Knew what he purposed better than himself.
We want no name and fame—having our own:
No worldly aggrandisement—such we fly:
But if some wonder of a woman’s-heart
Were yet untainted on this grimy earth, (350)
Tender and true—tradition tells of such—
Prepared to pant in time and tune with ours—
If some good girl (a girl, since she must take
The new bent, live new life, adopt new modes)
Not wealthy—Guido for his rank was poor—
But with whatever dowry came to hand,
There were the lady-love predestinate!
And somehow the Abate’s guardian eye—
Scintillant, rutilant, fraternal fire,—
Roving round every way had seized the prize (360)
—The instinct of us, we, the spiritualty!
Come, cards on table; was it true or false
That here—here in this very tenement—
Yea, Via Vittoria did a marvel hide,
Lily of a maiden, white with intact leaf
Guessed thro’ the sheath that saved it from the sun?
A daughter with the mother’s hands still clasped
Over her head for fillet virginal,
A wife worth Guido’s house and hand and heart?
He came to see; had spoken, he could no less— (370)
(A final cherish of the stockinged calf)
If harm were,—well, the matter was off his mind.
Violante’s hand, and rise up his whole height
(A certain purple gleam about the black)
And go forth grandly,—as if the Pope came next.
And so Violante rubbed her eyes awhile,
Got up too, walked to wake her Pietro soon
And pour into his ear the mighty news
How somebody had somehow somewhere seen (380)
Their tree-top-tuft of bloom above the wall,
And came now to apprise them the tree’s self
Was no such crab-sort as should feed the swine,
But veritable gold, the Hesperian ball
Ordained for Hercules to haste and pluck,
And bear and give the Gods to banquet with—
Hercules standing ready at the door.
Whereon did Pietro rub his eyes in turn,
Look very wise, a little woeful too,
Then, periwig on head, and cane in hand, (390)
Sally forth dignifiedly into the Square
Of Spain across Babbuino the six steps,
Toward the Boat-fountain where our idlers lounge,—
Ask, for form’s sake, who Hercules might be,
And have congratulation from the world.
And told him Hercules was just the heir
To the stubble once a corn-field, and brick-heap
Where used to be a dwelling-place now burned.
Guido and Franceschini; a Count,—ay: (400)
But a cross i’ the poke to bless the Countship? No!
All gone except sloth, pride, rapacity,
Humours of the imposthume incident
To rich blood that runs thin,—nursed to a head
By the rankly-salted soil—a cardinal’s court
Where, parasite and picker-up of crumbs,
He had hung on long, and now, let go, said some,
But shaken off, said others,—in any case
Tired of the trade and something worse for wear,
Was wanting to change town for country quick, (410)
Go home again: let Pietro help him home!
The brother, Abate Paolo, shrewder mouse,
Had pricked for comfortable quarters, inched
Into the core of Rome, and fattened so;
But Guido, over-burly for rat’s hole
Suited to clerical slimness, starved outside,
Must shift for himself: and so the shift was this!
What, was the snug retreat of Pietro tracked,
The little provision for his old age snuffed?
“Oh, make your girl a lady, an you list, (420)
“But have more mercy on our wit than vaunt
“Your bargain as we burgesses who brag!
“Why, Goodman Dullard, if a friend must speak,
“Would the Count, think you, stoop to you and yours
“Were there the value of one penny-piece
“To rattle ’twixt his palms—or likelier laugh,
“Bid your Pompilia help you black his shoe?”
Went Pietro to announce a change indeed,
Yet point Violante where some solace lay (430)
Of a rueful sort,—the taper, quenched so soon,
Had ended merely in a snuff, not stink—
Congratulate there was one hope the less
Not misery the more: and so an end.
Followed: our spokesman, Paolo, heard his fate,
Resignedly Count Guido bore the blow:
Violante wiped away the transient tear,
Renounced the playing Danae to gold dreams,
Praised much her Pietro’s prompt sagaciousness, (440)
Found neighbours’ envy natural, lightly laughed
At gossips’ malice, fairly wrapped herself
In her integrity three folds about,
And, letting pass a little day or two,
Threw, even over that integrity,
Another wrappage, namely one thick veil
That hid her, matron-wise, from head to foot,
And, by the hand holding a girl veiled too,
Stood, one dim end of a December day,
In Saint Lorenzo on the altar-step— (450)
Just where she lies now and that girl will lie—
Only with fifty candles’ company
Now—in the place of the poor winking one
Which saw,—doors shut and sacristan made sure,—
A priest—perhaps Abate Paolo—wed
Guido clandestinely, irrevocably
To his Pompilia aged thirteen years
And five months,—witness the church register,—
Pompilia (thus become Count Guido’s wife
Clandestinely, irrevocably his, ), (460)
Who all the while had borne, from first to last,
As brisk a part i’ the bargain, as yon lamb,
Brought
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