Part 34

I think it may be of ‘Corinthian Brass,’ Which was a mixture of all metals, but The brazen uppermost). Kind reader! pass This long parenthesis: I could not shut It sooner for the soul of me, and class My faults even with your own! which meaneth, Put A kind construction upon them and me: But that you won’t—then don’t—I am not less free.

’Tis time we should return to plain narration, And thus my narrative proceeds:—Dudu, With every kindness short of ostentation, Show’d Juan, or Juanna, through and through This labyrinth of females, and each station Described—what ’s strange—in words extremely few: I have but one simile, and that ’s a blunder, For wordless woman, which is silent thunder.

And next she gave her (I say her, because The gender still was epicene, at least In outward show, which is a saving clause) An outline of the customs of the East, With all their chaste integrity of laws, By which the more a haram is increased, The stricter doubtless grow the vestal duties Of any supernumerary beauties.

And then she gave Juanna a chaste kiss: Dudu was fond of kissing—which I’m sure That nobody can ever take amiss, Because ’tis pleasant, so that it be pure, And between females means no more than this— That they have nothing better near, or newer. ‘Kiss’ rhymes to ‘bliss’ in fact as well as verse— I wish it never led to something worse.

In perfect innocence she then unmade Her toilet, which cost little, for she was A child of Nature, carelessly array’d: If fond of a chance ogle at her glass, ’Twas like the fawn, which, in the lake display’d, Beholds her own shy, shadowy image pass, When first she starts, and then returns to peep, Admiring this new native of the deep.

And one by one her articles of dress Were laid aside; but not before she offer’d Her aid to fair Juanna, whose excess Of modesty declined the assistance proffer’d: Which pass’d well off—as she could do no less; Though by this politesse she rather suffer’d, Pricking her fingers with those cursed pins, Which surely were invented for our sins,—

Making a woman like a porcupine, Not to be rashly touch’d. But still more dread, O ye! whose fate it is, as once ’twas mine, In early youth, to turn a lady’s maid;— I did my very boyish best to shine In tricking her out for a masquerade; The pins were placed sufficiently, but not Stuck all exactly in the proper spot.

But these are foolish things to all the wise, And I love wisdom more than she loves me; My tendency is to philosophise On most things, from a tyrant to a tree; But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies. What are we? and whence came we? what shall be Our ultimate existence? what ’s our present? Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.

There was deep silence in the chamber: dim And distant from each other burn’d the lights, And slumber hover’d o’er each lovely limb Of the fair occupants: if there be sprites, They should have walk’d there in their sprightliest trim, By way of change from their sepulchral sites, And shown themselves as ghosts of better taste Than haunting some old ruin or wild waste.

Many and beautiful lay those around, Like flowers of different hue, and clime, and root, In some exotic garden sometimes found, With cost, and care, and warmth induced to shoot. One with her auburn tresses lightly bound, And fair brows gently drooping, as the fruit Nods from the tree, was slumbering with soft breath, And lips apart, which show’d the pearls beneath.

One with her flush’d cheek laid on her white arm, And raven ringlets gather’d in dark crowd Above her brow, lay dreaming soft and warm; And smiling through her dream, as through a cloud The moon breaks, half unveil’d each further charm, As, slightly stirring in her snowy shroud, Her beauties seized the unconscious hour of night All bashfully to struggle into light.

This is no bull, although it sounds so; for ’Twas night, but there were lamps, as hath been said. A third’s all pallid aspect offer’d more The traits of sleeping sorrow, and betray’d Through the heaved breast the dream of some far shore Beloved and deplored; while slowly stray’d (As night-dew, on a cypress glittering, tinges The black bough) tear-drops through her eyes’ dark fringes.

A fourth as marble, statue-like and still, Lay in a breathless, hush’d, and stony sleep; White, cold, and pure, as looks a frozen rill, Or the snow minaret on an Alpine steep, Or Lot’s wife done in salt,—or what you will;— My similes are gather’d in a heap, So pick and choose—perhaps you’ll be content With a carved lady on a monument.

And lo! a fifth appears;—and what is she? A lady of a ‘certain age,’ which means Certainly aged—what her years might be I know not, never counting past their teens; But there she slept, not quite so fair to see, As ere that awful period intervenes Which lays both men and women on the shelf, To meditate upon their sins and self.

