready sale

O' the childglad transfer of this irksome chance?

Well thenshe had caught up this castaway:

This fragile eggsome careless wild bird dropped

She had picked from where it waited the foot-fall

And put in her own breast till forth broke finch

Able to sing God praise on mornings now.

What so excessive harm was done?- she asked.

TO WHICH demand the dreadful answer comes-

For that same deednow at Lorenzo's church

Both agentsconscious and inconsciouslie;

While shethe deed was done to benefit

Lies alsothe most lamentable of things

Yonder where curious people count her breaths

Calculate how long yet the little life

Unspilt may serve their turn nor spoil the show

Give them their storythen the church its group.

WELLhaving gained Pompiliathe girl grew

I' the midst of Pietro hereViolante there

Eachlike a semicircle with stretched arms

Joining the other round her preciousness-

Two walls that go about a garden plot

Where a chance sliverbranchlet slipt from bole

Of some tongue-leaved eye-figured Eden tree

Filched by two exiles and borne far away

Patiently glorifies their solitude-

Year by year mountinggrade by grade surmounts

The builded brick-workyet is compassed still

Still hidden happily and shielded safe-

Else why should miracle have graced the ground?

But on the twelfth sun that brought April there

What meant that laugh? The coping-stone was reached;

Naya light tuft of bloom towered above

To be toyed with by butterfly or bee

Done good to or else harm to from outside:

Pompilia's rootstem and a branch or two

Home enclosed stillthe rest would be the world's.

All which was taught our couple though obtuse

Since walls have earswhen one day brought a priest

Smooth-mannered soft-speeched sleek-cheeked visitor

The notable Abate Paolo- known

As younger brother of a Tuscan house

Whereof the actual representative

Count Guidohad employed his youth and age

In culture of Rome's most productive plant-

A cardinal: but years pass and change comes

In token of whichhere was our Paolo brought

To broach a weighty business. Might he speak?

Yes- to Violante somehow caught alone

While Pietro took his after-dinner doze

And the young maidenbusily as befits

Minded her broider-frame three chambers off.

SO- giving now his great flap-hat a gloss

With flat o' the hand between-whilessoothing now

The silk from out its creases o'er the calf

Setting the stocking clerical again

But never disengagingonce engaged

The thin clear grey hold of his eyes on her-

He dissertated on that Tuscan house

Those Franceschini- very old they were-

Not rich however- ohnot richat least

As people look to be wholow i' the scale

One wayhave reasonrising all they can

By favour of the money-bag: 'tis fair-

Do all gifts go together? But don't suppose

That being not so rich means all so poor!

Say ratherwell enough- i' the wayindeed

Hahato better fortune than the best

Since if his brother's patron-friend kept faith

Put into promised play the Cardinalate

Their house might wear the red cloth that keeps warm

Would but the Count have patience- there's the point!

For he was slipping into years apace

And years make men restless- they needs must see

Some certaintysome sort of end assured

Sparkletho' from the topmost beacon-tip

That warrants life a harbour through the haze.

In shortcall him fantastic as you choose

Guido was home-sickyearned for the old sights

And usual faces- fain would settle himself

And have the patron's bounty when it fell

Irrigate far rather than deluge near

Go fertilize Arezzonot flood Rome.

Sooth to say'twas the wiser wish: the Count

Proved wanting in ambition- let us avouch

Since truth is best- in callousness of heart

Winced at those pin-pricks whereby honours hang

A ribbon o'er each puncture: his- no soul

Ecclesiastic (here the hat was brushed)

Humble but self-sustainingcalm and cold

Havingas one who puts his hand to the plough

Renounced the over-vivid family-feel-

Poor brother Guido! All too plainhe pined

Amid Rome's pomp and glare for dinginess

And that dilapidated palace-shell

Vast as a quarry andvery likeas bare-

Since to this comes old grandeur now-a-days-

Or that absurd wild villa in the waste

O' the hill sidebreezy thoughfor who likes air

Vittianonor unpleasant with its vines

Outside the city and the summer heats.

And now his harping on this one tense chord

The villa and the palacepalace this

And villa the otherall day and all night

Creaked like the implacable cicala's cry

And made one's ear-drum ache: nought else would serve

But thatto light his mother's visage up

With second youthhopegaiety again

He must find straightwaywoo and haply win

And bear away triumphant backsome wife.

Well nowthe man was rational in his way-

Hethe Abate- ought he to interpose?

Unless by straining still his tutelage

(Priesthood leaps over elder-brothership)

Across this difficulty: then let go

Leave the poor fellow in peace! Would that be wrong?

There was no making Guido greatit seems

Spite of himself: then happy be his dole!

Indeedthe Abate's little interest

Was somewhat nearly touched i' the casethey saw:

Since if his simple kinsman so were bent

Began his rounds in Rome to catch a wife

Full soon would such unworldliness surprise

The rare birdsprinkle salt on phoenix' tail

And so secure the nest a sparrow-hawk.

No lack of mothers here in Rome- no dread

Of daughters lured as larks by looking-glass!

The first name-pecking credit-scratching fowl

Would drop her unfledged cuckoo in our nest

To gather greyness theregive voice at length

And shame the brood... but it was long ago

When crusades wereand we sent eagles forth!

Nothat at least the Abate could forestall.

He read the thought within his brother's word

Knew what he purposed better than himself.

We want no name and fame- having our own:

No worldly aggrandizement- such we fly:

But if some wonder of a woman's-heart

Were yet untainted on this grimy earth

Tender and true- tradition tells of such-

Prepared to pant in time and tune with ours-

If some good girl (a girlsince she must take

The new bentlive new lifeadopt new modes)

Not wealthy- Guido for his rank was poor-

But with whatever dowry came to hand

There were the lady-love predestinate!

And somehow the Abate's guardian eye-

Scintillantrutilantfraternal fire-

Roving round every way had seized the prize

-The instinct of uswethe spiritualty!

Comecards on table; was it true or false

That here- here in this very tenement-

YeaVia Vittoria did a marvel hide

Lily of a maidenwhite with intact leaf

Guessed thro' the sheath that saved it from the sun?

A daughter with the mother's hands still clasped

Over her head for fillet virginal

A wife worth Guido's house and hand and heart?

He came to see; had spokenhe could no less-

(A final cherish of the stockinged calf)

If harm were- wellthe matter was off his mind.

THEN with the great air did he kissdevout

Violante's handand rise up his whole height

(A certain purple gleam about the black)

And go forth grandly- as if the Pope came next.

And so Violante rubbed her eyes awhile

Got up toowalked to wake her Pietro soon

And pour into his ear the mighty news

How somebody had somehow somewhere seen

Their tree-top-tuft of bloom above the wall

And came now to apprise them the tree's self

Was no such crab-sort as should feed the swine

But veritable goldthe Hesperian ball

Ordained for Hercules to haste and pluck

And bear and give the Gods to banquet with-

Hercules standing ready at the door.

Whereon did Pietro rub his eyes in turn

Look very wisea little woeful too

Thenperiwig on headand cane in hand

Sally forth dignifiedly into the Square

Of Spain across Babbuino the six steps

Toward the Boat-fountain where our idlers lounge-

Askfor form's sakewho Hercules might be

And have congratulation from the world.

HEARTILY laughed the world in his fool's-face

And told him Hercules was just the heir

To the stubble once a corn-fieldand brick-heap

Where used to be a dwelling-place now burned.

Guido and Franceschini; a Count- ay:

But a cross i' the poke to bless the Countship? No!

All gone except slothpriderapacity

Humours of the imposthume incident

To rich blood that runs thin- nursed to a head

By the rankly-salted soil- a cardinal's court

Whereparasite and picker-up of crumbs

He had hung on longand nowlet gosaid some

But shaken offsaid others- in any case

Tired of the trade and something worse for wear

Was wanting to change town for country quick

Go home again: let Pietro help him home!

The brotherAbate Paoloshrewder mouse

Had pricked for comfortable quartersinched

Into the core of Romeand fattened so;

But Guidoover-burly for rat's hole

Suited to clerical slimnessstarved outside

Must shift for himself: and so the shift was this!

Whatwas the snug retreat of Pietro tracked

The little provision for his old age snuffed?

'Ohmake your girl a ladyan you list

But have more mercy on our wit than vaunt

Your bargain as we burgesses who brag!

WhyGoodman Dullardif a friend must speak

Would the Countthink youstoop to you and yours

Were there the value of one penny-piece

To rattle 'twixt his palms- or likelier laugh

Bid your Pompilia help you black his shoe?'

HOME againshaking oft the puzzled pate

Went Pietro to announce a change indeed

Yet point Violante where some solace lay

Of a rueful sort- the taperquenched so soon

Had ended merely in a snuffnot stink-

Congratulate there was one hope the less

Not misery the more: and so an end.

THE marriage thus impossiblethe rest

Followed: our spokesmanPaoloheard his fate

Resignedly Count Guido bore the blow:

Violante wiped away the transient tear

Renounced the playing Danae to gold dreams

Praised much her Pietro's prompt sagaciousness

Found neighbours' envy naturallightly laughed

At gossips' malicefairly wrapped herself

In her integrity three folds about

Andletting pass a little day or two

Threweven over that integrity

Another wrappagenamely one thick veil

That hid hermatron-wisefrom head to foot

Andby the hand holding a girl veiled too

Stoodone dim end of a December day

In Saint Lorenzo on the altar-step-

Just where she lies now and that girl will lie-

Only with fifty candles' company

Now- in the place of the poor winking one

Which saw- doors shut and sacristan made sure-

A priest- perhaps Abate Paolo- wed

Guido clandestinelyirrevocably

To his Pompilia aged thirteen years

And five months- witness the church register-

Pompilia(thus become Count Guido's wife

Clandestinelyirrevocably his)

Who all the while had bornefrom first to last

As brisk a part i' the bargainas yon lamb

Brought forth from basket and set out for sale

Bears while they chafferwary market-man

And voluble housewifeo'er it- each in turn

Patting the curly calm inconscious head

With the shambles ready round the corner there

When the talk's talked out and a bargain struck.

TRANSFER completewhyPietro was apprised.

Violante sobbed the sobs and prayed the prayers

And said the serpent tempted so she fell

Till Pietro had to clear his brow apace

And make the best of matters: wrath at first-

How else? pacification presently

Why not?- could flesh withstand the impurpled one

The very CardinalPaolo's patron-friend?

Whojustifiably surnamed 'a hinge'

Knew where the molefying oil should drop

To cure the creak o' the valve- considerate

For frailtypatient in a naughty world

He even volunteered to supervise

The rough draught of those marriage-articles

Signed in a hurry by Pietrosince revoked:

Trust's politicsuspicion does the harm

There is but one way to brow-beat this world

Dumb-founder doubtand repay scorn in kind-

To go on trustingnamely till faith move

Mountains.

And faith here made the mountains move.

Whyfriends whose zeal cried 'Caution ere too late!'-

Bade 'Pause ere jumpwith both feet joinedon slough!'-

Counselled 'If rashness thennow temperance!'-

Heard for their pains that Pietro had closed eyes

Jumped and was in the middle of the mire

Money and alljust what should sink a man.

By the mere marriageGuido gained forthwith

Dowryhis wife's right; no rescinding there:

But Pietrowhy must he needs ratify

One gift Violante gavepay down one doit

Promised in first fool's-flurry? Grasp the bag

Lest the son's service flag- is reason and rhyme

Above all when the son's a son-in-law:

Words to the wind! The parents cast their lot

Into the lap o' the daughter: and the son

Now with a right to lie theretook what fell

Pietro's whole having and holdinghouse and field

Goodschattels and effectshis worldly worth

Present and in perspectiveall renounced

In favour of Guido. As for the usufruct-

The interest nowthe principal anon

Would Guido please to waitat Pietro's death:

Till whenhe must support the couple's charge

Bear with themhousematespensionariespawned

To an alien for fulfilment of their pact.

Guido should at discretion deal them orts

Bread-bounty in Arezzo the strange place-

They who had lived deliciously and rolled

Rome's choicest comfit 'neath the tongue before.

Into this quag 'jump' bade the Cardinal!

And neck-deep in a minute there flounced they.

BUT they touched bottom at Arezzo: there-

Four months' experience of how craft and greed

Quickened by penury and pretentious hate

Of plain truthbrutify and bestialize-

Four months' taste of apportioned insolence

Cruelty graduateddose by dose

Of ruffianism dealt out at bed and board

And lothe work was donesuccess clapped hands.

The starvedstrippedbeaten brace of stupid dupes

Broke at last in their desperation loose

Fled away for their livesand lucky so;

Found their account in casting coat afar

And bearing off a shred of skin at least:

Left Guido lord o' the preyas the lion is

Andcareless what came aftercarried their wrongs

To Rome- I nothing doubtwith such remorse

As folly feelssince pain can make it wise

But crimepast wisdomwhich is innocence

Needs not be plagued with till a later day.

PIETRO went back to beg from door to door

In hope that memory not quite extinct

Of cheery days and festive nights would move

Friends and acquaintance- after the natural laugh

And tributary 'Just as we foretold-'

To show some bowelsgive the dregs o' the cup

Scraps of the trencherto their host that was

Or let him share the mat with the mastiffhe

Who lived large and kept open house so long.

Not so Violante: ever a-head i' the march

Quick at the bye-road and the cut-across

She went first to the best adviserGod-

Whose finger unmistakably was felt

In all this retribution of the past.

Here was the prize of sinluck of a lie!

But here too was the Holy Year would help

Bound to rid sinners of sin vulgarsin

Abnormalsin prodigiousup to sin

Impossible and supposed for Jubilee' sake:

To lift the leadenest of lieslet soar

The soul unhampered by a feather-weight.

'I will' said she 'go burn out this bad hole

That breeds the scorpionbaulk the plague at least

Its hope of further creeping progeny:

I will confess my faultbe punishedyes

But pardoned too: Saint Peter pays for all.'

SOWITH the crowd she mixedmade for the dome

Through the great door new-broken for the nonce

Marchedmuffled more than ever matron-wise

Up the left nave to the formidable throne

Fell into file with this the poisoner

And that the parricideand reached in turn

The poor repugnant Penitentiary

Set at this gully-hole o' the world's discharge

To help the frightfullest of filth have vent

And then knelt down and whispered in his ear

How she had bought Pompiliapalmed the babe

On Pietropassed the girl off as their child

To Guidoand defrauded of his due

This one and that one- more than she could name

Until her solid piece of wickedness

Happened to split and spread woe far and wide:

Contritely now she brought the case for cure.

REPLIED the throne- 'Ere God forgive the guilt

Make man some restitution! Do your part!

The owners of your husband's heritage

Barred thence by this pretended birth and heir-

Tell themthe bar came sois broken so

Theirs be the due reversion as before!

Your husband whono partner in the guilt

Suffers the penaltyled blindfold thus

By love of what he thought his flesh and blood

To alienate his all in her behalf-

Tell him too such contract is null and void!

Lasthe who personates your son-in-law

Who with sealed eyes and stopped earstame and mute

Took at your hand that bastard of a whore

You called your daughter and he calls his wife-

Tell himand bear the anger which is just!

Thenpenance so performedmay pardon be!'

WHO could gainsay this just and right award?

Nobody in the world: butout o' the world

Who knows?- might timid intervention be

From any makeshift of an angel-guide

Substitute for celestial guardianship

Pretending to take care of the girl's self.-

'Womanconfessing crime is healthy work

And telling truth relieves a liar like you

But what of her my unconsidered charge?

No thought ofwhile this good befalls yourself

What in the way of harm may find out her?'

No least thoughtI assure you: truth being truth

Tell it and shame the devil!

Said and done:

Home went Violante and disbosomed all:

And Pietro whosix months beforehad borne

Word after word of such a piece of news

Like so much cold steel inched through his breast-blade

Now at its entry gave a leap for joy

As who- what did I say of one in a quag?-

Should catch a hand from heaven and spring thereby

Out of the mudon ten toes stand once more.

'What? All that used to bemay be again?

My money mine againmy housemy land

My chairs and tablesall mine evermore?

Whatthe girl's dowry never was the girl's

Andunpaid yetis never now to pay?

Then the girl's selfmy pale Pompilia child

That used to be my own with her great eyes-

He who drove us forthwhy should he keep her

When proved as very a pauper as himself?

Will she come backwith nothing changed at all

And laugh "But how you dreamed uneasily!

I saw the great drops stand here on your brow-

Did I do wrong to wake you with a kiss?"

Noindeeddarling! Nofor wide awake

I see another outburst of surprise:

The lout-lordbully-beggarbraggart-sneak

Who not content with cutting pursecrops ear-

Assuredly it shall be salve to mine

When this great news red-letters himthe rogue!

Aylet him taste the teeth o' the trapthis fox

Give us our lamb backgolden fleece and all

Let her creep in and warm our breasts again!

What care for the past?- we three are our old selves

Who know now what the outside world is worth.'

And sohe carried case before the courts;

And there Violanteblushing to the bone

Made public declaration of her fault

Renounced her motherhoodand prayed the law

To interposefrustrate of its effect

Her follyand redress the injury done.

WHEREOF was the disastrous consequence

That though indisputably clear the case

(For thirteen years are not so large a lapse

And still six witnesses survived in Rome

To prove the truth o' the tale)- yetpatent wrong

Seemed Guido's; the first cheat had chanced on him:

Here was the pity thatdeciding right

Those who began the wrong would gain the good.

Guido pronounced the story one long lie

Lied to do robbery and take revenge:

Or say it were no lie at all but truth

Thenit both robbed the right heirs and shamed him

Without revenge to humanize the deed:

What had he done when first they shamed him thus?

But that were too fantastic: losels they

And leasing this world's-wonder of a lie

They lied to blot him though it brand themselves.

So answered Guido through the Abate's mouth.

Wherefore the courtits customary way

Inclined to the middle course the sage affect-

They held the child to be a changeling- good:

Butlest the husband got no good thereby

They willed the dowrythough not hers at all

Should yet be hisif not by right then grace-

Part-payment for the plain injustice done.

But thenthat other contractPietro's work

Renunciation of his own estate

That must be cancelled- give him back his goods

He was no party to the cheat at least!

So ran the judgment:- whence a prompt appeal

On both sidesseeing right is absolute.

Cried Pietro 'Is Pompilia not my child?

Why give her my child's dowry?'- 'Have I right

To the dowrywhy not to the rest as well?'

Cried Guidoor cried Paolo in his name:

Till law said 'Reinvestigate the case!'

And so the matter pendsunto this day.

HENCE new disaster- that no outlet seemed;

Whatever the fortune of the battle-field

No path whereby the fatal man might march

Victoriouswreath on head and spoils in hand

And back turned full upon the baffled foe-

Nor cranny whencedesperate and disgraced

Stripped to the skinhe might be fain to crawl

Worm-likeand so away with his defeat

To other fortune and the novel prey.

Nohe was pinned to the place thereleft alone

With his immense hate andthe solitary

Subject to satisfy that hatehis wife.

'Cast her off? Turn her naked out of doors?

Easily said! But still the action pends

Still dowryprincipal and interest

Pietro's possessionsall I bargained for-

Any good daybe but my friends alert

May give them me if she continue mine.

Yetkeep her? Keep the puppet of my foes-

Her voice that lisps me back their curse- her eye

They lend their leer of triumph to- her lip

I touch and taste their very filth upon?'

IN SHORThe also took the middle course

Rome taught him- did at last excogitate

How he might keep the good and leave the bad

Twined in revengeyet extricable- nay

Make the very hate's eruptionvery rush

Of the unpent sluice of cruelty relieve

His heart firstthen go fertilize his field.

What if the girl-wifetortured with due care

Should takeas though spontaneouslythe road

It were impolitic to thrust her on?

Ifgoadedshe broke out in full revolt

Followed her parents i' the face o' the world

Branded as runaway not castaway

Self-sentenced and self-punished in the act?

So should the loathed form and detested face

Launch themselves into hell and there be lost

While he looked o'er the brink with folded arms;

So should the heaped-up shames go shuddering back

O' the head o' the heapersPietro and his wife

And bury in the breakage three at once:

While Guidoleft freeno one right renounced

Gain presentgain prospectiveall the gain

None of the wife except her rights absorbed

Should ask law what it was law paused about-

If law were dubious still whose word to take

The husband's- dignified and derelict

Or the wife's- the... what I tell you. It should be.

GUIDO'S first step was to take penindite

A letter to the Abate- not his own

His wife's- she should re-writesignseal and send.

She liberally told the household-news

Rejoiced her vile progenitors were fled

Revealed their malice- how they even laid

A last injunction on herwhen they fled

That she should forthwith find a paramour

Complot with him to gather spoil enough

Then burn the house down- taking previous care

To poison all its inmates overnight-

And so companionedso provisioned too

Follow to Rome and an join fortunes gay.

This lettertraced in pencil-characters

Guido as easily got re-traced in ink

By his wife's penguided from end to end

As it had been just so much HebrewSir:

For why? That wife could broidersing perhaps

Pray certainlybut no more read than write

This letter 'which yet write she must' he said

'Being half courtesy and compliment

Half sisterliness: take the thing on trust!'

She had as readily re-traced the words

Of her own death-warrant- in some sort 'twas so.

This letter the Abate in due course

Communicated to such curious souls

In Rome as needs must pry into the cause

Of quarrelwhy the Comparini fled

The Franceschiniwhence the grievance grew

What the hubbub meant: 'Nay- see the wife's own word

Authentic answer! Ten detractors too

There's a plan formeda programme figured here

-Pray God no after-practice put to proof

This letter cast no light uponone day!'

SO MUCH for what should work in Rome- back now

To Arezzogo on with the project there

Forward the next step with as bold a foot

And plague Pompilia to the heightyou see!

Accordingly did Guido set himself

To worry up and downacrossaround

The womanhemmed in by her household-bars-

Chased her about the coop of daily life

Having first stopped each outlet thence save one

Whichlike bird with a ferret in her haunt

She needs must seize as sole way of escape

Though there was tied and twittering a decoy

To seem as if it tempted- just the plume

O' the popinjayand not a respite there

From tooth and claw of something in the dark-

Guiseppe Caponsacchi.

Now begins

The tenebrific passage of the tale:

How hold a lightdisplay the cavern's gorge?

Howin this phase of the affairshow truth?

Here is the dying wife who smiles and says

'So it was- so it was not- how it was

I never knew nor ever care to know-'

Till they all weepphysicianman of law

Even that poor old bit of battered brass

Beaten out of all shape by the world's sins

Common utensil of the lazar-house-

Confessor Celestino groans ''Tis truth

All truth and only truth: there's something else

Some presence in the room beside us all

Something that every lie expires before:

No question she was pure from first to last.'

So far is well and helps us to believe:

But beyondshe the helplesssimple-sweet

Or silly-soothunskilled to break one blow

At her good frame by putting finger forth-

How can she render service to the truth?

The bird says 'So I fluttered where a springe

Caught me: the springe did not contrive itself

That I know: who contrived itGod forgive!'

