II

As thro' the land at eve we went,
And pluck'd the ripen'd ears,
We fell out, my wife and I,
O we fell out I know not why,

And kiss'd again with tears.
And blessings on the falling out
That all the more endears,

When we fall out with these we love

And kiss again with tears!

For when we came where lies the child

We lost in other years,

There above the little grave,

O there above the little grave,

We kiss'd again with tears.

At break of day the College Portress came:
She brought us Academic silks, in hue

The lilac, with a silken hood to each,

And zoned with gold; and now when these were on

And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons,

5

She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know
The Princess Ida waited out we paced,

I first, and following thro' the porch that sang
All round with laurel, issued in a court
Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths
Of classic frieze, with ample awnings gay

10

1. The second speaker here takes up the story.

2. Academic silks, cf. Prologue, 143.

10. boss'd, carved in relief, like the "boss" of a shield.

11. frieze, that part of the building, in classic architecture, that lies between the edge of the roof and the bar that stretches along the tops of the supporting columns; it is usually decorated in relief.

Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers.
The Muses and the Graces, group'd in threes,
Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst ;
And here and there on lattice edges lay
Or book or lute; but hastily we past,
And up a flight of stairs into the hall.

There at a board by tome and paper sat,

With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne,
All beauty compass'd in a female form,
The Princess; liker to the inhabitant

Of some clear planet close upon the Sun,

Than our man's earth; such eyes were in her head,
And so much grace and power, breathing down
From over her arch'd brows, with every turn
Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands,
And to her feet. She rose her height, and said:

"We give you welcome: not without redound Of use and glory to yourselves ye come,

The first-fruits of the stranger aftertime,

And that full voice which circles round the grave,
Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me.
What are the ladies of your land so tall ?”
"We of the court," said Cyril. "From the court "

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25

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13. The Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. They presided over the various departments of art and science. They were Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Urania, and Calliope. The three Graces, types of female loveliness, and attendant upon Aphrodite, were Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia.

28. redound, requital.

30. The first-fruits of the stranger, the first students from beyond the borders of her own country.

31-32. Posterity will applaud your good sense, shown in your desire to associate yourselves with my work.

She answer'd, "then ye know the Prince ?" and he
"The climax of his age! as tho' there were
One rose in all the world, your highness that,
He worships your ideal" she replied:
"We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear
This barren verbiage, current among men,
Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment.
Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem
As arguing love of knowledge and of power;
Your language proves you still the child. Indeed,
We dream not of him when we set our hand
To this great work, we purposed with ourself
Never to wed. You likewise will do well,
Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling
The tricks, which make us toys of men, that so,
Some future time, if so indeed you will,

:

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40

45

50

You may with those self-styled our lords ally

Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale."

At those high words, we, conscious of ourselves,
Perused the matting; then an officer
Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these :
Not for three years to correspond with home;
Not for three years to cross the liberties;
Not for three years to speak with any men;
And many more, which hastily subscribed,

55

We enter'd on the boards: and "Now," she cried,

60

38. your ideal, his ideal of. you; cf. III. 193; IV. 430.

40. verbiage, wordiness.

43. arguing. indicating.

50. will, wish.

53. conscious of ourselves, conscious of our disguise.

60, entered on the boards, the technical term at Cambridge for reg

istering as undergraduates.

"Ye are green wood, see ye warp not. Look, our hall ! Our statues !—not of those that men desire, Sleek Odalisques or oracles of mode,

Nor stunted squaws of West or East; but she

That taught the Sabine how to rule, and she
The foundress of the Babylonian wall,
The Carian Artemisia strong in war,
The Rhodope, that built the pyramid,
Clelia, Cornelia, with the Palmyrene
That fought Aurelian; and the Roman brows
Of Agrippina. Dwell with these, and lose
Convention, since to look on noble forms
Makes noble thro' the sensuous organism

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That which is higher. O lift your natures up: Embrace our aims: work out your freedom. Girls, 75 Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal'd :

63. Odalisques, slaves in a Turkish harem.

oracles of mode, those who set the fashion; authorities in matters of dress.

64. stunted, morally and socially beaten down.

she that taught the Sabine, Egeria, the wood-nymph, who1instructed Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, and a Sabine by birth, in civil and religious government.

65. she the foundress, Semiramis, a legendary queen of Assyria, who lived toward the close of the third century before Christ; she is said to have built Babylon.

67. The Carian Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, who helped Xerxes in the battle of Salamis (480 B.C.).

68. The Rhodope, another form of Rhodopis, an Egyptian, to whom was wrongly attributed the building of the pyramid really erected by Nicotris.

69. Clelia, a Roman heroine, a hostage given by the Romans to Lars Porsena of Clusium, leader of the expelled Tarquins. She escaped and swam across the Tiber to Rome.

Cornelia, who died about 110 B.C., was the daughter of Scipio Africanus and the mother of the Gracchi, Tiberius and Caius. She was the ideal of Roman motherhood.

the Palmyrene, Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, defied Aurelian, Emperor of Rome, who seized her possessions. She was captured in 274, and taken to Rome.

71. Agrippina, granddaughter of the Roman Emperor Augustus, and wife of Germanicus. She died in 33.

72-74. Cf. Shelley, Prince Athanase, II. i:

"The mind becomes that which it contemplates,
And thus zonoras, by forever seeing

Their bright creations, grew like wisest men."

Drink deep, until the habits of the slave,
The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite
And slander, die. Better not be at all

Than not be noble. Leave us you may go:
To-day the Lady Psyche will harangue
The fresh arrivals of the week before;
For they press in from all the provinces,
And fill the hive."

Dismissal

She spoke, and bowing waved

To Lady Psyche as we enter'd in,

80

back again we crossed the court

85

There sat along the forms, like morning doves
That sun their milky bosoms on the thatch,

A patient range of pupils; she herself
Erect behind a desk of satin-wood,

90

A quick brunette, well-molded, falcon-eyed,
And on the hither side, or so she look'd,
Of twenty summers. At her left, a child,
In shining draperies, headed like a star,
Her maiden babe, a double April old,
Aglaïa slept. We sat the Lady glanced :
Then Florian, but no livelier than the dame
That whisper'd "Asses' ears" among the sedge,
"My sister." "Comely, too, by all that's fair,"
Said Cyril. "O hush, hush!" and she began.

92. on the hither side, below.
94 headed like a star, with golden hair

95. a double April old, two years old. Cf Enoch Arden, 57:

"Ere he touch'd his one and twentieth May."

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100

96. Aglaia, the name of one of the Graces. meaning "Brightness." 97. the dame, the wife of Midas, King of Phrygia. He incurred the enmity of Pan, by deciding against him in a musical contest between Pan and Apollo. Pan turned his ears into those of an ass. His wife alone knew his secret, and not daring to tell any human being, but being unable to keep it to herself, she confided it to a hole in the earth, from which a plant grew up, whose leaves whispered it to the whole world.