Maud. A meaner summoner might do as well. My Lord of Chester, is 't true what I hear Of Stephen of Boulogne, our prisoner, That he, as a fit penance for his crimes, Eats wholesome, sweet, and palatable food Off Glocester's golden dishes-drinks pure wine, Lodges soft?

Chester.

More than that, my gracious Queen,
Has anger'd me. The noble Earl, methinks,
Full soldier as he is, and without peer

In counsel, dreams too much among his books.
It may read well, but sure 'tis out of date
To play the Alexander with Darius.

Maud. Truth! I think so. By Heavens, it shall not last!

Chester. It would amaze your Highness now to mark

How Glocester overstrains his courtesy

To that crime-loving rebel, that Boulogne-
Maud. That ingrate!

Chester.

For whose vast ingratitude

To our late sovereign lord, your noble sire,
The generous Earl condoles in his mishaps,
And with a sort of lackeying friendliness
Talks off the mighty frowning from his brow,
Woos him to hold a duet in a smile,
Or, if it please him, play an hour at chess—
Maud. A perjured slave!

Chester.
And for his perjury,
Glocester has fit rewards-nay, I believe,
He sets his bustling household's wits at work
For flatteries to ease this Stephen's hours,
And make a heaven of his purgatory;
Adorning bondage with the pleasant gloss
Of feasts and music, and all idle shows
Of indoor pageantry; while syren whispers,
Predestined for his ear, 'scape as half-check'd

From lips the courtliest and the rubiest
Of all the realm, admiring of his deeds.
Maud. A frost upon his summer!

Chester.

Can make his June December.

A queen's nod

Here he comes.

THE CAP AND BELLS;'

OR, THE JEALOUSIES.

A FAERY TALE

UNFINISHED.

I.

N midmost Ind, beside Hydaspes cool, There stood, or hover'd, tremulous in the air,

A faery city, 'neath the potent rule A Of Emperor Elfinan; famed ev'rywhere f For love of mortal women, maidens fair, Whose lips were solid, whose soft hands were made

Of a fit mould and beauty, ripe and rare,

To pamper his slight wooing, warm yet staid: He lov'd girls smooth as shades, but hated a mere shade.

II.

This was a crime forbidden by the law;
And all the priesthood of his city wept,
For ruin and dismay they well foresaw

"This Poem was written subject to future amendments and omissions: it was begun without a plan, and without any prescribed laws for the supernatural machinery."-CHARLES BROWN.

? There are beautiful passages and lines of ineffable sweetness in these minor pieces, and strange outbursts of individual fancy and felicitous expressions in the Cap and Bells,' though the general extravagance of the poetry is more suited to an Italian than to an English taste."-JEFFREY, Letter to the Editor, Aug. 1848.

B

If impious prince no bound or limit kept,
And faery Zendervester overstept;
They wept, he sinn'd, and still he would sin on,
They dreamt of sin, and he sinn'd while they
slept;

In vain the pulpit thunder'd at the throne, C Caricature was vain, and vain the tart lampoon.

III.

Which seeing, his high court of parliament
Laid a remonstrance at his Highness' feet,
Praying his royal senses to content

Themselves with what in faery land was sweet, Befitting best that shade with shade should meet:

Whereat, to calm their fears, he promised soon From mortal tempters all to make retreat,— Aye, even on the first of the new moon An immaterial wife to espouse as heaven's boon.

IV.

Meantime he sent a fluttering embassy
To Pigmio, of Imaus sovereign,

To half beg, and half demand, respectfully,
The hand of his fair daughter Bellanaine;
An audience had, and speeching done, they gain
Their point, and bring the weeping bride away;
Whom, with but one attendant, safely lain
Upon their wings, they bore in bright array,
While little harps were touch'd by many a lyric
fay.

V.

As in old pictures tender cherubim

A child's soul thro' the sapphired canvas bear,
So, thro' a real heaven, on they swim
With the sweet princess on her plumaged lair,
Speed giving to the winds her lustrous hair;

And so she journey'd, sleeping or awake, Save when, for healthful exercise and air, She chose to promener à l'aile or take A pigeon's somerset, for sport or change's sake.

VI.

"Dear Princess, do not whisper me so loud," Quoth Corallina, nurse and confidant, "Do not you see there, lurking in a cloud, Close at your back, that sly old Crafticant? He hears a whisper plainer than a rant: Dry up your tears, and do not look so blue; He's Elfinan's great state-spy militant, His running, lying, flying footman too,— Dear mistress, let him have no handle against you!

VII.

"Show him a mouse's tail, and he will guess, With metaphysic swiftness, at the mouse; Show him a garden, and with speed no less He'll surmise sagely of a dwelling-house,

And plot, in the same minute, how to chouse The owner out of it; show him a"-"Peace! Peace! nor contrive thy mistress' ire to rouse !" Return'd the Princess, "my tongue shall not

cease

Till from this hated match I get a free release.

66

VIII.

Ah, beauteous mortal!" "Hush!" quoth
Coralline,

"Really you must not talk of him, indeed."
"You hush!" replied the mistress, with a
shine

Of anger in her eyes, enough to breed

In stouter hearts than nurse's fear and dread: 'Twas not the glance itself made Nursey flinch,