But wewho hear no voice and have dry eyes

Must ask- we cannot elseabsolving her-

How of the part played by that same decoy

I' the catchingcaging? Was himself caught first?

We deal here with no innocent at least

No witless victim- he's a man of the age

And a priest beside- persuade the mocking world

Mere charity boiled over in this sort!

He whose own safety too- (the Pope's apprised-

Good-natured with the secular offence

The Pope looks grave on priesthood in a scrape)

Our priest's own safety thereforemay-be life

Hangs on the issue! You will find it hard.

Guido is here to meet you with fixed foot

Stiff like a statue- 'Leave what went before!

My wife fled i' the company of a priest

Spent two days and two nights alone with him:

Leave what came after!' He is hard to throw.

Moreover priests are merely flesh and blood;

When we get weaknessand no guilt beside

We have no such great ill-fortune: finding grey

We gladly call that white which might be black

Too used to the double-dye. Soif the priest

Moved by Pompilia's youth and beautygave

Way to the natural weakness.... Anyhow

Here be factscharactery; what they spell

Determineand thence pick what sense you may!

There was a certain young bold handsome priest

Popular in the cityfar and wide

Famedfor Arezzo's but a little place

As the best of good companionsgay and grave

At the decent minute; settled in his stall

Or sidelinglute on lapby lady's couch

Ever the courtly Canon: see in such

A star shall climb apace and culminate

Have its due handbreadth of the heaven at Rome

Though meanwhile pausing on Arezzo's edge

As modest candle 'mid the mountain fog

To rub off redness and rusticity

Ere it sweep chastenedgain the silver-sphere.

Whether through Guido's absence or what else

This Caponsacchifavourite of the town

Was yet no friend of his nor free o' the house

Though both moved in the regular magnates' march-

Each must observe the other's tread and halt

At churchsaloontheatrehouse of play.

Who could help noticing the husband's slouch

The black of his brow- or miss the news that buzzed

Of how the little solitary wife

Wept and looked out of window all day long?

What need of minute search into such springs

As start menset o' the move?- machinery

Old as earthobvious as the noonday sun.

Whytake men as they come- an instance now-

Of all those who have simply gone to see

Pompilia on her deathbed since four days

Half at the least arecall it how you please

In love with her- I don't except the priests

Nor even the old confessor whose eyes run

Over at what he styles his sister's voice

Who died so early and weaned him from the world.

Wellhad they viewed her ere the paleness pushed

The last o' the red o' the rose awaywhile yet

Some handadventurous 'twixt the wind and her

Might let the life run back and raise the flower

Rich with reward up to the guardian's face-

Would they have kept that hand employed the same

At fumbling on with prayer-book pages? No!

Men are men: why then need I say one word

More than thisthat our man the Canon here

Sawpitiedloved Pompilia?

This is why;

This startling why: that Caponsacchi's self-

Whom foes and friends alike avouchfor good

Or ina man of truth whate'er betide

Intrepid altogetherreckless too

How his own fame and fortunetossed to the winds

Suffer by any turn the adventure take

Naymore- not thrustinglike a badge to hide

'Twixt shirt and skin a joy which shown is shame-

But flirting flag-like i' the face o' the world

This tell-tale kerchiefthis conspicuous love

For the lady- ohcalled innocent loveI know!

Onlysuch scarlet fiery innocence

As most men would try muffle up in shade-

-'Tis strange then that this else abashless mouth

Should yet maintainfor truth's sake which is God's

That it was not he made the first advance

Thateven ere word had passed between the two

Pompilia penned him letterspassionate prayers

If not lovethen so simulating love

That heno novice to the taste of thyme

Turned from such over-luscious honey-clot

At end o' the flowerand would not lend his lip

Till... but the tale here frankly outsoars faith:

There must be falsehood somewhere. For her part

Pompilia quietly constantly avers

She never penned a letter in her life

Nor to the Canon nor any other man

Being incompetent to write and read:

Nor had she ever uttered word to himnor he

To her till that same evening when they met

She on her window-terracehe beneath

I' the public streetas was their fateful chance

And she adjured him in the name of God

Find out and bring to pass wherewhen and how

Escape with him to Rome might be contrived.

Means foundplan laid and time fixedshe avers

And heart assured to heart in loyalty

All at an impulse! All extemporized

As in romance-books! Is that credible?

Wellyes: as she avers this with calm mouth

DyingI do think 'Credible!' you'd cry-

Did not the priest's voice come to break the spell:

They questioned him apartas the custom is

When first the matter made a noise at Rome

And hecalmconstant then as she is now

For truth's sake did assert and reassert

Those letters called him to her and he came

-Which damns the story credible otherwise.

Why should this man- mad to devote himself

Careless what comes of his own famethe first-

Be studious thus to publish and declare

Just what the lightest nature loves to hide

Nor screen a lady from the byword's laugh

'First spoke the ladylast the cavalier!'

-I say- why should the man tell truth just here

When graceful lying meets such ready shrift?

Or is there a first moment for a priest

As for a womanwhen invaded shame

Must have its first and last excuse to show?

Do both contrive love's entry in the mind

Shall looki' the manner of ita surprise

That afteronce the flag o' the fort hauled down

Effrontery may sink drawbridgeopen gate

Welcome and entertain the conqueror?

Or what do you say to a touch of the devil's worst?

Can it be that the husbandhe who wrote

The letter to his brother I told you of

I' the name of her it meant to criminate-

What if he wrote those letters to the priest?

Further the priest sayswhen it first befell

This folly o' the lettersthat he checked the flow

Put them back lightly each with its reply.

Here again vexes new discrepancy:

There never reached her eye a word from him;

He did write but she could not read- she could

Burn what offended wifehoodwomanhood

So did burn: never bade him come to her

Yet when it proved he must comelet him come

And when he did come though uncalledshe spoke

Prompt by an inspiration: thus it was.

Will you go somewhat back to understand?

WHEN firstpursuant to his planthere sprang

Like an uncaged beastGuido's cruelty

On the weak shoulders of his wifeshe cried

To those whom law appoints resource for such

The secular guardian- that's the Governor

And the Archbishop- that's the spiritual guide

And prayed them take the claws from out her flesh.

Nowthis is ever the ill consequence

Of being noblepoor and difficult

Ungainlyyet too great to disregard-

That the born peers and friends hereditary

Though disinclined to help from their own store

The opprobrious wightput penny in his poke

From purse of theirs or leave the door ajar

When he goes wistful by at dinner-time-

Yetif his needs conduct him where they sit

Smugly in officejudge thisbishop that

Dispensers of the shine and shade o' the place-

And ifthe friend's door shut and purse undrawn

The potentate may find the office-hall

Do as good service at no cost- give help

By-the-byepay up traditional dues at once

Just through a feather-weight too much i' the scale

A finger-tip forgot at the balance-tongue-

Whyonly churls refuseor Molinists.

Thus whenin the first roughness of surprise

At Guido's wolf-face whence the sheepskin fell

The frightened coupleall bewilderment

Rushed to the Governor- who else rights wrong?

Told him their tale of wrong and craved redress-

Whythen the Governor woke up to the fact

That Guido was a friend of oldpoor Count!-

Sopromptly paid his tributepromised the pair

Wholesome chastisement should soon cure their qualms

Next time they came and prated and told lies:

Which stopped all pratingsent them dumb to Rome.

Wellnow it was Pompilia's turn to try:

The troubles pressing on heras I said

Three times she rushedmaddened by misery

To the other mighty mansobbed out her prayer

At footstool of the Archbishop- fast the friend

Of her husband also! Ohgood friends of yore!

Sothe Archbishopnot to be outdone

By the Governorbreak custom more than he

Thrice bade the foolish woman stop her tongue

Unloosed her hands from harassing his gout

Coached her and carried her to the Count again

-His old friend should be master in his house

Rule his wife and correct her faults at need!

Welldriven from post to pillar in this wise

Sheas a last resourcebetook herself

To oneshould be no family-friend at least

A simple friar o' the city; confessed to him

Then told how fierce temptation of release

By self-dealt death was busy with her soul

And urged that he put this in wordswrite plain

For one who could not writeset down her prayer

That Pietro and Violanteparent-like

If somehow not her parentsshould for love

Come save herpluck from out the flame the brand

Themselves had thoughtlessly thrust in so deep

To send gay-coloured sparkles up and cheer

Their seat at the chimney-corner. The good friar

Promised as much at the moment; butalack

Night brings discretion: he was no one's friend

Yet presently found he could not turn about

Nor take a step i' the case and fail to tread

On someone's toe who either was a friend

Or a friend's friendor a friend's friend thrice-removed

And woe to friar by whom offences come!

Sothe course being plain- with a general sigh

At matrimony the profound mistake-

He threw reluctantly the business up

Having his other penitents to mind.

IF THENall outlets thus secured save one

At last she took to the openstood and stared

With her wan face to see where God might wait-

And there found Caponsacchi wait as well

For the precious something at perdition's edge

He only was predestinate to save-

And if they recognized in a critical flash

From the zenitheach the otherher need of him

His need of... saya woman to perish for

The regular way o' the worldyet break no vow

Do no harm save to himself- if this were thus?

How do you say? It were improbable;

So is the legend of my patron-saint.

ANYHOWwhetheras Guido states the case

Pompilia- like a starving wretch i' the street

Who stops and rifles the first passenger

In the great right of an excessive wrong-

Did somehow call this stranger and he came-

Or whether the strange sudden interview

Blazed as when star and star must needs go close

Till each hurts each and there is loss in heaven-

Whatever way in this strange world it was-

Pompilia and Caponsacchi metin fine

She at her windowhe i' the street beneath

And understood each other at first look.

ALL was determined and performed at once.

And on a certain April eveninglate

I' the monththis girl of sixteenbride and wife

Three years and over- she who hitherto

Had never taken twenty steps in Rome

Beyond the churchpinned to her mother's gown

Norin Arezzoknew her way through street

Except what led to the Archbishop's door-

Such an one rose up in the darklaid hand

On what came firstclothes and a trinket or two

Belongings of her own in the old day-

Stole from the side o' the sleeping spouse- who knows?

Sleeping perhapssilent for certain- slid

Ghost-like from great dark room to great dark room

In through the tapestries and out again

And onwardunembarrassed as a fate

Descended staircasegained last door of all

Sent it wide open at first push of palm

And there stoodfirst timelast and only time

At libertyalone in the open street-

Unquestionedunmolested found herself

At the city gateby Caponsacchi's side

Hope therejoy therelife and all good again

The carriage therethe convoy therelight there

Broadening into a full blaze at Rome

And breaking small what long miles lay between;

Up she sprangin he followedthey were safe.

THE husband quotes this for incredible

All of the story from first word to last:

Sees the priest's hand throughout upholding hers

Traces his foot to the alcovethat night

Whither and whence blindfold he knew the way

Proficient in all craft and stealthiness;

And cites for proof a servanteye that watched

And ear that opened to purse secrets up

A woman-spy- suborned to give and take

Letters and tokensdo the work of shame

The more adroitly that herselfwho helped

Communion thus between a tainted pair

Had long since been a leper thick in spot

A common trull o' the town: she witnessed all

Helped many meetingspartingstook her wage

And then told Guido the whole matter. Lies!

The woman's life confutes her word- her word

Confutes itself: 'Thusthus and thus I lied.'

'And thusno questionstill you lie' we say.

'AY BUT at laste'en have it how you will

Whatever the meanswhatever the wayexplodes

The consummation'- the accusers shriek:

'Here is the wife avowedly found in flight

And the companion of her flighta priest;

She flies her husbandhe the church his spouse:

What is this?'

Wife and priest alike reply

'This is the simple thing it claims to be

A course we took for life and honour's sake

Very strangevery justifiable.'

She says'God put it in my head to fly

As when the martin migrates: autumn claps

Her handscries "Winter's comingwill be here

Off with you ere the white teeth overtake!

Flee!" So I fled: this friend was the warm day

The south wind and whatever favours flight;

I took the favourhad the helphow else?

And so we did fly rapidly all night

All dayall night- a longer night- again

And then another daylongest of days

And all the whilewhether we fled or stopped

I scarce know how or whyone thought filled both

"Fly and arrive!" So long as I found strength

I talked with my companiontold him much

Knowing that he knew moreknew meknew God

And God's disposal of me- but the sense

O' the blessed flight absorbed me in the main

And speech became mere talking through a sleep

Till at the end of that last longest night

In a red daybreakwhen we reached an inn

And my companion whispered "Next stage- Rome!"

Sudden the weak flesh fell like piled-up cards

All the frail fabric at a finger's touch

And prostrate the poor soul tooand I said

"But though Count Guido were a furlong off

Just on meI must stop and rest awhile!"

Then something like a white wave o' the sea

Broke o'er my brain and buried me in sleep

Blessedlytill it ebbed and left me loose

And where was I found but on a strange bed

In a strange room like hellroaring with noise

Ruddy with flameand filled with menin front

Whom but the man you call my husbanday-

Count Guido once more between heaven and me

For there my heaven stoodmy salvationyes-

That Caponsacchi all my heaven of help

Helpless himselfheld prisoner in the hands

Of men who looked up in my husband's face

To take the fate thence he should signify

Just as the way was at Arezzo: then

Not for my sake but his who had helped me-

I sprang upreached him with one boundand seized

The sword o' the felontrembling at his side

Fit creature of a cowardunsheathed the thing

And would have pinned him through the poison-bag

To the wall and left him there to palpitate

As you serve scorpionsbut men interposed-

Disarmed megave his life to him again

That he might take mine and the other lives

And he has done so. I submit myself!'

The priest says- ohand in the main result

The facts asseveratehe truly says

As to the very act and deed of him

However you mistrust the mind o' the man-

The flight was just for flight's sakeno pretext

For aught except to set Pompilia free:

He says 'I cite the husband's self's worst charge

In proof of my best word for both of us.

Be it conceded that so many times

We took our pleasure in his palace: then

What need to fly at all?- or flying no less

What need to outrage the lips sick and white

Of a womanand bring ruin down beside

By halting when Rome lay one stage beyond?'

So does he vindicate Pompilia's fame

Confirm her story in all points but one-

This; thatso fleeing and so breathing forth

Her last strength in the prayer to halt awhile

She makes confusion of the reddening white

Which was the sunset when her strength gave way

And the next sunrise and its whitening red

Which she revived in when her husband came:

She mixes both timesmorn and evein one

Having lived through a blank of night 'twixt each

Though dead-asleepunaware as a corpse

She on the bed above; her friend below

Watched in the doorway of the inn the while

Stood i' the red o' the mornthat she mistakes

In act to rouse and quicken the tardy crew

And hurry out the horseshave the stage

Overthe last leaguereach Rome and be safe:

When up came Guido.

Guido's tale begins-

How he and his whole householddrunk to death

By some enchanted potionpoppied drugs

Plied by the wifelay powerless in gross sleep

And left the spoilers unimpeded way

Could not shake off their poison and pursue

Till noontidethen made shift to get on horse

And did pursue: which meanshe took his time

Pressed on no more than lingered afterstep

By stepjust making sure o' the fugitives

Till at the nick of timehe saw his chance

Seized itcame up with and surprised the pair.

How he must needs have gnawn lip and gnashed teeth

Taking successively at tower and town

Village and roadsidestill the same report

'Yessuch a pair arrived an hour ago

Sat in the carriage just where your horse stands

While we got horses ready- turned deaf ear

To all entreaty they would even alight;

Counted the minutes and resumed their course.'

Would they indeed escapearrive at Rome

Leave no least loop to let damnation through

And foil him of his captured infamy

Prize of guilt proved and perfect? So it seemed:

Tilloh the happy chanceat last stageRome

But two short hours offCastelnuovo reached

The guardian angel gave reluctant place

Satan stepped forward with alacrity

Pompilia's flesh and blood succumbedperforce

A halt wasand her husband had his will.

Perdue he couchedcounted out hour by hour

Till he should spy in the east a signal-streak-

Night had beenmorrow wastriumph would be.

Do you see the plan deliciously complete?

The rush upon the unsuspecting sleep

The easy executionthe outcry

Over the deed 'Take notice all the world!

These two dead bodieslocked still in embrace-

The man is Caponsacchi and a priest

The woman is my wife: they fled me late

Thus have I found and you behold them thus

And may judge me: do you approve or no?'

SUCCESS did seem not so improbable

But that already Satan's laugh was heard

His black back turned on Guido- left i' the lurch

Or ratherbaulked of suit and service now

That he improve on both by one deed more

Burn up the better at no distant day

Body and soul one holocaust to hell.

Anyhowof this natural consequence

Did just the last link of the long chain snap:

For his eruption was o' the priestalive

And alertcalmresolute and formidable

Not the least look of fear in that broad brow-

One not to be disposed of by surprise

And armed moreover- who had guessed as much?

Yesthere stood he in secular costume

Complete from head to heelwith sword at side

He seemed to know the trick of perfectly.

There was no prompt suppression of the man

As he said calmly 'I have saved your wife

From death; there was no other way but this;

Of what do I defraud you except death?

Charge any wrong beyondI answer it.'

Guidothe valoroushad met his match

Was forced to demand help instead of fight

Bid the authorities o' the place lend aid

And make the best of a broken matter so.

They soon obeyed the summons- I suppose

Apprised and readyor not far to seek-

Laid hands on Caponsacchifound in fault

A priest yet flagrantly accoutred thus-

Thento make good Count Guido's further charge

Proceededprisoner made lead the way

In a crowdupstairs to the chamber-door

Where wax-whitedead asleepdeep beyond dream

As the priest laid herlay Pompilia yet.

AND as he mounted step and step with the crowd

How I see Guido taking heart again!

He knew his wife so well and the way of her-

How at the outbreak she would shroud her shame

In hell's heartwould it mercifully yawn-

Howfailing thather forehead to his foot

She would crouch silent till the great doom fell

Leave him triumphant with the crowd to see!

Guilt motionless or writhing like a worm?

No! Second misadventurethis worm turned

I told you: would have slain him on the spot

With his own weaponbut they seized her hands:

Leaving her tongue freeas it tolled the knell

Of Guido's hope so lively late. The past

Took quite another shape now. She who shrieked

'At least and for ever I am mine and God's

Thanks to his liberating angel Death-

Never again degraded to be yours

The ignoble noblethe unmanly man

The beast below the beast in brutishness!'-

This was the froward child'the restif lamb

Used to be cherished in his breast' he groaned-

'Eat from his hand and drink from out his cup

The while his fingers pushed their loving way

Through curl on curl of that soft coat-alas

And she all silverly baaed gratitude

While meditating mischief!'- and so forth.

He must invent another story now!

The ins and outs o' the rooms were searched: he found

Or showed for found the abominable prize-

Love-letters from his wife who cannot write

Love-letters in reply o' the priest- thank God!-

Who can write and confront his character

With thisand prove the false thing forged throughout:

Spitting whereathe needs must spatter who

But Guido's self?- that forged and falsified

One letter called Pompilia'spast dispute:

Then why not these to make sure still more sure?

SO WAS the case concluded then and there:

Guido preferred his charges in due form

Called on the law to adjudicateconsigned

The accused ones to the Prefect of the place.

(Oh mouse-birth of that mountain-like revenge!)

And so to his own place betook himself

After the spring that failed- the wildcat's way.

The captured parties were conveyed to Rome;

Investigation followed here i' the court-

Soon to review the fruit of its own work

From then to now being eight months and no more.

Guido kept out of sight and safe at home:

The Abatebrother Paolohelped most

At words when deeds were out of questionpushed

Nearest the purplebest played deputy

SopleadedGuido's representative

At the court shall soon try Guido's self- what's more

The court that also took- I told youSir-

That statement of the couplehow a cheat

Had been i' the birth of the babeno child of theirs.

That was the prelude; thisthe play's first act:

Whereof we wait what comescrownclose of all.

WELLthe result was something of a shade

On the parties thus accused- how otherwise?

Shadebut with shine as unmistakable.

Each had a prompt defence: Pompilia first-

'Earth was made hell to me who did no harm:

I only could emerge one way from hell

By catching at the one hand held meso

I caught at it and thereby stepped to heaven:

If that be wrongdo with me what you will!'

Then Caponsacchi with a grave grand sweep

O' the arm as though his soul warned baseness off-

'If as a manthen much more as a priest

I hold me bound to help weak innocence:

If so my worldly reputation burst

Being the bubble it iswhyburst it may:

Blame I can bear though not blameworthiness.

But use your sense firstsee if the miscreant here

The man who tortured thus the womanthus

Have not both laid the trap and fixed the lure

Over the pit should bury body and soul!

His facts are lies: his letters are the fact-

An infiltration flavoured with himself!

As for the fancies- whether... what is it you say?

The lady loves mewhether I love her

In the forbidden sense of your surmise-

Ifwith the midday blaze of truth above

The unlidded eye of God awakeaware

You needs must pry about and track the course

Of each stray beam of light may traverse earth

To the night's sun and Lucifer himself

Do soat other timein other place

Not now nor here! Enough that first to last

I never touched her lip nor she my hand

Nor either of us thought a thoughtmuch less

Spoke a word which the Virgin might not hear.

Be that your questionthus I answer it.'

THEN the court had to make its mind upspoke.

'It is a thorny questionand a tale

Hard to believebut not impossible:

Who can be absolute for either side?

A middle course is happily open yet.

Here has a blot surprised the social blank-

Whether through favourfeebleness or fault

No matterleprosy has touched our robe

And we're unclean and must be purified.

Here is a wife makes holiday from home

A priest caught playing truant to his church

In masquerade moreover: both allege

Enough excuse to stop our lifted scourge

Which else would heavily fall. On the other hand

Here is a husbanday and man of mark

Who comes complaining heredemands redress

As if he were the pattern of desert-

The while those plaguy allegations frown

Forbid we grant him the redress he seeks.

To all men be our moderation known!

Rewarding none while compensating each

Hurting all round though harming nobody

Husbandwifepriestscot-free not one shall 'scape

Yet priestwifehusbandboast the unbroken head

From application of our excellent oil:

So thatwhatever be the factin fine

It makes no miss of justice in a sort.

Firstlet the husband stomach as he may

His wife shall neither be returned himno-

Nor brandedwhipped and cagedbut just consigned

To a convent and the quietude she craves;

So is he rid of his domestic plague:

What better thing can happen to a man?

Nextlet the priest retire- unshentunshamed

Unpunished as for perpetrating crime

But relegated (not imprisonedSirs!)

Sent for three years to clarify his youth

At Civitaa rest by the way to Rome:

There let his life skim of its last of lees

Nor keep this dubious colour. Judged the cause:

All parties may retirecontentwe hope.'

That's Rome's waythe traditional road of law;

Whither it leads is what remains to tell.

