King COLE was King before the troubles came,
The land was happy while he held the helm,
The valley-land from Condicote to Thame,
Watered by Thames and green with many an elm.
For many a year he governed well his realm,
So well-beloved, that, when at lasThe died,
It was bereavement to the countryside.
So good, so well-beloved, had he been
In life, that when he reached the judging-place
(There where the scales are even, the sword keen),
The Acquitting Judges granted him a grace,
AughThe might choose, red, black, from king to ace,
Beneath the bright arch of the heaven's span;
He chose, to wander earth, the friend of man.
So, since that time, he wanders shore and shire
An old, poor, wandering man, with glittering eyes,
Helping distressful folk to their desire
By power of spirit that within him lies.
Gentle he is, and quiet, and most wise,
He wears a ragged grey, he sings sweet words,
And where he walks there flutter little birds.
And when the planets glow as dusk begins
He pipes a wooden flute to music old.
Men hear him on the downs, in lonely inns,
In valley woods, or up the Chiltern wold;
His piping feeds the starved and warms the cold,
It gives the beaten courage; to the lost
It brings back faith, that lodestar of the ghost.
And mosThe haunts the beech-tree-pasturing chalk,
The Downs and Chilterns with the Thames between,
There still the Berkshire shepherds see him walk,
Searching the unhelped woe with instinct keen,
His old hat stuck with never-withering green,
His flute in poke, and little singings sweet
Coming from birds that flutter at his feet.
Not long ago a circus wandered there,
Where good King Cole most haunts the public way,
Coming from Reading for St. Giles's Fair
Through rain unceasing since Augustine's Day;
The horses spent, the waggons splashed with clay,
The men with heads bowed to the wester roaring,
Heaving the van-wheels up the hill at Goring.
Wearily plodding up the hill they went,
Broken by bitter weather and the luck,
Six vans, and one long waggon with the tent,
And piebald horses following in the muck,
Dragging their tired hooves out with a suck,
And heaving on, like some defeated tribe
Bound for Despair with Death upon their kibe.
All through the morn the circus floundered thus,
The nooning found them at the Crossing Roads,
Stopped by an axle splitting in its truss.
The horses drooped and stared before their loads,
Dark with the wet they were, and cold as toads.
The men were busy with the foundered van,
The showman stood apart, a beaten man.
He did noTheed the dripping of the rain,
Nor the wood's roaring, nor the blotted hill,
He stood apart and bit upon his pain,
Biting the bitter meal with bitter will.
Focussed upon himself, he stood, stock still,
Staring unseeing, while his mind repeated,
“This is the end; I'm ruined; I'm defeated.”
From time to time a haggard woman's face
Peered at him from a van, and then withdrew;
Seeds from the hayrack blew about the place,
The smoke out of the waggon chimneys blew,
From wicker creel the skinny cockerel crew.
The men who set the foundered axle straight
Glanced at their chief, and each man nudged his mate.
And one, the second clown, a snub-nosed youth,
Fair-haired, with broken teeth, discoloured black,
Muttered, “He looks a treat, and that 's the truth.
I've had enough: I've given him the sack.”
He took his wrench, arose, and stretched his back,
Swore at a piebald pony trying to bite,
And rolled a cigarette and begged a light.
Within, the second's wife, who leaped the hoops,
Nursed sour twins, her son and jealousy,
Thinking of love, in luckier, happier troupes
Known on the roads in summers now gone by
Before her husband had a roving eye,
Before the rat-eyed baggage with red hair
Came to do tight rope and make trouble there.
Beside the vans, the clown, old Circus John,
Growled to the juggler as he sucked his briar,
“How all the marrow of a show was gone
Since women came, to sing and walk the wire,
Killing the clown his act for half his hire,
Killing the circus trade: because,” said he,
“Horses and us are what men want to see.”
The juggler was a young man shaven-clean,
Even in the mud his dainty way he had,
Red-cheeked, with eyes like boxer's, quick and keen,
A jockey-looking youth with legs besprad,
Humming in baritone a ditty sad,
And tapping on his teeth his figner-nails,
The while the clown suckt pipe and spat his tales.
Molly, the singer, watched him wearily
With big black eyes that love had brimmed with tears,
Her mop of short cut hair was blown awry,
Her firm mouth showed her wiser than her years.
She stroked a piebald horse and pulled his ears,
And kissed his muzzle, while her eyes betrayed
This, that she loved the juggler, not the jade.
And growling in a group the music stood
Sucking short pipes, their backs against the rain,
Plotting rebellion in a bitter mood,
“A shilling more, or never play again.”
Their old great coats were foul with many a stain,
Weather and living rough had stamped their faces,
They were cast clerks, old sailors, old hard cases.
Within the cowboy's van the rat-eyed wife,
Her reddish hair in papers twisted close,
Turned wet potatoes round against the knife,
And in a bucket dropped the peelèd Oes.
