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Robert Browning - The Ring And The Book - Chapter XI - Guido
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To bliss unbearable when, grace and glow,
Prowess and pride descend the throne and touch
Esther in all that pretty tremble, cured
By the dove o’ the sceptre! But myself am old,
O’ the wane at least, in all things: what do you say
To her who frankly thus confirms my doubt?
I am past the prime, I scare the woman-world,
Done-with that way: you like this piece of news?
A little saucy rose-bud minx can strike
Death-damp into the breast of doughty king
Though ’twere French Louis,—soul I understand,—
Saying, by gesture of repugnance, just
“Sire, you are regal, puissant and so forth,
“But—young you have been, are not, nor will be!”
In vain the mother nods, winks, bustles up
“Count, girls incline to mature worth like you!
“As for Pompilia, what’s flesh, fish, or fowl
“To one who apprehends no difference,
“And would accept you even were you old
“As you are . . . youngish by her father’s side?
“Trim but your beard a little, thin your bush
“Of eyebrow; and for presence, portliness
“And decent gravity, you beat a boy!”
Deceive you for a second, if you may,
In presence of the child that so loves age,
Whose neck writhes, cords itself against your kiss,
Whose hand you wring stark, rigid with despair!
Well, I resent this; I am young in soul,
Nor old in body,—thews and sinews here,—
Though the vile surface be not smooth as once,—
Far beyond the first wheelwork that went wrong
Through the untempered iron ere ’twas proof:
I am the steel man worth ten times the crude,—
Would woman see what this declines to see,
Declines to say “I see,”—the officious word
That makes the thing, pricks on the soul to shoot
New fire into the half-used cinder, flesh!
Therefore ’tis she begins with wronging me,
Who cannot but begin with hating her.
Our marriage follows: there we stand again!
Why do I laugh? Why, in the very gripe
O’ the jaws of death’s gigantic skull do I
Grin back his grin, make sport of my own pangs?
Why from each clashing of his molars, ground
To make the devil bread from out my grist,
Leaps out a spark of mirth, a hellish toy?
Take notice we are lovers in a church,
Waiting the sacrament to make us one
And happy! Just as bid, she bears herself,
Comes and kneels, rises, speaks, is silent,—goes:
So have I brought my horse, by word and blow,
To stand stock-still and front the fire he dreads.
How can I other than remember this,
Resent the very obedience? Gain thereby?
Yes, I do gain my end and have my will,—
Thanks to whom? When the mother speaks the word,
She obeys it—even to enduring me!
There had been compensation in revolt—
Revolt’s to quell: but martyrdom rehearsed,
But determined saintship for the sake
O’ the mother?—“Go!” thought I, “we meet again!”
Pass the next weeks of dumb contented death,
She lives,—wakes up, installed in house and home,
Is mine, mine all day-long, all night-long mine.
Good folks begin at me with open mouth
“Now, at least, reconcile the child to life!
“Study and make her love . . . that is, endure
“The . . . hem! the . . . all of you though somewhat old,
“Till it amount to something, in her eye,
“As good as love, better a thousand times—
“Since nature helps the woman in such strait,
“Makes passiveness her pleasure: failing which,
“What if you give up boys’ and girls’ fools’-play
“And go on to wise friendship all at once?
“Those boys and girls kiss themselves cold, you know.
“Toy themselves tired and slink aside full soon
“To friendship, as they name satiety;
“Thither go you and wait their coming!” Thanks,
Considerate advisers,—but, fair play!
Had you and I but started fair at first
We, keeping fair, might reach it, neck by neck,
This blessed goal, whenever fate so please:
But why am I to miss the daisied mile
The course begins with, why obtain the dust
Of the end precisely at the starting-point?
Why quaff life’s cup blown free of all the beads,
The bright red froth wherein our beard should steep
Before our mouth essay the black o’ the wine?
Foolish, the love-fit? Let me prove it such
Like you, before like you I puff things clear!
“The best’s to come, no rapture but content!
“Not the first glory but a sober glow,
“Nor a spontaneous outburst in pure boon,
“So much as, gained by patience, care and toil!”
Go preach that to your nephews, not to me
Who, tired i’ the midway of my life, would stop
And take my first refreshment in a rose:
What’s this coarse woolly hip, worn smooth of leaf,
You counsel I go plant in garden-pot,
Water with tears, manure with sweat and blood,
In confidence the seed shall germinate
And, for its very best, some far-off day,
Grow big, and blow me out a dog-rose bell?
Why must your nephews begin breathing spice
O’ the hundred-petalled Provence prodigy?
Nay, more and worse,—would such my root bear rose—
Prove really flower and favourite, not the kind
That’s queen, but those three leaves that make one cup.
And hold the hedge-bird’s breakfast,—then indeed
The prize though poor would pay the care and toil!
Respect we Nature that makes least as most,
Marvellous in the minim! But this bud,
Bit through and burned black by the tempter’s tooth,
This bloom whose best grace was the slug outside
And the wasp inside its bosom,—call you “rose?”
