adjGeraldines 
 
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 •^ ^/■ 
 
 LADY GERALDINE'S COURTSHIP 
 
LADY GERALDINE'S 
 COURTSHIP 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING 
 
 M 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY W. J. HENNESSY 
 ENGRAVED BY W. J. LINTON 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 
 
 •*/ 
 
5 
 
 .A 
 
 Entered according to Act ot Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 
 Charles Scribner and Company, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 48 6555 
 
 JUL 1 7 1942 
 
 University Press: John Wilson & Son, 
 Cambridge. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 DESIGNED BY W. J. HENNESSY— ENGRAVED BY W. J. LINTON 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PORTRAIT OF MRS. BROWNING Title 
 
 LADY GERALDINE ...... . . i 
 
 Halls among the woodlands 2 
 
 Many vassals bow before her 4 
 
 She has blessed their little children 5 
 
 i grew scornfuller, grew colder, as i stood up there 
 
 among them 9 
 
 Slowly round she swept her eyelids lo 
 
 The blessed woods of Sussex 13 
 
 In that ANCIENT HALL OF WyCOMBE THRONGED THE NUMEROUS 
 
 GUESTS INVITED 1 5 
 
 The DEER HALF IN THE GLIMMER ly 
 
 Went a-wandering up the gardens through the laurels 
 
 and abeles 19 
 
 As she turned her FACE IN GOING 20 
 
 Through right nobleness grow humble 23 
 
 Near the statue's white reposing — and both bathed in 
 
 sunny air 27 
 
 Just to feed the swans . . 28 
 
 Or at times I read there . - .30 
 
iv ILL USTRA TIONS 
 
 PAGii 
 
 She would break out, on a sudden, in a gush of woodland 
 
 SINGING • • -33 
 
 The little children from the schools 35 
 
 With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the glory 
 
 of the stars 37 
 
 Majestical white horses 39 
 
 For I HAD been reading Camoexs — that poem you remember 43 
 
 Fond of art and letters, too 45 
 
 Nay, indeed, my lord, this talk is vain .... 47 
 There I maddened ! her words stung me ! Life swept through 
 
 me into fever 49 
 
 She half arose 5' 
 
 And I spake out wildly, fiercely, brutal truths of her 
 
 AND others 53 
 
 With whom first and last are equal 55 
 
 Could you guess what word she uttered ? She looked up, 
 
 AS IF IN wonder 59 
 
 'TWAS MY STRENGTH OF PASSION SLEW ME ! — FELL BEFORE HER 
 
 LIKE A STONE ^3 
 
 TAIL-PIECE ^^ 
 
 HEAD-PIECE TO CONCLUSION ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ -67 
 
 'TWIXT THE PURPLE LATTICE-CURTAINS HOW SHE STANDETH STILL 
 
 AND PALE 9 
 
 'TiS THE VISION ONLY SPEAKS ..-•■•• 73 
 
 TAIL-PIECE .,..'•- = ■■ 74 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 A ROMANCE OF THE AGE. 
 
 A poet writes to his friend. Place — A room in Wycombe Hail. 
 
 Time — Late in the roening. 
 
 Dear my friend and fellow-student, I would lean 
 
 my spirit o'er you ; 
 Down the purple of this chamber, tears should 
 
 scarcely run at will : 
 I am humbled who was humble ! Friend, — I 
 
 bow my head before you ! 
 You should lead me to my peasants! — but their 
 
 faces are too still. 
 
2 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 There's a lady — an earls daughter; she is proud 
 and she is noble; 
 
 And she treads the crimson carpet, and she 
 breathes the perfumed air; 
 
 And a kingly blood sends glances up her princely 
 eye to trouble, 
 
 And the shadow of a monarch's crown is soft- 
 ened in her hair. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 3 
 
 She has halls among the woodlands, she has 
 
 castles by the breakers, 
 She has farms and she has manors, she can 
 
 threaten and command. 
 And the palpitating engines snort in steam 
 
 across her acres. 
 As they mark upon the blasted heaven the 
 
 measure of her land. 
 
 There are none of England's daughters who can 
 
 show a prouder presence ; 
 Upon princely suitors praying, she has looked 
 
 in her disdain : 
 She was sprung of English nobles, I was born 
 
 of English peasants ; 
 What was / that I should love her — save for 
 
 competence to pain! 
 
4 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 , I was only a poor poet, made for singing at her 
 
 casement, 
 As the finches or the thrushes, while she thought 
 
 of other things. 
 O, she walked so high above me, she appeared 
 
 to my abasement. 
 In her lovely silken murmur, like an angel clad 
 
 in wings! 
 
