Introduction to Robert Browning [77]
For it struck him, the babe just wanted weaning; If one gave her a taste of what life was and sorrow, [430] She, foolish to-day, would be wiser to-morrow; And who so fit a teacher of trouble As this sordid crone bent well-nigh double? So, glancing at her wolf-skin vesture (If such it was, for they grow so hirsute That their own fleece serves for natural fur-suit) He was contrasting, 'twas plain from his gesture, The life of the lady so flower-like and delicate With the loathsome squalor of this helicat. I, in brief, was the man the Duke beckoned [440] From out of the throng; and while I drew near He told the crone -- as I since have reckoned By the way he bent and spoke into her ear With circumspection and mystery -- The main of the lady's history, Her frowardness and ingratitude; And for all the crone's submissive attitude I could see round her mouth the loose plaits tightening, And her brow with assenting intelligence brightening, As though she engaged with hearty good will [450] Whatever he now might enjoin to fulfil, And promised the lady a thorough frightening. And so, just giving her a glimpse Of a purse, with the air of a man who imps The wing of the hawk that shall fetch the hernshaw, He bade me take the gypsy mother And set her telling some story or other Of hill and dale, oak-wood or fernshaw, To while away a weary hour For the lady left alone in her bower, [460] Whose mind and body craved exertion And yet shrank from all better diversion.
-- 354. Catch they and keep: i.e., in their expression, or bearing, or manner.
407. level: monotonous.
439. helicat: for hell-cat? hag or witch.
454. imps: repairs a wing by inserting feathers; `impen' or `ympen', in O. E., means to ingraft. "It often falls out that a hawk breaks her wing and train-feathers, so that others must be set in their steads, which is termed `ymping' them." -- The Gentleman's Recreation, Part 2, Hawking, 1686.
14.
Then clapping heel to his horse, the mere curveter, Out rode the Duke, and after his hollo Horses and hounds swept, huntsman and servitor, And back I turned and bade the crone follow. And what makes me confident what's to be told you Had all along been of this crone's devising, Is, that, on looking round sharply, behold you, There was a novelty quick as surprising: [470] For first, she had shot up a full head in stature, And her step kept pace with mine nor faltered, As if age had foregone its usurpature, And the ignoble mien was wholly altered, And the face looked quite of another nature, And the change reached too, whatever the change meant, Her shaggy wolf-skin cloak's arrangment: For where its tatters hung loose like sedges, Gold coins were glittering on the edges, Like the band-roll strung with tomans [480] Which proves the veil a Persian woman's: And under her brow, like a snail's horns newly Come out as after the rain he paces, Two unmistakable eye-points duly Live and aware looked out of their places. So, we went and found Jacynth at the entry Of the lady's chamber standing sentry; I told the command and produced my companion, And Jacynth rejoiced to admit any one, For since last night, by the same token, [490] Not a single word had the lady spoken: They went in both to the presence together, While I in the balcony watched the weather.
-- 463. curveter: a leaping horse.
480. tomans: Persian coins.
490. by the same token: by a presentiment or forewarning of the same.
15.
And now, what took place at the very first of all, I cannot tell, as I never could learn it: Jacynth constantly wished a curse to fall On that little head of hers and burn it If she knew how she came to drop so soundly Asleep of a sudden, and there continue The whole time, sleeping as profoundly [500] As one of the boars my father would pin you 'Twixt the eyes where life holds garrison, -- Jacynth, forgive me the comparison! But where I begin my own narration Is a little after I took my station To breathe the fresh air from the
-- 354. Catch they and keep: i.e., in their expression, or bearing, or manner.
407. level: monotonous.
439. helicat: for hell-cat? hag or witch.
454. imps: repairs a wing by inserting feathers; `impen' or `ympen', in O. E., means to ingraft. "It often falls out that a hawk breaks her wing and train-feathers, so that others must be set in their steads, which is termed `ymping' them." -- The Gentleman's Recreation, Part 2, Hawking, 1686.
14.
Then clapping heel to his horse, the mere curveter, Out rode the Duke, and after his hollo Horses and hounds swept, huntsman and servitor, And back I turned and bade the crone follow. And what makes me confident what's to be told you Had all along been of this crone's devising, Is, that, on looking round sharply, behold you, There was a novelty quick as surprising: [470] For first, she had shot up a full head in stature, And her step kept pace with mine nor faltered, As if age had foregone its usurpature, And the ignoble mien was wholly altered, And the face looked quite of another nature, And the change reached too, whatever the change meant, Her shaggy wolf-skin cloak's arrangment: For where its tatters hung loose like sedges, Gold coins were glittering on the edges, Like the band-roll strung with tomans [480] Which proves the veil a Persian woman's: And under her brow, like a snail's horns newly Come out as after the rain he paces, Two unmistakable eye-points duly Live and aware looked out of their places. So, we went and found Jacynth at the entry Of the lady's chamber standing sentry; I told the command and produced my companion, And Jacynth rejoiced to admit any one, For since last night, by the same token, [490] Not a single word had the lady spoken: They went in both to the presence together, While I in the balcony watched the weather.
-- 463. curveter: a leaping horse.
480. tomans: Persian coins.
490. by the same token: by a presentiment or forewarning of the same.
15.
And now, what took place at the very first of all, I cannot tell, as I never could learn it: Jacynth constantly wished a curse to fall On that little head of hers and burn it If she knew how she came to drop so soundly Asleep of a sudden, and there continue The whole time, sleeping as profoundly [500] As one of the boars my father would pin you 'Twixt the eyes where life holds garrison, -- Jacynth, forgive me the comparison! But where I begin my own narration Is a little after I took my station To breathe the fresh air from the