第 28 节
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向前 更新:2021-02-20 05:46 字数:9322
re rarely is wanting Some voice at her side; with an evil enchanting To conjure them to her。〃 〃O lady; beware! At this moment; around me I search everywhere For a clew to your words〃 〃You mistake them;〃 she said; Half fearing; indeed; the effect they had made。 〃I was putting a mere hypothetical case。〃 With a long look of trouble he gazed in her face。 〃Woe to him; 。 。 。〃 he exclaim'd 。 。 。 〃woe to him that shall feel Such a hope! for I swear; if he did but reveal One glimpse;it should be the last hope of his life!〃 The clench'd hand and bent eyebrow betoken'd the strife She had roused in his heart。 〃You forget;〃 she began; 〃That you menace yourself。 You yourself are the man That is guilty。 Alas! must it ever be so? Do we stand in our own light; wherever we go; And fight our own shadows forever? O think! The trial from which you; the stronger ones; shrink; You ask woman; the weaker one; still to endure; You bid her be true to the laws you abjure; To abide by the ties you yourselves rend asunder; With the force that has fail'd you; and that too; when under The assumption of rights which to her you refuse; The immunity claim'd for yourselves you abuse! Where the contract exists; it involves obligation To both husband and wife; in an equal relation。 You unloose; in asserting your own liberty; A knot; which; unloosed; leaves another as free。 Then; O Alfred! be juster at heart: and thank Heaven That Heaven to your wife such a nature has given That you have not wherewith to reproach her; albeit You have cause to reproach your own self; could you see it!〃
VI。
In the silence that follow'd the last word she said; In the heave of his chest; and the droop of his head; Poor Lucile mark'd her words had sufficed to impart A new germ of motion and life to that heart Of which he himself had so recently spoken As dead to emotionexhausted; or broken! New fears would awaken new hopes in his life。 In the husband indifferent no more to the wife She already; as she had foreseen; could discover That Matilda had gain'd at her hands; a new lover。 So after some moments of silence; whose spell They both felt; she extended her hand to him。 。 。 。
VII。
〃Well?〃
VIII。
〃Lucile;〃 he replied; as that soft quiet hand In his own he clasp'd warmly; 〃I both understand And obey you。〃 〃Thank Heaven!〃 she murmur'd。 〃O yet; One word; I beseech you! I cannot forget;〃 He exclaim'd; 〃we are parting for life。 You have shown My pathway to me: but say; what is your own?〃 The calmness with which until then she had spoken In a moment seem'd strangely and suddenly broken。 She turn'd from him nervously; hurriedly。 〃Nay; I know not;〃 she murmur'd; 〃I follow the way Heaven leads me; I cannot foresee to what end。 I know only that far; far away it must tend From all places in which we have met; or might meet。 Far away!onward upward!〃 A smile strange and sweet As the incense that rises from some sacred cup And mixes with music; stole forth; and breathed up Her whole face; with those words。 〃Wheresoever it be; May all gentlest angels attend you!〃 sighed he; 〃And bear my heart's blessing wherever you are!〃 And her hand; with emotion; he kiss'd。
IX。
From afar That kiss was; alas! by Matilda beheld。 With far other emotions: her young bosom swell'd; And her young cheek with anger was crimson'd。 The Duke Adroitly attracted towards it her look By a faint but significant smile。
X。
Much ill…construed; Renown'd Bishop Berkeley has fully; for one; strew'd With arguments page upon page to teach folks That the world they inhabit is only a hoax。 But it surely is hard; since we can't do without them; That our senses should make us so oft wish to doubt them!