 
 
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 Many vassals bow before her as her carriage 
 sweeps their door- ways , 
 
LADY GERALD INE 
 
 She has blessed their Httle children, — as a 
 
 priest or queen were she. 
 Far too tender or too cruel far, her smile upon 
 
 the poor was, 
 For I thought it was the same smile which she 
 
 used to smile on me. 
 
6 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 She has voters in the commons, she has lovers 
 
 in the palace — 
 And of all the fair court-ladies, few have jewels 
 
 half as fine : 
 Oft the prince has named her beauty, 'twixt the 
 
 red wine and the chalice : 
 O, and what was / to love her? my Beloved, 
 
 my Geraldinc ! 
 
 Yet I could not choose but love her — I was 
 
 born to poet uses — 
 To love all things set above me, all of good 
 
 and all of fair: 
 Nymphs of mountain, not of valley, we are wont 
 
 to call the Muses — 
 And in nympholeptic climbing, poets pass from 
 
 mount to star. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 7 
 
 And because I was a poet, and because the 
 
 people praised me, 
 With their critical deduction for the modern 
 
 writer's fault; 
 I could sit at rich men's tables, — though the 
 
 courtesies that raised me, 
 Still suggested clear between us the pale 
 
 spectrum of the salt. 
 
 And they praised me in her presence: — "Will 
 
 your book appear this summer?'" 
 Then returning to each other — " Yes, our plans 
 
 are for the moors ; " 
 Then with whisper dropped behind me — " There 
 
 he is ! the latest comer ! 
 O, she only likes his verses! what is over, she 
 
 endures. 
 
8 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 " Quite low born ! self-educated ! somewhat gifted 
 
 though by nature, — ■ 
 And we make a point of asking him, — of being 
 
 very kind ; 
 You may speak, he does not hear you ; and 
 
 besides, he writes no satire, — 
 All these serpents kept by charmers, leave their 
 
 natural sting behind." 
 
 I grew scornfuller, grew colder, as I stood up 
 
 there among them. 
 Till as frost intense will burn you, the cold 
 
 scorning scorched my brow ; 
 When a sudden silver speaking, gravely cadenced, 
 
 overrung them. 
 And a sudden silken stirring touched my inner 
 
 nature through. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 I grew scornfuller, grew colder, as I stood up there among them. 
 
lO 
 
 LABY GERALDINE 
 I looked upward and beheld her! With a cahii 
 
 and regnant spirit, 
 Slowly round she swept her eyelids, and said 
 
 clear before them all 
 
 " Have you such superfluous honor, sir, that able 
 
 to confer it 
 You will come down, Mr. Bertram, as my guest 
 to Wycombe Hall?" 
 
LADY GERALDINE II 
 
 Here she paused, — she had been paler at the 
 first word of her speaking ; 
 
 But because a silence followed it, blushed some- 
 what, as for shame ; 
 
 Then, as scorning her own feeling, resumed 
 calmly — "I am seeking 
 
 More distinction than these gentlemen think 
 worthy of my claim. 
 
 " Ne'ertheless, you see, I seek it — not because 
 
 I am a woman " 
 (Here her smile sprang like a fountain, and, so, 
 
 overflowed her mouth), 
 " But because my woods in Sussex have some 
 
 purple shades at gloaming 
 Which are worthy of a king in state, or poet in 
 
 his youth. 
 
12 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 " I invite you, Mr. Bertram, to no scene for 
 
 worldly speeches — 
 Sir, I scarce should dare — but only where God 
 
 asked the thrushes first — 
 And \i yon will sing beside them, in the covert 
 
 of my beeches, 
 I will thank you for the woodlands, ... for the 
 
 human world at worst." 
 
 Then she smiled around right childly, then she 
 
 gazed around right queenly ; 
 And I bowed — I could not answer ! Alternated 
 
 light and gloom — 
 While as one who quells the lions, with a steady 
 
 eye serenely. 
 She, with level fronting eyelids, passed out 
 
 stately from the room. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 13 
 
 O, the blessed woods of Sussex, I can hear them 
 
 still around me, 
 With their leafy tide of greenery still rippling 
 
 up the wind ! 
 O, the cursed woods of Sussex! where the 
 
 hunters arrow found me, 
 When a fair face and a tender voice had made 
 
 me mad and blind ! 
 
14 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 In that ancient hall of Wycombe, thronged the 
 
 numerous guests invited, 
 And the lovely London ladies trod the floors 
 
 with gliding feet; 
 And their voices low with fashion, not with 
 
 feeling, softly freighted 
 All the air about the windows, with elastic 
 
 laughters sweet. 
 
