Sate in the Eastern Gate, 690
Beside him were three Fathers,
Each in his chair of state;
Fabius, whose nine stout grandsons
That day were in the field,
And Manlius, eldest of the Twelve[63] 695
Who kept the Golden Shield;
And Sergius, the High Pontiff,[64]
For wisdom far renowned,
In all Etruria's colleges
Was no such Pontiff found. 700
And all around the portal,
And high above the wall,
Stood a great throng of people,
But sad and silent all;
Young lads, and stooping elders 705
That might not bear the mail,
Matrons with lips that quivered,
And maids with faces pale.
Since the first gleam of daylight,
Sempronius had not ceased 710
To listen for the rushing
Of horse-hoofs from the east.
The mist of eve was rising.
The sun was hastening down,
When he was aware of a princely pair 715
Fast pricking towards the town,
So like they were, man never
Saw twins so like before;
Red with gore their armour was,
Their steeds were red with gore. 720
XXXVIII
"Hail to the great Asylum![65]
Hail to the hill-tops seven!
Hail to the fire[66] that burns for aye!
And the shield that fell from heaven!
This day, by Lake Regillus, 725
Under the Porcian height,
All in the lands of Tusculum
Was fought a glorious fight.
To-morrow your Dictator
Shall bring in triumph home 730
The spoils of thirty cities
To deck the shrines of Rome!"
XXXIX
Then burst from that great concourse
A shout that shook the towers,
And some ran north, and some ran south, 735
Crying, "The day is ours!"
But on rode these strange horsemen,
With slow and lordly pace;
And none who saw their bearing
Durst ask their name or race. 740
On rode they to the Forum,
While laurel-boughs and flowers,
From house-tops and from windows,
Fell on their crests in showers.
When they drew nigh to Vesta, 745
They vaulted down amain,
And washed their horses in the well
That springs by Vesta's fane.
And straight again they mounted,
And rode to Vesta's door; 750
Then, like a blast, away they passed,
And no man saw them more.
[_The Pontiff tells the Romans who their god-like visitors are, and
bids the citizens build a temple to them and establish an annual
procession in their honour_.]
XL
And all the people trembled,
And pale grew every cheek;
And Sergius the High Pontiff 755
Alone found voice to speak:
"The gods who live for ever
Have fought for Rome to-day!
These be the Great Twin Brethren
To whom the Dorians[67] pray. 760
Back comes the Chief in triumph,
Who, in the hour of fight,
Hath seen the Great Twin Brethren
In harness on his right.
Safe comes the ship to haven, 765
Through billows and through gales,
If once the Great Twin Brethren
Sit shining on the sails.[68]
Wherefore they washed their horses
In Vesta's holy well, 770
Wherefore they rode to Vesta's door,
I know, but may not tell.
Here, hard by Vesta's Temple,
Build we a stately dome
Unto the Great Twin Brethren 775
Who fought so well for Rome.
And when the months returning
Bring back this day of fight,
The proud Ides of Quintilis,
Marked evermore with white, 780
Unto the Great Twin Brethren
Let all the people throng,
With chaplets and with offerings,
With music and with song;
And let the doors and windows 785
Be hung with garlands all,
And let the Knights be summoned
To Mars without the wall:
Thence let them ride in purple
With joyous trumpet-sound, 790
Each mounted on his war-horse,
And each with olive crowned;
And pass in solemn order
Before the sacred dome,
Where dwell the Great Twin Brethren 795
Who fought so well for Rome!"
--_Macaulay_.
[1] Ten years after the siege of Rome by Lars Porsena, the Latins,
under Mamilius of Tusculum, made a last attempt to force the Romans
to restore the Tarquin kings. A battle was fought at Lake Regillus
(B.C. 498) between the Latins and the Romans, in which the Romans
were successful. Lake Regillus has disappeared and its exact site is
no longer known. It is supposed to have been situated at the foot of
the Tusculan hills, about ten miles to the southeast of Rome.
[2] Castor and Pollux were twin deities, the sons of Zeus (or
Jupiter). Their birthplace was Sparta, in Greece, and there they had
their chief temple.
[3] Ides of Quintilis. The fifteenth of July.
[4] lictors. The body-guard of the magistrates, armed with rods and
axes.
[5] The Knights. The cavalry.
[6] Castor, and Mars. The temples of Castor and of Mars.
