No More Learning

Who was the sickly fellow to invent
That crazy notion spirit, now, I wonder?
But who'd have thought a burly lout like Morris
Would join the brabble? Sure he'll have in him
A pint more blood than I have; and he's all
For loving girls with words, three yards away!

JEAN _comes in_.

_Jean_.
Alone, my boy? Who was your handsome friend?

_Hamish_.
Whoever he was he's gone. But I'm still here.

_Jean_.
O yes, you're here; you're always here.

_Hamish_.
Of course,
And you know why.

_Jean_.
Do I? I've forgotten.

_Hamish_.
Jean, how can you say that? O how can you?

_Jean_.
Now don't begin to pity yourself, please.

_Hamish_.
Ah, I am learning now; it's truth they talk.
You would undo the skill of a spider's web
And take the inches of it in one line,
More easily than know a woman's thought.
I'm ugly on a sudden?

_Jean_.
The queer thing
About you men is that you will have women
Love in the way you do. But now learn this;
We don't love fellows for their skins; we want
Something to wonder at in the way they love.
A chap may be as rough as brick, if you like,
Yes, or a mannikin and grow a tail,--
If he's the spunk in him to love a girl
Mainly and heartily, he's the man for her. --
My soul, I've done with all you pretty men;
I want to stand in a thing as big as a wind;
And I can only get your paper fans!

_Hamish_.
You've done with me? You wicked Jean! You'll dare
To throw me off like this? After you've made,
O, made my whole heart love you?

_Jean_.
You are no good.
Your friend, now, seems a likely man; but you? --
I thought you were a torch; and you're a squib.

_Hamish_.
Not love you enough? Death, I'll show you then.

_Jean_.
Hands off, Hamish. There's smoke in you, I know,
And splutter too. Hands off, I say.

_Hamish_.
By God
Tell me to-morrow there's no force in me!

_Jean_.
Leave go, you little beast, you're hurting me:
I never thought you'ld be so strong as this.
Let go, or I'll bite; I mean it. You young fool,
I'm not for you. Take off your hands. O help!
[MORRIS _has come in unseen and rushes forward_.

_Morris_.
You beast! You filthy villainous fellow! --Now,
I hope I've hurt the hellish brain in you.
Take yourself off. You'll need a nurse to-night.
[HAMISH _slinks out_.
Poor girl! And are you sprained at all? That ruffian!

_Jean_.
O sir, how can I thank you? You don't know
What we poor serving girls must put up with.
We don't hear many voices like yours, sir.
They think, because we serve, we've no more right
To feelings than their cattle. O forgive me
Talking to you. You don't come often here.

_Morris_.
No, but I will: after to-night I'll see
You take no harm. And as for him, I'll smash him.

_Jean_.
Yes, break the devil's ribs,--I mean,--O leave me;
I'm all distraught.

_Morris_.
Good night, Jean. My name's Morris.

_Jean_.
Good night, Morris--dear. O I must thank you.
[_She suddenly kisses him_.
Perhaps,--perhaps, you'll think that wicked of me?

_Morris_.
You wicked? O how silly! --But--good night.
[_He goes_.

_Jean_.
The man, the man! What luck! My soul, what luck!


II

JEAN _by herself, undressing_.
Yes, he's the man. Jean, my girl, you're done for,
At last you're done for, the good God be thankt. --
That was a wonderful look he had in his eyes:
'Tis a heart, I believe, that will burn marvellously!
Now what a thing it is to be a girl!
Who'ld be a man? Who'ld be fuel for fire
And not the quickening touch that sets it flaming? --
'Tis true that when we've set him well alight
(As I, please God, have set this Morris burning)
We must be serving him like something worshipt;
But is it to a man we kneel? No, no;
But to our own work, to the blaze we kindled!
O, he caught bravely. Now there's nothing at all
So rare, such a wild adventure of glee,
As watching love for you in a man beginning;--
To see the sight of you pour into his senses
Like brandy gulpt down by a frozen man,
A thing that runs scalding about his blood;
To see him holding himself firm against
The sudden strength of wildness beating in him!
O what my life is waiting for, at last
Is started, I believe: I've turned a man
To a power not to be reckoned; I shall be
Held by his love like a light thing in a river!