THE priest went to his relegation-place

The wife to her conventbrother Paolo

To the arms of brother Guido with the news

And this beside- his charge was countercharged;

The Comparinihis old brace of hates

Were breathed and vigilant and venomous now-

Had shot a second bolt where the first struck

And followed up the pending dowry-suit

By a procedure should release the wife

From so much of the marriage-bond as barred

Escape when Guido turned the screw too much

On his wife's flesh and bloodas husband may.

No more defenceshe turned and made attack

Claimed now divorce from bed and boardin short:

Pleaded such subtle strokes of cruelty

Such slow sure siege laid to her body and soul

Asproved- and proofs seemed coming thick and fast-

Would gain both freedom and the dowry back

Even should the first suit leave them in his grasp:

So urged the Comparini for the wife.

Guido had gained not one of the good things

He grasped at by his creditable plan

O' the flight and following and the rest: the suit

That smouldered late was fanned to fury new

This adjunct came to help with fiercer fire

While he had got himself a quite new plague-

Found the world's face an universal grin

At this last best of the Hundred Merry Tales

Of how a young and spritely clerk devised

To carry off a spouse that moped too much

And cured her of the vapours in a trice:

And how the husbandplaying Vulcan's part

Told by the Sunstarted in hot pursuit

To catch the loversand came halting up

Cast his net and then called the Gods to see

The convicts in their rosy impudence-

Whereat said Mercury 'Would that I were Mars!'

Oh it was rareand naughty all the same!

Briefthe wife's courage and cunning- the priest's show

Of chivalry and adroitness- last not least

The husband- how he ne'er showed teeth at all

Whose bark had promised biting; but just sneaked

Back to his kenneltail 'twixt legsas 'twere-

All this was hard to gulp down and digest.

So pays the devil his liegemanbrass for gold.

But this was at Arezzo: here in Rome

Brave Paolo bore up against it all-

Battled it outnor wanting to himself

Nor Guido nor the House whose weight he bore

Pillar-likenot by force of arm but brain.

He knew his Romewhat wheels we set to work;

Plied influential folkpressed to the ear

Of the efficacious purplepushed his way

To the old Pope's self- past decency indeed-

Praying him take the matter in his hands

Out of the regular court's incompetence;

But times are changed and nephews out of date

And favouritism unfashionable: the Pope

Said 'Render Caesar what is Caesar's due!'

As for the Comparini's counter-plea

He met that by a counter-plea again

Made Guido claim divorce- with help so far

By the trial's issue: forwhy punishment

However slight unless for guiltiness

However slender?- and a molehill serves

Much as a mountain of offence this way.

So was he gathering strength on every side

And growing more and more to menace- when

All of a terrible moment came the blow

That beat down Paolo's fenceended the play

O' the foil and brought Mannaia on the stage.

FIVE months had passed now since Pompilia's flight

Months spent in peace among the Convert nuns:

This- being as it seemedfor Guido's sake

Solelywhat pride might call imprisonment

And quote as something gainedto friends at home-

This naturally was at Guido's charge:

Grudge it he mightbut penitential fare

Prayerspreachingswho but he defrayed the cost?

SoPaolo droppedas proxydoit by doit

Like heart's bloodtill- what's here? What notice comes?

The Convent's self makes application bland

Thatsince Pompilia's health is fast o' the wane

She may have leave to go combine her cure

Of soul with cure of bodymend her mind

Together with her thin arms and sunk eyes

That want fresh air outside the convent-wall

Say in a friendly house- and which so fit

As a certain villa in the Pauline way

That happens to hold Pietro and his wife

The natural guardians?' Ohand shift the care

You shift the costtoo; Pietro pays in turn

And lightens Guido of a load! And then

Villa or conventtwo names for one thing

Always the sojourn means imprisonment

Domum pro carcere - nowise we relax

Nothing abate: how answers Paolo?'

You

What would you answer? All so smooth and fair

Even Paul's astuteness sniffed no harm i' the world.

He authorized the transfersaw it made

Andtwo months afterreaped the fruit of the same

Having to sit downrack his brain and find

What phrase should serve him best to notify

Our Guido that by happy providence

A son and heira babe was born to him

I' the villa- go tell sympathizing friends!

Yessuch had been Pompilia's privilege:

Shewhen she fledwas one month gone with child

Known to herself or unknowneither way

Availing to explain (say men of art)

The strange and passionate precipitance

Of maiden startled into motherhood

Which changes body and soul by nature's law.

So when the she-dove breedsstrange yearnings come

For the unknown shelter by undreamed-of shores

And there is born a blood-pulse in her heart

To fight if needs bethough with flap of wing

For the wool-flock or the fur-tuftthough a hawk

Contest the prize- whereforeshe knows not yet.

Anyhowthus to Guido came the news.

'I shall have quitted Rome ere you arrive

To take the one step left'- wrote Paolo.

Then did the winch o' the winepress of all hate

Vanitydisappointmentgrudge and greed

Take the last turn that screws out pure revenge

With a bright bubble at the brim beside-

By an heir's birth he was assured at once

O' the main prizeall the money in dispute:

Pompilia's dowry might revert to her

Or stay with him as law's caprice should point-

But now- now- what was Pietro's shall be hers

What was hers shall remain her own- if hers

Why then- ohnot her husband's but- her heir's!

That heir being his tooall grew his at last

By this road or by that roadsince they join.

Beforewhypush he Pietro out o' the world-

The current of the money stoppedyou see

Pompilia being proved no Pietro's child:

Or let it be Pompilia's life he quenched

Again the current of the money stopped-

Guido debarred his rights as husband soon

So the new process threatened;- nowthe chance

Nowthe resplendent minute! Clear the earth

Cleanse the houselet the three but disappear

A child remainsdepositary of all

That Guido may enjoy his own again!

Repair all losses by a master-stroke

Wipe out the pastall done and left undone

Swell the good present to best evermore

Die into new lifewhich let blood baptize!

SOi' the blue of a sudden sulphur-blaze

And why there was one step to take at Rome

And why he should not meet with Paolo there

He saw- the ins and outs to the heart of hell-

And took the straight line thither swift and sure.

He rushed to Vittianofound four sons o' the soil

Brutes of his breedingwith one spark i' the clod

That served for a soulthe looking up to him

Or aught called Franceschini as lifedeath

Heavenhell- lord paramountassembled these

Haranguedequippedinstructedpressed each clod

With his will's imprint; then took horseplied spur

And so arrivedall five of themat Rome

On Christmas Eveand forthwith found themselves

Installed i' the vacancy and solitude

Left them by Paolothe considerate man

Whogood as his worddisappeared at once

As if to leave the stage free. A whole week

Did Guido spend in study of his part

Then played it fearless of a failure. One

Struck the year's clock whereof the hours are days

And off was rung o' the little wheels the chime

'Good will on earth and peace to man:' buttwo

Proceeded the same bell andevening come

The dreadful five felt finger-wise their way

Across the town by blind cuts and black turns

To the little lone suburban villa; knocked-

'Who may be outside?' called a well-known voice.

'A friend of Caponsacchi's bringing friends

A letter.'

That's a testthe excusers say:

Ayand a test conclusiveI return.

What? Had that name brought touch of guilt or taste

Of fear with itaught to dash the present joy

With memory of the sorrow just at end-

Shehappy in her parents' arms at length

With the new blessing of the two weeks' babe-

How had that name's announcement moved the wife?

Oras the other slanders circulate

Were Caponsacchi no rare visitant

On nights and days whither safe harbour lured

What bait had been i' the name to ope the door?

The promise of a letter? Stealthy guests

Have secret watchwordsprivate entrances:

The man's own self might have been found inside

And all the scheme made frustrate by a word.

No: but since Guido knewnone knew so well

The man had never since returned to Rome

Nor seen the wife's face more than villa's front

Socould not be at hand to warn or save-

For thathe took this sure way to the end.

'COME in' bade poor Violante cheerfully

Drawing the door-bolt: that death was the first

Stabbed through and through. Pietroclose on her heels

Set up a cry- 'Let me confess myself!

Grant but confession!' Cold steel was the grant.

Then came Pompilia's turn.

Then they escaped.

The noise o' the slaughter roused the neighbourhood.

They had forgotten just the one thing more

Which saves i' the circumstancethe ticket to-wit

Which puts post-horses at a traveller's use:

Soall on footdesperate through the dark

Reeled they like drunkards along open road

Accomplished a prodigious twenty miles

Homewardand gained Baccano very near

Stumbled at lastdeafdumbblind through the feat

Into a grange andone dead heapslept there

Till the pursuers hard upon their trace

Reached them and took themred from head to heel

And brought them to the prison where they lie.

The couple were laid i' the church two days ago

And the wife lives yet by miracle.

All is told.

You hardly need ask what Count Guido says

Since something he must say. 'I own the deed-'

(He cannot choose- but-) 'I declare the same

Just and inevitable- since no way else

Was left mebut by this of taking life

To save my honour which is more than life.

I exercised a husband's rights.' To which

The answer is as prompt- 'There was no fault

In any one o' the three to punish thus:

Neither i' the wifewho kept all faith to you

Nor in the parentswhom yourself first duped

Robbed and maltreatedthen turned out of doors.

You wronged and they endured wrong; yours the fault.

Nexthad endurance overpassed the mark

And turned resentment needing remedy-

Nayput the absurd impossible casefor once-

You were all blameless of the blame alleged

And they blameworthy where you fix all blame

Stillwhy this violation of the law?

Yourself elected law should take its course

Avenge wrongor show vengeance not your right;

Whyonly when the balance in law's hand

Trembles against you and inclines the way

O' the other partydo you make protest

Renounce arbitramentflying out of court

And crying "Honour's hurt the sword must cure"?

Ahaand so i' the middle of each suit

Trying i' the courts- and you had three in play

With an appeal to the Pope's self beside-

Whatyou may chop and change and right your wrongs

Leaving the law to lag as she thinks fit?'

THAT were too temptingly commodiousCount!

One would have still a remedy in reserve

Should reach the safest oldest sinneryou see!

One's honour forsooth? Does that take hurt alone

From the extreme outrage? I who have no wife

Being yet sensitive in my degree

As Guido- must discover hurt elsewhere

Whichhalf compounded-for in days gone by

May profitably break out now afresh

Need cure from my own expeditious hands.

The lie that wasas it wereimputed me

When you objected to my contract's clause-

The theft as good asone may sayalleged

When youco-heir in a willexceptedSir

To my administration of effects

-Ahado you think law disposed of these?

My honour's touched and shall deal death around!

Countthat were too commodiousI repeat!

If any law be imperative on us all

Of all are you the enemy: out with you

From the common light and air and life of man!

IV: Tertium Quid

TRUEEXCELLENCY- as his Highness says

Though she's not dead yetshe's as good as stretched

Symmetrical beside the other two;

Though he's not judged yethe's the same as judged

So do the facts abound and superabound:

And nothing hindersnowwe lift the case

Out of the shade into the shineallow

Qualified persons to pronounce at last

Nayedge in an authoritative word

Between this rabble's-brabble of dolts and fools

Who make up reasonless unreasoning Rome.

'Now for the Trial!' they roar: 'the Trial to test

The truthweigh husband and weigh wife alike

I' the scales of lawmake one scale kick the beam!'

Law's a machine from whichto please the mob

Truth the divinity must needs descend

And clear things at the play's fifth act- aha!

Hammer into their noddles who was who

And what was what. I tell the simpletons

'Could law be competent to such a feat

'Twere done already: what begins next week

Is end o' the Triallast link of a chain

Whereof the first was forged three years ago

When law addressed herself to set wrong right

And proved so slow in taking the first step

That ever some new grievance- tortretort

On one or the other side- o'ertook i' the game

Retarded sentencetill this deed of death

Is thrown inas it werelast bale to boat

Crammed to the edge with cargo- or passengers?

"Trecentos inseris: ohejam satis est!

Huc appelle!" - passengersthe word must be.'

Long sincethe boat was loaded to my eyes.

To hear the rabble and brabbleyou'd call the case

Fused and confused past human finding out.

One calls the square roundt' other the round square-

And pardonably in that first surprise

O' the blood that fell and splashed the diagram:

But now we've used our eyes to the violent hue

Can't we look through the crimson and trace lines?

It makes a man despair of history

Eusebius and the established fact- fig's end!

Ohgive the fools their Trialrattle away

With the leash of lawyerstwo on either side-

One barksone bites- Masters Arcangeli

And Spreti- that's the husband's ultimate hope

Against the Fisc and the other kind of Fisc

Bound to do barking for the wife: bow-wow!

WhyExcellencywe and his Highness here

Would settle the matter as sufficiently

As ever will Advocate This and Fiscal That

And Judge the Otherwith even- a word and a wink-

We well know who for ultimate arbiter.

Let us beware o' the basset-table- lest

We jog the elbow of Her Eminence

Jostle his cards- he'll rap you out a... st!

By the window-seat! And here's the Marquis too!

Indulge me but a moment: if I fail

-Favoured with such an audienceunderstand!-

To set things rightwhyclass me with the mob

As understander of the mind of man!

THE mob- nowthat's just how the error comes!

Bethink you that you have to deal with plebs

The commonalty; this is an episode

In burgess-life- why seek to aggrandize

Idealizedenaturalize the class?

People talk just as if they had to do

With a noble pair that... Excellencyyour ear!

Stoop to meHighness- listen and look yourselves!

THIS PIETROthis Violantelive their life

At Rome in the easy way that's far from worst

Even for their betters- themselves love themselves

Spend their own oil in feeding their own lamp

That their own faces may grow bright thereby.

They get to fifty and over: how's the lamp?

Full to the depth o' the wick- moneys so much;

And also with a remnant- so much more

Of moneys- which there's no consuming now

Butwhen the wick shall moulder out some day

Failing fresh twist of tow to use up dregs

Will lie a prize for the passer-by- to-wit

Anyone that can prove himself the heir

Seeingthe couple are wanting in a child:

Meantime their wick swims in the safe broad bowl

O' the middle rank- not raised a beacon's height

For wind to ravagenor swung till lamp graze ground

As watchman's cressethe pokes here and there

Going his rounds to probe the ruts i' the road

Or fish the luck o' the puddle. Pietro's soul

Was satisfied when crony smirked'No wine

Like Pietro'sand he drinks it every day!'

His wife's heart swelled her boddicejoyed its fill

When neighbours turned heads wistfully at church

Sighed at the load of lace that came to pray.

Wellhaving got through fifty years of flare

They burn out soindulge so their dear selves

That Pietro finds himself in debt at last

As he were any lordling of us all:

Andfor the dark begins to creep on day

Creditors grow uneasytalk aside

Take counselthen importune all at once.

For if the good fat rosy careless man

Who has not laid a ducat bydecease-

Let the lamp fallno heir at hand to catch-

Whybeing childlessthere's a spilth i' the street

O' the remnantthere's a scramble for the dregs

By the stranger: sothey grant him no long day

But come in a bodyclamour to be paid.

WHAT'S his resource? He asks and straight obtains

The customary largessdole dealt out

Towhat we call our 'poor dear shame-faced ones'

In secret once a month to spare the shame

O' the slothful and the spendthrift- pauper-saints

The Pope puts meat i' the mouth ofravens they

And providence he- just what the mob admires!

That isinstead of putting a prompt foot

On selfish worthless human slugs whose slime

Has failed to lubricate their path in life

Whythe Pope picks the first ripe fruit that falls

And gracious puts it in the vermin's way.

Pietro could never save a dollar? Straight

He must be subsidized at our expense:

And for his wife- the harmless household sheep

One ought not to see harassed in her age-

Judgeby the way she bore adversity

O' the patient nature you ask pity for!

How longnowwould the roughest marketman

Handling the creatures huddled to the knife

Harass a mutton ere she made a mouth

Or menaced biting? Yet the poor sheep here

Violantethe old innocent burgess-wife

In her first difficulty showed great teeth

Fit to crunch up and swallow a good round crime.

She meditates the tenure of the Trust

Fidei commissum is the lawyer-phrase

These funds that only want an heir to take-

Goes o'er the gamut o' the creditor's cry

By semitones from whine to snarl high up

And growl down lowone scale in sundry keys-

Pauses with a little compunction for the face

Of Pietro frustrate of its ancient cheer-

Never a bottle now for friend at need-

Comes to a stop on her own frittered lace

And neighbourly condolences thereat

Then makes her mind upsees the thing to do:

And sodeliberately snaps house-book clasp

Posts off to vespersmissal beneath arm

Passes the proper San Lorenzo by

Dives down a little lane to the leftis lost

In a labyrinth of dwellings best unnamed

Selects a certain blind oneblack at base

Blinking at top- the sign of we know what-

One candle in a casement set to wink

Streetwarddo service to no shrine inside-

Mounts thither by the filthy flight of stairs

Holding the cord by the wallto the tip-top

Gropes for the door i' the darkajar of course

Rapsopensenters in: up starts a thing

Naked as needs be- 'Whatyou rogue'tis you?

Back- how can I have taken a farthing yet?

Mercy on mepoor sinner that I am!

Here's... whyI took you for Madonna's self

With all that sudden swirl of silk i' the place!

What may your pleasure bemy bonny dame?'

Your Excellency supplies aught left obscure?

One of those women that abound in Rome

Whose needs oblige them eke out one poor trade

By another vile one: her ostensible work

Was washing clothesout in the open air

At the cistern by Citorio; but true trade-

Whispering to idlers when they stopped and praised

The ankles she let liberally shine

In kneeling at the slab by the fountain-side

That there was plenty more to criticize

At homethat evei' the house where candle blinked

Decorously aboveand all was done

I' the holy fear of God and cheap beside.

Violantenowhad seen this woman wash

Noticed and envied her propitious shape

Tracked her home to her house-topnoted too

And now was come to tempt her and propose

A bargain far more shameful than the first

Which trafficked her virginity away

For a melon and three pauls at twelve years old.

Five minutes' talk with this poor child of Eve

Struck was the bargainbusiness at an end-

'Thensix months hencethat person whom you trust

Comesfetches whatsoever babe it be;

I keep the price and secretyou the babe

Paying beside for mass to make all straight:

MeantimeI pouch the earnest-money-piece.'

Down stairs again goes fumbling by the rope

Violantetriumphing in a flourish of fire

From her own brainself-lit by such success-

Gains church in time for the 'Magnificat'

And gives forth 'My reproof is taken away

And blessed shall mankind proclaim me now'

So that the officiating priest turns round

To see who proffers the obstreperous praise:

Then home to Pietrothe enraptured-much

But puzzled-more when told the wondrous news-

How orisons and works of charity

(Beside that pair of pinners and a coif

Birth-day surprise last Wednesday was five weeks)

Had borne fruit in the Autumn of his life-

Theyor the Orvieto in a double dose.

Anyhowshe must keep house next six months

Lie on the settleavoid the three-legged stool

Andchieflynot be crossed in wish or whim

And the result was like to be an heir.

ACCORDINGLYwhen time was come about

He found himself the sire indeed of this

Francesca Vittoria Pompilia and the rest

O' the names whereby he sealed her his next day.

A crime complete in its way is hereI hope?

Lies to Godlies to manevery way lies

To nature and civility and the mode:

Flat robbery of the proper heirs thus foiled

O' the due succession- andwhat followed thence

Robbery of Godthrough the confessor's ear

Debarred the most note-worthy incident

When all else done and undone twelve month through

Was put in evidence at Easter-time.

All other peccadillos!- but this one

To the priest who comes next day to dine with us?

'Twere inexpedient; decency forbade.

IS SO far clear? You know Violante now

Compute her capability of crime

By this authentic instance? Black hard cold

Crime like a Stone you kick up with your foot

I' the middle of a field?

I thought as much.

But nowa question- how long does it lie

The bad and barren bit of stuff you kick

Before encroached on and encompassed round

With minute mossweedwild-flower- made alive

By wormand flyand foot of the free bird?

Your Highness- healthy minds let bygones be

Leave old crimes to grow young and virtuous-like

I' the sun and air; so time treats ugly deeds:

They take the natural blessing of all change.

There was the joy o' the husband silly-sooth

The softening of the wife's old wicked heart

Virtues to right and leftprofusely paid

If so they might compensate the saved sin.

And then the sudden existencedewy-dear

O' the rose above the dungheapthe pure child

As good as new createdsince withdrawn

From the horror of the pre-appointed lot

With the unknown father and the mother known

Too well- some fourteen years of squalid youth

And then libertinagediseasethe grave-

Hell in life herehereafter life in hell:

Look at that horror and this soft repose!

Whymoralistthe sin has saved a soul!

Theneven the palpable grievance to the heirs-

'Faiththis was no frank setting hand to throat

And robbing a manbut... Excellencyby your leave

How did you get that marvel of a gem

The sapphire with the Graces grand and Greek?

The story isstooping to pick a stone

From the pathway through a vineyard- no-man's-land-

To pelt a sparrow withyou chanced on this:

Why nowdo those five clowns o' the family

O' the vinedresser digest their porridge worse

That not one keeps it in his goatskin pouch

To do flints'-service with the tinder-box?

Don't cheat medon't cheat youdon't cheat a friend!

But are you so hard on who jostles just

A stranger with no natural sort of claim

To the havings and the holdings (here's the point)

Unless by misadventureand defect

Of that which ought to be- naywhich there's none

Would dare so much as wish to profit by-

Since who dares put in just so many words

'May Pietro fail to have a childplease God!

So shall his house and goods belong to me

The sooner that his heart will pine betimes'?

Well thenGod don't pleasenor his heart shall pine!

Because he has a child at lastyou see

Or selfsame thing as though a child it were

He thinkswhose sole concern it is to think:

If he accepts it why should you demur?

MOREOVERsay that certain sin there seem

The proper process of unsinning sin

Is to begin well-doing somehow else.

Pietro- rememberwith no sin at all

I' the substitution- whythis gift of God

Flung in his lap from over Paradise

Steadied him in a momentset him straight

On the good path he had been straying from.

Henceforward no more wilfulness and waste

Cuppingscarousings- these a sponge wiped out.

All sort of self-denial was easy now

For the child's sakethe chatelaine to be

Who must want much and might want who knows what?

And sothe debts were paidhabits reformed

Expense curtailedthe dowry set to grow.

As for the wife- I saidhers the whole sin:

Sohers the exemplary penance. 'Twas a text

Whereon folk preached and praisedthe district through:

'Ohmake us happy and you make us good!

It all comes of God giving her a child:

Such graces follow God's best earthly gift!'

HERE you put by my guardpass to my heart

By the home-thrust- 'There's a lie at base of all.'

Whythou exact Princeis it a pearl or no

Yon globe upon the Principessa's neck?

That great round glory of pellucid stuff

A fish secreted round a grain of grit!

Do you call it worthless for the worthless core?

(She don'twho well knows what she changed for it!)

Soto our brace of burgesses again!

You see so far i' the storywho was right

Who wrongwho neitherdon't you? Whatyou don't?

Eh? Welladmit there's somewhat dark i' the case

Let's on- the rest shall clearI promise you.