[7] Forum. The market-place, or public square.
[8] Yellow River. The Tiber, so called from its yellow sands.
[9] Sacred Hill. A famous hill about three miles from Rome.
[10] Martian Kalends. The first of March, on which a feast to Juno
was held.
[11] December's Nones. December the fifth, on which was held a feast
to Faunus, a god of the flocks and herds.
[12] whitest. We should say "a red-letter day."
[13] Parthemus. A mountain range in Greece.
[14] Cirrha's dome. The dome of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, near
Cirrha, in Greece.
[15] Adria. The Adriatic.
[16] Lacedaemon. Sparta, which was governed by two kings representing
two great families.
[17] Porcian height. Monte Porzio, near the scene of the battle.
[18] Corne. A hill near Tusculum.
[19] Fair Fount. A spring in the vicinity.
[20] Thirty Cities. The Latin cities, banded together in aid of the
Tarquins.
[21]"One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was regarded during many
ages with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's
hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was
believed to have been made by one of the celestial
chargers."--_Macaulay_.
[22] a Virginius. One of the family of the Virginii.
[23] The consul who was elected first was usually held in greater
honour than the other.
[24] Gabii. A Latin city about twelve miles from Rome.
[25] Conscript Fathers. The senate. The original expression is
_patres conscripti_ (_patres et conscripti_), _patres_ referring to
the patrician element, and _conscripti_ to the plebeian element in
the senate.
[26] Camerium. One of the Latin cities.
[27] Master of the Knights. Chief lieutenant.
[28] The Consuls usually had twelve lictors each; the Dictator
twenty-four.
[29] Witch's Fortress. The town of Circeii, which Macaulay associates
here with Circe, the enchantress.
[30] ghastly priest. The temple of Diana, in a grove near Aricia, had
for its priest a runaway slave, who was to hold office until slain by
another runaway slave stronger than he.
[31] Ufens. A river.
[32] Laurentian jungle. Marshy thickets near the town of Laurentum.
[33] Carthage. On the north coast of Africa. The Carthaginians were
a commercial and sea-faring people.
[34] a woman. Lucretia. After she had been wronged by Sextus, she
stabbed herself and died.
[35] Tibur. The modern city of Tivoli.
[36] Soracte. A snow-capped mountain about twenty-five miles from
Rome.
[37] Apulian. Apulia was one of the divisions of Italy.
[38] targe. shield.
[39] Pomptine. The Pontine marshes in the southern part of Latium.
[40] Digentian rock. A crag near the river Digentia.
[41] Bandusia. A fountain.
[42] Auster. The word signifies "the stormy south wind."
[43] crown. The first Roman to scale the walls of a besieged town
received a crown of gold.
[44] Calabrian. Calabria forms the "heel" of Italy.
[45] Pruning the vines entwined around the trunks of the elms.
[46] clients. Servants attached to the Patrician families.
[47] Titus. Son of Tarquin the Proud.
[48] Fabian. The Fabii were a famous Roman family.
[49] The Julian house claimed to be descended from Iulus, son of
Aeneas.
[50] Velian hill. The Velian hill was not far from the Forum in Rome.
[51] Crest of Flame. The flaming crest on the helmet of Mamilius.
See l. 434.
[52] From Aufidus to Po. In all Italy. Aufidus was a river in the
south of Italy; Po, a river in the north.
[53] thy brother. False Sextus, supposed to be haunted by the furies
(the Greek goddesses of Vengeance) for his crime.
[54] Capuan. Capua was a luxurious city in southern Italy.
[55] Samothracia. An island in the Aegean, where Castor and Pollux
were worshipped.
[56] Tarentum. A Greek town in the south of Italy.
[57] Syracuse. An important city in Sicily.
[58] Eurotas. A river in Greece, flowing past the city of Sparta.
[59] Vesta. The goddess of the hearth.
[60] Golden Shield. The shield of Mars which had fallen from heaven
during the reign of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome.
[61] Celtic plain. The north of Italy, inhabited by Celtic tribes.
[62] Sire Quirinus. Romulus, the founder of Rome.
[63] The Twelve. In order to prevent the shield of Mars from being
stolen, eleven others were made after the same pattern, and twelve
priests were appointed to guard the twelve shields.
[64] High Pontiff. The chief priest.
