DRAMATIC IDYLS Of what is to be done. The very Jews are A Gipsy-troop, though bound with horses Squats with the rest. Each heart with its And simmers, but no tongue speaks: one Anon from out the church totters the Pope Hardly alive, so old, a hundred years at With him, the Commune's head, a hoary Stàrosta, that's his style, Io Pomeschìk, Lord of the Land, who They stoop, his staff, the Then, straightened on Sagaciousest old man just have heard, hears what you From Droug's first inrush, all, up to Ivan's "God bade me act for him: I dared not Silence the Pomeschik broke with "A What article Of righting wrong if wrong there were, judgment dealt, 20 Play executioner, as promptly as we pelt To death, without appeal, the vermin whose sole fault Has been it dared to leave the darkness of its vault, Intrude upon our day! Too sudden and What was this woman's crime? Suppose My children, one and all, as you are, Leave father to his fate, though I call -- yet, if the if sons fly, poor cowards The runaways, I pause before I claim their life 30 Because they prized it more than mine. would each wife I Died for her husband's sake, each son to save his sire: Seems passing back again to youth. A At least I reach, or dream I reach, where With man to guide my steps: who leads 'Your young men shall see visions:' and in my youth I saw And paid obedience to man's visionary law: 'Your old men shall dream dreams:' and, in my age, a hand Conducts me through the cloud round law to where I stand Firm on its base, know cause, who, before, knew effect. whole live world is rife, God, with thy glory,' rather ! For what shall man exchange? For lifeGod's best of gifts, The weight and turns the scale, lets life for when so he shifts God's balance, sacrifice the less to gain the life restore Substitute more, - for low life, another's or his own Life large and liker God's who gave it: thus alone May life extinguish life that life may trulier be! How low this law descends on earth, is not for me To trace: complexed becomes the simple, intricate The plain, when I pursue law's winding. 6 "Tis the straight Outflow of law I know and name: to law, the fount Fresh from God's footstool, friends, follow while I remount. The miracle of life. - herself was born so Whereof first instrument was first intellijust A type of womankind, that God sees fit to trust Her with the holy task of giving life in turn. Crowned by this crowning pride, - how Of barrenness exchanged for fruit which Creation, though life's self were lost in giving birth 10 To life more fresh and fit to glorify God's earth? How say you, should the hand God trusted with life's torch gence Found loyal here. human sense, I hold that, failing The very earth had oped, sky fallen, to efface Humanity's new wrong, motherhood's first disgrace. Earth oped not, neither fell the sky, for prompt was found A man and man enough, head-sober and 40 heart-sound, Ready to hear God's voice, resolute to obey. Ivan Ivànovitch, I hold, has done, this day, No otherwise than did, in ages long ago, Moses when he made known the purport of that flow Kindled to light the world aware of Of fire athwart the law's twain-tables! I Her young from where they hide - her sanctuary breast. What's here then? Answer me, thou dead one, as, I trow, Standing at God's own bar, he bids thee answer now! Thrice crowned' wast thou each crown of pride, a child thy charge! Where are they? Lost? Enough: no need that thou enlarge On how or why the loss: life left to utter 'lost' Condemns itself beyond appeal. The soldier's post Guards from the foe's attack the camp he sentinels: 30 That he no traitor proved, this and this only tells Over the corpse of him trod foe to foe's success. Yet- - one by one thy crowns torn from thee thou no less law protects Murder, for once: no need he longer keep behind The Sacred Pictures - where skulks Innocence enshrined, Or I missay! Go, some! You others, haste and hide The dismal object there': get done, whate'er betide!" So, while the youngers raised the corpse, the elders trooped Silently to the house: where halting, someone stooped, Listened beside the door; all there was silent too. o Then they held counsel; then pushed door and, passing through, Stood in the murderer's presence. He deftly cut and carved on lazy winter nights. Some five young faces watched, breathlessly, as, to rights, Piece upon piece, he reared the fabric nigh complete. Stèscha, Ivan's old mother, sat spinning by You too without your host have reckoned! "A beggar-child" (let's hear this third!) "Bystanders reason, think of wives "Up he comes with the child, see, tight Another child to save? All right! "How strange we saw no other fall ! "Here he comes, holds in mouth this time What may the thing be? Well, that's prime! Now, did you ever? Reason reigns "And so, amid the laughter gay, "John, go and catch or, if needs be, Of half-an-hour and eighteenpence, NED BRATTS. [See John Bunyan's inimitable "Life and Death of Mr. Badman," where the story is told as only Bunyan can tell a story.] 