The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 16, Pages 23-25
RECORDS OF WOMAN.—NO. V.
The Switzer's Wife.*[1]
Nor look nor tone revealeth aught
Save woman's quietness of thought;
And yet around her is a light
Of inward majesty and might.Arria, by M. J. J.
It was the time when children bound to meet
Their father’s homeward step from field or hill,
And when the herd's returning bells are sweet
In the Swiss valleys, and the Lakes grow still,
And the last note of that wild horn swells by,
Which haunts the Exile's heart with melody.
And lovely smiled full many an Alpine home,
Touch'd with the crimson of the dying hour,
Which lit its low roof by the torrent's foam,
And pierced its lattice through the vine-hung bower;
But one, the loveliest o'er the land that rose,
Then first look'd mournful in its green repose.
For Werner sat beneath the linden-tree,
That sent its lulling whispers through his door,
Ev’n as man sits whose heart alone would be
With some deep care, and thus can find no more
The accustom'd joy in all which Evening brings,
Gathering a household with her quiet wings.
His wife stood hush'd before him—sad, yet mild
In her beseeching mien;—he mark'd it not—
The silvery laughter of his bright-hair'd child
Rang from the greensward round the shelter'd spot,
But seem'd unheard;—until at last the boy
Raised from his heap'd up flowers a glance of joy,
And met his father's face:—but then a change
Pass'd swiftly o'er the brow of infant glee,
And a quick sense of something dimly strange
Brought him from play to stand beside the knee
So often climb'd, and lift his loving eyes
That shone through clouds of sorrowful surprise.
Then the proud bosom of the strong man shook;
—But tenderly his babe's fair mother laid
Her hand on his, and with a pleading look
Through tears half quivering,—o'er him bent, and said,
"What grief, dear friend, hath made thy heart its prey †[2]
That thou shouldst turn thee from our love away?
"It is too sad to see thee thus, my friend!
Mark'st thou the wonder on thy boy's fair brow
Missing the smile from thine?—Oh cheer thee! bend
To his soft arms, unseal thy thoughts e'en now!
- ↑ * Werner Stauffacher, one of the three confederates of the field of Grütli, had been alarmed by the envy with which the Austrian bailiff, Landenberg, had noticed the appearance of wealth and comfort which distinguished his dwelling. It was not, however, until roused by the entreaties of his wife, a woman who seems to have been of an heroic spirit, that he was induced to deliberate with his friends upon the measures by which Switzerland was finally delivered.
- ↑ † See the beautiful scene between Stauffacher and his wife in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell—"So ernst, mein freiund? Ich kenne dich nicht mehr," &c.