[65] Asylum. Romulus was said to have promised a refuge to all
fugitives, in the newly-founded city of Rome.
[66] the fire. In the temple of Vesta.
[67] Dorians. The Spartans belonged to the Dorian branch of the Greek
people.
[68] Castor and Pollux were the special guardians of sailors at sea.
When, during a thunderstorm, a light played around the masts and
sails of the ship, Castor and Pollux were supposed to be present,
watching over the fortunes of the vessel.
THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL.
PRELUDE TO PART FIRST.
Over his keys the musing organist,
Beginning doubtfully and far away,
First lets his fingers wander as they list,
And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay:
Then, as the touch of his loved instrument 5
Gives hopes and fervor, nearer draws his theme,
First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent
Along the wavering vista of his dream.[1]
Not only around our infancy
Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; 10
Daily, with souls that cringe and plot,
We Sinais[2] climb and know it not;
Over our manhood bond the skies,
Against our fallen and traitor lives
The great winds utter prophecies; 15
With our faint hearts the mountain strives;
Its arms outstretched, the druid[3] wood
Waits with its benedicite:[4]
And to our age's drowsy blood
Still shouts the inspiring sea.[5] 20
Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us,
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his foe who comes and shrives[6] us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the Devil's booth are all things sold, 25
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,[7]
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking:
'T is heaven alone that is given away,
'T is only God may be had for the asking, 30
There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 35
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 40
And, grasping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul for grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green, 45
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there's never a leaf or a blade too mean
To be some happy creature's palace,
The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 50
And lets his illumined being o'errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,-- 55
In the nice[8] ear of nature which song is the best?
Now is the high-tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back, with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay; 60
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,
We are happy now because God so wills it;
No matter how barren the past may have been,
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green.
We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 65
How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;
We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing
That skies are clear and grass is growing;
The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
That dandelions are blossoming near, 70
That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
That the river is bluer than the sky,
That the robin is plastering his house hard by:
And if the breeze kept the good news back,
For other couriers we should not lack; 75
We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,--
And hark! how clear bold chanticleer,[9]
Warmed with the new wine of the year,
Tells all in his lusty crowing!
Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how; 80
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving;
'T is as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,--
'T is the natural way of living, 85
Who knows whither the clouds have fled?
In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake;
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,
The heart forgets its sorrow and ache;
The soul partakes the season's youth, 90
And the sulphurous rifts[10] of passion and woe
Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,
Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.
What wonder if Sir Launfal[11] now
Remembered the keeping of his vow? 95
PART FIRST.
I
"My golden spurs now bring to me,
And bring to me my richest mail,
For to-morrow I go over land and sea
In search of the Holy Grail;[12]
Shall never a bed for me be spread. 100
Nor shall a pillow be under my head,
Till I begin my vow to keep,
Here on the rushes[13] will I sleep,
And perchance there may come a vision true
Ere day create the world anew." 105
Slowly Sir Launfal's eyes grew dim,
Slumber fell like a cloud on him,
And into his soul the vision flew.
II
The crows flapped over by twos and threes,
In the pool drowsed the cattle up to their knees, 110
The little birds sang as if it were
The one day of summer in all the year
And the very leaves seemed to sing on the trees
The castle alone in the landscape lay
Like an outpost of winter, dull and gray; 115
'T was the proudest hall in the North Countree,[14]
And never its gates might opened be,
Save to lord or lady of high degree;
Summer besieged it on every side,
But the churlish stone her assaults defied; 120
She could not scale the chilly wall,
Though round it for leagues her pavilions tall[16]
Stretched left and right,
Over the hills and out of sight;
Green and broad was every tent, 125
And out of each a murmur went
Till the breeze fell off at night.
III
The drawbridge dropped with a surly clang,
And through the dark arch a charger sprang,
Bearing Sir Launfal, the maiden knight, 130
In his gilded mail, that flamed so bright
It seemed the dark castle had gathered all
Those shafts the fierce sun had shot over its wall
In his siege of three hundred summers long,
And, binding them all in one blazing sheaf, 135
Had cast them forth; so, young and strong,
And lightsome as a locust leaf,
Sir Launfal flashed forth in his unscarred mail,
To seek in all climes for the Holy Grail.
