PIPPA PASSES.
61
And just when out of her soft fifty changes
No unfamiliar face might overlook me—
Suddenly God took me.
[Pippa passes.
No unfamiliar face might overlook me—
Suddenly God took me.
[Pippa passes.
Monsignor [springing up]. My people—one and all—all—within there! Gag this villain—tie him hand and foot! He dares … I know not half he dares—but remove him—quick! Miserere mei, Domine! Quick, I say!
Scene.—Pippa’s chamber again. She enters it.
The bee with his comb,
The mouse at her dray,
The grub in his tomb,
Wile winter away;
But the fire-fly and hedge-shrew and lob-worm, I pray,
How fare they?
Ha, ha, thanks for your counsel, my Zanze!
“Feast upon lampreys, quaff Breganze”—
The summer of life so easy to spend,
And care for to-morrow so soon put away!
But winter hastens at summer’s end,
And fire-fly, hedge-shrew, lob-worm, pray,
How fare they?
No bidding me then to … what did Zanze say?
“Pare your nails pearlwise, get your small feet shoes
More like” … (what said she?)—“and less like canoes!”
How pert that girl was!—would I be those pert
Impudent staring women! It had done me,
However, surely no such mighty hurt
To learn his name who passed that jest upon me:
The mouse at her dray,
The grub in his tomb,
Wile winter away;
But the fire-fly and hedge-shrew and lob-worm, I pray,
How fare they?
Ha, ha, thanks for your counsel, my Zanze!
“Feast upon lampreys, quaff Breganze”—
The summer of life so easy to spend,
And care for to-morrow so soon put away!
But winter hastens at summer’s end,
And fire-fly, hedge-shrew, lob-worm, pray,
How fare they?
No bidding me then to … what did Zanze say?
“Pare your nails pearlwise, get your small feet shoes
More like” … (what said she?)—“and less like canoes!”
How pert that girl was!—would I be those pert
Impudent staring women! It had done me,
However, surely no such mighty hurt
To learn his name who passed that jest upon me:
