'
"'Is there nobody here,' said I, 'who is happy with his Ideal--nobody but
has exchanged Ideals with some other poet?'
"'There is one,' she said. 'He comes of a northern tribe; and in his
life-time he never rhymed upon his unattainable lady, or if rhyme he did,
the accents never carried her name to the ears of the vulgar. Look
there.'
"She pointed to the river at our feet, and I knew the mounted figure that
was riding the ford, with a green-mantled lady beside him like the Fairy
Queen.
"Surely I had read of her, and knew her--
"'She whose blue eyes their secret told,
Though shaded by her locks of gold.'
"'They are different; I know not why. They are constant,' said Laura,
and rising with an air of chagrin, she disappeared among the boughs of
the trees that bear her name.
"'Unhappy hearts of poets,' I mused. 'Light things and sacred they are,
but even in their Paradise, and among their chosen, with every wish
fulfilled, and united to their beloved, they cannot be at rest!'
"Thus moralising, I wended my way to a crag, whence there was a wide
prospect. Certain poets were standing there, looking down into an abyss,
and to them I joined myself.
"'Ah, I cannot bear it!' said a voice, and, as he turned away, his brow
already clearing, his pain already forgotten, I beheld the august form of
Shakespeare.
"Marking my curiosity before it was expressed, he answered the unuttered
question.
Pages:
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227