The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 68

Here then he lodged his royal guest and friend, 77 And having placed a slice of seal before him, Quoth he, "Thou ask'st me for my tale, attend; Then give me thine, _Heus renovo dolorem_!"

Therewith the usage villanous and rough, Schemed in cold blood by that malignant chough;

The fraudful dinner (its dessert a wife); 78 The bridal roof with nose a.s.saulting glaive; The oak whose leaves with pinching imps were rife; The atrocious trap into the Viking's cave; The chief obdurate in his d.a.m.n'd idea, Of proving Freedom by a roast to Freya;

The graphic portrait of the Nuptial G.o.ddess; 79 And diabolic if symbolic spit; The hierarch's heresy on types and bodies; And how at last he posed and silenced it; All facts traced clearly to that _corvus niger_, Were told with pathos that had touch'd a tiger,

So far the gentle sympathising Nine 80 In dulcet strains have sung Sir Gawaine's woes; What now remains they bid the historic line With Dorian dryness unadorn'd disclose; So counsel all the powers of fancy stretch, Then leave the judge to finish off the wretch!

Along the beach Sir Gawaine and the hound 81 Roved all the night, and at the dawn of day Came unawares upon a squadron bound To fish for whales, arrested in a bay For want of winds, which certain Norway hags Had squeezed from heaven and bottled up in bags.[13]

Straight when the seamen, fretting on the sh.o.r.e, 82 Behold a wanderer clad as Freya's priest, They rush, and round him kneeling, they implore The runes, by which the winds may be released: The spurious priest a gracious answer made, And told them Freya sent him to their aid;

Bade them conduct himself and hound on board, 83 And broil two portions of their choicest meat.

"The spell," quoth he, "our sacred arts afford To free the wind is in the food we eat; We dine, and dining exorcise the witches, And loose the bags from their infernal st.i.tches.

"Haste then, my children, and dispel the wind; 84 Haste, for the bags are awfully inflating!"

The s.h.i.+p is gain'd. Both priest and dog have dined; The crews a.s.sembled on the decks are waiting.

A heavier man arose the audacious priest, And stately stepp'd he west and stately east!

Mutely invoked St. David and St. Bran 85 To charge a stout north-western with their blessing; Then clear'd his throat and l.u.s.tily began A howl of vowels huge from Taliessin.

p.r.o.ne fell the crews before the thundering tunes, In words like mountains roll'd the enormous runes!

The excited hound, symphonious with the song, 86 Yell'd as if heaven and earth were rent asunder; The rocks Orphean seem'd to dance along; The affrighted whales plunged waves affrighted under; Polyphlosboian, onwards booming bore The deaf'ning, strident, rauque, Homeric roar!

As lions lash themselves to louder ire, 87 By his own song the Knight sublimely stung Caught the full oestro of the poet's fire, And grew more stunning every note he sung!

In each dread blast a patriot's soul exhales, And Norway quakes before the storm of Wales.

Whether, as grateful Cymri should believe, 88 That blatant voice heroic burst the bags, (For sure it might the caves of Boreas cleave Much more the st.i.tchwork of such losel hags!) Or heaven, on any terms, resolved on peace; The wind sprang up before the Knight would cease.

Never again hath singer heard such praise 89 As Gawaine heard; for never since hath song Found out the secret how the wind to raise!-- Around the charmer now the seamen throng, And bribe his blest attendance on their toil, With bales of bear-skin and with tuns of oil.

Well pleased to leave the inhospitable sh.o.r.es, 90 The artful Knight yet slowly seem'd to yield.-- Now through the ocean plunge the brazen prores; They pa.s.s the threshold of the world congeal'd; Surprise the snorting mammoths of the main; And pile the decks with Pelions of the slain.

When, in the midmost harvest of the spoil, 91 Pounce comes a storm unspeakably more hideous Than that which drove upon the Lybian soil Anchises' son, the pious and perfidious, When whooping Notus, as the Nine a.s.sure us, Rush'd out to play with Africus and Eurus.

Torn each from each, or down the maelstrom whirl'd, 92 Or grasp'd and gulph'd by the devouring sea, Or on the ribs of hurrying icebergs hurl'd, The sunder'd vessels vanish momently.

Scarce through the blasts which swept his own, Gawaine Heard the crew shrieking "Chant the runes again!"

Far other thoughts engaged the prescient knight, 93 Fast to a plank he lash'd himself and hound; Scarce done, than, presto, shooting out of sight, The enormous eddy spun him round and round, Along the deck a monstrous wave had pour'd, Caught up the plank and toss'd it overboard.

What of the s.h.i.+p became, saith history not. 94 What of the man--the man himself shall show.

"Like stone from sling," quoth Gawaine, "I was shot Into a ridge of what they call a _floe_,[14]

There much amazed, but rescued from the waters, Myself and hound took up our frigid quarters.

"Freed from the plank, drench'd, spluttering, stunn'd, and 95 bruised, We peer'd about us on the sweltering deep, And seeing nought, and being much confused, Crept side by side and nestled into sleep.

The nearest kindred most avoid each other, So to shun Death, we visited his brother,

"Awaked at last, we found the waves had stranded 96 A store of waifs portentous and nefarious; Here a dead whale was at my elbow landed, There a sick polypus, that sea-Briareus, Stretch'd out its claws to incorporate my corpus; While howl'd the hound half buried by a porpoise!

