Attacked
by an insidious disease, the nature of
## p.
## p.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v25 - Tas to Tur
Father John-
-
Dost thou ask? I say,
As thou wouldst make his danger less or more,
Depart or stay. The universal camp,
Nay more, the towns of Flanders, are agape
With tales of sorceries, witcheries, and spells,
That blind their chief and yield him up a prey
To treasons foul. How much is true or false
--
I know not and I say not; but this truth
I sorrowfully declare,- that ill repute
And sin and shame grow up with every hour
That sees you linked together in these bonds
Of spurious love.
## p. 14550 (#112) ##########################################
14550
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
Elena
Artevelde
Father, enough is said.
Clerk's eyes nor soldier's will I more molest
By tarrying here. Seek other food to feed
Your pious scorn and pertinent suspicions.
Alien from grace and sinful though I be,
Yet is there room to wrong me.
I will go,
Lest this injustice done to me work harm
Unto my lord the Regent.
Hold, I say;
Give me a voice in this. You, Father John,
I blame not, nor myself will justify;
But call my weakness what you will, the time
Is past for reparation. Now to cast off
The partner of my sin were further sin;
'Twere with her first to sin, and next against her.
And for the army, if their trust in me
Be sliding, let it go: I know my course;
And be it armies, cities, people, priests,
That quarrel with my love, wise men or fools,
Friends, foes, or factions, they may swear their oaths,
And make their murmur,- rave, and fret, and fear,
Suspect, admonish,- they but waste their rage,
Their wits, their words, their counsel: here I stand
Upon the deep foundations of my faith
To this fair outcast plighted; and the storm
That princes from their palaces shakes out,
Though it should turn and head me, should not strain
The seeming silken texture of this tie. —
To business next: Nay, leave us not, beloved,-
I will not have thee go as one suspect;
Stay and hear all. Father, forgive my heat,
And do not deem me stubborn. Now at once
The English news?
Father John-
Your deeds upon your head!
Be silent my surprise-be told my tale.
-
## p. 14551 (#113) ##########################################
14551
JEREMY TAYLOR
(1613-1667)
BY T. W. HIGGINSON
AWTHORNE once pointed out the intrinsic perishableness of
all volumes of sermons; and the fact that goes farthest to
refute this theory is the permanent readableness of Jeremy
Taylor. Not always profound as a thinker, and not consistent in that
large theory of religious liberty in which he surpassed his times, he
holds his own by pure beauty of rhetoric, wealth of imagination, and
abundant ardor of mind. Coleridge calls
him "most eloquent of divines;" adding
further, "had I said 'of men,' Cicero would
forgive me, and Demosthenes add assent. "
So beautiful is Taylor's imagery, so free
the motion of his wings in upper air, that
when he once appeals to the reader with a
sentence beginning "So have I seen," it
is impossible to withdraw attention until
the whole series of prolonged and balanced
clauses comes to an end. Like other fine
rhetoricians, he has also a keen ear for
rhetoric in others; and his ample notes pre-
serve for us many fine and pithy Greek or
Latin or Italian sentences, which otherwise
might have faded even from human memory.
carefully prepared works, Holy Living' and 'Holy Dying,' need to
be read twice with different ends in view: once for the text, and once
for the accompanying quotations.
JEREMY TAYLOR
Indeed, his two most
Jeremy Taylor, the son of a Cambridge barber, was born on August
15th, 1613, took his degrees at the University (Caius College), where
he was also a fellow; and afterwards obtained through Archbishop
Laud a fellowship at Oxford (All Souls). He later became rector at
Uppingham, and was twice married; his second wife, Joanna Bridges,
being, in the opinion of Bishop Heber, an illegitimate daughter of
Charles I. when Prince of Wales. His first work, published in 1642,
bore the curious name of 'Episcopacy Asserted against the Aceph-
ali and Aërians New and Old,' and hardly gave a hint of his future
## p. 14552 (#114) ##########################################
14552
JEREMY TAYLOR
reputation. He is thought to have served as chaplain during the
civil war, and was impoverished by that great convulsion, as were so
many others; becoming later a schoolmaster in Wales. Here he was
befriended by Richard Vaughan, Earl of Carbery, whose residence
"Golden Grove" affords a title to Taylor's manual of devotion, pub-
lished in 1655. This, with the other works by which the author is
now best known, was prepared during his retirement from the world,
between 1647 and 1660. The Liberty of Prophesying' (1655) was far
above the prevalent opinions of the time, or indeed of any time. In
this he sets aside all grounds of authority except the words of Scrip-
ture, placing reason above even those; and denies the right of civil
government to exercise discipline over opinions. The fact that he was
three times in his life imprisoned for his own utterances may well
have strengthened this liberality; but unfortunately it did not pre-
vent him, when after the Restoration he became Bishop of Down and
Connor, from ejecting thirty-six ministers from their pulpits for doc-
trines too strongly Presbyterian. He was capable even of very ques-
tionable casuistry; justified the Israelites for spoiling the Egyptians,
maintained that private evil might be employed for the public good,
and that we may rightfully employ reasonings which we know to be
unfounded. This was in a book expressly designed as a guide to
learners, the Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience in all
her General Measures' (1660).
Taylor's whole theory of religious liberty may be found summed
up in one passage, which heads the series of selections that follow
in this volume; and which may be thus condensed still further: No
man, he thinks, can be trusted to judge for others unless he be infal-
lible, which no man is. It is, however, perfectly legitimate for men
to choose guides who shall judge for them; only it is to be remem-
bered that those thus choosing have not got rid of the responsibility of
selection, since they select the guides. The best course for a man,
Taylor also points out, is to follow his guide while his own reason is
satisfied, and no farther; since no man can escape this responsibility
without doing willful violence to his own nature. Reason is thus
necessarily the final arbiter; and all things else - Scriptures, tradi-
tions, councils, and fathers- afford merely the evidences in the ques-
tion, while reason remains and must remain the judge. It is needless
to say that in this statement every vestige of infallible authority is
swept away.
-
In handling practical questions, Jeremy Taylor displays an equal
freedom from traditional bondage. In dealing with the difficult sub-
ject of marriage, for instance, it is to be noticed that he places the
two parties, ordinarily, on more equal terms than English usage, or
even the accustomed discipline of the English Church, has recognized;
## p. 14553 (#115) ##########################################
JEREMY TAYLOR
14553
and that his exhortations are usually addressed to both parties as if
they stood on equal terms. "Let them be sure to abstain from all
those things which by experience and observation they find to be
contrary to each other. " Again he says, "Man and wife are equally
concerned to avoid all offenses of each other in the beginning of their
conversation;" and all his suggestions of caution and self-restraint
apply alike to both parties. The same justness and humane sympathy
extend to his remarks on children: who, as he observes, have tenderer
feeling and greater suffering in respect to their senses; and are not
fortified by the results of long experience, as grown persons are, nor
have they heard the instructive words of philosophers, or acquired the
habit of setting their blessings against their sorrows: and yet they
"wade through the storm and murmur not," and give an example
to their elders.