Her little girl was howling from her blows,
The cowboy smoked, and with a spanner whackt
The metal target of his shooting act.
And in another van more children cried
From being beaten or for being chid
By fathers cross or mothers haggard-eyed,
Made savage by the fortunes that betid.
The rain dripped from the waggons: the drops glid
Along the pony's flanks; the thick boots stamped
The running muck for warmth, and hope was damped.
Yet all of that small troupe in misery stuck,
Were there by virtue of their nature's choosing
To be themselves and take the season's luck,
Counting the being artists worth the bruising,
To be themselves, as artists, even if losing
Wealth, comfort, health, in doing as they chose,
Alone of all life's ways brought peace to those.
So there below the forlorn woods, they grumbled,
Stamping for warmth and shaking off the rain.
Under the foundered van the tinkers fumbled,
Fishing the splitted truss with wedge and chain.
Soon, all was done, the van could go again,
Men cracked their whips, the horses' shoulders forged
Up to the collar while the mud disgorged.
So with a jangling of their chains they went,
Lean horses, swaying vans and creaking wheels,
Bright raindrops tilting off the van roof pent
And reedy cockerels crying in the creels,
Smoke driving down, men's shouts and children's squeals,
Whips cracking, and the hayrack sheddings blowing;
The showman stood aside to watch them going.
What with the rain and misery making mad,
The showman never saw a stranger come
Till there he stood, a stranger roughly clad
In ragged grey of woollen spun at home.
Green sprigs were in his hat, and other some
Stuck in his coat; he bore a wooden flute,
And redbreasts hopped and carolled at his foot.
It was King Cole, who smiled and spoke to him.
King Cole . The mend will hold until you reach a wright.
Where do you play?
The Showman . In Wallingford to-night.
King Cole . There are great doings there.
The Showman . I know of none.
King Cole . The Prince will lay the Hall's foundation stone
This afternoon: he and the Queen are there.
The Showman . Lord, keep this showman patient, lesThe swear.
King Cole . Why should you swear? Be glad; your town is filled.
The Showman . What use are crowds to me with business killed?
King Cole . I see no cause for business to be crosst.
The Showman . Counter-attractions, man, at public cost.
Fireworks, dancing, bonfires, soldiers, speeches.
In all my tour along the river's reaches
I've had ill-luck: I've clashed with public feasts.
At Wycombe fair, we met performing beasts,
AThenley, waxworks, and at Maidenhead
The Psyche woman talking with the dead.
At Bray, we met the rain, at Reading, flood,
At Pangbourne, politics, at Goring, mud,
Now here, at Wallingford, the Royal Pair.
Counter-attraction killing everywhere,
Killing a circus dead: God give me peace;
If this be living, death will be release.
By God, it brims the cup; it fills the can.
What trade are you?
King Cole . I am a wandering man.
The Showman . You mean, a tramp who flutes for bread and pence?
King Cole . I come, and flute, and then I wander thence.
The Showman . Quicksilver Tom who couldn't keep his place.
King Cole . My race being run, I love to watch the race.
The Showman . You ought to seek your rest.
King Cole . My rest is this,
The world of men, wherever trouble is.
The Showman . If trouble rest you, God! your life is rest.
King Cole . Even the sun keeps moving, east to west.
The Showman . Little he gets by moving; less than I.
King Cole . He sees the great green world go floating by.
The Showman . A sorry sight to see, when all is said.
Why don't you set to work?
King Cole . I have no trade.
The Showman . Where is your home?
King Cole . All gone, a long time past.
The Showman . Your children, then?
King Cole . All dead, sir, even the last.
I am a lonely man; no kith nor kin.
The Showman . There is no joy in life when deaths begin.
I know it, I. How long is 't since you ate?
King Cole . It was so long ago that I forget.
The Showman . The proverb says a man can always find
One sorrier than himself in state and mind.
'Fore George, it 's true. Well, come, then, to the van.
Jane, can you find a meal for this poor man?
“Yes,” said his wife. “Thank God, we still are able
To help a friend; come in, and sit to table.”
“Come,” said her man, “I'll help you up aboard,
I'll save your legs as far as Wallingford.”
They climbed aboard and sat; the woman spread
Food for King Cole, and watched him as he fed.
Tears trickled down her cheeks and much she sighed.
“My son,” she said, “like you, is wandering wide,
I know not where; a beggar on the street
(For all I know), without a crust to eat.
He never could abide the circus life.”
The Showman . It was my fault, I always tell my wife
I put too great constraint upon his will;
Things would be changed if he were with us still.
I ought not to have forced him to the trade.
King Cole . “A forced thing finds a vent,” my father said;
And yet a quickening tells me that your son
Is not far from you now; for I am one
Who feels these things, like comfort in the heart.
The couple watched King Cole and shrank apart,
For brightness covered him with glittering.
“Tell me your present troubles,” said the King,
“For you are worn. What sorrow makes you sad?”