Leap over a dozen years: you findthese passed

An old good easy creditable sire

A careful housewife's beaming bustling face

Both wrapped up in the love of their one child

The strange tall pale beautiful creature grown

Lily-like out o' the cleft i' the sun-smit rock

To bow its white miraculous birth of buds

I' the way of wandering Joseph and his spouse-

So painters fancy: here it was a fact.

And this their lily- could they but transplant

And set in vase to stand by Solomon's porch

'Twixt lion and lion!- this Pompilia of theirs

Could they see worthily marriedwell bestowed

In house and home! And why despair of this

With Rome to choose fromsave the topmost rank?

Themselves would help the choice with heart and soul

Throw their late savings in a common heap

Should go with the dowryto be followed in time

By the heritage legitimately hers:

And when such paragon was found and fixed

Whythey might chant their 'Nunc dimittis' straight.

INDEED the prize was simply full to a fault;

Exorbitant for the suitor they should seek

And social class to choose amongthese cits.

Yet there's a latitude: exceptional white

Amid the general brown o' the specieslurks

A burgess nearly an aristocrat

Legitimately in reach: look out for him!

What bankermerchanthas seen better days

What second-rate painter a-pushing up

Poet a-slipping downshall bid the best

For this young beauty with the thumping purse?

Alackhad it been but one of such as these

So like the real thing they may pass for it

All had gone well! Unluckily fate must needs

It proved to be the impossible thing itself;

The truth and not the sham: hence ruin to them all.

FORGuido Franceschini was the head

Of an old family in Arezzoold

To that degree they could afford to be poor

Better than most: the case is common too.

Out of the vast door 'scutcheoned overhead

Creeps out a serving-man on Saturdays

To cater for the week- turns up anon

I' the marketchaffering for the lamb's least leg

Or the quarter-fowlless entrailsclaws and comb:

Then back again with prize- a liver begged

Into the bargaingizzard overlooked-

He's mincing these to give the beans a taste

Whenat your knockhe leaves the simmering soup

Waits on the curious stranger-visitant

Napkin in half-wiped handto show the rooms

Point pictures out have hung their hundred years

'Priceless' he tells you- puts in his place at once

The man of money: yesyou're banker-king

Or merchant-kaiserwallow in your wealth

While patronthe house-mastercan't afford

To stop our ceiling-hole that rain so rots-

But he's the man of markand there's his shield

And yonder's the famed Rafaelfirst in kind

The painter painted for his grandfather-

You have paid a paul to see: 'Good morningSir"

Such is the law of compensation. Here

The poverty was getting too acute;

There gaped so many noble mouths to feed

Beans must suffice unflavoured of the fowl.

The mother- hers would be a spun-out life

I' the nature of things; the sisters had done well

And married men of reasonable rank:

But that sort of illumination stops

Throws back no heat upon the parent-hearth.

The family instinct felt out for its fire

To the Church- the Church traditionally helps

A second son: and such was Paolo

Established here at Rome these thirty years

Who played the regular game- priest and Abate

Made friendsowned house and landbecame of use

To a personage: his course lay clear enough.

The youngest caught the sympathetic flame

Andthough unfledged wings kept him still i' the cage

Yet he shot up to be a Canonso

Clung to the higher perch and crowed in hope.

Even our Guidoeldest brotherwent

As far i' the way o' the Church as safety seemed

He being Head o' the Houseordained to wive-

Socould but dally with an Order or two

And testify good will i' the cause: he clipt

His top-hair and thus far affected Christ

But main promotion must fall otherwise

Though still from the side o' the Church: and here was he

At Romesince first youthworn threadbare of soul

By forty-six years' rubbing on hard life

Getting fast tired o' the game whose word is- 'Wait!'

When one day- he too having his Cardinal

To serve in some ambiguous sortas serve

To draw the coach the plumes o' the horses' heads-

The Cardinal saw fit to dispense with him

Ride with one plume the less; and off it dropped.

Guido thus left- with a youth spent in vain

And not a penny in purse to show for it

Advised with Paolobent no doubt in chafe

The black brows somewhat formidably the while.

'Where is the good I came to get at Rome?

Where the repayment of the servitude

To a purple popinjaywhose feet I kiss

Knowing his father wiped the shoes of mine?'

'PATIENCE' pats Paolo the recalcitrant-

'You have not hadso farthe proper luck

Nor do my gains suffice to keep us both:

A modest competency is minenot more.

You are the Count howeveryours the style

Heirdom and state- you can't expect all good.

Had Inowheld your hand of cards... wellwell-

What's yet unplayedI'll look atby your leave

Over your shoulder- I who made my game

Let's seeif I can't help to handle yours.

Fie on youall the Honours in your fist

CountshipHouseheadship- how have you misdealt!

Whyin the first placethey will marry a man!

Notum tonsoribus! To the Tonsor then!

Comeclear your looksand choose your freshest suit

Andafter function's done withdown we go

To the woman-dealer in perukesa wench

I and some others settled in the shop

At Place Colonna: she's an oracle. Hmm!

"Dear'tis my brother: brother'tis my dear.

Deargive us counsel! Whom do you suggest

As properest party in the quarter round

For the Count here?- he is minded to take wife

And further tells me he intends to slip

Twenty zecchines under the bottom-scalp

Of his old wig when he sends it to revive

For the wedding: and I add a trifle too.

You know what personage I'm potent with."'

And so plumped out Pompilia's name the first.

She told them of the household and its ways

The easy husband and the shrewder wife

In Via Vittoria- how the tall young girl

With hair black as yon patch and eyes as big

As yon pomander to make freckles fly

Would have so much for certainand so much more

In likelihood- whyit suitedslipt as smooth

As the Pope's pantoufle does on the Pope's foot.

'I'll to the husband!' Guido ups and cries.

'Ayso you'd play your last court-cardno doubt!'

Puts Paolo in with a groan- 'Onlyyou see

'Tis Ithis timethat supervise your lead.

Priests play with womenmaidswivesmothers- why?

These play with men and take them off our hands.

Did I comecounsel with some cut-beard gruff

Or rather this sleek young-old barberess?

Gobrotherstand you rapt in the ante-room

Of Her Efficacity my Cardinal

For an hour- he likes to have lord-suitors lounge-

While I betake myself to the grey mare

The better horse- how wise the people's word!-

And wait on Madam Violante.'

Said and done.

He was at Via Vittoria in three skips:

Proposed at once to fill up the one want

O' the burgess-family whichwealthy enough

And comfortable to heart's desireyet crouched

Outside a gate to heaven- lockedboltedbarred

Whereof Count Guido had a key he kept

Under his pillowbut Pompilia's hand

Might slide behind his neck and pilfer thence.

The key was fairy; mention of itmade

Violante feel the thing shoot one sharp ray

That reached the heart o' the woman. 'I assent:

Yours be Pompiliahers and ours that key

To all the glories of the greater life!

There's Pietro to convince: leave that to me!'

THEN was the matter broached to Pietro; then

Did Pietro make demand and get response

That in the Countship was a truthbut in

The counting up of the Count's casha lie:

He thereupon stroked grave his chinlooked great

Declined the honour. Then the wife wiped one-

Winked with the other eye turned Paolo-ward

Whispered Pompiliastole to church at eve

Found Guido there and got the marriage done

And finally begged pardon at the feet

Of her dear lord and master. Whereupon

Quoth Pietro- 'Let us make the best of things!'

'I knew your love would license us' quoth she:

Quoth Paolo once more'Motherswives and maids

These be the tools wherewith priests manage men.'

NOWhere take breath and ask- which bird o' the brace

Decoyed the other into clapnet? Who

Was foolwho knave? Neither and bothperchance.

There was a bargain mentally proposed

On each sidestraight and plain and fair enough;

Mind knew its own mind: but when mind must speak

The bargain have expression in plain terms

There was the blunder incident to words

And in the clumsy processfair turned foul.

The straight backbone-thought of the crooked speech

Were just- 'I Guido truck my name and tank

For so much money and youth and female charms.'-

'We Pietro and Violante give our child

And wealth to you for a rise i' the world thereby.'

Such naked truth while chambered in the brain

Shocks nowise: walk it forth by way of tongue-

Out on the cynical unseemliness!

Hence was the needon either sideof a lie

To serve as decent wrappage: soGuido gives

Money for money- and theybride for groom

Havinghenot a doittheynot a child

Honestly theirsbut this poor waif and stray.

According to the wordseach cheated each;

But in the inexpressive barter of thoughts

Each did give and did take the thing designed

The rank on this side and the cash on that-

Attained the object of the trafficso.

The way of the worldthe daily bargain struck

In the first market! Why sells Jack his ware?

'For the sake of serving an old customer.'

Why does Jill buy it? 'Simply not to break

A custompass the old stall the first time.'

Whyyou know where the gist is of the exchange:

Each sees a profitthrows the fine words in.

Don't be too hard o' the pair! Had each pretence

Been simultaneously discoveredstripped

From of the body o' the transactionjust

As when a cook... will Excellency forgive?

Strips away those long loose superfluous legs

From either side the crayfishleaving folk

A meal all meat henceforthno garnishry

(With your respectPrince!)- balance had been kept

No party blamed the other- sostarting fair

All subsequent fence of wrong returned by wrong

I' the matrimonial thrust and parryat least

Had followed on equal terms. Butas it chanced

One party had the advantagesaw the cheat

Of the other first and kept its own concealed:

And the luck o' the first discovery fellbeside

To the least adroit and self-possessed o' the pair.

'Twas foolish Pietro and his wife saw first

The nobleman was pennilessand screamed

'We are cheated!'

Such unprofitable noise

Angers at all times: but when those who plague

Do it from inside your own house and home

Gnats which yourself have closed the curtain round

Noise goes too near the brain and makes you mad.

The gnats sayGuido used the candle-flame

Unfairly- worsened that first bad of his

By practice of all kind of cruelty

To oust them and suppress the wail and whine-

That speedily he so scared and bullied them

Fain were theylong before five months were out

To beg him grantfrom what was once their wealth

Just so much as would help them back to Rome

Wherewhen they had finished paying the last doit

O' the dowrythey might beg from door to door.

So say the Comparini- as if it were

In pure resentment for this worse than bad

That then Violantefeeling conscience prick

Confessed her substitution of the child

Whence all the harm came- and that Pietro first

Bethought him of advantage to himself

I' the deedas part revengepart remedy

For all miscalculation in the pact.

ON THE other hand 'Not so!' Guido retorts-

'I am the wrongedsolelyfrom first to last

Who gave the dignity I engaged to give

Which wasiscannot but continue gain.

My being poor was a bye-circumstance

Miscalculated piece of untowardness

Might end to-morrow did heaven's windows ope

Or uncle die and leave me his estate.

You should have put up with the minor flaw

Getting the main prize of the jewel. If wealth

Not rankhad been prime object in your thoughts

Why not have taken the butcher's sonthe boy

O' the baker or candlestick-maker? In all the rest

It was yourselves broke compact and played false

And made a life in common impossible.

Show me the stipulation of our bond

That you should make your profit of being inside

My houseto hustle and edge me out o' the same

First make a laughing-stock of mine and me

Then round us in the ears from morn to night

(Because we show wry faces at your mirth)

That you are robbedstarvedbeaten and what not!

You fled a hell of your own lighting-up

Pay for your own miscalculation too:

You thought nobilitygained at any price

Would suit and satisfy- find the mistake

And now retaliatenot on yourselvesbut me.

And how? By telling mei' the face of the world

I it is have been cheated all this while

Abominably and irreparably- my name

Given to a cur-cast mongrela drab's brat

A beggar's bye-blow- thus depriving me

Of what yourselves allege the whole and sole

Aim on my part i' the marriage- money to-wit.

This thrust I have to parry by a guard

Which leaves me open to a counter-thrust

On the other side- no way but there's a pass

Clean through me. If I proveas I hope to do

There's not one truth in this your odious tale

O' the buyingsellingsubstituting- prove

Your daughter was and is your daughter- well

And her dowry hers and therefore mine- what then?

Whywhere's the appropriate punishment for this

Enormous lie hatched for mere malice' sake

To ruin me? Is that a wrong or no?

And if I try revenge for remedy

Can I well make it strong and bitter enough?'

I ANTICIPATE however- only ask

Which of the two here sinned most? A nice point!

Which brownness is least black- decide who can

Wager-by-battle-of-cheating! What do you say

Highness? Supposeyour Excellencywe leave

The question at this stageproceed to the next

Both parties step outfight their prize upon

In the eye o' the world?

They brandish law 'gainst law;

The grinding of such bladeseach parry of each

Throws terrible sparks offover and above the thrusts

And makes more sinister the fightto the eye

Than the very wounds that follow. Beside the tale

Which the Comparini have to re-assert

They needs must writeprintpublish all abroad

The straitnesses of Guido's household life-

The petty nothings we bear privately

But break down under when fools flock around.

What is it all to the facts o' the couple's case

How helps it prove Pompilia not their child

If Guido's motherbrotherkith and kin

Fare illlie hardlack clotheslack firelack food?

That's one more wrong than needs.

On the other hand

Guido- whose cue is to dispute the truth

O' the talereject the shame it throws on him-

He may retaliatefight his foe in turn

And welcomewe allow. Aybut he can't!

He's at homeonly acts by proxy here:

Law may meet law- but all the gibes and jeers

The superfluity of naughtiness

Those libels on his House- how reach at them?

Two hateful facesgrinning all a-glow

Not only make parade of spoil they filched

But foul him from the height of a toweryou see.

Unluckily temptation is at hand-

To take revenge on a trifle overlooked

A pet lamb they have left in reach outside

Whose first bleatwhen he plucks the wool away

Will strike the grinners grave: his wife remains

Whofour months earliersome thirteen years old

Never a mile away from mother's house

And petted to the height of her desire

Was told one morning that her fate was come

She must be married- just asa month before

Her mother told her she must comb her hair

And twist her curls into one knot behind.

These fools forgot their pet lambfed with flowers

Then 'ticed as usual by the bit of cake

Out of the bower into the butchery.

Plague herhe plagues them threefold: but how plague?

The world may have its word to say to that:

You can't do some things with impunity.

What remains... wellit is an ugly thought...

But that he drive herself to plague herself-

Herself disgrace herself and so disgrace

Who seek to disgrace Guido?

There's the clue

To what else seems gratuitously vile

Ifas is saidfrom this time forth the rack

Was tried upon Pompilia: 'twas to wrench

Her limbs into exposure that brings shame.

The aim o' the cruelty being so crueller still

That cruelty almost grows compassion's self

Could one attribute it to mere return

O' the parents' outragewrong avenging wrong.

They see in this a deeper deadlier aim

Not to vex just a body they held dear

But blacken too a soul they boasted white

And show the world their saint in a lover's arms

No matter how driven thither- so they say.

ON THE other handso much is easily said

And Guido lacks not an apologist.

The pair had nobody but themselves to blame

Being selfish beasts throughoutno lessno more:

-Cared for themselvestheir supposed goodnought else

And brought about the marriage; good proved bad

As little they cared for her its victim- nay

Meant she should stay behind and take the chance

If haply they might wriggle themselves free.

They baited their own hook to catch a fish

With this poor wormfailed o' the prizeand then

Sought how to unbait tacklelet worm float

Or sinkamuse the monster while they 'scaped.

Under the best stars Hymen brings above

Had all been honesty on either side

A common sincere effort to good end

Stillthis would prove a difficult problemPrince!

Givena fair wifeaged thirteen years

A husband poorcare-bittensorrow-sunk

Littlelong-nosedbush-beardedlantern-jawed

Forty-six-years full- place the two grown one

Shecut off sheer from every natural aid

In a strange town with no familiar face-

Hein his own parade-ground or retreat

As need werefree from challengemuch less check

To an irritateddisappointed will-

How evolve happiness from such a match?

'Twere hard to serve up a congenial dish

Out of these ill-agreeing morselsDuke

By the best exercise of the cook's craft

Best interspersion of spicesalt and sweet!

But let two ghastly scullions concoct mess

With brimstonepitchvitriol and devil's-dung-

Throw in abuse o' the manhis body and soul

Kithkin and generationshake all slab

At RomeArezzofor the world to nose

Then end by publishingfor fiend's arch-prank

Thatover and above sauce to the meat's self

Whyeven the meatbedevilled thus in dish

Was never a pheasant but a carrion-crow-

Princewhat will then the natural loathing be?

What wonder if this?- the compound plague o' the pair

Pricked Guido- not to take the course they hoped

That issubmit him to their statement's truth

Accept its obvious promise of relief

And thrust them out of doors the girl again

Since the girl's dowry would not enter there

-Quit of the one if baulked of the other: no!

Rather did rage and hate so work in him

Their product proved the horrible conceit

That he should plot and plan and bring to pass

His wife mightof her own free will and deed

Relieve him of her presenceget her gone

And yet leave all the dowry safe behind

Confirmed his own henceforward past dispute

While blotting outas by a belch of hell

Their triumph in her misery and death.

YOU seethe man was Aretinehad touch

O' the subtle air that breeds the subtle wit;

Was noble tooof old blood thrice-refined

That shrinks from clownish coarseness in disgust:

Allow that such an one may take revenge

You don't expect he'll catch up stone and fling

Or try cross-buttockor whirl quarter-staff?

Instead of the honest drubbing clowns bestow

When out of temper at the dinner spoilt

On meddling mother-in-law and tiresome wife-

Substitute for the clown a nobleman

And you have Guidopractising'tis said

Unmitigably from the very first

The finer vengeance: thisthey saythe fact

O' the famous letter shows- the writing traced

At Guido's instance by the timid wife

Over the pencilled words himself writ first-

Wherein shewho could neither write nor read

Was made unblushingly declare a tale

To the brotherthe Abate then in Rome

How her putative parents had impressed

On their departuretheir enjoinment; bade

'We being safely arrived herefollowyou!

Poison your husbandrobset fire to all

And then by means o' the gallant you procure

With easeby helpful eye and ready tongue

The brave youth ready to daredo and die

You shall run off and merrily reach Rome

Where we may live like flies in honey-pot:'-

Such being exact the programme of the course

Imputed her as carried to effect.

THEY also say- to keep her straight therein

All sort of torture was piledpain on pain

On either side Pompilia's path of life

Built round about and over against by fear

Circumvallated month by monthand week

By weekand day by dayand hour by hour

Closecloser and yet closer still with pain

No outlet from the encroaching pain save just

Where stood one saviour like a piece of heaven

Hell's arms would strain round but for this blue gap.

Shethey say furtherfirst tried every chink

Every imaginable break i' the fire

As way of escape: ran to the Commissary

Who bade her not malign his friend her spouse;

Flung herself thrice at the Archbishop's feet

Where three times the Archbishop let her lie

Spend her whole sorrow and sob full heart forth

And then took up the slight load from the ground

And bore it back for husband to chastise-

Mildly of course- but natural right is right.

So went she slipping ever yet catching at help

Missing the high till come to lowest and last

No more than a certain friar of mean degree

Who heard her story in confessionwept

Crossed himselfshowed the man within the monk.

'Thenwill you save meyou the one i' the world?

I cannot even write my woesnor put

My prayer for help in words a friend may read-

I no more own a coin than have an hour

Free of observance- I was watched to church

Am watched nowshall be watched back presently-

How buy the skill of scribe i' the market-place?

Pray youwrite down and send whatever I say

O' the need I have my parents take me hence!'

The good man rubbed his eyes and could not choose-

Let her dictate her letter in such a sense

That parentsto save breaking down a wall

Might lift her over: she went backheaven in her heart.

Then the good man took counsel of his couch

Woke and thought twicethe second thought the best:

'Here am Ifoolish body that I be

Caught all but pushingteachingwho but I

My betters their plain duty- whatI dare

Help a case the Archbishop would not help

Mend mattersperadventureGod loves mar?

What hath the married life but strifes and plagues

For proper dispensation? So a fool

Once touched the ark- poor Hophni that I am!

Oh married onesmuch rather should I bid

In patience all of ye possess your souls!

This life is brief and troubles die with it:

Where were the prick to soar up homeward else?'

So sayinghe burnt the letter he had writ

Said Ave for her intentionin its place

Took snuff and comfortand had done with all.

Then the grim arms stretched yet a little more

And each touched eachall but one streak i' the midst

Whereat stood Caponsacchiwho cried'This way

Out by me! Hesitate one moment more

And the fire shuts out me and shuts in you!

Here my hand holds you life out!' Whereupon

She clasped the handwhich closed on hers and drew

Pompilia out o' the circle now complete.

Whose fault or shame but Guido's?- ask her friends.

BUT then this is the wife's- Pompilia's tale-

Eve's... nonot Eve'ssince Eveto speak the truth

Was hardly fallen (our candour might pronounce)

So much of paradisal natureEve's

When simply saying in her own defence

'The serpent tempted me and I did eat.'

Her daughters ever since prefer to urge

'Adam so starved me I was fain accept

The apple any serpent pushed my way.'

What an elaborate theory have we here

Ingeniously nursed uppretentiously

Brought forthpushed forward amid trumpet-blast

To account for the thawing of an icicle

Show us there needed AEtna vomit flame

Ere run the crystal into dew-drops! Else

Howunless hell broke loose to cause the step

How could a married lady go astray?

Bless the fools! And 'tis just this way they are blessed

And the world wags still- because fools are sure

-Ohnot of my wife nor your daughter! No!

But of their own: the case is altered quite.

Look now- last weekthe lady we all love-

Daughter o' the couple we all venerate

Wife of the husband we all cap before

Mother o' the babes we all breathe blessings on-

Was caught in converse with a negro page.

Hell thawed that icicleelse 'Why was it-

Why?' asked and echoed the fools. 'Becauseyou fools-'

So did the dame's self answershe who could

With that fine candour only forthcoming

When 'tis no odds whether withheld or no-

'Because my husband was the saint you say

And- with that childish goodnessabsurd faith

Stupid self-satisfactionyou so praise-

Saint to youinsupportable to me.

Had he- instead of calling me fine names

Lucretia and Susanna and so forth

And curtaining Corregio carefully

Lest I be taught that Leda had two legs-

-But once never so little tweaked my nose

For peeping through my fan at Carnival

Confessing thereby "I have no easy task-

I need use all my powers to hold you mine

And then- why 'tis so doubtful if they serve

That- take thisas an earnest of despair!"

Whywe were quits- I had wiped the harm away

Thought "The man fears me!" and foregone revenge.'

We must not want all this elaborate work

To solve the problem why young fancy-and-flesh

Slips from the dull side of a spouse in years

Betakes it to the breast of brisk-and-bold

Whose love-scrapes furnish talk for all the town!

ACCORDINGLYone word on the other side

Tips over the piled-up fabric of a tale.

Guido says- that isalwayshis friends say-

It is unlikely from the wickedness

That any man treat any woman so.

The letter in question was her very own

Unprompted and unaided: she could write-

As able to write as ready to sinor free

When there was dangerto deny both facts.

