Dramatic Romances Part 16

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Ha ha, John plucketh now at his rose To rid himself of a sorrow at heart!

Lo,--petal on petal, fierce rays unclose; Anther on anther, sharp spikes outstart; And with blood for dew, the bosom boils; And a gust of sulphur is all its smell; And lo, he is horribly in the toils Of a coal-black giant flower of h.e.l.l!

CHORUS.

What maketh heaven, That maketh h.e.l.l. 80

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So, as John called now, through the fire amain, On the Name, he had cursed with, all his life-- To the Person, he bought and sold again-- For the Face, with his daily buffets rife-- Feature by feature It took its place: And his voice, like a mad dog's choking bark, At the steady whole of the Judge's face-- Died. Forth John's soul flared into the dark.

SUBJOINETH THE ABBOT DEODAET.

G.o.d help all poor souls lost in the dark!

NOTES: "The Heretic's Tragedy" is an Interlude imagined in the manner of the Middle Ages, and typically representing this period of human development in its quaint piety and prejudice, its childish delight in cruelty, and its c.u.mulative legend-making during the course of two centuries as reflected through the Flemish nature. It is supposed to be sung by an abbot, a choir-singer, and a chorus, in celebration of the burning of Jacques du Bourg-Molay, last Grand Master of the wealthy and powerful secular order of Knights Templar, which came into rivalry with the Church after the Crusades and was finally suppressed by Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V, Molay's burning at Paris in 1314 being a final scene in their discomfiture and the Church's triumph.

8. Plagal-cadence: a closing progression of chords in which the sub-dominant or chord on the fourth degree of the scale precedes the tonic or chord on the first degree of the scale. The name arises from the modes used in early church music called Plagal Modes, which were a transposition of the authentic modes beginning on the fourth degree of the authentic modes.

12. Bought of... Aldabrod, etc.: Clement's arraignment of Jacques or John being that the riches won piously by the order during the Crusades, he had not scrupled to sell again to Saladin, the Sultan, who is portrayed by Scott in "The Talisman.''

14. Pope Clement: the fifth Clement (1305-1314).

18. Clavicithern: a cithern with keys like a harpsichord.

25. Sing "Laudes": Sing the seven Psalms of praise making up the service of the Church called Lauds.

48. Salva, etc. the bidding to greet here with a reverence, according to custom, the Host, or Christ's flesh, which had been mentioned.

60. Sharon's rose: Solomon's Song 2.1.

HOLY-CROSS DAY

ON WHICH THE JEWS WERE FORCED TO ATTEND AN ANNUAL CHRISTIAN SERMON IN ROME

[" Now was come about Holy-Cross Day, and now must my lord preach his first sermon to the Jews: as it was of old cared for in the merciful bowels of the Church, that, so to speak, a crumb at least from her conspicuous table here in Rome should be, though but once yearly, cast to the famishing dogs, under-trampled and bespitten-upon beneath the feet of the guests. And a moving sight in truth, this, of so many of the besotted blind restif and ready-to-perish Hebrews! now maternally brought-nay (for He saith, 'Compel them to come in') haled, as it were, by the head and hair, and against their obstinate hearts, to partake of the heavenly grace. What awakening, what striving with tears, what working of a yeasty conscience! Nor was my lord wanting to himself on so apt an occasion; witness the abundance of conversions which did incontinently reward him: though not to my lord be altogether the glory."-Diary by the Bishop's Secretary, 1600.]

What the Jews really said, on thus being driven to church, was rather to this effect:--

I

Fee, faw, fum! bubble and squeak!

Blessedest Thursday's the fat of the week.

Rumble and tumble, sleek and rough, Stinking and savoury, smug and gruff, Take the church-road, for the bell's due chime Gives us the summons--'tis sermon-time!

II

Boh, here's Barnabas! Job, that's you?

Up stumps Solomon--bustling too?

Shame, man! greedy beyond your years To handsel the bishop's shaving-shears?

Fair play's a jewel! Leave friends in the lurch? 10 Stand on a line ere you start for the church!

III

Higgledy piggledy, packed we lie, Rats in a hamper, swine in a stye, Wasps in a bottle, frogs in a sieve, Worms in a carcase, fleas in a sleeve.

Hist! square shoulders, settle your thumbs And buzz for the bishop--here he comes.

IV

Bow, wow, wow--a bone for the dog!

I liken his Grace to an acorned hog. 20 What, a boy at his side, with the bloom of a la.s.s, To help and handle my lord's hour-gla.s.s!

Didst ever behold so lithe a chine?

His cheek hath laps like a fresh-singed swine.

V

Aaron's asleep--shove hip to haunch, Or somebody deal him a dig in the paunch!

Look at the purse with the ta.s.sel and k.n.o.b And the gown with the angel and thingumbob!

What's he at, quotha? reading his text!

Now you've his curtsey--and what comes next? 30

VI

See to our converts--you doomed black dozen-- No stealing away--nor cog nor cozen!

You five, that were thieves, deserve it fairly; You seven, that were beggars, will live less sparely; You took your turn and dipped in the hat, Got fortune--and fortune gets you; mind that!

VII

Give your first groan--compunction's at work And soft! from a Jew you mount to a Turk.

Lo, Micah,--the selfsame beard on chin He was four times already converted in! 40 Here's a knife, clip quick--it's a sign of grace-- Or he ruins us all with his hanging-face.

VIII

Whom now is the bishop a-leering at?

I know a point where his text falls pat.

I'll tell him to-morrow, a word just now Went to my heart and made me vow I meddle no more with the worst of trades-- Let somebody else pay his serenades.

IX

Groan all together now, whee-hee-hee!

It's a-work, it's a-work, ah, woe is me! 50 It began, when a herd of us, picked and placed, Were spurred through the Corso, stripped to the waist; Jew brutes, with sweat and blood well spent To usher in worthily Christian Lent.

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