THE PRINCESS A MEDLEY
PROLOGUE
SIR WALTER VIVIAN all a summer's day Gave his broad lawns until the set of sun Up to the people: thither flock'd at noon His tenants, wife and child, and thither half The neighbouring borough with their Institute Of which he was the patron. I was there From college, visiting the son,-the son A Walter too, with the others of our set, Five others: we were seven at Vivian-place.
And me that morning Walter show'd the house, Greek, set with busts: from vases in the hall Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names, Grew side by side; and on the pavement lay Carved stones of the Abbey-ruin in the park, Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time; And on the tables every clime and age Jumbled together; celts and calumets, Claymore and snowshoe, toys in lava, fans Of sandal, amber, ancient rosaries, Laborious orient ivory sphere in sphere,
The cursed Malayan crease, and battle-clubs From the isles of palm: and higher on the walls, Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer, His own forefathers' arms and armour hung.
And "this" he said "was Hugh's at Agincourt; And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon : A good knight he! we keep a chronicle With all about him"-which he brought, and I Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knights Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings Who laid about them at their wills and died;. And mixt with these, a lady, one that arm'd Her own fair head, and sallying thro' the gate, Had beat her foes with slaughter from her walls.
"O miracle of women," said the book, "O noble heart who, being strait-besieged By this wild king to force her to his wish,
Nor bent, nor broke, nor shunn'd a soldier's death.
But now when all was lost or seem'd as lost- Her stature more than mortal in the burst Of sunrise, her arm lifted, eyes on fire- Brake with a blast of trumpets from the gate, And, falling on them like a thunderbolt,
She trampled some beneath her horses' heels, And some were whelm'd with missiles of the wall, And some were push'd with lances from the rock, And part were drown'd within the whirling brook: O miracle of noble womanhood!"
So sang the gallant glorious chronicle; And, I all rapt in this, "Come out," he said, "To the Abbey: there is Aunt Elizabeth And sister Lilia with the rest."
(I kept the book and had my finger in it)
Down thro' the park: strange was the sight to me; For all the sloping pasture murmur'd, sown
With happy faces and with holiday.
There moved the multitude, a thousand heads: The patient leaders of their Institute
Taught them with facts. One rear'd a font of stone And drew, from butts of water on the slope, The fountain of the moment, playing now A twisted snake, and now a rain of pearls, Or steep-up spout whereon the gilded ball Danced like a wisp and somewhat lower down A man with knobs and wires and vials fired A cannon: Echo answer'd in her sleep From hollow fields: and here were telescopes For azure views; and there a group of girls In circle waited, whom the electric shock Dislink'd with shrieks and laughter: round the lake A little clock-work steamer paddling plied
And shook the lilies: perch'd about the knolls A dozen angry models jetted steam :
A petty railway ran: a fire-balloon Rose gem-like up before the dusky groves And dropt a fairy parachute and past: And there thro' twenty posts of telegraph They flash'd a saucy message to and fro Between the mimic stations; so that sport Went hand in hand with Science; otherwhere ire sport a herd of boys with clamour bowl'd 1 stump'd the wicket; babies roll'd about
Like tumbled fruit in grass; and men and maids Arranged a country dance, and flew thro' light And shadow, while the twangling violin Struck up with Soldier-laddie, and overhead The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime
Made noise with bees and breeze from end to end.
Strange was the sight and smacking of the time; And long we gazed, but satiated at length
High-arch'd and ivy claspt, Of finest Gothic lighter than a fire,
Thro' one wide chasm of time and frost they gave The park, the crowd, the house; but all within The sward was trim as any garden lawn:
And here we lit on Aunt Elizabeth,
And Lilia with the rest, and lady friends
From neighbour seats: and there was Ralph himself, A broken statue propt against the wall,
As gay as any. Lilia, wild with sport,
Half child half woman as she was, had wound A scarf of orange round the stony helm, And robed the shoulders in a rosy silk,
That made the old warrior from his ivied nook Glow like a sunbeam: near his tomb a feast Shone, silver-set; about it lay the guests,
And there we join'd them: then the maiden Aunt Took this fair day for text, and from it preach'd An universal culture for the crowd,
And all things great; but we, unworthier, told Of college: he had climb'd across the spikes, And he had squeezed himself betwixt the bars, And he had breathed the Proctor's dogs; and one Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men, But honeying at the whisper of a lord ; And one the Master, as a rogue in grain Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory.
