Of his transcendent genius. Through the Of gayly vestured artists moved the Count, As some lone cloud of thick and leaden hue, Packed with the secret of a coming storm, Moves through the gold and crimson evening mists,
Deadening their splendor. In a moment still Was Carlo's voice, and still the prattling crowd; And a great shadow overwhelmed them all, As their white faces and their anxious eyes Pursued Fernando in his moody walk. He paused, as one who balances a doubt, Weighing two courses, then burst out with this: "Ye all have seen the tidings in my face; Or has the dial ceased to register The workings of my heart? Then hear the bell, That almost cracks its frame in utterance; The Countess, she is dead!" "Dead!" Carlo groaned.
And if a bolt from middle heaven had struck His splendid features full upon the brow,
A little reddening at his public state, Unseemly to his near and recent loss, Withdrew in haste between the downcast eyes That did him reverence as he rustled by.
Night fell on Padua. In the chapel lay The Countess Laura at the altar's foot. Her coronet glittered on her pallid brows; A crimson pall, weighed down with golden work, Sown thick with pearls, and heaped with early flowers,
Draped her still body almost to the chin; And over all a thousand candles flamed Against the winking jewels, or streamed down The marble aisle, and flashed along the guard Of men-at-arms that slowly wove their turns, Backward and forward, through the distant gloom.
When Carlo entered, his unsteady feet Scarce bore him to the altar, and his head Drooped down so low that all his shining curls
He could not have appeared more scathed and Poured on his breast, and veiled his countenance. blanched.
Upon his easel a half-finished work,
“Dead ! — dead!" He staggered to his easel- The secret labor of his studio,
And clung around it, buffeting the air
With one wild arm, as though a drowning man Hung to a spar and fought against the waves. The Count resumed: "I came not here to grieve, Nor see my sorrow in another's eyes. Who 'll paint the Countess, as she lies to-night In state within the chapel? Shall it be That earth must lose her wholly? that no hint Of her gold tresses, beaming eyes, and lips That talked in silence, and the eager soul That ever seemed outbreaking through her clay, And scattering glory round it, shall all these Be dull corruption's heritage, and we, Poor beggars, have no legacy to show That love she bore us? That were shame to love, And shame to you, my masters." Carlo stalked Forth from his easel stiffly as a thing Moved by mechanic impulse. His thin lips, And sharpened nostrils, and wan, sunken cheeks, And the cold glimmer in his dusky eyes, Made him a ghastly sight. The throng drew
As though they let a specter through. Then he, Fronting the Count, and speaking in a voice Sounding remote and hollow, made reply:
Said from the canvas, so that none might err, "I am the Countess Laura." Carlo kneeled, And gazed upon the picture; as if thus, Through those clear eyes, he saw the way to heaven.
Then he arose; and as a swimmer comes Forth from the waves, he shook his locks aside, Emerging from his dream, and standing firm Upon a purpose with his sovereign will. He took his palette, murmuring, "Not yet!" Confidingly and softly to the corpse; And as the veriest drudge, who plies his art Against his fancy, he addressed himself With stolid resolution to his task, Turning his vision on his memory, And shutting out the present, till the dead, The gilded pall, the lights, the pacing guard, And all the meaning of that solemn scene Became as nothing, and creative Art Resolved the whole to chaos, and reformed The elements according to her law : So Carlo wrought, as though his eye and hand Were Heaven's unconscious instruments, and worked
The settled purpose of Omnipotence.
