Good horse - oho,
Aldebaran
!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v26 to v30 - Tur to Zor and Index
Upon a couch on the deck he
heard the particulars of the conclusion of the fight. When the
survivors afloat upon the water were all saved and the prize
secured, he spread his flag of commandant anew, and hurried
northward to rejoin the fleet and perfect the victory. In due
time the fifty vessels coming down the channel closed in upon
the fugitive pirates, and crushed them utterly: not one escaped.
To swell the tribune's glory, twenty galleys of the enemy were
captured.
Upon his return from the cruise, Arrius had warm welcome
on the mole at Misenum. The young man attending him very
early attracted the attention of his friends there; and to their
questions as to who he was, the tribune proceeded in the most
affectionate manner to tell the story of his rescue and introduce
the stranger, omitting carefully all that pertained to the latter's
previous history. At the end of the narrative he called Ben-Hur
## p. 15544 (#498) ##########################################
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LEWIS WALLACE
to him, and said, with a hand resting affectionately upon his
shoulder:
“Good friends, this is my son and heir, who, as he is to take
my property,- if it be the will of the gods that I leave any,-
shall be known to you by my name. I pray you all to love him
as you love me. ”
Speedily, as opportunity permitted, the adoption was formally
perfected. And in such manner the brave Roman kept his faith
with Ben-Hur, giving him happy introduction into the imperial
world. The month succeeding Arrius's return, the armilustrium
was celebrated with the utmost magnificence in the theatre of
Scaurus. One side of the structure was taken up with military
trophies; among which by far the most conspicuous and most
admired were twenty prows, complemented by their corresponding
aplustra, cut bodily from as many galleys; and over them, so as
to be legible to the eighty thousand spectators in the seats, was
this inscription:-
TAKEN FROM THE PIRATES IN THE GULF OF EURIPUS
BY
QUINTUS ARRIUS
DUUMVIR
THE CHARIOT RACE
From Ben-Hur. ) Copyright 1880, by Harper & Brothers
T"
He divine last touch in perfecting the beautiful is animation.
Can we accept the saying, then these latter days, so tame
in pastime and dull in sports, have scarcely anything to
compare to the spectacle offered by the six contestants. Let
the reader try to fancy it:- let him first look down upon the
arena, and see it glistening in its frame of dull-gray granite
walls: let him then, in this perfect field, see the chariots, light
of wheel, very graceful, and ornate as paint and burnishing can
make them — Messala's rich with ivory and gold: let him see the
drivers, erect and statuesque, undisturbed by the motion of the
cars, their limbs naked, and fresh and ruddy with the healthful
polish of the baths — in their right hands goads, suggestive of
## p. 15545 (#499) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15545
.
torture dreadful to the thought; in their left hands, held in
careful separation, and high that they may not interfere with
view of the steeds, the reins passing taut from the fore ends of
the carriage poles: let him see the fours, chosen for beauty as
well as speed: let him see them in magnificent action, their mas.
ters not more conscious of the situation and all that is asked and
hoped from them — their heads tossing, nostrils in play, now dis-
tent, now contracted; limbs too dainty for the sand which they
touch but to spurn; limbs slender, yet with impact crushing as
hammers; every muscle of the rounded bodies instinct with glo-
rious life, swelling, diminishing, justifying the world in taking
from them its ultimate measure of force: finally, along with
chariots, drivers, horses, let the reader see the accompanying
shadows fly:- and with such distinctness as the picture comes, he
may share the satisfaction and deeper pleasure of those to whom
it was a thrilling fact, not a feeble fancy. Every age has its
plenty of sorrows: Heaven help where there are no pleasures!
The competitors having started each on the shortest line for
the position next the wall, yielding would be like giving up
the race; and who dared yield ? It is not in common nature to
change a purpose in mid-career; and the cries of encouragement
from the balcony were indistinguishable and indescribable,- a roar
which had the same effect upon all the drivers.
The fours neared the rope together. Then the trumpeter by
the editor's side blew a signal vigorously. Twenty feet away it
was not heard. Seeing the action, however, the judges dropped
the rope,- and not an instant too soon, for the hoof of one of
Messala’s horses struck it as it fell. Nothing daunted, the Roman
shook out his long lash, loosed the reins, leaned forward, and with
a triumphant shout took the wall.
"Jove with us! Jove with us! ” yelled all the Roman faction,
in a frenzy of delight.
As Messala turned in, the bronze lion's head at the end of his
axle caught the fore-leg of the Athenian's right-hand trace-mate,
flinging the brute over against its yokefellow. Both staggered,
struggled, and lost their headway. The ushers had their will, at
least in part. The thousands held their breath with horror;
only up where the consul sat was there shouting.
"Jove with us ! » screamed Drusus frantically.
« He wins! Jove with us! ” answered his associates, seeing
Messala speed on.
C
## p. 15546 (#500) ##########################################
15546
LEWIS WALLACE
Tablet in hand, Sanballat turned to them; a crash from the
course below stopped his speech, and he could not but look that
way.
Messala having passed, the Corinthian was the only contestant
on the Athenian's right, and to that side the latter tried to turn
his broken four; and then, as ill-fortune would have it, the wheel
of the Byzantine, who was next on the left, struck the tail-piece
of his chariot, knocking his feet from under him. There was a
crash, a scream of rage and fear, and the unfortunate Cleanthes
fell under the hoofs of his own steeds: a terrible sight, against
which Esther covered her eyes.
On swept the Corinthian, on the Byzantine, on the Sidonian.
Sanballat looked for Ben-Hur, and turned again to Drusus
and his coterie.
“A hundred sestertii on the Jew! ” he cried.
« Taken! » answered Drusus.
"Another hundred on the Jew! ” shouted Sanballat.
Nobody appeared to hear him. He called again; the situa-
tion below was too absorbing, and they were too busy shouting,
“Messala! Messala! Jove with us! ”
When the Jewess ventured to look again, a party of workmen
were removing the horses and broken car; another party were
taking off the man himself; and every bench upon which there
was a Greek was vocal with execrations and prayers for venge-
Suddenly she dropped her hands: Ben-Hur, unhurt, was
to the front, coursing freely forward · along with the Roman!
Behind them, in a group, followed the Sidonian, the Corinthian,
and the Byzantine.
The race was on; the souls of the racers were in it; over
them bent the myriads.
»
ance.
was
When the dash for position began, Ben-Hur, as we have seen,
on the extreme left of the six. For a moment, like the
others, he was half blinded by the light in the arena; yet he
managed to catch sight of his antagonists and divine their pur-
pose. At Messala, who was more than an antagonist to him, he
gave one searching look. The air of passionless hauteur charac-
teristic of the fine patrician face was there as of old, and so was
the Italian beauty, which the helmet rather increased; but more
- it may have been a jealous fancy, or the effect of the brassy
shadow in which the features were at the moment cast, still the
## p. 15547 (#501) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15547
Israelite thought he saw the soul of the man as through a glass,
darkly,-cruel, cunning, desperate; not so excited as determined,
- a soul in a tension of watchfulness and fierce resolve.
In a time not longer than was required to turn to his four
again, Ben-Hur felt his own resolution harden to a like temper.
At whatever cost, at all hazards, he would humble this enemy!
Prize, friends, wagers, honor - everything that can be thought of
as a possible interest in the race was lost in the one deliberate
purpose. Regard for life even should not hold him back. Yet
there was no passion on his part; no blinding rush of heated
blood from heart to brain and back again; no impulse to fling
himself upon Fortune: he did not believe in Fortune; far other-
wise. He had his plan, and confiding in himself, he settled to the
task, never more observant, never more capable. The air about
him seemed aglow with a renewed and perfect transparency.
When not half-way across the arena, he saw that Messala's
rush would, if there was no collision, and the rope fell, give him
the wall; that the rope would fall, he ceased as soon to doubt:
and further, it came to him, a sudden flash-like insight, that Mes-
sala knew it was to be let drop at the last moment (prearrange-
ment with the editor could safely reach that point in the contest);
and it suggested, what more Roman-like than for the official to
lend himself to a countryman, who, besides being so popular, had
also so much at stake ? There could be no other accounting for
the confidence with which Messala pushed his four forward the
instant his competitors were prudentially checking their fours in
front of the obstruction, - no other except madness.
It is one thing to see a necessity, and another to act upon it.
Ben-Hur yielded the wall for the time.
The rope fell, and all the fours but his sprang into the course
under urgency of voice and lash. He drew head to the right,
and with all the speed of his Arabs, darted across the trails of
his opponents, the angle of movement being such as to lose the
least time and gain the greatest possible advance. So while
the spectators were shivering at the Athenian's mishap, and the
Sidonian, Byzantine, and Corinthian were striving, with such
skill as they possessed, to avoid involvement in the ruin, Ben-Hur
swept around and took the course neck and neck with Messala,
though on the outside. The marvelous skill shown in making
the change thus from the extreme left across to the right with-
out appreciable loss did not fail the sharp eyes upon the benches;
?
## p. 15548 (#502) ##########################################
15548
LEWIS WALLACE
the Circus seemed to rock and rock again with prolonged ap-
plause. Then Esther clasped her hands in glad surprise; then
Sanballat, smiling, offered his hundred sestertii a second time
without a taker; and then the Romans began to doubt, thinking
Messala might have found an equal, if not a master, and that in
an Israelite!
And now, racing together side by side, a narrow interval
between them, the two neared the second goal.
The pedestal of the three pillars there, viewed from the west,
was a stone wall in the form of a half-circle, around which the
course and opposite balcony were bent in exact parallelism. Mak-
ing this turn was considered in all respects the most telling test
of a charioteer; it was in fact the very feat in which Orestes
failed. As an involuntary admission of interest on the part of
the spectators, a hush fell over all the Circus; so that for the first
time in the race the rattle and clang of the cars plunging after
the tugging steeds were distinctly heard. Then, it would seem, ,
Messala observed Ben-Hur, and recognized him; and at once the
audacity of the man famed out in an astonishing manner.
"Down Eros, up Mars! ” he shouted, whirling his lash with
practiced hand; Down Eros, up Mars! ” he repeated, and caught
the well-doing Arabs of Ben-Hur a cut the like of which they
had never known.