CANTO III。
I。
When first the red savage call'd Man strode; a king; Through the wilds of creationthe very first thing That his naked intelligence taught him to feel Was the shame of himself; and the wish to conceal Was the first step in art。 From the apron which Eve In Eden sat down out of fig…leaves to weave; To the furbelow'd flounce and the broad crinoline Of my ladyyou all know of course whom I mean This art of concealment has greatly increas'd。 A whole world lies cryptic in each human breast; And that drama of passions as old as the hills; Which the moral of all men in each man fulfils; Is only reveal'd now and then to our eyes In the newspaper…files and the courts of assize。
II。
In the group seen so lately in sunlight assembled; 'Mid those walks over which the laburnum…bough trembled; And the deep…bosom'd lilac; emparadising The haunts where the blackbird and thrush flit and sing; The keenest eye could but have seen; and seen only; A circle of friends; minded not to leave lonely The bird on the bough; or the bee on the blossom; Conversing at ease in the garden's green bosom; Like those who; when Florence was yet in her glories; Cheated death and kill'd time with Boccaccian stories。 But at length the long twilight more deeply grew shaded; And the fair night the rosy horizon invaded。 And the bee in the blossom; the bird on the bough; Through the shadowy garden were slumbering now。 The trees only; o'er every unvisited walk; Began on a sudden to whisper and talk。 And; as each little sprightly and garrulous leaf Woke up with an evident sense of relief; They all seem'd to be saying 。 。 。 〃Once more we're alone; And; thank Heaven; those tiresome people are gone!〃
III。
Through the deep blue concave of the luminous air; Large; loving; and languid; the stars here and there; Like the eyes of shy passionate women; look'd down O'er the dim world whose sole tender light was their own; When Matilda; alone; from her chamber descended; And enter'd the garden; unseen; unattended。 Her forehead was aching and parch'd; and her breast By a vague inexpressible sadness oppress'd: A sadness which led her; she scarcely knew how; And she scarcely knew why 。 。 。 (save; indeed; that just now The house; out of which with a gasp she had fled Half stifled; seem'd ready to sink on her head) 。 。 。 Out into the night air; the silence; the bright Boundless starlight; the cool isolation of night! Her husband that day had look'd once in her face; And press'd both her hands in a silent embrace; And reproachfully noticed her recent dejection With a smile of kind wonder and tacit affection。 He; of late so indifferent and listless! 。 。 。 at last Was he startled and awed by the change which had pass'd O'er the once radiant face of his young wife? Whence came That long look of solicitous fondness? 。 。 。 the same Look and language of quiet affectionthe look And the language; alas! which so often she took For pure love in the simple repose of its purity Her own heart thus lull'd to a fatal security! Ha! would he deceive her again by this kindness? Had she been; then; O fool! in her innocent blindness; The sport of transparent illusion? ah folly! And that feeling; so tranquil; so happy; so holy; She had taken; till then; in the heart; not alone Of her husband; but also; indeed; in her own; For true love; nothing else; after all; did it prove But a friendship profanely familiar? 〃And love? 。 。 。 What was love; then? 。 。 。 not calm; not securescarcely kind; But in one; all intensest emotions combined: Life and death: pain and rapture?〃 Thus wandering astray; Led by doubt; through the darkness she wander'd away。 All silently crossing; recrossing the night。 With faint; meteoric; miraculous light; The swift…shooting stars through the infinite burn'd; And into the infinite ever return'd。 And silently o'er the obscure and unknown In the heart of Matilda there darted and shone Thoughts; enkindling like meteors the deeps; to expire; Leaving traces behind them of tremulous fire。
IV。
She enter'd that arbor of lilacs; in which The dark air with odors hung heavy and rich; Like a soul that grows faint with desire。 'Twas the place In which she so lately had sat face to face; With her husband;and her; the pale stranger detested Whose presence her heart like a plague had infested。 The whole spot with evil remembrance was haunted。 Through the darkness there rose on the heart which it daunted; Each dreary detail of that desolate day; So full; and yet so incomplete。 Far away The acacias were muttering; like mischievous elves; The whole story over again to themselves; Each word;and each word was a wound! By degrees Her memory mingled its voice with the trees。
V。
Like the whisper Eve heard; when she paused by the root Of the sad tree of knowledge; and gazed on its fruit; To the heart of Matilda the trees seem'd to hiss Wild instructions; revealing man's last right; which is The right of reprisals。 An image uncertain; And vague; dimly shaped itself forth on the