What is the existence of man's life?
It is a weary solitude
Which doth short joys, long woes include;
The world the stage, the prologue tears,
The acts, vain hope and varied fears;
The scene shuts up with loss of breath,
And leaves no epilogue but death.
HENRY KING.
"And it's come to this, is it?" exclaimed Solomon Grundy, who sat
enthroned like a monarch of good cheer among the beings of his own
creation in the buttery at Cecil Place--"And it's come to this, is it?
and there's to be no feasting; a wedding-fast in lieu of a
wedding-feast! No banquet in the hall--no merry-making in the kitchen! I
might have let that poor shrivelled preacher cut into the centre of my
pasty, and ravish the heart of my deer; stuffed, as it is, with tomatoes
and golden pippins! he might have taken the doves unto his bosom, and
carried the frosted antlers on his head; they would have been missed by
no one, save thee, Solomon Grundy. And those larded fowl! that look like
things of snow and not of flesh; even my wife praised them, and
said,--'Grundy,' said she--'Solomon, my spouse,' said she, 'you have
outdone yourself:'--that _was_ praise. But what signifies praise to me
now? My master wo'n't eat--my mistress wo'n't eat--Barbara, she wo'n't
eat! I offered her a pigeon-pie; she said, 'No, I thank ye, Solomon,'
and passed away. That I should ever live to see any one pass away from
a pigeon-pie of my making! Sir Willmott Burrell, he wo'n't eat, but
calls for wine and strong waters in his dressing-room: it's a queer
bridal! Ah! there's one of the Lady Cromwell's women, perhaps she will
eat; it is heart-breaking to think that such food as this"--and he cast
his eye over a huge assemblage of sundries, that
"Coldly furnish'd forth the marriage tables"--
"such food as this should be consumed by vulgar brutes, who would better
relish a baron of beef and a measure of double-dub, than a trussed
turkey and a flagon of canary."
Solomon, however, succeeded in prevailing upon Mistress Maud to enter,
and then had but little difficulty in forcing upon her some of the
confections, though all his efforts could not extort a compliment to his
culinary accomplishments.
"They are wonderful, considering they are country made," she said, after
discussing a third tartlet; "but there must be great allowance for your
want of skill; and you ought to esteem yourself fortunate (I'll take
another jelly) that there is to be no banquet; for--though it is evil to
give one's mind to fleshly tastes or creature comforts--these things
would hardly be deemed fit for a second-table wedding at Whitehall!"
Solomon was deeply mortified. He had great veneration for court, but he
had greater for his own talent, and he loved not to hear it called in
question: he therefore scanned the waiting-maid after his peculiar mode,
and then drawing himself up, stroked his chin, and replied, "That great
men had sat at his master's table, and had, he was well assured, praised
his skill in words which could not be repeated--that Lady Frances
herself had condescended to ask his method of blanching almonds, and
lauded his white chicken soup; and that he should not dread being
commanded to serve a banquet unto the Lord Protector himself."
Mistress Maud sneered, and examined a third jelly, which she was
reluctantly compelled to quit by a summons from her lady.
"What robe would your ladyship desire?" she inquired of Lady Frances,
whose eyes were red with weeping, and who appeared astonishingly
careless upon a point that usually occupied much of her attention.
"Would your ladyship like the white and silver, with the pearl loopings
and diamond stomacher?"
"What need to trouble me as to the robe?" at length she replied with an
irritability of manner to which she too often yielded. "Why do I
entertain two lazy hussies, but to see after my robings, and save me the
trouble of thinking thereon?--Go to!--you have no brain."
Maud and her assistant laid out the dress and the jewels, yet Lady
Frances was ill satisfied.
"Said I not that the stomacher needed lengthening?--The point is not a
point, but a round!--Saw one ever the like?--It is as square as a dove's
tail, instead of tapering off like a parroquet's!"
"Did your ladyship mean," said the elder of the bewildered girls, "that
the stomacher was square or round?"
She perfectly agreed with her mistress in thinking a stomacher a matter
of great importance, but was most sadly perplexed that Lady Frances
should so markedly object to that which she had so warmly praised on a
former occasion.
"Square or round!" repeated Lady Frances impetuously--"neither:--it is
to be peaked--thus!"
The poor maid, in her eagerness to hold the stomacher for her lady's
inspection, let it fall--the principal jewel-band caught in a hook, and
was scattered in fragments upon the ground. This was more than Lady
Frances could bear, and she turned both women out of the room,
commanding them to send Barbara in their stead. The little Puritan had
been weeping plentifully, but when she came, Lady Frances appeared to
have forgotten her wrath, and greeted her with much gentleness.
"Your mistress, my pretty maid--is she dressed?"
"No, my lady."
"See what havoc these girls have wrought with my stomacher! Pick me up
the jewels, Barbara, if your mistress can spare you such brief time."
"I was not with her, my lady: she said she would call when I was wanted.
I can hear her in this chamber."
While Barbara was gathering the jewels, her tears fell fast upon them.
Lady Frances observed it, and smiling said,--
"You are gemming my ornaments, setting them in crystal instead of
gold."
"I can't help my tears, dear lady, when I think how she weeps. Oh, it is
a mournful thing to see an oak bend like a willow, or a stately rose low
as a little wild flower! Something has crushed her heart, and I cannot
help her. I would lay down my life to make her happy, if I knew but how!
The very dogs hang their tails, and steal across the rooms they used to
gambol in! Ah, madam, she has wealth, and rank, and all that a poor girl
would call great glory. Yet her step is like the step of an aged woman,
and her head is bent, though not with the weight of years. I think of a
little poem I knew when I was a child. I believe I heard it before I
could speak the words thereof, yet it is so perfect on my mind. Did you
ever hear it, madam? it is called 'The Lady of Castile.'"
