English

SCENE II.

A Chamber in the Castle . E LIZABETH — the Fool — I SENIRUDIS — G UIA singing .

Far among the lonely hills,
As I lay beside my sheep,
Rest came down upon my soul,
From the everlasting deep.

Changeless march the stars above,
Changeless morn succeeds to even;
And the everlasting hills,
Changeless watch the changeless heaven.

See the rivers, how they run,
Changeless to the changeless sea;

SCENE IV.

The Bridal Feast E LIZABETH , Lewis , S OPHIA , and Company seated at the Dais table. Court Minstrel and Court Fool sitting on the Dais steps . Min.

How gaily smile the heavens,
The light winds whisper gay;
For royal birth and knightly worth
Are knit to one to-day. Fool
(drowning his voice)
So we'll flatter them up, and we'll cocker them up
Till we turn young brains;
And pamper the brach till we make her a wolf,
And get bit by the legs for our pains Monks
(chanting without).

SCENE III

A Chamber in the Castle . Sophia , E LIZABETH , A GNES , I SENIRUDE , etc, re-entering .

Soph . What! you will not? You hear, Dame Isentrude,
She will not wear her coronet in the church,
Because, forsooth, the crucifix within
Is crowned with thorns. You hear her.
Eliz . Noble mother!
How could I flaunt this bauble in His face
Who hung there, naked, bleeding, all for me —
I felt it shamelessness to go so gay.

SCENE II.

A Landscape in Thuringia . Lewis and W ALTER riding .

Lew . So all these lands are mine; these yellow meads —
These village greens, and forest-fretted hills,
With dizzy castles crowned. Mine! Why that word
Is rich in promise, in the action bankrupt
What faculty of mine, save dream-fed pride,
Can these things fatten? Mass! I had forgot:
I have a right to bark at trespassers
Rare privilege! While every fowl and bush,
According to its destiny and nature

My eyes are full of tears,
My heart is full of pain,
To wake, as now, again,
And walk, as in my youth, the wilderness of Years!
No more! no more! the autumn winds are loud
In stormy passes, howling to the Night:
Behind a cloud the moon doth veil her light,
And the rain pours from out the horned cloud;
And hark! the solemn and mysterious bell,

My dear and gentle wife,
The Angel of my life,
Who stirs its deepest springs,
Has folded up her wings,
And lies in slumber deep,
Like some divinest Dream upon the couch of Sleep!
Nor sound nor stir profanes the stilly room,
Haunted by Sleep and Silence, linked pair;
The very light itself muffled in gloom
Steals in, and melts into the enamored air

Nor only this, though this
Might seal a life of bliss,
But something more divine,
For which I once did pine,
The crown of worlds above,
The heart of every heart, the Soul of Being, — Love!
I bow obedient to my Lady's sway,
The sovereignty that won my soul of yore,
And linger in her presence night and day,
And feel a heaven around her evermore;

O, what a life is mine!
A life of light and mirth,
The sensuous life of Earth,
For ever fresh and fine,
A heavenly worldliness, mortality divine!
When eastern skies, the sea, and misty plain
Illumined slowly, doff their nightly shrouds,
And Heaven's bright archer Morn begins to rain
His golden arrows through the banded clouds,
I rise and tramp away the jocund hours,

My books may lie and mould,
However rare and old;
I cannot read to-day.
Away with books, away!
Full-fed with sweets of sense,
I sink upon my couch in honeyed indolence!
Here are rich salvers full of nectarines,
Dead-ripe pomegranates, and Arabian dates,
Peaches and plums, and clusters fresh from vines,
And all imaginable sweets, and cates;

My gallery sleeps aloof,
Soft-lighted through the roof,
Enshrining pictures old,
And statues pure and cold,
The gems of Art, when Art was in her Age of Gold!
Not picked from any single age or clime,
Nor one peculiar master, school, or tone;
Select of all, the best of all alone,
The garnered excellence of Earth and Time:
Food for all thoughts and fancies, grave or gay;