THE THREE TROOPERS The scene is laid during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell (1653– 1658). Although the genius of the great Protector caused the name of England to be dreaded by her foreign enemies, the country was constantly disturbed by plots for the restoration of the exiled Stuarts. The three troopers of this poem are supposed to be concerned in one of these plots. LINE 1. the Devil tavern, a famous old inn in London, close to Temple Bar. Ben Jonson and his friends often met here. 5. At a time when it was high treason to attack the name or the person of Cromwell, his enemies used to drop a bit of bread in their glasses and drink the toast, "God send this crumb well down!" a punning curse on the Protector's name. 11. jerkins of buff, short coats made of yellow leather. 14. curs'd old London town. The troopers cursed London because it was a stronghold of Puritanism. 18. a clout, a rag. 37. stirrup cups, cups drunk before mounting to depart. 41. Temple Bar, the barrier which used to separate London proper from Westminster. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828-1882) Rossetti is one of the most interesting and important figures in the history of Victorian poetry. A painter of rare and original power, as well as a unique and subtle poet, he exerted an unparalleled influence over contemporary art. But it is difficult, if not impossible, to do him justice in such a collection as this; for the chief characteristic of Rossetti's poetry is its manner of expressing ideal conceptions in sensuous terms. In some few of his poems, indeed, he addresses a larger public, and tells directly and forcibly a simple and pathetic story. But his ballads are too long for insertion in this miscellany, and the mystic and subtle charm of his songs and sonnets appeals to a limited audience. The sonnet here given may serve, at least, as a characteristic example of his poetic art. It illustrates, also, Rossetti's not infrequent practice of writing verses to accompany his own pictures. MARY MAGDALENE AT THE DOOR OF SIMON THE PHARISEE The first eight lines of the sonnet are spoken by Mary's lover, the last six by the Magdalene herself. ALAS, SO LONG! This little song shows Rossetti's lyrical note and the dreamy melancholy that pervades so many of his poems. WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896) Morris was closely connected with the chief figures in the great revival of art in England in the middle of the last century. He was a pupil of Rossetti and an intimate friend of the great painter, BurneJones. He dedicated his first volume of verse to Rossetti, whose influence over his early life and thought was for a time supreme. The poems of his later years show him as one of the greatest masters of narrative verse since Chaucer. Morris, like Rossetti, cannot be adequately represented in this collection; for his early poems are for the most part not of a type to appeal to the general reader, and the more popular stories of the Earthly Paradise are too long to be printed here. The poem given here may serve as an example of Morris's love of the old romantic themes of chivalry. RIDING TOGETHER LINE 4. our Lady's feast, the festival of the Annunciation in March. 16. bream, a kind of fish. 18. the rood, the cross. The knights of this poem, if not crusaders, are at least on an expedition against the infidels, perhaps against the Moors of Spain. 48. cymbals. The cymbals were the distinguishing feature of Oriental, particularly of Moorish or Saracen, music. ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837-) Swinburne, the greatest of English living poets, completes, with Rossetti and Morris, the trio of the æsthetic school that in the third quarter of the last century brought a new music and a new beauty into English verse. Like Morris, he began as a disciple of Rossetti, to whom he dedicated his first published work. But he has been a far more prolific and versatile poet than his master. He has published over twenty volumes of plays and poems, and perhaps a dozen more of critical essays. Some of his poems handle repellent and morbid themes in such an outspoken fashion as to call down on him the wrath of the moralist; but all these poems could be omitted from his work, and his fame as a poet of children, of the sea, and of liberty would be none the less. Nor can the most rigid of moralists deny to Swinburne an almost unequaled mastery of English meter. In his hands the most difficult measures are but playthings, and he delights in forcing the stubborn English language to flow along unwonted channels. From ATALANTA IN CALYDON Atalanta in Calydon is a play in imitation of the old Greek dramas. It is perhaps the most successful of all such attempts to render into English something of the power and beauty of a Greek play. It is particularly remarkable for the beauty and lyric flow of its choruses, the first of which is here given. It is sung by a chorus of virgins to Artemis, or Diana, the virgin huntress. LINE 2. The mother of months, the first of the spring months. 