The Showman . Why, nothing, sir, except that times are bad,
Rain all the season through, and empty tents,
And nothing earned for stock or winter rents.
My wife there, ill, poor soul, from very grief,
And now no hope nor prospect of relief;
The season 's done, and we're as we began.
Now one can bear one's troubles, being a man,
But what I cannot bear is loss of friends.
This troupe will scatter when the season ends:
My clown is going, and the Tricksey Three,
Who juggle and do turns, have split with me;
And now, to-day, my wife 's too ill to dance,
And all my music ask for an advance.
There must be poison in a man's distress
That makes him mad and people like him less.
Well, men are men. But what I cannot bear
Is my poor Bet, my piebald Talking Mare,
Gone curby in her hocks from standing up.
That's the last drop that overfills the cup.
My Bet's been like a Christian friend for years.
King Cole . Now courage, friend, no good can come from tears.
I know a treatment for a curby hock
Good both for inward sprain or outward knock.
Here 's the receipt; it 's sure as flowers in spring;
A certain cure, the Ointment of the King.
That cures your mare; your troubles Time will right;
A man's ill-fortune passes like the night.
Times are already mending at their worst;
Think of Spent Simmy when his roof-beam burst.
His ruined roof fell on him in a rain
Of hidden gold that built it up again.
So, courage, and believe God's providence.
Lo, here, the city shining like new pence,
To welcome you; the Prince is lodging there.
Lo, you, the banners flying like a fair.
Your circus will be crowded twenty deep.
This city is a field for you to reap,
For thousands must have come to see the Prince,
And all are here, all wanting fun. And since
The grass was green, all men have loved a show.
Success is here, so let your trouble go.
The Showman . Well, blessings on your heart for speaking so;
It may be that the tide will turn at last.
But royal tours have crossed me in the past
And killed my show, and maybe will again.
One hopes for little after months of rain,
And the little that one hopes one does not get.
The Wife . Look, Will, the city gates with sentries set.
The Showman . It looks to me as if the road were barred.
King Cole . They are some soldiers of the bodyguard.
I hope, the heralds of your fortune's change.
“Now take this frowsy circus off the range,”
The soldiers at the city entrance cried;
“Keep clear the town, you cannot pass inside,
The Prince is here, with other things to do
Than stare at gangs of strollers such as you.”
The Showman . But I am billed to play here; and must play.
The Soldiers . No must at all. You cannot play to-day,
Nor pitch your tents within the city bound.
The Showman . Where can I, then?
The Soldiers . Go, find some other ground.
A P OLICEMAN . Pass through the city. You can pitch and play
One mile beyond it, after five to-day.
The Showman . One mile beyond, what use is that to me?
A P OLICEMAN . Those are the rules, here printed, you can see.
The Showman . But let me see the Mayor, to make sure.
The Soldiers . These are his printed orders, all secure.
Pass through or back, you must not linger here,
Blocking the road with all this circus gear.
Which will you do, then; back or pass along?
The Showman . Pass.
The Soldiers . Then away, and save your breath for song,
We cannot bother with your right and wrong.
George, guide these waggons through the western gate.
Now, march, d'ye hear? and do not stop to bait
This side a mile; for that 's the order. March!
The Showman toppled like a broken arch.
The line squall roared upon them with loud lips.
A green-lit strangeness followed, like eclipse.
They passed within, but, when within, King Cole
Slipped from the van to head the leading team.
He breathed into his flute his very soul,
A noise like waters in a pebbly stream,
And straight the spirits that inhabit dream
Came round him, and the rain-squall roared its last,
And bright the wind-vane shifted as it passed.
And in the rush of sun and glittering cloud
That followed on the storm, he led the way,
Fluting the sodden circus through the crowd
That trod the city streets in holiday.
And lo, a marvellous thing, the gouted clay
Splashed on the waggons and the horses, glowed,
They shone like embers as they trod the road.
And round the tired horses came the Powers
That stir men's spirits, waking or asleep;
To thoughts like planets and to acts like flowers,
Out of the inner wisdom's beauty deep;
These led the horses, and, as marshalled sheep
Fronting a dog, in line, the people stared
At those bright waggons led by the bright-haired.
And, as they marched, the spirits sang, and all
The horses crested to the tune and stept
Like centaurs to a passionate festival
With shining throats that mantling criniers swept.
And all the hearts of all the watchers leapt
To see those horses passing and to hear
That song that came like blessing to the ear.
And, to the crowd the circus artists seemed
Splendid, because the while that singing quired
Each artist was the part thaThe had dreamed
And glittered with the Power he desired,
Women and men, no longer wet or tired
From long despair, now shone like queens and kings,
There they were crowned with their imaginings.
And with them, walking by the vans, there came
The wild things from the woodland and the mead,
The red stag, with his tender-stepping dame,
Branched, and high-tongued and ever taking heed.
Nose-wri