His supreme wisdom is shown, however, in all his discussion of
the trials and cares of life, and of the means of defying them. No
one has painted quite so vividly the difference between the cares
that come with increased wealth or office, and the peace that dwells
in humble stations. "They that admire the happiness of a prosper-
ous prevailing tyrant, know not the felicities that dwell in innocent
hearts, and poor cottagers, and small fortunes. " He thinks that man
miserable who has no adversity; and virtues, he says, are but in
the seed at first, and need heat and cold, showers as well as sunshine,
before they can be of any value. God himself, he boldly says, "loves
to see us struggling with a disease, and resisting the Devil, and con-
testing against the weaknesses of nature. " The gladiators of old did
not cry or complain; the soldier stands at his post through everything.
It is to Taylor that we chiefly owe the attention latterly attracted to
the oft-quoted saying of Xenophon, that the same labors are easier to
the general officer than to the common soldier, because the former is
"supported by the huge appetites of honor. " Again, reasoning more
minutely, he points out that in most forms of grief or pain, we deal
with it only, as it were, from moment to moment, and can therefore
meet it with strength supplied at the same short intervals. There is
rarely a cumulative or composite pain; but it flows "like the drops
of a river or the little shreds of time. " Each duty can thus be mas-
tered, if we will but make sure of the present moment.
All these things show that Jeremy Taylor had not lived for noth-
ing through the ordeal of a civil war; that he was not merely a
gentle and placid dweller amid the calms of life, but had encoun-
tered its storms with an equal mind. They still show you, at Chep-
stow Castle, the room where he was imprisoned; and his kindred in
the little city still boast of the period as an honor. That he was
patient in adversity cannot be denied; although it may be that when
## p. 14554 (#116) ##########################################
14554
JEREMY TAYLOR
his turn of prosperity and power came, he was not always mindful of
his own broad theories. Nevertheless, a halo of purity and elevation
will always hallow his name. A portrait of him hangs in All Souls.
College at Oxford; and this, like all the pictures of him, justifies the
tradition of personal beauty so long attributed to Taylor. The legend.
seems appropriate to the charm of his style; and recalls the opinion
expressed by Dr. Parr,-that Hooker may be the object of our rev-
erence, and Barrow of our admiration, but that Jeremy Taylor will
always be the object of our love.
T. W Higginson
відоми
OF THE AUTHORITY OF REASON
From the Liberty of Prophesying'
ERE then I consider, that although no man may be trusted to
H judge for all others, unless this person were infallible and
―――
----
authorized so to do,- which no man nor no company of
men is, yet every man may be trusted to judge for himself;-
I say, every man that can judge at all: as for others, they are
to be saved as it pleaseth God;-but those that can judge at
all must either choose their guides who shall judge for them,—
and then they oftentimes do the wisest, and always save them-
selves a labor, but then they choose too: or if they be persons of
great understanding, then they are to choose for themselves in
particular what the others do in general, and by choosing their
guide. And for this, any man may be better trusted for him-
self than any man can be for another: for in this case his own
interest is most concerned; and ability is not so necessary as
honesty, which certainly every man will best preserve in his own
case, and to himself,- and if he does not, it is he that must
smart for 't: and it is not required of us not to be in error, but
that we endeavor to avoid it.
He that follows his guide so far as his reason goes along with
him, or which is all one-he that follows his own reason (not
guided only by natural arguments, but by divine revelation and
all other good means), hath great advantages over him that gives
himself wholly to follow any human guide whatsoever; because
he follows all their reasons, and his own too: he follows them till
reason leaves them, or till it seems so to him,-which is all one
## p. 14555 (#117) ##########################################
JEREMY TAYLOR
14555
to his particular; for by the confession of all sides, an erroneous
conscience binds him when a right guide does not bind him.
But he that gives himself up wholly to a guide is oftentimes
(I mean if he be a discerning person) forced to do violence to his
own understanding, and to lose all the benefit of his own dis-
cretion, that he may reconcile his reason to his guide.
So that Scripture, traditions, councils, and fathers are the evi-
dence in a question, but reason is the judge: that is, we being
the persons that are to be persuaded, we must see that we be
persuaded reasonably; and it is unreasonable to assent to a lesser
evidence when a greater and clearer is propounded.
THE TRUE PROSPERITY
From Sermon: Faith and Patience of the Saints'
:
Is
S THAT man prosperous who hath stolen a rich robe, and is
in fear to have his throat cut for it, and is fain to defend
it with greatest difficulty and the greatest danger? Does not
he drink more sweetly that takes his beverage in an earthen
vessel, than he that looks and searches into his golden chal-
ices for fear of poison, and looks pale at every sudden noise,
and sleeps in armor, and trusts nobody, and does not trust God.
for his safety, but does greater wickedness only to escape awhile
unpunished for his former crimes? "Auro bibitur venenum. " No
man goes about to poison a poor man's pitcher, nor lays plots
to forage his little garden, made for the hospital of two beehives
and the feasting of a few Pythagorean herb-eaters. They that
admire the happiness of a prosperous, prevailing tyrant know not
the felicities that dwell in innocent hearts, and poor cottagers,
and small fortunes.
And so have I often seen young and unskillful persons sit-
ting in a little boat, when every little wave sporting about the
sides of the vessel, and every motion and dancing of the barge,
seemed a danger, and made them cling fast upon their fellows;
and yet all the while they were as safe as if they sat under a
tree, while a gentle wind shook the leaves into a refreshment
and a cooling shade. And the unskillful, inexperienced Christian
shrieks out whenever his vessel shakes, thinking it always a dan-
ger that the watery pavement is not stable and resident like a
## p. 14556 (#118) ##########################################
14556
JEREMY TAYLOR
rock and yet all his danger is in himself, none at all from with-
out; for he is indeed moving upon the waters, but fastened to a
rock: faith is his foundation, and hope is his anchor, and death
is his harbor, and Christ is his pilot, and heaven is his country.