But all this time how slept, or dream’d, Dudu? With strict inquiry I could ne’er discover, And scorn to add a syllable untrue; But ere the middle watch was hardly over, Just when the fading lamps waned dim and blue, And phantoms hover’d, or might seem to hover, To those who like their company, about The apartment, on a sudden she scream’d out:

And that so loudly, that upstarted all The Oda, in a general commotion: Matron and maids, and those whom you may call Neither, came crowding like the waves of ocean, One on the other, throughout the whole hall, All trembling, wondering, without the least notion More than I have myself of what could make The calm Dudu so turbulently wake.

But wide awake she was, and round her bed, With floating draperies and with flying hair, With eager eyes, and light but hurried tread, And bosoms, arms, and ankles glancing bare, And bright as any meteor ever bred By the North Pole,—they sought her cause of care, For she seem’d agitated, flush’d, and frighten’d, Her eye dilated and her colour heighten’d.

But what was strange—and a strong proof how great A blessing is sound sleep—Juanna lay As fast as ever husband by his mate In holy matrimony snores away. Not all the clamour broke her happy state Of slumber, ere they shook her,—so they say At least,—and then she, too, unclosed her eyes, And yawn’d a good deal with discreet surprise.

And now commenced a strict investigation, Which, as all spoke at once and more than once, Conjecturing, wondering, asking a narration, Alike might puzzle either wit or dunce To answer in a very clear oration. Dudu had never pass’d for wanting sense, But, being ‘no orator as Brutus is,’ Could not at first expound what was amiss.

At length she said, that in a slumber sound She dream’d a dream, of walking in a wood— A ‘wood obscure,’ like that where Dante found Himself in at the age when all grow good; Life’s half-way house, where dames with virtue crown’d Run much less risk of lovers turning rude; And that this wood was full of pleasant fruits, And trees of goodly growth and spreading roots;

And in the midst a golden apple grew,— A most prodigious pippin,—but it hung Rather too high and distant; that she threw Her glances on it, and then, longing, flung Stones and whatever she could pick up, to Bring down the fruit, which still perversely clung To its own bough, and dangled yet in sight, But always at a most provoking height;—

That on a sudden, when she least had hope, It fell down of its own accord before Her feet; that her first movement was to stoop And pick it up, and bite it to the core; That just as her young lip began to ope Upon the golden fruit the vision bore, A bee flew out and stung her to the heart, And so—she awoke with a great scream and start.

All this she told with some confusion and Dismay, the usual consequence of dreams Of the unpleasant kind, with none at hand To expound their vain and visionary gleams. I’ve known some odd ones which seem’d really plann’d Prophetically, or that which one deems A ‘strange coincidence,’ to use a phrase By which such things are settled now-a-days.

The damsels, who had thoughts of some great harm, Began, as is the consequence of fear, To scold a little at the false alarm That broke for nothing on their sleeping car. The matron, too, was wroth to leave her warm Bed for the dream she had been obliged to hear, And chafed at poor Dudu, who only sigh’d, And said that she was sorry she had cried.

‘I’ve heard of stories of a cock and bull; But visions of an apple and a bee, To take us from our natural rest, and pull The whole Oda from their beds at half-past three, Would make us think the moon is at its full. You surely are unwell, child! we must see, To-morrow, what his Highness’s physician Will say to this hysteric of a vision.

‘And poor Juanna, too—the child’s first night Within these walls to be broke in upon With such a clamour! I had thought it right That the young stranger should not lie alone, And, as the quietest of all, she might With you, Dudu, a good night’s rest have known; But now I must transfer her to the charge Of Lolah—though her couch is not so large.’

Lolah’s eyes sparkled at the proposition; But poor Dudu, with large drops in her own, Resulting from the scolding or the vision, Implored that present pardon might be shown For this first fault, and that on no condition (She added in a soft and piteous tone) Juanna should be taken from her, and Her future dreams should all be kept in hand.

She promised never more to have a dream, At least to dream so loudly as just now; She wonder’d at herself how she could scream— ’Twas foolish, nervous, as she must allow, A fond hallucination, and a theme For laughter—but she felt her spirits low, And begg’d they would excuse her; she’d get over This weakness in a few hours, and recover.