Introduction to Robert Browning [129]
of a marching hitherward: Some say Vespasian cometh, some, his son. A black lynx snarled and pricked a tufted ear; Lust of my blood inflamed his yellow balls: [30] I cried and threw my staff, and he was gone. Twice have the robbers stripped and beaten me, And once a town declared me for a spy; But at the end, I reach Jerusalem, Since this poor covert where I pass the night, This Bethany, lies scarce the distance thence A man with plague-sores at the third degree Runs till he drops down dead. Thou laughest here! 'Sooth, it elates me, thus reposed and safe, To void the stuffing of my travel-scrip, [40] And share with thee whatever Jewry yields. A viscid choler is observable In tertians, I was nearly bold to say; And falling-sickness hath a happier cure Than our school wots of: there's a spider here Weaves no web, watches on the ledge of tombs, Sprinkled with mottles on an ash-gray back; Take five and drop them. . .but who knows his mind, The Syrian runagate I trust this to? His service payeth me a sublimate [50] Blown up his nose to help the ailing eye. Best wait: I reach Jerusalem at morn, There set in order my experiences, Gather what most deserves, and give thee all -- Or I might add, Judaea's gum-tragacanth Scales off in purer flakes, shines clearer-grained, Cracks 'twixt the pestle and the porphyry, In fine exceeds our produce. Scalp-disease Confounds me, crossing so with leprosy: Thou hadst admired one sort I gained at Zoar -- [60] But zeal outruns discretion. Here I end.
Yet stay! my Syrian blinketh gratefully, Protesteth his devotion is my price -- Suppose I write what harms not, though he steal? I half resolve to tell thee, yet I blush, What set me off a-writing first of all. An itch I had, a sting to write, a tang! For, be it this town's barrenness, -- or else The Man had something in the look of him, -- His case has struck me far more than 'tis worth. [70] So, pardon if -- (lest presently I lose, In the great press of novelty at hand, The care and pains this somehow stole from me) I bid thee take the thing while fresh in mind, Almost in sight -- for, wilt thou have the truth? The very man is gone from me but now, Whose ailment is the subject of discourse. Thus then, and let thy better wit help all!
'Tis but a case of mania: subinduced By epilepsy, at the turning-point [80] Of trance prolonged unduly some three days; When, by the exhibition of some drug Or spell, exorcization, stroke of art Unknown to me and which 'twere well to know, The evil thing, out-breaking, all at once, Left the man whole and sound of body indeed, -- But, flinging (so to speak) life's gates too wide, Making a clear house of it too suddenly, The first conceit that entered might inscribe Whatever it was minded on the wall [90] So plainly at that vantage, as it were (First come, first served), that nothing subsequent Attaineth to erase those fancy-scrawls The just-returned and new-established soul Hath gotten now so thoroughly by heart That henceforth she will read or these or none. And first -- the man's own firm conviction rests That he was dead (in fact they buried him) -- That he was dead and then restored to life By a Nazarene physician of his tribe: [100] -- 'Sayeth, the same bade "Rise", and he did rise. "Such cases are diurnal", thou wilt cry. Not so this figment! -- not, that such a fume, Instead of giving way to time and health, Should eat itself into the life of life, As saffron tingeth flesh, blood, bones, and all! For see, how he takes up the after-life. The man -- it is one Lazarus a Jew, Sanguine, proportioned, fifty years of age, The body's habit wholly laudable, [110] As much, indeed, beyond the common health As he were made and put aside to show. Think, could we penetrate by any drug And bathe the wearied soul and worried flesh, And bring it clear and fair, by three days' sleep! Whence has the man the balm that brightens all? This grown man eyes the world now like a child.
Yet stay! my Syrian blinketh gratefully, Protesteth his devotion is my price -- Suppose I write what harms not, though he steal? I half resolve to tell thee, yet I blush, What set me off a-writing first of all. An itch I had, a sting to write, a tang! For, be it this town's barrenness, -- or else The Man had something in the look of him, -- His case has struck me far more than 'tis worth. [70] So, pardon if -- (lest presently I lose, In the great press of novelty at hand, The care and pains this somehow stole from me) I bid thee take the thing while fresh in mind, Almost in sight -- for, wilt thou have the truth? The very man is gone from me but now, Whose ailment is the subject of discourse. Thus then, and let thy better wit help all!
'Tis but a case of mania: subinduced By epilepsy, at the turning-point [80] Of trance prolonged unduly some three days; When, by the exhibition of some drug Or spell, exorcization, stroke of art Unknown to me and which 'twere well to know, The evil thing, out-breaking, all at once, Left the man whole and sound of body indeed, -- But, flinging (so to speak) life's gates too wide, Making a clear house of it too suddenly, The first conceit that entered might inscribe Whatever it was minded on the wall [90] So plainly at that vantage, as it were (First come, first served), that nothing subsequent Attaineth to erase those fancy-scrawls The just-returned and new-established soul Hath gotten now so thoroughly by heart That henceforth she will read or these or none. And first -- the man's own firm conviction rests That he was dead (in fact they buried him) -- That he was dead and then restored to life By a Nazarene physician of his tribe: [100] -- 'Sayeth, the same bade "Rise", and he did rise. "Such cases are diurnal", thou wilt cry. Not so this figment! -- not, that such a fume, Instead of giving way to time and health, Should eat itself into the life of life, As saffron tingeth flesh, blood, bones, and all! For see, how he takes up the after-life. The man -- it is one Lazarus a Jew, Sanguine, proportioned, fifty years of age, The body's habit wholly laudable, [110] As much, indeed, beyond the common health As he were made and put aside to show. Think, could we penetrate by any drug And bathe the wearied soul and worried flesh, And bring it clear and fair, by three days' sleep! Whence has the man the balm that brightens all? This grown man eyes the world now like a child.