1. ۱There's a palace in Florence, the world knows well,
2. ۲And a statue watches it from the square,
3. ۳And this story of both do our townsmen tell.
4. ۴
5. ۵Ages ago, a lady there,
6. ۶At the farthest window facing the East
7. ۷Asked, "Who rides by with the royal air?"
8. ۸
9. ۹The bridesmaids' prattle around her ceased;
10. ۱۰She leaned forth, one on either hand;
11. ۱۱They saw how the blush of the bride increased--
12. ۱۲
13. ۱۳They felt by its beats her heart expand--
14. ۱۴As one at each ear and both in a breath
15. ۱۵Whispered, "The Great-Duke Ferdinand."
16. ۱۶
17. ۱۷That self-same instant, underneath,
18. ۱۸The Duke rode past in his idle way,
19. ۱۹Empty and fine like a swordless sheath.
20. ۲۰
21. ۲۱... he rode, with a friend as ...,
22. ۲۲Till he threw his head back--"Who is she?"
23. ۲۳"A bride the Riccardi brings home to-day."
24. ۲۴
25. ۲۵Hair in heaps lay heavily
26. ۲۶Over a pale brow spirit-pure--
27. ۲۷Carved like the heart of a coal-black tree,
28. ۲۸
29. ۲۹Crisped like a war-steed's encolure--
30. ۳۰And vainly sought to dissemble her eyes
31. ۳۱Of the blackest black our eyes endure.
32. ۳۲
33. ۳۳And lo, a blade for a knight's emprise
34. ۳۴Filled the fine empty sheath of a man--
35. ۳۵The Duke grew straightway brave and wise.
36. ۳۶
37. ۳۷He looked at her, as a lover can;
38. ۳۸She looked at him, as one who awakes:
39. ۳۹The past was a sleep, and her life began.
40. ۴۰
41. ۴۱Now, love so ordered for both their sakes,
42. ۴۲A feast was held that selfsame night
43. ۴۳In the pile which the mighty shadow makes.
44. ۴۴
45. ۴۵(For Via Larga is three-parts light,
46. ۴۶But the palace overshadows one,
47. ۴۷Because of a crime which may God requite!
48. ۴۸
49. ۴۹To Florence and God the wrong was done,
50. ۵۰Through the first republic's murder there
51. ۵۱By Cosimo and his cursed son.)
52. ۵۲
53. ۵۳The Duke (with the statue's face in the square)
54. ۵۴Turned in the midst of his multitude
55. ۵۵At the bright approach of the bridal pair.
56. ۵۶
57. ۵۷Face to face the lovers stood
58. ۵۸A single minute and no more,
59. ۵۹While the bridegroom bent as a man subdued--
60. ۶۰
61. ۶۱Bowed till his bonnet brushed the floor--
62. ۶۲For the Duke on the lady a kiss conferred,
63. ۶۳As the courtly custom was of yore.
64. ۶۴
65. ۶۵In a minute can lovers exchange a word?
66. ۶۶If a word did pass, which I do not think,
67. ۶۷Only one out of the thousand heard.
68. ۶۸
69. ۶۹That was the bridegroom. At day's brink
70. ۷۰He and his bride were alone at last
71. ۷۱In a bedchamber by a taper's blink.
72. ۷۲
73. ۷۳Calmly he said that her lot was cast,
74. ۷۴That the door she had passed was shut on her
75. ۷۵Till the final catafalk repassed.
76. ۷۶
77. ۷۷The world meanwhile, its noise and stir,
78. ۷۸Through a certain window facing the East,
79. ۷۹She could watch like a convent's chronicler.
80. ۸۰
81. ۸۱Since passing the door might lead to a feast
82. ۸۲And a feast might lead to so much beside,
83. ۸۳He, of many evils, chose the least.
84. ۸۴
85. ۸۵"Freely I choose too," said the bride--
86. ۸۶"Your window and its world suffice,"
87. ۸۷Replied the tongue, while the heart replied--
88. ۸۸
89. ۸۹"If I spend the night with that devil twice,
90. ۹۰May his window serve as my loop of hell
91. ۹۱Whence a damned soul looks on paradise!
92. ۹۲
93. ۹۳"I fly to the Duke who loves me well,
94. ۹۴Sit by his side and laugh at sorrow!
95. ۹۵Ere I count another ave-bell,
96. ۹۶
97. ۹۷"'Tis only the coat of a page to borrow,
98. ۹۸And tie my hair in a horse-boy's trim,
99. ۹۹And I save my soul--but not to-morrow"--
100. ۱۰۰
101. ۱۰۱(She checked herself and her eye grew dim)
102. ۱۰۲"My father tarries to bless my state:
103. ۱۰۳I must keep it one day more for him.
104. ۱۰۴
105. ۱۰۵"Is one day more so long to wait?
106. ۱۰۶Moreover the Duke rides past, I know;
107. ۱۰۷We shall see each other, sure as fate."
108. ۱۰۸
109. ۱۰۹She turned on her side and slept. Just so!
110. ۱۱۰So we resolve on a thing and sleep:
111. ۱۱۱So did the lady, ages ago.
112. ۱۱۲
113. ۱۱۳That night the Duke said, "Dear or cheap
114. ۱۱۴As the cost of this cup of bliss may prove
115. ۱۱۵To body or soul, I will drain it deep."
116. ۱۱۶
117. ۱۱۷And on the morrow, bold with love,
118. ۱۱۸He beckoned the bridegroom (close on call,
119. ۱۱۹As his duty bade, by the Duke's alcove)
120. ۱۲۰
121. ۱۲۱And smiled, "'Twas a very funeral,
122. ۱۲۲Your lady will think, this feast of ours,
123. ۱۲۳A shame to efface, whate'er befall!
124. ۱۲۴
125. ۱۲۵"What if we break from the Arno bowers,
126. ۱۲۶And try if Petraja, cool and green,
127. ۱۲۷Cure last night's fault with this morning's flowers?"
128. ۱۲۸
129. ۱۲۹The bridegroom, not a thought to be seen
130. ۱۳۰On his steady brow and quiet mouth,
131. ۱۳۱Said, "Too much favour for me so mean!
132. ۱۳۲
133. ۱۳۳"But, alas! my lady leaves the South;
134. ۱۳۴Each wind that comes from the Apennine
135. ۱۳۵Is a menace to her tender youth:
136. ۱۳۶
137. ۱۳۷"Nor a way exists, the wise opine,
138. ۱۳۸If she quits her palace twice this year,
139. ۱۳۹To avert the flower of life's decline."
140. ۱۴۰
141. ۱۴۱Quoth the Duke, "A sage and a kindly fear.
142. ۱۴۲Moreover Petraja is cold this spring:
143. ۱۴۳Be our feast to-night as usual here!"
144. ۱۴۴
145. ۱۴۵And then to himself--"Which night shall bring
146. ۱۴۶Thy bride to her lover's embraces, fool--
147. ۱۴۷Or I am the fool, and thou art the king!
148. ۱۴۸
149. ۱۴۹"Yet my passion must wait a night, nor cool--
150. ۱۵۰For to-night the Envoy arrives from France
151. ۱۵۱Whose heart I unlock with thyself my tool.
152. ۱۵۲
153. ۱۵۳"I need thee still and might miss perchance.
154. ۱۵۴To-day is not wholly lost, beside,
155. ۱۵۵With its hope of my lady's countenance:
156. ۱۵۶
157. ۱۵۷"For I ride--what should I do but ride?
158. ۱۵۸And passing her palace, if I list,
159. ۱۵۹May glance at its window-well betide!"
160. ۱۶۰
161. ۱۶۱So said, so done: nor the lady missed
162. ۱۶۲One ray that broke from the ardent brow,
163. ۱۶۳Nor a curl of the lips where the spirit kissed.
164. ۱۶۴
165. ۱۶۵Be sure that each renewed the vow,
166. ۱۶۶No morrow's sun should arise and set
167. ۱۶۷And leave them then as it left them now.
168. ۱۶۸
169. ۱۶۹But next day passed, and next day yet,
170. ۱۷۰With still fresh cause to wait one day more
171. ۱۷۱Ere each leaped over the parapet.