The blow was in every quarter, and the amazement
was universal. The silence deepened; up on the benches behind
the consul the boldest held his breath, waiting for the outcome.
Only a moment thus: then involuntarily, down from the balcony,
as thunder falls, burst the indignant cry of the people.
The four sprang forward affrighted. No hand had ever been
laid upon them except in love; they had been nurtured ever so
tenderly: and as they grew, their confidence in man became a
lesson to men beautiful to see. What should such dainty natures
do under such indignity but leap as from death ?
Forward they sprang as with one impulse, and forward leaped
the car.
Past question, every experience is serviceable to us.
Where got Ben-Hur the large hand and mighty grip which
helped him now so well ? Where but from the car with which
so long he fought the sea ? And what was this spring of the
floor under his feet to the dizzy, eccentric lurch with which in
the old time the trembling ship yielded to the beat of staggering
billows, drunk with their power? So he kept his place, and gave
seen
## p. 15549 (#503) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15549
the four free rein, and called to them in soothing voice, trying
merely to guide them round the dangerous turn; and before the
fever of the people began to abate, he had back the mastery.
Nor that only: on approaching the first goal, he was again side
by side with Messala, bearing with him the sympathy and admi-
ration of every one not a Roman. So clearly was the feeling
shown, so vigorous its manifestation, that Messala, with all his
boldness, felt it unsafe to trifle further.
As the cars whirled round the goal, Esther caught sight of
Ben-Hur's face,- a little pale, a little higher raised, otherwise
calm, even placid.
Immediately a man climbed on the entablature at the west
end of the division wall, and took down one of the conical
wooden balls. A dolphin on the east entablature was taken down
at the same time.
In like manner, the second ball and second dolphin dis-
appeared.
And then the third ball and third dolphin.
Three rounds concluded: still Messala held the inside position;
still Ben-Hur moved with him side by side; still the other com-
petitors followed as before. The contest began to have the
appearance of one of the double races which became so popular
in Rome during the later Cæsarean period: Messala and Ben-
Hur in the first, the Corinthian, Sidonian, and Byzantine in the
second. Meantime the ushers succeeded in returning the mul-
titude to their seats, though the clamor continued to run the
rounds, — keeping, as it were, even pace with the rivals in the
course below.
In the fifth round the Sidonian succeeded in getting a place
outside Ben-Hur, but lost it directly.
The sixth round was entered upon without change of relative
position.
Gradually the speed had been quickened; gradually the blood
of the competitors warmed with the work. Men and beasts
seemed to know alike that the final crisis was near, bringing the
time for the winner to assert himself.
The interest, which from the beginning had centred chiefly
in the struggle between the Roman and the Jew, with an intense
and general sympathy for the latter, was fast changing to anxiety
on his account. On all the benches the spectators bent forward
## p. 15550 (#504) ##########################################
15550
LEWIS WALLACE
»
motionless, except as their faces turned following the contest-
ants. Ilderim quitted combing his beard, and Esther forgot her
fears.
"A hundred sestertii on the Jew! ” cried Sanballat to the
Romans under the consul's awning.
. There was no reply.
"A talent — or five talents, or ten: choose ye! ”
He shook his tablets at them defiantly.
“I will take thy sestertii,” answered a Roman youth, prepar-
ing to write.
"Do not so," interposed a friend.
«Why? )
« Messala hath reached his utmost speed. See him lean over
his chariot-rim, the reins loose as flying ribbons. Look then at
the Jew. "
The first one looked.
" «By Hercules! ” he replied, his countenance falling. «The
dog throws all his weight on the bits. I see, I see! If the gods
help not our friend, he will be run away with by the Israelite.
No, not yet. Look! Jove with us, Jove with us! ”
The cry, swelled by every Latin tongue, shook the velaria
over the consul's head.
If it were true that Messala had attained his utmost speed,
the effort was with effect: slowly but certainly he was beginning
to forge ahead. His horses were running with their heads low
down; from the balcony their bodies appeared actually to skim
the earth; their nostrils showed blood-red in expansion; their
eyes seemed straining in their sockets. Certainly the good steeds
were doing their best! How long could they keep the pace? It
was but the commencement of the sixth round. On they dashed.
As they neared the second goal, Ben-Hur turned in behind the
Roman's car.
The joy of the Messala faction reached its bound: they
screamed and howled, and tossed their colors; and Sanballat
filled his tablets with wagers of their tendering.
Malluch, in the lower galley over the Gate of Triumph, found
it hard to keep his cheer. He had cherished the vague hint
dropped to him by Ben-Hur of something to happen in the turn-
ing of the western pillars. It was the fifth round, yet the some-
thing had not come: and he had said to himself, the sixth will
## p. 15551 (#505) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15551
bring it; but, lo! Ben-Hur was hardly holding a place at the tail
of his enemy's car.
Over in the east end, Simonides's party held their peace. The
merchant's head was bent low. Ilderim tugged at his beard,
and dropped his brows till there was nothing of his eyes but an
occasional sparkle of light. Esther scarcely breathed. Iras alone
appeared glad.
Along the home-stretch — sixth round — Messala leading, next
him Ben-Hur, and so close it was the old story:-
“First few Eumelus on Pheretian steeds;
With those of Tros bold Diomed succeeds:
Close on Eumelus's back they puff the wind,
And seem just mounting on his car behind;
Full on his neck he feels the sultry breeze,
And hovering o'er, their stretching shadow sees. ”
Thus to the first goal, and round it. Messala, fearful of losing
his place, hugged the stony wall with perilous clasp; a foot to
the left, and he had been dashed to pieces: yet when the turn
was finished, no man, looking at the wheel-tracks of the two cars,
could have said, Here went Messala, there the Jew. They left
but one trace behind them.
As they whirled by, Esther saw Ben-Hur's face again, and it
was whiter than before.
Simonides, shrewder than Esther, said to Ilderim the moment
the rivals turned into the course, “I am no judge, good sheik,
if Ben-Hur be not about to execute some design. His face hath
that look. ”
To which Ilderim answered, “Saw you how clean they were,
and fresh ? By the splendor of God, friend, they have not been
running! But now watch! »
- One ball and one dolphin remained on the entablatures; and
all the people drew a long breath, for the beginning of the end
was at hand.
First the Sidonian gave the scourge to his four; and smarting
with fear and pain, they dashed desperately forward, promising
for a brief time to go to the front.
The effort ended in prom-
ise. Next, the Byzantine and Corinthian each made the trial
with like result, after which they were practically out of the race.
Thereupon, with a readiness perfectly explicable, all the factions
## p. 15552 (#506) ##########################################
15552
LEWIS WALLACE
(
except the Romans joined hope in Ben-Hur, and openly indulged
their feeling
“Ben-Hur! Ben-Hur! ” they shouted, and the blent voices of
the many rolled overwhelmingly against the consular stand.
From the benches above him as he passed, the favor de-
scended in fierce injunctions.
"Speed thee, Jew! ”
« Take the wall now ! »
« On! loose the Arabs! Give them rein and scourge! »
“Let him not have the turn on thee again. Now or never! »
Over the balustrade they stooped low, stretching their hands
imploringly to him.
Either he did not hear, or could not do better, for half-way
round the course and he was still following; at the second goal
even, still no change!
And now, to make the turn, Messala began to draw in his
left-hand steeds,- an act which necessarily slackened their speed.
His spirit was high; more than one altar was richer of his vows;
the Roman genius was still president. On the three pillars only
six hundred feet away were fame, increase of fortune, promotions,
and a triumph ineffably sweetened by hate, all in store for him!
That moment Malluch, in the gallery, saw Ben-Hur lean forward
over his Arabs, and give them the reins.
Out flew the many-
folded lash in his hand: over the backs of the startled steeds it
writhed and hissed, and hissed and writhed again and again; and
though it fell not, there were both sting and menace in its quick
report: and as the man passed thus from quiet to resistless action,
his face suffused, his eyes gleaming, along the reins he seemed
to flash his will; and instantly not one, but the four as one,
answered with a leap that landed them alongside the Roman's
Messala, on the perilous edge of the goal, heard, but dared
not look to see what the awakening portended. From the people
he received no sign. Above the noises of the race there was but
one voice, and that was Ben-Hur's. In the old Aramaic, as the
sheik himself, he called to the Arabs:
« « On, Atair! On, Rigel! What, Antares! dost thou linger
now?
Good horse - oho, Aldebaran !
?
I hear them singing in
the tents. I hear the children singing, and the women - singing
of the stars, of Atair, Antares, Rigel, Aldebaran, victory! - and
the song will never end. Well done! Home to-morrow, under
car.
## p. 15553 (#507) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15553
the black tent - home! On, Antares! The tribe is waiting for
us, and the master is waiting! 'Tis done! 'tis done! Ha, ha!
We have overthrown the proud. The hand that smote us is
in the dust. Ours the glory! Ha, ha! — steady! The work is
done — soho! Rest! »
There had never been anything of the kind more simple; sel-
dom anything so instantaneous.
At the moment chosen for the dash, Messala was moving in
a circle round the goal. To pass him, Ben-Hur had to cross the
track, and good strategy required the movement to be in a for-
ward direction,- that is, on a like circle limited to the least pos-
sible increase. The thousands on the benches understood it all:
they saw the signal given — the magnificent response; the four
close outside Messala's outer wheel, Ben-Hur's inner wheel behind
the other's car — all this they saw. Then they heard a crash
loud enough to send a thrill through the Circus, and quicker than
thought, out over the course a spray of shining white and yellow
flinders flew. Down on its right side toppled the bed of the
Roman's chariot. There was a rebound as of the axle hitting the
hard earth; another and another; then the car went to pieces,
and Messala, entangled in the reins, pitched forward headlong.
To increase the horror of the sight by making death certain,
the Sidonian, who had the wall next behind, could not stop or
turn out. Into the wreck full speed he drove; then over the
Roman, and into the latter's four, all mad with fear. Presently,
out of the turmoil, the fighting of horses, the resound of blows,
the murky cloud of dust and sand, he crawled, in time to see the
Corinthian and Byzantine go on down the course after Ben-Hur,
who had not been an instant delayed.
