Robert Browning - Delphi Poets Series

by Robert Browning

  To equalize the odds. But, do your best,

  Words have to come: and somehow words deflect

  As the best cannon ever rifled will.

  “Deflect” indeed! nor merely words from thoughts

  But names from facts: “Clitumnus” did I say?

  As if it had been his ox-whitening wave

  Whereby folk practised that grim cult of old —

  The murder of their temple’s priest by who

  Would qualify for his succession. Sure —

  Nemi was the true lake’s style. Dream had need

  Of the ox-whitening piece of prettiness

  And so confused names, well known once awake.

  So, i’ the Residenz yet, not Leicester-square,

  Alone, — no such congenial intercourse! —

  My reverie concludes, as dreaming should,

  With daybreak: nothing done and over yet,

  Except cigars! The adventure thus may be,

  Or never needs to be at all: who knows?

  My Cousin-Duke, perhaps, at whose hard head

  — Is it, now — is this letter to be launched,

  The sight of whose gray oblong, whose grim seal,

  Set all these fancies floating for an hour?

  Twenty years are good gain, come what come will!

  Double or quits! The letter goes! Or stays?

  FIFINE AT THE FAIR

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE: AMPHIBIAN.

  FIFINE AT THE FAIR.

  EPILOGUE. THE HOUSEHOLDER.

  FIFINE AT THE FAIR.

  Done Elvire. Vous plaît-il, don Juan, nous éclaircir ces beaux mystères?

  Don Juan. Madame, à vous dire la vérité . . .

  Done Elvire. Ah! que vous savez mal vous défendre pour un homme de cour, et qui doit être accoutumé à ces sortes de choses! J’ai pitié de vous voir la confusion que vous avez. Que ne vous armez-vous le front d’une noble effronterie? Que ne me jurez-vous que vous êtes toujours dans les mêmes sentimens pour moi, que vous m’aimez toujours avec une ardeur sans égale, et que rien n’est capable de vous détacher de moi que la mort?

  Molière , Don Juan , ACTE I. SC. 3.

  Donna Elvira.

  Don Juan, might you please to help one give a guess,

  Hold up a candle, clear this fine mysteriousness?

  Don Juan.

  Madam, if needs I must declare the truth, — in short . . .

  Donna Elvira.

  Fie, for a man of mode, accustomed at the court

  To such a style of thing, how awkwardly my lord

  Attempts defence! You move compassion, that’s the word —

  Dumb-foundered and chap-fallen! Why don’t you arm your brow

  With noble impudence? Why don’t you swear and vow

  No sort of change is come to any sentiment

  You ever had for me? Affection holds the bent,

  You love me now as erst, with passion that makes pale

  All ardour else: nor aught in nature can avail

  To separate us two, save what, in stopping breath,

  May peradventure stop devotion likewise — death!

  PROLOGUE: AMPHIBIAN.

  I

  The fancy I had to-day,

  Fancy which turned a fear!

  I swam far out in the bay,

  Since waves laughed warm and clear.

  II

  I lay and looked at the sun,

  The noon-sun looked at me:

  Between us two, no one

  Live creature, that I could see.

  III

  Yes! There came floating by

  Me, who lay floating too.

  Such a strange butterfly!

  Creature as dear as new:

  IV

  Because the membraned wings

  So wonderful, so wide,

  So sun-suffused, were things

  Like soul and nought beside.

  V

  A handbreadth over head!

  All of the sea my own,

  It owned the sky instead;

  Both of us were alone.

  VI

  I never shall join its flight,

  For, nought buoys flesh in air.

  If it touch the sea — good night!

  Death sure and swift waits there.

  VII

  Can the insect feel the better

  For watching the uncouth play

  Of limbs that slip the fetter,

  Pretend as they were not clay?

  VIII

  Undoubtedly I rejoice

  That the air comports so well

  With a creature which had the choice

  Of the land once. Who can tell?

  IX

  What if a certain soul

  Which early slipped its sheath,

  And has for its home the whole

  Of heaven, thus look beneath,

  X

  Thus watch one who, in the world,

  Both lives and likes life’s way,

  Nor wishes the wings unfurled

  That sleep in the worm, they say?

  XI

  But sometimes when the weather

  Is blue, and warm waves tempt

  To free oneself of tether,

  And try a life exempt

  XII

  From worldly noise and dust,

  In the sphere which overbrims

  With passion and thought, — why, just

  Unable to fly, one swims!

  XIII

  By passion and thought upborne,

  One smiles to oneself — ”They fare

  Scarce better, they need not scorn

  Our sea, who live in the air!”

  XIV

  Emancipate through passion

  And thought, with sea for sky,

  We substitute, in a fashion,

  For heaven — poetry:

  XV

  Which sea, to all intent,

  Gives flesh such noon-disport

  As a finer element

  Affords the spirit-sort.

  XVI

  Whatever they are, we seem:

  Imagine the thing they know;

  All deeds they do, we dream;

  Can heaven be else but so?

  XVII

  And meantime, yonder streak

  Meets the horizon’s verge;

  That is the land, to seek

  If we tire or dread the surge:

  XVIII

  Land the solid and safe —

  To welcome again (confess!)