He bids you markherself from first to last

Attributes all the so-styled torture just

To jealousy- jealousy of whom but just

This very Caponsacchi! How suits here

This with the other alleged motivePrince?

Would Guido make a terror of the man

He meant should tempt the womanas they charge?

Do you fright your hare that you may catch your hare?

Consider toothe charge was made and met

At the proper time and place where proofs were plain-

Heard patiently and disposed of thoroughly

By the highest powerspossessors of most light

The Governorfor the lawand the Archbishop

For the gospel: which acknowledged primacies

'Tis impudently pleadedhe could warp

Into a tacit partnership with crime-

He being the whilebelieve their own account

Impotentpenniless and miserable!

He further asks- Dukenote the knotty point!-

How he- concede him skill to play such part

And drive his wife into a gallant's arms-

Could bring the gallant to play his part too

And stand with arms so opportunely wide?

How bring this Caponsacchi- with whomfriends

And foes alike agreethroughout his life

He never interchanged a civil word

Nor lifted courteous cap to- how bend him

To such observancy of beck and call

-To undertake this strange and perilous feat

For the good of Guidousingas the lure

Pompilia whomhimself and she avouch

He had nor spoken with nor seenindeed

Beyond sight in a public theatre

When she wrote letters (she that could not write!)

The importunate shamelessly-protested love

Which brought himthough reluctantto her feet

And forced on him the plunge whichhowsoe'er

She might swim up i' the whirlmust bury him

Under abysmal black: a priest contrive

No mitigable amour to be hushed up

But open flight and noonday infamy?

Try and concoct defence for such revolt!

Take the wife's tale as truesay she was wronged-

Prayin what rubric of the breviary

Do you find it registered the part of a priest

That to right wrongs he skip from the church-door

Go journeying with a woman that's a wife

And be pursuedo'ertaken and captured... how?

In a lay-dressplaying the sentinel

Where the wife sleeps (says he who best should know)

And sleepingsleeplessboth have spent the night!

Could no one else be found to serve at need-

No woman- or if manno safer sort

Than this not well-reputed turbulence?

Thenlook into his own account o' the case!

Hebeing the stranger and astonished one

Yet received protestations of her love

From lady neither known nor cared about:

Loveso protestedbred in him disgust

After the wonder- or incredulity

Such impudence seeming impossible.

Butsoon assured such impudence might be

When he had seen with his own eyes at last

Letters thrown down to him i' the very street

From behind lattice where the lady lurked

And read their passionate summons to her side-

Why thena thousand thoughts swarmed up and in-

How he had seen her oncea moment's space

Observed she was so young and beautiful

Heard everywhere report she suffered much

From a jealous husband thrice her age- in short

There flashed the proprietyexpediency

Of treatingtrying might they come to terms

-At all eventsgranting the interview

Prayed forand so adapted to assist

Decision as to whether he advance

Stand or retirein his benevolent mood.

Therefore the interview befell at length;

And at this one and only interview

He saw the sole and single course to take-

Bade her dispose of himheadheart and hand

Did her behest and braved the consequence

Not for the natural endthe love of man

For woman whether love be virtue or vice

Butplease youaltogether for Pity's sake-

Pity of innocence and helplessness!

And how did he assure himself of both?

Had he been the house-inmatevisitor

Eye-witness of the described martyrdom

Socompetent to pronounce its remedy

Ere rush on such extreme and desperate course

Involving such enormity of harm

Moreoverto the husband judged thusdoomed

And damned without a word in his defence?

But no- the truth was felt by instinct here!

-Process which saves a world of trouble and time

And there's his story: what do you say to it

Trying its truth by your own instinct too

Since that's to be the expeditious mode?

'And nowdo hear my version' Guido cries:

'I accept argument and inference both.

It would indeed have been miraculous

Had such a confidency sprung to birth

With no more fanning from acquaintanceship

Than here avowed by my wife and this priest.

Onlyit did not: you must substitute

The old stale unromantic way of fault

The commonplace adventuremere intrigue

In the prose form with the unpoetic tricks

Cheatings and lies: they used the hackney chair

Satan jaunts forth withshabby and serviceable

No gilded jimcrack-novelty from below

To bowl you along thitherswift and sure.

That same officious go-betweenthe wench

That gave and took the letters of the two

Now offers self and service back to me:

Bears testimony to visits night by night

When all was safethe husband far and away-

To many a timely slipping out at large

By light o' the morning-starere he should wake.

And when the fugitives were found at last

Whywith them were found alsoto belie

What protest they might make of innocence

All documents yet wantingif need were

To establish guilt in themdisgrace in me-

The chronicle o' the converse from its rise

To culmination in this outrage: read!

Letters from wife to priestfrom priest to wife-

Here they areread and say where they chime in

With the other talesuperlative purity

O' the pair of saints! I stand or fall by these.'

BUT then on the other side again- how say

The pair of saints? That not one word is theirs-

No syllable o' the batch or writ or sent

Or yet received by either of the two.

'Found' says the priest'because he needed them

Failing all other proofsto prove our fault:

Sohere they arejust as is natural.

Oh yes- we had our missiveseach of us!

Not thesebut to the full as vileno doubt:

Hers as from me- she could not readso burnt-

Mine as from her- I burnt because I read.

Who forged and found them? Cui profuerint!'

(I take the phrase out of your Highness' mouth)

'He who would gain by her fault and my fall

The tricksterschemer and pretender- he

Whose whole career was he entailing lie

Sought to be sealed truth by the worst lie last!'

GUIDO rejoins- 'Did the other end o' the tale

Match this beginning! 'Tis alleged I prove

A murderer at the enda man of force

Promptindiscriminateeffectual: good!

Then what need an this trifling woman's-work

Letters and embassies and weak intrigue

When will and power were mine to end at once

Safely and surely? Murder had come first

Not last with such a manassure yourselves!

The silent acquettastilling at command-

A drop a day i' the wine or soupthe dose-

The shattering beam that breaks above the bed

And beats out brainswith nobody to blame

Except the wormy age which eats even oak-

Naythe staunch steel or trusty cord- who cares

I' the blind old palacea pitfall at each step

With none to seemuch more to interpose

O' the twothree creeping house-dog-servant-things

Born mine and bred mine?- had I willed gross death

I had found nearer paths to thrust him prey

Than this that goes meandering here and there

Through half the world and calls down in its course

Notice and noise- hatevengeanceshould it fail

Derision and contempt though it succeed!

Moreoverwhat o' the future son and heir?

The unborn babe about to be called mine-

What end in heaping all this shame on him

Were I indifferent to my own black share?

Would I have tried these crookednessessay

Willing and able to effect the straight?'

'Aywould you!'- one may hear the priest retort

'Being as you arei' the stocka man of guile

And ruffianism but an added graft.

Youa born cowardtry a coward's arms

Trick and chicane- and only when these fail

Does violence followand like fox you bite

Caught out in Stealing. Alsothe disgrace

You hardly shrunk atwholly shrivelled her:

You plunged her thin white delicate hand i' the flame

Along with your coarse horny brutish fist

Held them a second therethen drew out both

-Yours roughed a littlehers ruined through and through.

Your hurt would heal forthwith at ointment's touch-

Namelysuccession to the inheritance

Which bolder crime had lost you: let things change

The birth o' the boy warrant the bolder crime

Whymurder was determineddared and done.

For me' the priest proceeds with his reply

'The look o' the thingthe chances of mistake

All were against me- thatI knew the first:

Butknowing also what my duty was

I did it: I must look to men more skilled

I' the reading hearts than ever was the world.'

HIGHNESSdecide! PronounceHer Excellency!

Or... even leave this argument in doubt

Account it a fit mattertaken up

With all its facesmanifold enough

To put upon- what fronts usthe next stage

Next legal process!- Guidoin pursuit

Coming up with the fugitives at the inn

Caused both to be arrested then and there

And sent to Rome for judgment on the case-

Thitherwith all his armoury of proofs

Betook himselfand there we'll meet him now

Waiting the further issue.

Here some smile

'And never let him henceforth dare to plead-

Of all pleas and excuses in the world

For any deed hereafter to be done-

His irrepressible wrath at honour's wound!

Passion and madness irrepressible?

WhyCount and cavalierthe husband comes

And catches foe i' the very act of shame:

There's man to man- nature must have her way-

We look he should have cleared things on the spot.

Yesthenindeed- even tho' it prove he erred-

Though the ambiguous first appearancemount

Of solid injurymelt soon to mist

Still- had he slain the lover and the wife-

Orsince she was a woman and his wife

Slain himbut stript her naked to the skin

Or at best left no more of an attire

Than patch sufficient to pin paper to

Some one love-letterinfamy and all

As passport to the Paphos fit for such

Safe-conduct to her natural home the stews-

Good! One had recognized the power o' the pulse.

But when he standsthe stock-fish- sticks to law-

Offers the hole in his heartall fresh and warm

For scrivener's pen to poke and play about-

Can standcan starecan tell his beads perhaps

Ohlet us hear no syllable o' the rage!

Such rage were a convenient afterthought

For one who would have shown his teeth belike

Exhibited unbridled rage enough

Had but the priest been foundas was to hope

In sergenot silkwith crucifixnot sword:

Whereas the grey innocuous grubof yore

Had hatched a hornettickle to the touch

The priest was metamorphosed into knight.

And even the timid wifewhose cue was- shriek

Bury her brow beneath his trampling foot-

She too sprang at him like a pythoness:

Sogulp down ragepassion must be postponed

Calm be the word! Wellour word is- we brand

This part o' the businesshowsoever the rest

Befall.'

'Nay' interpose as prompt his friends-

'This is the world's way! So you adjudge reward

To the forbearance and legality

Yourselves begin by inculcating- ay

Exacting from us all with knife at throat!

This one wrong more you add to wrong's amount-

You publish allwith the kind comment here

"Its victim was too cowardly for revenge."'

Make it your own case- you who stand apart!

The husband wakes one morn from heavy sleep

With a taste of poppy in his mouth- rubs eyes

Finds his wife flownhis strong box ransacked too

Follows as he best canovertakes i' the end.

You bid him use his privilege: wellit seems

He's scarce cool-blooded enough for the right move-

Does not shoot when the game were surebut stands

Bewildered at the critical minute- since

He has the first flash of the fact alone

To judge fromact withnot the steady lights

Of after-knowledge- yours who stand at ease

To try conclusions: he's in smother and smoke

You outsidewith explosion at an end:

The sulphur may be lightning or a squib-

He'll know in a minutebut till thenhe doubts.

Back from what you know to what he knew not!

Hear the priest's lofty 'I am innocent'

The wife's as resolute 'You are guilty!' Come!

Are you not staggered?- pauseand you lose the move!

Nought left you but a low appeal to law

'Coward' tied to your tail for compliment!

Another consideration: have it your way!

Admit the worst: his courage failed the Count

He's cowardly like the best o' the burgesses

He's grown incorporate with- a very cur

Kick him from out your circle by all means!

Whytrundled down this reputable stair

Stillthe Church-door lies wide to take him in

And the Court-porch also: in he sneaks to each-

'YesI have lost my honour and my wife

Andbeing moreover an ignoble hound

I dare not jeopardize my life for them!'

Religion and Law lean forward from their chairs

'Well donethou good and faithful servant!' Ay

Not only applaud him that he scorned the world

But punish should he dare do otherwise.

If the case be clear or turbid- you must say!

THUSanyhowit mounted to the stage

In the law-courts- let's see clearly from this point!-

Where the priest tells his story true or false

And the wife her storyand the husband his

All with result as happy as before.

The courts would nor condemn nor yet acquit

Thisthat or the otherin so distinct a sense

As end the strife to either's absolute loss:

Pronouncedin place of something definite

'Each of the partieswhether goat or sheep

I' the mainhas wool to show and hair to hide.

Each has brought somehow troubleis somehow cause

Of pains enough- even though no worse were proved.

Here is a husbandcannot rule his wife

Without provoking her to scream and scratch

And scour the fields- carelesslyit may be:

Here is that wife- who makes her sex our plague

Wedlockour bugbear- perhaps with cause enough:

And here is the truant priest o' the trioworst

Or best- each quality being conceivable.

Let us impose a little mulct on each.

We punish youth in state of pupilage

Who talk at hours when youth is bound to sleep

Whether the prattle turn upon Saint Rose

Or Donna Olimpia of the Vatican:

'Tis talktalked wisely or unwisely talked

I' the dormitory where to talk at all

Transgressesand is mulct: as here we mean.

For the wife- let her betake herselffor rest

After her runto a House of Convertites-

Keep thereas good as real imprisonment:

Being sick and tiredshe will recover so.

For the priestspritely strayer out of bounds

Who made Arezzo hot to hold him- Rome

Profits by his withdrawal from the scene.

Let him be relegate to Civita

Circumscribed by its bounds till matters mend:

There he at least lies out o' the way of harm

From foes- perhaps from the too friendly fair.

And finally for the husbandwhose rash rule

Has but itself to blame for this ado-

If he be vexed thatin our judgments dealt

He fails obtain what he accounts his right

Let him go comforted with the thoughtno less

Thatturn each sentence howsoever he may

There's satisfaction to extract therefrom.

Fordoes he wish his wife proved innocent?

Wellshe's not guiltyhe may safely urge

Has missed the stripes dishonest wives endure-

This being a fatherly pat o' the cheekno more.

Does he wish her guilty? Were she otherwise

Would she be locked upset to say her prayers

Prevented intercourse with the outside world

And that suspected priest in banishment

Whose portion is a further help i' the case?

Ohayyou all of you want the other thing

The extreme of lawsome verdict neatcomplete-

Eitherthe whole o' the dowry in your poke

With full release from the false wifeto boot

And headinghanging for the priestbeside-

Orcontraryclaim freedom for the wife

Repayment of each penny paid her spouse

Amends for the pastrelease for the future! Such

Is wisdom to the children of this world;

But we've no mindwe children of the light

To miss the advantage of the golden mean

And push things to the steel point.' Thus the courts.

IS IT settled so far? Settled or disturbed

Console yourselves: 'tis like... an instancenow!

You've seen the puppetsof Place Navonaplay-

Punch and his mate- how threats passblows are dealt

And a crisis comes: the crowd or clap or hiss

Accordingly as disposed for man or wife-

When down the actors duck awhile perdue

Donning what novel rag-and-feather trim

Best suits the next adventurenew effect:

And- by the time the mob is on the move

With something like a judgment pro and con-

There's a whistleup again the actors pop

In t' other tatter with fresh-tinseled staves

To re-engage in one last worst fight more

Shall showwhat you thought tragedy was farce.

Notethat the climax and the crown of things

Invariably isthe devil appears himself

Armed and accoutredhorns and hoofs and tail!

Just sonor otherwise it proved- you'll see:

Move to the murdernever mind the rest!

GUIDOat such a general duck-down

I' the breathing-space- of wife to convent here

Priest to his relegationand himself

To Arezzo- had resigned his part perforce

To brother Abatewho bustleddid his best

Retrieved things somewhatmanaged the three suits-

Sinceit should seemthere were three suits-at-law

Behoved him look tostilllest bad grow worse:

First civil suit- the one the parents brought

Impugning the legitimacy of his wife

Affirming thence the nullity of her rights:

This was before the Rota- Molines

That's judge theremade that notable decree

Which partly leaned to Guidoas I said-

But Pietro had appealed against the same

To the very court will judge what we judge now-

Tommati and his fellows- Suit the first.

Next civil suit- demand on the wife's part

Of separation from the husband's bed

On plea of cruelty and risk to life-

Claims restitution of the dowry paid

Immunity from paying any more:

This secondthe Vicegerent has to judge.

Third and last suit- this timea criminal one-

Answer toand protection fromboth these-

Guido's complaint of guilt against his wife

In the Tribunal of the Governor

Venturinialso judge of the present cause.

Three suits of all importance plaguing him

Beside a little private enterprise

Of Guido's- essay at a shorter cut.

For Paoloknowing the right way at Rome

Hadeven while superintending these three suits

I' the regular wayeach at its proper court

Ingeniously made interest with the Pope

To set such tedious regular forms aside

Andacting the supreme and ultimate judge

Declare for the husband and against the wife.

Wellat such crisis and extreme of straits

The man at baybuffeted in this wise

Happened the strangest accident of all.

'Then' sigh friends'the last feather broke his back

Made him forget all possible remedies

Save one- he rushed toas the sole relief

From horror and the abominable thing.'

'Or rather' laugh foes'then did there befall

The luckiest of conceivable events

Most pregnant with impunity for him

Which henceforth turned the flank of all attack

And bade him do his wickedest and worst.'

-The wife's withdrawal from the Convertites

Visit to the villa where her parents lived

And birth there of his babe. Divergence here!

I simply take the factsask what they show.

FIRST comes this thunderclap of a surprise:

Then follow all the signs and silences

Premonitory of earthquake. Paolo first

Vanishedwas swept off somewherelost to Rome:

(Wells dry upwhile the sky is sunny and blue.)

Then Guido girds himself for enterprise

Hies to Vittianocounsels with his steward

Comes to terms with four peasants young and bold

And Starts for Rome the Holyreaches her

At very holiestfor 'tis Christmas Eve

And makes straight for the Abate's dried-up font

The lodge where Paolo ceased to work the pipes.

And thenrest takenobservation made

And plan completedall in a grim week

The five proceed in a bodyreach the place

-Pietro'sby the Paolinasilentlone

And stupefied by the propitious snow-

At one in the evening: knock: a voice 'Who's there?'

'Friends with a letter from the priest your friend.'

At the doorstraight smiles old Violante's self.

She falls- her son-in-law stabs through and through

Reaches thro' her at Pietro- 'With your son

This is the way to settle suitsgood sire!'

He bellows 'Mercy for heavennot for earth!

Leave to confess and save my sinful soul

Then do your pleasure on the body of me!'

-'Nayfathersoul with body must take its chance!'

He presently got his portion and lay still.

And lastPompilia rushes here and there

Like a dove among lightnings in her brake

Falls also: Guido'sthis last husband's-act.

He lifts her by the long dishevelled hair

Holds her away at arms' length with one hand

While the other tries if life come from the mouth-

Looks out his whole heart's hate on the shut eyes

Draws a deep satisfied breath'So- dead at last!'

Throws down the burthen on dead Pietro's knees

And ends all with 'Let us awaymy boys!'

ANDas they left by one doorin at the other

Tumbled the neighbours- for the shrieks had pierced

To the mill and the grangethis cottage and that shed.

Soon followed the Public Force; pursuit began

Though Guido had the start and chose the road:

Sothat same night was hewith the other four

Overtaken near Baccano- where they sank

By the way-sidein some shelter meant for beasts

And now lay heaped togethernuzzling swine

Each wrapped in bloody cloakeach grasping still

His unwiped weaponsleeping all the same

The sleep o' the just- a journey of twenty miles

Bringing just and unjust to a levelyou see.

The only one i' the world that suffered aught

By the whole night's toil and troubleflight and chase

Was just the officer who took themHead

O' the Public Force- Patrizjzealous soul

Whohaving duty to sustain the flesh

Got heatedcaught a fever and so died:

A warning to the over-vigilant

-Virtue in a chafe should change her linen quick

Lest pleurisy get start of providence.

(That's for the Cardinaland toldI think!)

WELLthey bring back the company to Rome.

Says Guido'By your leaveI fain would ask

How you found out 'twas I who did the deed?

What put you on my tracea foreigner

Supposed in Arezzo- and assuredly safe

Except for an oversight: who told youpray?'

'Whynaturally your wife!' Down Guido drops

O' the horse he rode- they have to steady and stay

At either side the brute that bore himbound

So strange it seemed his wife should live and speak!

She had prayed- at least so people tell you now-

For but one thing to the Virgin for herself

Not simplyas did Pietro 'mid the stabs-

Time to confess and get her own soul saved-

But time to make the truth apparenttruth

For God's sakelest men should believe a lie:

Which seems to have been about the single prayer

She ever put upthat was granted her.

With this hope in her headof telling truth-

Being familiarized with painbeside-

She bore the stabbing to a certain pitch

Without a useless crywas flung for dead

On Pietro's lapand so attained her point.

Her friends subjoin this- have I done with them?-

And cite the miracle of continued life

(She was not dead when I arrived just now)

As attestation to her probity.

DOES it strike your Excellency? Whyyour Highness

The self-command and even the final prayer

Our candour must acknowledge explainable

As easily by the consciousness of guilt.

Sowhen they add that her confession runs

She was of wifehood one white innocence

In thoughtwordactfrom first of her short life

To last of it; prayingi' the face of death

That God forgive her other sins- not this

She is charged with and must die forthat she failed

Anyway to her husband: while thereon

Comments the old Religious- 'So much good

Patience beneath enormity of ill

I hear to my confusionwoe is me

Sinner that I standshamed in the walk and gait

I have practised and grown old inby a child!'-

Guido's friends shrug the shoulder'Just this same

Prodigious absolute calm in the last hour

Confirms us- being the natural result

Of a life which proves consistent to the close.

Having braved heaven and deceived earth throughout

She braves still and deceives stillgains thereby

Two endsshe prizes beyond earth or heaven:

First sets her lover freeimperilled sore

By the new turn things take: he answers yet

For the part he played: they have summoned him indeed:

The past ripped uphe may be punished still:

What better way of saving him than this?

Then- thus she dies revenged to the uttermost

On Guidodrags him with her in the dark

The lower still the betterdo you doubt?

Thustwo waysdoes she love her love to the end

And hate her hate- deathhell is no such price

To pay for these- lovers and haters hold.'

But there's another parry for the thrust.

'Confession' cry folks- 'a confessionthink!

Confession of the moribund is true!'

Which of themmy wise friends? This public one

Or the private other we shall never know?

The private may contain- your casuists teach-

The acknowledgment ofand the penitence for

That other public oneso people say.

However it be- we trench on delicate ground

Her Eminence is peeping o'er the cards-

Can one find nothing in behalf of this

Catastrophe? Deaf folks accuse the dumb!

You criticize the drunken reelfool's-speech

Maniacal gesture of the man- we grant!

But who poured poison in his cupwe ask?

Recall the list of his excessive wrongs

First cheated in his wiferobbed by her kin

Rendered anon the laughing-stock o' the world

By the storytrue or falseof his wife's birth-

The last seal publicly apposed to shame

By the open flight of wife and priest- whySirs

Step out of Rome a furlongwould you know

What another guess tribunal than ours here

Mere worldly Court without the help of grace

Thinks of just that one incident o' the flight?

Guido preferred the same complaint before

The court at Arezzobar of the Granduke-

In virtue of it being Tuscany

Where the offence had rise and flight began-

Self-same complaint he made in the sequel here

Where the offence grew to the fullthe flight

Ended: offence and flightone fad judged twice

By two distinct tribunals- what result?

There was a sentence passed at the same time

By Arezzo and confirmed by the Granduke

Which nothing baulks of swift and sure effect

But absence of the guilty(flight to Rome

Frees them from Tuscan jurisdiction now)

-Condemns the wife to the opprobrious doom

Of all whom law just lets escape from death.