The people arose and leaped upon the benches, and shouted
and screamed. Those who looked that way caught glimpses of
Messala, now under the trampling of the fours, now under the
abandoned cars. He was still; they thought him dead: but far
the greater number followed Ben-Hur in his career.
They had
not seen the cunning touch of the reins by which, turning a little
to the left, he caught Messala's wheel with the iron-shod point of
his axle, and crushed it; but they had seen the transformation of
the man, and themselves felt the heat and glow of his spirit, the
heroic resolution, the maddening energy of action with which, by
look, word, and gesture, he so suddenly inspired his Arabs. And
XXVI–973
## p. 15554 (#508) ##########################################
15554
LEWIS WALLACE
such running! It was rather the long leaping of lions in harness;
but for the lumbering chariot, it seemed the four were flying.
When the Byzantine and Corinthian were half-way down the
course, Ben-Hur turned the first goal.
And the race was won!
The consul arose; the people shouted themselves hoarse; the
editor came down from his seat, and crowned the victors.
The fortunate man among the boxers was a low-browed,
yellow-haired Saxon, of such brutalized face as to attract a sec-
ond look from Ben-Hur, who recognized a teacher with whom he
himself had been a favorite at Rome. . From him the young Jew
looked up and beheld Simonides and his party on the balcony.
They waved their hands to him. Esther kept her seat; but
Iras arose and gave him a smile and a wave of her fan,- favors
not the less intoxicating to him because we know, O reader, they
would have fallen to Messala had he been the victor.
The procession was then formed, and midst the shouting of
the multitude which had had its will, passed out of the Gate of
Triumph
And the day was over.
## p. 15555 (#509) ##########################################
15555
EDMUND WALLER
(1605-1687)
died away
he life of Edmund Waller extended over a period of important
change in English literature. When he began to write, in
the early part of the seventeenth century, the great liter-
ature of the Elizabethan era had been written, the surge of inspira-
tion and impassioned poetry of which Shakespeare was the heart had
The brilliant formalism which was to attain its apothe-
osis in Pope was already discernible. Edmund Waller made use in
his verse of the classic iambic and distich. He first appears among
the court poets of Charles I. In some re-
spects most commonplace, he yet presents
a singular figure among his associates, -
Cowley, Crashaw, Lovelace, and Suckling.
His poetry, like that of the other Cavalier
poets, was more of gallantry than of love;
he wrote with no great range of subjects,
nor depth of feeling. But the form of his
verse bears a closer resemblance to that of
Dryden and Pope, and indeed to the poetry
of to-day, than it does to the writing of
Crashaw and Cowley. Later in his life Wal-
ler invariably confined the sense within the
limits of the distich; making his verse some-
EDMUND WALLER
what monotonous,, but giving to it a finish
quite unusual in his time. The polish of his verse may have been
due to French influence, exerted during his nine years' exile in that
country; but Dr. Johnson declares that Waller wrote as smoothly at
eighteen as at eighty,— «smoothness being the particular quality
ascribed to him.
The poet's life was more varied than his poetry, furnishing him
an abundance of subjects to overlay with his light play of fancy. He
was born in Hertfordshire, March 3d, 1605. His family were wealthy
land-owners, and his mother, although related to Cromwell, was an
ardent royalist. He followed whichever side was victorious. At six-
teen he was in Parliament, but kept becomingly silent, merely using
the advantages of his position to marry a young heiress; and with her
fortune joined to his, he retired to the country to give himself up to
(
>
## p. 15556 (#510) ##########################################
15556
EDMUND WALLER
literary pursuits. Just when he began to write is not known. The
date of the subject of his first poem, "His Majesty's Escape, is 1623.
Some of his best poetry was written in an effort to win Lady Doro-
thea Sidney, his Saccharissa, between the death of his wife in 1634
and the marriage of Lady Dorothea in 1639. Meeting him years after,
the lady asked him when he would again write such verses to her.
« When you are as young, madam, and as handsome, as you were
then,” replied the poet. This remark furnishes a key to his char-
acter. He was facile and witty, but cold, shallow, and selfish.
In 1643, when the struggle between the King and Parliament grew
hotter, Waller was implicated in what was known as Waller's plot.
He was discovered, and behaved with the most abject meanness;
immediately turning informer, and saving himself by giving up three
others to death. He was let off with a fine of £ 1000, and was ban-
ished to France. From France he directed the publication of his
first volume of poems.
Here he lived in high reputation as a wit
for nine years; when, at the intervention of anti-royalist friends, he
was allowed to return to England. He immediately wrote a Pan-
egyric to my Lord Protector,' which is one of his best poems. Crom-
well was friendly to him; and on the Protector's death, Waller wrote
another poem to him, which under the circumstances must appear
somewhat disinterested. However, when Charles II. came into his
kingdom, Waller was ready with a series of verses for him. Charles,
who admitted the poet to his intimacy, complained that this poem
was inferior to Cromwell's. “Sire,” responded the quick-witted Wal-
ler, "poets succeed better in fiction than in truth. ”
Waller was in Parliament up to the time of his death in 1687.
He was said to be the delight of the Commons for his wit. His
poems went through several editions, and he continued to write.
Long before his death he saw the end of the romantic and irregular
school, and the full establishment of the classic and regular. John
Dryden has been called the first of the moderns. But «Edmund
Waller,” said Dryden, “first showed us to conclude the sense most
commonly in distichs; which, in the verse of those before him, runs
on for so many lines together that the reader is out of breath to
overtake it. ” Thus Waller becomes the founder of a school, the
influence of which extended over a hundred and fifty years; though
as a poet he sinks into insignificance beside Dryden and Pope, who
gave the school its character when they stamped it with their genius.
Fenton calls Waller (maker and model of melodious verse. ) In
the sense that he revived the form of a past age, and gave to it a
greater precision than it had ever possessed, he is a maker of verse.
Moreover, in 'Go, Lovely Rose,' he wrote one of the most perfect lyr-
ics in the tongue; and one such poem will embalm its writer. But
(
## p. 15557 (#511) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15557
Waller's art was limited; the form was not new: and the popularity
of the poet exists chiefly through the praises of greater men, who
having too much to say to take time for the invention of a method
of their own, used the form to which he had directed their attention.
FROM THE POEM
OF THE DANGER HIS MAJESTY (BEING PRINCE) ESCAPED IN
THE ROAD AT ST. ANDERO
W'"Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding
deep;
Which soon becomes the seat of sudden war
Between the wind and tide, that fiercely jar.
As when a sort of lusty shepherds try
Their force at football, care of victory
Makes them salute so rudely breast to breast,
That their encounter seems too rough for jest, –
They ply their feet, and still the restless ball,
Tost to and fro, is urgèd by them all, -
So fares the doubtful barge 'twixt tide and winds,
And like effect of their contention finds.
Yet the bold Britons still securely rowed:
Charles and his virtue was their sacred load;
Than which a greater pledge Heaven could not give,
That the good boat this tempest should outlive.
But storms increase! and now no hope of grace
Among them shines, save in the prince's face.
The pale Iberians had expired with fear,
But that their wonder did divert their care,
To see the prince with danger moved no more
Than with the pleasures of their court before:
Godlike his courage seemed, whom nor delight
Could soften, nor the face of Death affright;
Next to the power of making tempests cease,
Was in that storm to have so calm a peace.
## p. 15558 (#512) ##########################################
15558
EDMUND WALLER
THE COUNTESS OF CARLISLE
OF HER CHAMBER
T"
HEY taste of death, that do at heaven arrive;
But we this paradise approach alive.
Instead of Death, the dart of Love does strike:
And renders all within these walls alike;
The high in titles, and the shepherd here
Forgets his greatness, and forgets his fear.
All stand amazed, and gazing on the fair
Lose thought of what themselves or others are;
Ambition lose: and have no other scope,
Save Carlisle's favor, to employ their hope.
The Thracian could (though all those tales were true
The bold Greeks tell) no greater wonders do:
Before his feet so sheep and lions lay,
Fearless and wrathless while they heard him play.
The gay, the wise, the gallant, and the grave,
Subdued alike, all but one passion have;
No worthy mind but finds in hers there is
Something proportioned to the rule of his;
While she, with cheerful but impartial grace,
(Born for no one, but to delight the race
Of men,) like Phoebus, so divides her light,
And warms us, that she stoops not from her height.
ON A GIRDLE
HAT which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind :
No monarch but would give his crown,
His arms might do what this hath done.
T"
It was my heaven's extremest sphere,
The pale which held that lovely deer;
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love,
Did all within this circle move!
A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that's good and all that's fair:
Give me but what this ribbon bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round.
## p. 15559 (#513) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15559
GO, LOVELY ROSE
Gº
O, LOVELY rose !
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.
Then die! that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee! -
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
FROM CA PANEGYRIC TO MY LORD PROTECTOR)
HILE with a strong and yet a gentle hand,
You bridle faction, and our hearts command,
Protect us from ourselves, and from the foe;
Make us unite, and make us conquer too.
W*
Let partial spirits still aloud complain,
Think themselves injured that they cannot reign,
And own no liberty, but where they may
Without control upon their fellows prey.
Above the waves, as Neptune showed his face,
To chide the winds and save the Trojan race,
So has your Highness, raised above the rest,
Storms of ambition tossing us repressed.
Your drooping country, torn with civil hate,
Restored by you, is made a glorious State;
## p. 15560 (#514) ##########################################
15560
EDMUND WALLER
The seat of empire, where the Irish come,
And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom.
The sea's our own: and now all nations greet,
With bending sails, each vessel of our fleet;
Your power extends so far as winds can blow,
Or swelling sails upon the globe may go.
Heaven, that hath placed this island to give law,
To balance Europe, and its States to awe,
In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,
The greatest leader and the greatest isle!
Whether this portion of the world were rent
By the rude ocean from the continent,
Or thus created, it was sure designed
To be the sacred refuge of mankind.
Hither the oppressèd shall henceforth resort,
Justice to crave, and succor at your court;
And then your Highness, not for ours alone,
But for the world's Protector, shall be known.