 For at eve, the open windows flung their light 
 
 out on the terrace. 
 Which the floating orbs of curtains did with 
 
 gradual shadow sweep ; 
 While the swans upon the river, fed at morning 
 
 by the heiress. 
 Trembled dow^nward through their snowy wings 
 
 at music in their sleep. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 15 
 
 In (hat ancient hall of Wycombe, thronged the numerous guests invited. 
 
i6 
 
 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 And there evermore was music, both of instru- 
 
 ment and singing ; 
 
 Till the finches of the shrubberies grew restless 
 
 in the dark; 
 But the cedars stood up motionless each in a 
 
 moonlight ringing, 
 
 And the deer, half in the glimmer, strewed the 
 hollows of the park. 
 
LADY GERALDINE I J 
 
 And though sometimes she would bind me with 
 
 her silver-corded speeches, 
 To commix my words and laughter with the 
 
 converse and the jest, 
 Oft I sat apart, and gazing on the river through 
 
 the beeches, 
 Heard, as pure the swans swam down it, her 
 
 pure voice oerfloat the rest. 
 
 In the morning, horn of huntsman, hoof of steed, 
 
 and laugh of rider, 
 Spread out cheery from the court-yard till we 
 
 lost them in the hills ; 
 While herself and other ladies, and her suitors 
 
 left beside her. 
 Went a-wandering up the gardens through the 
 
 laurels and abeles. 
 3 
 
1 8 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Thus, her foot upon the new-mown grass — 
 
 bareheaded — with the flowing 
 Of the virginal white vesture gathered closely to 
 
 her throat ; 
 With the golden ringlets in her neck just 
 
 quickened by her going, 
 And appearing to breathe sun for air, and 
 
 doubting if to float, — 
 
 With a branch of dewy maple, which her right 
 
 hand held above her, 
 And which trembled a green shadow in betwixt 
 
 her and the skies, 
 As she turned her face in going, thus, she drew 
 
 me on to love her. 
 And to worship the divineness of the smile hid 
 
 in her eyes. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Went a zvanderiiti^ up the gardens through the laurels and abele. 
 
20 
 
 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 
 W^m>r^- 1 1 
 
 For her eyes alone smile constantly : her lips 
 
 have serious sweetness, 
 And her front is calm — the dimple rarely 
 
 ripples on the check : 
 But her deep blue eyes smile constantly, — as 
 
 if they in discreetness 
 Kept the secret of a happy dream she did not 
 
 care to speak. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 21 
 
 Thus she drew me the first morning, out across 
 
 into the garden : 
 And I walked among her noble friends and 
 
 could not keep behind; 
 Spake she unto all and unto me — " Behold I 
 
 am the warden 
 Of the song birds in these lindens, which are 
 
 cages to their mind. 
 
 " But within this swarded circle, into which the 
 
 lime- walk brings us — 
 Whence the beeches rounded greenly, stand 
 
 away in reverent fear; 
 I will let no music enter, saving what the 
 
 fountain sings us, 
 Which the lilies round the basin may seem pure 
 
 enough to hear. 
 
22 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 " The live air that waves the HHes waves this 
 
 slender jet of water 
 Like a holy thought sent feebly up from soul 
 
 of fasting saint ! 
 Whereby lies a marble Silence, sleeping! (Lough 
 
 the sculptor wrought her,) 
 So asleep she is forgetting to say Hitsh ! — a 
 
 fancy quaint 
 
 " Mark how heavy white her eyelids ! not a 
 
 dream between them lingers ! 
 And the left hand's index droppeth from the 
 
 lips upon the cheek : 
 And the right hand, — with the svmbol rose held 
 
 slack within the fingers. 
 Has fallen backward in the basin — yet this 
 
 Silence will not speak ! 
 
LADY GERALDINE 23 
 
 " That the essential meaning growing may exceed 
 
 the special symbol, 
 Is the thought as I conceive it : it applies more 
 
 high and low. 
 Our true noblemen will often through right 
 
 nobleness grow humble, 
 And assert an inward honor by denying outward 
 
 show." 
 
24 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 " Nay, your Silence," said I, " truly holds her 
 symbol rose but slackly, 
 
 Yet she holds it — or would scarcely be a Silence 
 to our ken ! 
 
 And your nobles wear their ermine on the out- 
 side, or walk blackly 
 
 In the presence of the social law as most 
 io-noble men, 
 
 o 
 
 "Let the poets dream such dreaming! Madam, 
 
 in these British islands, 
 'Tis the substance that wanes ever, 'tis the 
 
 symbol that exceeds ; 
 Soon we shall have nought but symbol ! and 
 
 for statues like this Silence, 
 Shall accept the rose's image — in another case, 
 
 the weed's." 
 
LADY GERALDINE 25 
 
 " Not so quickly ! " she retorted, — "I confess 
 
 where'er you go, you 
 Find for things, names — shows for actions, and 
 
 pure gold for honor clear ; 
 But when all is run to symbol in the Social, I 
 
 will throw you 
 The world's book which now reads dryly, and 
 
 sit down with Silence here." 
 