172. ۱۷۲
173. ۱۷۳And still, as love's brief morning wore,
174. ۱۷۴With a gentle start, half smile, half sigh,
175. ۱۷۵They found love not as it seemed before.
176. ۱۷۶
177. ۱۷۷They thought it would work infallibly,
178. ۱۷۸But not in despite of heaven and earth:
179. ۱۷۹The rose would blow when the storm passed by.
180. ۱۸۰
181. ۱۸۱Meantime they could profit in winter's dearth
182. ۱۸۲By store of fruits that supplant the rose:
183. ۱۸۳The world and its ways have a certain worth:
184. ۱۸۴
185. ۱۸۵And to press a point while these oppose
186. ۱۸۶Were simple policy; better wait:
187. ۱۸۷We lose no friends and we gain no foes.
188. ۱۸۸
189. ۱۸۹Meantime, worse fates than a lover's fate
190. ۱۹۰Who daily may ride and pass and look
191. ۱۹۱Where his lady watches behind the grate!
192. ۱۹۲
193. ۱۹۳And she--she watched the square like a book
194. ۱۹۴Holding one picture and only one,
195. ۱۹۵Which daily to find she undertook:
196. ۱۹۶
197. ۱۹۷When the picture was reached the book was done,
198. ۱۹۸And she turned from the picture at night to scheme
199. ۱۹۹Of tearing it out for herself next sun.
200. ۲۰۰
201. ۲۰۱So weeks grew months, years; gleam by gleam
202. ۲۰۲The glory dropped from their youth and love,
203. ۲۰۳And both perceived they had dreamed a dream;
204. ۲۰۴
205. ۲۰۵Which hovered as dreams do, still above:
206. ۲۰۶But who can take a dream for a truth?
207. ۲۰۷Oh, hide our eyes from the next remove!
208. ۲۰۸
209. ۲۰۹One day as the lady saw her youth
210. ۲۱۰Depart, and the silver thread that streaked
211. ۲۱۱Her hair, and, worn by the serpent's tooth,
212. ۲۱۲
213. ۲۱۳The brow so puckered, the chin so peaked,
214. ۲۱۴And wondered who the woman was,
215. ۲۱۵Hollow-eyed and haggard-cheeked,
216. ۲۱۶
217. ۲۱۷Fronting her silent in the glass--
218. ۲۱۸"Summon here," she suddenly said,
219. ۲۱۹"Before the rest of my old self pass,
220. ۲۲۰
221. ۲۲۱"Him, the Carver, a hand to aid,
222. ۲۲۲Who fashions the clay no love will change
223. ۲۲۳And fixes a beauty never to fade.
224. ۲۲۴
225. ۲۲۵"Let Robbia's craft so apt and strange
226. ۲۲۶Arrest the remains of young and fair,
227. ۲۲۷And rivet them while the seasons range.
228. ۲۲۸
229. ۲۲۹"Make me a face on the window there,
230. ۲۳۰Waiting as ever, mute the while,
231. ۲۳۱My love to pass below in the square!
232. ۲۳۲
233. ۲۳۳"And let me think that it may beguile
234. ۲۳۴Dreary days which the dead must spend
235. ۲۳۵Down in their darkness under the aisle,
236. ۲۳۶
237. ۲۳۷"To say, 'What matters it at the end?
238. ۲۳۸'I did no more while my heart was warm
239. ۲۳۹Than does that image, my pale-faced friend.'
240. ۲۴۰
241. ۲۴۱"Where is the use of the lip's red charm,
242. ۲۴۲The heaven of hair, the pride of the brow,
243. ۲۴۳And the blood that blues the inside arm--
244. ۲۴۴
245. ۲۴۵"Unless we turn, as the soul knows how,
246. ۲۴۶The earthly gift to an end divine?
247. ۲۴۷A lady of clay is as good, I trow."