And it was wondrous how the red, the white,
"Count, I shall paint the Countess. 'T is my The ocher, and the umber, and the blue,
From mottled blotches, hazy and opaque,
fate, Not pleasure, no, nor duty." But the Count, Grew into rounded forms and sensuous lines; Astray in woe, but understood assent, Not the strange words that bore it; and he flung His arm round Carlo, drew him to his breast, And kissed his forehead. At which Carlo shrank; Perhaps 't was at the honor. Then the Count,
How just beneath the lucid skin the blood Glimmered with warmth; the scarlet lips apart Bloomed with the moisture of the dews of life; How the light glittered through and underneath The golden tresses, and the deep, soft eyes
Became intelligent with conscious thought, And somewhat troubled underneath the arch Of eyebrows but a little too intense For perfect beauty; how the pose and poise Of the lithe figure on its tiny foot Suggested life just ceased from motion; so That any one might cry, in marveling joy, "That creature lives,—has senses, mind, a soul To win God's love or dare hell's subtleties!" The artist paused. The ratifying “Good !” Trembled upon his lips. He saw no touch To give or soften. "It is done," he cried, - "My task, my duty! Nothing now on earth Can taunt me with a work left unfulfilled!" The lofty flame, which bore him up so long Died in the ashes of humanity;
And the mere man rocked to and fro again Upon the center of his wavering heart. He put aside his palette, as if thus
He stepped from sacred vestments, and assumed A mortal function in the common world.
A king has held my palette, a grand-duke Has picked my brush up, and a pope has begged The favor of my presence in his Rome.
I did not go; I put my fortune by.
I need not ask you why: you knew too well. It was but natural, it was no way strange, That I should love you. Everything that saw, | Or had its other senses, loved you, sweet, And I among them. Martyr, holy saint, - I see the halo curving round your head, I loved you once; but now I worship you, For the great deed that held my love aloof, And killed you in the action! I absolve Your soul from any taint. For from the day Of that encounter by the fountain-side Until this moment, never turned on me Those tender eyes, unless they did a wrong To nature by the cold, defiant glare
With which they chilled me. Never heard I
Of softness spoken by those gentle lips;
"Now for my rights!" he muttered, and ap- Never received a bounty from that hand
The noble body. "O lily of the world!
So withered, yet so lovely! what wast thou
To those who came thus near thee for I stood Without the pale of thy half-royal rank
Which gave to all the world. I know the cause. You did your duty, not for honor's sake,
Nor to save sin or suffering or remorse,
Or all the ghosts that haunt a woman's shame, But for the sake of that pure, loyal love
When thou wast budding, and the streams of Your husband bore you. Queen, by grace of God, life
Made eager struggles to maintain thy bloom, And gladdened heaven dropped down in gracious dews
On its transplanted darling? Hear me now! I say this but in justice, not in pride, Not to insult thy high nobility,
But that the poise of things in God's own sight May be adjusted; and hereafter I
May urge a claim that all the powers of heaven Shall sanction, and with clarions blow abroad. - Laura, you loved me! Look not so severe, With your cold brows, and deadly, close-drawn lips!
You proved it, Countess, when you died for it, Let it consume you in the wearing strife It fought with duty in your ravaged heart.
I knew it ever since that summer day
I painted Lila, the pale beggar's child, At rest beside the fountain; when I felt-
O Heaven! -the warmth and moisture of your breath
Blow through my hair, as with your eager soul- Forgetting soul and body go as one You leaned across my easel till our cheeks — Ah me! 't was not your purpose-touched, and clung!
I bow before the luster of your throne!
I kiss the edges of your garment-hem, And hold myself ennobled! Answer me, If I had wronged you, you would answer me Out of the dusty porches of the tomb :- Is this a dream, a falsehood? or have I Spoken the very truth?" "The very truth!" A voice replied; and at his side he saw
A form, half shadow and half substance, stand, Or, rather, rest; for on the solid earth It had no footing, more than some dense mist That wavers o'er the surface of the ground It scarcely touches. With a reverent look The shadow's waste and wretched face was bent Above the picture; as though greater awe Subdued its awful being, and appalled, With memories of terrible delight And fearful wonder, its devouring gaze. "You make what God makes, — beauty," said the shape.