Claim no immunity from a weed’s fate
For the horrible present! What you call my wife
I call a nullity in female shape,
Vapid disgust, soon to be pungent plague,
When mixed with, made confusion and a curse
By two abominable nondescripts,
That father and that mother: think you see
The dreadful bronze our boast, we Aretines,
The Etruscan monster, the three-headed thing,
Bellerophon’s foe! How name you the whole beast?
You choose to name the body from one head,
That of the simple kid which droops the eye,
Hangs the neck and dies tenderly enough:
I rather see the griesly lion belch
Flame out i’ the midst, the serpent writhe her rings,
Grafted into the common stock for tail,
And name the brute, Chimæra, which I slew!
How was there ever more to be—(concede
My wife’s insipid harmless nullity)—
Dissociation from that pair of plagues—
That mother with her cunning and her cant—
The eyes with first their twinkle of conceit,
Then, dropped to earth in mock-demureness,—now,
The smile self-satisfied from ear to ear
Now, the prim pursed-up mouth’s protruded lips,
With deferential duck, slow swing of head,
Tempting the sudden fist of man too much,—
That owl-like screw of lid and rock of ruff!
As for the father,—Cardinal, you know,
The kind of idiot!—rife are such in Rome,
But they wear velvet commonly, such fools,
At the end of life, can furnish forth young folk
Who grin and bear with imbecility,
Since the stalled ass, the joker, sheds from jaw
Corn, in the joke, for those who laugh or starve:
But what say we to the same solemn beast
Wagging his ears and wishful of our pat,
When turned, with hide in holes and bones laid bare,
To forage for himself i’ the waste o’ the world,
Sir Dignity i’ the dumps? Pat him? We drub
Self-knowledge, rather, into frowzy pate,
Teach Pietro to get trappings or go hang!
Fancy this quondam oracle in vogue
At Via Vittoria, this personified
Authority when time was,—Pantaloon
Flaunting his tom-fool tawdry just the same
As if Ash-Wednesday were mid-Carnival!
That’s the extreme and unforgivable
Of sins, as I account such. Have you stooped
For your own ends to bestialise yourself
By flattery of a fellow of this stamp?
The ends obtained, or else shown out of reach,
He goes on, takes the flattery for pure truth,—
“You love and honour me, of course: what next?”
What, but the trifle of the stabbing, friend?—
Which taught you how one worships when the shrine
Has lost the relic that we bent before.
Angry? And how could I be otherwise?
’Tis plain: this pair of old pretentious fools
Meant to fool me: it happens, I fooled them,
Why could not these who sought to buy and sell
Me,—when they found themselves were bought and sold,
Make up their mind to the proved rule of right,
Be chattel and not chapman any more?
Miscalculation has its consequence;
But when the shepherd crooks a sheep-like thing
And meaning to get wool, dislodges fleece
And finds the veritable wolf beneath,
(How that staunch image serves at every turn!)
Does he, by way of being politic,
Pluck the first whisker grimly visible?—
Or rather grow in a trice all gratitude,
Protest this sort-of-what-one-might-name sheep
Beats the old other curly-coated kind,
And shall share board and bed, if so it deign,
With its discoverer, like a royal ram?
Ay, thus, with chattering teeth and knocking knees,
Would wisdom treat the adventure: these, forsooth,
Tried whisker-plucking, and so found what trap
The whisker kept perdue, two rows of teeth—
Sharp, as too late the prying fingers felt.
What would you have? The fools transgress, the fools
Forthwith receive appropriate punishment:
They first insult me, I return the blow,
There follows noise enough: four hubbub months,
Now hue and cry, now whimpering and wail—
A perfect goose-yard cackle of complaint
Because I do not gild the geese their oats,—
I have enough of noise, ope wicket wide,
Sweep out the couple to go whine elsewhere,
Frightened a little, hurt in no respect,
And am just taking thought to breathe again,
Taste the sweet sudden silence all about,
When, there they are at it, the old noise I know,
At Rome i’ the distance! “What, begun once more?
“Whine on, wail ever, ’tis the loser’s right!”
But eh, what sort of voice grows on the wind?
Triumph it sounds and no complaint at all!
And triumph it is! My boast was premature:
The creatures, I turned forth, clapped wing and crew
Fighting-cock-fashion,—they had filched a pearl
From dung-heap, and might boast with cause enough!
I was defrauded of all bargained for,—
You know, the Pope knows, not a soul but knows
My dowry was derision, my gain—muck,
My wife (the Church declared my flesh and blood)
The nameless bastard of a common whore:
My old name turned henceforth to . . . shall I say
“He that received the ordure in his face?”
And they who planned this wrong, performed this wrong,
And then revealed this wrong to the wide world,
Rounded myself in the ears with my own wrong,—
Why, these were . . . note hell’s lucky malice, now! . . . 
These were just they, and they alone, could act
And publish in this wise their infamy,
Secure that men would in a breath believe
Compassionate and pardon them,—for why?
They plainly were too stupid to invent,
Too simple to distinguish wrong from right,—
Inconscious agents they, the silly-sooth,
Of heaven’s retributive justice on the strong
Proud cunning violent oppressor—me!
Follow them to their fate and help your best,
You Rome, Arezzo, foes called friends of mine,
They gave the good long laugh to at my cost!
