Collected Poems Volume II Part 75

Will you not come and look for Him with me?

[_They go slowly together through the forest and are lost to sight.

BLONDEL'S voice is heard singing the third stanza of the song in the distance, further and further away._]

"Death? What is Death?" he cried.

"I must ride on!"

[_Curtain._]

TALES OF THE MERMAID TAVERN

I

A KNIGHT OF THE OCEAN-SEA

Under that foggy sunset London glowed, Like one huge cob-webbed flagon of old wine.

And, as I walked down Fleet Street, the soft sky Mowed thro' the roaring thoroughfares, transfused Their hard sharp outlines, blurred the throngs of black On either pavement, blurred the rolling stream Of red and yellow busses, till the town Turned to a golden suburb of the clouds.

And, round that mighty bubble of St. Paul's, Over the up-turned faces of the street, An air-s.h.i.+p slowly sailed, with whirring fans, A voyager in the new-found realms of gold, A shadowy silken chrysalis whence should break What radiant wings in centuries to be.

So, wandering on, while all the sh.o.r.es of Time Softened into Eternity, it seemed A dead man touched me with his living hand, A flaming legend pa.s.sed me in the streets Of London--laugh who will--that City of Clouds, Where what a dreamer yet, in spite of all, Is man, that splendid visionary child Who sent his fairy beacon through the dusk, On a blue bus before the moon was risen,-- _This Night, at eight, The Tempest!_

Dreaming thus, (Small wonder that my footsteps went astray!) I found myself within a narrow street, Alone. There was no rumour, near or far, Of the long tides of traffic. In my doubt I turned and knocked upon an old inn-door, Hard by, an ancient inn of mullioned panes, And crazy beams and over-hanging eaves: And, as I knocked, the slowly changing west Seemed to change all the world with it and leave Only that old inn steadfast and unchanged, A rock in the rich-coloured tides of time.

And, suddenly, as a song that wholly escapes Remembrance, at one note, wholly returns, There, as I knocked, memory returned to me.

I knew it all--the little twisted street, The rough wet cobbles gleaming, far away, Like opals, where it ended on the sky; And, overhead, the darkly smiling face Of that old wizard inn; I knew by rote The smooth sun-bubbles in the worn green paint Upon the doors and shutters.

There was one Myself had idly scratched away one dawn, One mad May-dawn, three hundred years ago, When out of the woods we came with hawthorn boughs And found the doors locked, as they seemed to-night.

Three hundred years ago--nay, Time was dead!

No need to scan the sign-board any more Where that white-breasted siren of the sea Curled her moon-silvered tail among such rocks As never in the merriest seaman's tale Broke the blue-bliss of fabulous lagoons Beyond the Spanish Main.

And, through the dream, Even as I stood and listened, came a sound Of clas.h.i.+ng wine-cups: then a deep-voiced song Made the old timbers of the Mermaid Inn Shake as a galleon shakes in a gale of wind When she rolls glorying through the Ocean-sea.

SONG

I

Marchaunt Adventurers, chanting at the windla.s.s, Early in the morning, we slipped from Plymouth Sound, All for Adventure in the great New Regions, All for Eldorado and to sail the world around!

Sing! the red of sun-rise ripples round the bows again.

Marchaunt Adventurers, O sing, we're outward bound, All to stuff the sunset in our old black galleon, All to seek the merchandise that no man ever found.

_Chorus:_ Marchaunt Adventurers!

Marchaunt Adventurers!

Marchaunt Adventurers, O, whither are ye bound?-- All for Eldorado and the great new Sky-line, All to seek the merchandise that no man ever found.

II

Marchaunt Adventurers, O, what'ull ye bring home again?-- Wonders and works and the thunder of the sea!

Whom will ye traffic with?--The King of the Sunset!

What shall be your pilot then?--A wind from Galilee.

Nay, but ye be marchaunts, will ye come back empty-handed?-- Ay, we be marchaunts, though our gain we ne'er shall see.

Cast we now our bread upon the waste wild waters.

After many days, it shall return with usury.

_Chorus:_ Marchaunt Adventurers!

Marchaunt Adventurers!

What shall be your profit in the mighty days to be?-- Englande!--Englande!--Englande!--Englande!-- Glory everlasting and the lords.h.i.+p of the sea!

And there, framed in the lilac patch of sky That ended the steep street, dark on its light, And standing on those glistering cobblestones Just where they took the sunset's kiss, I saw A figure like foot-feathered Mercury, Tall, straight and splendid as a sunset-cloud.

