Introduction to Robert Browning [135]
8.
Whom now is the bishop a-leering at? I know a point where his text falls pat. I'll tell him to-morrow, a word just now Went to my heart and made me vow To meddle no more with the worst of trades: Let somebody else play his serenades!
9.
Groan all together now, whee -- hee -- hee! It's a-work, it's a-work, ah, woe is me! It began, when a herd of us, picked and placed, Were spurred through the Corso, stripped to the waist; Jew brutes, with sweat and blood well spent To usher in worthily Christian Lent.
10.
It grew, when the hangman entered our bounds, Yelled, pricked us out to his church like hounds: It got to a pitch, when the hand indeed Which gutted my purse, would throttle my creed: And it overflows, when, to even the odd, Men I helped to their sins, help me to their God.
11.
But now, while the scapegoats leave our flock, And the rest sit silent and count the clock, Since forced to muse the appointed time On these precious facts and truths sublime, -- Let us fitly employ it, under our breath, In saying Ben Ezra's Song of Death.
12.
For Rabbi Ben Ezra, the night he died, Called sons and sons' sons to his side, And spoke, "This world has been harsh and strange; Something is wrong: there needeth a change. But what, or where? at the last or first? In one point only we sinned, at worst.
-- St. 12. Rabbi Ben Ezra: see biographical sketch subjoined to the Argument of the Monologue entitled `Rabbi Ben Ezra'.
13.
"The Lord will have mercy on Jacob yet, And again in his border see Israel set. When Judah beholds Jerusalem, The stranger-seed shall be joined to them: To Jacob's house shall the Gentiles cleave, So the Prophet saith and his sons believe.
14.
"Ay, the children of the chosen race Shall carry and bring them to their place: In the land of the Lord shall lead the same, Bondsmen and handmaids. Who shall blame, When the slaves enslave, the oppressed ones o'er The oppressor triumph for evermore!
15.
"God spoke, and gave us the word to keep: Bade never fold the hands nor sleep 'Mid a faithless world, -- at watch and ward, Till Christ at the end relieve our guard. By his servant Moses the watch was set: Though near upon cock-crow, we keep it yet.
16.
"Thou! if thou wast he, who at mid-watch came, By the starlight, naming a dubious name! And if, too heavy with sleep -- too rash With fear -- O thou, if that martyr-gash Fell on thee coming to take thine own, And we gave the Cross, when we owed the Throne --
17.
"Thou art the Judge. We are bruised thus. But, the Judgment over, join sides with us! Thine too is the cause! and not more thine Than ours, is the work of these dogs and swine, Whose life laughs through and spits at their creed, Who maintain thee in word, and defy thee in deed!
18.
"We withstood Christ then? Be mindful how At least we withstand Barabbas now! Was our outrage sore? But the worst we spared, To have called these -- Christians, had we dared! Let defiance to them pay mistrust of thee, And Rome make amends for Calvary!
19.
"By the torture, prolonged from age to age, By the infamy, Israel's heritage, By the Ghetto's plague, by the garb's disgrace, By the badge of shame, by the felon's place, By the branding-tool, the bloody whip, And the summons to Christian fellowship, --
-- St. 19. Ghetto: the Jews' quarter in Rome, Venice, and other cities. The name is supposed to be derived from the Hebrew `ghet', meaning division, separation, divorce.
20.
"We boast our proof that at least the Jew Would wrest Christ's name from the Devil's crew. Thy face took never so deep a shade But we fought them in it, God our aid! A trophy to bear, as we march, thy band South, East, and on to the Pleasant Land!"
[The late Pope abolished this bad business of the sermon. -- R. B.]
-- The late Pope: Gregory XVI.
Saul.
1.
Said Abner, "At last thou art come! Ere I tell, ere thou speak, Kiss my cheek, wish me well!" Then I wished it, and did kiss his cheek. And he, "Since