Defray your share o’ the cost since you partook
The entertainment! Do!—assured the while,
That not one stab, I dealt to right and left,
But went the deeper for a fancy—this—
That each might do me two-fold service, find
A friend’s face at the bottom of each wound,
And scratch its smirk a little! 

                                        Panciatichi!
There’s a report at Florence,—is it true?—
That when your relative the Cardinal
Built, only the other day, that barrack-bulk,
The palace in Via Larga, some one picked
From out the street a saucy quip enough
That fell there from its day’s flight through the town,
About the flat front and the windows wide
And ugly heap of cornice,—hitched the joke
Into a sonnet, signed his name thereto,
And forthwith pinned on post the pleasantry.
For which he’s at the galleys, rowing now
Up to his waist in water,—just because
Panciatic and lymphatic rhymed so pat:
I hope, Sir, those who passed this joke on me
Were not unduly punished? What say you,
Prince of the Church, my patron? Nay, indeed!
I shall not dare insult your wits so much
As think this problem difficult to solve!
This Pietro and Violante, then, I say,
These two ambiguous insects, changing name
And nature with the season’s warmth or chill,—
Now, grovelled, grubbing toiling moiling ants,
A very synonym of thrift and peace,—
Anon, with lusty June to prick their heart,
Soared i’ the air, winged flies for more offence,
Circled me, buzzed me deaf and stung me blind,
And stunk me dead with fetor in the face
Until I stopped the nuisance: there’s my crime!
Pity I did not suffer them subside
Into some further shape and final form
Of execrable life? My masters, no!
I, by one blow, wisely cut short at once
Them and their transformations of disgust
In the snug little Villa out of hand.
“Grant me confession, give bare time for that!”—
Shouted the sinner till his mouth was stopped.
His life confessed!—that was enough for me,
Who came to see that he did penance. ’S death!
Here’s a coil raised, a pother and for what?
Because strength, being provoked by weakness, fought
And conquered,—the world never heard the like!
Pah, how I spend my breath on them, as if
’Twas their fate troubled me, too hard to range
Among the right and fit and proper things! 

Ay, but Pompilia,—I await your word,—
She, unimpeached of crime, unimplicate
In folly, one of alien blood to these
I punish, why extend my claim, exact
Her portion of the penalty? Yes, friends,
I go too fast: the orator’s at fault:
Yes, ere I lay her, with your leave, by them
As she was laid at San Lorenzo late,
I ought to step back, lead her by degrees,
Recounting at each step some fresh offence,
Up to the red bed,—never fear, I will!
Gaze on her, where you place her, to begin,
Confound me with her gentleness and worth!
The horrible pair have fled and left her now,
She has her husband for her sole concern,
His wife, the woman fashioned for his help,
Flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, the bride
To groom as is the Church and Spouse, to Christ:
There she stands in his presence,—“Thy desire
“Shall be to the husband, o’er thee shall he rule!”
—“Pompilia, who declare that you love God,
“You know who said that: then, desire my love,
“Yield me contentment and be ruled aright!”
She sits up, she lies down, she comes and goes,
Kneels at the couch-side, overleans the sill
O’ the window, cold and pale and mute as stone,
Strong as stone also. “Well, are they not fled?
“Am I not left, am I not one for all?
“Speak a word, drop a tear, detach a glance,
“Bless me or curse me of your own accord!
“Is it the ceiling only wants your soul,
“Is worth your eyes?” And then the eyes descend
And do look at me. Is it at the meal?
“Speak!” she obeys, “Be silent!” she obeys,
Counting the minutes till I cry “Depart,”
As brood-bird when you saunter past her eggs,
Departed, just the same through door and wall
I see the same stone strength of white despair.
And all this will be never otherwise!
Before, the parents’ presence lent her life:
She could play off her sex’s armoury,
Intreat, reproach, be female to my male,
Try all the shrieking doubles of the hare,
Go clamour to the Commissary, bid
The Archbishop hold my hands and stop my tongue,
And yield fair sport so: but the tactics change,
The hare stands stock-still to enrage the hound!
Since that day when she learned she was no child
Of those she thought her parents,—that their trick
Had tricked me whom she thought sole trickster late,—
Why, I suppose she said within herself
“Then, no more struggle for my parents’ sake,
“And, for my own sake, why needs struggle be?”
But is there no third party to the pact?
What of her husband’s relish or dislike
For this new game of giving up the game,
This worst offence of not offending more?
I’ll not believe but instinct wrought in this,
Set her on to conceive and execute
The preferable plague . . . how sure they probe,—
These jades, the sensitivest soft of man!
The long black hair was wound now in a wisp,—
Crowned sorrow better than the wild web late:
No more soiled dress, ’tis trimness triumphs now,
For how should malice go with negligence?
The frayed silk looked the fresher for her spite!
There was an end to springing out of bed,
Praying me, with face buried on my feet,
Be hindered of my pastime,—so an end
To my rejoinder, “What, on the ground at last?
“Vanquished in fight, a supplicant for life?
“What if I raise you? ’Ware the casting down
“When next you fight me!” Then, she lay there, mine:
Now, mine she is if I please wring her neck,—
A moment of disquiet, working eyes,
Protruding tongue, a long sigh, then no more—
As if one killed the horse one could not ride!
