Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece Part 32

I kiss the earth, and gaze upon the house, Whereby thou farest, queen most beauteous!

In the next the lover, who has pa.s.sed the whole night beneath his sweetheart's window, takes leave at the break of day. The feeling of the half-hour before dawn, when the sound of bells rises to meet the growing light, and both form a prelude to the glare and noise of day, is expressed with much unconscious poetry (p. 105):--

I see the dawn e'en now begin to peer: Therefore I take my leave, and cease to sing, See how the windows open far and near, And hear the bells of morning, how they ring!

Through heaven and earth the sounds of ringing swell; Therefore, bright jasmine flower, sweet maid, farewell!

Through heaven and Rome the sound of ringing goes; Farewell, bright jasmine flower, sweet maiden rose!

The next is more quaint (p. 99):--

I come by night, I come, my soul aflame; I come in this fair hour of your sweet sleep; And should I wake you up, it were a shame.

I cannot sleep, and lo! I break your sleep.

To wake you were a shame from your deep rest; Love never sleeps, nor they whom Love hath blest.

A very great many rispetti are simple panegyrics of the beloved, to find similitude for whose beauty heaven and earth are ransacked. The compliment of the first line in the following song is perfect (p.

23):--

Beauty was born with you, fair maid: The sun and moon inclined to you; On you the snow her whiteness laid The rose her rich and radiant hue: Saint Magdalen her hair unbound, And Cupid taught you how to wound-- How to wound hearts Dan Cupid taught: Your beauty drives me love-distraught.

The lady in the next was December's child (p. 25):--

O beauty, born in winter's night, Born in the month of spotless snow: Your face is like a rose so bright; Your mother may be proud of you!

She may be proud, lady of love, Such sunlight s.h.i.+nes her house above: She may be proud, lady of heaven, Such sunlight to her home is given.

The sea wind is the source of beauty to another (p. 16):--

Nay, marvel not you are so fair; For you beside the sea were born: The sea-waves keep you fresh and fair, Like roses on their leafy thorn.

If roses grow on the rose-bush, Your roses through midwinter blush; If roses bloom on the rose-bed, Your face can show both white and red.

The eyes of a fourth are compared, after quite a new and original fas.h.i.+on, to stars (p. 210):--

The moon hath risen her plaint to lay Before the face of Love Divine.

Saying in heaven she will not stay, Since you have stolen what made her s.h.i.+ne: Aloud she wails with sorrow wan,-- She told her stars and two are gone: They are not there; you have them now; They are the eyes in your bright brow.

Nor are girls less ready to praise their lovers, but that they do not dwell so much on physical perfection. Here is a pleasant greeting (p.

124):--

O welcome, welcome, lily white, Thou fairest youth of all the valley!

When I'm with you, my soul is light; I chase away dull melancholy.

I chase all sadness from my heart: Then welcome, dearest that thou art!

I chase all sadness from my side: Then welcome, O my love, my pride!

I chase all sadness far away: Then welcome, welcome, love, to-day!

The image of a lily is very prettily treated in the next (p 79):--

I planted a lily yestreen at my window; I set it yestreen, and to-day it sprang up: When I opened the latch and leaned out of my window, It shadowed my face with its beautiful cup.

O lily, my lily, how tall you are grown!

Remember how dearly I loved you, my own.

O lily, my lily, you'll grow to the sky!

Remember I love you for ever and aye.

The same thought of love growing like a flower receives another turn (p. 69):--

On yonder hill I saw a flower; And, could it thence be hither borne, I'd plant it here within my bower, And water it both eve and morn.

Small water wants the stem so straight; 'Tis a love-lily stout as fate.

Small water wants the root so strong: 'Tis a love-lily lasting long.

Small water wants the flower so sheen: 'Tis a love-lily ever green.

Envious tongues have told a girl that her complexion is not good. She replies, with imagery like that of Virgil's 'Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur' (p. 31):--

Think it no grief that I am brown, For all brunettes are born to reign: White is the snow, yet trodden down; Black pepper kings need not disdain: White snow lies mounded on the vales Black pepper's weighed in brazen scales.

Another song runs on the same subject (p. 38):--

The whole world tells me that I'm brown, The brown earth gives us goodly corn: The clove-pink too, however brown, Yet proudly in the hand 'tis borne.

They say my love is black, but he s.h.i.+nes like an angel-form to me: They say my love is dark as night; To me he seems a shape of light.

The freshness of the following spring song recalls the ballads of the Val de Vire in Normandy (p. 85):--

It was the morning of the first of May, Into the close I went to pluck a flower; And there I found a bird of woodland gay, Who whiled with songs of love the silent hour.

O bird, who fliest from fair Florence, how Dear love begins, I prithee teach me now!-- Love it begins with music and with song, And ends with sorrow and with sighs ere long.

Love at first sight is described (p. 79):--

The very moment that we met, That moment love began to beat: One glance of love we gave, and swore Never to part for evermore; We swore together, sighing deep, Never to part till Death's long sleep.

Here too is a memory of the first days of love (p. 79):--

If I remember, it was May When love began between us two: The roses in the close were gay, The cherries blackened on the bough.

O cherries black and pears so green!

Of maidens fair you are the queen.

Fruit of black cherry and sweet pear!

Of sweethearts you're the queen, I swear.

The troth is plighted with such promises as these (p. 230):--

Or ere I leave you, love divine, Dead tongues shall stir and utter speech, And running rivers flow with wine, And fishes swim upon the beach; Or ere I leave or shun you, these Lemons shall grow on orange-trees.

The girl confesses her love after this fas.h.i.+on (p. 86):--

Pa.s.sing across the billowy sea, I let, alas, my poor heart fall; I bade the sailors bring it me; They said they had not seen it fall.

I asked the sailors, one and two; They said that I had given it you.

I asked the sailors, two and three; They said that I had given it thee.

It is not uncommon to speak of love as a sea. Here is a curious play upon this image (p. 227):--

Ho, Cupid! Sailor Cupid, ho!

Lend me awhile that bark of thine; For on the billows I will go, To find my love who once was mine: And if I find her, she shall wear A chain around her neck so fair, Around her neck a glittering bond, Four stars, a lily, a diamond.

It is also possible that the same thought may occur in the second line of the next ditty (p. 120):--

Beneath the earth I'll make a way To pa.s.s the sea and come to you.