III

MORRIS _by himself_.
It is a wonder! Here's this poor thing, Life,
Troubled with labours of the endless war
The lusty flesh keeps up against the spirit;
And down amid the anger--who knows whence? --
Comes Love, and at once the struggling mutiny
Falls quiet, unendurably rebuked:
And the whole strength of life is free to serve
Spirit, under the regency of Love.
The quiet that is in me! The bright peace!
Instead of smoke and dust, the peace of Love!
Truly I knew not what a turmoil life
Has been, and how rebellious, till this peace
Came shining down! And yet I have seen things,
And heard things, that were strangely meaning this,--
Telling me strangely that life can be all
One power undisturbed, one perfect honour,--
Waters at noonday sounding among hills,
Or moonlight lost among vast curds of cloud;--
But never knew I it is only Love
Can rule the noise of life to heavenly quiet.
Ah, Jean, if thou wilt love me, thou shalt have
Never from me upon thy purity
The least touch of that eager baseness, known,
For shame's disguising, by the name of Love
Most wickedly; thou shalt not need to fear
Aught from my love, for surely thou shalt know
It is a love that almost fears to love thee.


IV

_The Public House_. MORRIS _and_ JEAN.

_Jean_.
O, you are come again!

_Morris_.
Has he been here,
That blackguard, with some insolence to you?

_Jean_.
Who?

_Morris_.
Why, that Hamish.

_Jean_.
Hamish? No, not he.

_Morris_.
I thought--you seemed so breathless--

_Jean_.
But you've come
Again! May I not be glad of your coming?
Yes, and a little breathless? --Did you come
Only because you thought I might be bullied?

_Morris_.
O, no, no, no, Only for you I came.

_Jean_.
And that's what I was hoping.

_Morris_.
If you could know
How it has been with me, since I saw you!

_Jean_.

What can I know of your mind? --For my own
Is hard enough to know,--save that I'm glad
You've come again,--and that I should have cried
If you'd not kept your word.

_Morris_.
My word? --to see
Hamish does nothing to you?

_Jean_.
The fiend take Hamish!
Do you think I'ld be afraid of him? --It's you
I ought to be afraid of, were I wise.

_Morris_.
Good God, she's crying!

_Jean_.
Cannot you understand?

_Morris_.
O darling, is it so? I prayed for this
All night, and yet it's unbelievable.

_Jean_.
You too, Morris?

_Morris_.
There's nothing living in me
But love for you, my sweetheart.

_Jean_.
And you are mine,
My sweetheart! --And now, Morris, now you know
Why you are the man that ought to frighten me! --
Morris, I love you so!

_Morris_.
O, but better than this,
Jean, you must love me. You must never think
I'm like the heartless men you wait on here,
Whose love is all a hunger that cares naught
How hatefully endured its feasting must be
By her who fills it, so it be well glutted!

_Jean_.
I did not say I was afraid of you;
But only that, perhaps, I ought to be.

_Morris_.
No, no, you never ought. My love is one
That will not have its passion venturous;
It knows itself too fine a ceremony
To risk its whole perfection even by one
Unruly thought of the luxury in love.
Nay, rather it is the quietness of power,
That knows there is no turbulence in life
Dare the least questioning hindrance set against
The onward of its going,--therefore quiet,
All gentle. But strong, Jean, wondrously strong!

_Jean_.
Yes, love is strong. I have well thought of that.
It drops as fiercely down on us as if
We were to be its prey. I've seen a gull
That hovered with beak pointing and eyes fixt
Where, underneath its swaying flight, some fish
Was trifling, fooling in the waves: then, souse!
And the gull has fed. And love on us has fed.

_Morris_.
Indeed 'tis a sudden coming; but I grieve
To hear you make of love a cruelty.
Sweetheart, it shall be nothing cruel to you!
You shall not fear, in doing what love bids,
Ever to know yourself unmaidenly.
For see! here's my first kiss; and all my love
Is signed in it; and it is on your hand. --
Is that a thing to fear? --But it were best
I go now. This should be a privacy,
Not even your lover near, this hour of first
Strange knowledge that you have accepted love.
I think you would feel me prying, if I stayed
While your heart falters into full perceiving
That you are plighted now forever mine.
God bless you, Jean, my sweetheart. --Not a word?
But you will thank me soon for leaving you:
'Tis the best courtesy I can do.
[_He goes_.

