CLEVELAND sings: LOVE wakes and weeps O for Music's softest numbers, Through groves of palm The distant beds of flowers revealing. O wake and live! No dream can give A shadow'd bliss, the real excelling; No longer sleep, From lattice peep, And list the tale that Love is telling. FAREWELL! Farewell! the voice you hear Has left its last soft tone with you; Its next must join the seaward cheer, And shout among the shoutingcrew. The accents which I scarce could form Beneath your frown's controlling check, Must give the word, above the storm, To cut the mast, and clear the wreck. The timid eye I dared not raise, The hand, that shook when press'd to thine, Must point the guns upon the chaseMust bid the deadly cutlass shine. To all I love, or hope, or fear, Honour, or own, a long adieu ! To all that life has soft and dear, Farewell! save memory of you! CLAUD HALCRO sings or recites :AND you shall deal the funeral dole; Ay, deal it, mother mine, To weary body, and to heavy soul, The white bread and the wine. And you shall deal my horses of pride; Ay, deal them, mother mine: But deal not vengeance for the deed, And the rest in God's own time. SAINT Magnus control thee, that martyr of treason; Saint Ronan rebuke thee, with rhyme and with reason; By the mass of Saint Martin, the might of Saint Mary, Be thou gone, or thy weird shall be worse if thou tarry! Ifofgood, go hence and hallow thee;If of ill, let the earth swallow thee;If thou 'rt of air, let the grey mist fold thee; If of earth, let the swart mine hold thee; If a Pixie, seek thy ring;- scant of thee, The worm, thy play-fellow, wails for the want of thee: Hence, houseless ghost! let the earth hide thee, Till Michael shall blow the blast, see that there thou bide thee! Phantom, fly hence! take the Cross See, I draw my magic knife: Never, while thou wert in life, for a token, Hence pass till Hallowmass !-my Lay'st thou still for sloth or fear, NORNA sings or recites :CHAMPION, famed for warlike toil, Art thou silent, Ribolt Troil? Sand, and dust, and pebbly stones, Are leaving bare thy giant bones. Who dared touch the wild bear's skin Ye slumber'd on, while life was in? A woman now, or babe, may come And cast the covering from thy tomb. Yet be not wrathful, Chief, nor blight Mine eyes or ears with sound or sight! I come not, with unhallow'd tread, To wake the slumbers of the dead, Or lay thy giant reliques bare; But what I seek thou well canst spare. Be it to my hand allow'd When point and edge were glittering near; See, the cerements now I sever- Thanks, Ribolt, thanks; for this the sea Shall smooth its ruffled crest for thee, And while afar its billows foam, Subside to peace near Ribolt's tomb. Thanks, Ribolt, thanks; for this the might Of wild winds raging at their height, She, the dame of doubt and dread, NORNA recites :-- THOU, SO needful, yet so dread, Who deign'st to warm the cottage hearth, Yet hurls proud palaces to earth, To shear a merk's weight from thy Brightest, keenest of the Powers, shroud; Yet leave thee sheeted lead enough To shield thy bones from weather rough. Which form and rule this world of ours, With my rhyme of Runic, I Thank thee for thy agency Old Reimkennar, to thy art Mother Hertha sends her part; She, whose gracious bounty gives Needful food for all that lives. From the deep mine of the North Came the mystic metal forth, Doom'd amidst disjointed stones, Long to cere a champion's bones, Disinhumed my charms to aidMother Earth, my thanks are paid. Girdle of our islands dear, On the lowly Belgian strand; From our rock-defended land; Play then gently thou thy part, To assist old Norna's art. Elements, each other greeting, Thou, that over billows dark She who sits by haunted well, Is subject to the Nixie's spell; She who walks on lonely beach, A weary weird of woe shall have. By ring, by spring, by cave, by shore, Minna Troil has braved all this and more; And yet hath the root of her sorrow and ill, A source that's more deep and more mystical still. Thou art within a demon's hold, No siren sings so sweet as he, Life-blood from the cheek to drain, MINNA. I mark thee, my mother, both word, look, and sign; Speak on with thy riddle-to read it be mine. NORNA. Mark me! for the word I speak In the Martyr's Aisle, and in Orkney land. Be patient, be patient; for Patience hath power To ward us in danger, like mantle in shower; A fairy gift you best may hold In a chain of fairy gold; THIS is no pilgrim's morning yon grey mist Lies upon hill and dale, and field and forest, Like the dun wimple of a new-made widow. The chain and the gift are each a true And, by my faith, although my heart THE PEDLAR sings his wares :— Poor sinners whom the snake deceives, Are fain to cover them with leaves. To pleasure every gentle pair. be soft, I'd rather hear that widow weep and sigh, And tell the virtues of the dear departed, Than, when the tempest sends his voice abroad, Be subject to its fury. Chap. II. nor move, D d 3 WHAT ho, my jovial mates! come on! we'll frolic it Like fairies frisking in the merry moonshine, Seen by the curtal friar, who, from some christening, Or some blithe bridal, hies belated cell-ward ; He starts, and changes his bold bottle swagger To churchman's pace professional, and, ransacking His treacherous memory for some holy hymn, Finds but the roundel of the midnight catch. Old Play. Chap. xxx. ISTRIVE like to the vessel in the tideway, Which, lacking favouring brecze, hath not the power To stem the powerful current. Even So, Resolving daily to forsake my vices, Habit, strong circumstance, renew'd temptation, Sweep me to sea again. O heavenly breath, Fill thou my sails, and aid the feeble vessel, Which ne'er can reach the blessed port without thee! 'Tis Odds when Evens meet. Chap. XXXII. PARENTAL love, my friend, has power o'er wisdom, This sage adviser's mad, stark mad, And is the charm, which, like the my friend; Yet, in her madness, hath the art and cunning falconer's lure, Can bring from heaven the highest soaring spirits. To wring fools' secrets from their So, inmost bosoms, And pay inquirers with the coin they❘ It gave her. Chap. XXIX. Old Play. when famed Prosper doff'd his magic robe, was Miranda pluck'd it from his shoulders, Old Play. Chap. XXXIII. |