The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 49

What happy thought in those large tranquil eyes 110 Speaks of a bliss remote from human fear?

Speaks of a soul which like a star supplies Its own circ.u.mfluent l.u.s.trous atmosphere; Weaves beam on beam around its peace, and glows Soft through the splendour which itself bestows?

Who ever gazed on perfect happiness, 111 Nor felt it as the shadow cast from G.o.d?

It seems so still in its sublime excess, So brings all heaven around its hush'd abode, That in its very beauty awe has birth, Dismay'd by too much glory for the earth.

Across the threshold now abruptly strode 112 Her youth's stern guardian. "Child of RASENA,"

He said, "the lover on thy youth bestow'd For the last time on earth thine eyes survey, Unless thy power can chain the faithless breast, And sated bliss deigns gracious to be blest."

"Not so!" cried Arthur, as his loyal knee 113 Bent to the earth, and with the knightly truth Of his right hand he clasp'd her own;--"to be Thine evermore; youth mingled with thy youth, Age with thine age; in thy grave mine; above, Soul with thy soul--this is the Christian's love!

"Oft wouldst thou smile, believing smile, to hear 114 Thy lover speak of knighthood's holy vow-- That vow holds falsehood more abhorr'd than fear,-- And canst thou doubt both love and knighthood now?"

His words rush'd on--told of the threaten'd land, The fates confided to the sceptred hand,

Here gathering woes, and there suspended toil; 115 And the stern warning from the distant seer.

"Thine be my people--thine this bleeding soil; Queen of my realm, its groaning murmurs hear!

Then ask thyself, what manhood's choice should be; False to my country, were I worthy thee?"

Dim through her struggling sense the light came slow, 116 Struck from those words of fire. Alas, poor child!

What, in thine isle of roses, shouldst thou know Of earth's grave duties?--of that stormy wild Of care and carnage--the relentless strife Of man with happiness, and soul with life?

Thou who hadst seen the sun but rise and set 117 O'er one Saturnian Arcady of rest, s.n.a.t.c.h'd from the Age of Iron? Ever, yet, Dwells that fine instinct in the n.o.ble breast, Which each high truth intuitive receives, And what the Reason grasps not, Faith believes.

So in mute woe, one hand to his resign'd, 118 And one press'd firmly on her swelling heart, Pa.s.sive she heard, and in her labouring mind Strove with the dark enigma--"part!--to part!"

Till, having solved it by the beams that broke From that clear soul on hers, struggling she spoke:--

"Thou bidst me trust thee!--This is my reply: 119 Trust is my life--to trust thee is to live!

And ev'n farewell less bitter than thy sigh For something aegle is too poor to give.

Thou speak'st of dread and terror, strife and woe; And I might wonder why they tempt thee so;

"And I might ask how more can mortals please 120 The heavens, than thankful to enjoy the earth?

But through its mist my soul, though faintly, sees Where thine sweeps on beyond this mountain girth, And, awed and dazzled, bending I confess Life may have holier ends than happiness!

"Yes, as thou offerest joy upon the shrine 121 Of some bright good, all human joys above, So does my heart its altar seek in thine, Content to bleed:--Thee, not myself, I love!"

Sighing, she ceased; and yet still seem'd to sigh, As doth the wave on which the zephyrs die.

Then, as she felt his tears upon her hand, 122 Sorrow woke sorrow, and her face she bow'd: As when the silver gates of heaven expand, And on the earth descends the melting cloud, So sunk the spirit from sublimer air, And all the woman rush'd on her despair.

"To lose thee--oh, to lose thee! To live on 123 And see the sun--not thee! Will the sun shine, Will the birds sing, flowers bloom, when thou art gone?

Desolate, desolate! Thy right hand in mine, Swear, by the Past, thou wilt return!--Oh, say, Say it again!"----voice died in sobs away!

Mute look'd the Augur, with his deathful eyes, 124 On the last anguish of their lock'd embrace.

"Priest," cried the lover, "canst thou deem this prize Lost to my future?--No, though round the place Yon Alps took life, with all the dire array Of demon legions, Love would force the way.

"Hear me, adored one!" On the silent ear 125 The promise fell, and o'er the unconscious frame Wound the protecting arm.--"Since neither fear Of the great Powers thou dost blaspheming name, Nor the soft impulse native in man's heart Restrains thee, doom'd one--hasten to depart.

"Come, in thy treason merciful at least, 126 Come, while those eyes by pitying slumbers bound, See not thy shadow pa.s.s from earth!"----The priest Spoke,--and now call'd the infant handmaids round; But o'er that form with arms that vainly cling, And words that idly comfort, bends the King.