And all the evils of poverty and affronts, of tribunals and evil
judges, of fears and sadder apprehensions, are but like the loud
wind blowing from the right point,-they make a noise, and
drive faster to the harbor; and if we do not leave the ship and
leap into the sea, quit the interests of religion and run to the
securities of the world, cut our cables and dissolve our hopes,
grow impatient and hug a wave, and die in its embraces,— we
are as safe at sea; safer in the storm which God sends us than in
a calm wind when we are befriended by the world.
THE MERITS OF ADVERSITY
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
N°
MAN is more miserable than he that hath no adversity,—
that man is not tried whether he be good or bad: and
God never crowns those virtues which are only faculties
and dispositions; but every act of virtue is an ingredient into
reward. And we see many children fairly planted, whose parts
of nature were never dressed by art, nor called from the fur-
rows of their first possibilities by discipline and institution, and
they dwell forever in ignorance, and converse with beasts; and
yet if they had been dressed and exercised, might have stood at
the chairs of princes, or spoken parables amongst the rulers of
cities. Our virtues are but in the seed when the grace of God
comes upon us first; but this grace must be thrown into broken
furrows, and must twice feel the cold and twice feel the heat, and
be softened with storms and showers, and then it will arise into
fruitfulness and harvests. And what is there in the world to
distinguish virtues from dishonors, or the valor of Cæsar from the
softness of the Egyptian eunuchs, or that can make anything
rewardable but the labor and the danger, the pain and the diffi-
culty? Virtue could not be anything but sensuality if it were
the entertainment of our senses and fond desires; and Apicius
had been the noblest of all the Romans, if feeding and great ap-
petite and despising the severities of temperance had been the
work and proper employment of a wise man. But otherwise do
## p. 14557 (#119) ##########################################
JEREMY TAYLOR
14557
fathers and otherwise do mothers handle their children. These
soften them with kisses and imperfect noises, with the pap and
breast-milk of soft endearments; they rescue them from tutors
and snatch them from discipline; they desire to keep them fat
and warm, and their feet dry, and their bellies full: and then
the children govern, and cry, and prove fools and troublesome,
so long as the feminine republic does endure. But fathers-
because they design to have their children wise and valiant, apt
for counsel or for arms-send them to severe governments,
and tie them to study, to hard labor, and afflictive contingencies.
They rejoice when the bold boy strikes a lion with his hunting-
spear, and shrinks not when the beast comes to affright his early
courage. Softness is for slaves and beasts, for minstrels and use-
less persons, for such who cannot ascend higher than the state of
a fair ox or a servant entertained for vainer offices; but the man
that designs his son for nobler employments,- to honors and to
triumphs, to consular dignities and presidencies of councils,—
loves to see him pale with study or panting with labor, hardened
with suffrance or eminent by dangers. And so God dresses us
for heaven: he loves to see us struggling with a disease, and re-
sisting the Devil, and contesting against the weaknesses of nature,
and against hope to believe in hope,-resigning ourselves to
God's will, praying him to choose for us, and dying in all things
but faith and its blessed consequents; ut ad officium cum periculo
sinus prompti-and the danger and the resistance shall endear
the office. For so have I known the boisterous north wind pass
through the yielding air, which opened its bosom, and appeased
its violence by entertaining it with easy compliance in all the
region of its reception; but when the same breath of heaven hath
been checked with the stiffness of a tower, or the united strength
of a wood, it grew mighty and dwelt there, and made the high-
est branches stoop and make a smooth path for it on the top of
all its glories.
THE POWER OF ENDURANCE
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
—
IⓇ
F WE consider how much men can suffer if they list, and how
much they do suffer for great and little causes, and that no
causes are greater than the proper causes of patience and
sickness,—that is, necessity and religion,— we cannot without
## p. 14558 (#120) ##########################################
14558
JEREMY TAYLOR
huge shame to our nature, to our persons, and to our manners,
complain of this tax and impost of nature. This experience
added something to the old philosophy. When the gladiators were
exposed naked to each other's short swords, and were to cut each
other's souls away in portions of flesh, as if their forms had been
as divisible as the life of worms, they did not sigh or groan: it
was a shame to decline the blow but according to the just meas-
ures of art. The women that saw the wound shriek out, and he
that receives it holds his peace. He did not only stand bravely,
but would also fall so; and when he was down, scorned to shrink
his head when the insolent conqueror came to lift it from his
shoulders: and yet this man in his first design only aimed at
liberty, and the reputation of a good fencer; and when he sunk
down, he saw he could only receive the honor of a bold man, the
noise of which he shall never hear when his ashes are crammed
in his narrow urn. And what can we complain of the weakness
of our strengths, or the pressures of diseases, when we see a
poor soldier stand in a breach almost starved with cold and hun-
ger, and his cold apt to be relieved only by the heats of anger, a
fever, or a fired musket, and his hunger slaked by a greater pain
and a huge fear? This man shall stand in his arms and wounds,
patiens luminis atque solis, pale and faint, weary and watchful;
and at night shall have a bullet pulled out of his flesh, and shiv-
ers from his bones, and endure his mouth to be sewed up from
a violent rent to its own dimensions: and all this for a man
whom he never saw, or if he did was not noted by him, but one
that shall condemn him to the gallows if he runs from all this
misery. It is seldom that God sends such calamities upon men
as men bring upon themselves, and suffer willingly. But that
which is most considerable is, that any passion and violence upon
the spirit of man makes him able to suffer huge calamities with
a certain constancy and an unwearied patience. Scipio Africanus
was wont to commend that saying in Xenophon, That the same
labors of warfare were easier far to a general than to a common
soldier; because he was supported by the huge appetites of honor,
which made his hard marches nothing but stepping forward and
reaching at a triumph.
## p. 14559 (#121) ##########################################
JEREMY TAYLOR
14559
ON HUSBAND AND WIFE
From Sermon: The Marriage Ring'
M
AN and wife are equally concerned to avoid all offenses of
each other in the beginning of their conversation,- every
little thing that can blast an infant blossom: and the
breath of the south can shake the little rings of the vine when
first they begin to curl like the locks of a new-weaned boy;
but when by age and consolidation they stiffen into the hardness.
of a stem, and have, by the warm embraces of the sun and the
kisses of heaven, brought forth their clusters, they can endure
the storms of the north, and the loud noises of a tempest, and
yet never be broken: so are the early unions of an unfixed mar-
riage,― watchful and observant, jealous and busy, unquisitive
and careful, and apt to take alarm at every unkind word. For
infirmities do not manifest themselves in the first scenes, but in
the succession of a long society; and it is not chance or weak-
ness when it appears at first, but it is a want of love or prudence,
or it will be so expounded; and that which appears ill at first,
usually affrights the inexperienced man or woman, who makes
unequal conjectures, and fancies mighty sorrows by the propor-
tions of the new and early unkindness.