The StincheHouse of Punishmentfor life-

That's what the wife deserves in Tuscany:

Hereshe deserves- remitting with a smile

To her father's housemain object of the flight!

The thief presented with the thing he steals!

AT THIS discrepancy of judgments- mad

The man took on himself the officejudged;

And the only argument against the use

O' the law he thus took into his own hands

Is... whatI ask you?- thatrevenging wrong

He did not revenge soonerkill at first

Whom he killed last! That is the final charge.

Sooner? What's soon or late i' the case?- ask we.

A wound i' the flesh no doubt wants prompt redress;

It smarts a little to-daywell in a week

Forgotten in a month; or neveror nowrevenge!

But a wound to the soul? That rankles worse and worse.

Shall I comfort youexplaining- 'Not this once

But now it may be some five hundred times

I called you ruffianpandarliar and rogue:

The injury must be less by lapse of time?'

The wrong is a wrongone and immortal too

And that you bore it those five hundred times

Let it rankle unrevenged five hundred years

Is just five hundred wrongs the more and worse!

Menplagued this fashionget to explode this way

if left no other.

'But we left this man

Many another wayand there's his fault'

'Tis answered- 'He himself preferred our arm

O' the law to fight his battle with. No doubt

We did not open him an armoury

To pick and choose fromuseand then reject.

He tries one weapon and fails- he tries the next

And next: he flourishes wit and common sense

They fail him- he plies logic doughtily

It fails him too- thereondiscovers last

He has been blind to the combustibles-

That all the while he is a-glow with ire

Boiling with irrepressible rageand so

May try explosives and discard cold steel-

So hire assassinsplotplanexecute!

Is this the honest self-forgetting rage

We are called to pardon? Does the furious bull

Pick out four help-mates from the grazing herd

And journey with them over hill and dale

Till he find his enemy?'

What rejoinder? save

That friends accept our bull-similitude.

Bull-like- the indiscriminate slaughterrude

And reckless aggravation of revenge

Were all i' the way o' the brute who never once

Ceasesamid all provocation more

To bear in mind the first tormentorfirst

Giver o' the wound that goaded him to fight:

Andthough a dozen follow and reinforce

The aggressorwound in front and wound in flank

Continues undisturbedly pursuit

And only after prostrating his prize

Turns on the pettiermakes a general prey.

So Guido rushed against Violantefirst

Author of all his wrongsfons et origo

Malorum - increasingly drunk- which justice done

He finished with the rest. Do you blame a bull?

IN TRUTH you look as puzzled as ere I preached!

How is that? There are difficulties perhaps

On any suppositionand either side.

Each party wants too muchclaims sympathy

For its object of compassionmore than just.

Cry the wife's friends'O the enormous crime

Caused by no provocation in the world!'

'Was not the wife a little weak?'- inquire-

'Punished extravagantlyif you please

But meriting a little punishment?

One treated inconsideratelysay

Rather than one deserving not at all

Treatment and discipline o' the harsher sort?'

Nothey must have her purity itself

Quite angel- and her parents angels too

Of an aged sortimmaculateword and deed

At all eventsso seemingtill the fiend

Even Guidoby his follyforced from them

The untoward avowal of the trick o' the birth

Would otherwise be safe and secret now.

Whyhere you have the awfulest of crimes

For nothing! Hell broke loose on a butterfly!

A dragon born of rose-dew and the moon!

Yet here is the monster! Whyhe's a mere man-

Bornbred and brought up in the usual way.

His mother loves himstill his brothers stick

To the good fellow of the boyish games;

The Governor of his town knows and approves

The Archbishop of the place knows and assists:

Here he has Cardinal This to vouch for the past

Cardinal That to trust for the future- match

And marriage were a Cardinal's making- in short

What if a tragedy be acted here

Impossible for malice to improve

And innocent Guido with his innocent four

Be addedall fiveto the guilty three

That we of these last days be edified

With one full taste o' the justice of the world?

THE long and the short istruth is what I show:-

Undoubtedly no pains ought to be spared

To give the mob an inkling of our lights.

It seems unduly harsh to put the man

To the tortureas I hear the court intends

Though readiest way of twisting out the truth;

He is nobleand he may be innocent:

On the other handif they exempt the man

(As it is also said they hesitate

On the fair groundpresumptive guilt is weak

I' the case of nobility and privilege)-

What crime that ever wasever will be

Deserves the torture? Then abolish it!

You see the reduction ad absurdumSirs?

HER Excellency must pronouncein fine!

Whatshe prefers going and joining play?

Her Highness finds it lateintends retire?

I am of their mind: onlyall this talktalked

'Twas not for nothing that we talkedI hope?

Both know as much about itnowat least

As all Rome: no particular thanksI beg!

(You'll seeI have not so advanced myself

After my teaching the two idiots here!)

V: Count Guido Franceschini

THANKSSIRbutshould it please the reverend Court

I feel I can stand somehowhalf sit down

Without helpmake shift to even speakyou see

Fortified by the sip of... why'tis wine

Velletri- and not vinegar and gall

So changed and good the times grow! Thankskind Sir!

Ohbut one sip's enough! I want my head

To save my neckthere's work awaits me still.

How cautious and considerate... aieaieaie

Not your faultsweet Sir! Comeyou take to heart

An ordinary matter. Law is law.

Noblemen were exemptthe vulgar thought

From rackingbutsince law thinks otherwise

I have been put to the rack: all's over now

And neither wrist- what men styleout of joint:

If any harm be'tis the shoulder-blade

The left onethat seems wrong i' the socket- Sirs

Much could not happenI was quick to faint

Being past my prime of lifeand out of health.

In short I thank you- yesand mean the word.

Needs must the Court be slow to understand

How this quite novel form of taking pain

This getting tortured merely in the flesh

Amounts to almost an agreeable change

In my caseme fastidiousplied too much

With opposite treatmentused (forgive the joke)

To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine

Andin and out my heartthe play o' the probe.

Four years have I been operated on

I' the souldo you see- its tense or tremulous part-

My self-respectmy care for a good name

Pride in an old onelove of kindred- just

A motherbrotherssistersand the like

That looked up to my face when days were dim

And fancied they found light there- no one spot

Foppishly sensitivebut has paid its pang.

Thatand not this you now oblige me with

That was the Vigil-tormentif you please!

The poor old noble House that drew the rags

O' the Franceschini's once superb array

Close round herhoped to slink unchallenged by-

Pluck off these! Turn the drapery inside out

And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears!

Show men the lucklessnessthe improvidence

Of the easy-natured Count before this Count

The father I have some slight feeling for

Who let the world slidenor foresaw that friends

Then proud to cap and kiss the patron's shoe

Wouldwhen the purse he left held spider-webs

Properly push his child to wall one day!

Mimic the tetchy humourfurtive glance

And brow where half was furious half fatigued

O' the same son got to be of middle age

Soursaturnine- your humble servant here-

When things go cross and the young wifehe finds

Take to the window at a whistle's bid

And yet demurs thereonpreposterous fool!-

Whereat the worthies judge he wants advice

And beg to civilly ask what's evil here

Perhaps remonstrate on the habit they deem

He's given unduly toof beating her

...Ohsure he beats her- why says John so else

Who is cousin to George who is sib to Tecla's self

Who cooks the meal and combs the lady's hair?

What? 'Tis my wrist you merely dislocate

For the future when you mean me martyrdom?

-Let the old mother's economy alone

How the brocade-strips saved o' the seamy side

O' the wedding-gown buy raiment for a year?

-How she can dress and dish up- lordly dish

Fit for a dukelamb's head and purtenance-

With her proud handsfeast household so a week?

No word o' the wine rejoicing God and man

The less when three-parts water? ThenI say

A trifle of torture to the fleshlike yours

While soul is spared such foretaste of hell-fire

Is naught. But I curtail the catalogue

Through policy- a rhetorician's trick-

Because I would reserve some choicer points

O' the practicemore exactly parallel-

(Having an eye to climax) with what gift

Eventual grace the Court may have in store

I' the way of plague- my crown of punishments.

When I am hanged or headedtime enough

To prove the tenderness of only that

Mere headinghanging- not their counterpart

Not demonstration public and precise

That Ihaving married the mongrel of a drab

Am bound to grant that mongrel-bratmy wife

Her mother's birthright-licence as is just-

Let her sleep undisturbedi' the family style

Her sleep out in the embraces of a priest

Nor disallow their bastard as my heir!

Your sole mistake- dare I submit so much

To the reverend Court?- has been in all this pains

To make a stone roll down hill- rack and wrench

And rend a man to piecesall for what?

Why- make him ope mouth in his own defence

Show cause for what he has donethe irregular deed

(Since that he did itscarce dispute can be)

And clear his fame a littlebeside the luck

Of stopping even yetif possible

Discomfort to his flesh from noose or axe-

For thatout come the implements of law!

May it content my lords the gracious Court

To listen only half so patient-long

As I will in that sense profusely speak

And- fiethey shall not call in screws to help!

I killed Pompilia FranceschiniSirs;

Killed too the Comparinihusbandwife

Who called themselvesby a notorious lie

Her father and her mother to ruin me.

There's the irregular deed: you want no more

Than right interpretation of the same

And truth so far- am I to understand?

To that thenwith convenient speed- because

Now I consider- yesdespite my boast

There is an ailing in this omoplat

May clip my speech all too abruptly close

Whatever the good will in me. Now for truth!

I' THE name of the indivisible Trinity!

Will my lordsin the plenitude of their light

Weigh well that all this trouble has come on me

Through my persistent treading in the paths

Where I was trained to go- wearing that yoke

My shoulder was predestined to receive

Born to the hereditary stoop and crease?

NobleI recognized my nobler still

The Churchmy suzerain;- no mock-mistressshe;

The secular owned the spiritual: mates of mine

Have thrown their careless hoofs up at her call

'Forsake the clover and come drag my wain!'

There they go cropping: I protruded nose

To halterbent my back of docile beast

And now am whealedone wide wound all of me

For being found at the eleventh hour o' the day

Padding the mill-tracknot neck-deep in grass:

-My one faultI am stiffened by my work

-My one rewardI help the Court to smile!

I AM representative of a great line

One of the first of the old families

In Arezzoancientest of Tuscan towns.

When my worst foe is fain to challenge this

His worst exception runs- not first in rank

But secondnoble in the next degree

Only; not malice' self maligns me more.

Somy lord opposite has composedwe know

A marvel of a booksustains the point

That Francis boasts the primacy 'mid saints;

Yet not inaptly hath his argument

Obtained response from yon my other lord

In thesis published with the world's applause

-Rather 'tis Dominic such post befits:

Whyat the worstFrancis stays Francis still

Second in tank to Dominic it may be

Stillvery saintlyvery like our Lord;

And I at least descend from a Guido once

Homager to the Empirenought below-

Of which account as proof thatnone o' the line

Having a single gift beyond brave blood

Or able to do aught but givegivegive

In blood and brainin house and land and cash

Not get and garner as the vulgar may

We became poor as Francis or our Lord.

Be that as it likes youSirs- whenever it chanced

Myself grew capable anyway of remark

(Which was soon- penury makes wit premature)

This struck meI was poor who should be rich

Or pay that fault to the world which trifles not

When lineage lacks the flag yet lifts the pole:

Therefore I must make move forthwithtransfer

My stranded selfborn fish with gill and fin

Fit for the deep seanow left flap bare-backed

In slush and sanda show to crawlers vile

Reared of the low-tide and aright therein.

The enviable youth with the old name

Wide cheststout armssound brow and pricking veins

A heartful of desireman's natural load

A brainful of beliefthe noble's lot-

All this lifecramped and gaspinghigh and dry

I' the wave's retreat- the miserygood my lords

Which made you merriment at Rome of late-

It made me reasonrather- musedemand

-Why our bare dropping palacein the street

Where such-an-one whose grandfather sold tripe

Was adding to his purchased pile a fourth

Tall towercould hardly show a turret sound?

Why Countess Beatricewhose son I am

Cowered in the winter-time as she spun flax

Blew on the earthen basket of live ash

Instead of jaunting forth in coach and six

Like such-another widow who ne'er was wed?

I asked my fellowshow came this about?

'WhyJackthe suttler's childperhaps the camp's

Went to the warsfought sturdily- took a town

And got rewarded as was natural.

She of the coach and six- excuse me there!

Whydon't you know the story of her friend?

A clown dressed vines on somebody's estate

His boy recoiled from muckliked Latin more

Stuck to his pen and got to be a priest

Till one day... don't you mind that telling tract

Against Molinosthe old Cardinal wrote?

He penned and dropped it in the patron's desk

Whodeep in thought and absent much of mind

Licensed the thingallowed it for his own;

Quick came promotion- suum cuiqueCount!

Ohhe can pay for coach and sixbe sure!'

'-Welllet me godo likewise: war's the word-

That way the Franceschini worked at first

I'll take my turntry soldiership.'- 'Whatyou?

The eldest son and heir and prop o' the house

So do you see your duty? Here's your post

Hard by the hearth and altar. (Roam from roof

This youngsterplay the gipsy out of doors

And who keeps kith and kin that fall on us?)

Stand faststick tightconserve your gods at home!'

'-Well thenthe quiet coursethe contrary trade!

We had a cousin amongst us once was Pope

And minor glories manifold. Try the Church

The tonsureand- since heresy's but half-slain

Even by the Cardinal's tract he thought he wrote-

Have at Molinos!'- 'Have at a fool's head!

You a priest? How were marriage possible?

There must be Franceschini till time ends-

That's your vocation. Make your brothers priests

Paul shall be porporateand Girolamo step

Red-stockinged in the presence when you choose

But save one Franceschini for the age!

Be not the vine but dig and dung its root

Be not a priest but gird up priesthood's loins

With one foot in Arezzo stride to Rome

Spend yourself there and bring the purchase back!

Go hence to Romebe guided!'

So I was.

I turned alike from the hill-side zig-zag thread

Of way to the table-land a soldier takes

Alike from the low-lying pasture-place

Where churchmen grazerecline and ruminate

-Ventured to mount no platform like my lords

Who judge the worldbear brain I dare not brag-

But stationed memight thus the expression serve

As who should fetch and carrycome and go

Meddle and make i' the cause my lords love most-

The public wealwhich hangs to the lawwhich holds

By the Churchwhich happens to be through God himself.

Humbly I helped the Church till here I stand-

Or would Stand but for the omoplatyou see!

Bidden qualify for RomeIhaving a field

Wentsold itlaid the sum at Peter's foot:

Which means- I settled home-accounts with speed

Set apart just a modicum should suffice

To keep the villa's head above the waves

Of weed inundating its oil and wine

And prop roofstanchion wall o' the palace so

It should keep breath i' the bodyhold its own

Amid the advance of neighbouring loftiness-

(People like building where they used to beg)-

Till succoured one day- shared the residue

Between my mother and brothers and sitters there

Black-eyed babe Donna This and Donna That

As near to starving as might decently be

-Left myself journey-chargeschange of suit

A purse to put i' the pocket of the Groom

O' the Chamber of the patronand a glove

With a ring to it for the digits of the niece

Sure to be helpful in his household- then

Started for Romeand led the life prescribed.

Close to the Churchthough clean of itI assumed

Three or four orders of no consequence

-They cast out evil spirits and exorcise

For example; bind a man to nothing more

Give clerical savour to his layman's-salt

Facilitate his claim to loaf and fish

Should miracle leavebeyond what feeds the flock

Fragments to brim the basket of a friend-

Whilefor the world's sakeI rodedanced and gamed

Quitted me like a courtiermeasured mine

With whatsoever blade had fame in fence

-Ready to let the basket go its round

Even though my turn was come to help myself

Should Dives count on me at dinner-time

As just the understander of a joke

And not immoderate in repartee.

Utrique sic paratusSirsI said

'Here' (in the fortitude of years fifteen

So good a pedagogue is penury)

'Here waitdo service- serving and to serve!

Andin due timeI nowise doubt at all

The recognition of my service comes.

Next year I'm only sixteen. I can wait.'

I waited thirty yearsmay it please the Court:

Saw meanwhile many a denizen o' the dung

Hopskipjump o'er my shouldermake him wings

And fly aloft- succeedin the usual phrase.

Everyone soon or late comes round by Rome:

Stand still hereyou'll see all in turn succeed.

Whylook youso and sothe physician here

My father's lacquey's son we sent to school

Doctored and dosed this Eminence and that

Salved the last Pope his certain obstinate sore

Soon bought land as became himnames it now:

I grasp bell at his griffin-guarded gate

Traverse the half-mile avenue- a term

A cypressand a statuethree and three-

Deliver message from my Monsignor

With varletry at lounge i' the vestibule

I'm barred fromwho bear mud upon my shoe.

My father's chaplain's nephewChamberlain-

Nothing lessplease you!- courteous all the same

-He does not see me though I wait an hour

At his staircase-landing 'twixt the brace of busts

A noseless SyllaMarius maimed to match

My father gave him for a hexastich

Made on my birth-day- but he sends me down

To make amendsthat relic I prize most-

The unburnt end o' the very candleSirs

Purfled with paint so prettily round and round

He carried in such state last Peter's-day-

In token Ihis gentleman and squire

Had held the bridlewalked his managed mule

Without a tittup the procession through.

Naythe official- one you knowsweet lords!-

Who drew the warrant for my transfer late

To the New Prisons from Tordinona- he

Graciously had remembrance- 'Francesc... ha?

His sirenow- how a thing shall come about!-

Paid me a dozen florins above the fee

For drawing deftly up a deed of sale

When troubles fell so thick on himgood heart

And I was prompt and pushing! By all means!

At the New Prisons be it his son shall lie-

Anything for an old friend!' and thereat

Signed name with triple flourish underneath.

These were my fellowssuch their fortunes now

While I- kept fasts and feasts innumerable

Matins and vespersfunctions to no end

I' the train of Monsignor and Eminence

As gentleman-squireand for my zeal's reward

Have rarely missed a place at the table-foot

Except when some Ambassadoror such like

Brought his own people. Briefone day I felt

The tick of time inside meturning-point

And slight sense there was now enough of this:

That I was near my seventh climacteric

Hard uponif not overthe middle life

Andalthough fed by the east-windfulsome-fine

With foretaste of the Land of Promisestill

My gorge gave symptom it might play me false;

Better not press it further- be content

With living and dying only a nobleman

Who merely had a father great and rich

Who simply had one greater and richer yet

And so on back and first till first and best

Began i' the night; I finish in the day.

'The mother must be getting old' I said;

'The sisters are well wedded awayour name

Can manage to pass a sister offat need

And do for dowry: both my brothers thrive-

Regular priests they arenorbat-like'bide

'Twixt flesh and fowl with neither privilege.

My spare revenue must keep me and mine.

I am tired: Arezzo's air is good to breathe;

Vittiano- one limes flocks of thrushes there;

A leathern coat costs little and lasts long:

Let me bid hope good-byecontent at home!'

Thusone dayI disbosomed me and bowed.

Whereat began the little buzz and thrill

O' the gazers round me; each face brightened up:

As when at your Casinodeep in dawn

A gamester says at last'I play no more

Forego gainacquiesce in losswithdraw

Anyhow:' and the watchers of his ways

A trifle struck compunctious at the word

Yet sensible of reliefbreathe free once more

Break up the ringventure Polite advice-

'HowSir? So scant of heart and hope indeed?

Retire with neither cross nor pile from play?-

So incuriousso short-casting?- give your chance

To a youngerstrongerbolder spirit belike

Just when luck turns and the fine throw sweeps all?'

Such was the chorus: and its goodwill meant-

'See that the loser leave door handsomely!

There's an ill look- it's sinisterspoils sport

When an old bruised and battered year-by-year

Fighter with fortunenot a penny in poke

Reels down the steps of our establishment

And staggers on broad daylight and the world

In shagrag beard and doleful doubletdrops

And breaks his heart on the outside: people prate

"Such is the profit of a trip upstairs!"

Contrive he sidle forthbaulked of the blow

Best dealt by way of moralbidding down

No curse but blessings rather on our heads

For some poor prize he bears at tattered breast

Some palpable sort of kind of good to set

Over and against the grievance: give him quick!'

Whereon protested Paul'Go hang yourselves!

Leave him to me. Count Guido and brother of mine

A word in your ear! Take courage since faint heart

Ne'er won... ahafair ladydon't men say?

There's a sorsthere's a right Virgilian dip!

Do you see the happiness o' the hint? At worst

If the Church want no more of youthe Court

No moreand the Camp as littlethe ingrates- come

Count you are counted: still you've coat to back

Not cloth of gold and tissueas we hoped

But cloth with sparks and spangles on its frieze

From CampCourtChurchenough to make a shine

Entitle you to carry home a wife

With the proper dowrylet the worst betide!

Whyit was just a wife you meant to take!'

NOWPaul's advice was weighty: priests should know:

And Paul apprised meere the week was out

That Pietro and Violantethe easy pair

The cits enoughwith stomach to be more

Had just the daughter and exact the sum

To truck for the quality of myself: 'She's young

Pretty and rich: you're nobleclassicchoice.

Is it to be a match?' 'A match' said I.

Done! He proposed allI accepted all

And we performed all. So I said and did

Simply. As simply followednot at first

But with the outbreak of misfortunestill

One comment on the saying and doing- 'What?

No blush at the avowal you dared buy

A girl of age beseems your granddaughter

Like ox or ass? Are flesh and blood a ware?

Are heart and soul a chattel?'

SoftlySirs!

Will the Court of its charity teach poor me

Anxious to learnof any way i' the world

Allowed by custom and conveniencesave

This same whichtaught from my youth upI trod?

Take me along with you; where was the wrong step?

If what I gave in barterstyle and state

And all that hangs to Franceschinihood

Were worthless- whysociety goes to ground

Its rules are idiot's-rambling. Honour of birth-

If that thing has no valuecannot buy

Something with value of another sort

You've no reward nor punishment to give

I' the giving or the taking honour; straight

Your social fabricpinnacle to base

Comes down a-clatter like a house of cards.

Get honourand keep honour free from flaw

Aim at still higher honour- gabble o' the goose!

Go bid a second blockhead like myself

Spend fifty years in guarding bubbles of breath

Soapsuds with air i' the bellygilded brave

Guarded and guidedall to break at touch

O' the first young girl's hand and first old fool's purse!

All my privation and enduranceall

Loveloyalty and labour dared and did

Fiddle-de-dee!- whydoer and darer both-

Count Guido Franceschini had hit the mark

Far betterspent his life with more effect

As a dancer or a prizertrades that pay!

On the other handbid this buffoonery cease

Admit that honour is a privilege

The question followsprivilege worth what?

Whyworth the market-price- now upnow down

Just so with this as with all other ware:

Therefore essay the marketsell your name

Style and condition to who buys them best!