 Half in playfulness she spoke, I thought, and 
 
 half in indignation ; 
 Friends who listened laughed her words off while 
 
 her lovers deemed her fair. 
 A fair woman — flushed with feeling, in her 
 
 noble-lighted station 
 Near the statue's white reposing — and both 
 
 bathed in sunny air! 
 
26 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 With the trees round, not so distant but you 
 heard their vernal murmur, 
 
 And beheld in light and shadow the leaves in 
 and outward move ; 
 
 And the little fountain leaping toward the sun- 
 heart to be warmer. 
 
 And recoiling in a tremble from the too much 
 light above= 
 
 'Tis a picture for remembrance ! and thus, 
 
 morning after morning. 
 Did I follow as she drew me by the spirit to 
 
 her feet — 
 Why, her greyhound followed also ! dogs — we 
 
 both were dogs for scorning — 
 To be sent back when she pleased it and her 
 
 path lay through the wheat. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 27 
 
 Near the statue's white reposing — and both bathed in sunny air i 
 
28 
 
 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 And thus, morning after morning, spite of vows 
 and spite of sorrow, 
 
 Did I follow at her drawing, while the week- 
 days passed along; 
 
 Just to feed the swans this noontide, or to see 
 the fawns to-morrow, 
 
 Or to teach the hill-side echo some sweet 
 Tuscan in a sone. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 29 
 
 Aye, for sometimes on the hill-side, while we sat 
 
 down in the gowans, 
 With the forest green behind us, and its shadow 
 
 cast before ; 
 And the river running under ; and across it from 
 
 the rowans 
 A brown partridge whirring near us, till we felt 
 
 the air it bore — 
 
 There, obedient to her praying, did I read aloud 
 
 the poems 
 Made by Tuscan flutes, or instruments more 
 
 various of our own ; 
 Read the pastoral parts of Spenser — or the 
 
 subtle interflowings 
 Found in Petrarch's sonnets — here's the book 
 
 — the leaf is folded down ! — 
 
30 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Or at times a modern volume, — Wordsworth's 
 
 solemn-thoughted idyl, 
 Howitt's ballad verse, or Tennyson's enchanted 
 
 reverie, — 
 Or from Browning some " Pomegranate," which, 
 
 if cut deep down the middle. 
 Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined 
 
 humanity. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 3 1 
 
 Or at times I read there, hoarsely, some new 
 
 poem of my making — 
 Poets ever fail in reading their own verses to 
 
 their worth, 
 For the echo in you breaks upon the words 
 
 which you are speaking, 
 And the chariot-wheels jar in the gate through 
 
 which you drive them forth. 
 
 After, when we were grown tired of books, the 
 
 silence round us flinging 
 A slow arm of sweet compression, felt with 
 
 beatings at the breast, 
 She would break out, on a sudden, in a gush of 
 
 woodland singing. 
 Like a child's emotion in a god — a naiad tired 
 
 of rest. 
 
32 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 O, to see or hear her singing! scarce I know 
 
 which is divinest — 
 For her looks sing too — she modulates her 
 
 gestures on the tune ; 
 And her mouth stirs with the song, like song; 
 
 and when the notes are finest, 
 'Tis the eyes that shoot out vocal light and seem 
 
 to swell them on. 
 
 Then we talked — O, how we talked ! her voice 
 
 so cadenced in the talking, 
 Made another singing — of the soul! a music 
 
 without bars — 
 While the leafy sounds of woodlands, humming 
 
 round where we were walking. 
 Brought interposition worthy-sweet — as skies 
 
 about the stars. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 33 
 
 She luonhl break out, on a sudden, in a giisk of woodland singing. 
 5 
 
34 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 And she spake such good thoughts natural, as 
 
 if she ahvays thought them — 
 And had sympathies so rapid, open, free as bird 
 
 on branch 
 Just as ready to fly east as west, whichever way 
 
 besought them, 
 In the birchen wood a chirrup, or a cock-crow 
 
 in the grange. 
 
 In her utmost hghtness there is truth — and 
 often she speaks Hghtly, 
 
 Has a grace in being gay, which even mourn- 
 ful souls approve, 
 
 For the root of some grave earnest thought is 
 understruck so rightly. 
 
 As to justify the foliage and the waving flowers 
 above. 
 
LADY GERALD INE 35 
 
 And she talked on — we talked, rather ! upon all 
 
 things — substance — shadow — 
 Of the sheep that browsed the grasses — of the 
 
 reapers in the corn — 
 Of the little children from the schools, seen 
 
 winding through the meadow — 
 Of the poor rich world beyond them, still kept 
 
 poorer by its scorn. 
 
