Bayswater.
_Water Lilies._
Come away, Puck, while the dew is sweet;
Come to the dingle where fairies meet.
Know that the lilies have spread their bells
O'er all the pools in our mossy dells;
Stilly and lightly their vases rest
On the quivering sleep of the waters' breast,
Catching the sunshine thro' leaves that throw
To their scented bosoms an emerald glow;
And a star from the depth of each pearly cup,
A golden star! unto heaven looks up,
As if seeking its kindred, where bright they lie,
Set in the blue of the summer sky.
.... under arching leaves we'll float,
.... with reeds o'er the fairy moat,
.... forth wild music both sweet and low.
It shall seem from the rich flower's heart,
As if 'twere a breeze, with a flute's faint sigh.
Cone, Puck, for the midsummer sun uproars strong,
And the life of the Lily may not be long.--MAB.
* * * * *
"GREEN EYES."
Having long been familiar with only one instance of the possession of
eyes of this hue--the well-known case of the "_green-eyed_ monster
Jealousy,"--and not having been led by that association to think of them
as a beauty, I have been surprised lately at finding them not
unfrequently seriously admired. _Ex. gr.:_
"_Victorian._ How is that young and _green-eyed_ Gaditana
That you both wot of?
_Don Carlos._ Ay, soft _emerald_ eyes!"
* * * * *
_Victorian._ A pretty girl: and in her tender eyes,
Just that soft shade of _green_ we sometimes see
In evening skies."
Longfellow's _Spanish Student_, Act II. Sc. 3.
Mr. Longfellow adds in a note:
"The Spaniards, with good reason, consider this colour of the eye as
beautiful, and celebrate it in a song; as, for example, in the
well-known Villancico:
'Ay ojuelos verdes,
Ay los mis ojuelos,
Ay hagan los cielos
Que de mi te acuerdes!
* * * * *
Tengo confianza,
De mis verdes ojos.'"
Böhl de Faber, _Floresta_, No. 255.
I have seen somewhere, I think in one of the historical romances of
Alexander Dumas (Père), a popular jingle about
"La belle Duchesse de Nevers,
Aux yeux verts," &c.
And lastly, see _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, Act IV. Sc. 4., where the
ordinary text has:
"Her eyes are grey as glass, and so are mine."
Here "The MS. corrector of the folio 1682 converts 'grey' into
'_green_:' 'Her eyes are _green_ as {408} _grass;_' and such, we have
good reason to suppose, was the true reading." (Collier's _Shakspeare
Notes and Emendations_, p. 25.)
The modern slang, "Do you see anything _green_ in my eye?" can hardly, I
suppose, be called in evidence on the question of beauty or ugliness. Is
there any more to be found in favour of "_green eyes_?"