Had I enjoined “Cut off the hair!”—why, snap
The scissors, and at once a yard or so
Had fluttered in black serpents to the floor:
But till I did enjoin it, how she combs,
Uncurls and draws out to the complete length,
Plaits, places the insulting rope on head
To be an eyesore past dishevelment!
Is all done? Then sit still again and stare!
I advise—no one think to bear that look
Of steady wrong, endured as steadily,
—Through what sustainment of deluding hope?
Who is the friend i’ the background that notes all?
Who may come presently and close accounts?
This self-possession to the uttermost,
How does it differ in aught, save degree,
From the terrible patience of God?
                                “All which just means,
“She did not love you!” Again the word is launched
And the fact fronts me! What, you try the wards
With the true key and the dead lock flies ope?
No, it sticks fast and leaves you fumbling still!
You have some fifty servants, Cardinal,—
Which of them loves you? Which subordinate
But makes parade of such officiousness
That,—if there’s no love prompts it,—love, the sham,
Does twice the service done by love, the true.
God bless us liars, where’s one touch of truth
In what we tell the world, or world tells us,
Oh how we like each other? All the same,
We calculate on word and deed, nor err,—
Bid such a man do such a loving act,
Sure of effect and negligent of cause,
Just as we bid a horse, with cluck of tongue,
Stretch his legs arch-wise, crouch his saddled back
To foot-reach of the stirrup—all for love,
And some for memory of the smart of switch
On the inside of the foreleg—what care we?
Yet where’s the bond obliges horse to man
Like that which binds fast wife to husband? God
Laid down the law: gave man the brawny arm
And ball of fist—woman the beardless cheek
And proper place to suffer in the side:
Since it is he can strike, let her obey!
Can she feel no love? Let her show the more,
Sham the worse, damn herself praiseworthily!
Who’s that soprano Rome went mad about
Last week while I lay rotting in my straw?
The very jailor gossiped in his praise—
How,—dressed up like Armida, though a man;
And painted to look pretty, though a fright,—
He still made love so that the ladies swooned,
Being an eunuch. “Ah, Rinaldo mine!
“But to breathe by thee while Jove slays us both!”
All the poor bloodless creature never felt,
Si, do, re, me, fa, squeak and squall—for what?
Two gold zecchines the evening! Here’s my slave,
Whose body and soul depend upon my nod,
Can’t falter out the first note in the scale
For her life! Why blame me if I take the life?
All women cannot give men love, forsooth!
No, nor all pullets lay the henwife eggs—
Whereat she bids them remedy the fault,
Brood on a chalk-ball: soon the nest is stocked—
Otherwise, to the plucking and the spit!
This wife of mine was of another mood—
Would not begin the lie that ends with truth,
Nor feign the love that brings real love about:
Wherefore I judged, sentenced and punished her.
But why particularise, defend the deed?
Say that I hated her for no one cause
Beyond my pleasure so to do,—what then?
Just on as much incitement acts the world,
All of you! Look and like! You favour one,
Brow-beat another, leave alone a third,—
Why should you master natural caprice?
Pure nature! Try—plant elm by ash in file;
Both unexceptionable trees enough,
They ought to overlean each other, pair
At top and arch across the avenue
The whole path to the pleasaunce: do they so—
Or loathe, lie off abhorrent each from each?
Lay the fault elsewhere, since we must have faults:
Mine shall have been,—seeing there’s ill in the end
Come of my course,—that I fare somehow worse
For the way I took,—my fault . . . as God’s my judge
I see not where the fault lies, that’s the truth!
I ought . . . oh, ought in my own interest
Have let the whole adventure go untried,
This chance by marriage,—or else, trying it,
Ought to have turned it to account some one
O’ the hundred otherwises? Ay, my friend,
Easy to say, easy to do,—step right
Now you’ve stepped left and stumbled on the thing,
—The red thing! Doubt I any more than you
That practice makes man perfect? Give again
The chance,—same marriage and no other wife,
Be sure I’ll edify you! That’s because
I’m practised, grown fit guide for Guido’s self.
You proffered guidance,—I know, none so well,—
You laid down law and rolled decorum out,
From pulpit-corner on the gospel-side,—
Wanted to make your great experience mine,
Save me the personal search and pains so: thanks!
Take your word on life’s use? When I take his—
The muzzled ox that treadeth out the corn,
Gone blind in padding round and round one path,—
As to the taste of green grass in the field!
What do you know o’ the world that’s trodden flat
And salted sterile with your daily dung,
Leavened into a lump of loathsomeness?
Take your opinion of the modes of life,
The aims of life, life’s triumph or defeat,
How to feel, how to scheme and how to do
Or else leave undone? You preached long and loud
On high-days, “Take our doctrine upon trust!
“Into the mill-house with you! Grind our corn,
“Relish our chaff, and let the green grass grow!”
I tried chaff, found I famished on such fare,
So made this mad rush at the mill-house-door,
Buried my head up to the ears in dew,
Browsed on the best, for which you brain me, Sirs!
Be it so! I conceived of life that way,
And still declare—life, without absolute use
Of the actual sweet therein, is death, not life.