"Nimbly I rose, disporpoising my friend;-- 97 Around me scatter'd lay more piteous wrecks, With every wave the accursed Tritons send Some sad memento of submergent decks, Prows, rudders, casks, ropes, blubber, hides, and hooks, Sailors, salt beef, tubs, cabin boys, and cooks.

"Graves on the dead, with pious care bestow'd, 98 (Graves in the ice hewn out with mickle pain By axe and bill, which with the waifs had flow'd To that strange sh.o.r.e) I next collect the gain; Placed in a hollow cleft--and cover'd o'er;-- Then Knight and hound proceeded to explore.

"Far had we wander'd, for the storm had join'd 99 To a great isle of ice, our friend the _floe_, When as the day (three hours its length!) declined, Out bray'd a roar; I stared around, and lo A flight of dwarfs about the size of sea-moths, Chased by two bears that might have eat behemoths!

"Arm'd with the axe the Tritons had ejected, 100 I rush'd to succour the Pigmaean nation, In strife our valour, I have oft suspected, Proportions safety to intoxication, As drunken men securely walk on walls From which the wretch who keeps his senses falls;

"Let but the n.o.ble frenzy seize the brain, 101 And strength divine seems breathed into the form; The rill when swollen swallows up a plain, The breeze runs mad before it blows a storm; To do great deeds, first lose your wits,--then do them!

In fine--I burst upon the bears, and slew them!

"The dwarfs, deliver'd, kneel, and pull their noses;[15] 102 In tugs which mean to say 'The Pigmy Nation A vote of thanks respectfully proposes From all the noses of the corporation!'

Your Highness knows '_Magister Artis Venter_:'

On signs for breakfast my replies concenter!

"Quick they conceive, and quick obey; the beasts 103 Are skinn'd, and drawn, and quarter'd in a trice, But Vulcan leaves Diana to the feasts, And not a wood-nymph consecrates the ice-- Bear is but so-so, when 'tis cook'd the best, But bear just skinn'd and perfectly undrest!

"Then I bethink me of the planks and casks 104 Stow'd in the cleft--for fuel _quantum suff_: I draw the dwarfs--sore chattering, from their tasks, Choose out the morsels least obdurely tough; With these I load the Pigmies--bid them follow-- Regain the haven, and review the hollow.

"But when those minnow-men beheld the whale 105 It really was a spectacle affecting!

They shout, they sob, they leap--embrace the tail, Peep in the jaws; then, round me re-collecting, Draw forth these noselings from their hiding places, Which serve as public speakers to their faces!

"While I revolve what this salute may mean, 106 They rush once more upon the poor balaena, Clutch--rend--gnaw--bolt the blubber; but the lean Reject as drying to the duodena!

This done,--my broil they aid me to obtain, And, while I eat--the noses go again!

"My tale is closed--the grateful Pigmies lead 107 Myself and hound across the ice defiles; Regain their people and recite my deed, Describe the monsters and display the spoils; With royal rank my feats the dwarfs repay, And build the palace which you now survey!

"The vanquish'd bears are trophied on the wall; 108 The oil you scent once floated in the whale; I had a vision to illume the hall With lights less fragrant,--human hopes are frail!

With cares ingenious from the bruins' fat, I made some candles,--which the ladies ate!

"'Tis now your turn to tell the tale, Sir King,-- 109 And by the way our comrade, Lancelot?

I hope he found a raven in the ring!

_Monstrum horrendum!_--Sire, I question not That in your justice you have heard enough When we get home--to crucify that chough!"

"Gawaine," said Arthur, with his sunny smile, 110 "Methinks thy heart will soon absolve the raven, Thy friend had perish'd in this icy isle But for thy voyage to the Viking's haven, In every ill which gives thee such offence, Thou seest the raven, I the Providence!"

The Knight reluctant shook his learned head; 111 "So please you, Sire, you cannot find a thief Who picks our pouch, but Providence hath led His steps to pick it;--yet, to my belief, There's not a judge who'd scruple to exhibit That proof of Providence upon a gibbet!

"The chough was sent by Providence:--Agreed: 112 We send the chough to Providence, in turn!

Yet in the hound and not the chough, indeed, Your friendly sight should Providence discern; For had the hound been just a whit less nimble, Thanks to the chough, your friend had been a symbol!"

"Thy logic," answer'd Arthur, "is unsound, 113 But for the chough thou never had'st been married; But for the wife thou ne'er hadst seen the hound;-- The _Ab initio_ to the chough is carried: The hound is but the effect--the chough the cause,"

The generous Gawaine murmur'd his applause.

"_Do veniam Corvo!_ Sire, the chough's acquitted!" 114 "For Lancelot next," quoth Arthur, "be at ease, The task fulfill'd to which he was permitted, The ring veer'd home--I left him on the seas.

Ere this, be sure he hails the Cymrian sh.o.r.e, And gives to Carduel one great bulwark more."

Then Arthur told of fair Genevra flying 115 From the scorn'd nuptials of the heathen fane; Her Runic bark to his emprise supplying The steed that bore him to the Northern main; While she, with cheeks that blush'd and looks that fell, Implored a Christian's home in Carduel.