"And might not this, this second Eve, console The emptiest heart? Will not this thing outlast The fairest creature fashioned in the flesh? Before that figure, Time, and Death himself, Stand baffled and disarmed. What would you ask More than God's power, from nothing to create?" The artist gazed upon the boding form,
Well, grant 't was genius; and is genius naught? And answered: "Goblin, if you had a heart,
I ween it wears as proud a diadem
That were an idle question. What to me
Here, in this very world- as that you wear.
iny creative power, bereft of love?
Or what to God would be that selfsame power, If so bereaved ?" "And yet the love, thus mourned,
You calmly forfeited. For had you said To living Laura in her burning ears --- One half that you professed to Laura dead, She would have been your own. These contraries Sort not with my intelligence. But speak, Were Laura living, would the same stale play Of raging passion tearing out its heart Upon the rock of duty be performed?" "The same, O phantom, while the heart I bear Trembled, but turned not its magnetic faith From God's fixed center." "If I wake for you This Laura, — give her all the bloom and glow Of that midsummer day you hold so dear, The smile, the motion, the impulsive soul, The love of genius, - yea, the very love, The mortal, hungry, passionate, hot love, She bore you, flesh to flesh, - would you receive That gift, in all its glory, at my hands?" A smile of malice curled the tempter's lips, And glittered in the caverns of his eyes, Mocking the answer. Carlo paled and shook; A woful spasm went shuddering through his frame, Curdling his blood, and twisting his fair face With nameless torture. But he cried aloud, Out of the clouds of anguish, from the smoke Of very martyrdom, "O God, she is thine! Do with her at thy pleasure!" Something grand, And radiant as a sunbeam, touched the head He bent in awful sorrow. "Mortal, see-" "Dare not! As Christ was sinless, I abjure These vile abominations! Shall she bear Life's burden twice, and life's temptations twice, While God is justice?" "Who has made you judge
Of what you call God's good, and what you think God's evil? One to him, the source of both, The God of good and of permitted ill. Have you no dream of days that might have been, Had you and Laura filled another fate?— Some cottage on the sloping Apennines, Roses and lilies, and the rest all love? I tell you that this tranquil dream may be Filled to repletion. Speak, and in the shade Of my dark pinions I shall bear you hence, And land you where the mountain-goat himself Struggles for footing." He outspread his wings, And all the chapel darkened, as though hell Had swallowed up the tapers; and the air Grew thick, and, like a current sensible, Flowed round the person, with a wash and dash, As of the waters of a nether sea. Slowly and calmly through the dense obscure, Dove-like and gentle, rose the artist's voice : "I dare not bring her spirit to that shame! Know my full meaning, — I who neither fear
Your mystic person nor your dreadful power. Nor shall I now invoke God's potent name For my deliverance from your toils. I stand Upon the founded structure of his law, Established from the first, and thence defy Your arts, reposing all my trust in that!" The darkness eddied off; and Carlo saw The figure gathering, as from outer space, Brightness on brightness; and his former shape Fell from him, like the ashes that fall off, And show a core of mellow fire within. Adown his wings there poured a lambent flood, That seemed as molten gold, which plashing fell Upon the floor, enringing him with flame; And o'er the tresses of his beaming head Arose a stream of many-colored light,
Like that which crowns the morning. Carlo stood Steadfast, for all the splendor, reaching up The outstretched palms of his untainted soul Towards heaven for strength. A moment thus ; then asked,
With reverential wonder quivering through His sinking voice, "Who, spirit, and what, art thou?'
"I am that blessing which men fly from, --- Death." "Then take my hand, if so God orders it; For Laura waits me." "But, bethink thee, man, What the world loses in the loss of thee! What wondrous art will suffer with eclipse! What unwon glories are in store for thee! What fame, outreaching time and temporal shocks, Would shine upon the letters of thy name Graven in marble, or the brazen height Of columns wise with memories of thee!" "Take me! If I outlived the Patriarchs, I could but paint those features o'er and o'er : Lo! that is done." A smile of pity lit The seraph's features, as he looked to heaven, With deep inquiry in his tender eyes. The mandate came. He touched with downy wing The sufferer lightly on his aching heart; And gently, as the skylark settles down Upon the clustered treasures of her nest, So Carlo softly slid along the prop Of his tall easel, nestling at the foot As though he slumbered; and the morning broke In silver whiteness over Padua.