Give me,—pay down,—not promise, which is air,—
Something that’s out of life and better still,
Make sure reward, make certain punishment,
Entice me, scare me,—I’ll forego this life;
Otherwise, no!—the less that words, mere wind,
Would cheat me of some minutes while they plague.
The fulness of revenge here,—blame yourselves
For this eruption of the pent-up soul
You prisoned first and played with afterward!
“Deny myself” meant simply pleasure you,
The sacred and superior, save the mark!
You,—whose stupidity and insolence
I must defer to, soothe at every turn,—
Whose swine-like snuffling greed and grunting lust
I had to wink at or help gratify,—
While the same passions,—dared they perk in me,
Me, the immeasurably marked, by God,
Master of the whole world of such as you,—
I, boast such passions? ’Twas “Suppress them straight!
“Or stay, we’ll pick and choose before destroy:
“Here’s wrath in you,—a serviceable sword,—
“Beat it into a ploughshare! What’s this long
“Lance-like ambition? Forge a pruning-hook,
“May be of service when our vines grow tall!
“But—sword used swordwise, spear thrust out as spear?
“Anathema! Suppression is the word!”
My nature, when the outrage was too gross,
Widened itself an outlet over-wide
By way of answer?—sought its own relief
With more of fire and brimstone than you wished?
All your own doing: preachers, blame yourselves! 

’Tis I preach while the hour-glass runs and runs!
God keep me patient! All I say just means—
My wife proved, whether by her fault or mine,—
That’s immaterial,—a true stumbling-block
I’ the way of me her husband: I but plied
The hatchet yourselves use to clear a path,
Was politic, played the game you warrant wins,
Plucked at law’s robe a-rustle through the courts,
Bowed down to kiss divinity’s buckled shoe
Cushioned i’ the church: efforts all wide the aim!
Procedures to no purpose! Then flashed truth!
The letter kills, the spirit keeps alive
In law and gospel: there be nods and winks
Instruct a wise man to assist himself
In certain matters nor seek aid at all.
“Ask money of me,”—quoth the clownish saw,—
“And take my purse! But,—speaking with respect,—
“Need you a solace for the troubled nose?
“Let everybody wipe his own himself!”
Sirs, tell me free and fair! Had things gone well
At the wayside inn: had I surprised asleep
The runaways, as was so probable,
And pinned them each to other partridge-wise,
Through back and breast to breast and back, then bade
Bystanders witness if the spit, my sword,
Were loaded with unlawful game for once—
Would you have interposed to damp the glow
Applauding me on every husband’s cheek?
Would you have checked the cry “A judgment, see!
“A warning, note! Be henceforth chaste, ye wives,
“Nor stray beyond your proper precinct, priests!”
If you had, then your house against itself
Divides, nor stands your kingdom any more.
Oh, why, why was it not ordained just so?
Why fell not things out so nor otherwise?
Ask that particular devil whose task it is
To trip the all-but-at perfection,—slur
The line o’ the painter just where paint leaves off
And life begins,—puts ice into the ode
O’ the poet while he cries “Next stanza—fire!”
Inscribes all human effort with one word,
Artistry’s haunting curse, the Incomplete!
Being incomplete, the act escaped success.
Easy to blame now! Every fool can swear
To hole in net that held and slipped the fish.
But, treat my act with fair unjaundiced eye,
What was there wanting to a masterpiece
Except the luck that lies beyond a man?
My way with the woman, now proved grossly wrong,
Just missed of being gravely grandly right
And making critics laugh o’ the other side.
Do, for the poor obstructed artist’s sake,
Go with him over that spoiled work once more!
Take only its first flower, the ended act
Now in the dusty pod, dry and defunct!
I march to the Villa, and my men with me,
That evening, and we reach the door and stand.
I say . . . no, it shoots through me lightning-like
While I pause, breathe, my hand upon the latch,
“Let me forebode! Thus far, too much success:
“I want the natural failure—find it where?
“Which thread will have to break and leave a loop
“I’ the meshy combination, my brain’s loom
“Wove this long while and now next minute tests?
“Of three that are to catch, two should go free,
“One must: all three surprised,—impossible!
“Beside, I seek three and may chance on six,—
“This neighbour, t’other gossip,—the babe’s birth
“Brings such to fireside and folks give them wine,—
“’Tis late: but when I break in presently
“One will be found outlingering the rest
“For promise of a posset,—one whose shout
“Would raise the dead down in the catacombs,
“Much more the city-watch that goes its round.
“When did I ever turn adroitly up
“To sun some brick embedded in the soil,
“And with one blow crush all three scorpions there?
“Or Pietro or Violante shambles off—
“It cannot be but I surprise my wife—
“If only she is stopped and stamped on, good!
“That shall suffice: more is improbable.
“Now I may knock!” And this once for my sake
The impossible was effected: I called king,
Queen and knave in a sequence, and cards came,
All three, three only! So, I had my way,
Did my deed: so, unbrokenly lay bare
Each tænia that had sucked me dry of juice,
At last outside me, not an inch of ring
Left now to writhe about and root itself
I’ the heart all powerless for revenge! Henceforth
I might thrive: these were drawn and dead and damned.