5. nightingale. In this and the following lines the poet alludes to the Grecian story of Philomela. Tereus, a Thracian king, married Procne, an Athenian princess; later he committed an outrage on her sister Philomela, whose tongue he cut out to prevent her from revealing his crime. She painted her story, however, on a robe, and sent it to Procne, whereupon the two sisters took revenge on Tereus by killing his son, Itys, or Itylus, and serving him up at his father's table. When Tereus discovered the deed and attempted to kill the sisters, the gods interposed and changed them into birds, Procne into a swallow and Philomela into a nightingale, whose passionate song is supposed to lament her sorrows as a woman. Swinburne has written a beautiful poem, Itylus, on this legend. 10. Maiden most perfect, Artemis, who is also called "lady of light,” being the moon goddess. 38. the oat, the pastoral flute, made out of oat straw. 41. Pan. See note on Mrs. Browning's A Musical Instrument, l. 1. 44. The Mænad and the Bassarid, two different names for the halffrenzied women who celebrated the orgies of Bacchus in the woods and mountains of Greece. 48. The god, Bacchus. 49. The ivy, like the vine, a plant sacred to Bacchus.- the Bacchanal's. A Bacchanal was a woman worshiper of Bacchus. A MATCH This 'rose-leaf of a lyric' is a charming specimen of Swinburne's singing gift in the lighter vein. It would perhaps tax the ingenuity of a critic to discover a positive and definite meaning in each of the playful stanzas. The song is like that of a bird; it is a thing of pure delight in its own beauty and in the happy mood from which it springs. ADIEUX À MARIE STUART From early youth Swinburne had been greatly interested in the story of Mary Queen of Scots. Before he was thirty he wrote a drama, Chastelard, on an episode in her career, and followed this with the plays Bothwell and Mary Stuart. The poem Adieux à Marie Stuart was written to celebrate the conclusion of the trilogy. It is one of the simplest and strongest of Swinburne's lyrics. 17. border, the border country between Scotland and England. 24. Hermitage, a castle on the Scottish Border, where Queen Mary once visited her wounded lover, Both well. 30. teen, sorrow, loss. 81. In this stanza Swinburne alludes to some of the over-zealous defenders of Mary, who could find nothing wrong in her conduct. 85. The reference is to Mary's enemies during her life, who, in Swinburne's opinion, harmed her less than her over-zealous defenders have since done. 106. twenty years. Swinburne wrote his first play on Mary Queen of Scots about twenty years before he wrote this poem. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894) Poet, essayist, and novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson is perhaps the most fascinating personality of the later nineteenth century. His love of romance and adventure, his sunny good humor, his light-hearted courage in the presence of poverty, sickness, and death, endeared him to all who knew him, and have won for him a place in the hearts of thousands who know him only through his works. Although he is usually thought of as a novelist, he has written some very charming poetry in the old Scotch tongue of his ancestors as well as in English. WANDERING WILLIE This poem was written during Stevenson's long exile in the South Seas, "almost the only complaint, even in dramatic form," says his biographer, "that he allowed himself to make." It would be hard to find another poem in the English language so full of the longing for home that marks the Scot abroad. The name is taken from an old Scotch air, "the saddest of our country tunes," said Stevenson, "which sets folks weeping in a tavern." REQUIEM Stevenson was This perfect little poem was written in a sick room. suffering at that time from a terrible complication of diseases; he was half blind, forbidden to speak aloud, unable to use his right hand, and in daily danger of sudden death. But his spirit was as strong and cheerful as in his happiest hours, and the poem gives expression at once to his joy in life and to his calm readiness for death. After his death these lines were inscribed upon the bronze plate that marks his mountain grave in distant Samoa. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (1801-1890) Newman, one of the greatest of English preachers and theological writers, was famous in his day first as a leader in the High Church movement at Oxford, and then, under the title of Cardinal, as the English champion of the Church of Rome. He wrote not a little verse, but almost the only poem of his which lives is the lovely hymn, Lead, Kindly Light. It is given here as an example, too rare in English, of the hymn which is at the same time a true poem. RUDYARD KIPLING (1865-) Kipling is probably the most widely read and generally admired poet and story-teller in the English language to-day. He was born in India, and has lived in the United States, England, and Africa. His wide knowledge of men and countries and his quick sympathy with all forms of toil and struggle, have given his verse a popularity such as few even |