The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

3. An unidentified or imaginary sculptor. The of his young admirers such as Browning, whose Count of Tyrol had his capital at Innsbruck. liberalism was then as passionate as Wordsworth's 1. William Wordsworth, who had been an ardent had once been. libera! in his youth, had become a political con-2. Browning here alludes to the "thirty pieces of servative in later years. In old age, when he silver" for which Judas betrayed lesus (Matthew accepted a grant of money from the government 26.14-16). and the office ol poet laureate, he alienated some 3. Symbol of the office of poet laureate.

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Ho w THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS / 125 7

Lost all the others she lets us devote; 5 They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, So much was theirs who so little allowed: How all our copper had gone for his service! Rags�were they purple, his heart had been proud! We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him, 10 Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, Made him our pattern to live and to die! Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, Burns, Shelley, were with us�they watch from their graves! 15 He alone breaks from the van4 and the freemen �He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!

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We shall march prospering�not through his presence; Songs may inspirit us�not from his lyre; Deeds will be done�while he boasts his quiescence, 20 Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire: Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more, One task more declined, one more footpath untrod, One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels, One wrong more to man, one more insult to God! 25 Life's night begins: let him never come back to us! There would be doubt, hesitation and pain, Forced praise on our part�the glimmer of twilight, Never glad confident morning again! Best fight on well, for we taught him�strike gallantly, 30 Menace our heart ere we master his own; Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us, Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!

1843 1845

How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix1

(16-)

I I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; "Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew; "Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through; s Behind shut the postern,0 the lights sank to rest, side door And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

4. Vanguard of the army of liberalism. ders and Spain, was an imaginary one. In 1889 1. The distance between Ghent, in Flanders, and Thomas Edison prepared a cylinder recording of Aix-la-Chapelle (now Aachen, in Germany) is Browning's recitation of the opening lines of this about one hundred miles. Browning said that the poem. incident, occurring during the wars between Flan

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125 8 / ROBERT BROWNING

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Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,

10 Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique0 right, spur or pommel Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.

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'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear;

is At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see; At Diiffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be; And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime, So, Joris broke silence with, "Yet there is time!"

4

At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,

20 And against him the cattle stood black every one, To stare through the mist at us galloping past, And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last, With resolute shoulders, each butting away The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray:

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25 And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track; And one eye's black intelligence�ever that glance O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance! And the thick heavy spume-flakes which ay and anon

30 His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.

6 By Hasselt, Dirck groaned; and cried Joris, "Stay spur! Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, We'll remember at Aix"�for one heard the quick wheeze Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees, 35 And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank.

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So, we were left galloping, Joris and 1, Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky; The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh,

40 'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff; Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white, And "Gallop," gasped Joris, "for Aix is in sight!"

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"How they'll greet us!"�and all in a moment his roan Rolled neck and croup0 over, lay dead as a stone; rump

45 And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim, And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim.

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THE BISHOP ORDERS HIS TOMB / 1259