248. ۲۴۸
249. ۲۴۹But long ere Robbia's cornice, fine,
250. ۲۵۰With flowers and fruits which leaves enlace,
251. ۲۵۱Was set where now is the empty shrine--
252. ۲۵۲
253. ۲۵۳(And, leaning out of a bright blue space,
254. ۲۵۴As a ghost might lean from a chink of sky,
255. ۲۵۵The passionate pale lady's face--
256. ۲۵۶
257. ۲۵۷Eyeing ever, with earnest eye
258. ۲۵۸And quick-turned neck at its breathless stretch,
259. ۲۵۹Some one who ever is passing by)
260. ۲۶۰
261. ۲۶۱The Duke had sighed like the simplest wretch
262. ۲۶۲In Florence, "Youth--my dream escapes!
263. ۲۶۳Will its record stay?" And he bade them fetch
264. ۲۶۴
265. ۲۶۵Some subtle moulder of brazen shapes--
266. ۲۶۶"Can the soul, the will, die out of a man
267. ۲۶۷Ere his body find the grave that gapes?
268. ۲۶۸
269. ۲۶۹"John of Douay shall effect my plan,
270. ۲۷۰Set me on horseback here aloft,
271. ۲۷۱Alive, as the crafty sculptor can,
272. ۲۷۲
273. ۲۷۳"In the very square I have crossed so oft:
274. ۲۷۴That men may admire, when future suns
275. ۲۷۵Shall touch the eyes to a purpose soft,
276. ۲۷۶
277. ۲۷۷"While the mouth and the brow stay brave in bronze--
278. ۲۷۸Admire and say, 'When he was alive
279. ۲۷۹How he would take his pleasure once!'
280. ۲۸۰
281. ۲۸۱"And it shall go hard but I contrive
282. ۲۸۲To listen the while, and laugh in my tomb
283. ۲۸۳At idleness which aspires to strive."
284. ۲۸۴
285. ۲۸۵So! While these wait the trump of doom,
286. ۲۸۶How do their spirits pass, I wonder,
287. ۲۸۷Nights and days in the narrow room?
288. ۲۸۸
289. ۲۸۹Still, I suppose, they sit and ponder
290. ۲۹۰What a gift life was, ages ago,
291. ۲۹۱Six steps out of the chapel yonder.
292. ۲۹۲
293. ۲۹۳Only they see not God, I know,
294. ۲۹۴Nor all that chivalry of his,
295. ۲۹۵The soldier-saints who, row on row,
296. ۲۹۶
297. ۲۹۷Burn upward each to his point of bliss--
298. ۲۹۸Since, the end of life being manifest,
299. ۲۹۹He had burned his way thro' the world to this.
300. ۳۰۰
301. ۳۰۱I hear you reproach, "But delay was best,
302. ۳۰۲For their end was a crime." Oh, a crime will do
303. ۳۰۳As well, I reply, to serve for a test,
304. ۳۰۴
305. ۳۰۵As a virtue golden through and through,
306. ۳۰۶Sufficient to vindicate itself
307. ۳۰۷And prove its worth at a moment's view!
308. ۳۰۸
309. ۳۰۹Must a game be played for the sake of pelf
310. ۳۱۰Where a button goes, 'twere an epigram
311. ۳۱۱To offer the stamp of the very Guelph.
312. ۳۱۲
313. ۳۱۳The true has no value beyond the sham:
314. ۳۱۴As well the counter as coin, I submit,
315. ۳۱۵When your table's a hat, and your prize a dram.
316. ۳۱۶
317. ۳۱۷Stake your counter as boldly every whit,
318. ۳۱۸Venture as warily, use the same skill,
319. ۳۱۹Do your best, whether winning or losing it,
320. ۳۲۰
321. ۳۲۱If you choose to play!--is my principle.
322. ۳۲۲Let a man contend to the uttermost
323. ۳۲۳For his life's set prize, be it what it will!
324. ۳۲۴
325. ۳۲۵The counter our lovers staked was lost
326. ۳۲۶As surely as if it were lawful coin:
327. ۳۲۷And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost
328. ۳۲۸
329. ۳۲۹Is--the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin,
330. ۳۳۰Though the end in sight was a vice, I say.
331. ۳۳۱You of the virtue (we issue join)
332. ۳۳۲How strive you? De te, fabula!