Thanks to Monsieur. Monsieur has shown A skill PRÉVILLE could not disown.
You flatter me. We need no skill
To act so nearly what we will.
Nay, what may come to pass, if Fate
And Madame bid me cultivate
THE LADY (anticipating).
Alas!-no farther than the gate.
Monsieur, besides, is too polite
To profit by a jest so slight.
Which must not serve Monsieur, I fear,
Beyond the little grating here.
M. JOLICEUR (aside).
(She's perfect. One may push too far,
(They reach the gates.)
Here we are.
(Placing her in the carriage.)
And Madame goes?
Your coachman ? . . Can I?..
M JOLICŒUR (with pathos).
It is too hard!
(Laying his hand on the grating.) To find one's Paradise is barred!!
Nay." Virtue is her own Reward!"
BEAU-vau ?-BEAU-vallon?--BEAU-manoir ?—
But that's a detail!
(Waving his hand after the carriage.)
E lay our story in the East.
Because 'tis Eastern? Not the least
We place it there because we fear
To bring its parable too near,
And seem to touch with impious hand
Our dear, confiding native land.)
HAROUN ALRASCHID, in the days
He went about his vagrant ways,
And prowled at eve for good or bad
In lanes and alleys of BAGDAD,
Once found, at edge of the bazaar,
E'en where the poorest workers are,
A Carver.
Fair his work and fine
With mysteries of inlaced design,
And shapes of shut significance
To aught but an anointed glance,-
The dreams and visions that grow plain
In darkened chambers of the brain.
And all day busily he wrought
From dawn to eve, but no one bought ;
Save when some Jew with look askant,
Or keen-eyed Greek from the Levant,
Would pause awhile,-depreciate,-
Then buy a month's work by the weight,
Bearing it swiftly over seas
To garnish rich men's treasuries.
And now for long none bought at all,
So lay he sullen in his stall.
Him thus withdrawn the Caliph found,
And smote his staff upon the ground-
"Ho, there, within? Hast wares to sell?
Or slumber'st, having dined too well?"
"Dined,'" quoth the man, with angry eyes,
"How should I dine when no one buys?"
'Nay," said the other, answering low,—
"Nay, I but jested. Is it so?
Take then this coin, . . . but take beside
A counsel, friend, thou hast not tried.
This craft of thine, the mart to suit,
Is too refined, remote,—minute;
These small conceptions can but fail;
'Twere best to work on larger scale,
And rather choose such themes as wear
More of the earth and less of air:
The fisherman that hauls his net,—
The merchants in the market set,-
The couriers posting in the street,—
The gossips as they pass and greet,--
These these are clear to all men's eyes,
Therefore with these they sympathize.
Further (neglect not this advice!)
Be sure to ask three times the price."
The Carver sadly shook his head;
He knew 'twas truth the Caliph said.
From that day forth his work was planned
So that the world might understand.
He carved it deeper, and more plain;
He carved it thrice as large again;
He sold it, too, for thrice the cost;
-Ah, but the Artist that was lost!
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