Oh Cardinal, the deep long sigh you heave
When the load’s off you, ringing as it runs
All the way down the serpent-stair to hell!
No doubt the fine delirium flustered me,
Turned my brain with the influx of success
As if the sole need now were to wave wand
And find doors fly wide,—wish and have my will,—
The rest o’ the scheme would care for itself: escape?
Easy enough were that, and poor beside!
It all but proved so,—ought to quite have proved,
Since, half the chances had sufficed, set free
Any one, with his senses at command,
From thrice the danger of my flight. But, drunk,
Redundantly triumphant,—some reverse
Was sure to follow! There’s no other way
Accounts for such prompt perfect failure then
And there on the instant. And day o’ the week,
A ducat slid discreetly into palm
O’ the mute post-master, while you whisper him—
How you the Count and certain four your knaves,
Have just been mauling who was malapert,
Suspect the kindred may prove troublesome,
Therefore, want horses in a hurry,—that
And nothing more secures you any day
The pick o’ the stable! Yet I try the trick,
Double the bribe, call myself Duke for Count,
And say the dead man only was a Jew,
And for my pains find I am dealing just
With the one scrupulous fellow in all Rome—
Just this immaculate official stares,
Sees I want hat on head and sword in sheath,
Am splashed with other sort of wet than wine,
Shrugs shoulder, puts my hand by, gold and all,
Stands on the strictness of the rule o’ the road!
“Where’s the Permission?” Where’s the wretched rag
With the due seal and sign of Rome’s Police,
To be had for asking, half-an-hour ago?
“Gone? Get another, or no horses hence!”
He dares not stop me, we five glare too grim,
But hinders,—hacks and hamstrings sure enough,
Gives me some twenty miles of miry road
More to march in the middle of that night
Whereof the rough beginning taxed the strength
O’ the youngsters, much more mine, such as you see,
Who had to think as well as act: dead-beat,
We gave in ere we reached the boundary
And safe spot out of this irrational Rome,—
Where, on dismounting from our steeds next day,
We had snapped our fingers at you, safe and sound,
Tuscans once more in blessed Tuscany,
Where the laws make allowance, understand
Civilised life and do its champions right!
Witness the sentence of the Rota there,
Arezzo uttered, the Granduke confirmed,
One week before I acted on its hint,—
Giving friend Guillichini, for his love,
The galleys, and my wife your saint, Rome’s saint,—
Rome manufactures saints enough to know,—
Seclusion at the Stinche for her life,
All this, that all but was, might all have been,
Yet was not! baulked by just a scrupulous knave
Whose palm was horn through handling horses’ hoofs
And could not close upon my proffered gold!
What say you to the spite of fortune? Well,
The worst’s in store: thus hindered, haled this way
To Rome again by hangdogs, whom find I
Here, still to fight with, but my pale frail wife?
—Riddled with wounds by one not like to waste
The blows he dealt,—knowing anatomy,—
(I think I told you) one to pick and choose
The vital parts! ’Twas learning all in vain!
She too must shimmer through the gloom o’ the grave,
Come and confront me—not at judgment-seat
Where I could twist her soul, as erst her flesh,
And turn her truth into a lie,—but there,
O’ the death-bed, with God’s hand between us both,
Striking me dumb, and helping her to speak,
Tell her own story her own way, and turn
My plausibility to nothingness!
Four whole days did Pompilia keep alive,
With the best surgery of Rome agape
At the miracle,—this cut, the other slash,
And yet the life refusing to dislodge,
Four whole extravagant impossible days,
Till she had time to finish and persuade
Every man, every woman, every child
In Rome of what she would: the selfsame she
Who, but a year ago, had wrung her hands,
Reddened her eyes and beat her breasts, rehearsed
The whole game at Arezzo, nor availed
Thereby to move one heart or raise one hand!
When destiny intends you cards like these,
What good of skill and preconcerted play?
Had she been found dead, as I left her dead,
I should have told a tale brooked no reply:
You scarcely will suppose me found at fault
With that advantage! “What brings me to Rome?
“Necessity to claim and take my wife:
“Better, to claim and take my new-born babe,—
“Strong in paternity a fortnight old,
“When ’tis at strongest: warily I work,
“Knowing the machinations of my foe;
“I have companionship and use the night:
“I seek my wife and child,—I find—no child
“But wife, in the embraces of that priest
“Who caused her to elope from me. These two,
“Backed by the pander-pair who watch the while,
“Spring on me like so many tiger-cats,
“Glad of the chance to end the intruder. I—
“What should I do but stand on my defence,
“Strike right, strike left, strike thick and threefold, slay,
“Not all—because the coward priest escapes.
“Last, I escape, in fear of evil tongues,
“And having had my taste of Roman law.”
What’s disputable, refutable here?—
Save by just one ghost-thing half on earth,
Half out of it,—as if she held God’s hand
While she leant back and looked her last at me,
Forgiving me (here monks begin to weep)
Oh, from her very soul, commending mine
To heavenly mercies which are infinite,—
While fixing fast my head beneath your knife!
’Tis fate not fortune! All is of a piece!
What was it you informed me of my youths?