_Jean_.
O, and I thought it was my love at last!
I thought, from the look he had last night, I'd found
That great, brave, irresistible love! --But this!
It's like a man deformed, with half his limbs.
Am I never to have the love I dream and need,
Pouring over me, into me, winds of fire?

HAMISH _comes in_.

_Hamish_.
Well? What's the mood to-night? --The girl's been crying!
This should be something queer.

_Jean_.
It's you are to blame:
You brought him here!

_Hamish_.
It's Morris this time, is it?
And what has he done?

_Jean_.
He's insulted me.
And you must never let me see him again.

_Hamish_.
Sure I don't want him seeing you. But still,
If I'm to keep you safe from meeting him--

_Jean_.
To look in his eyes would mortify my heart!

_Hamish_.
Then you'ld do right to pay me.

_Jean_.
What you please.

_Hamish_.
A kiss?

_Jean_.
Of course; as many as you like--
And of any sort you like.




KATRINA


I

_On the sea-coast. Three young men_, SYLVAN, VALENTINE,
_and_ FRANCIS.

_Valentine_.
Well, I suppose you're out of your fear at last,
Sylvan. This land's empty enough; naught here
Feminine but the hens, bitches, and cows.
Now we are safe!

_Francis_.
Horribly safe; for here,
If there are wives at all, they are salted so
They have no meaning for the blood, bent things
Philosophy allows not to be women.

_Valentine_.
But think of the husbands that must spend their nights
Alongside skin like bark. It is the men
That have the tragedy in these weather'd lands.

_Francis_.
No thought of that! We are monks now. And, indeed,
This is a cloister that a man could like,
This blue-aired space of grassy land, that here,
Just as it touches the sea's bitter mood,
Is troubled into dunes, as it were thrilled,
Like a calm woman trembling against love.

_Sylvan_.
Woman again! --How, knowing you, I failed
So long to know the truth, I cannot think.

_Francis_.
And what's the truth?

_Sylvan_.
Woman and love of her
Is as a dragging ivy on the growth
Of that strong tree, man's nature!

_Valentine_.
Yes. But now
Tell us a simpler sort of truth. Was she---

_Sylvan_.
She? Who?

_Valentine_.
Katrina, of course: who else, when one
Speaks of a she to you?

_Sylvan_.
And what about her?

_Valentine_.
Was she too cruel to you, or too kind?

_Sylvan_.
Ah, there's no hope for men like you; you're sunk
Above your consciences in smothering ponds
Of sweet imagination,--drowned in woman!

_Francis_.
Ay? Clarence and the Malmesey over again;
'Twas a delightful death.

_Valentine_.
But you forget.
Sylvan, we've come as your disciples here.

_Sylvan_.
Yes, to a land where not the least desire
Need prey upon your mettle. There are hours
A god might gladly take in these basking dunes,--
Nothing but summer and piping larks, and air
All a warm breath of honey, and a grass
All flowers--sweet thyme and golden heart's-ease here!
And under scent and song of flowers and birds,
Far inland out of the golden bays the air
Is charged with briny savour, and whispered news
Gentle as whitening oats the breezes stroke.
What good is all this health to you? You bring
Your own thoughts with you; and they are vinegar,
Endlessly rusting what should be clear steel.

_Francis_.
I do begin to doubt our enterprise,
The grand Escape from Woman. It lookt brave
And nobly hazardous afar off, to cease
All wenching, whether in deed or word or thought.
And yet I fear pride egged us. We had done
Better to be more humble, and bring here
A girl apiece.

_Valentine_.
Yes, Sylvan; you must think
The cloister were a thing more comfortable
With your Katrina in it?

_Sylvan_.
My Katrina!
And do you think, supposing I would love,
I'ld bank in such a crazy safe as that
Katrina? One of those soft shy-spoken maids,
Who are only maids through fear? Whose life is all
A simpering pretence of modesty?
If it was love I wanted, 'twould not be
A dish of sweet stewed pears, laced with brandy.
But I can do without a woman's kisses.

_Valentine_.
Can you? --You know full well, in the truth of your heart,
That there's no man in all the world of men
Whose will woman's beauty cannot divide
Easily as a sword cuts jetting water.

_Sylvan_.
Have you not heard, that even jetting water
May have such spouting force, that it becomes
A rod of glittering white iron, and swords
Will beat rebounding on its speed in vain? --
Of such a force I mean to have my will.