Clad in a crimson doublet and trunk-hose, A rapier at his side; and, as he paused, His long fantastic shadow swayed and swept Against my feet.

A moment he looked back, Then swaggered down as if he owned a world Which had forgotten--did I wake or dream?-- Even his gracious ghost!

Over his arm He swung a gorgeous murrey-coloured cloak Of Ciprus velvet, caked and smeared with mud As on the day when--did I dream or wake?

And had not all this happened once before?-- When he had laid that cloak before the feet Of Gloriana! By that mud-stained cloak, 'Twas he! Our Ocean-Shepherd! Walter Raleigh!

He brushed me pa.s.sing, and with one vigorous thrust Opened the door and entered. At his heels I followed--into the Mermaid!--through three yards Of pitch-black gloom, then into an old inn-parlour Swimming with faces in a mist of smoke That up-curled, blue, from long Winchester pipes, While--like some rare old picture, in a dream Recalled--quietly listening, laughing, watching, Pale on that old black oaken wainscot floated One bearded oval face, young, with deep eyes, Whom Raleigh hailed as "Will!"

But as I stared A sudden buffet from a brawny hand Made all my senses swim, and the room rang With laughter as upon the rush-strewn floor My feet slipped and I fell. Then a gruff voice Growled over me--"Get up now, John-a-dreams, Or else mine host must find another drawer!

Hast thou not heard us calling all this while?"

And, as I scrambled up, the rafters rang With cries of "Sack! Bring me a cup of sack!

Canary! Sack! Malmsey! and Muscadel!"

I understood and flew. I was awake, A leather-jerkined pot-boy to these G.o.ds, A prentice Ganymede to the Mermaid Inn!

There, flitting to and fro with cups of wine, I heard them toss the Chrysomelan names From mouth to mouth--Lyly and Peele and Lodge, Kit Marlowe, Michael Drayton, and the rest, With Ben, rare Ben, brick-layer Ben, who rolled Like a great galleon on his ingle-bench.

Some twenty years of age he seemed; and yet This young Gargantua with the bull-dog jaws, The T, for Tyburn, branded on his thumb, And grim pock-pitted face, was growling tales To Dekker that would fright a buccaneer.-- How in the fierce Low Countries he had killed His man, and won that scar on his bronzed fist; Was taken prisoner, and turned Catholick; And, now returned to London, was resolved To blast away the vapours of the town With Boreas-throated plays of thunderous mirth.

"I'll thwack their Tribulation-Wholesomes, lad, Their Yellow-faced Envies and lean Thorns-i'-the-Flesh, At the _Black-friars Theatre_, or _The Rose_, Or else _The Curtain_. Failing these, I'll find Some good square inn-yard with wide galleries, And windows level with the stage. 'Twill serve My Comedy of Vapours; though, I grant.

For Tragedy a private House is best, Or, just as Burbage tip-toes to a deed Of blood, or, over your stable's black half-door, Marked _Battlements_ in white chalk, your breathless David Glowers at the whiter Bathsheba within, Some humorous coach-horse neighs a 'hallelujah'!

And the pit splits its doublets. Over goes The whole d.a.m.ned apple-barrel, and the yard Is all one rough and tumble, scramble and scratch Of prentices, green madams, and cut-purses For half-chewed Norfolk pippins. Never mind!

We'll build the perfect stage in Sh.o.r.editch yet.

And Will, there, hath half promised I shall write A piece for his own company! What d'ye think Of _Venus and Adonis_, his first heir, Printed last week? A bouncing boy, my lad!

And he's at work on a Midsummer's Dream That turns the world to fairyland!"

All these And many more were there, and all were young!

There, as I brimmed their cups, I heard the voice Of Raleigh ringing across the smoke-wreathed room,-- "Ben, could you put a frigate on the stage, I've found a tragedy for you. Have you heard The true tale of Sir Humphrey Gilbert?"

"No!"

"Why, Ben, of all the tragical affairs Of the Ocean-sea, and of that other Ocean Where all men sail so blindly, and misjudge Their friends, their charts, their storms, their stars, their G.o.d, If there be truth in the blind crowder's song I bought in Bread Street for a penny, this Is the brief type and chronicle of them all.

Listen!" Then Raleigh sent these rugged rhymes Of some blind crowder rolling in great waves Of pa.s.sion across the gloom. At each refrain He sank his voice to a broad deep undertone, As if the distant roar of breaking surf Or the low thunder of eternal tides Filled up the pauses of the nearer storm, Storm against storm, a soul against the sea:--