Introduction to Robert Browning [72]
emotion responsive to loving eyes, but stops, as a bird stops its song when disturbed.
The Flight of the Duchess.
1.
You're my friend: I was the man the Duke spoke to; I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too: So, here's the tale from beginning to end, My friend! [5]
-- 2. I was the man: see vv. 440 and 847. He's proud of the honor done him.
2.
Ours is a great wild country: If you climb to our castle's top, I don't see where your eye can stop; For when you've passed the corn-field country, Where vineyards leave off, flocks are packed, [10] And sheep-range leads to cattle-tract, And cattle-tract to open-chase, And open-chase to the very base O' the mountain where, at a funeral pace, Round about, solemn and slow, One by one, row after row, Up and up the pine-trees go, So, like black priests up, and so Down the other side again To another greater, wilder country, [20] That's one vast red drear burnt-up plain, Branched through and through with many a vein Whence iron's dug, and copper's dealt; Look right, look left, look straight before, -- Beneath they mine, above they smelt, Copper-ore and iron-ore, And forge and furnace mould and melt, And so on, more and ever more, Till at the last, for a bounding belt, Comes the salt sand hoar of the great seashore, [30] -- And the whole is our Duke's country.
3.
I was born the day this present Duke was -- (And O, says the song, ere I was old!) In the castle where the other Duke was -- (When I was happy and young, not old!) I in the kennel, he in the bower: We are of like age to an hour. My father was huntsman in that day: Who has not heard my father say, That, when a boar was brought to bay, [40] Three times, four times out of five, With his huntspear he'd contrive To get the killing-place transfixed, And pin him true, both eyes betwixt? And that's why the old Duke would rather He lost a salt-pit than my father, And loved to have him ever in call; That's why my father stood in the hall When the old Duke brought his infant out To show the people, and while they passed [50] The wondrous bantling round about, Was first to start at the outside blast As the Kaiser's courier blew his horn, Just a month after the babe was born. "And," quoth the Kaiser's courier, "since The Duke has got an heir, our Prince Needs the Duke's self at his side": The Duke looked down and seemed to wince, But he thought of wars o'er the world wide, Castles a-fire, men on their march, [60] The toppling tower, the crashing arch; And up he looked, and a while he eyed The row of crests and shields and banners Of all achievements after all manners, And "Ay", said the Duke with a surly pride. The more was his comfort when he died At next year's end, in a velvet suit, With a gilt glove on his hand, his foot In a silken shoe for a leather boot, Petticoated like a herald, [70] In a chamber next to an ante-room, Where he breathed the breath of page and groom, What he called stink, and they, perfume: -- They should have set him on red Berold Mad with pride, like fire to manage! They should have got his cheek fresh tannage Such a day as to-day in the merry sunshine! Had they stuck on his fist a rough-foot merlin! (Hark, the wind's on the heath at its game! Oh for a noble falcon-lanner [80] To flap each broad wing like a banner, And turn in the wind, and dance like flame!) Had they broached a cask of white beer from Berlin! -- Or if you incline to prescribe mere wine, Put to his lips when they saw him pine, A cup of our own Moldavia fine, Cotnar for instance, green as May sorrel And ropy with sweet, -- we shall not quarrel.
-- 74. Berold: the old Duke's favorite hunting-horse.
78. merlin: a species of hawk.
80. falcon-lanner: a long-tailed species of hawk, `falco laniarius'.
4.
So, at home, the sick tall yellow Duchess Was left with the infant in her clutches, [90] She being the daughter of God knows
The Flight of the Duchess.
1.
You're my friend: I was the man the Duke spoke to; I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too: So, here's the tale from beginning to end, My friend! [5]
-- 2. I was the man: see vv. 440 and 847. He's proud of the honor done him.
2.
Ours is a great wild country: If you climb to our castle's top, I don't see where your eye can stop; For when you've passed the corn-field country, Where vineyards leave off, flocks are packed, [10] And sheep-range leads to cattle-tract, And cattle-tract to open-chase, And open-chase to the very base O' the mountain where, at a funeral pace, Round about, solemn and slow, One by one, row after row, Up and up the pine-trees go, So, like black priests up, and so Down the other side again To another greater, wilder country, [20] That's one vast red drear burnt-up plain, Branched through and through with many a vein Whence iron's dug, and copper's dealt; Look right, look left, look straight before, -- Beneath they mine, above they smelt, Copper-ore and iron-ore, And forge and furnace mould and melt, And so on, more and ever more, Till at the last, for a bounding belt, Comes the salt sand hoar of the great seashore, [30] -- And the whole is our Duke's country.
3.
I was born the day this present Duke was -- (And O, says the song, ere I was old!) In the castle where the other Duke was -- (When I was happy and young, not old!) I in the kennel, he in the bower: We are of like age to an hour. My father was huntsman in that day: Who has not heard my father say, That, when a boar was brought to bay, [40] Three times, four times out of five, With his huntspear he'd contrive To get the killing-place transfixed, And pin him true, both eyes betwixt? And that's why the old Duke would rather He lost a salt-pit than my father, And loved to have him ever in call; That's why my father stood in the hall When the old Duke brought his infant out To show the people, and while they passed [50] The wondrous bantling round about, Was first to start at the outside blast As the Kaiser's courier blew his horn, Just a month after the babe was born. "And," quoth the Kaiser's courier, "since The Duke has got an heir, our Prince Needs the Duke's self at his side": The Duke looked down and seemed to wince, But he thought of wars o'er the world wide, Castles a-fire, men on their march, [60] The toppling tower, the crashing arch; And up he looked, and a while he eyed The row of crests and shields and banners Of all achievements after all manners, And "Ay", said the Duke with a surly pride. The more was his comfort when he died At next year's end, in a velvet suit, With a gilt glove on his hand, his foot In a silken shoe for a leather boot, Petticoated like a herald, [70] In a chamber next to an ante-room, Where he breathed the breath of page and groom, What he called stink, and they, perfume: -- They should have set him on red Berold Mad with pride, like fire to manage! They should have got his cheek fresh tannage Such a day as to-day in the merry sunshine! Had they stuck on his fist a rough-foot merlin! (Hark, the wind's on the heath at its game! Oh for a noble falcon-lanner [80] To flap each broad wing like a banner, And turn in the wind, and dance like flame!) Had they broached a cask of white beer from Berlin! -- Or if you incline to prescribe mere wine, Put to his lips when they saw him pine, A cup of our own Moldavia fine, Cotnar for instance, green as May sorrel And ropy with sweet, -- we shall not quarrel.
-- 74. Berold: the old Duke's favorite hunting-horse.
78. merlin: a species of hawk.
80. falcon-lanner: a long-tailed species of hawk, `falco laniarius'.
4.
So, at home, the sick tall yellow Duchess Was left with the infant in her clutches, [90] She being the daughter of God knows