'Does my name purchase' had I dared inquire

'Your niecemy lord?' there would have been rebuff

Though courtesyyour Lordship cannot else-

'Not altogether! Rank for rank may stand:

But I have wealth besideyou- poverty;

Your scale flies up there: bid a second bid

Rank too and wealth too!' Reasoned like yourself!

But was it to you I went with goods to sell?

This time 'twas my scale quietly kissed the ground

Mere rank against mere wealth- some youth beside

Some beauty toothrown into the bargainjust

As the buyer likes or lets alone. I thought

To deal o' the square: others find faultit seems:

The thing isthose my offer most concerned

PietroViolantecried they fair or foul?

What did they make o' the terms? Preposterous terms?

Why then accede so promptlyclose with such

Nor take a minute to chaffer? Bargain struck

They straight grew biliouswished their money back

Repented themno doubt: whyso did I

So did your Lordshipif town-talk be true

Of paying a full farm's worth for that piece

By Pietro of Cortona- probably

His scholar Ciro Ferri may have retouched-

You caring more for colour than design-

Getting a little tired of cupids too.

That's incident to all the folk who buy!

I am chargedI knowwith gilding fact by fraud;

I falsified and fabricatedwrote

Myself down roughly richer than I prove

Rendered a wrong revenue- grant it all!

Mere gracemere coquetry such fraudI say:

A flourish round the figures of a sum

For fashion's sakethat deceives nobody.

The veritable back-boneunderstood

Essence of this same bargainblank and bare

Being the exchange of quality for wealth-

What may such fancy-flights be? Flecks of oil

Flirted by chapmen where plain dealing grates.

I may have dripped a drop- 'My name I sell;

Not but that I too boast my wealth'- as they

'-We bring you riches; still our ancestor

Was hardly the rapscallionfolks saw flogged

But heir to we know whowere rights of force!'

They knew and I knew where the back-bone lurked

I' the writhings of the bargainlordsbelieve!

I paid down all engaged forto a doit

Delivered them just that whichtheir life long

They hungered in the hearts of them to gain-

Incorporation with nobility thus

In word and deed: for that they gave me wealth.

But when they came to try their gainmy gift

Quit Rome and qualify for Arezzotake

The tone o' the new sphere that absorbed the old

Put away gossip Jack and goody Joan

And go become familiar with the Great

Greatness to touch and taste and handle now-

Whythen- they found that all was vanity

Vexationand what Solomon describes!

The old abundant city-fare was best

The kindly warmth o' the commonsthe glad clap

Of the equal on the shoulderthe frank grin

Of the underling at all so many spoons

Fire-new at neighbourly treat- bestbest and best

Beyond compare!- down to the loll itself

O' the pot-house settle- better such a bench

Than the stiff crucifixion by my dais

Under the piece-meal damask canopy

With the coroneted coat of arms a-top!

Poverty and privation for pride's sake

All they engaged to easily brave and bear-

With the fit upon them and their brains a-work-

Proved unendurable to the sobered sots.

A banished princenowwill exude a juice

And salamander-like support the flame:

He dines on chestnutschucks the husks to help

The broil o' the brazierpays the due baioc

Goes off light-hearted: his grimace begins

At the funny humours of the christening-feast

Of friend the money-lender- then he's touched

By the flame and frizzles at the babe to kiss!

Here was the converse trialopposite mind:

Here did a petty nature split on rock

Of vulgar wants predestinate for such-

One dish at supper and weak wine to boot!

The prince had grinned and borne: the citizen shrieked

Summoned the neighbourhood to attest the wrong

Made noisy protest he was murdered- stoned

And burned and drowned and hanged- then broke away

He and his wifeto tell their Rome the rest.

And this you admireyou men o' the worldmy lords?

This moves compassionmakes you doubt my faith?

WhyI appeal to... sun and moon? Not I!

Rather to PlautusTerenceBoccaccio's Book

My townsmanfrank Ser Franco's merry Tales-

To all who strip a vizard from a face

A body from its paddingand a soul

From froth and ignorance it styles itself-

If this be other than the daily hap

Of purblind greed that dog-like still drops bone

Grasps shadowand then howls the case is hard!

SO MUCH for them so far: now for myself

My profit or loss i' the matter: married am I:

Text whereon friendly censors burst to preach.

Ayat Rome evenlong ere I was left

To regulate her life for my young bride

Alone at Arezzofriendliness outbroke

(Sifting my future to predict its fault)

'Purchase and sale being thus so plain a point

How of a certain soul bound upmay-be

I' the barter with the body and money-bags?

From the bride's soul what is it you expect?'

Whyloyalty and obedience- wish and will

To settle and suit her fresh and plastic mind

To the novelnor disadvantageous mould!

Father and mother shall the woman leave

Cleave to the husbandbe it for weal or woe:

There is the law: what sets this law aside

In my particular case? My friends submit

'Guideguardianbenefactor- feefawfum

The fact is you are forty-five years old

Nor very comely even for that age:

Girls must have boys.' Whylet girls say so then

Nor call the boys and menwho say the same

Brute this and beast the other as they do!

Comecards on table! When you chaunt us next

Epithalamium full to overflow

With praise and glory of white womanhood

The chaste and pure- troll no such lies o'er lip!

Put in their stead a crudity or two

Such short and simple statement of the case

As youth chalks on our walls at spring of year!

No! I shall still think nobler of the sex

Believe a woman still may take a man

For the short period that his soul wears flesh

Andfor the soul's sakeunderstand the fault

Of armour frayed by fighting. Tushit tempts

One's tongue too much! I'll say- the law's the law:

With a wife I took to find all wifeliness

As when I buytimber and twiga tree-

I buy the song o' the nightingale inside.

SUCH was the pact: Pompilia from the first

Broke itrefused from the beginning day

Either in body or soul to cleave to mine

And published it forthwith to all the world.

No rupture- you must join ere you can break-

Before we had cohabited a month

She found I was a devil and no man-

Made common cause with those who found as much

Her parentsPietro and Violante- moved

Heaven and earth to the rescue of all three.

In four months' timethe time o' the parents' stay

Arezzo was a-ringingbells in a blaze

With the unimaginable story rife

I' the mouth of manwoman and child- to-wit

My misdemeanour. First the lighter side

Ludicrous face of things- how very poor

The Franceschini had become at last

The meanness and the misery of each shift

To save a soldoStretch and make ends meet.

Nextthe more hateful aspect- how myself

With cruelty beyond Caligula's

Had stripped and beatenrobbed and murdered them

The good old coupleI decoyedabused

Plundered and then cast outand happily so

Since- in due course the abominable comes-

Woe worth the poor young wife left lonely here!

Repugnant in my person as my mind

I sought- was ever heard of such revenge?

-To lure and bind her to so cursed a couch

Such co-embrace with sulphursnake and toad

That she was fain to rush forthcall the stones

O' the common street to save hernot from hate

Of mine merelybut... must I burn my lips

With the blister of the lie?... the satyr-love

Of who but my own brotherthe young priest

Too long enforced to lenten fare belike

Now tempted by the morsel tossed him full

I' the trencher where lay bread and herbs at best.

Markthis yourselves say!- thisnone disallows

Was charged to me by the universal voice

At the instigation of my four-months'wife!-

And then you ask 'Such charges so preferred

(Truly or falselyhere concerns us not)

Pricked you to punish now if not before?-

Did not the harshness double itselfthe hate

Harden?' I answer 'Have it your way and will!'

Say my resentment grew apace: what then?

Do you cry out on the marvel? When I find

That pure smooth egg whichlaid within my nest

Could not but hatch a comfort to us all

Issues a cockatrice for me and mine

Do you stare to see me stamp on it? Swans are soft:

Is it not clear that she you call my wife

That any wife of any husbandcaught

Whetting a sting like this against his breast-

Speckled with fragments of the fresh-broke shell

Married a month and making outcry thus-

Proves a plague-prodigy to God and man?

She married: what was it she married for

Counted upon and meant to meet thereby?

'Love' suggests some one'lovea little word

Whereof we have not heard one syllable.

Sothe Pompiliachildgirlwifein one

Wanted the beating pulsethe rolling eye

The frantic gesturethe devotion due

From Thyrsis to Neaera! Guido's love-

Why not provencal roses in his shoe

Plume to his capand trio of guitars

At casementwith a bravo close beside?

Good things all these areclearly claimable

When the fit price is paid the proper way.

Had it been some friend's wifenowthrew her fan

At my footwith just this pretty scrap attached

'Shamedeathdamnation- fall these as they may

So I find youfor a minute! Come this eve!'

-Whyat such sweet self-sacrifice- who knows?

I might have fired upfound me at my post

Ardent from head to heelnor feared catch cough.

Nayhad some other friend's... saydaughtertripped

Upstairs and tumbled flat and rank on me

Bareheaded and barefootedwith loose hair

And garments all at large- cried 'Take me thus!

Duke So-and-Sothe greatest man in Rome-

To escape his hand and heart have I broke bounds

Traversed the town and reached you!'- Thenindeed

The lady had not reached a man of ice!

I would have rummagedransacked at the word

Those old odd corners of an empty heart

For remnants of dim love the long disused

And dusty crumblings of romance! But here

We talk of just a marriageif you please-

The every-day conditions and no more;

Where do these bind me to bestow one drop

Of blood shall dye my wife's true-love-knot pink?

Pompilia was no pigeonVenus' pet

That shuffled from between her pressing paps

To sit on my rough shoulder- but a hawk

I bought at a hawk's price and carried home

To do hawk's service- at the Rotundasay

Wheresix o' the callow nestlings in a row

You pick and choose and pay the price for such.

I have paid my poundawait my penny's worth

Sohoodwinkstarve and properly train my bird

Andshould she prove a haggard- twist her neck!

Did I not pay my name and stylemy hope

And trustmy all? Through spending these amiss

I am here! 'Tis scarce the gravity of the Court

Will blame me that I never piped a tune

Treated my falcon-gentle like my finch.

The obligation I incurred was just

To practise masteryprove my mastership:-

Pompilia's duty was- submit herself

Afford me pleasureperhaps cure my bile.

Am I to teach my lords what marriage means

What God ordains thereby and man fulfils

Whodocile to the dictatetreads the house?

My lords have chosen the happier part with Paul

And neither marry nor burn- yet priestliness

Can find a parallel to the marriage-bond

In its own blessed special ordinance

Whereof indeed was marriage made the type:

The Church may show her insubordinate

As marriage her refractory. How of the Monk

Who finds the claustral regimen too sharp

After the first month's essay? What's the mode

With the Deacon who supports indifferently

The rod o' the Bishop when he tastes its smart

Full four weeks? Do you straightway slacken hold

Of the innocentsthe all-unwary ones

Whoeager to professmistook their mind?-

Remit a fast-day's rigour to the Monk

Who fancied Francis' manna meant roast quails

Concede the Deacon sweet society

He never thought the Levite-rule renounced-

Or rather prescribe short chain and sharp scourge

Corrective of such peccant humours? This-

I take to be the Church's modeand mine.

If I was over-harsh- the worse i' the wife

Who did not win from harshness as she ought

Wanted the patience and persuasionlore

Of loveshould cure me and console herself.

Put case that I mishandleflurry and fright

My hawk through clumsiness in sportsmanship

Twitch out five pens where plucking one would serve-

Whatshall she bite and claw to mend the case?

Andif you find I pluck five more for that

Shall you weep 'How he roughs the turtle there'?

SUCH was the starting; now of the further step.

In lieu of taking penance in good part

The Monkwith hue and crysummons a mob

To make a bonfire of the conventsay-

And the Deacon's pretty piece of virtue (save

The ears o' the Court! I try to save my head)

Instructed by the ingenuous postulant

Taxes the Bishop with adultery(mud

Needs must pair off with mudand filth with filth)-

Such being my next experience: who knows not-

The couplefather and mother of my wife

Returned to Romepublished before my lords

Put into printmade circulate far and wide

That they had cheated me who cheated them?

PompiliaI supposed their daughterdrew

Breath first 'mid Rome's worst ranknessthrough the deed

Of a drab and a roguewas bye-blow bastard-babe

Of a nameless strumpetpassed offpalmed on me

As the daughter with the dowry. Daughter? Dirt

O' the kennel! Dowry? Dust o' the street! Nought more

Nought lessnought else but- oh- ah- assuredly

A Franceschini and my very wife!

Now take this charge as you willfor false or true-

This chargepreferred before your very selves

Who judge me now- I pray youadjudge again

Classing it with the cheats or with the lies

By which category I suffer most!

But of their reckoningtheirs who dealt with me

In either fashion- I reserve my word

Justify that in its place; I am now to say

Whichever point o' the charge might poison most

Pompilia's duty was no doubtful one.

You put the protestation in her mouth

'Henceforward and forevermoreavaunt

Ye fiendswho drop disguise and glare revealed

In your own shapeno longer father mine

Nor mother mine! Too nakedly you hate

Me whom you looked as if you loved once- me

Whomwhether true or falseyour tale now damns

Divulged thus to my public infamy

Private perditionabsolute overthrow.

Forhate my husband to your hearts' content

Ispoil and prey of you from first to last

I who have done you the blind servicelured

The lion to your pitfall- Ithus left

To answer for my ignorant bleating there

I should have been remembered and withdrawn

From the first o' the natural furynot flung loose

A proverb and a byeword men will mouth

At the cross-wayin the cornerup and down

Rome and Arezzo- therefull in my face

If my lordmissing them and finding me

Content himself with casting his reproach

To drop i' the street where such impostors die.

Ahbut- that husbandwhat the wonder were!-

Iffar from casting thus away the rag

Smeared with the plaguehis hand had chanced upon

Sewn to his pillow by Locusta's wile-

Far from abolishingrootstem and branch

The misgrowth of infectious mistletoe

Foisted into his stock for honest graft-

If herepudiate notrenounce nowise

Butguardingguiding memaintain my cause

By making it his own(what other way?)

-To keep my name for mehe call it his

Claim it of who would take it by their lie-

To save my wealth for me- or babe of mine

Their lie was framed to beggar at the birth-

He bid them loose graspgive our gold again:

Refuse to become partner with the pair

Even in a game whichplayed adroitlygives

Its winner life's great wonderful new chance-

Of marryingto-wita second time-

Ahdid he do thuswhat a friend were he!

Anger he might show- who can stamp out flame

Yet spread no black o' the brand?- yetrough albeit

In the actas whose bare feet feel embers scorch

What grace were hiswhat gratitude were mine!'

Such protestation should have been my wife's.

Looking for thisdo I exalt too much?

Whyhere's the- word for word so muchno more-

Avowal she madeher pure spontaneous speech

To my brother the Abate at first blush

Ere the good impulse had begun to fade-

So did she make confession for the pair

So pour forth praises in her own behalf.

'Aythe false letter' interpose my lords-

'The simulated writing- 'twas a trick:

You traced the signsshe merely marked the same

The product was not hers but yours.' Alack

I want no more impulsion to tell truth

From the other trickthe torture inside there!

I confess all- let it be understood-

And deny nothing! If I baffle you so

Can so fencein the plenitude of right

That my poor lathen dagger puts aside

Each pass o' the Bilboabeats you all the same-

What matters inefficiency of blade?

Mine and not hers the letter- concededlords!

Impute to me that practice!- take as proved

I taught my wife her dutymade her see

What it behoved her see and say and do

Feel in her heart and with her tongue declare

Andwhether sluggish or recalcitrant

Forced her to take the right stepI myself

Marching in mere marital rectitude!

And who finds fault heresay the tale be true?

Would not my lords commend the priest whose zeal

Seized on the sickmorose or moribund

By the palsy-smitten fingermade it cross

His brow correctly at the critical time?

-Or answered for the inarticulate babe

At baptismin its stead declared the faith

And saved what else would perish unprofessed?

Truethe incapable hand may rally yet

Renounce the sign with renovated strength-

The babe may grow up man and Molinist-

And so Pompiliaset in the good path

And left to go alone theresoon might see

That too frank-forwardall too simple-strait

Her step wasand decline to tread the rough

When here laytempting footthe meadow-side

And there the coppice called with singing-birds!

Soon she discovered she was young and fair

That many in Arezzo knew as much-

Yesthis next cup of bitternessmy lords

Had to begin go fillingdrop by drop

Its measure up of full disgust for me

Filtered into by every noisome drain-

Society's sink toward which all moisture runs.

Would not you prophesy- 'She on whose brow is stamped

The note of the imputation that we know-

Rightly or wrongly mothered with a whore-

Such an oneto disprove the frightful charge

What will she but exaggerate chastity

Err in excess of wifehoodas it were

Renounce even levities permitted youth

Though not youth struck to age by a thunderbolt?

Cry "wolf" i' the sheepfoldwhere's the sheep dares bleat

Knowing the shepherd listens for a growl?'

So you expect. How did the devil decree?

Whymy lordsjust the contrary of course!

It was in the house from the windowat the church

From the hassock- where the theatre lent its lodge

Or staging for the public show left space-

That still Pompilia needs must find herself

Launching her looks forthletting looks reply

As arrows to a challenge; on all sides

Ever new contribution to her lap

Till one daywhat is it knocks at my clenched teeth

But the cup fullcurse-collected all for me?

And I must needs drinkdrink this gallant's praise

That minion's prayerthe other fop's reproach

And come at the dregs to- Caponsacchi! Sirs

I- chin deep in a marsh of misery

Struggling to extricate my name and fame

And fortune from the marsh would drown them all

My face the sole unstrangled part of me-

I must have this new gad-fly in that face

Must free me from the attacking lover too!

Men say I battled ungracefully enough-

Was harshuncouth and ludicrous beyond

The proper part o' the husband: have it so!

Your lordships are considerate at least-

You order me to speak in my defence

Plainlyexpect no quavering tuneful trills

As when you bid a singer solace you-

Nor look that I shall give itfor a grace

Stans pede in uno: - you remember well

In the one case'tis a plainsong too severe

This story of my wrongs- and that I ache

And need a chairin the other. Ask you me

Whywhen I felt this trouble flap my face

Already pricked with every shame could perch-

Whenwith her parentsmy wife plagued me too-

Why I enforced not exhortation mild

To leave whore's-tricks and let my brows alone

With mulct of comfitspromise of perfume?

'FAR from that! Noyou took the opposite course

Breathed threateningsrage and slaughter!' What you will!

And the end has comethe doom is verily here

Unhindered by the threatening. See fate's flare

Full on each face of the dead guilty three!

Look at them welland nowlordslook at this!

Tell me: if on that day when I found first

That Caponsacchi thought the nearest way

To his church was some half-mile round by my door

And that he so admiredshall I suppose

The manner of the swallows' come-and-go

Between the props o' the window over head-

That window happening to be my wife's-

As to stand gazing by the hour on high

Of May-eveswhile she sat and let him smile-

If I- instead of threateningtalking big

Showing hair-powdera prodigious pinch

For poison in a bottle- making believe

At desperate doings with a bauble-sword

And other bugaboo-and-baby-work-

Hadwith the vulgarest household implement

Calmly and quietly cut offclean thro' bone

But one joint of one finger of my wife

Saying 'For listening to the serenade

Here's your ring-finger shorter a full third:

Be certain I will slice away next joint

Next time that anybody underneath

Seems somehow to be sauntering as he hoped

A flower would eddy out of your hand to his

While you please fidget with the branch above

O' the rose-tree in the terrace!'- had I done so

Whythere had followed a quick sharp screamsome pain

Much calling for plaisterdamage to the dress

A somewhat sulky countenance next day

Perhaps reproaches- but reflections too!

I don't hear much of harm that Malchus did

After the incident of the earmy lords!

Saint Peter took the efficacious way;

Malchus was sore but silenced for his life:

He did not hang himself i' the Potter's Field

Like Judaswho was trusted with the bag

And treated to sops after he proved a thief.

Soby this timemy true and obedient wife

Might have been telling beads with a gloved hand;

Awkward a little at pricking hearts and darts

On sampler possiblybut well otherwise:

Not where Rome shudders now to see her lie.

I give that for the course a wise man takes;

I took the other howevertried the fool's

The lighter remedybrandished rapier dread

With cork-ball at the tipboxed Malchus' ear

Instead of severing the cartilage

Called her a terrible nicknameand the like

And there an end: and what was the end of that?

What was the good effect o' the gentle course?

Whyone night I went drowsily to bed

Dropped asleep suddenlynot suddenly woke

But did wake with rough rousing and loud cry

To find noon in my facea crowd in my room

Fumes in my brainfire in my throatmy wife

Gone God knows whither- rifled vesture-chest

And ransacked money-coffer. 'What does it mean?'

The servants had been drugged toostared and yawned

'It must be that our lady has eloped!'

-'Whither and with whom?'- 'With whom but the Canon's self?

One recognizes Caponsacchi there!'-

(By this time the admiring neighbourhood

Joined chorus round me while I rubbed my eyes)

''Tis months since their intelligence began-

A comedy the town was privy to-

He wrote and she wroteshe spokehe replied

And going in and out your house last night

Was easy work for one... to be plain with you...

Accustomed to do bothat dusk and dawn

When you were absent- at the villayou know

Where husbandry required the master-mind.

Did not you know? Whywe all knewyou see!'

And presentlybit by bitthe full and true

Particulars of the tale were volunteered

With all the breathless zeal of friendship- 'Thus

Matters were managed: at the seventh hour of night'...

-'Laterat daybreak'... 'Caponsacchi came'...

-'While you and all your household slept like death

Drugged as your supper was with drowsy stuff'...

-'And your own cousin Guillichini too-

Either or both entered your dwelling-place

Plundered it at their pleasuremade prize of all

Including your wife...'- 'Ohyour wife led the way

Out of doorson to the gate...'- 'But gates are shut

In a decent townto darkness and such deeds:

They climbed the wall- your lady must be lithe-

At the gapthe broken bit...'- 'Torrionetrue!

To escape the questioning guard at the proper gate

Clementewhere at the innhard by"the Horse"

Just outsidea calash in readiness

Took the two principalsall alone at last

To gate San Spiritowhich o'erlooks the road

Leads to PerugiaRome and liberty.'

Bit by bit thus made-up mosaic-wise

Flat lay my fortune- tesselated floor

Imperishable tracery devils should foot

And frolic it onaround my broken gods

Over my desecrated hearth.

So much

For the terrible effect of threateningSirs!

WELLthis way I was shaken wide awake

Doctored and drenchedsomewhat unpoisoned so;

Thenset on horseback and bid seek the lost

I started alonehead of meheart of me

Fireand each limb as languid... ahsweet lords

Bethink you!- poison-torturetry persuade

The next refractory Molinist with that!...

Floundered thro' day and nightanother day

And yet another nightand so at last

As Lucifer kept falling to find hell

Tumbled into the court-yard of an inn

At the endand fell on whom I thought to find

Even Caponsacchi- what part once was priest

Cast to the winds now with the cassock-rags:

In cape and sword a cavalier confessed

There stood he chiding dilatory grooms

Chafing that only horseflesh and no team

Of eagles would supply the last relay

Whirl him along the leaguethe one post more

Between the couple and Rome and liberty.