"Never; but I should like to hear it, Barbara, while you hook on the
diamonds those careless minxes scattered so heedlessly. What tune is it
to?"
"I know not the tune, madam; nor could I sing it now if I did. I often
wonder how the birds can sing when they lose their mates; though their
notes are not, as at other times, cheery; and no wonder. It's very cruel
to kill poor innocent birds."
"Let me hear the ballad, Barbara."
"I fear me, it has gone out of my head; but, madam, it began thus,
something after a popish fashion; but no harm, no great harm in it:--
"'The lady was of noble birth,
And fairest in Castile,
And many suitors came to her----'
And many suitors came to her," repeated Barbara. "I forget
the last line, but it ended with 'feel.' I am sorry, madam, that I have
lost the words, quite lost them to-day, though I could have said them
all yesterday. But the lady had many sweethearts, as my lady had, and
like my lady sent them all away; only she was over nice. And she made up
her mind at last to marry one whose name was ill thought of, and her
wedding day was fixed; and the night before, as she was sleeping, who
should visit her (it is here comes the Popery) but the Virgin? And the
Virgin gave her her hand, and led her to a beautiful grove; and this
grove was filled with the most beautiful birds in the world; and the
Virgin said to her, take any one of these birds that you choose, and
keep it as your own; and you may walk to the end of the grove and take
any one you meet; but you must choose it before you come back, and not
come back without one; you must not have the power to take one after you
begin to return. And the bird you take will be lord of your estates, and
of yourself, and the eyes of all Castile will be upon him. And the lady
was very beautiful, as beautiful as my lady, only not good or
well-taught like her. If she had been, she would not have believed in
the Virgin. So the lady walked on and on, and the sweet birds were
singing to her, and courting her, and striving to win her favour all the
way. They were such birds as I never heard of but in that song--with
diamond eyes, and ruby wings, and feet of pearl; but she found some
fault with every one she met, and fancied she might find a better before
her walk was done. And, behold! at last she got to the end of the grove
without having made any choice; and what think you, my lady, sat there?
why a black vulture, a wicked, deceitful, cruel bird. And she was forced
to take him. She had passed by many good and beautiful, and their sweet
songs still sounded in her ears; yet she was forced to take that hideous
and cruel bird. Only think, my lady, how horrid! The poor lady of
Castile awoke, and began thinking what the dream could mean; and after
praying awhile, she remembered how much she wished in her sleep that she
had taken the first bird she saw. And it brought back to her mind the
companion of her youth, who had loved her long, and she likened this
gallant gentleman to the sweet bird of her dream. So she put away him
whose name was ill thought of, and wedded the knight who had loved her
long. And so the song finishes with
"'Happy lady of Castile!'"
"And a good ending too," said Lady Frances; "I wish our wedding was
likely to terminate so favourably."
"Amen to that prayer!" said Barbara, earnestly, and added, shuddering as
she spoke, "It is very odd, madam, but one of your ladies, who was
arraying the communion-table, scared away a great toad, whose bloated
sides were leaning on the step, and, she says, on the very spot where
Sir Willmott Burrell must kneel to-night.--Hush! that was his door
which shut at the end of the corridor--the very sound of his foot-fall
makes me shudder--the Lord preserve us! It is astonishing, my lady, the
wisdom of some dumb animals: Crisp can't bear the sight of him; but
Crisp is very knowledgeable!"
"There will be another miserable match," thought Lady Frances; "that
pretty modest creature will sacrifice herself to that deformed piece of
nature's workmanship; even his nasty cur, long-backed and bandy, shares
her favour: I will beg her of Constantia, take her to court, and get her
a proper husband.--Crisp is an ill-favoured puppy, Barbara," she said
aloud, "and the sooner you get rid of him the better. You must come to
court with me, and be one of my bower-girls for a season; it will polish
you, and cure your Shepey prejudices. I shall ask Mistress Cecil to let
you come."
Barbara thought first of Robin, then of her father; and was about to
speak of the latter, when she remembered her promise of secrecy.
"Thank your ladyship; a poor girl, like me had better remain
where--where--she is likely to bide. A field-mouse cannot climb a tree
like a gay squirrel, my lady, though the poor thing is as happy on the
earth as the fine squirrel among the branches, and, mayhap, a deal
safer: and as to Crisp! beauty is deceitful--but honesty is a thing to
lean upon--the creature's heart is one great lump of faithfulness."
"You must get a courtly husband, Barbara."
"Your ladyship jests; and so would a courtly husband, at one like me.
Mayhap I may never live to marry; but if I did, I should not like my
husband to be ashamed of me.--The jewels are all on, my lady!"
"Should you not like to be as my maidens are?"
"Thank you, madam, no: for they have too little to do, and that begets
sorrow. Were my lady happy, and--and---- But that is my lady's call.
Shall I send your women, madam?"
"I have often thought and often said," murmured Lady Frances, as Barbara
meekly closed the door, "that nothing is so perplexing to the worldly as
straight forward honesty and truth. It is not to be intimidated, nor
bribed nor flattered, nor destroyed--not destroyed even by death. I
would give half my dowry--alas! do _I_ talk of dowry?--great as my
father is, he may be low as others, who have been as great. And now I
must accompany my sweet friend to the altar on which she is to be
sacrificed. Alas! better would be for her if death were to meet and
claim her upon the threshold of the chapel she is about to enter!"