[_He sits and stares moodily out to sea. His companions
whisper each other_.

_Valentine_.
Here, Francis! Look you yonder. O but this,
This is the joke of the world!

_Francis_.
Hallo! a girl!
And, by the Lord, Katrina! --But why here?

_Valentine_.
She's followed him, of course; she's heard of this
Mad escapade and followed after him.

_Francis_.
She has not seen us yet. Now what to do?

_Valentine_.
Quick! Where's your handkerchief? Truss his wrists and ankles,
And pull his coat up over his head and leave him!
He won't get free of her again; she'll lead
His wildness home and keep him tame for ever.
Now!

[_They fall on him, bind him, and blindfold him_.

_Sylvan_.
What are you doing? Whatever are you doing?
Hell burn you, let me go!

_Valentine_.
There's worse to come.

[_They make off, and leave_ SYLVAN _shouting_.
KATRINA _runs in_.

_Katrina_.
Dear Heaven! Were they robbers? Have they hurt you?

[_She releases him. He stands up_.

_Sylvan_.
Katrina!

_Katrina_.
Sylvan!

_Sylvan_.
How did you plot this?
I thought I'd put leagues between you and me.

_Katrina_.
Why have you come here?

_Sylvan_.
To find you, it seems.
But what you're doing here, that I'ld like to know.

_Katrina_.
I came to see my grandmother: she lives
All by herself, poor grannam, and it's time
She had some help about the house, and care.

_Sylvan_.
Let's have a better tale. You followed me.

_Katrina_.
Sylvan, how dare you make me out so vile?

_Sylvan_.
How dare you mean to make this body of mine
A thing with no thought in it but your beauty?

_Katrina_.
You shall not speak so wickedly. You've had
The half of my truth only: here's the whole.
It was from you I fled! I hoped to make
My grannam's lonely cottage something safe
From you and what I hated in you.

_Sylvan_.
Love? --
Ah, so it's all useless.

_Katrina_.
I feared to know
You wanted me,--horribly I feared it.
And now you've found me out.

_Sylvan_.
Is this the truth? --
No help for it, then.

_Katrina_.
O, I'm a liar to you!

_Sylvan_.
Strange how we grudge to be ruled! rather than be
Divinely driven to happiness, we push back
And fiercely try for wilful misery. --
Dearest, forgive me being cruel to you,
You who are in life like a heavenly dream
In the evil sleep of a sinner.

_Katrina_.
No, you hate me.

_Sylvan (kissing her)_.
Is this like hatred?

_Katrina (in his arms)_.
Sylvan, I have been
So wrencht and fearfully used. It was as if
This being that I live in had become
A savage endless water, wild with purpose
To tire me out and drown me.

_Sylvan_.
Yes, I know:
Like swimming against a mighty will, that wears
The cruelty, the race and scolding spray
Of monstrous passionate water.

_Katrina_.
Hold me, Sylvan
I'm bruised with my sore wrestling.

_Sylvan_.
Ah, but now
We are not swimmers in this dangerous life.
It cannot beat upon our limbs with surf
Of water clencht against us, nor can waves
Now wrangle with our breath. Out of it we
Are lifted; and henceforward now we are
Sailors travelling in a lovely ship,
The shining sails of it holding a wind
Immortally pleasant, and the malicious sea
Smoothed by a keel that cannot come to wreck.

_Katrina_.
Alas, we must not stay together here.
Grannam will come upon us.

_Sylvan_.
Where is she?

_Katrina_.
Yonder, gathering driftwood for her fire.
There is a little bay not far from here,
The shingle of it a thronging city of flies,
Feeding on the dead weed that mounds the beach;
And the sea hoards there its vain avarice,--
Old flotsam, and decaying trash of ships.
An arm of reef half locks it in, and holds
The bottom of the bay deep strewn with seaweed,
A barn full of the harvesting of storms;
And at full tide, the little hampered waves
Lift up the litter, so that, against the light,
The yellow kelp and bracken of the sea,
Held up in ridges of green water, show
Like moss in agates. And there is no place
In all the coast for wreckage like this bay;
There often will my grannam be, a sack
Over her shoulders, turning up the crust
Of sun-dried weed to find her winter's warmth.