'Twas dawnthe couple were rested in a sort

And though the ladytired- the tenderer sex-

Still lingered in her chamber- to adjust

The limp hairlook for any blush astray-

She would descend in a twinkling- 'Have you out

The horses therefore!'

So did I find my wife.

Is the case complete? Do your eyes here see with mine?

Even the parties dared deny no one

Point out of all these points.

What follows next?

'Whythat then was the time' you interpose

'Or then or neverwhile the fact was fresh

To take the natural vengeance: there and thus

They and you- somebody had stuck a sword

Beside you while he pushed you on your horse-

'Twas requisite to slay the coupleCount!'

Just so my friends say- 'Kill!' they cry in a breath

Who presentlywhen matters grow to a head

And I do kill the offending ones indeed-

When crime of theirsonly surmised before

Is patentproved indisputably now-

When remedy for wronguntried at the time

Which law professes shall not fail a friend

Is thrice tried nowfound threefold worse than null-

When what might turn to transient shadewho knows?

Solidifies into a blot which breaks

Hell's black off in pale flakes for fear of mine-

Thenwhen I claim and take revenge- 'So rash?'

They cry- 'so little reverence for the law?'

LISTENmy mastersand distinguish here!

At firstI called in law to act and help:

Seeing I did so'Why'tis clear' they cry

'You shrank from gallant readiness and risk

Were coward: the thing's inexplicable else.'

Sweet my lordslet the thing be! I fall flat

Play the reednot the oakto breath of man.

Onlyinform my ignorance! Say I stand

Convicted of the having been afraid

Proved a poltroonno lion but a lamb-

Does that deprive me of my right of lamb

And give my fleece and flesh to the first wolf?

Are eunuchswomenchildrenshieldless quite

Against attack their own timidity tempts?

Cowardice were misfortune and no crime!

-Take it that waysince I am fallen so low

I scarce dare brush the fly that blows my face

And thank the man who simply spits not there-

Unless the Court be generouscomprehend

How one brought up at the very feet of law

As Iawaits the grave Gamaliel's nod

Ere he clench fist at outrage- much lessstab!

-Howready enough to rise at the right time

I still could recognize no time mature

Unsanctioned by a move o' the judgment-seat

Somute in miseryeyed my masters here

Motionless till the authoritative word

Pronounced amercement. There's the riddle solved:

This is just why I slew nor her nor him

But called in lawlaw's delegate in the place

And bade arrest the guilty coupleSirs!

We had some trouble to do so- you have heard

They braved me- he with arrogance and scorn

Shewith a volubility of curse

A conversancy in the skill of tooth

And claw to make suspicion seem absurd

Nayan alacrity to put to proof

At my own throat my own swordteach me so

To try conclusions better the next time-

Which did the proper service with the mob.

They never tried to put on mask at all:

Two avowed lovers forcibly torn apart

Upbraid the tyrant as in a playhouse scene

Ayand with proper clapping and applause

From the audience that enjoys the bold and free.

I kept stillsaid to myself'There's law!' Anon

We searched the chamber where they passed the night

Found what confirmed the worst was feared before

However needless confirmation now-

The witches' circle intactcharms undisturbed

That raised the spirit and succubus- lettersto-wit

Love-ladeneach the bag o' the bee that bore

Honey from lily and rose to Cupid's hive-

Nowpoetry in some rank blossom-burst

Nowprose- 'Come herego therewait such a while

He's at the villanow he's back again:

We are savedwe are lostwe are lovers all the same!'

All in orderall complete- even to a clue

To the drowsiness that happed so opportune-

No mysterywhen I read 'Of all thingsfind

What wine Sir Jealousy decides to drink-

Red wine? Because a sleeping-potiondust

Dropped into whitediscolours wine and shows.'

'OHBUT we did not write a single word!

Somebody forged the letters in our name!-'

Both in a breath protested presently.

AhaSacchetti again!- 'Dame'- quoth the Duke

'What meaneth this epistlecounsel me

I pick from out thy placket and peruse

Wherein my page averreth thou art white

And warm and wonderful 'twixt pap and pap?'

'Sir' laughed the Lady ''tis a counterfeit!

Thy page did never stroke but Dian's breast

The pretty hound I nurture for thy sake:

To lie were losel- by my fayno more

And no more say I tooand spare the Court.

AHTHE Court! yesI come to the Court's self;

Such the caseso complete in fact and proof

I laid at the feet of law- there sat my lords

Here sit they nowso may they ever sit

In easier attitude than suits my haunch!

In this same chamber did I bare my sores

O' the soul and not the body- shun no shame

Shrink from no probing of the ulcerous part

Since confident in Nature- which is God-

That she whofor wise endsconcocts a plague

Curbsat the right timethe plague's virulence too:

Law renovates even Lazarus- cures me!

Caesar thou seekest? To Caesar thou shalt go!

Caesar's at Rome; to Rome accordingly!

THE case was soon decided: both weightscast

I' the balancevibrateneither kicks the beam

Here awaythere awaythis now and now that.

To every one o' my grievances law gave

Redresscould purblind eye but see the point.

The wife stood a convicted runagate

From house and husband- driven to such a course

By what she somehow took for cruelty

Oppression and imperilment of life-

Not that such things werebut that so they seemed:

Thereforethe end conceded lawful(since

To save life there's no risk should stay our leap)

It follows that all means to the lawful end

Are lawful likewise- poisontheft and flight.

As for the priest's partdid he meddle or make

Enough that he too thought life jeopardized;

Concede him then the colour charity

Casts on a doubtful course- if blackish white

Or whitish blackwill charity hesitate?

What did he else but act the precept out

Leavelike a provident shepherdhis safe flock

To follow the single lamb and strayaway?

Best hope so and think so- that the ticklish time

I' the carriagethe tempting privacythe last

Somewhat ambiguous accident at the inn

-All may bear explanation: may? thenmust!

The letters- do they so incriminate?

But what if the whole prove a prank o' the pen

Flight of the fancynone of theirs at all

Bred of the vapours of my brain belike

Or at worst mere exercise of scholar's-wit

In the courtly Caponsacchi: verseconvict?

Did not Catullus write less seemly once?

Yet doctus and unblemished he abides.

Wherefore so ready to infer the worst?

StillI did righteously in bringing doubts

For the law to solve- take the solution now!

'Seeing that the said associateswife and priest

Bear themselves not without some touch of blame

-Else why the potherscandal and outcry

Which trouble our peace and require chastisement?

Wefor complicity in Pompilia's flight

And deviationand carnal intercourse

With the samedo set aside and relegate

The Canon Caponsacchi for three years

At Civita in the neighbourhood of Rome:

And we consign Pompilia to the care

Of a certain Sisterhood of penitents

I' the city's selfexpert to deal with such.'

Word for wordthere's your judgment! Read itlords

Re-utter your deliberate penalty

For the crime yourselves establish! Your award-

Who chop a man's right-hand off at the wrist

For tracing with forefinger words in wine

O' the table of a drinking-booth that bear

Interpretation as they mocked the Church!

-Who brand a woman black between the breasts

For sinning by connection with a Jew:

While for the Jew's self- pudency be dumb!

You mete out punishment such and suchyet so

Punish the adultery of wife and priest!

Take note of thatbefore the Molinists do

And read me right the riddlesince right must be!

While I stood rapt away with wonderment

Voices broke in upon my mood and muse.

'Do you sleep?' began the friends at either ear

'The case is settled- you willed it should be so-

None of our counselalways recollect!

With law's awardbudge! Back into your place!

Your betters shall arrange the rest for you.

We'll enter a new actionclaim divorce:

Your marriage was a cheat themselves allow:

You erred i' the person- might have married thus

Your sister or your daughter unaware.

We'll gain youthat wayliberty at least

Sure of so much by law's own showing. Up

And off with you and your unluckiness-

Leave us to bury the blundersweep things smooth!'

I was in humble frame of mindbe sure!

I bowedbetook me to my place again.

Station by station I retraced the road

Touched at this hostelpassed this post-house by

Wherefresh-remembered yetthe fugitives

Had risen to the heroic stature: still-

'That was the bench they sat on- there's the board

They took the meal at- yonder garden-ground

They leaned across the gate of'- ever a word

O' the Helen and the Pariswith 'Ha! you're he

The... much-commiserated husband?' Step

By stepacross the peltingdid I reach

Arezzounderwent the archway's grin

Traversed the length of sarcasm in the street

Found myself in my horrible house once more

And after a colloquy... no word assists!

With the mother and the brothersstiffened me

Strait out from head to foot as dead man does

Andthus prepared for life as he for hell

Marched to the public Square and met the world.

Apologize for the pincerspalliate screws?

Ply me with such toy-triflesI entreat!

Trust who has tried both sulphur and sops-in-wine!

I PLAYED the man as I best mightbade friends

Put non-essentials by and face the fact.

'What need to hang myself as you advise?

The paramour is banished- the ocean's width

Or the suburb's length- to Ultima Thulesay

Or Proxima Civitaswhat's the odds of name

And place? He's banishedand the fact's the thing.

Why should law banish innocence an inch?

Here's guilt thenwhat else do I care to know?

The adulteress lies imprisoned- whether in a well

With bricks above and a snake for company

Or tied by a garter to a bed-post- much

I mind what's little- least's enough and to spare!

The little fillip on the coward's cheek

Serves as though crab-tree cudgel broke his pate.

Law has pronounced there's punishmentless or more:

And I take note o' the fact and use it thus-

For the first flaw in the original bond

I claim release. My contract was to wed

The daughter of Pietro and Violante. Both

Protest they never had a child at all.

Then I have never made a contract: good!

Cancel me quick the thing pretended one.

I shall be free. What matter if hurried over

The harbour-boom by a great favouring tide

Or the last of a spent ripple that lifts and leaves?

The Abate is about it. Laugh who wins!

You shall not laugh me out of faith in law!

I listenthrough all your noiseto Rome!'

Rome spoke

In three months letters thence admonished me

'Your plan for the divorce is all mistake.

It would holdnowhad youtaking thought to wed

Rachel of the blue eye and golden hair

Found swarth-skinned Leah cumber couch next day:

But Rachelblue-eyed golden-haired aright

Proving to be only Laban's childnot Lot's

Remains yours all the same for ever more.

No whit to the purpose is your plea: you err

I' the person and the quality- nowise

In the individual- that's the case in point!

You go to the ground- are met by a cross-suit

For separationof the Rachel here

From bed and board- she is the injured one

You did the wrong and have to answer it.

As for the circumstance of imprisonment

And colour it lends to this your new attack

Never fearthat point is considered too!

The durance is already at an end;

The convent-quiet preyed upon her health

She is transferred now to her parents' house

-No-parentswhen that cheats and plunders you

But parentage again confessed in full

When such confession pricks and plagues you more-

As now- forthis their house is not the house

In Via Vittoria wherein neighbours' watch

Might incommode the freedom of your wife

But a certain villa smothered up in vines

At the town's edge by the gate i' the Pauline way

Out of eye-reachout of ear-shotlittle and lone

Whither a friend- at Civitawe hope

A good half-dozen-hours' ride off- mightsome eve

Betake himselfand whence ride backsome morn

Nobody the wiser: but be that as it may

Do not afflict your brains with trifles now.

You have still three suits to manageall and each

Ruinous truly should the event play false.

It is indeed the likelier so to do

That brother Paulyour single prop and stay

After a vain attempt to bring the Pope

To set aside proceduressit himself

And summarily use prerogative

Afford us the infallible finger's tact

To disentwine your tangle of affairs

Paul- finding it moreover past his strength

To stem the irruptionbear Rome's ridicule

Of... since friends must speak... to be round with you...

Of the old outwitted husbandwronged and wroth

Pitted against a brace of juveniles-

A brisk priest who is versed in Ovid's art

More than his Summaand a gamesome wife

Able to act Corinna without book

Beside the waggish parents who played dupes

To dupe the duper-(and truly divers scenes

Of the Arezzo palacetickle rib

And tease eye till the tears comeso we laugh;

Nor wants the shock at the inn its comic force

And then the letters and poetry- merum sal! )

-Paulfinallyin such a state of things

After a brief temptation to go jump

And join the fishes in the Tiberdrowns

Sorrow another and a wiser way:

House and goodshe has sold all offis gone

Leaves Rome- whether for France or Spainwho knows?

Or Britain almost divided from our orb.

You have lost him anyhow.'

Now- I see my lords

Shift in their seat- would I could do the same!

They probably please expect my bile was moved

To purposenor much blame me: nowthey judge

The fiery titillation urged my flesh

Break through the bonds. By your pardonnosweet Sirs!

I got such missives in the public place;

When I sought home- with such newsmounted stair

And sat at last in the sombre gallery

('Twas Autumnthe old mother in bed betimes

Having to bear that coldthe finer frame

Of her daughter-in-law had found intolerable-

The brotherwalking misery away

O' the mountain-side with dog and gun belike)

As I suppedate the coarse breaddrank the wine

Weak oncenow acrid with the toad's-head-squeeze

My wife's bestowment- I broke silence thus:

'Let mea manmanfully meet the fact

Confront the worst o' the truthendand have peace!

I am irremediably beaten here-

The gross illiterate vulgar couple- bah!

Whythey have measured forcesmastered mine

Made me their spoil and prey from first to last.

They have got my name- 'tis nailed now fast to theirs

The child or changeling is anyway my wife;

Point by point as they plan they execute

They gain alland I lose all- even to the lure

That led to loss- they have the wealth again

They hazarded awhile to hook me with

Have caught the fish and find the bait entire:

They even have their child or changeling back

To trade withturn to account a second time.

The brotherpresumably might tell a tale

Or give a warning- hetooflies the field

And with him vanish help and hope of help.

They have caught me in the cavern where I fell

Covered my loudest cry for human aid

With this enormous paving-stone stone of shame.

Wellare we demigods or merely clay?

Is success still attendant on desert?

Is thiswe live onheaven and the final state

Or earth which means probation to the end?

Why claim escape from man's predestined lot

Of being beaten and baffled?- God's decree

In which Ibowing bruised headacquiesce.

One of us Franceschini fell long since

I' the Holy Landbetrayedtradition runs

To Paynims by the feigning of a girl

He rushed to free from ravisherand found

Lay safe enough with friends in ambuscade

Who flayed him while she clapped her hands and laughed:

Let me endfalling by a like device.

It will not he so hard. I am the last

O' my line which will not suffer any more.

I have attained to my full fifty years

(About the average of us all'tis said

Though it seems longer to the unlucky man)

-Lived through my share of life; let all end here

Me and the house and grief and shame at once.

Friends my informants- I can bear your blow!'

And I believe 'twas in no unmeet match

For the stoic's moodwith something like a smile

Thatwhen morose December roused me next

I took into my handbroke seal to read

The new epistle from Rome. 'All to no use!

Whate'er the turn next injury take' smiled I

'Here's one has chosen his part and knows his cue.

I am done withdead now; strike awaygood friends!

Are the three suits decided in a trice?

Against me- there's no question! How does it go?

Is the parentage of my wife demonstrated

Infamous to her wish? Parades she now

Loosed of the cincture that so irked the loin?

Is the last penny extracted from my purse

To mulct me for demanding the first pound

Was promised in return for value paid?

Has the priestwith nobody to court beside

Courted the Muse in exilehitched my hap

Into a rattling ballad-rhyme whichbawled

At tavern-doorswakes rapture everywhere

And helps cheap wine down throat this Christmas time

Beating the bagpipes? Any or all of these!

As wellgood friendsyou cursed my palace here

To its old cold stone face- stuck your cap for crest

Over the shield that's extant in the Square-

Or spat on the statue's cheekthe impatient world

Sees cumber tomb-top in our family church:

Let him creep under covert as I shall do

Half below-ground already indeed. Good-bye!

My brothers are priestsand childless so; that's well-

Andthank God most for thisno child leave I-

None after me to bear till his heart break

The being a Franceschini and my son!'

'NAY' said the letter'but you have just that!

A babeyour veritable son and heir-

Lawful- 'tis only eight months since your wife

Left you- soson and heiryour babe was born

Last Wednesday in the villa- you see the cause

For quitting Convent without beat of drum

Stealing a hurried march to this retreat

That's not so savage as the Sisterhood

To slips and stumbles: Pietro's heart is soft

Violante leans to pity's side- the pair

Ushered you into life a bouncing boy:

And he's already hidden away and safe

From any claim on him you mean to make-

They need him for themselves- don't fearthey know

The use o' the bantling- the nerve thus laid bare

To nip atnew and nicewith finger-nail!'

THEN I rose up like fireand fire-like roared.

Whatall is only beginning not ending now?

The worm which wormed its way from skin through flesh

To the bone and there lay bitingdid its best

Whatit goes on to scrape at the bone's self

Will wind to inmost marrow and madden me?

There's to be yet my representative

Another of the name shall keep displayed

The flag with the ordure on itbrandish still

The broken sword has served to stir a jakes?

Who will he behow will you call the man?

A Franceschini- when who cut my purse

Filched my namehemmed me roundhustled me hard

As rogues at a fair some fool they strip i' the midst

When these count gainsvaunt pillage presently:-

But a Caponsacchiohbe very sure!

When what demands its tribute of applause

Is the cunning and impudence o' the pair of cheats

The lies and lust o' the motherand the brave

Bold carriage of the priestworthily crowned

By a witness to his feat i' the following age-

And how this three-fold cord could hook and fetch

And land leviathan that king of pride!

Or sayby some mad miracle of chance

Is he indeed my flesh and bloodthis babe?

Was it because fate forged a link at last

Betwixt my wife and meand both alike

Found we had henceforth some one thing to love

Was it when she could damn my soul indeed

She unlatched doorlet all the devils o' the dark

Dance in on me to cover her escape?

Why thenthe surplusage of disgracethe spilth

Over and above the measure of infamy

Failing to take effect on my coarse flesh

Seasoned with scorn nowsaturate with shame-

Is saved to instil on and corrode the brow

The baby-softness of my first-born child-

The child I had died to see though in a dream

The child I was bid strike out forbeat the wave

And baffle the tide of troubles where I swam

So I might touch shorelay down life at last

At the feet so dim and distant and divine

Of the apparitionas 'twere Mary's babe

Had heldthrough night and stormthe torch aloft-

Born now in very deed to bear this brand

On forehead and curse me who could not save!

Rather be the town-talk trueSquare's jeststreet's jeer

Truemy own inmost heart's confession true

And he's the priest's bastard and none of mine!

Aythere was cause for flightswift flight and sure!

The husband gets unrulybreaks all bounds

When he encounters some familiar face

Fashion of featurebrow and eyes and lips

Where he least looked to find them- time to fly!

This bastard thena nest for him is made

As the manner is of verminin my flesh-

Shall I let the filthy pest buzzflap and sting

Busy at my vitals andnor hand nor foot

Liftbut let belie still and rot resigned?

NoI appeal to God- what says Himself

How lessons Nature when I look to learn?

Whythat I am aliveam still a man

With brain and heart and tongue and right-hand too-

Nayeven with friendsin such a cause as this

To right me if I fail to take my right.

No more of law; a voice beyond the law

Enters my heartQuis est pro Domino?

MYSELFin my own Vittianotold the tale

To my own serving-people summoned there:

Told the first half of itscarce heard to end

By judges who got done with judgment quick

And clamoured to go execute her 'hest-

Who cried 'Not one of us that dig your soil

And dress your vineyardprune your olive-trees

But would have brained the man debauched our wife

And staked the wife whose lust allured the man

And paunched the Dukehad it been possible

Who ruled the landyet barred us such revenge!'

I fixed on the first whose eyes caught minesome four

Resolute youngsters with the heart still fresh

Filled my purse with the residue o' the coin

Uncaught-up by my wife whom haste made blind

Donned the first rough and rural garb I found

Took whatsoever weapon came to hand

And out we flung and on we ran or reeled

RomewardI have no memory of our way

Only thatwhen at intervals the cloud

Of horror about me opened to let in life

I listened to some song in the earsome snatch

Of a legendrelic of religionstray

Fragment of record very strong and old

Of the first consciencethe anterior right

The God's-gift to mankindimpulse to quench

The antagonistic spark of hell and tread

Satan and all his malice into dust

Declare to the world the one lawright is right.

Then the cloud re-encompassed meand so

I found myselfas on the wings of winds

Arrived: I was at Rome on Christmas Eve.

FESTIVE bells- everywhere the Feast o' the Babe

Joy upon earthpeace and good will to man!

I am baptized. I started and let drop

The dagger. 'Where is itHis promised peace?'

Nine days o' the Birth-Feast did I pause and pray

To enter into no temptation more.

I bore the hateful housemy brother's once

Deserted- let the ghost of social joy

Mock and make mouths at me from empty room

And idle door that missed the master's step-

Bore the frank wonder of incredulous eyes

As my own people watched without a word

Waftedfrom where they huddled round the hearth

Black like all elsethat nod so slow to come-

I stopped my ears even to the inner call

Of the dread dutyheard only the song

'Peace upon earth' saw nothing but the face

O' the Holy Infant and the halo there

Able to cover yet another face

Behind itSatan's which I else should see.

Butday by dayjoy waned and withered off:

The Babe's facepremature with peak and pine

Sank into wrinkled ruinous old age

Suffering and deaththen mist-like disappeared

And showed only the Cross at end of all

Left nothing more to interpose 'twixt me

And the dread duty- for the angel's song

'Peace upon earth' louder and louder pealed

'O Lordhow longhow long be unavenged?'

On the ninth daythis grew too much for man.

I started up- 'Some end must be!' At once

Silence: thenscratching like a death-watch-tick

Slowly within my brain was syllabled

'One more concessionone decisive way

And but oneto determine thee the truth-

This wayin fineI whisper in thy ear:

Now doubtanon decidethereupon act!'

'That is a waythou whisperest in my ear!

I doubtI will decidethen act' said I-

Then beckoned my companions: 'Time is come!'

AND soall yet uncertain save the will

To do rightand the daring aught save leave

Right undoneI did find myself at last

I' the dark before the villa with my friends

And made the experimentthe final test

Ultimate chance that ever was to be

For the wretchedness inside. I knocked- pronounced

The namethe predetermined touch for truth

'What welcome for the wanderer? Open straight-'

To the friendphysicianfriar upon his rounds

Traveller belatedbeggar lame and blind?-

Nobut- 'to Caponsacchi! And the door

Opened.

And then- whyeven thenI think

I' the minute that confirmed my worst of fears

Surely- I pray God that I think aright!-

Had but Pompilia's selfthe tender thing

Who once was good and purewas once my lamb

And lay in my bosomhad the well-known shape

Fronted me in the doorway- stood there faint

With the recent pangperhapsof giving birth

To what mightthough by miracleseem my child-

Nay moreI will sayhad even the aged fool

Pietrothe dotardin whom folly and age

Wroughtmore than enmity or malevolence

To practise and conspire against my peace-