The Golden Legend Part 10

The churches are all decked with flowers.

The salutations among men Are but the Angel's words divine, "Christ is arisen!" and the bells Catch the glad murmur, as it swells, And chaunt together in their towers.

All hearts are glad; and free from care The faces of the people s.h.i.+ne.

See what a crowd is in the square, Gaily and gallantly arrayed!

_Elsie_. Let us go back; I am afraid!

_Prince Henry_. Nay, let us mount the church-steps here, Under the doorway's sacred shadow; We can see all things, and be freer From the crowd that madly heaves and presses!

_Elsie._ What a gay pageant! what bright dresses!

It looks like a flower besprinkled meadow.

What is that yonder on the square?

_Prince Henry_ A pulpit in the open air, And a Friar, who is preaching to the crowd With a voice so deep and clear and loud, That, if we listen, and give heed, His lowest words will reach the ear.

_Friar Cuthbert (gesticulating and cracking a postilion's whip)_ What ho! good people! do you not hear?

Das.h.i.+ng along at the top of his speed, Booted and spurred, on his jaded steed, A courier comes with words of cheer.

Courier! what is the news, I pray?

"Christ is arisen!" Whence come you? "From court."

Then I do not believe it; you say it in sport.

(_Cracks his whip again._)

There comes another, riding this way; We soon shall know what he has to say.

Courier! what are the tidings to-day?

"Christ is arisen!" Whence come you? "From town."

Then I do not believe it; away with you, clown.

(_Cracks his whip more violently._)

And here comes a third, who is spurring amain; What news do you bring, with your loose-hanging rein, Your spurs wet with blood, and your bridle with foam?

"Christ is arisen!" Whence come you? "From Rome."

Ah, now I believe. He is risen, indeed.

Ride on with the news, at the top of your speed!

(_Great applause among the crowd._)

To come back to my text! When the news was first spread That Christ was arisen indeed from the dead, Very great was the joy of the angels in heaven; And as great the dispute as to who should carry The tidings, thereof to the Virgin Mary, Pierced to the heart with sorrows seven.

Old Father Adam was first to propose, As being the author of all our woes; But he was refused, for fear, said they, He would stop to eat apples on the way!

Abel came next, but pet.i.tioned in vain, Because he might meet with his brother Cain!

Noah, too, was refused, lest his weakness for wine Should delay him at every tavern sign; And John the Baptist could not get a vote, On account of his old fas.h.i.+oned, camel's-hair coat; And the Penitent Thief, who died on the cross, Was reminded that all his bones were broken!

Till at last, when each in turn had spoken, The company being still at a loss, The Angel, who had rolled away the stone, Was sent to the sepulchre, all alone, And filled with glory that gloomy prison, And said to the Virgin, "The Lord is arisen!"

(_The Cathedral bells ring_.)

But hark! the bells are beginning to chime; And I feel that I am growing hoa.r.s.e.

I will put an end to my discourse, And leave the rest for some other time.

For the bells themselves are the best of preachers; Their brazen lips are learned teachers, From their pulpits of stone, in the upper air, Sounding aloft, without crack or flaw, Shriller than trumpets under the Law, Now a sermon and now a prayer.

The clangorous hammer is the tongue, This way, that way, beaten and swung, That from mouth of bra.s.s, as from Mouth of Gold, May be taught the Testaments, New and Old.

And above it the great crossbeam of wood Representeth the Holy Rood, Upon which, like the bell, our hopes are hung.

And the wheel wherewith it is swayed and rung Is the mind of man, that round and round Sways, and maketh the tongue to sound!

And the rope, with its twisted cordage three, Denoteth the Scriptural Trinity Of Morals, and Symbols, and History; And the upward and downward motions show That we touch upon matters high and low; And the constant change and trans.m.u.tation Of action and of contemplation, Downward, the Scripture brought from on high, Upward, exalted again to the sky; Downward, the literal interpretation, Upward, the Vision and Mystery!

And now, my hearers, to make an end, I have only one word more to say; In the church, in honor of Easter day, Will be represented a Miracle Play; And I hope you will all have the grace to attend.

Christ bring us at last So his felicity!

Pax vobisc.u.m! et Benedicite!

IN THE CATHEDRAL.

CHAUNT.

Kyrie Eleison!

Christe Eleison!

_Elsie._ I am at home here in my Father's house!

These paintings of the Saints upon the walls Have all familiar and benignant faces.

_Prince Henry._ The portraits of the family of G.o.d!

Thine own hereafter shall be placed among them.

_Elsie._ How very grand it is and wonderful!

Never have I beheld a church so splendid!

Such columns, and such arches, and such windows, So many tombs and statues in the chapels, And under them so many confessionals.

They must be for the rich. I should not like To tell my sins in such a church as this.

Who built it?

_Prince Henry._ A great master of his craft, Erwin von Steinbach; but not he alone, For many generations labored with him.

Children that came to see these Saints in stone, As day by day out of the blocks they rose, Grew old and died, and still the work went on, And on, and on, and is not yet completed.

The generation that succeeds our own Perhaps may finish it. The architect Built his great heart into these sculptured stones, And with him toiled his children, and their lives Were builded, with his own, into the walls, As offerings unto G.o.d. You see that statue Fixing its joyous, but deep-wrinkled eyes Upon the Pillar of the Angels yonder.

That is the image of the master, carved By the fair hand of his own child, Sabina.

_Elsie._ How beautiful is the column that he looks at!

_Prince Henry._ That, too, she sculptured. At the base of it Stand the Evangelists; above their heads Four Angels blowing upon marble trumpets, And over them the blessed Christ, surrounded By his attendant ministers, upholding The instruments of his pa.s.sion.

_Elsie._ O my Lord!

Would I could leave behind me upon earth Some monument to thy glory, such as this!

_Prince Henry._ A greater monument than this thou leavest In thine own life, all purity and love!

See, too, the Rose, above the western portal Flamboyant with a thousand gorgeous colors, The perfect flower of Gothic loveliness!

_Elsie._ And, in the gallery, the long line of statues, Christ with his twelve Apostles watching us.

(_A_ BISHOP _in armor, booted and spurred, pa.s.ses with his train._)

_Prince Henry._ But come away; we have not time to look.