36 LADY GERALD INE 
 
 So of men, and so of letters — books are men 
 
 of hisfher stature, 
 And the only men that speak aloud for future 
 
 times to hear: 
 So of mankind in the abstract, which grows 
 
 slowly into nature, 
 Yet will lift the cry of " progress," as it trod 
 
 from sphere to sphere. 
 
 And her custom was to praise me when I said, 
 
 " The Age culls simples, 
 With a broad clowns back turned broadly to 
 
 the glory of the stars — 
 We are gods by our own reckoning, and may 
 
 well shut up the temples. 
 And wield on, amid the incense-steam, the 
 
 thunder of our cars 
 
LADY GERALDTNE 
 
 37 
 
 With a Oroad daivn's back turned broadly to the glory of the stars. 
 
38 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 " For we throw out acclamations of self-thank- 
 ing, self-admiring, 
 
 With, at every mile run faster, — ' O the 
 wondrous, wondrous age.' 
 
 Little thinking if we work our souls as nobly 
 as our iron. 
 
 Or if angels will commend us at the goal of 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 " Why, what is this patient entrance into nature's 
 
 deep resources, 
 But the child's most gradual learning to walk 
 
 upright without bane ? 
 When we drive out, from the cloud of steam, 
 
 majestical white horses, 
 Are we greater than the first men who led black 
 
 ones by the mane ? 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 39 
 
 " If we trod the deeps of ocean, if we struck 
 
 the stars in rising, 
 If we wrapped the globe intensely with one hot 
 
 electric breath, 
 Twere but power within our tether — no new 
 
 spirit-power comprising ; 
 And in life we were not greater men, nor 
 
 bolder men in death." 
 
40 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 She was patient with my talking; and I loved 
 
 her — loved her certes, 
 As I loved all Heavenly objects, with uplifted 
 
 eyes and hands ! 
 As I loved pure inspirations — loved the graces, 
 
 loved the virtues. 
 In a Love content with writing his own name 
 
 on desert sands. 
 
 Or at least I thought so purely ! — thought no 
 
 idiot Hope was raising 
 Any crown to crown Love's silence — silent 
 
 Love that sat alone — 
 Out, alas ! the stag is like me — he, that tries to 
 
 go on grazing 
 With the great deep gun-wound in his neck, 
 
 then reels with sudden moan. 
 
LADY GERALDINE \\ 
 
 It was thus I reeled ! I told you that her hand 
 
 had many suitors; 
 But she smiles them down imperially, as Venus 
 
 did the waves, 
 And with such a gracious coldness, that they 
 
 cannot press their futures 
 On the present of her courtesy, which yieldingly 
 
 enslaves. 
 
 And this morning, as I sat alone within the 
 
 inner chamber 
 With the great saloon beyond it, lost in pleasant 
 
 thought serene — 
 For I had been reading Camoens — that poem 
 
 you remember. 
 Which his lady's eyes are praised in, as the 
 
 sweetest ever seen. 
 
 6 
 
42 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 And the book lay open, and my thought flew 
 
 from it, taking from it 
 A vibration and impulsion to an end beyond its 
 
 own, 
 As the branch of a green osier, when a child 
 
 would overcome it, 
 Springs up freely from his clasping and goes 
 
 swinging in the sun. 
 
 As I mused I heard a murmur — it grew deep 
 
 as it grew longer — 
 Speakers using earnest language — " Lady Ger- 
 
 aldine, you would!''' 
 And I heard a voice that pleaded ever on, in 
 
 accents stronger 
 As a sense of reason gave it power to make its 
 
 rhetoric good. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 43 
 
 For I had been reading^ Camoens — that poem yozi remember. 
 
44 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Well I knew that voice — it was an earl's, of 
 
 soul that matched his station — 
 Soul completed into lordship — might and right 
 
 read on his brow: 
 Very finely courteous — far too proud to doubt 
 
 his domination 
 Of the common people, — he atones for grandeur 
 
 by a bow. 
 
 Hio^h straisfht forehead, nose of eaojle, cold blue 
 
 eyes, of less expression 
 Than resistance, coldly casting off the looks of 
 
 other men, 
 As steel, arrows, — unelastic lips, which seem to 
 
 taste possession. 
 And be cautious lest the common air should 
 
 injure or distrain. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 45 
 
 For the rest, accomplished, upright, — aye, and 
 
 standing by his order 
 With a bearing not ungraceful ; fond of art and 
 
 letters too ; 
 Just a good man made a proud man, — as the 
 
 sandy rocks that border 
 A wild coast, by circumstances, in a regnant 
 
 ebb and flow. 
 
