Page:Once a Week Dec 1860 to June 61.pdf/594

18, 1861.] Anguishes Cypris’ soul:—the dark blood trickles in rivers Down from his snowy side,—his eyes are dreamily dimming Under their lids; and the rose leaves his lip, and the kisses upon it Fade, and wax fainter, and faintest, and die, before Cypris can snatch them; Dear to the Goddess his kiss, though it be not the kiss of the living; Dear—but Adonis wists none of the mouth that kissed him a dying.

Ai! ai! wail for Adonis!—ai! ai! say the Loves for Adonis. Cruel! ah, cruel the wound on the thigh of the hunter Adonis, Yet in her innermost heart a deeper wears Queen Cytheræa. Round the fair dead boy his hounds go, dismally howling; Bound him the hill-spirits weep; but chiefest of all Aphrodite, Bitterly bitterly wailing, through all the long hollows laments him, Calling him Husband and Love—her Boy—her Syrian Hunter. Meantime dead in his gore lieth he—from groin unto shoulder Bloody; from breast to thigh; the fair young flank of Adonis, Heretofore white as the snow, dull now, and dabbled with purple.

Ai! ai! sad Cytheræa—the Loves all answer with ai! ai! All the cliffs echo it, all the oaks rustle it, Ai! for Adonis. Even the river-waves ripple the sorrows of sad Aphrodite,— Even the springs on the hills have a tear for the hunter Adonis; Yea, and the rose-leaves are redder for grief; for the grief Cytheræa Tells in the hollow dells, and utters to townland and woodland.

Ai! ai! Lady of Cyprus, “Lo! dead is my darling Adonis!” Echo answers thee back,—“Oh! dead is thy darling Adonis.” Who, good sooth, but would say, Ai! ai! for her passionate story? When that she saw and knew the wound of Adonis,—the death-wound— Saw the blood come red from the gash, and the white thigh a-waning, Wide outraught she her arms, and cried, “Ah! stay, my Adonis! Stay for me, ill-starred love!—stay! stay! till I take thee the last time, Hold thee and fold thee, and lips meet lips, and mingle together. Rouse thee—a little, Adonis! kiss back for the last time, beloved! Kiss me—kiss me—only so long as the life of a kiss is! So I may suck from thy soul to my mouth, to my innermost heart-beat, All the breath of thy life, and take the last of its love-spell Unto the uttermost drop—one kiss! I will tenderly keep it As I did thee, my Adonis, sith thou dost leave me, Adonis! Utterly hapless my fate, and utterly hopeless my grief is, Weeping my love who is dead to me; hating the Fate that hath slain him. Fled is my joy, like a dream; thou art dead, thrice lovely and longed for! Queen Cytheræa is widowed—the Loves in my bowers are idle— Gone my charmed girdle with thee; why, rash one, went’st thou a-hunting?— Mad wert thou, being so fair, to match thee with beasts of the forest.” .

various laws which were frequently enacted in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to check drunkenness, or, at least, immoderate drinking of wine and spirits, proved utterly abortive, owing to the social life of the middle ages, which was chiefly based upon quaffing.

Charlemagne himself was obliged to order that the counts and margraves should at least be sober when sitting in courts of justice, while the German emperors were, at their coronation ceremony, asked, “whether they promise, by the help of God, to lead a sober life!” Indeed, all the laws and regulations of the sixteenth century were mainly directed against drunkenness, but not against drinking. Even Luther was no enemy to wine; witness the large goblet (still extant at Nüremberg) which he presented to his friend Jonas.

A temperance society was at last formed by the aristocracy in the sixteenth century, and the following were among the rules:—

1. To drink daily only 14 cups of wine.

2. Italian, Spanish, or hot-spiced wines are prohibited, beyond 1 cup a-day, which must be deducted from the daily allowance.

3. For the further quenching of thirst beer is allowed.

4. These 14 cups must not be drunk at once, but after at least 3 intervals.

“ brougham, and splendid horses: but, hang it, Stenthorpe, coachee spoils all.”

“There we differ, Frank. To my mind, he is the right man in the right place.”

“How in the name of smallpox do you make that out?”

“Too long a story by half, my dear fellow, with the Slave Trade and the West India Islands looming in the distance. One thing is tolerably certain. But for my poor pock-marked coachman, who has incurred the dregs of your contempt, I should more likely be lying beneath the sods of Balaklava at this moment, than driving you down to the House.”

Startling as was this paradox, it must perforce give way to speculations upon the relative value of human chattels and palm oil, coolies from Madras, and coolies from Bombay. And it was not until an expression of Mr. Stenthorpe again