SCENE, a room in the Tower. Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY.
BRAKENBURY. Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?
CLARENCE. O, I have passed a miserable night,
So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night, Though 't were to buy a world of happy days; So full of dismal terror was the time.
"Clarence is come, Clarence,
false, fleeting, perjured
That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury; Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!" With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
BRAK. What was your dream, my lord? I pray Environed me, and howlèd in mine ears you, tell me.
Such hideous cries, that with the very noise
CLAR. Methought that I had broken from the I trembling waked, and, for a season after,
And was embarked to cross to Burgundy; And in my company, my brother Gloster, Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches: thence we looked toward Eng
And cited up a thousand heavy times, During the wars of York and Lancaster, That had befallen us. As we paced along Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in fall- ing,
Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard, Into the tumbling billows of the main.
O heaven! methought what pain it was to drown! What dreadful noise of water in mine ears! What sights of ugly death within mine eyes! Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scattered in the bottom of the sea. Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept (As 't were in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems, That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep, And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by. BRAK. Had you such leisure in the time of death
To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?
Could not believe but that I was in hell, Such terrible impression made my dream.
THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM.
'T WAS in the prime of summer time, An evening calm and cool, And four-and-twenty happy boys
Came bounding out of school; There were some that ran, and some that leapt Like troutlets in a pool.
Away they sped with gamesome minds And souls untouched by sin; To a level mead they came, and there They drave the wickets in: Pleasantly shone the setting sun Over the town of Lynn.
Like sportive deer they coursed about, And shouted as they ran, Turning to mirth all things of earth As only boyhood can ;
But the usher sat remote from all, A melancholy man !
His hat was off, his vest apart,
To catch heaven's blessed breeze;
CLAR. Methought I had : and often did I strive For a burning thought was in his brow,
To yield the ghost but still the envious flood Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth To seek the empty, vast, and wandering air; But smothered it within my panting bulk, Which almost burst to belch it in the sea. BRAK. Awaked you not with this sore agony? CLAR. O, no, my dream was lengthened after life,
O, then began the tempest to my soul !
I passed, methought, the melancholy flood, With that grim ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
The first that there did greet my stranger soul, Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick, Who cried aloud, "What scourge for perjury Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?" And so he vanished: then came wandering by A shadow like an angel, with bright hair Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud,
And his bosom ill at ease;
So he leaned his head on his hands, and read The book between his knees.
Leaf after leaf he turned it o'er,
Nor ever glanced aside,
For the peace of his soul he read that book In the golden eventide ;
Much study had made him very lean,
And pale, and leaden-eyed.
At last he shut the ponderous tome; With a fast and fervent grasp He strained the dusky covers close, And fixed the brazen hasp: "O God! could I so close my mind, And clasp it with a clasp !"
Then leaping on his feet upright, Some moody turns he took, -
"And now, from forth the frowning sky, From the heaven's topmost height,
I heard a voice, the awful voice Of the blood-avenging sprite : 'Thou guilty man! take up thy dead, And hide it from my sight!'
"And I took the dreary body up, And cast it in a stream, - The sluggish water black as ink, The depth was so extreme:
My gentle boy, remember, this Is nothing but a dream!
"Down went the corse with a hollow plunge, And vanished in the pool;
Anon I cleansed my bloody hands,
And washed my forehead cool, And sat among the urchins young, That evening, in the school.
"O Heaven! to think of their white souls, And mine so black and grim!
I could not share in childish prayer, Nor join in evening hymn;
Like a devil of the pit I seemed,
Mid holy cherubim !
"And Peace went with them, one and all, And each calm pillow spread; But Guilt was my grim chamberlain, That lighted me to bed,
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