46 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Thus, I knew that voice — I heard it — and I 
 
 could not help the hearkening : 
 In the room I stood up blindly, and my burning 
 
 heart within 
 Seemed to seethe and fuse my senses, till they 
 
 ran on all sides darkening, 
 And scorched, weighed, like melted metal round 
 
 my feet that stood therein. 
 
 And that voice, I heard it pleading, for love's 
 
 sake — for wealth, position, 
 For the sake of liberal uses, and great actions 
 
 to be done — 
 And she interrupted gently, " Nay, my lord, the 
 
 old tradition 
 Of your Normans, by some worthier hand than 
 
 mine is, should be won." 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 47 
 
 '^iU\'lb^'^1 
 
 " Ah, that white hand," he said quickly, — and 
 
 in his he either drew it 
 Or attempted — for with gravity and instance 
 
 she repHed — 
 " Nay, indeed, my lord, this talk is vain, and we 
 
 had best eschew it, 
 Ana pass on, like friends, to other points less 
 
 easy to decide." 
 
48 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 What he said again, I know not. It is likely 
 
 that his trouble 
 Worked his pride up to the surface, for she 
 
 answered in slow scorn — 
 "And your lordship judges rightly. Whom I 
 
 marry, shall be noble, 
 Aye, and wealthy. I shall never blush to think 
 
 how he was born." 
 
 There, I maddened ! her words stung me ! Life 
 swept through me into fever, 
 
 And my soul sprang up astonished ; sprang, full- 
 statured in an hour: 
 
 Know you what it is when anguish, with apoc- 
 alyptic NEVER, 
 
 To a Pythian heioht dilates you, — and despair 
 sublimes to power.? 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 49 
 
 There, I madacued! her words stung me ! Life swept through me into 
 fever 
 
50 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 From my brain, the soul- wings budded ! — waved 
 a flame about my body, 
 
 Whence conventions coiled to ashes : I felt self- 
 drawn out, as man, 
 
 From amalgamate false natures ; and I saw the 
 skies grow ruddy 
 
 With the deepening feet of angels, and I knew 
 what spirits can. 
 
 I was mad — inspired — say either ! anguish 
 
 worketh inspiration ! 
 Was a man, or beast — perhaps so; for the tiger 
 
 roars, when speared ; 
 And I walked on, step by step, along the level 
 
 of my passion — 
 O my soul ! and passed the doorway to her face, 
 
 and never feared. 
 
LABY GERALDINE 
 
 51 
 
 He had left her, — peradventure, when my foot- 
 step proved my coming — 
 
 But for //^r— she half arose, then sat — grew 
 scarlet and grew pale: 
 
 O, she trembled ! — 'tis so always with a worldly 
 man or woman 
 
 In the presence of true spirits — what else can 
 they do but quail? 
 
52 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 O, she fluttered like a tame bird, in among its 
 forest-brothers 
 
 Far too strong for it! then drooping, bowed 
 her face upon her hands — 
 
 And I spake out wildly, fiercely, brutal truths 
 of her and others ! 
 
 /, she planted in the desert, swathed her, wind- 
 like, with my sands. 
 
 I plucked up her social fictions, bloody-rooted 
 
 though leaf-verdant, 
 Trod them down with words of shaming, — all 
 
 the purple and the gold, 
 All the " landed stakes " and lordships — all that 
 
 spirits pure and ardent 
 Are cast out of love and honor because chancing 
 
 not to hold. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 53 
 
 And I spake out ivildly, fiercely, brutal truths of her and others ! 
 
54 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 " For myself I do not argue," said I, " though I 
 
 love you, madam ; 
 But for better souls that nearer to the height 
 
 of yours have trod. 
 And this age shows, to my thinking, still more 
 
 infidels to Adam, 
 Than direcUy, by profession, simple infidels to 
 
 God. 
 
 " Yet, O God," I said, " O grave," I said, " O 
 mother's heart and bosom, 
 
 With whom first and last are equal, saint and 
 corpse and little child ! 
 
 We are fools to your deductions, in these fig- 
 ments of heart-closing ! 
 
 We are traitors to your causes, in these sympa- 
 thies defiled ! 
 
LADY GERALDINE 55 
 
 " Learn more reverence, madam, not for rank 
 
 or wealth — that needs no learning : 
 That comes quickly — quick as sin does, aye, and 
 
 culminates to sin ; 
 But for Adam's seed, man ! Trust me, 'tis a 
 
 clay above your scorning, 
 Vv^ith God's image stamped upon it and God's 
 
 kindling breath within. 
 