  When, high and dry, we chafe

  The body, and don the dress.

  XIX

  Does she look, pity, wonder

  At one who mimics flight,

  Swims — heaven above, sea under,

  Yet always earth in sight?

  FIFINE AT THE FAIR.

  1872.

  I.

  O trip and skip, Elvire! Link arm in arm with me!

  Like husband and like wife, together let us see

  The tumbling-troop arrayed, the strollers on their stage,

  Drawn up and under arms, and ready to engage.

  II.

  Now, who supposed the night would play us such a prank?

  — That what was raw and brown, rough pole and shaven plank?

  Mere bit of hoarding, half by trestle propped, half tub,

  Would flaunt it forth as brisk as butterfly from grub?

  This comes of sun and air, of Autumn afternoon,

  And Pornic and Saint Gille, whose feast affords the boon —

  This scaffold turned parterre, this flower-bed in full blow,

  Bateleurs, baladines! We shall not miss the show!

  They pace and promenade; they presently will dance:

  What good were else i’ the drum and fife? O pleasant land of France!

  III.

  Who saw them make their entry? At wink of eve, be sure!

  They love to steal a march, nor lightly risk the lure.

  T
hey keep their treasure hid, nor stale (improvident)

  Before the time is ripe, each wonder of their tent —

  Yon six-legged sheep, to wit, and he who beats a gong,

  Lifts cap and waves salute, exhilarates the throng —

  Their ape of many years and much adventure, grim

  And grey with pitying fools who find a joke in him.

  Or, best, the human beauty, Mimi, Toinette, Fifine,

  Tricot fines down if fat, padding plumps up if lean,

  Ere, shedding petticoat, modesty, and such toys,

  They bounce forth, squalid girls transformed to gamesome boys.

  IV.

  No, no, thrice, Pornic, no! Perpend the authentic tale!

  ‘T was not for every Gawain to gaze upon the Grail!

  But whoso went his rounds, when flew bat, flitted midge,

  Might hear across the dusk, — where both roads join the bridge,

  Hard by the little port, — creak a slow caravan,

  A chimneyed house on wheels; so shyly-sheathed, began

  To broaden out the bud which, bursting unaware,

  Now takes away our breath, queen-tulip of the Fair!

  V.

  Yet morning promised much: for, pitched and slung and reared

  On terrace ‘neath the tower, ‘twixt tree and tree appeared

  An airy structure; how the pennon from its dome,

  Frenetic to be free, makes one red stretch for home!

  The home far and away, the distance where lives joy,

  The cure, at once and ever, of world and world’s annoy;

  Since, what lolls full in front, a furlong from the booth,

  But ocean-idleness, sky-blue and millpond-smooth?

  VI.

  Frenetic to be free! And, do you know, there beats

  Something within my breast, as sensitive? — repeats

  The fever of the flag? My heart makes just the same

  Passionate stretch, fires up for lawlessness, lays claim

  To share the life they lead: losels, who have and use

  The hour what way they will, — applaud them or abuse

  Society, whereof myself am at the beck,

  Whose call obey, and stoop to burden stiffest neck!

  VII.

  Why is it that whene’er a faithful few combine

  To cast allegiance off, play truant, nor repine,

  Agree to bear the worst, forego the best in store

  For us who, left behind, do duty as of yore, —

  Why is it that, disgraced, they seem to relish life the more?

  — Seem as they said “We know a secret passing praise

  Or blame of such as you! Remain! we go our ways

  With something you o’erlooked, forgot or chose to sweep

  Clean out of door: our pearl picked from your rubbish-heap.

  You care not for your loss, we calculate our gain.

  All’s right. Are you content? Why, so let things remain!

  To the wood then, to the wild: free life, full liberty!”

  And when they rendezvous beneath the inclement sky,

  House by the hedge, reduced to brute-companionship,

  — Misguided ones who gave society the slip,

  And find too late how boon a parent they despised,

  What ministration spurned, how sweet and civilized —

  Then, left alone at last with self-sought wretchedness,

  No interloper else! — why is it, can we guess? —

  At somebody’s expense, goes up so frank a laugh?

  As though they held the corn, and left us only chaff

  From garners crammed and closed. And we indeed are clever

  If we get grain as good, by thrashing straw for ever!

  VIII.

  Still, truants as they are and purpose yet to be,

  That nowise needs forbid they venture — as you see —

  To cross confine, approach the once familiar roof

  O’ the kindly race their flight estranged: stand half aloof,

  Sidle half up, press near, and proffer wares for sale

  — In their phrase — make, in ours, white levy of black mail.

  They, of the wild, require some touch of us the tame,

  Since clothing, meat and drink, mean money all the same.

  IX.

  If hunger, proverbs say, allures the wolf from wood,

  Much more the bird must dare a dash at something good:

  Must snatch up, bear away in beak, the trifle-treasure

  To wood and wild, and then — O how enjoy at leisure!