But while they talk'd, above their heads I saw The feudal warrior lady-clad; which brought My book to mind: and opening this I read Of old Sir Ralph a page or two that rang With tilt and tourney; then the tale of her That drove her foes with slaughter from her walls, And much I praised her nobleness, and "Where," Ask'd Walter, patting Lilia's head (she lay Beside him) "lives there such a woman now?”
Quick answer'd Lilia "There are thousands now Such women, but convention beats them down: It is but bringing up; no more than that: You men have done it: how I hate you all! Ah, were I something great! I wish I were Some mighty poetess, I would shame you then, That love to keep us children! O I wish That I were some great Princess, I would build Far off from men a college like a man's,
And I would teach them all that men are taught; We are twice as quick!" And here she shook aside The hand that play'd the patron with her curls.
And one said smiling "Pretty were the sight If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair. I think they should not wear our rusty gowns, But move as rich as Emperor-moths, or Ralph Who shines so in the corner; yet I fear, If there were many Lilias in the brood, However deep you might embower the nest, Some boy would spy it."
At this upon the sward She tapt her tiny silken-sandal'd foot :
"That's your light way; but I would make it death For any male thing but to peep at us."
Petulant she spoke, and at herself she laugh'd; A rosebud set with little wilful thorns,
And sweet as English air could make her, she: But Walter hail'd a score of names upon her, And "petty Ogress," and "ungrateful Puss," And swore he long'd at College, only long'd, All else was well, for she-society.
They boated and they cricketed; they talk'd At wine, in clubs, of art, of politics;
They lost their weeks; they vext the souls of deans They rode; they betted; made a hundred friends, nd caught the blossom of the flying terms, But miss'd the mignonette of Vivian-place, The little hearth-flower Lilia. Thus he spoke, Part banter, part affection.
"We doubt not that. O yes, you miss'd us much. I'll stake my ruby ring upon it you did."
She held it out; and as a parrot turns Up thro' gilt wires a crafty loving eye, And takes a lady's finger with all care, And bites it for true heart and not for harm, So he with Lilia's. Daintily she shriek'd And wrung it. "Doubt my word again!" he said. "Come, listen! here is proof that you were miss'd : We seven stay'd at Christmas up to read; And there we took one tutor as to read: The hard-grain'd Muses of the cube and square Were out of season: never man, I think, So moulder'd in a sinecure as he :
For while our cloisters echo'd frosty feet, And our long walks were stript as bare as brooms, We did but talk you over, pledge you all In wassail; often, like as many girls-- Sick for the hollies and the yews of home-- As many little trifling Lilias-play'd
Charades and riddles as at Christmas here,
And what's my thought and when and where and how, And often told a tale from mouth to mouth
A pleasant game, she thought: she liked it more Than magic music, forfeits, all the rest. But these what kind of tales did men tell men, She wonder'd, by themselves?
A half-disdain Perch'd on the pouted blossom of her lips: And Walter nodded at me ; He began, The rest would follow, each in turn; and so We forged a sevenfold story. Kind? what kind? Chimeras, crotchets, Christmas solecisms,
Seven-headed monsters only made to kill Time by the fire in winter."
The tyrant! kill him in the summer too,"
Said Lilia; "Why not now," the maiden Aunt. "Why not a summer's as a winter's tale?
A tale for summer as befits the time,
And something it should be to suit the place, Heroic, for a hero lies beneath,
Walter warp'd his mouth at this
To something so mock-solemn, that I laugh'd
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