56 LADY GERALD INE 
 
 " What right have you, madam, gazing in your 
 
 palace mirror daily. 
 Getting so by heart your beauty which all others 
 
 must adore. 
 While you draw the golden ringlets down your 
 
 fingers, to vow gaily 
 You will wed no man that's only good to God, 
 
 — and nothino- more? 
 
 o 
 
 " Why, what right have you, made fair by that 
 
 same God — the sweetest woman 
 Of all women He has fashioned — with your 
 
 lovely spirit-face. 
 Which would seem too near to vanish if its 
 
 smile were not so human, 
 And your voice of holy sweetness, turning 
 
 common words to sfrace. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 57 
 
 " What right can you have, God's other works 
 to scorn, despise, revile them 
 
 In the gross, as mere men, broadly — not as 
 noble men, forsooth, — 
 
 As mere Pariahs of the outer world, forbidden to 
 assoil them 
 
 In the hope of living, dying, near that sweet- 
 ness of your mouth ? 
 
 " Have you any answer, madam ? If my spirit 
 
 were less earthly. 
 If its instrument were gifted with a better silver 
 
 string, 
 I would kneel down where I stand, and say — 
 
 Behold me ! I am worthy 
 Of thy loving, for I love thee! I am worthy as 
 
 a kino:. 
 
58 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 " As it is — your ermined pride, I swear, shall 
 
 feel this stain upon her — 
 That /, poor, weak, tost with passion, scorned 
 
 by me and you again, 
 Love you, madam — dare to love you — to my 
 
 grief and your dishonor — 
 To my endless desolation, and your impotent 
 
 disdain ! " 
 
 More mad words like these — more madness 
 
 friend, I need not write them fuller; 
 And I hear my hot soul dropping on the lines 
 
 in showers of tears — 
 O, a woman ! friend, a woman ! Why, a beast 
 
 had scarce been duller 
 Than roar bestial loud complaints against the 
 
 shining of the spheres. 
 
LADY GERALDJNE 
 
 59 
 
 Could yoH giu-is lohat word she uttered '■ She looked up, as if in -cooiider. 
 
6o LADY GERALDINE 
 
 But at last there came a pause. I stood all 
 
 vibrating with thunder 
 Which my soul had used. The silence drew 
 
 her face up like a call. 
 Could you guess what word she uttered ? She 
 
 looked up, as if in wonder, 
 With tears beaded on her lashes, and said 
 
 " Bertram ! " It was all. 
 
 If she had cursed me — and she mia^ht have 
 — or if even, with queenly bearing 
 
 Which at need is used by women, she had risen 
 up and said, 
 
 " Sir, you are my guest, and therefore I have 
 given you a full hearing — 
 
 Now, beseech you, choose a name exacting some- 
 what less instead" — 
 
LADY GERALDINE 6 1 
 
 I had borne it ! — but that " Bertram ! " — why it 
 
 Hes there on the paper 
 A mere word, without her accent, — and you 
 
 cannot judge the weight 
 Of the cahii which crushed my passion! I 
 
 seemed drowning in a vapor, — 
 And her gentleness destroyed me whom her 
 
 scorn made desolate. 
 
 So, struck backward and exhausted by that in- 
 ward flow of passion 
 
 Which had rushed on, sparing nothing, into 
 forms of abstract truth, 
 
 With a logic agonizing through unseemly demon- 
 stration, 
 
 And with youth's own anguish turning grimly 
 gray the hairs of youth, — 
 
62 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 By the sense accursed and instant, that if even 
 
 I spake wisely 
 I spake basely — using truth, — if what I spake 
 
 indeed was true — 
 To avenge wrong on a woman — her, who sat 
 
 there weighing nicely 
 A full manhoods worth, found guilty of such 
 
 deeds as I could do ! — 
 
 With such wrong and woe exhausted — what I 
 suffered and occasioned, — 
 
 As a wild horse through a city runs with light- 
 ning in his eyes, 
 
 And then dashing at a church's cold and passive 
 wall, impassioned. 
 
 Strikes the death into his burning brain, and 
 blindly drops and dies — 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 63 
 
 'T%vas my strength of passion slew me I— fell before her like a stone. 
 
64 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 So I fell, struck down before her! Do you 
 
 blame nie friend, for weakness ? 
 'Twas my strength of passion slew me ! — fell 
 
 before her like a stone ; 
 Fast the dreadful world rolled from me, on its 
 
 roaring wheels of blackness ! 
 When the light came I was lying in this 
 
 chamber — and alone. 
 
 O, of course, she charged her lackeys to bear 
 
 out the sickly burden, 
 And to cast it from her scornful sight — but 
 
 not beyond tlic gate — 
 She is too kind to be cruel, and too haughty 
 
 not to pardon 
 Such a man as I — 'twere something to be level 
 
 to her hate. 
 
LADY GERALDINE 65 
 
 But for me you are now conscious why, my 
 friend, I write this letter. 
 
 How my Hfe is read all backward, and the charm 
 of life undone ! 
 
