Why, soul and sense of him grow sharp alike,
He learns the look of things, and none the less
For admonition from the hunger-pinch.

I had a store of such remarks, be sure,
Which, after I found leisure, turned to use:
I drew men's faces on my copy-books,
Scrawled them within the antiphonary's marge,
Joined legs and arms to the long music-notes,
Found eyes and nose and chin for A's and B's
And made a string of pictures of the world
Betwixt the ins and outs of verb and noun,

On the wall, the bench, the door. The monks looked black.

"Nay," quoth the Prior, " turn him out, d' ye say?

"In no wise. Lose a crow and catch a lark.

"What if at last we get our man of parts,

"We Carmelites, like those Camaldolese

"And Preaching Friars, to do our church up fine

"And put the front on it that ought to be!"

And hereupon he bade me daub away.

Thank you! my head being crammed, the walls a blank,

Never was such prompt disemburdening.

First every sort of monk, the black and white,

I drew them, fat and lean: then, folks at church,
From good old gossips waiting to confess
Their cribs of barrel-droppings, candle-ends,
To the breathless fellow at the altar-foot,
Fresh from his murder, safe and sitting there
With the little children round him in a row
Of admiration, half for his beard, and half
For that white anger of his victim's son
Shaking a fist at him with one fierce arm,
Signing himself with the other because of Christ
(Whose sad face on the cross sees only this
After the passion of a thousand years)

Till some poor girl, her apron o'er her head,

(Which the intense eyes looked through) came at eve On tiptoe, said a word, dropped in a loaf,

Her pair of ear-rings and a bunch of flowers

(The brute took growling) prayed, and so was gone.
I painted all, then cried, "'T is ask and have ;
66 Choose, for more 's ready!"-laid the ladder flat,
And showed my covered bit of cloister-wall.
The monks closed in a circle and praised loud
Till checked, taught what to see and not to see,
Being simple bodies,-"That's the very man!
"Look at the boy who stoops to pat the dog!
"That woman 's like the Prior's niece who comes
"To care about his asthma: it's the life!"

But there my triumph's straw-fire flared and funked ;
Their betters took their turn to see and say:

The Prior and the learned pulled a face

And stopped all that in no time. "How! what 's here?

Quite from the mark of painting, bless us all!

"Faces, arms, legs and bodies like the true

"As much as pea and pea! it's devil's game!

"Your business is not to catch men with show,
"With homage to the perishable clay,
"But lift them over it, ignore it all,

"Make them forget there 's such a thing as flesh.
"Your business is to paint the souls of men—
"Man's soul, and it 's a fire, smoke

no, it's not. "It's vapour done up like a new-born babe

66 (In that shape when you die it leaves your mouth)
“It 's . . well, what matters talking, it 's the soul!
"Give us no more of body than shows soul !
"Here's Giotto, with his Saint a-praising God,
"That sets up praising,-why not stop with him?
"Why put all thoughts of praise out of our head
"With wonder at lines, colours, and what not?
"Paint the soul, never mind the legs and arms!
“Rub all out, try at it a second time !

“Oh, that white smallish female with the breasts,
“She 's just my niece . . . Herodias, I would say,—
"Who went and danced, and got men's heads cut off!
"Have it all out!" Now, is this sense, I ask?
A fine way to paint soul, by painting body
So ill, the eye can't stop there, must go further
And can't fare worse! Thus, yellow does for white
When what you put for yellow 's simply black,
And any sort of meaning looks intense
When all beside itself means and looks nought.
Why can't a painter lift each foot in turn,
Left foot and right foot, go a double step,
Make his flesh liker and his soul more like,
Both in their order? Take the prettiest face,
The Prior's niece . . . patron-saint--is it so pretty
You can't discover if it means hope, fear,

...

Sorrow or joy? won't beauty go with these?
Suppose I 've made her eyes all right and blue,
Can't I take breath and try to add life's flash,
And then add soul and heighten them threefold?
Or say there's beauty with no soul at all-
(I never saw it-put the case the same—)
If you get simple beauty and nought else,
You get about the best thing God invents :

That's somewhat: and you'll find the soul you have missed,

Within yourself, when you return him thanks.

"Rub all out!" Well, well, there 's my life, in short,

And so the thing has gone on ever since.

I'm grown a man no doubt, I 've broken bounds:

You should not take a fellow eight years old

And make him swear to never kiss the girls.
I'm my own master, paint now as I please—
Having a friend, you see, in the Corner-house!
Lord, it's fast holding by the rings in front-
Those great rings serve more purposes than just

“

To plant a flag in, or tie up a horse!

And yet the old schooling sticks, the old grave eyes
Are peeping o'er my shoulder as I work,

The heads shake still-" It 's art's decline, my son !
"You 're not of the true painters, great and old ;
"Brother Angelico 's the man, you'll find;

"Brother Lorenzo stands his single peer :

Fag on at flesh, you 'll never make the third ! Flower o' the pine,

You keep your mistr .

I'm not the third, then:

manners, and I'll stick to mine!
bless us, they must know!

Don't you think they 're the likeliest to know,
They with their Latin? So, I swallow my rage,
Clench my teeth, suck my lips in tight, and paint
To please them-sometimes do, and sometimes don't;
For, doing most, there 's pretty sure to come

A turn, some warm eve finds me at my saints-
A laugh, a cry, the business of the world-
(Flower o' the peach,

Death for us all, and his own life for each!)
And my whole soul revolves, the cup runs over,
The world and life 's too big to pass for a dream,
And I do these wild things in sheer despite,
And play the fooleries you catch me at,
In pure rage! The old mill-horse, out at grass
After hard years, throws up his stiff heels so,
Although the miller does not preach to him
The only good of grass is to make chaff.

What would men have? Do they like grass or no-
May they or may n't they? all I want 's the thing
Settled for ever one way. As it is,

You tell too many lies and hurt yourself:
Yon don't like what you only like too much,
You do like what, if given you at your word,
You find abundantly detestable.

For me, I think I speak as I was taught :

I always see the garden, and God there
A-making man's wife: and, my lesson learned,
The value and significance of flesh,

I can't unlearn ten minutes afterwards.

You understand me: I'm a beast, I know. But see, now-why, I see as certainly As that the morning-star 's about to shine, What will hap some day. We 've a youngster here Comes to our convent, studies what I do, Slouches and stares and lets no atom drop: His name is Guidi-he 'll not mind the monksThey call him Hulking Tom, he lets them talkHe picks my practice up-he 'll paint apace,

I hope so-though I never live so long,

I know what's sure to follow. You be judge!

You speak no Latin more than I, belike;
However, you 're my man, yon 've seen the world
-The beauty and the wonder and the power,
The shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades,
Changes, surprises,-and God made it all!
-For what? Do you feel thankful, ay or no,
For this fair town's face, yonder river's line,
The mountain round it and the sky above,
Much more the figures of man, woman, child,
These are the frame to? What 's it all about?
To be passed over, despised? or dwelt upon,
Wondered at? oh, this last of course!—you say.
But why not do as well as say,-paint these
Just as they are, careless what comes of it?
God's works-paint any one, and count it crime
To let a truth slip. Don't object, "His works
"Are here already; nature is complete :

66 Suppose you reproduce her—(which you can't)
"There's no advantage! you must beat her, then."
For, don't you mark? we 're made so that we love