Let man and wife be careful to stifle little things,-as fast
as they spring, they be cut down and trod upon; for if they be
suffered to grow by numbers, they make the spirit peevish, and
the society troublesome, and the affections loose and easy by an
habitual aversion. Some men are more vexed with a fly than
with a wound; and when the gnats disturb our sleep, and the
reason is disquieted but not perfectly awakened, it is often seen
that he is fuller of trouble than if, in the daylight of his reason,
he were to contest with a potent enemy. In the frequent little
accidents of a family, a man's reason cannot always be awake;
and when his discourses are imperfect, and a trifling trouble
makes him yet more restless, he is soon betrayed to the violence
of passion. It is certain that the man or woman are in a state
of weakness and folly then, when they can be troubled with a
trifling accident; and therefore it is not good to tempt their
affections, when they are in that state of danger. In this case
the caution is to subtract fuel from the sudden flame; for stub-
ble, though it be quickly kindled, yet it is as soon extinguished,
if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath or fed with new
## p. 14560 (#122) ##########################################
14560
JEREMY TAYLOR
materials. Add no new provocations to the accident, and do not
inflame this, and peace will soon return; and the discontent will
pass away soon, as the sparks from the collision of a flint: ever
remembering that discontent proceeding from little daily things
do breed a secret undiscernible disease, which is more dangerous
than a fever proceeding from a discerned notorious surfeit.
Let them be sure to abstain from all those things which by
experience and observation they find to be contrary to each other.
They that govern elephants never appear before them in white;
and the masters of bulls keep from them all garments of blood
and scarlet, as knowing that they will be impatient of civil
usages and discipline, when their natures are provoked by their
proper antipathies. The ancient in their marital hieroglyphics
used to depict Mercury standing by Venus, to signify that by
fair language and sweet entreaties the minds of each other should
be united; and hard by them
they would have all de-
liciousness of manners, compliance, and mutual observance to
abide.
THE VALUE OF AN HOUR
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
IN
N TAKING the accounts of your life, do not reckon by great dis-
tances, and by the periods of pleasure, or the satisfaction of
your hopes, or the sating your desires; but let every inter-
medial day and hour pass with observation. He that reckons
he hath lived but so many harvests, thinks they come not often
enough, and that they go away too soon. Some lose the day
with longing for the night, and the night in waiting for the day.
Hope and fantastic expectations spend much of our lives; and
while with passion we look for a coronation, or the death of an
enemy, or a day of joy, passing from fancy to possession with-
out any intermedial notices, we throw away a precious year, and
use it but as the burden of our time,-fit to be pared off and
thrown away, that we may come at those little pleasures which
first steal our hearts, and then steal our life.
12
## p. 14561 (#123) ##########################################
JEREMY TAYLOR
14561
LIFE AND DEATH
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
X
ERXES wept sadly when he saw his army of thirteen hundred
thousand men, because he considered that within a hun-
dred years all the youth of that army should be dust and
ashes: and yet, as Seneca well observes of him, he was the man
that should bring them to their graves; and he consumed all that
army in two years, for whom he feared and wept the death after
an hundred. Just so do we all.
THE ROSE
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
have I seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its
hood, and at first it was fair as the morning, and full with
the dew of heaven as a lamb's fleece: but when a ruder
breath had forced open its virgin modesty, and dismantled its too
youthful and unripe retirements, it began to put on darkness,
and to decline to softness and the symptoms of a sickly age: it
bowed the head, and broke its stalk, and at night having lost.
some of its leaves and all its beauty, it fell into the portion of
weeds and outworn faces. The same is the portion of every man
and every woman.
REMEDIES AGAINST IMPATIENCE
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
ERTAIN it is, reason was as well given us to harden our spir-
its, and stiffen them in passions and sad accidents, as to
make us bending and apt for action: and if in men God
hath heightened the faculties of apprehension, he hath increased
the auxiliaries of reasonable strengths, that God's rod and God's
staff might go together; and the beam of God's countenance may
as well refresh us with its light as scorch us with its heat. But
poor children that endure so much, have not inward supports
and refreshments to bear them through it: they never heard the
sayings of old men, nor have been taught the principles of
severe philosophy, nor are assisted with the results of a long
experience, nor know they how to turn a sickness into virtue.
XXV-911
## p. 14562 (#124) ##########################################
14562
JEREMY TAYLOR
and a fever into a reward; nor have they any sense of favors,
the remembrance of which may alleviate their burden: and yet
nature hath in them teeth and nails enough to scratch and fight
against their sickness; and by such aids as God is pleased to
give them, they wade through the storm, and murmur not. And
besides this, yet although infants have not such brisk perceptions
upon the stock of reason, they have a more tender feeling upon
the accounts of sense; and their flesh is as uneasy by their un-
natural softness and weak shoulders as ours by our too forward
apprehensions. Therefore bear up: either you or I, or some
an wiser, and many a woman weaker, than us both, or the very
children, have endured worse evil than this that is upon thee
now.
That sorrow is hugely tolerable which gives its smart but by
instants and smallest proportions of time. No man at once feels
the sickness of a week, or of a whole day, but the smart of an
instant; and still every portion of a minute feels but its proper
share, and the last groan ended all the sorrow of its peculiar
burden. And what minute can that be which can pretend to be
intolerable? and the next minute is but the same as the last,
and the pain flows like the drops of a river, or the little shreds
of time: and if we do but take care of the present minute, it
cannot seem a great charge or a great burden; but that care will
secure one duty, if we still but secure the present minute.
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## p. 14563 (#129) ##########################################
14563
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
(1782-1846)
BY WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE
N HIS interesting critical study of Tegnér, Dr. Brandes assigns
the poet his place in Swedish literature in the following
terms: "He is not the greatest poet of the Swedish tongue:
one great singer before him, and after him another, molded that
speech into forms that surpass his in perspicuity and actual life. But
it is with Bellman and Runeberg that he must be named and classed;
and while he is inferior to them as a poet, he outshines them both
intellectually. " Tegnér appeared in Swedish literature at the time of
sharpest conflict between the two poetical camps of the Phosphorists
and the Gothics, and the day was won definitely for the latter by his
activity. The Phosphorists, represented by such men as Atterbom,
Stagnelius, and Sjöberg (Vitalis), were the standard-bearers of a misty
romanticism inspired by the contemporary movement of thought in
Germany, and even improving upon its models in the direction of
the fantastic and the transcendental. The Gothic school, on the other
hand, chiefly represented by Geijer, Afzelius, and Ling,- pursued
a more local and national ideal, seeking in the life and legendary
history of the North the materials for a literature that should be
independent of foreign influences. The advent of Tegnér was decisive
for this conflict of ideals; for in him the national principle found as
valiant a representative as it had found in Denmark in the person of
Oehlenschläger, and in the presence of his work the controversy was
silenced.