40 50 60 Till night should extinguish day, when matters might haply mend? Meanwhile no bad resource was ing begin and end watch 20 Some trial for life and death, in a brisk five minutes' space, And betting which knave would 'scape, which hang, from his sort of face. So, their Lordships toiled and moiled, and a deal of work was done (I warrant) to justify the mirth of the crazy sun As this and t'other lout, struck dumb at the sudden show Of red robes and white wigs, boggled nor When asked why he, Tom Styles, should And louts must make allowance- let's Which punctured a dewy scalp where the frizzles stuck awry 3 Else Tom had fleered scot-free, so nearly over and done Was the main of the job. Full-measure, the gentles enjoyed their fun, Well, things at jolly high-tide, amusement steeped in fire, While noon smote fierce the roof's red tiles to heart's desire, The Court a-simmer with smoke, one ferment of oozy flesh, One spirituous humming musk mountmounting until its mesh Entoiled all heads in a fluster, and Serjeant 40 Postlethwayte - Dashing the wig oblique as he mopped his oily pate Cried "Silence, or I grow grease! No loophole lets in air? Jurymen, Guilty, Death! if you dare!" - Things at this pitch, I say, bub without the doors? Gainsay me what hub What laughs, shrieks, hoots and yells, what rudest of uproars? Bounce through the barrier throng a bulk Thumps, kicks, -no manner of use ! Publican Black Ned Bratts and Tabby his Both in a muck-sweat, both . . . were 50 never such eyes uplift At the sight of yawning hell, such nostrils snouts that sniffed Sulphur, such mouths a-gape ready to Horrified, hideous, frank fiend-faces! yet, eh? how shall mirth The desperate grin of the guess that, could they break from earth, Heaven was above, and hell might rage in impotence Below the saved, the saved! 30 Men knew us for that same, yet safe and sound stood we! The lily-livered knaves knew too (I've baulked a d----) Our keeping the 'Pied Bull' was just a mere pretence: 'Twas Scroggs that houghed the mare! Ay, those were busy days! "Well, there we flourished brave, like scripture-trees called bays, Faring high, drinking hard, in money up to head - Not to say, boots and shoes, when . . . Zounds, I nearly said Lord, to unlearn one's language! How shall we labour, wife? Have you, fast hold, the Book? grip it, for your life! Grasp, See, sirs, here's life, salvation ! Here'shold but out my breath When did I speak so long without once 42 swearing? 'Sdeath, No, nor unhelped by ale since man and boy! And yet All yesterday I had to keep my whistle wet While reading Tab this Book: book? don't say 'book' - they're plays, Songs, ballads and the like: "here's no such strawy blaze, But sky wide ope, sun, moon, and seven stars out full-flare! Tab, help and tell! I'm hoarse. A mug! orno, a prayer! Dip for one out of the Book! Who wrote it in the Jail He plied his pen unhelped by beer, sirs, "I've got my second wind. In trundles she that's Tab. 'Why, Gammer, what's come now, that bobbing like a crab On Yule-tide bowl- your head's a-work and both your eyes Break loose? Afeard, you fool? As if the dead can rise! Say Bagman Dick was found last May Stuffed in his mouth: to choke's a natural with fuddling-cap mishap!' 'Gaffer, be blessed,' cries she, 'and Bagman Dick as well! Too slow the pounds make food, drink, I, you, and he are damned: this Public is lodging, from out the pence! There's not a stoppage to travel has chanced, this ten long year, No break into hall or grange, no lifting of nag or steer, Not a single roguery, from the clipping of a purse our hell: We live in fire: live coals don't feel! - 50 To the cutting of a throat, but paid us toll. "If you don't speak straight out,' says I 6ẹ Od's curse! When Gipsy Smouch made bold to cheat us of our due, - Eh, Tab? the Squire's strong-box we helped the rascal to I think he pulled a face, next Sessions' swinging-time! He danced the jig that needs no floor, and, here's the prime, belike I swore 'A knobstick, well you know the taste of. shall, once more, Teach you to talk, my maid!' She ups with such a face, Heart sunk inside me. 'Well, pad on, my prate-apace!' "I've been about those laces we need for never mind! |