IV
It was morning on hill and stream and tree, 140
And morning in the young knight's heart;
Only the castle moodily
Rebuffed the gifts of the sunshine free,
And gloomed by itself apart;
The season brimmed all other things up 145
Full as the rain fills the pitcher-plant's cup.
V
As Sir Launfal made morn through the darksome gate,
He was ware of a leper, crouched by the same,
Who begged with his hand and moaned as he sate;
And a loathing over Sir Launfal came, 150
The sunshine went out of his soul with a thrill,
The flesh 'neath his armor did shrink and crawl.
And midway its leap his heart stood still
Like a frozen waterfall;
For this man, so foul and bent of stature, 155
Rasped harshly against his dainty nature,
And seemed the one blot on the summer morn,--
So he tossed him a piece of gold in scorn.
VI
The leper raised not the gold from the dust:
"Better to me the poor man's crust, 160
Better the blessing of the poor,
Though I turn me empty from his door;
That is no true alms which the hand can hold;
He gives nothing but worthless gold
Who gives from a sense of duty; 165
But he who gives a slender mite,[16]
And gives to that which is out of sight,
That thread of the all-sustaining Beauty
Which runs through all and doth all unite,--
The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms, 170
The heart outstretches its eager palms,
For a god goes with it and makes it store[17]
To the soul that was starving in darkness before."
PRELUDE TO PART SECOND.
Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak,
From the snow five thousand summers old: 175
On open wold and hill-top bleak
It had gathered all the cold,
And whirled it like a sheet on the wanderer's cheek;
It carried a shiver everywhere
From the unleafed boughs and pastures bare; 180
The little brook heard it and built a roof
'Neath which he could house him, winter-proof:
All night by the white stars' frosty gleams
He groined[18] his arches and matched his beams;
Slender and clear were his crystal spars 185
As the lashes of light that trim the stars;
He sculptured every summer delight
In his halls and chambers out of sight;
Sometimes his tinkling waters slipt
Down through a frost-leaved forest-crypt.[19] 190
Long, sparkling aisles of steel-stemmed trees
Bending to counterfeit a breeze;
Sometimes the roof no fretwork knew
But silvery mosses that downward grew;
Sometimes it was carved in sharp relief[20] 195
With quaint arabesques[21] of ice-fern leaf;
Sometimes it was simply smooth and clear
For the gladness of heaven to shine through, and here
He had caught the nodding bulrush-tops
And hung them thickly with diamond drops, 200
Which crystalled the beams of moon and sun,
And made a star of every one:
So mortal builder's most rare device
Could match this winter-palace of ice;
'T was as if every image that mirrored lay 205
In his depths serene through the summer day,
Each flitting shadow of earth and sky,
Lest the happy model should be lost,
Had been mimicked in fairy masonry
By the elfin builders of the frost. 210
Within the hall are song and laughter,
The cheeks of Christmas glow red and jolly,
And sprouting is every corbel[22] and rafter
With the lightsome green of ivy and holly;
Through the deep gulf[23] of the chimney wide 215
Wallows the Yule-log's[24] roaring tide;
The broad flame-pennons droop and flap
And belly and tug as a flag in the wind;
Like a locust shrills the imprisoned sap,
Hunted to death in its galleries blind; 220
And swift little troops of silent sparks,
Now pausing, now scattering away as in fear,
Go threading the soot-forest's tangled darks
Like herds of startled deer.
But the wind without was eager and sharp, 225
Of Sir Launfal's gray hair it makes a harp,
And rattles and wrings
The icy strings,
Singing, in dreary monotone,
A Christmas carol of its own, 230
Whose burden[25] still, as he might guess,
Was--"Shelterless, shelterless, shelterless!"
The voice of the seneschal[26] flared like a torch
As he shouted the wanderer away from the porch,
And he sat in the gateway and saw all night 235
The great hall-fire, so cheery and bold,
Through the window-slits of the castle old,
Build out its piers of ruddy light
Against the drift of the cold.
PART SECOND.
I
There was never a leaf on bush or tree 240
The bare boughs rattled shudderingly;
The river was dumb and could not speak,
For the frost's swift shuttles its shroud had spun;
A single crow on the tree-top bleak
From his shining feathers shed off the cold sun; 245
Again it was morning, but shrunk and cold,
As if her veins were sapless and old,
And she rose up decrepitly
For a last dim look at earth and sea.