Esaias Tegnér, born November 13th, 1782, was sprung from the
purest of peasant stock. His father, who was parish priest of Kyr-
kerud, died a few years later, leaving a widow and six children (of
whom Esaias was the fifth in age) without any means of support. A
neighboring official agreed to take charge of Esaias, and provided
the nine-year-old boy with a place in his home and his office, where
he was given some simple clerical work. His employer's business
took him upon many excursions through the Wermeland district; and
the boy, who usually went with him, received a deep impression
of the natural beauties of the country. At the same time he was
an eager reader of poetry, history, and saga-books; and we have
thus accounted for the two distinguishing traits of his writings, -a
## p. 14564 (#130) ##########################################
14564
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
passionate love of nature and a deep sense of the significance of the
legendary past. One evening, returning from one of these country
excursions, he astonished his employer by taking an intelligent part
in a conversation upon "God's omnipotence and its visible traces
throughout nature. " The old man was so impressed by this preco-
city that a few days later he announced his intention of giving the
boy an academic education.
After two or three years of fitting, under the care of an elder
brother who occupied the post of private tutor in a wealthy family,
Tegnér entered the University of Lund in 1799, at the age of sev-
enteen. In 1802 he took his degree, and received the laurel crown
bestowed upon successful candidates; and soon thereafter got into
a serious scrape by participating in a student demonstration against
the unpopular rector of the university. But his friends saved him.
from the disgrace of the consilium abeundi cum infamia, and got him
instead an appointment as docent. His vacations were spent with the
family in which he had been prepared for college, and he soon won
the love of the daughter of the house. The story of his courtship,
to say nothing of the boy-and-girl intercourse of the earlier years,
may be read plainly enough in the love episodes of 'Frithjof's
Saga'; for Tegnér put into his own poetry the candor that he
esteemed so highly in other men, and much of his work is hardly
more than a direct transcript of his own experience. After his mar-
riage, he remained at Lund for many years; until 1810 as docent,
then as lecturer on Greek literature, and finally as full professor,—
a post which carried with it, according to the curious Swedish cus-
tom, the duties of a parish priest, although the incumbent had taken
no degree in theology. Promotion to a bishopric followed as a mat-
ter of course in the case of so brilliant a man as Tegnér, and he
was given charge of the diocese of Vexiö in 1825. He made a very
active sort of bishop; his first care being to clear his diocese of
drunken clergymen, or at least to insist that they should not appear
drunk on public occasions. He also undertook a close supervision
of the parish schools under his charge, and took pains to see that
his subordinates kept their accounts correctly. This very wholesome
way of looking at his official duties was characteristic of a man who
cared little for theology, but who recognized the importance of con-
duct. He accepted the forms of the established church, but inter-
preted them in a liberal spirit. The rationalism of the eighteenth
century had left its mark upon him, and he was never orthodox in
the narrow intolerant sense. His instincts were so unclerical as to
enable him to enjoy a jest, even if the subject were of questionable
taste; and he retained throughout the years of his health a certain
buoyancy of spirits that marked him as a true child of the world.
## p. 14565 (#131) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNER
14565
In thus sketching Tegnér's official life, we have anticipated a little,
and must turn back to the time of his docentship, when his first fame
as a poet was won. His first poem of importance was a thrilling
war-song, 'För Skånska Landtvärnet' (For the Reserves of Scania),
written in 1808. In 1811 the fine patriotic poem 'Svea' won the
prize of the Swedish Academy. Many other poems followed, and his
most famous works were produced before the date of his removal to
Vexiö. The last five years of his stay in Lund witnessed the publi-
cation of the three poems by which he is most widely known. They
are the beautiful idyl 'Nattvärdsbarnen' (The Children of the Lord's
Supper), which the translation of Longfellow has made one of the
most familiar of English poems; the narrative poem 'Axel,' rich in
sentiment and diversified by exquisite lyrical episodes; and the world-
famous cycle of Frithjof's Saga. ' The first of these three poems is
in hexameters, and was obviously inspired by 'Goethe's 'Hermann
and Dorothea'; while the second is in rhymed octosyllabic verse, and
much in the manner of Byron. As for the last of the three, a great
variety of metrical forms is made use of in the several songs or
cantos, and the most astonishing virtuosity in the poetical use of the
Swedish language is displayed. The subject of the 'Frithjof's Saga'
is taken from the Icelandic tale of 'Frithjof the Bold,' one of the
later and more sophisticated products of the old Norse genius for
story-telling. The significance of this choice of a subject, which pre-
ferred to the simple and rugged themes of the great age of saga-
writing one belonging to a more self-conscious and artificial period,
is thus commented upon by Professor Ker:-"The original Frithjof
is almost as remote as Tegnér himself from the true heroic tradition;
and like Tegnér's poem, makes up for this want of a pedigree by a
study and imitation of the great manner, and by a selection and com-
bination of heroic traits from the older authentic literature. " But
criticism, although it may cavil at the choice of subject, and at the
rhetorical character of the diction, and at the poet's flagrant violation
of historical verisimilitude, cannot rob this poem of its beauty, or
lessen its appeal to every noble instinct and generous sentiment. It
has made its way triumphantly round the world, and been translated
into almost every civilized tongue. There are not less than a score
of English translations, and nearly that number in the German lan-
guage.
For a number of years after he became Bishop of Vexiö, Teg-
nér's life was one of rich and varied activity. Besides performing
his strictly official duties, he wrote many poems, and made many
addresses upon educational and other occasions. But the cloud was
slowly gathering that was to break upon his life and destroy its
fairest prospects.
Attacked by an insidious disease, the nature of
## p. 14566 (#132) ##########################################
14566
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
which long baffled his physicians, his mind broke down, and insanity
made him its prey. During the years 1830-40 the shadow grew
darker and darker, until in the latter year his intellect gave way
completely, and he had to be placed in an asylum. Within a year
partial recovery followed, and he was able again to take up his work.
