3.-(XXII)

The path by which we twain did go,

Which led by tracts that pleased us well, Through four sweet years arose and fell, From flower to flower, from snow to snow;

And we with singing cheered the way,

And, crowned with all the season lent,
From April on to April went,

And glad at heart from May to May:

But where the path we walked began
To slant the fifth Autumnal slope,
As we descended following Hope,
There sat the Shadow feared of man:

Who broke our fair companionship,

And spread his mantle dark and cold,
And wrapt thee formless in the fold,

And dulled the murmur on thy lip,

And bore thee where I could not see

Nor follow, though I walk in haste,
And think that somewhere in the waste

The Shadow sits and waits for me.

4.-(LVII)

Peace; come away; the song of woe
Is after all an earthly song:

Peace; come away: we do him wrong

To sing so wildly let us go.

Come; let us go: your cheeks are pale;
But half my life I leave behind :
Methinks my friend is richly shrined;
But I shall pass; my work will fail.

Yet in these ears, till hearing dies,

One set slow bell will seem to toll The passing of the sweetest soul That ever looked with human eyes.

I hear it now, and o'er and o'er,

Eternal greetings to the dead; And "Ave, Ave, Ave," 1 said, 'Adieu, adieu" for evermore.

TENNYSON

105. A SCHOLAR AND HIS DOG

I WAS a scholar; seven useful springs
Did I deflower in quotations

Of cross'd opinions 'bout the soul of man :
The more I learnt, the more I learnt to doubt.
Delight, my spaniel, slept, whilst I baused 2 leaves,
Tossed o'er the dunces,3 pored on the old print
Of titled words: and still my spaniel slept.
Whilst I wasted lamp-oil, baited my flesh,
Shrunk up my veins, and still my spaniel slept,
And still I held converse with Zabarell,
Aquinas, Scotus,1 and the musty saws
Of antique Donate:5 still my spaniel slept.

1 Here, "farewell."

2 Caressed, from Fr. baiser.

3 A name given to the Schoolmen, from Duns Scotus.

4 Scholastic theologians.

5 A famous grammarian of the fourth century.

Still on went I; first, an sit anima;

Then, an 'twere mortal. O hold, hold! at that
They're at brain buffets, fell by the ears, amain
(Pell-mell) together: still my spaniel slept.
Then, whether 'twere corporeal, local, fixt,
Ex traduce; but whether 't had free will
Or no, hot philosophers

Stood banding factions, all so strongly propt,
I staggered, knew not which was firmer part;
But thought, quoted, read, observed, and pried,
Stuffed noting-books: and still my spaniel slept.
At length he waked, and yawned: and by yon sky
For aught I know, he knew as much as I!

J. MARSTON

106. THE GARMOND OF GUD LADIES

WALD my gude Lady lufe me best,

And wirk eftir my will,

I suld ane Garmond gudliest

Gar mak hir body till.

Off hie honour suld be hir hud,
Upoun hir heid to weir,
Garneist with govirnance so gud,
Na demyng1 suld hir deir.2

Hir sark suld be hir body nixt

Of chestetie so quhit,3

With schame and dreid togidder mixt,

1 Opinion.

The same suld be perfyt.

2 Harm.

3 White.

Hir kirtill suld be of clene constance,
Lasit with lesum 1 lufe,
The mailyheis 2 of continuance
For nevir to remufe.

Hir gown suld be of gudliness
Weill ribband with renowne,
Purfillit 3 with plesour in ilk place
Furrit with fyne fassoun.4

Hir belt suld be of benignitie
About hir middill meit;

Hir mantill of humilitie,

To tholl 5 bayth wind and weit.

Hir hat suld be of fair having,
And hir tepat 6 of trewth,
Hir patelet of gud pansing, 8
Hir hals-ribbane of rewth.

Hir slevis suld be of esperance,
To keip hir fra dispair ;
Hir gluvis of the gud govirnance,
To hyd hir fyngearis fair.

Hir schone suld be of sickernes,
In syne that scho nocht slyd;
Hir hoiss of honestie, I gues,
I suld for hir provyd.

1 Lawful.

9

2 Eyelet-holes.
5 Withstand.

4 Manners.

7 Ruff.

8 Thoughts.

3 Embroidered.

6 Tippet.
9 Hosen.

Wald scho put on this Garmond gay,
I durst sweir by my seill,1
That scho woir nevir grene nor gray
Thet set 2 hir half so weill.

R. HENRYSON

107. THE "AVE MARIA " 3

AVE MARIA! blessèd be the hour,

The time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft Have felt that moment in its fullest power

Sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft! While swung the deep bell in the distant tower, Or the faint dying-day hymn stole aloft, And not a breath crept through the rosy air, And yet the forest leaves seemed stirred with prayer. Sweet hour of twilight !—in the solitude

Of the pine forest, and the silent shore Which bounds Ravenna's immemorial wood,

Rooted where once the Adrian wave flowed o'er 4 To where the last Cæsarean 5 fortress stood,Evergreen forest, which Boccaccio's lore And Dryden's lay 6 made haunted ground to me,— How have I loved the twilight hour and thee!

1 Salvation.

2 Suited.

3 The "Ave Maria," rung about half an hour after sunset, is quite distinct from the vesper-bell (see stanzas and 5); one being a summons to private prayer, and the other to public worship.

4"As early as the fifth or sixth century a lonely grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman fleet once rode at anchor."-GIBBON.

5 Cæsarea was a large suburb added to Ravenna by Augustus.

6 Theodore and Honoria, translated from Boccaccio.