Still as you rise, the State exalted too,
Finds no distemper while 'tis changed by you;
Changed like the world's great scene! when, without
noise,
The rising sun night's vulgar lights destroys.
Had you, some ages past, this race of glory
Run, with amazement we should read your story;
But living virtue, all achievements past,
Meets envy still to grapple with at last.
This Cæsar found; and that ungrateful age,
With losing him, went back to blood and rage;
Mistaken Brutus thought to break their yoke,
But cut the bond of union with that stroke.
That sun once set, a thousand meaner stars
Gave a dim light to violence and wars,
To such a tempest as now threatens all,
Did not your mighty arm prevent the fall.
If Rome's great Senate could not wield that sword
Which of the conquered world had made them lord,
## p. 15561 (#515) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15561
What hope had ours, while yet their power was new,
To rule victorious armies, but by you?
You, that had taught them to subdue their foes,
Could order teach, and their high sp'rits compose;
To every duty could their minds engage,
Provoke their courage, and command their rage.
So when a lion shakes his dreadful mane,
And angry grows, if he that first took pain
To tame his youth approach the haughty beast,
He bends to him, but frights away the rest.
As the vexed world, to find repose, at last
Itself into Augustus's arms did cast,
So England now does, with like toil opprest,
Her weary head upon your bosom rest.
Then let the Muses, with such notes as these,
Instruct us what belongs unto our peace.
Your battles they hereafter shall indite,
And draw the image of our Mars in fight:
Tell of towns stormed, and armies overrun,
And mighty kingdoms by your conduct won;
How, while you thundered, clouds of dust did choke
Contending troops, and seas lay hid in smoke.
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse,
And every conqueror creates a Muse!
Here, in low strains, your milder deeds we sing,
But there, my lord, we'll bays and olives bring
To crown your head: while you in triumph ride
O'er conquered nations, and the sea beside;
While all your neighbor princes unto you,
Like Joseph's sheaves, pay reverence and due.
## p. 15562 (#516) ##########################################
15562
EDMUND WALLER
ON LOVE
A
NGER, in hasty words or blows,
Itself discharges on our foes;
And sorrow, too, finds some relief
In tears which wait upon our grief:
So every passion but fond love
Unto its own redress does move;
But that alone the wretch inclines
To what prevents his own designis :
Makes him lament, and sigh, and weep,
Disordered, tremble, fawn, and creep;
Postures which render him despised,
Where he endeavors to be prized.
For women — born to be controlled —
Stoop to the forward and the bold;
Affect the haughty and the proud,
The gay, the frolic, and the loud.
Who first the generous steed oppressed,
Not kneeling did salute the beast;
But with high courage, life, and force,
Approaching, tamed th' unruly horse.
Unwisely we the wiser East
Pity, supposing them oppressed
With tyrants' force, whose law is will,
By which they govern, spoil, and kill:
Each nymph, but moderately fair,
Commands with no less rigor here.
Should some brave Turk, that walks among
His twenty lasses, bright and young,
Behold as many gallants here,
With modest guise and silent fear,
All to one female idol bend,
While her pride does scarce descend
To mark their follies, he would swear
That these her guard of eunuchs were,
And that a more majestic queen,
Or humbler slaves, he had not seen.
All this with indignation spoke,
In vain I struggled with the yoke
Of mighty Love; that conquering look,
When next beheld, like lightning strook
## p. 15563 (#517) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15563
My blasted soul, and made me bow
Lower than those I pitied now.
So the tall stag, upon the brink
Of soine smooth stream about to drink,
Surveying there his armèd head,
With shame remembers that he filed
The scornèd dogs, resolves to try
The combat next: but if their cry
Invades again his trembling ear,
He straight resumes his wonted care;
Leaves the untasted spring behind,
And winged with fear, outfies the wind.
AT PENSHURST
W"
Thile in this park I sing, the listening deer
Attend my passion, and forget to fear;
When to the beeches I report my flame,
They bow their heads as if they felt the same.
To gods appealing, when I reach their bowers
With loud complaints, they answer me in showers.
To thee a wild and cruel soul is given,
More deaf than trees, and prouder than the heaven!
Love's foe professed! why dost thou falsely feign
Thyself a Sidney? from which noble strain
He sprung, that could so far exalt the name
Of Love, and warm our nation with his flame,
That all we can of love or high desire,
Seems but the smoke of amorous Sidney's fire.
Nor call her mother who so well does prove
One breast may hold both chastity and love.
Never can she, that so exceeds the spring
In joy and bounty, be supposed to bring
One so destructive. To no human stock
We owe this fierce unkindness, but the rock —
That cloven rock produced thee, by whose side
Nature, to recompense the fatal pride
Of such stern beauty, placed those healing springs
Which not more help than that destruction brings.
Thy heart no ruder than the rugged stone,
I might, like Orpheus, with my numerous moan
## p. 15564 (#518) ##########################################
15564
EDMUND WALLER
Melt to compassion; now my traitorous song
With thee conspires to do the singer wrong:
While thus I suffer not myself to lose
The memory of what augments my woes;
But with my own breath still foment the fire,
Which flames as high as fancy can aspire!
This last complaint the indulgent ears did pierce
Of just Apollo, president of verse;
Highly concerned that the Muse should bring
Damage to one whom he had taught to sing,
Thus he advised me:-“On yon aged tree
Hang up thy lute, and hie thee to the sea,
That there with wonders thy diverted mind
Some truce, at least, may with this passion find. ”
Ah, cruel nymph! from whom her humble swain
Flies for relief unto the raging main,
And from the winds and tempests does expect
A milder fate than from her cold neglect!
Yet there he'll pray that the unkind may prove
Blest in her choice; and vows this endless love
Springs from no hope of what she can confer,
But from those gifts which Heaven has heaped on her.
## p. 15565 (#519) ##########################################
15565
HORACE WALPOLE
(1717-1797)
RO ORACE WALPOLE might be called the Beau Brummel of Eng-
lish men of letters; yet the criticism which takes account
chiefly of his elegances is in danger of overlooking his
substantial literary merits. These are well established, and singu-
lar in their class and degree: their limitations perhaps add to their
worth rather than detract from it. Walpole's writings have the dis-
tinctive little beauties of a Watteau landscape, whose artificiality is
part of its charm. They bear about them, moreover, an attractive
atmosphere of irresponsibility, as emanating
from one who disavowed the serious claims
of authorship, making of literature always
a gentlemanly diversion,- over which it
was permissible to wax serious, however, as
over the laying out of a garden maze, or
the construction of a lath-and-plaster Gothic
tower.
The life of Horace Walpole stretches
over the greater part of the eighteenth
century, of which century he was an
ganic part; reflecting its admirable good
sense, its complete materialism, its clever-
ness, and its wit. Born in 1717, the son of HORACE WALPOLE
the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, the
fashionable world of the day was his by inheritance. Between the
beef-eating, coarse-living statesman, and his elegant little son, there
could not have been much sympathy; but the child accepted readily
enough the advantages which his father's position brought to him.
The fascination which royalty always exercised over him was early
shown by his insisting, at the age of ten years, upon a presenta-
tion to George I. He was sent in the same year to Eton, a place
forever memorable to him by reason of the lifelong friendships
which he formed there,— with his cousins Henry Conway and Lord
Hertford, with George Selwyn, with George and Charles Montagu, with
Thomas Gray the poet, with Richard West and Thomas Ashton. In
1734 he left Eton, without having specially distinguished himself. In
1735 he entered King's College, Cambridge, although his mathematical
or-
-
## p. 15566 (#520) ##########################################
15566
HORACE WALPOLE
attainments were summed up in an insecure knowledge of the multi-
plication table; at Cambridge, however, he broadened his knowledge
of the modern tongues, thus preparing himself for a Continental resi-
dence. In 1739, in company with Gray, he left the University to
make the conventional grand tour. From the Continent he wrote
many of the letters for which he is famous. The two young men
arrived at length in Florence, where they took up their residence
with Sir Horace Mann, the British minister plenipotentiary to Tus-
cany, who afterwards became one of Walpole's chief correspondents.
At Florence, Walpole was drawn more and more into fashionable
society; Gray more and more into the scholar's life, under the stimu-
lus of Italy's antiquities. The separation between the two friends,
inevitable under the circumstances, soon came. In after years Wal-
pole assumed all the blame of the quarrel which was the apparent
cause of their parting.
In September 1741 he himself returned to England, where the
ministry of Sir Robert was tottering to its fall. He took his seat
in the House as representative from the borough of Callington, mak-
ing at this time strong speeches in defense of his father. Sir Robert,
however, resigned in 1742, was created Earl of Orford, and immedi-
ately retired to Houghton, the seat of the family. His son joined
him there; but this residence in Norfolk, among the hunting gentry
of the county, was a weary exile to Horace. “Only imagine,” he
writes, that I here every day see men who are mountains of roast
beef, and only seem just roughly hewn out into outlines of human
form, like the giant rock of Pratolino. I shudder when I see them
brandish their knives in act to carve, and look on them as savages
that devour one another. ”
In 1745 Sir Robert Walpole died. Two years after his death his
son purchased the villa at Twickenham, which was to become one of
the famous houses of Europe under the name of Strawberry Hill.
The original villa was the nucleus of a fantastic Gothic structure,
which grew year after year, until it became not unlike a miniature
castle. Walpole, through his father's influence, had come into the
possession of several lucrative sinecures, and had also wealth by
inheritance. He could gratify his tastes to the utmost; it was at
Strawberry Hill that his life as an English man of letters, and as a
dilettante, really commences. His house became, more than the
houses of the majority of men, the expression of his mind. Its an-
cient stained glass, its armor, its rare china, its rare prints, its old
masters, its curious relics of departed greatness, its strange archi-
tecture following no known rules, seemed the outward symbols of
certain qualities of Walpole's mind, - his love of the choicest gossip,
his self-conscious aristocracy, his ingenuity, his frank insincerity. At
## p. 15567 (#521) ##########################################
HORACE WALPOLE
15567
-
Strawberry Hill he set up a printing-press, – as necessary a part of
a cultured gentleman's establishment as his library or his art gallery.