My rustic four o’ the family, soft swains,
What sweet surprise had they in store for me,
Those of my very household,—what did Law
Twist with her rack-and-cord-contrivance late
From out their bones and marrow? What but this—
Had no one of these several stumbling-blocks
Stopped me, they yet were cherishing a scheme,
All of their honest country homespun wit,
To quietly next day at crow of cock,
Cut my own throat too, for their own behoof,
Seeing I had forgot to clear accounts
O’ the instant, nowise slackened speed for that,—
And somehow never might find memory,
Once safe back in Arezzo, where things change,
And a court-lord needs mind no country lout.
Well, being the arch-offender, I die last,—
May, ere my head falls, have my eyesight free,
Nor miss them dangling high on either hand,
Like scarecrows in a hemp-field, for their pains! 

And then my Trial,—’tis my Trial that bites
Like a corrosive, so the cards are packed,
Dice loaded, and my life-stake tricked away!
Look at my lawyers, lacked they grace of law,
Latin or logic? Were not they fools to the height,
Fools to the depth, fools to the level between,
O’ the foolishness set to decide the case?
They feign, they flatter; nowise does it skill,
Everything goes against me: deal each judge
His dole of flattery and feigning,—why,
He turns and tries and snuffs and savours it,
As an old fly the sugar-grain, your gift;
Then eyes your thumb and finger, brushes clean
The absurd old head of him, and whisks away,
Leaving your thumb and finger dirty. Faugh! 

And finally, after this long-drawn range
Of affront, failure, failure and affront,—
This path, twixt crosses leading to a skull,
Paced by me barefoot, bloodied by my palms
From the entry to the end,—there’s light at length,
A cranny of escape,—appeal may be
To the old man, to the father, to the Pope
For a little life—from one whose life is spent,
A little pity—from pity’s source and seat,
A little indulgence to rank, privilege,
From one who is the thing personified,
Rank, privilege, indulgence, grown beyond
Earth’s bearing, even, ask Jansenius else!
Still the same answer, still no other tune
From the cicala perched at the tree-top
Than crickets noisy round the root,—’tis “Die!”
Bids Law—“Be damned!” adds Gospel,—nay,
No word so frank,—’tis rather, “Save yourself!”
The Pope subjoins—“Confess and be absolved!
“So shall my credit countervail your shame,
“And the world see I have not lost the knack
“Of trying all the spirits,—yours, my son,
“Wants but a fiery washing to emerge
“In clarity! Come, cleanse you, ease the ache
“Of these old bones, refresh our bowels, boy!”
Do I mistake your mission from the Pope?
Then, bear his Holiness the mind of me!
I do get strength from being thrust to wall,
Successively wrenched from pillar and from post
By this tenacious hate of fortune, hate
Of all things in, under, and above earth.
Warfare, begun this mean unmanly mode,
Does best to end so,—gives earth spectacle
Of a brave fighter who succumbs to odds
That turn defeat to victory. Stab, I fold
My mantle round me! Rome approves my act:
Applauds the blow which costs me life but keeps
My honour spotless: Rome would praise no more
Had I fallen, say, some fifteen years ago,
Helping Vienna when our Aretines
Flocked to Duke Charles and fought Turk Mustafa:
Nor would you two be trembling o’er my corpse
With all this exquisite solicitude.
Why is it that I make such suit to live?
The popular sympathy that’s round me now
Would break like bubble that o’er-domes a fly—
Pretty enough while he lies quiet there,
But let him want the air and ply the wing,
Why, it breaks and bespatters him, what else?
Cardinal, if the Pope had pardoned me,
And I walked out of prison through the crowd,
It would not be your arm I should dare press!
Then, if I got safe to my place again,
How sad and sapless were the years to come!
I go my old ways and find things grown grey;
You priests leer at me, old friends look askance;
The mob’s in love, I’ll wager, to a man,
With my poor young good beauteous murdered wife:
For hearts require instruction how to beat,
And eyes, on warrant of the story, wax
Wanton at portraiture in white and black
Of dead Pompilia gracing ballad-sheet,
Which, had she died unmurdered and unsung,
Would never turn though she paced street as bare
As the mad penitent ladies do in France.
My brothers quietly would edge me out
Of use and management of things called mine;
Do I command? “You stretched command before!”
Show anger? “Anger little helped you once!”
Advise? “How managed you affairs of old?”
My very mother, all the while they gird,
Turns eye up, gives confirmatory groan,—
For unsuccess, explain it how you will,
Disqualifies you, makes you doubt yourself,
—Much more, is found decisive by your friends.
Beside, am I not fifty years of age?
What new leap would a life take, checked like mine
I’ the spring at outset? Where’s my second chance?
Ay, but the babe . . . I had forgot my son,
My heir! Now for a burst of gratitude!
There’s some appropriate service to intone,
Some gaudeamus and thanksgiving-psalm!
Old, I renew my youth in him, and poor
Possess a treasure,—is not that the phrase?
Only I must wait patient twenty years—
Nourishing all the while, as father ought,
The excrescence with my daily blood of life.
Does it respond to hope, such sacrifice,—
Grows the wen plump while I myself grow lean?
