Part 6 (2/2)
Plumed and turbaned they coentle ay princes in scarlet cloaks, coquettes with roses in their hair, ht have covered the tall Minster Tower, de school-boys with ruddyhis shoes under his aroblins, and all the troops just loosed from Noah's storm-tossed ark They walked, they strutted, they soared, they swah fire One sprite climbed up to the moon on a ladder reat hooked bill flew in and out a the rosy fruit He screamed so loud that Apollo turned in his chariot of flaolden arrows at him
This did not disturb the peacock in the least; for he spread his ges and flourished his wonderful, fire-tipped tail in the very face of the sun-God! Then came Venus--an exact copy of h and disposedly” like Queen Elizabeth, surrounded by a troop of lovely Cupids mounted on rose-tinted clouds, blown hither and thither by sinds, while all around danced flowers and streams and queer little japanese cherry-trees in pots! They were followed by jovial Pan with green hair and jewelled sandals, and by his side--I could scarcely believeher beads At a little distance were seen three dancers arm-in-arm, a lean, starved platitude, a rosy, dimpled joke, and a steel-ribbed ser of Nights ind-blown hair and Days with faggots on their backs All at once I saw the a a naked child in one hand and in the other a glea sword A bear crouched at her feet, and all about her swirled and glowed a ether, ”We are the will of God” Atom wedded atom, and cheing, changelesslike a buzz-saw
Just as I was thinking I would leave this scene of phantoroves of Slumber I noticed a commotion near one of the entrances toand buzzing that went round that e I saas Hoolden chain the white-beaked shi+ps of the Achaians bobbing their heads and squawking like so many white swans Plato and Mother Goose with the numerous children of the shoe came next Simple Simon, Jill, and Jack who had had his head mended, and the cat that fell into the creaiddy reel, while Plato solemnly discoursed on the laws of Topsyturvy Land Then followed gri Sappho” who danced a Schottische Aristophanes and Moliere joined for aat once, Moliere in Greek and Aristophanes in Gerht this odd, because it occurred to e before Aristophanes was born
Bright-eyed Shelley brought in a fluttering lark which burst into the song of Chaucer's chanticleer Henry Esave his hand in a stately minuet to Diana of the Crossways He evidently did not understand her nineteenth century wit; for he did not laugh Perhaps he had lost his taste for clever wo earnestly about things re said it was very warht
Suddenly there was a great claing aneo figures entered in lively dispute One was dressed in plain hoown over a suit of athered from their conversation that they were Cotton Mather and William Shakspere Mather insisted that the witches in ”Macbeth” should be caught and hanged Shakspere replied that the witches had already suffered enough at the hands of cohts of the Round Table, who s ”The Pope's Mule” and ”The Golden Bull” had a combat of history and fiction such as I had read of in books, but never before witnessed These little anie elephant which luh on its trunk The elephant changed suddenly to ”a rakish craft” (I do not knohat a rakish craft is; but this was very rakish and very crafty) It o by wild pirates of the southern seas; for clinging to the rigging, and jovially cheering as the shi+p went down, Ieyes, clad in a velveteen jacket As the shi+p disappeared froator--and stole his purse! But Miranda persuaded hiive it back Stevenson said, ”Who steals ood joke, as good as any he had heard in his day
This was the signal for a rushi+ng swar of half finished phrases, mutilated sentences, parodied sentiuish any phrases or ideas of ed, shrunken sentence that s of a fair idea with the light of genius shi+ning like a halo about its head
Ever and anon the dancers changed partners without invitation or perht, married in a measure, and joined hands without previous courtshi+p An incongruity is the wedding of two thoughts which have had no reasonable courtshi+p, andare apt to lead to do up of an ancient, ti the wedded couples were certain similes hitherto inviolable in their bachelorhood and spinsterhood, and held in great respect Their extraordinary proceedings nearly broke up the dance But the fatuity of their union was evident to them, and they parted Other si in discord They had been ed to the notorious society of Mixed Metaphors
A coarments of oblivion They seemed about to dance, then vanished They reappeared half a dozen times, but never unveiled their faces The imp Curiosity pulled Memory by the sleeve and said, ”Why do they run away? 'Tis strange knavery!” Out ran Me and collision it apprehended soht them in But when it tore off their ly co to conceal the punctuation rined to have had such a hard chase only to catch this sorry lot of graceless rogues
Into the rabble strode four stately giants who called themselves History, Philosophy, Law, and Medicine They see to join in a uests, they all split into frag in divisions, subdivisions, re-subdivisions of scientific nonsense! History split into philology, ethnology, anthropology, andof hairs Each speciality hugged its bit of knowledge and waltzed it round and round The rest of the coan to nod, and I felt drowsy yrations, a troop of fairies mercifully waved poppies over us all, the masque faded, my head fell, and I started Sleep had wakened me At my elbow I found my old friend Bottom
”Bottom,” I said, ”I have had a dreaht I was--there is no man can tell what The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of ue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was”
A CHANT OF DARKNESS
A CHANT OF DARKNESS
”_My wings are folded o'er h their silver shade appears, And through their lulling plu of sounds_”
_Shelley's ”Prometheus Unbound”_
I DARE not ask e are reft of light, Banished to our solitary isles alorious vision, To fade and vanish and leave us in the dark alone
The secret of God is upon our tabernacle; Into His th, with Him is wisdom, And His wisdom hath set darkness in our paths
_Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we caain Into the vast, unanswering dark_
O Dark! thou awful, sweet, and holy Dark!
In thy solemn spaces, beyond the human eye, God fashi+oned His universe; laid the foundations of the earth, Laid the measure thereof, and stretched the line upon it; Shut up the sea with doors, andfor it; Co, and, behold! chaos fled Before the uplifted face of the sun; Divided a water-course for the overflowing of waters; Sent rain upon the earth-- Upon the wilderness wherein there was no rew no tender herb, And, lo! there was greenness upon the plains, And the hills were clothed with beauty!