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 FAËRY TALE. UNFINISHED.

I.

In 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.

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,

* 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.

:

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 Pigmio, of Imaus sovereign,

To half beg, and half demand, respectfully,
The hand of his fair daughter Bellanaine ;
An audience had, and speeching done, they gain
Their point, and bring the weeping bride away;
Whom, with but one attendant, safely lain
Upon their wings, they bore in bright array,
While little harps were touch'd by many a lyric fay.

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,

66

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 foot-man too,-

Dear mistress, let him have no handle against you!

66

VII.

Show him a mouse's tail, and he will guess,
With metaphysic swiftness, at the mouse;
Show him a garden, and with speed no less,
He'll surmise sagely of a dwelling-house,
And plot, in the same minute, how to chouse

Peace! nor contrive thy mistress' ire to rouse ; Return'd the princess, "my tongue shall not cease Till from this hated match I get a free release.

Really you must not talk of him, indeed." "You hush!" replied the mistress, with a shine Of anger in her eyes, enough to breed

In stouter hearts than nurse's fear and dread:
"Twas not the glance itself made nursey flinch,
But of its threat she took the utmost heed;
Not liking in her heart an hour-long pinch,
Or a sharp needle run into her back an inch.

IX.

So she was silenced, and fair Bellanaine,
Writhing her little body with ennui,
Continued to lament and to complain,
That Fate, cross-purposing, should let her be
Ravish'd away far from her dear countree;
That all her feelings should be set at nought,
In trumping up this match so hastily,

With lowland blood; and lowland blood she thought

Poison, as every staunch true-born Imaian ought.