"Nay, nay, look up! It is these arms that fold;-- 127 I still am here;--this hand, these tears, are mine."

Then, when they sought to loose her from his hold, He waived them back with a fierce jealous sign; O'er her hush'd breath his listening ear he bow'd, And the awed children round him wept aloud.

But when the soul broke faint from its eclipse, 128 And his own name came, shaping life's first sigh, His very heart seem'd breaking in the lips Press'd to those faithful ones;--then tremblingly, He rose;--he moved;--he paused;--his nerveless hand Veil'd the dread agony of man unmann'd.

Thus, from the chamber, as an infant meek 129 The priest's slight arm led forth the mighty King; In vain wide air came fresh upon his cheek, Pa.s.sive he went in his great sorrowing; Hate, the mute guide,--the waves of death, the goal;-- So, following Hermes, glides to Styx a soul.

NOTES TO BOOK IV.

1.--Page 255, stanza xi.

_Like that in which the far SARONIDES._

Saronides--the Druids of Gaul: "The Samian Sage"--PYTHAGORAS.. The Augur is here supposed to speak Phoenician as the parent language of Arthur's native Celtic. See note 2.

2.--Page 255, stanza xi.

_Exchanged dark riddles with the Samian sage._

Diodorus Siculus speaks with great respect of the SARONIDES as the Druid priests of Gaul; and Mr. Davis, in his Celtic Researches, insists upon it that _Saronides_ is a British word, compounded from _ser_, stars; and _honydd,_ "one who discriminates or points out:"

in fine, according to him, the Saronides are Seronyddion, i. e.

_astronomers_. For the initiation of Pythagoras into the Druid mysteries, see CLEM. ALEX. _Strom. L. i. Ex. Alex. Polyhist_. It will be observed that the author here takes advantage of the well-known a.s.sertions of many erudite authorities that the Phoenician language is the parent of the Celtic, in order to obtain a channel of oral communication between Arthur and the Etrurian;[C] though, contented with those authorities, as sufficing for all poetic purpose, he prudently declines entering into a controversy equally abstruse and interminable, as to the affinity between the countrymen of Dido and the scattered remnants of the Briton. It is not surprising that the Augur should know Phoenician, for we have only to suppose that he maintained, as well as he could in his retreat, the knowledge common among his priestly forefathers. The intercourse between Etruria and the Phoenician states (especially Carthage) was too considerable not to have rendered the language of the last familiar to the learning of the first;--to say nothing of those more disputable affinities of origin and religion, which, if existing, would have made an acquaintance with Phoenicia necessary to the solution of their historical chronicles and sacred books. Nor, when the Augur afterwards a.s.sures Arthur that aegle also understands Phoenician, is any extravagant demand made upon the credulity of the indulgent reader; for, those who have consulted such lights as research has thrown upon Etrurian records, are aware that their more high-born women appear to have received no ordinary mental cultivation.

3.--Page 256, stanza xiv.

_In LUNA'S gulf, the sea-beat crews carouse._

Luna, a trading town on the gulf of Spezia, said to have been founded by the Etrurian Tarchun.--See STRABO, lib. v.; CAT. Orig.

XXV. In a fragment of Ennius, Luna is mentioned. In Lucan's time it was deserted, "desertae moenia Lunae."--LUC. i. 586.

4.--Page 256, stanza xiv.

_Coere foretold hath come RASENA!_

Rasena was the name which the Etrurians gave to themselves.--TWISS'S NIEBUHR, vol. i. c. vii. MULLER, _die Etrusker_: DION. i. 30.

5.--Page 256, stanza xviii.

_The bliss that Northia singles for your lot._

Northia, the Etrurian deity which corresponds with the FORTUNE of the Romans, but probably with something more of the sterner attributes which the Greek and the Scandinavian gave to the FATES. I cannot but observe here on the similarity in sound and signification between the Etrurian Northia and the Norna of the Scandinavians. Norna with the last is the general term applied to Fate. The Etrurian name for the deities collectively--aeSARS, is not dissimilar to that given collectively to their deities by the Scandinavians; viz. aeSIR, or ASAS.

6.--Page 257, stanza xix.

_Spite of the Knight of Thrace,--Sir Belisair._

Belisarius, whose fame was then just rising under Justinian. The Ostrogoth, Theodoric, was on the throne of Italy.

7.--Page 257, stanza xxii.

_"Ah," said the Augur--"here, I comprehend Egypt, and Typhon, and the serpent creed!_