But his powers were failing in other directions also, and in 1845 he
applied for relief from his duties. The year following, he succumbed
to a stroke of paralysis; and died November 2d, 1846. His mind was
clear at the end, and his last words were: "I will lift up my hands
unto the house and the mountain of God. "
The impression made upon the student of his life and works is
well stated in the words with which Dr. Brandes closes the mono-
graph mentioned at the beginning of this article:-
«Esaias Tegnér was beyond all else a whole man; for in his faults as well
as his virtues he was an honest upright soul, easily wrought upon, but with a
radiant love for the beautiful and the true. His human and earthly nature is
so full of worth that it must always remain in a high degree attractive and
interesting to every one who can appreciate the value of a rich personality;
while the ideal image of Tegnér the poet will ever stand in luminous outline
before the people upon whom he once shone as a living beam from the sun
of the nineteenth century.
Etta Paye
FROM FRITHIOF'S SAGA'
FRITHIOF AND INGEBORG
[Ingeborg, daughter of Bele, King of Sygua-fylke in Norway, having lost
her mother, is brought up by her foster-father Hilding, who also rears Frithiof.
Frithiof and Ingeborg become lovers; but her brothers refuse her to Frithiof,
because they are jealous of his superior valor and fame. ]
TWO
wo plants, in Hilding's garden fair,
Grew up beneath his fostering care;
Their match the North had never seen,
So nobly towered they in the green!
The one shot forth like some broad oak,
Its trunk a battle lance unbroke;
But helmet-like the top ascends,
As heaven's soft breeze its arched round bends.
Like some sweet rose, - bleak winter flown,-
That other fresh young plant y-shone;
-
## p. 14567 (#133) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
14567
From out this rose spring yet scarce gleameth,
Within the bud it lies and dreameth.
But cloud-sprung storm round th' earth shall go,—
That oak then wrestles with his foe;
Her heavenly path spring's sun shall tread,—
Then opes that rose her lips so red!
Thus sportful, glad, and green they sprung:
And Frithiof was that oak the young;
The rose so brightly blooming there,
She hight was Ingeborg the fair.
Saw'st thou the two by gold-beamed day,
To Freja's courts thy thoughts would stray;
Where, bright-haired and with rosy pinions,
Swings many a bride pair, Love's own minions.
But saw'st thou them, by moonlight's sheen,
Dance round beneath the leafy green,
Thou'dst say, In yon sweet garland grove
The king and queen of fairies move.
How precious was the prize he earned
When his first rune the youth had learned!
No king's could his bright glory reach,—
That letter would he Ing'borg teach.
How gladly at her side steered he
His barque across the dark blue sea!
When gaily tacking Frithiof stands,
How merrily clap her small white hands!
No birds' nests yet so lofty were,
That thither he not climbed for her;
E'en th' eagle, as he cloudward swung,
Was plundered both of eggs and young.
No streamlet's waters rushed so swift,
O'er which he would not Ing'borg lift;
So pleasant feels, when foam-rush 'larms,
The gentle cling of small white arms!
The first pale flower that spring had shed,
The strawberry sweet that first grew red,
The corn-ear first in ripe gold clad,
To her he offered, true and glad.
## p. 14568 (#134) ##########################################
14568
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
But childhood's days full quickly fly:
He stands a stripling now, with eye
Of haughty fire which hopes and prayeth;
And she, with budding breast, see! strayeth.
The chase young Frithiof ceaseless sought;
Nor oft would hunter so have fought:
For, swordless, spearless all, he'd dare
With naked strength the savage bear;
Then breast to breast they struggled grim;-
Though torn, the bold youth masters him!
With shaggy hide now see him laden:
Such spoils refuse, how can the maiden?
For man's brave deeds still women wile;
Strength well is worth young beauty's smile:
Each other suit they, fitly blending
Like helm o'er polished brows soft bending!
But read he, some cold winter's night,
(The fire-hearth's flaming blaze his light,)
A song of Valhall's brightnesses,
And all its gods and goddesses,-
He'd think, "Yes! yellow's Freja's hair,
A cornland sea, breeze-waved so fair;
Sure Ing'borg's, that like gold-net trembles
Round rose and lily, hers resembles!
"Rich, white, soft, clear is Idun's breast;
How it heaves beneath her silken vest!
A silk I know, whose heave discloses
Light-fairies two with budding roses.
"And blue are Frigga's eyes to see,
Blue as heaven's cloudless canopy!
But I know eyes, to whose bright beams
The light-blue spring day darksome seems.
-
"The bards praise Gerda's cheeks too high,
Fresh snows which playful north-lights dye!
I cheeks have seen whose day lights, clear,
Two dawnings blushing in one sphere.
"A heart like Nanna's own I've found,
As tender-why not so renowned ?
## p. 14569 (#135) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
14569
Ah! happy Balder: ilk breast swelleth
To share the death thy scald o'ertelleth.
"Yes! could my death like Balder's be,-
A faithful maid lamenting me,-
A maid like Nanna, tender, true,-
How glad I'd stay with Hel the blue! "
-
But the king's child-all glad her love -
Sat murmuring hero-songs, and wove
Th' adventures that her chief had seen,
And billows blue, and groves of green;
Slow start from out the wool's snow-fields
Round, gold-embroidered, shining shields,
And battle's lances flying red,
And mail-coats stiff with silver thread:
But day by day her hero still
Grows Frithiof like, weave how she will;
And as his form 'mid th' armed host rushes,-
Though deep, yet joyful, are her blushes!
And Frithiof, where his wanderings be,
Carves I and F i' th' tall birch-tree;
The runes right gladly grow united,
Their young hearts like by one flame lighted.
Stands Day on heaven's arch,- throne so fair! -
King of the world, with golden hair,
Waking the tread of life and men,-
Each thinks but of the other then!
-
-
Stands Night on heaven's arch,-throne so fair!
World's mother with her dark-hued hair,
While stars tread soft, all hushed 'mong men,-
Each dreams but of the other then!
"Thou Earth! each spring through all thy bowers
Thy green locks jeweling thick with flowers,—
Thy choicest give! fair weaving them,
My Frithiof shall the garland gem. "
"Thou Sea! in whose deep gloomy hall
Shine thousand pearls, - hear Love's loud call!
Thy fairest give me, to bedeck
That whiter pearl, my Ing'borg's neck! "
## p. 14570 (#136) ##########################################
14570
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
"O crown of Oden's royal throne,
Eye of the world, bright golden Sun!
Wert thou but mine, should Frithiof wield
Thy shining disk, his shining shield. "
"O lamp of great All-father's dome,
Thou Moon, whose beams so pale-clear roam!