His old friendship with Gray having been resumed, he edited and
printed the works of the poet, with illustrations by Bentley.
heard the particulars of the conclusion of the fight. When the
survivors afloat upon the water were all saved and the prize
secured, he spread his flag of commandant anew, and hurried
northward to rejoin the fleet and perfect the victory. In due
time the fifty vessels coming down the channel closed in upon
the fugitive pirates, and crushed them utterly: not one escaped.
To swell the tribune's glory, twenty galleys of the enemy were
captured.
Upon his return from the cruise, Arrius had warm welcome
on the mole at Misenum. The young man attending him very
early attracted the attention of his friends there; and to their
questions as to who he was, the tribune proceeded in the most
affectionate manner to tell the story of his rescue and introduce
the stranger, omitting carefully all that pertained to the latter's
previous history. At the end of the narrative he called Ben-Hur
## p. 15544 (#498) ##########################################
15544
LEWIS WALLACE
to him, and said, with a hand resting affectionately upon his
shoulder:
“Good friends, this is my son and heir, who, as he is to take
my property,- if it be the will of the gods that I leave any,-
shall be known to you by my name. I pray you all to love him
as you love me. ”
Speedily, as opportunity permitted, the adoption was formally
perfected. And in such manner the brave Roman kept his faith
with Ben-Hur, giving him happy introduction into the imperial
world. The month succeeding Arrius's return, the armilustrium
was celebrated with the utmost magnificence in the theatre of
Scaurus. One side of the structure was taken up with military
trophies; among which by far the most conspicuous and most
admired were twenty prows, complemented by their corresponding
aplustra, cut bodily from as many galleys; and over them, so as
to be legible to the eighty thousand spectators in the seats, was
this inscription:-
TAKEN FROM THE PIRATES IN THE GULF OF EURIPUS
BY
QUINTUS ARRIUS
DUUMVIR
THE CHARIOT RACE
From Ben-Hur. ) Copyright 1880, by Harper & Brothers
T"
He divine last touch in perfecting the beautiful is animation.
Can we accept the saying, then these latter days, so tame
in pastime and dull in sports, have scarcely anything to
compare to the spectacle offered by the six contestants. Let
the reader try to fancy it:- let him first look down upon the
arena, and see it glistening in its frame of dull-gray granite
walls: let him then, in this perfect field, see the chariots, light
of wheel, very graceful, and ornate as paint and burnishing can
make them — Messala's rich with ivory and gold: let him see the
drivers, erect and statuesque, undisturbed by the motion of the
cars, their limbs naked, and fresh and ruddy with the healthful
polish of the baths — in their right hands goads, suggestive of
## p. 15545 (#499) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15545
.
torture dreadful to the thought; in their left hands, held in
careful separation, and high that they may not interfere with
view of the steeds, the reins passing taut from the fore ends of
the carriage poles: let him see the fours, chosen for beauty as
well as speed: let him see them in magnificent action, their mas.
ters not more conscious of the situation and all that is asked and
hoped from them — their heads tossing, nostrils in play, now dis-
tent, now contracted; limbs too dainty for the sand which they
touch but to spurn; limbs slender, yet with impact crushing as
hammers; every muscle of the rounded bodies instinct with glo-
rious life, swelling, diminishing, justifying the world in taking
from them its ultimate measure of force: finally, along with
chariots, drivers, horses, let the reader see the accompanying
shadows fly:- and with such distinctness as the picture comes, he
may share the satisfaction and deeper pleasure of those to whom
it was a thrilling fact, not a feeble fancy. Every age has its
plenty of sorrows: Heaven help where there are no pleasures!
The competitors having started each on the shortest line for
the position next the wall, yielding would be like giving up
the race; and who dared yield ? It is not in common nature to
change a purpose in mid-career; and the cries of encouragement
from the balcony were indistinguishable and indescribable,- a roar
which had the same effect upon all the drivers.
The fours neared the rope together. Then the trumpeter by
the editor's side blew a signal vigorously. Twenty feet away it
was not heard. Seeing the action, however, the judges dropped
the rope,- and not an instant too soon, for the hoof of one of
Messala’s horses struck it as it fell. Nothing daunted, the Roman
shook out his long lash, loosed the reins, leaned forward, and with
a triumphant shout took the wall.
"Jove with us! Jove with us! ” yelled all the Roman faction,
in a frenzy of delight.
As Messala turned in, the bronze lion's head at the end of his
axle caught the fore-leg of the Athenian's right-hand trace-mate,
flinging the brute over against its yokefellow. Both staggered,
struggled, and lost their headway. The ushers had their will, at
least in part. The thousands held their breath with horror;
only up where the consul sat was there shouting.
"Jove with us ! » screamed Drusus frantically.
« He wins! Jove with us! ” answered his associates, seeing
Messala speed on.
C
## p. 15546 (#500) ##########################################
15546
LEWIS WALLACE
Tablet in hand, Sanballat turned to them; a crash from the
course below stopped his speech, and he could not but look that
way.
Messala having passed, the Corinthian was the only contestant
on the Athenian's right, and to that side the latter tried to turn
his broken four; and then, as ill-fortune would have it, the wheel
of the Byzantine, who was next on the left, struck the tail-piece
of his chariot, knocking his feet from under him. There was a
crash, a scream of rage and fear, and the unfortunate Cleanthes
fell under the hoofs of his own steeds: a terrible sight, against
which Esther covered her eyes.
On swept the Corinthian, on the Byzantine, on the Sidonian.
Sanballat looked for Ben-Hur, and turned again to Drusus
and his coterie.
“A hundred sestertii on the Jew! ” he cried.
« Taken! » answered Drusus.
"Another hundred on the Jew! ” shouted Sanballat.
Nobody appeared to hear him. He called again; the situa-
tion below was too absorbing, and they were too busy shouting,
“Messala! Messala! Jove with us! ”
When the Jewess ventured to look again, a party of workmen
were removing the horses and broken car; another party were
taking off the man himself; and every bench upon which there
was a Greek was vocal with execrations and prayers for venge-
Suddenly she dropped her hands: Ben-Hur, unhurt, was
to the front, coursing freely forward · along with the Roman!
Behind them, in a group, followed the Sidonian, the Corinthian,
and the Byzantine.
The race was on; the souls of the racers were in it; over
them bent the myriads.
»
ance.
was
When the dash for position began, Ben-Hur, as we have seen,
on the extreme left of the six. For a moment, like the
others, he was half blinded by the light in the arena; yet he
managed to catch sight of his antagonists and divine their pur-
pose. At Messala, who was more than an antagonist to him, he
gave one searching look. The air of passionless hauteur charac-
teristic of the fine patrician face was there as of old, and so was
the Italian beauty, which the helmet rather increased; but more
- it may have been a jealous fancy, or the effect of the brassy
shadow in which the features were at the moment cast, still the
## p. 15547 (#501) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15547
Israelite thought he saw the soul of the man as through a glass,
darkly,-cruel, cunning, desperate; not so excited as determined,
- a soul in a tension of watchfulness and fierce resolve.
In a time not longer than was required to turn to his four
again, Ben-Hur felt his own resolution harden to a like temper.
At whatever cost, at all hazards, he would humble this enemy!
Prize, friends, wagers, honor - everything that can be thought of
as a possible interest in the race was lost in the one deliberate
purpose. Regard for life even should not hold him back. Yet
there was no passion on his part; no blinding rush of heated
blood from heart to brain and back again; no impulse to fling
himself upon Fortune: he did not believe in Fortune; far other-
wise. He had his plan, and confiding in himself, he settled to the
task, never more observant, never more capable. The air about
him seemed aglow with a renewed and perfect transparency.
When not half-way across the arena, he saw that Messala's
rush would, if there was no collision, and the rope fell, give him
the wall; that the rope would fall, he ceased as soon to doubt:
and further, it came to him, a sudden flash-like insight, that Mes-
sala knew it was to be let drop at the last moment (prearrange-
ment with the editor could safely reach that point in the contest);
and it suggested, what more Roman-like than for the official to
lend himself to a countryman, who, besides being so popular, had
also so much at stake ? There could be no other accounting for
the confidence with which Messala pushed his four forward the
instant his competitors were prudentially checking their fours in
front of the obstruction, - no other except madness.
It is one thing to see a necessity, and another to act upon it.
Ben-Hur yielded the wall for the time.
The rope fell, and all the fours but his sprang into the course
under urgency of voice and lash. He drew head to the right,
and with all the speed of his Arabs, darted across the trails of
his opponents, the angle of movement being such as to lose the
least time and gain the greatest possible advance. So while
the spectators were shivering at the Athenian's mishap, and the
Sidonian, Byzantine, and Corinthian were striving, with such
skill as they possessed, to avoid involvement in the ruin, Ben-Hur
swept around and took the course neck and neck with Messala,
though on the outside. The marvelous skill shown in making
the change thus from the extreme left across to the right with-
out appreciable loss did not fail the sharp eyes upon the benches;
?
## p. 15548 (#502) ##########################################
15548
LEWIS WALLACE
the Circus seemed to rock and rock again with prolonged ap-
plause. Then Esther clasped her hands in glad surprise; then
Sanballat, smiling, offered his hundred sestertii a second time
without a taker; and then the Romans began to doubt, thinking
Messala might have found an equal, if not a master, and that in
an Israelite!
And now, racing together side by side, a narrow interval
between them, the two neared the second goal.
The pedestal of the three pillars there, viewed from the west,
was a stone wall in the form of a half-circle, around which the
course and opposite balcony were bent in exact parallelism. Mak-
ing this turn was considered in all respects the most telling test
of a charioteer; it was in fact the very feat in which Orestes
failed. As an involuntary admission of interest on the part of
the spectators, a hush fell over all the Circus; so that for the first
time in the race the rattle and clang of the cars plunging after
the tugging steeds were distinctly heard. Then, it would seem, ,
Messala observed Ben-Hur, and recognized him; and at once the
audacity of the man famed out in an astonishing manner.
"Down Eros, up Mars! ” he shouted, whirling his lash with
practiced hand; Down Eros, up Mars! ” he repeated, and caught
the well-doing Arabs of Ben-Hur a cut the like of which they
had never known.