  Was never tree-built nest, you climbed and took, of bird

  (Rare city-visitant, talked of, scarce seen or heard),

  But, when you would dissect the structure, piece by piece,

  You found, enwreathed amid the country-product — fleece

  And feather, thistle-fluffs and bearded windlestraws —

  Some shred of foreign silk, unravelling of gauze,

  Bit, may be, of brocade, mid fur and blow-bell-down:

  Filched plainly from mankind, dear tribute paid by town,

  Which proved how oft the bird had plucked up heart of grace,

  Swooped down at waif and stray, made furtively our place

  Pay tax and toll, then borne the booty to enrich

  Her paradise i’ the waste; the how and why of which,

  That is the secret, there the mystery that stings!

  X.

  For, what they traffic in, consists of just the things

  We, — proud ones who so scorn dwellers without the pale,

  Bateleurs, baladines, white leviers of black mail, —

  I say, they sell what we most pique us that we keep!

  How comes it, all we hold so dear they count so cheap?

  XI.

  What price should you impose, for instance, on repute,

  Good fame, your own good fame and family’s to boot?

  Stay start of quick moustache, arrest the angry rise

  Of eyebrow! All I asked is answered by surprise.

  Now tell me: are you worth the cost of a cigar?

  Go boldly, enter booth, disburse the coin at bar

  Of doorway where presides the master of the troop,

  And forthwith you survey his Graces in a group,

  Live Picture, picturesque no doubt and close to life:

  His sisters, right and left; the Grace in front, his wife.

  Next, who is this performs the feat of the Trapeze?

  Lo, she is launched, look — fie, the fairy! — how she flees

  O’er all those heads thrust back, — mouths, eyes, one gape and stare, —

  No scrap of skirt impedes free passage through the air,

  Till, plumb on the other side, she lights and laughs again,

  That fairy-form, whereof each muscle, nay, each vein

  The curious may inspect, — his daughter that he sells

  Each rustic for five sous. Desiderate aught else

  O’ the vendor? As you leave his show, why, joke the man!

  “You cheat: your six-legged sheep, I recollect, began

  Both life and trade, last year, trimmed properly and clipt,

  As the Twin-headed Babe, and Human Nondescript!”

  What does he care? You paid his price, may pass your jest.

  So values he repute, good fame, and all the rest!

  XII

  But try another tack; say: “I indulge caprice,

  Who am Don and Duke, and Knight, beside, o’ the Golden Fleece,

  And, never mind how rich. Abandon this career!

  Have hearth and home, nor let your womankind appear

  Without as multiplied a coating as protects

  An onion from the eye! Become, in all respects,

  God-fearing householder, subsistent by brain-skill,

  Hand-labour; win your bread whatever way you will,

  So it be honestly, — and, while I have a purse,

 
Means shall not lack!” — His thanks will be the roundest curse

  That ever rolled from lip.

  XIII.

  Now, what is it? — returns

  The question — heartens so this losel that he spurns

  All we so prize? I want, put down in black and white,

  What compensating joy, unknown and infinite,

  Turns lawlessness to law, makes destitution — wealth,

  Vice — virtue, and disease of soul and body — health?

  XIV.

  Ah, the slow shake of head, the melancholy smile,

  The sigh almost a sob! What’s wrong, was right ere-while?

  Why are we two at once such ocean-width apart?

  Pale fingers press my arm, and sad eyes probe my heart

  Why is the wife in trouble?

  XV.

  This way, this way, Fifine!

  Here’s she, shall make my thoughts be surer what they mean!

  First let me read the signs, pourtray you past mistake

  The gipsy’s foreign self, no swarth our sun could bake.

  Yet where’s a woolly trace degrades the wiry hair?

  And note the Greek-nymph nose, and — oh, my Hebrew pair

  Of eye and eye — o’erarched by velvet of the mole —

  That swim as in a sea, that dip and rise and roll,

  Spilling the light around! While either ear is cut

  Thin as a dusk-leaved rose carved from a cocoa-nut.

  And then, her neck! now, grant you had the power to deck,

  Just as your fancy pleased, the bistre-length of neck,

  Could lay, to shine against its shade, a moonlike row

  Of pearls, each round and white as bubble Cupids blow

  Big out of mother’s milk, — what pearl-moon would surpass

  That string of mock-turquoise, those almandines of glass,

  Where girlhood terminates? for with breasts’-birth commence

  The boy, and page-costume, till pink and impudence

  End admirably all: complete the creature trips

  Our way now, brings sunshine upon her spangled hips,

  As here she fronts us full, with pose half-frank, half-fierce!

  XVI.

  Words urged in vain, Elvire! You waste your quarte and tierce,

  Lunge at a phantom here, try fence in fairy-land.

  For me, I own defeat, ask but to understand

  The acknowledged victory of whom I call my queen,

  Sexless and bloodless sprite: though mischievous and mean,

  Yet free and flower-like too, with loveliness for law,

  And self-sustainment made morality.

  XVII.

  A flaw

  Do you account i’ the lily, of lands which travellers know,

  That, just as golden gloom supersedes Northern snow

  I’ the chalice, so, about each pistil, spice is packed, —