Why, here’s my son and heir in evidence,
Who stronger, wiser, handsomer than I
By fifty years, relieves me of each load,—
Tames my hot horse, carries my heavy gun,
Courts my coy mistress,—has his apt advice
On house-economy, expenditure,
And what not? All which good gifts and great growth
Because of my decline, he brings to bear
On Guido, but half apprehensive how
He cumbers earth, crosses the brisk young Count,
Who civilly would thrust him from the scene.
Contrariwise, does the blood-offering fail?
There’s an ineptitude, one blank the more
Added to earth in semblance of my child?
Then, this has been a costly piece of work,
My life exchanged for his!—why he, not I,
Enjoy the world, if no more grace accrue?
Dwarf me, what giant have you made of him?
I do not dread the disobedient son—
I know how to suppress rebellion there,
Being not quite the fool my father was.
But grant the medium measure of a man,
The usual compromise ’twixt fool and sage,
—You know—the tolerably-obstinate,
The not-so-much-perverse but you may train,
The true son-servant that, when parent bids
“Go work, son, in my vineyard!” makes reply
“I go, Sir!”—Why, what profit in your son
Beyond the drudges you might subsidise,
Have the same work from at a paul the head?
Look at those four young precious olive-plants
Reared at Vittiano,—not on flesh and blood,
These twenty years, but black bread and sour wine!
I bade them put forth tender branch, and hook
And hurt three enemies I had in Rome:
They did my hest as unreluctantly,
At promise of a dollar, as a son
Adjured by mumping memories of the past!
No, nothing repays youth expended so—
Youth, I say, who am young still,—give but leave
To live my life out, to the last I’d live
And die conceding age no right of youth!
It is the will runs the renewing nerve
Through flaccid flesh, would faint before the time.
Therefore no sort of use for son have I—
Sick, not of life’s feast but of steps to climb
To the house where life prepares her feast,—of means
To the end: for make the end attainable
Without the means,—my relish were like yours.
A man may have an appetite enough
For a whole dish of robins ready cooked,
And yet lack courage to face sleet, pad snow,
And snare sufficiency for supper. 

                                                    Thus
The time’s arrived when, ancient Roman-like,
I am bound to fall on my own sword,—why not
Say—Tuscan-like, more ancient, better still?
Will you hear truth can do no harm nor good?
I think I never was at any time
A Christian, as you nickname all the world,
Me among others: truce to nonsense now!
Name me, a primitive religionist—
As should the aboriginary be
I boast myself, Etruscan, Aretine,
One sprung,—your frigid Virgil’s fieriest word,—
From fauns and nymphs, trunks and the heart of oak,
With,—for a visible divinity,—
The portent of a Jove Ægiochus
Descried ’mid clouds, lightning and thunder, couched
On topmost crag of your Capitoline—
’Tis in the Seventh Æneid,—what, the Eighth?
Right,—thanks, Abate,—though the Christian’s dumb,
The Latinist’s vivacious in you yet!
I know my grandsire had out tapestry
Marked with the motto, ’neath a certain shield
His grandson presently will give some gules
To vary azure. First we fight for faiths,
But get to shake hands at the last of all:
Mine’s your faith too,—in Jove Ægiochus!
Nor do Greek gods, that serve as supplement,
Jar with the simpler scheme, if understood.
We want such intermediary race
To make communication possible;
The real thing were too lofty, we too low,
Midway hang these: we feel their use so plain
In linking height to depth, that we doff hat
And put no question nor pry narrowly
Into the nature hid behind the names.
We grudge no rite the fancy may demand;
But never, more than needs, invent, refine,
Improve upon requirement, idly wise
Beyond the letter, teaching gods their trade,
Which is to teach us: we’ll obey when taught.
Why should we do our duty past the due?
When the sky darkens, Jove is wroth,—say prayer!
When the sun shines and Jove is glad,—sing psalm!
But where fore pass prescription and devise
Blood-offering for sweat-service, lend the rod
A pungency through pickle of our own?
Learned Abate,—no one teaches you
What Venus means and who’s Apollo here!
I spare you, Cardinal,—but, though you wince,
You know me, I know you, and both know that!
So, if Apollo bids us fast, we fast:
But where does Venus order we stop sense
When Master Pietro rhymes a pleasantry?
Give alms prescribed on Friday,—but, hold hand
Because your foe lies prostrate,—where’s the word
Explicit in the book debars revenge?
The rationale of your scheme is just
“Pay toll here, there pursue your pleasure free!”
So do you turn to use the medium-powers,
Mars and Minerva, Bacchus and the rest,
And so are saved propitiating—what?
What all good, all wise and all potent Jove
Vexed by the very sins in man, himself
Made life’s necessity when man he made?
Irrational bunglers! So, the living truth
Revealed to strike Pan dead, ducks low at last,
Prays leave to hold its own and live good days
Provided it go masque grotesquely, called
Christian not Pagan? Oh, you purged the sky
Of all gods save One, the great and good,
Clapped hands and triumphed! But the change came fast:
The inexorable need in man for life—
Life,—you may mulct and minish to a grain
Out of the lump, so the grain left but live,—
Laughed at your substituting death for life,
And bade you do your worst,—which worst was done
—Pass that age styled the primitive and pure
When Saint this, Saint that, dutifully starved,
Froze, fought with beasts, was beaten and abused,
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