Wert thou but mine, should Ing'borg wear
Thy crescent-orb among her hair. "
Then Hilding spoke:-"From this love-play
Turn, foster-son, thy mind away:
Had wisdom ruled, thou ne'er hadst sought her,-
'The maid,' Fate cries, 'is Bele's daughter! '
"To Oden, in his starlit sky,
Ascends her titled ancestry;
But Thorsten's son art thou: give way!
For like thrives best with like,' they say. "
But Frithiof smiling said:- "Down fly
To death's dark vale my ancestry:
Yon forest's king late slew I; pride
Of high birth heired I with his hide.
"The free-born man yields not; for still
His arm wins worlds where'er it will:
Fortune can mend as well as mar,
Hope's ornaments right kingly are!
-
"What is high birth for force? Yes! Thor,
Its sire, in Thrudvang's fort gives law:
Not birth, but worth, he weighs above;
The sword pleads strongly for its love!
"Yes! I will fight for my young bride,
Though e'en the thundering god defied.
Rest thee, my lily, glad at heart;
Woe him whose rash hand would us part! "
## p. 14571 (#137) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
FRITHIOF GOES INTO BANISHMENT
[Frithiof, persistently refused Ingeborg's hand, wishes her to fly with
him, but she refuses. He goes to the Orkney Islands to fetch tribute to her
brothers in order to win their favor; but on returning finds that she has
been forced into marriage with another suitor, King Ring, and has gone with
him to his country. Quarreling with the brothers again, he is forced to go
into exile. ]
Η
Is ship's deck slight,
I' th' summer night,
Bore th' hero grieving.
Like waves high heaving,
Now rage now woe
Thro' his bosom flow;
Smoke still ascended,
The fire not ended.
"Thou free broad Sea!
Unknown to thee
Are despot's glances
And tyrant's fancies.
Where freemen swing
Is he thy king
Who never shivers,
Howe'er high quivers,
With rage oppressed,
Thy froth-white breast!
Thy plains, blue-spreading,
Glad chiefs are treading;
Like ploughs thereon
Their keels drive on;
And blood-rain patters
In shade th' oak scatters,
But steel-bright there.
The corn-seeds glare!
Those plains so hoary
Bear crops of glory,
Rich crops of gold:
Thou billow bold
Befriend me! Never
I'll from thee sever!
14571
My father's mound
Dull stands, fast-bound,
## p. 14572 (#138) ##########################################
14572
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
And selfsame surges
Chant changeless dirges;
But blue shall mine
Through foam-flowers shine,
'Mid tempests swimming,
And storms thick dimming,
And draw yet mo
Down, down, below. —
My life-home given,
Thou shalt, far-driven!
My barrow be,
Thou free broad Sea! "
Day's orb now shined
Hill-tops behind;
Fresh breezes bounded
From shore, and sounded
Each wave to dance
In morning's glance.
Where th' high surge leapeth
Ellida sweepeth,
Glad stretched her wings.
But Frithiof sings:-
"Heimskringla's forehead,
Thou lofty North!
Away I'm hurried
From this thine earth.
My race from thee goes,
I boasting tell;
Now, nurse of heroes
Farewell! Farewell!
"Farewell, high-gleaming
Valhalla's throne,
Night's eye, bright-beaming
Midsummer's sun!
Sky! where, as in hero's
Soul, pure depths dwell,
And thronging star-rows,-
Farewell! Farewell!
"Farewell, ye mountains,
Seats glory for;
Ye tablet fountains
For mighty Thor!
## p. 14573 (#139) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNER
Ye lakes and highlands
I left so sel',
Ye rocks and islands,
Farewell! Farewell!
«Farewell, cairns dreaming
By wave of blue,
Where, snow-white gleaming,
Limes flower-dust strew!
But Saga spieth
And doometh well
-
I' the earth what lieth; -
Farewell! Farewell!
"Farewell, ye bowers,
Fresh houses green,
Where youth plucked flowers
By murm'ring stream;
Ye friends of childhood
Who meant me well,
Ye're yet remembered; —
Farewell! Farewell!
-
"My love insulted,
My palace brent,
My honor tarnished,
In exile sent,—
From land in sadness
To th' sea we appeal;
But Life's young gladness,
Farewell! Farewell! "
14573
THE VIKING CODE
[Frithiof having set sail, draws up a code of conduct and honor for himself
and his party; and after a career of successful sea-roving, resolves to
revisit his native land. ]
F
AR and wide, like the falcon that hunts through the sky, flew he
now o'er the desolate sea;
And his Vikinga Code, for his champions on board, wrote he well:
wilt thou hear what it be?
"On thy ship pitch no tent; in no house shalt thou sleep: in the hall
who our friends ever knew?
## p. 14574 (#140) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
·
14574
On his shield sleeps the Viking, his sword in his hand, and for tent
has yon heaven the blue.
"With a short-shafted hammer fights conquering Thor; Frey's own
sword but an ell long is made:
That's enough. Hast thou courage? Strike close to thy foe: not too
short for thee then is thy blade!
"When the storm roars on high, up aloft with the sail; ah! how
pleasant's the sea in its wrath!
Let it blow, let it blow! He's a coward that furls; rather founder
than furl in thy path.
"On the shore, not on board, mayst thou toy with a maid: Freja's
self would prove false to thy love;
For the dimple deceives on her cheek, and her tresses would net-like
entrap thee above!
"Wine is Valfather's drink,- a carouse thou mayst have; but yet
steady and upright appear:
He who staggers on shore may stand up, but will soon down to
sleep-giving Ran stagger here.
"Sails the merchant ship forth, thou his bark mayst protect, if due
tribute his weak hand has told:
On thy wave art thou king; he's a slave to his pelf, and thy steel is
as good as his gold!
"With the dice and the lot shall the booty be shared; and complain
not, however it goes:
But the sea-king himself throws no dice on the deck,- only glory he
seeks from his foes.
"Heaves a Viking in sight,—then come boarding and strife, and hot
work is it under the shield;
But from us art thou banished-forget not the doom-if a step or a
foot thou shalt yield!
'Tis enough, shouldst thou conquer! Who prays thee for peace has
no sword, and cannot be thy foe:
Prayer is Valhalla's child, hear the pale Virgin's voice; yes! a
scoundrel is he who says no!
"Viking gains are deep wounds, and right well they adorn if they
stand on the brow or the breast.
Let them bleed! Twice twelve hours first must circle ere binds
them, who Vikinga comrade would rest! "
## p. 14575 (#141) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
14575
Thus his laws carved he out, and fresh exploits each day and fresh
fame to strange coast-lands he brought;
And his like found he none on the blue-rolling sea, and his cham-
pions right willing they fought.
