"Thine too is the cause! and not more thine "Than ours, is the work of these dogs and swine, "Whose life laughs through and spits at their creed, "Who maintain thee in word, and defy thee in deed! XVIII. "We withstood Christ then? Be mindful how "At least we withstand Barabbas now! "Was our outrage sore? But the worst we spared, XIX. "By the torture, prolonged from age to age, "By the Ghetto's plague, by the garb's disgrace, XX. "We boast our proof that at least the Jew [The present Pope abolished this bad business of the PROTUS. AMONG these latter busts we count by scores, Each with his bay-leaf fillet, loose-thonged vest, As those were all the little locks could bear. Now read here. "Protus ends a period "Of empery beginning with a god; "Born in the porphyry chamber at Byzant, "Queens by his cradle, proud and ministrant: "And if he quickened breath there, 't would like fire "Pantingly through the dim vast realm transpire. "A fame that he was missing, spread afar: "The world, from its four corners, rose in war, "Till he was borne out on a balcony "To pacify the world when it should see. "Of captains ranged before him, one, his hand "Made baby points at, gained the chief command. "And day by day more beautiful he grew "In shape, all said, in feature and in hue, "While young Greek sculptors gazing on the child "Became, with old Greek sculpture, reconciled. "Already sages laboured to condense "In easy tones a life's experience: "And artists took grave counsel to impart "In one breath and one hand-sweep, all their art— "To make his graces prompt as blossoming "Of plentifully-watered palms in spring: "Since well beseems it, whoso mounts the throne, "For beauty, knowledge, strength, should stand alone, "And mortals love the letters of his name." -Stop! Have you turned two pages? Still the same. “A blacksmith's bastard, whose hard hand reprieved "The Empire from its fate the year before, 'Came, had a mind to take the crown, and wore "The same for six years, (during which the Huns "Kept off their fingers from us) till his sons "Put something in his liquor"-and so forth. Then a new reign. Stay-"Take at its just worth" (Subjoins an annotator) "What I give "As hearsay. Some think, John let Protus live "And slip away. 'T is said, he reached man's age "At some blind northern court; made, first a page, "Then tutor to the children; last, of use "About the hunting-stables. I deduce "He wrote the little tract 'On worming dogs,' "Whereof the name in sundry catalogues "Is extant yet. A Protus of the race "Is rumoured to have died a monk in Thrace,— "And, if the same, he reached senility." Here's John the Smith's rough-hammered head. Great eye, Gross jaw and griped lips do what granite can THE STATUE AND THE BUST. THERE'S a palace in Florence, the world knows well, And a statue watches it from the square, And this story of both do our townsmen tell. Ages ago, a lady there, At the farthest window facing the East The bridesmaids' prattle around her ceased; They felt by its beats her heart expand- That self-same instant, underneath, Gay he rode, with a friend as gay, Till he threw his head back-"Who is she?" "A bride the Riccardi brings home to-day." Robert Browning. III. 20 Hair in heaps lay heavily Over a pale brow spirit-pure Carved like the heart of the coal-black tree, Crisped like a war-steed's encolure-- And lo, a blade for a knight's emprise He looked at her, as a lover can; She looked at him, as one who awakes: Now, love so ordered for both their sakes, (For Via Larga is three-parts light, But the palace overshadows one, Because of a crime which may God requite! To Florence and God the wrong was done, The Duke (with the statue's face in the square) Turned in the midst of his multitude At the bright approach of the bridal pair. |