The blow was in every quarter, and the amazement
was universal. The silence deepened; up on the benches behind
the consul the boldest held his breath, waiting for the outcome.
Only a moment thus: then involuntarily, down from the balcony,
as thunder falls, burst the indignant cry of the people.
The four sprang forward affrighted. No hand had ever been
laid upon them except in love; they had been nurtured ever so
tenderly: and as they grew, their confidence in man became a
lesson to men beautiful to see. What should such dainty natures
do under such indignity but leap as from death ?
Forward they sprang as with one impulse, and forward leaped
the car.
Past question, every experience is serviceable to us.
Where got Ben-Hur the large hand and mighty grip which
helped him now so well ? Where but from the car with which
so long he fought the sea ? And what was this spring of the
floor under his feet to the dizzy, eccentric lurch with which in
the old time the trembling ship yielded to the beat of staggering
billows, drunk with their power? So he kept his place, and gave
seen
## p. 15549 (#503) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15549
the four free rein, and called to them in soothing voice, trying
merely to guide them round the dangerous turn; and before the
fever of the people began to abate, he had back the mastery.
Nor that only: on approaching the first goal, he was again side
by side with Messala, bearing with him the sympathy and admi-
ration of every one not a Roman. So clearly was the feeling
shown, so vigorous its manifestation, that Messala, with all his
boldness, felt it unsafe to trifle further.
As the cars whirled round the goal, Esther caught sight of
Ben-Hur's face,- a little pale, a little higher raised, otherwise
calm, even placid.
Immediately a man climbed on the entablature at the west
end of the division wall, and took down one of the conical
wooden balls. A dolphin on the east entablature was taken down
at the same time.
In like manner, the second ball and second dolphin dis-
appeared.
And then the third ball and third dolphin.
Three rounds concluded: still Messala held the inside position;
still Ben-Hur moved with him side by side; still the other com-
petitors followed as before. The contest began to have the
appearance of one of the double races which became so popular
in Rome during the later Cæsarean period: Messala and Ben-
Hur in the first, the Corinthian, Sidonian, and Byzantine in the
second. Meantime the ushers succeeded in returning the mul-
titude to their seats, though the clamor continued to run the
rounds, — keeping, as it were, even pace with the rivals in the
course below.
In the fifth round the Sidonian succeeded in getting a place
outside Ben-Hur, but lost it directly.
The sixth round was entered upon without change of relative
position.
Gradually the speed had been quickened; gradually the blood
of the competitors warmed with the work. Men and beasts
seemed to know alike that the final crisis was near, bringing the
time for the winner to assert himself.
The interest, which from the beginning had centred chiefly
in the struggle between the Roman and the Jew, with an intense
and general sympathy for the latter, was fast changing to anxiety
on his account. On all the benches the spectators bent forward
## p. 15550 (#504) ##########################################
15550
LEWIS WALLACE
»
motionless, except as their faces turned following the contest-
ants. Ilderim quitted combing his beard, and Esther forgot her
fears.
"A hundred sestertii on the Jew! ” cried Sanballat to the
Romans under the consul's awning.
. There was no reply.
"A talent — or five talents, or ten: choose ye! ”
He shook his tablets at them defiantly.
“I will take thy sestertii,” answered a Roman youth, prepar-
ing to write.
"Do not so," interposed a friend.
«Why? )
« Messala hath reached his utmost speed. See him lean over
his chariot-rim, the reins loose as flying ribbons. Look then at
the Jew. "
The first one looked.
" «By Hercules! ” he replied, his countenance falling. «The
dog throws all his weight on the bits. I see, I see! If the gods
help not our friend, he will be run away with by the Israelite.
No, not yet. Look! Jove with us, Jove with us! ”
The cry, swelled by every Latin tongue, shook the velaria
over the consul's head.
If it were true that Messala had attained his utmost speed,
the effort was with effect: slowly but certainly he was beginning
to forge ahead. His horses were running with their heads low
down; from the balcony their bodies appeared actually to skim
the earth; their nostrils showed blood-red in expansion; their
eyes seemed straining in their sockets. Certainly the good steeds
were doing their best! How long could they keep the pace? It
was but the commencement of the sixth round. On they dashed.
As they neared the second goal, Ben-Hur turned in behind the
Roman's car.
The joy of the Messala faction reached its bound: they
screamed and howled, and tossed their colors; and Sanballat
filled his tablets with wagers of their tendering.
Malluch, in the lower galley over the Gate of Triumph, found
it hard to keep his cheer. He had cherished the vague hint
dropped to him by Ben-Hur of something to happen in the turn-
ing of the western pillars. It was the fifth round, yet the some-
thing had not come: and he had said to himself, the sixth will
## p. 15551 (#505) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15551
bring it; but, lo! Ben-Hur was hardly holding a place at the tail
of his enemy's car.
Over in the east end, Simonides's party held their peace. The
merchant's head was bent low. Ilderim tugged at his beard,
and dropped his brows till there was nothing of his eyes but an
occasional sparkle of light. Esther scarcely breathed. Iras alone
appeared glad.
Along the home-stretch — sixth round — Messala leading, next
him Ben-Hur, and so close it was the old story:-
“First few Eumelus on Pheretian steeds;
With those of Tros bold Diomed succeeds:
Close on Eumelus's back they puff the wind,
And seem just mounting on his car behind;
Full on his neck he feels the sultry breeze,
And hovering o'er, their stretching shadow sees. ”
Thus to the first goal, and round it. Messala, fearful of losing
his place, hugged the stony wall with perilous clasp; a foot to
the left, and he had been dashed to pieces: yet when the turn
was finished, no man, looking at the wheel-tracks of the two cars,
could have said, Here went Messala, there the Jew. They left
but one trace behind them.
As they whirled by, Esther saw Ben-Hur's face again, and it
was whiter than before.
Simonides, shrewder than Esther, said to Ilderim the moment
the rivals turned into the course, “I am no judge, good sheik,
if Ben-Hur be not about to execute some design. His face hath
that look. ”
To which Ilderim answered, “Saw you how clean they were,
and fresh ? By the splendor of God, friend, they have not been
running! But now watch! »
- One ball and one dolphin remained on the entablatures; and
all the people drew a long breath, for the beginning of the end
was at hand.
First the Sidonian gave the scourge to his four; and smarting
with fear and pain, they dashed desperately forward, promising
for a brief time to go to the front.
The effort ended in prom-
ise. Next, the Byzantine and Corinthian each made the trial
with like result, after which they were practically out of the race.
Thereupon, with a readiness perfectly explicable, all the factions
## p. 15552 (#506) ##########################################
15552
LEWIS WALLACE
(
except the Romans joined hope in Ben-Hur, and openly indulged
their feeling
“Ben-Hur! Ben-Hur! ” they shouted, and the blent voices of
the many rolled overwhelmingly against the consular stand.
From the benches above him as he passed, the favor de-
scended in fierce injunctions.
"Speed thee, Jew! ”
« Take the wall now ! »
« On! loose the Arabs! Give them rein and scourge! »
“Let him not have the turn on thee again. Now or never! »
Over the balustrade they stooped low, stretching their hands
imploringly to him.
Either he did not hear, or could not do better, for half-way
round the course and he was still following; at the second goal
even, still no change!
And now, to make the turn, Messala began to draw in his
left-hand steeds,- an act which necessarily slackened their speed.
His spirit was high; more than one altar was richer of his vows;
the Roman genius was still president. On the three pillars only
six hundred feet away were fame, increase of fortune, promotions,
and a triumph ineffably sweetened by hate, all in store for him!
That moment Malluch, in the gallery, saw Ben-Hur lean forward
over his Arabs, and give them the reins.
Out flew the many-
folded lash in his hand: over the backs of the startled steeds it
writhed and hissed, and hissed and writhed again and again; and
though it fell not, there were both sting and menace in its quick
report: and as the man passed thus from quiet to resistless action,
his face suffused, his eyes gleaming, along the reins he seemed
to flash his will; and instantly not one, but the four as one,
answered with a leap that landed them alongside the Roman's
Messala, on the perilous edge of the goal, heard, but dared
not look to see what the awakening portended. From the people
he received no sign. Above the noises of the race there was but
one voice, and that was Ben-Hur's. In the old Aramaic, as the
sheik himself, he called to the Arabs:
« « On, Atair! On, Rigel! What, Antares! dost thou linger
now?
Good horse - oho, Aldebaran !
?
I hear them singing in
the tents. I hear the children singing, and the women - singing
of the stars, of Atair, Antares, Rigel, Aldebaran, victory! - and
the song will never end. Well done! Home to-morrow, under
car.
## p. 15553 (#507) ##########################################
LEWIS WALLACE
15553
the black tent - home! On, Antares! The tribe is waiting for
us, and the master is waiting! 'Tis done! 'tis done! Ha, ha!
We have overthrown the proud. The hand that smote us is
in the dust. Ours the glory! Ha, ha! — steady! The work is
done — soho! Rest! »
There had never been anything of the kind more simple; sel-
dom anything so instantaneous.
At the moment chosen for the dash, Messala was moving in
a circle round the goal. To pass him, Ben-Hur had to cross the
track, and good strategy required the movement to be in a for-
ward direction,- that is, on a like circle limited to the least pos-
sible increase. The thousands on the benches understood it all:
they saw the signal given — the magnificent response; the four
close outside Messala's outer wheel, Ben-Hur's inner wheel behind
the other's car — all this they saw. Then they heard a crash
loud enough to send a thrill through the Circus, and quicker than
thought, out over the course a spray of shining white and yellow
flinders flew. Down on its right side toppled the bed of the
Roman's chariot. There was a rebound as of the axle hitting the
hard earth; another and another; then the car went to pieces,
and Messala, entangled in the reins, pitched forward headlong.
To increase the horror of the sight by making death certain,
the Sidonian, who had the wall next behind, could not stop or
turn out. Into the wreck full speed he drove; then over the
Roman, and into the latter's four, all mad with fear. Presently,
out of the turmoil, the fighting of horses, the resound of blows,
the murky cloud of dust and sand, he crawled, in time to see the
Corinthian and Byzantine go on down the course after Ben-Hur,
who had not been an instant delayed.