But himself sat all darkly, with rudder in hand, and looked down on
the slow-rocking spray;-
"Deep thou art! Peace perchance in those depths still may bloom,
but above here all peace dies away.
"Is the White God aged? Let him take his good sword,-I will
fall should it so be decreed:
But he sits in yon sky, gloomy thoughts sending down; ne'er my
soul from their sadness is freed! "
Yet when battle is near, like the fresh eagle flying, his spirit fierce
soars with delight;
Loudly thunders his voice, and with clear brow he stands, like the
lightener still foremost in fight.
Thus from vict'ry to vict'ry he ceaselessly swam, on that wide-
foaming grave all secure;
And fresh islands he saw, and fresh bays in the south, till fair winds
on to Greek-Land allure.
When its groves he beheld, in the green tide reflected, its temples
in ruin bent low,-
Freja knows what he thought, and the scald; and if e'er thou hast
known how to love-thou wilt know!
"Here our dwelling had been! Here's the isle, here's the land: of
this temple my sire oft would tell;
Hither 'twas, hither 'twas, I invited my maid; -ah! she, cruel, the
North loved too well!
"Mong these happy green vales dwells not peace? and remembrance,
ah! haunts she not columns so fair?
Like the whisp'rings of lovers soft murmur those springs, and with
bridal songs birds fill the air.
"Where is Ingeborg now? Is so soon all forgot, for a chief with-
ered, gray-haired, and old?
I, I cannot forget! Gladly gave I my life, yet once more that dear
form to behold!
-
"And three years have gone by since my own land I saw, kingly hall
of fair Saga the Queen!
## p. 14576 (#142) ##########################################
14576
ESAIAS TEGNER
Rise there yet so majestic those mountains to heaven? keeps my
forefathers' dale its bright green?
"On the cairn where my father lies buried, a lime-tree I planted,—
ah! blooms it there now?
Who its tender shoot guards? Give thy moisture, O earth! and thy
dews, O thou heaven, give thou!
"Yet why linger I here, on the wave of the stranger? -Is tribute, is
blood, then my goal?
I have glory sufficient; and beggarly gold and its brightness, deep
scorneth my soul.
"There's the flag on the mast; to the Northland it points, and the
North holds the country I love:
Back to northward I'll steer, and will follow the course of the
breezes fresh-blowing above! "
[In the thirteenth canto, Frithiof in a defiant mood enters the temple of
Balder, seizes the arm-ring, pulls down the image of Balder, and involves the
whole temple in ruin, it being consumed in a blaze of unquenchable fire.
Returning from the sea, Frithiof in disguise visits the court of King Ring,
and sees Ingeborg, who recognizes him through his disguise. King Ring also
divines his secret, but magnanimously allows him to depart in peace.
Frithiof rebuilds the temple in a spirit of sincere repentance.
King Ring has died, and Ingeborg is free.
The last canto is entitled 'The Reconciliation,' and is full of noble senti-
Frithiof has made atonement, resumes his place in the kingdom, and
is united to Ingeborg. ]
ment.
THE RECONCILIATION
F"
INISHED great Balder's temple stood!
Round it no palisade of wood
Ran now as erst:
A railing stronger, fairer than the first,
And all of hammered iron,-each bar
Gold-tipped and regular,-
Walls Balder's sacred house. Like some long line
Of steel-clad champions, whose bright war-spears shine
And golden helms afar, so stood
This glittering guard within the holy wood!
Proud stood it there on mountain steep, its lofty brow
Reflected calmly on the sea's bright-flowing wave.
But round about, some girdle like of beauteous flowers,
## p. 14577 (#143) ##########################################
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
14577
Went Balder's dale, with all its groves' soft-murmured sighs,
And all its birds' sweet twittered songs,- the home of peace.
Farthest within, the god's high altar rested,
Hewn all of one sole block
From Northern marble rock;
And round thereon its scroll the serpent twisted,
With solemn rune
Each fold thick strewn,
Whose words from Havamal and Vala taken
Deep thoughts in every human bosom waken,—
While in the wall above
A niche was seen with stars of gold
On dark-blue ground; and there, behold!
All mild and gentle as the silver moon
Sitting heaven's blue aboon,
The silver image stands of Balder, God of Love! —
So seemed the sanctuary. — Forth in pairs now tread
Twelve temple virgins; vests of silver thread
Adorn each slender form, and roses red
O'er ev'ry cheek soft graces shed,
And spread
O'er ev'ry innocent heart a fragrant fair rose-bed. -
Before the White God's image, and around
The late-blessed altar, dancing, light they bound
As spring winds leap where rippling fount waves sound,
As woodland elves that skip along the ground,
Skimming the high-grown grass
Which morning's dew
Still hangs with sparkling gems of every hue;-
Ah! how those jewels tremble as the fairies pass!
And while the dance went round, a holy song they sung
Of Balder, that mild god, and how he was beloved
By every creature, till he fell by Höder's dart,
And earth and ocean wide, and heaven itself, sore wept!
How pure, how tender that song it pealeth!
Sure never sprang
Such tuneful clang
From mortal breast! No, - heaven revealeth
Some tone from Breidablick, from out the gods' own hall,
All soft as lonely maiden's thoughts on him she loves,
What time the quail calls deeply 'mid the peace of night;
The North's tall birches bathed i' th' moon's pale-quivering sheen.
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14578
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
And Frithiof, leaning on his sword, whose glance
Shines far around, stood lost as in a trance,
And charmed and silent gazed upon the dance! —
Thereat his childhood's memories, how they throng
Before his raptured eye! -A jocund train, and long,
And innocent and glad and true,
With eyes like heaven's own blue,
And heads rich circled by bright-golden tresses,-
His former youth-friend each with some sign addresses;
Then all his Viking life,
With scenes of murderous strife
And bold adventures rife,
Like some dark bloody shadow sinketh
Fast down to night. -Ah! glad he drinketh
Forgetfulness's sweet cup, and thinketh,
"Repose at last those sea-king exploits have,-
I stand a flower-crowned Bauta-Stone upon their grave! "
"Son Frithiof, welcome! Yes, I've long expected
That thou shouldst come; — for force, 'tis true, still wanders
Round land and sea afar, wild Berserk like
That pale with rage the shield's hard border biteth;
But yet at last it home returns again,
Outwearied and all calm. -The strong-armed Thor
Full oft 'gainst giant Jotunheim did wend;
But spite his belt celestial, spite his gauntlets,
Utgårda-Loke still his throne retains;-
Evil, itself a force, to force yields never!
