Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/205

BOOK VII.] To have, for instance, brought upon the scene

The champion, Jack the Giant-killer: Lo!

He dons his coat of darkness; on the stage

Walks, and achieves his wonders, from the eye

Of living Mortal covert, "as the moon

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave."

Delusion bold! and how can it be wrought?

The garb he wears is black as death, the word

"Invisible" flames forth upon his chest.

Here, too, were "forms and pressures of the time,"

Rough, bold, as Grecian comedy displayed

When Art was young; dramas of living men,

And recent things yet warm with life; a sea-fight,

Shipwreck, or some domestic incident

Divulged by Truth and magnified by Fame,

Such as the daring brotherhood of late

Set forth, too serious theme for that light place—

I mean, O distant Friend! a story drawn

From our own ground,—the Maid of Buttermere,—

And how, unfaithful to a virtuous wife

Deserted and deceived, the spoiler came

And wooed the artless daughter of the hills,

And wedded her, in cruel mockery

Of love and marriage bonds. These words to thee