The people arose and leaped upon the benches, and shouted
and screamed. Those who looked that way caught glimpses of
Messala, now under the trampling of the fours, now under the
abandoned cars. He was still; they thought him dead: but far
the greater number followed Ben-Hur in his career.
They had
not seen the cunning touch of the reins by which, turning a little
to the left, he caught Messala's wheel with the iron-shod point of
his axle, and crushed it; but they had seen the transformation of
the man, and themselves felt the heat and glow of his spirit, the
heroic resolution, the maddening energy of action with which, by
look, word, and gesture, he so suddenly inspired his Arabs. And
XXVI–973
## p. 15554 (#508) ##########################################
15554
LEWIS WALLACE
such running! It was rather the long leaping of lions in harness;
but for the lumbering chariot, it seemed the four were flying.
When the Byzantine and Corinthian were half-way down the
course, Ben-Hur turned the first goal.
And the race was won!
The consul arose; the people shouted themselves hoarse; the
editor came down from his seat, and crowned the victors.
The fortunate man among the boxers was a low-browed,
yellow-haired Saxon, of such brutalized face as to attract a sec-
ond look from Ben-Hur, who recognized a teacher with whom he
himself had been a favorite at Rome. . From him the young Jew
looked up and beheld Simonides and his party on the balcony.
They waved their hands to him. Esther kept her seat; but
Iras arose and gave him a smile and a wave of her fan,- favors
not the less intoxicating to him because we know, O reader, they
would have fallen to Messala had he been the victor.
The procession was then formed, and midst the shouting of
the multitude which had had its will, passed out of the Gate of
Triumph
And the day was over.
## p. 15555 (#509) ##########################################
15555
EDMUND WALLER
(1605-1687)
died away
he life of Edmund Waller extended over a period of important
change in English literature. When he began to write, in
the early part of the seventeenth century, the great liter-
ature of the Elizabethan era had been written, the surge of inspira-
tion and impassioned poetry of which Shakespeare was the heart had
The brilliant formalism which was to attain its apothe-
osis in Pope was already discernible. Edmund Waller made use in
his verse of the classic iambic and distich. He first appears among
the court poets of Charles I. In some re-
spects most commonplace, he yet presents
a singular figure among his associates, -
Cowley, Crashaw, Lovelace, and Suckling.
His poetry, like that of the other Cavalier
poets, was more of gallantry than of love;
he wrote with no great range of subjects,
nor depth of feeling. But the form of his
verse bears a closer resemblance to that of
Dryden and Pope, and indeed to the poetry
of to-day, than it does to the writing of
Crashaw and Cowley. Later in his life Wal-
ler invariably confined the sense within the
limits of the distich; making his verse some-
EDMUND WALLER
what monotonous,, but giving to it a finish
quite unusual in his time. The polish of his verse may have been
due to French influence, exerted during his nine years' exile in that
country; but Dr. Johnson declares that Waller wrote as smoothly at
eighteen as at eighty,— «smoothness being the particular quality
ascribed to him.
The poet's life was more varied than his poetry, furnishing him
an abundance of subjects to overlay with his light play of fancy. He
was born in Hertfordshire, March 3d, 1605. His family were wealthy
land-owners, and his mother, although related to Cromwell, was an
ardent royalist. He followed whichever side was victorious. At six-
teen he was in Parliament, but kept becomingly silent, merely using
the advantages of his position to marry a young heiress; and with her
fortune joined to his, he retired to the country to give himself up to
(
>
## p. 15556 (#510) ##########################################
15556
EDMUND WALLER
literary pursuits. Just when he began to write is not known. The
date of the subject of his first poem, "His Majesty's Escape, is 1623.
Some of his best poetry was written in an effort to win Lady Doro-
thea Sidney, his Saccharissa, between the death of his wife in 1634
and the marriage of Lady Dorothea in 1639. Meeting him years after,
the lady asked him when he would again write such verses to her.
« When you are as young, madam, and as handsome, as you were
then,” replied the poet. This remark furnishes a key to his char-
acter. He was facile and witty, but cold, shallow, and selfish.
In 1643, when the struggle between the King and Parliament grew
hotter, Waller was implicated in what was known as Waller's plot.
He was discovered, and behaved with the most abject meanness;
immediately turning informer, and saving himself by giving up three
others to death. He was let off with a fine of £ 1000, and was ban-
ished to France. From France he directed the publication of his
first volume of poems.
Here he lived in high reputation as a wit
for nine years; when, at the intervention of anti-royalist friends, he
was allowed to return to England. He immediately wrote a Pan-
egyric to my Lord Protector,' which is one of his best poems. Crom-
well was friendly to him; and on the Protector's death, Waller wrote
another poem to him, which under the circumstances must appear
somewhat disinterested. However, when Charles II. came into his
kingdom, Waller was ready with a series of verses for him. Charles,
who admitted the poet to his intimacy, complained that this poem
was inferior to Cromwell's. “Sire,” responded the quick-witted Wal-
ler, "poets succeed better in fiction than in truth. ”
Waller was in Parliament up to the time of his death in 1687.
He was said to be the delight of the Commons for his wit. His
poems went through several editions, and he continued to write.
Long before his death he saw the end of the romantic and irregular
school, and the full establishment of the classic and regular. John
Dryden has been called the first of the moderns. But «Edmund
Waller,” said Dryden, “first showed us to conclude the sense most
commonly in distichs; which, in the verse of those before him, runs
on for so many lines together that the reader is out of breath to
overtake it. ” Thus Waller becomes the founder of a school, the
influence of which extended over a hundred and fifty years; though
as a poet he sinks into insignificance beside Dryden and Pope, who
gave the school its character when they stamped it with their genius.
Fenton calls Waller (maker and model of melodious verse. ) In
the sense that he revived the form of a past age, and gave to it a
greater precision than it had ever possessed, he is a maker of verse.
Moreover, in 'Go, Lovely Rose,' he wrote one of the most perfect lyr-
ics in the tongue; and one such poem will embalm its writer. But
(
## p. 15557 (#511) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15557
Waller's art was limited; the form was not new: and the popularity
of the poet exists chiefly through the praises of greater men, who
having too much to say to take time for the invention of a method
of their own, used the form to which he had directed their attention.
FROM THE POEM
OF THE DANGER HIS MAJESTY (BEING PRINCE) ESCAPED IN
THE ROAD AT ST. ANDERO
W'"Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding
deep;
Which soon becomes the seat of sudden war
Between the wind and tide, that fiercely jar.
As when a sort of lusty shepherds try
Their force at football, care of victory
Makes them salute so rudely breast to breast,
That their encounter seems too rough for jest, –
They ply their feet, and still the restless ball,
Tost to and fro, is urgèd by them all, -
So fares the doubtful barge 'twixt tide and winds,
And like effect of their contention finds.
Yet the bold Britons still securely rowed:
Charles and his virtue was their sacred load;
Than which a greater pledge Heaven could not give,
That the good boat this tempest should outlive.
But storms increase! and now no hope of grace
Among them shines, save in the prince's face.
The pale Iberians had expired with fear,
But that their wonder did divert their care,
To see the prince with danger moved no more
Than with the pleasures of their court before:
Godlike his courage seemed, whom nor delight
Could soften, nor the face of Death affright;
Next to the power of making tempests cease,
Was in that storm to have so calm a peace.
## p. 15558 (#512) ##########################################
15558
EDMUND WALLER
THE COUNTESS OF CARLISLE
OF HER CHAMBER
T"
HEY taste of death, that do at heaven arrive;
But we this paradise approach alive.
Instead of Death, the dart of Love does strike:
And renders all within these walls alike;
The high in titles, and the shepherd here
Forgets his greatness, and forgets his fear.
All stand amazed, and gazing on the fair
Lose thought of what themselves or others are;
Ambition lose: and have no other scope,
Save Carlisle's favor, to employ their hope.
The Thracian could (though all those tales were true
The bold Greeks tell) no greater wonders do:
Before his feet so sheep and lions lay,
Fearless and wrathless while they heard him play.
The gay, the wise, the gallant, and the grave,
Subdued alike, all but one passion have;
No worthy mind but finds in hers there is
Something proportioned to the rule of his;
While she, with cheerful but impartial grace,
(Born for no one, but to delight the race
Of men,) like Phoebus, so divides her light,
And warms us, that she stoops not from her height.
ON A GIRDLE
HAT which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind :
No monarch but would give his crown,
His arms might do what this hath done.
T"
It was my heaven's extremest sphere,
The pale which held that lovely deer;
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love,
Did all within this circle move!
A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that's good and all that's fair:
Give me but what this ribbon bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round.
## p. 15559 (#513) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15559
GO, LOVELY ROSE
Gº
O, LOVELY rose !
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.
Then die! that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee! -
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
FROM CA PANEGYRIC TO MY LORD PROTECTOR)
HILE with a strong and yet a gentle hand,
You bridle faction, and our hearts command,
Protect us from ourselves, and from the foe;
Make us unite, and make us conquer too.
W*
Let partial spirits still aloud complain,
Think themselves injured that they cannot reign,
And own no liberty, but where they may
Without control upon their fellows prey.
Above the waves, as Neptune showed his face,
To chide the winds and save the Trojan race,
So has your Highness, raised above the rest,
Storms of ambition tossing us repressed.
Your drooping country, torn with civil hate,
Restored by you, is made a glorious State;
## p. 15560 (#514) ##########################################
15560
EDMUND WALLER
The seat of empire, where the Irish come,
And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom.
The sea's our own: and now all nations greet,
With bending sails, each vessel of our fleet;
Your power extends so far as winds can blow,
Or swelling sails upon the globe may go.
Heaven, that hath placed this island to give law,
To balance Europe, and its States to awe,
In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,
The greatest leader and the greatest isle!
Whether this portion of the world were rent
By the rude ocean from the continent,
Or thus created, it was sure designed
To be the sacred refuge of mankind.
Hither the oppressèd shall henceforth resort,
Justice to crave, and succor at your court;
And then your Highness, not for ours alone,
But for the world's Protector, shall be known.
