Maud. Truth! I think so. By Heavens, it shall not last! Chester. It would amaze your Highness now to mark How Glocester overstrains his courtesy To that crime-loving rebel, that Boulogne- Chester. For whose vast ingratitude To our late sovereign lord, your noble sire, The generous Earl condoles in his mishaps, And with a sort of lackeying friendliness Talks off the mighty frowning from his brow, Woos him to hold a duet in a smile, Or, if it please him, play an hour at chessMaud. A perjured slave! Chester. And for his perjury Glocester has fit rewards-nay, I believe, He sets his bustling household's wits at work For flatteries to ease this Stephen's hours, And make a heaven of his purgatory; Adorning bondage with the pleasant gloss Of feasts and music, and all idle shows Of indoor pageantry; while syren whispers, Predestined for his ear, 'scape as half-check'd From lips the courtliest and the rubiest Of all the realm, admiring of his deeds. Maud. A frost upon his summer! Chester. A queen's nod Can make his June December. Here he comes. THE CAP AND BELLS;' OR, THE JEALOUSIES. A FAERY TALE. UNFINISHED. I 1. N midmost Ind, beside Hydaspes cool, There stood, or hover'd, tremulous in the air, A faery city, 'neath the potent rule Of Emperor Elfinan; famed ev'rywhere For love of mortal women, maidens fair, Whose lips were solid, whose soft hands were made Of a fit mould and beauty, ripe and rare, To pamper his slight wooing, warm yet staid: He lov'd girls smooth as shades, but hated a mere shade. "This Poem was written subject to future amendments and omissions; it was begun without a plan, and without any prescribed laws for the supernatural machinery.". CHARLES BROWN. "There are beautiful passages and lines of ineffable sweetness in these minor pieces, and strange outbursts of individual fancy and felicitous expressions in the 'Cap and Bells,' though the general extravagance of the poetry is more suited to an Italian than to an English taste."-JEFFREY, Letter to the Editor, Aug. 1848. II. This was a crime forbidden by the law; And all the priesthood of his city wept, For ruin and dismay they well foresaw If impious prince no bound or limit kept, And faery Zendervester overstept; They wept, he sinn'd, and still he would sin on, They dreamt of sin, and he sinn'd while they slept; In vain the pulpit thunder'd at the throne, Caricature was vain, and vain the tart lampoon. III. Which seeing, his high court of parliament Laid a remonstrance at his Highness' feet, Praying his royal senses to content Themselves with what in faery land was sweet, Befitting best that shade with shade should meet: Whereat, to calm their fears, he promised soon From mortal tempters all to make retreat,Aye, even on the first of the new moon An immaterial wife to espouse as heaven's boon. IV. Meantime he sent a fluttering embassy To half beg, and half demand, respectfully, V. As in old pictures tender cherubim A child's soul thro' the sapphired canvas bear, So, thro' a real heaven, on they swim. With the sweet princess on her plumaged lair, Speed giving to the winds her lustrous hair; And so she journey'd, sleeping or awake, Save when, for healthful exercise and air, She chose to promener à l'aile or take A pigeon's somerset, for sport or change's sake. VI. "Dear Princess, do not whisper me so loud," Quoth Corallina, nurse and confidant, "Do not you see there, lurking in a cloud, Close at your back, that sly old Crafticant? He hears a whisper plainer than a rant: Dry up your tears, and do not look so blue; He's Elfinan's great state-spy militant, His running, lying, flying footman too,Dear mistress, let him have no handle against you! VII. "Show him a mouse's tail, and he will guess, |