THE PRINCESS: A MEDLEY. PROLOGUE. SIR WALTER VIVIAN all a summer's day Five others we were seven at Vivian-place. And me that morning Walter show'd the house, B Greek, set with busts: from vases in the hall Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names, Grew side by side; and on the pavement lay Carved stones of the Abbey-ruin in the park, Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time; And on the tables every clime and age Jumbled together; celts and calumets, Claymore and snowshoe, toys in lava, fans Of sandal, amber, ancient rosaries, Laborious orient ivory sphere in sphere, The cursed Malayan crease, and battle-clubs Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer, His own forefathers' arms and armour hung. And this' he said was Hugh's at Agincourt; And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon : A good knight he ! we keep a chronicle With all about him '-which he brought, and I Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knights Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings And, I all rapt in this, Come out,' he said, 'To the Abbey: there is Aunt Elizabeth And sister Lilia with the rest.' We went (I kept the book and had my finger in it) Down thro' the park strange was the sight to me; For all the sloping pasture murmur'd sown With happy faces and with holiday. There moved the multitude, a thousand heads : The patient leaders of their Institute Taught them with facts. One rear'd a font of stone And drew, from butts of water on the slope, The fountain of the moment, playing now A twisted snake, and now a rain of pearls, Danced like a wisp and somewhat lower down A man with knobs and wires and vials fired A cannon Echo answer'd in her sleep From hollow fields and here were telescopes For azure views; and there a group of girls In circle waited, whom the electric shock Dislink'd with shrieks and laughter: round the lake A little clock-work steamer paddling plied And shook the lilies: perch'd about the knolls A dozen angry models jetted steam : Rose gem-like up before the dusky groves Like tumbled fruit in grass; and men and maids |