 I shall leave her house at dawn — I would to- 
 night, if I were better — 
 
 And I charge my soul to hold my body strength- 
 ened for the sun. 
 
 When the sun has dyed the oriel, I depart with 
 
 no last gazes, 
 No weak moanings — one word only left in 
 
 writing for her hands. 
 Out of reach of all derision, and some unavailing 
 
 praises, 
 To make front against this anguish in the far 
 
 and foreign lands. 
 9 
 
66 
 
 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Blame me not. I would not squander life in 
 orief — I am abstemious : 
 
 o 
 
 I but nurse my spirit's falcon, that its wing may 
 
 soar again : 
 There 's no room for tears cf weakness in the 
 
 blind eyes of a Phemius : 
 Into work the poet kneads them, — and he does 
 
 not die //// then. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Bertram finished the last pages, while along the 
 
 silence ever 
 Still in hot and heavy splashes, fell the tears on 
 
 every leaf: 
 Having ended, he leans backward in his chair, 
 
 with lips that quiver 
 From the deep unspoken, aye, and deep unwritten 
 
 thoughts of grief. 
 
68 LADY GERALD INE 
 
 Soil ! how still the lady standeth ! 'tis a dream 
 
 — a dream of mercies ! 
 'Twixt the purple lattice-curtains, how she 
 
 standeth still and pale! / 
 
 'Tis a vision, sure, of mercies, sent to soften his 
 
 self-curses — 
 Sent to sweep a patient quiet o'er the tossing 
 
 of his wail. 
 
 " Eyes," he said, " now throbbing through me ! 
 
 are ye eyes tliat did undo me ? 
 Shining eyes, like antique jewels set in Parian 
 
 statue-stone ! 
 Underneath that calm white forehead, are ye 
 
 ever burning torrid 
 O'er the desolate sand-desert of my heart and 
 
 life undone ? " 
 
LADY GERALDTNE 69 
 
 Said he, — " Vision of a lady ! stand there silent, stand there steady ! " 
 
'JO LADY GERALDINE 
 
 With a murmurous stir uncertain, in the air 
 the purple curtain 
 
 Svvelleth in and swelleth out around her motion- 
 less pale brows ; 
 
 While the gliding of the river sends a rippling 
 
 noise forever 
 
 Through the open casement whitened by the 
 moonlight's slant repose. 
 
 Said he, — "Vision of a lady! stand there silent, 
 
 stand there steady ! 
 Now I see it plainly, plainly ; now I cannot hope 
 
 or doubt — 
 There, the brows of mild repression — there, the 
 
 lips of silent passion, 
 Curved like an archer's bow to send the bitter 
 
 arrows out." 
 
LADY GEKALDINE 7^ 
 
 Ever, evermore the while in a slow silence she 
 kept smiling, 
 
 And approached him slowly, slowly, in a gliding- 
 measured pace ; 
 
 With her two white hands extended, as if praying 
 one offended. 
 
 And a look of supplication, gazing earnest in 
 his face. 
 
 Said he, — "Wake me by no gesture, — sound 
 
 of breath, or stir of vesture ; 
 Let the blessed apparition melt not yet to its 
 
 divine ! 
 No approaching — hush! no breathing! or my 
 
 heart must swoon to death in 
 That too utter life thou bringest — O thou dream 
 
 of Geraldine ! " 
 
72 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Ever, evermore the while in a slow silence she 
 
 kept smiling — 
 But the tears ran over lightly from her eyes, 
 
 and tenderly ; 
 " Dost thou, Bertram, truly love me ? Is no 
 
 woman far above me 
 Found more worthy of thy poet-heart than such 
 
 a one as I ? " 
 
 Said he, — "I would dream so ever, like the 
 flowing of that river, 
 
 Flowing ever in a shadow greenly onward to 
 the sea; 
 
 So, thou vision of all sweetness — princely to a 
 full completeness, — 
 
 Would my heart and life flow onward — death- 
 ward — through this dream of thee ! " 
 
LADY GERALDINE 
 
 73 
 
 Ever, evermore the while in a slow silence she 
 
 kept smiling, 
 While the silver tears ran faster down the 
 
 blushing of her cheeks ; 
 Then with both her hands enfolding both of his, 
 
 she softly told him, 
 " Bertram, if I say I love thee, .... 'tis 
 
 the vision only speaks." 
 
74 LADY GERALDINE 
 
 Softened, quickened to adore her, on his knee 
 
 he fell before her — 
 And she whispered low in triumph — "It shall 
 
 be as I have sworn ! 
 Very rich he is in virtues, — very noble — noble, 
 
 certes ; 
 And I shall not blush in knowing that men 
 
 call him lowly born ! " 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 nil I'll ri I 
 
 XN^ 
 
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