4.

That day, the earth's feast-master's brow Shall clear, to God the chalice raising; "Others give best at first, but Thou

Forever set'st our table praising, Keep'st the good wine till now."

5.

Meantime, I'll draw you as you stand, With few or none to watch and wonder.

I'll say

a fisher (on the sand

By Tyre the Old) his ocean-plunder, A netful, brought to land.

6.

Who has not heard how Tyrian shells
Enclosed the blue, that dye of dyes
Whereof one drop worked miracles,
And coloured like Astarte's eyes
Raw silk the merchant sells ?

7.

And each bystander of them all

Could criticize, and quote tradition; How depths of blue sublimed some pall,

To get which, pricked a king's ambition; Worth sceptre, crown and ball.

8.

Yet there's the dye, in that rough mesh,
The sea has only just o'er-whispered!
Live whelks, the lip's-beard dripping fresh,
As if they still the water's lisp heard
Through foam the rock-weeds thresh.

9.

Enough to furnish Solomon

Such hangings for his cedar-house, That when gold-robed he took the throne In that abyss of blue, the Spouse Might swear his presence shone

10.

Most like the centre-spike of gold

Which burns deep in the blue-bell's womb,

What time, with ardours manifold,

The bee goes singing to her groom, Drunken and overbold.

11.

Mere conchs! not fit for warp or woof!

Till art comes,

comes to pound and squeeze

And elarify, refines to proof

The liquor filtered by degrees,

While the world stands aloof.

12.

And there's the extract, flasked and fine,

And priced, and salable at last!

And Hobbs, Nobbs, Stokes and Nokes combine To paint the future from the past,

Put blue into their line.

THE HERETIC'S TRAGEDY.

A MIDDLE-AGE INTERLUDE.

(In the original) ROSA MUNDI; SEU, FULCITE ME FLORIBUS. Α

CONCEIT

SAINT

OF MASTER GYSBRECHT, CANON-REGULAR OF JODOCUS-BY-THE-BAR, YPRES CITY. CANTUQUE, Virgilius. AND HATH OFTEN BEEN SUNG AT HOCK-TIDE AND FESTIVALS. GAVISUS ERAM, Jessides.

(It would seem to be a glimpse from the burning of Jacques du Bourg-Molay, at Paris, A. D. 1314; as distorted by the refraction from Flemish brain to brain, during the course of a couple of centuries.-R. B.)

1.

PREADMONISHETH THE ABBOT DEODAET.

THE Lord, we look to once for all,

Is the Lord we should look at, all at once:

He knows not to vary, saith St. Paul,

Nor the shadow of turning, for the nonce.

See Him no other than as he is;

Give both the Infinites their due

Infinite mercy, but, I wis,

As infinite a justice too.

[Organ: plagal-cadence.

As infinite a justice too.

2.

ONE SINGETH.

John, Master of the Temple of God,
Falling to sin the Unknown Sin,
What he bought of Emperor Aldabrod,
He sold it to Sultan Saladin

Till, caught by Pope Clement, a-buzzing there,
Hornet-prince of the mad wasps' hive,

And clipt of his wings in Paris square,
They bring him now to be burned alive.

[And wanteth there grace of lute or clavicithern, ye shall say to confirm him who singeth We bring John now to be burned alive.

3.

In the midst is a goodly gallows built;

'Twixt fork and fork, a stake is stuck;

But first they set divers tumbrils a-tilt,

Make a trench all round with the city muck; Inside they pile log upon log, good store;

Fagots not few, blocks great and small, Reach a man's mid-thigh, no less, no more,

For they mean he should roast in the sight of all.