Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/420

 {{ppoem|start=stanza|end=follow|:1st Lady. He muses.


 * Gersa.O, Fortune, where will this end?


 * Sigifred. I guess his purpose! Indeed he must not have

That pestilence brought in,—that cannot be, There we must stop him.


 * Gersa.{{em|9}}I am lost! Hush, hush!

He is about to rave again.


 * Ludolph. A barrier of guilt! I was the fool,

She was the cheater! Who's the cheater now, And who the fool? The entrapp'd, the caged fool, The bird-limed raven } She shall croak to death Secure! Methinks I have her in my fist, To crush her with my heel! Wait, wait! I marvel My father keeps away. Good friend—ah! Sigifred? Do bring him to me,—and Erminia, I fain would see before I sleep—and Ethelbert, That he may bless me, as I know he will, Though I have cursed him.


 * Sigifred.Rather suffer me

To lead you to them.


 * Ludolph.No, excuse me,—no!

The day is not quite done. Go, bring them hither. >>>[Exit. Certes, a father's smile should, like sunlight, Slant on my sheaved harvest of ripe bliss. Besides, I thirst to pledge my lovely bride In a deep goblet: let me see—what wine? The strong Iberian juice, or mellow Greek? Or pale Calabrian? Or the Tuscan grape? Or of old Ætna's pulpy wine-presses, Black stain'd with the fat vintage, as it were}}