II
Sir Launfal turned from his own hard gate, 250
For another heir in his earldom sate;
An old, bent man, worn out and frail,
He came back from seeking the Holy Grail;
Little he recked of his earldom's loss,
No more on his surcoat[27] was blazoned the cross, 255
But deep in his soul the sign he wore,
The badge of the suffering and the poor.
III
Sir Launfal's raiment thin and spare
Was idle mail 'gainst the barbed air,
For it was just at the Christmas time; 260
So he mused, as he sat, of a sunnier clime,
And sought for a shelter from cold and snow
In the light and warmth of long ago;[28]
He sees the snake-like caravan crawl
O'er the edge of the desert, black and small, 265
Then nearer and nearer, till, one by one,
He can count the camels in the sun,
As over the red-hot sands they pass
To where, in its slender necklace of grass,
The little spring laughed and leapt in the shade, 270
And with its own self like an infant played,
And waved its signal of palms.
IV
"For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms;"
The happy camels may reach the spring,
But Sir Launfal sees naught save the
grewsome thing,[29] 275
The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone,
That cowered beside him, a thing as lone
And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas
In the desolate horror of his disease.
V
And Sir Launfal said,--"I behold in thee 280
An image of Him who died on the tree;[30]
Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,--
Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns.
And to thy life were not denied
The wounds in the hands and feet and side; 285
Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;
Behold, through him, I give to thee!"
VI
Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes
And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway he
Remembered in what a haughtier guise 290
He had flung an alms to leprosie,
"When he caged his young life up in gilded mail
And set forth in search of the Holy Grail,
The heart within him was ashes and dust;
He parted in twain his single crust, 295
He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
And gave the leper to eat and drink;
'T was a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread,
'T was water out of a wooden bowl,--
Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed, 300
And 't was red wine he drank with his thirsty soul.
VII
As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face,
A light shone round about the place;
The leper no longer crouched at his side,
But stood before him glorified, 305
Shining and tall and fair and straight
As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,--[31]
Himself the Gate whereby men can
Enter the temple of God in Man.[32]
VIII
His words were shed softer than leaves
from the pine, 310
And they fell on Sir Launfal as snows on the brine,
Which mingle their softness and quiet in one
With the shaggy unrest they float down upon;
And the voice that was calmer than silence said,
"Lo, it is I, be not afraid! 315
In many climes, without avail,
Thou has spent thy life for the Holy Grail;
Behold it is here,--this cup which thou
Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;
This crust is my body broken for thee, 320
This water His blood that died on the tree;[33]
The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,
In whatso we share with another's need,--
Not that which we give, but what we share,--
For the gift without the giver is bare; 325
Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three,--
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me."
IX
Sir Launfal awoke, as from a swound;--
"The Grail in my castle here is found!
Hang my idle armor up on the wall, 330
Let it be the spider's banquet-hall;
He must be fenced with stronger mail
Who would seek and find the Holy Grail."
X
The castle-gate stands open now,
And the wanderer is welcome to the hall 335
As the hangbird[34] is to the elm-tree bough,
No longer scowl the turrets tall,
The Summer's long siege at last is o'er;
When the first poor outcast went in at the door,
She entered with him in disguise, 340
And mastered the fortress by surprise;
There is no spot she loves so well on ground.
She lingers and smiles there the whole year round;
The meanest serf on Sir Launfal's land
Has hall and bower at his command; 345
And there's no poor man in the North Countree
But is lord of the earldom as much as he.
--_Lowell_.
[1] Just as the organist gets into the spirit of his theme by means of
a dreamy prelude, so the poet by means of this introduction intends
to suggest the spirit of the poem that follows.
[2] Sinais. See Exodus, xix and xx.
[3] Druid. The druids were the priests of the ancient Celts.
[4] benedicite. Blessing, benediction.
[5] No matter how engrossed we may be with worldly things, Nature is
always influencing us for good.
[6] shrives. Hears confession and grants absolution.
[7] We give our lives in pursuit of foolish things. The cap and bells
was a part of the costume of the court jester.
[8] nice. discriminating, able to make fine distinctions.
[9] chanticleer. A crowing cock. The bird that "sings clear."
[10] rifts. Literally, clefts or fissures; used metaphorically here
with reference to the effects of "passion and woe" on the soul.
[11] Sir Launfal. A Knight of King Arthur's Round Table.