Still as you rise, the State exalted too,
Finds no distemper while 'tis changed by you;
Changed like the world's great scene! when, without
noise,
The rising sun night's vulgar lights destroys.
Had you, some ages past, this race of glory
Run, with amazement we should read your story;
But living virtue, all achievements past,
Meets envy still to grapple with at last.
This Cæsar found; and that ungrateful age,
With losing him, went back to blood and rage;
Mistaken Brutus thought to break their yoke,
But cut the bond of union with that stroke.
That sun once set, a thousand meaner stars
Gave a dim light to violence and wars,
To such a tempest as now threatens all,
Did not your mighty arm prevent the fall.
If Rome's great Senate could not wield that sword
Which of the conquered world had made them lord,
## p. 15561 (#515) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15561
What hope had ours, while yet their power was new,
To rule victorious armies, but by you?
You, that had taught them to subdue their foes,
Could order teach, and their high sp'rits compose;
To every duty could their minds engage,
Provoke their courage, and command their rage.
So when a lion shakes his dreadful mane,
And angry grows, if he that first took pain
To tame his youth approach the haughty beast,
He bends to him, but frights away the rest.
As the vexed world, to find repose, at last
Itself into Augustus's arms did cast,
So England now does, with like toil opprest,
Her weary head upon your bosom rest.
Then let the Muses, with such notes as these,
Instruct us what belongs unto our peace.
Your battles they hereafter shall indite,
And draw the image of our Mars in fight:
Tell of towns stormed, and armies overrun,
And mighty kingdoms by your conduct won;
How, while you thundered, clouds of dust did choke
Contending troops, and seas lay hid in smoke.
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse,
And every conqueror creates a Muse!
Here, in low strains, your milder deeds we sing,
But there, my lord, we'll bays and olives bring
To crown your head: while you in triumph ride
O'er conquered nations, and the sea beside;
While all your neighbor princes unto you,
Like Joseph's sheaves, pay reverence and due.
## p. 15562 (#516) ##########################################
15562
EDMUND WALLER
ON LOVE
A
NGER, in hasty words or blows,
Itself discharges on our foes;
And sorrow, too, finds some relief
In tears which wait upon our grief:
So every passion but fond love
Unto its own redress does move;
But that alone the wretch inclines
To what prevents his own designis :
Makes him lament, and sigh, and weep,
Disordered, tremble, fawn, and creep;
Postures which render him despised,
Where he endeavors to be prized.
For women — born to be controlled —
Stoop to the forward and the bold;
Affect the haughty and the proud,
The gay, the frolic, and the loud.
Who first the generous steed oppressed,
Not kneeling did salute the beast;
But with high courage, life, and force,
Approaching, tamed th' unruly horse.
Unwisely we the wiser East
Pity, supposing them oppressed
With tyrants' force, whose law is will,
By which they govern, spoil, and kill:
Each nymph, but moderately fair,
Commands with no less rigor here.
Should some brave Turk, that walks among
His twenty lasses, bright and young,
Behold as many gallants here,
With modest guise and silent fear,
All to one female idol bend,
While her pride does scarce descend
To mark their follies, he would swear
That these her guard of eunuchs were,
And that a more majestic queen,
Or humbler slaves, he had not seen.
All this with indignation spoke,
In vain I struggled with the yoke
Of mighty Love; that conquering look,
When next beheld, like lightning strook
## p. 15563 (#517) ##########################################
EDMUND WALLER
15563
My blasted soul, and made me bow
Lower than those I pitied now.
So the tall stag, upon the brink
Of soine smooth stream about to drink,
Surveying there his armèd head,
With shame remembers that he filed
The scornèd dogs, resolves to try
The combat next: but if their cry
Invades again his trembling ear,
He straight resumes his wonted care;
Leaves the untasted spring behind,
And winged with fear, outfies the wind.
AT PENSHURST
W"
Thile in this park I sing, the listening deer
Attend my passion, and forget to fear;
When to the beeches I report my flame,
They bow their heads as if they felt the same.
To gods appealing, when I reach their bowers
With loud complaints, they answer me in showers.
To thee a wild and cruel soul is given,
More deaf than trees, and prouder than the heaven!
Love's foe professed! why dost thou falsely feign
Thyself a Sidney? from which noble strain
He sprung, that could so far exalt the name
Of Love, and warm our nation with his flame,
That all we can of love or high desire,
Seems but the smoke of amorous Sidney's fire.
Nor call her mother who so well does prove
One breast may hold both chastity and love.
Never can she, that so exceeds the spring
In joy and bounty, be supposed to bring
One so destructive. To no human stock
We owe this fierce unkindness, but the rock —
That cloven rock produced thee, by whose side
Nature, to recompense the fatal pride
Of such stern beauty, placed those healing springs
Which not more help than that destruction brings.
Thy heart no ruder than the rugged stone,
I might, like Orpheus, with my numerous moan
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15564
EDMUND WALLER
Melt to compassion; now my traitorous song
With thee conspires to do the singer wrong:
While thus I suffer not myself to lose
The memory of what augments my woes;
But with my own breath still foment the fire,
Which flames as high as fancy can aspire!
This last complaint the indulgent ears did pierce
Of just Apollo, president of verse;
Highly concerned that the Muse should bring
Damage to one whom he had taught to sing,
Thus he advised me:-“On yon aged tree
Hang up thy lute, and hie thee to the sea,
That there with wonders thy diverted mind
Some truce, at least, may with this passion find. ”
Ah, cruel nymph! from whom her humble swain
Flies for relief unto the raging main,
And from the winds and tempests does expect
A milder fate than from her cold neglect!
Yet there he'll pray that the unkind may prove
Blest in her choice; and vows this endless love
Springs from no hope of what she can confer,
But from those gifts which Heaven has heaped on her.
## p. 15565 (#519) ##########################################
15565
HORACE WALPOLE
(1717-1797)
RO ORACE WALPOLE might be called the Beau Brummel of Eng-
lish men of letters; yet the criticism which takes account
chiefly of his elegances is in danger of overlooking his
substantial literary merits. These are well established, and singu-
lar in their class and degree: their limitations perhaps add to their
worth rather than detract from it. Walpole's writings have the dis-
tinctive little beauties of a Watteau landscape, whose artificiality is
part of its charm. They bear about them, moreover, an attractive
atmosphere of irresponsibility, as emanating
from one who disavowed the serious claims
of authorship, making of literature always
a gentlemanly diversion,- over which it
was permissible to wax serious, however, as
over the laying out of a garden maze, or
the construction of a lath-and-plaster Gothic
tower.
The life of Horace Walpole stretches
over the greater part of the eighteenth
century, of which century he was an
ganic part; reflecting its admirable good
sense, its complete materialism, its clever-
ness, and its wit. Born in 1717, the son of HORACE WALPOLE
the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, the
fashionable world of the day was his by inheritance. Between the
beef-eating, coarse-living statesman, and his elegant little son, there
could not have been much sympathy; but the child accepted readily
enough the advantages which his father's position brought to him.
The fascination which royalty always exercised over him was early
shown by his insisting, at the age of ten years, upon a presenta-
tion to George I. He was sent in the same year to Eton, a place
forever memorable to him by reason of the lifelong friendships
which he formed there,— with his cousins Henry Conway and Lord
Hertford, with George Selwyn, with George and Charles Montagu, with
Thomas Gray the poet, with Richard West and Thomas Ashton. In
1734 he left Eton, without having specially distinguished himself. In
1735 he entered King's College, Cambridge, although his mathematical
or-
-
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15566
HORACE WALPOLE
attainments were summed up in an insecure knowledge of the multi-
plication table; at Cambridge, however, he broadened his knowledge
of the modern tongues, thus preparing himself for a Continental resi-
dence. In 1739, in company with Gray, he left the University to
make the conventional grand tour. From the Continent he wrote
many of the letters for which he is famous. The two young men
arrived at length in Florence, where they took up their residence
with Sir Horace Mann, the British minister plenipotentiary to Tus-
cany, who afterwards became one of Walpole's chief correspondents.
At Florence, Walpole was drawn more and more into fashionable
society; Gray more and more into the scholar's life, under the stimu-
lus of Italy's antiquities. The separation between the two friends,
inevitable under the circumstances, soon came. In after years Wal-
pole assumed all the blame of the quarrel which was the apparent
cause of their parting.
In September 1741 he himself returned to England, where the
ministry of Sir Robert was tottering to its fall. He took his seat
in the House as representative from the borough of Callington, mak-
ing at this time strong speeches in defense of his father. Sir Robert,
however, resigned in 1742, was created Earl of Orford, and immedi-
ately retired to Houghton, the seat of the family. His son joined
him there; but this residence in Norfolk, among the hunting gentry
of the county, was a weary exile to Horace. “Only imagine,” he
writes, that I here every day see men who are mountains of roast
beef, and only seem just roughly hewn out into outlines of human
form, like the giant rock of Pratolino. I shudder when I see them
brandish their knives in act to carve, and look on them as savages
that devour one another. ”
In 1745 Sir Robert Walpole died. Two years after his death his
son purchased the villa at Twickenham, which was to become one of
the famous houses of Europe under the name of Strawberry Hill.
The original villa was the nucleus of a fantastic Gothic structure,
which grew year after year, until it became not unlike a miniature
castle. Walpole, through his father's influence, had come into the
possession of several lucrative sinecures, and had also wealth by
inheritance. He could gratify his tastes to the utmost; it was at
Strawberry Hill that his life as an English man of letters, and as a
dilettante, really commences. His house became, more than the
houses of the majority of men, the expression of his mind. Its an-
cient stained glass, its armor, its rare china, its rare prints, its old
masters, its curious relics of departed greatness, its strange archi-
tecture following no known rules, seemed the outward symbols of
certain qualities of Walpole's mind, - his love of the choicest gossip,
his self-conscious aristocracy, his ingenuity, his frank insincerity. At
## p. 15567 (#521) ##########################################
HORACE WALPOLE
15567
-
Strawberry Hill he set up a printing-press, – as necessary a part of
a cultured gentleman's establishment as his library or his art gallery.
His old friendship with Gray having been resumed, he edited and
printed the works of the poet, with illustrations by Bentley.
