XI
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ow you must know that when the first dizzinessOf flap-hats and buff-coats and jack-boots subsided,The Duke put this question, "The Duke's part provided,Had not the Duchess some share in the business?" 255For out of the mouth of two or three witnessesDid he establish all fit-or-unfitnesses:And, after much laying of heads together,Somebody's cap got a notable featherBy the announcement with proper unction 260That he had discovered the lady's function;Since ancient authors gave this tenet,"When horns wind a mort and the deer is at siege,Let the dame of the castle prick forth on her jennet,And, with water to wash the hands of her liege 265In a clean ewer with a fair toweling,Let her preside at the disemboweling."Now, my friend, if you had so little religionAs to catch a hawk, some falcon-lanner,And thrust her broad wings like a banner 270Into a coop for a vulgar pigeon;And if day by day and week by weekYou cut her claws, and sealed her eyes,And clipped her wings, and tied her beak,Would it cause you any great surprise 275If, when you decided to give her an airing,You found she needed a little preparing?--I say, should you be such a curmudgeon,If she clung to the perch, as to take it in dudgeon?Yet when the Duke to his lady signified, 280Just a day before, as he judged most dignified,In what a pleasure she was to participate--And, instead of leaping wide in flashes,Her eyes just lifted their long lashes,As if pressed by fatigue even he could not dissipate, 285And duly acknowledged the Duke's forethought,But spoke of her health, if her health were worth aught,Of the weight by day and the watch by night,And much wrong now that used to be right,So, thanking him, declined the hunting-- 290Was conduct ever more affronting?With all the ceremony settled--With the towel ready, and the sewerPolishing up his oldest ewer,And the jennet pitched upon, a piebald, 295Black-barred, cream-coated, and pink eye-balled--No wonder if the Duke was nettled!And when she persisted nevertheless--Well, I suppose here's the time to confessThat there ran half round our lady's chamber 300A balcony none of the hardest to clamber;And that Jacynth, the tire-woman, ready in waiting,Stayed in call outside, what need of relating?And since Jacynth was like a June rose, why, a ferventAdorer of Jacynth of course was your servant; 305And if she had the habit to peep through the casement,How could I keep at any vast distance?And so, as I say, on the lady's persistence,The Duke, dumb-stricken with amazement,Stood for a while in a sultry smother, 310And then, with a smile that partook of the awful,Turned her over to his yellow motherTo learn what was held decorous and lawful;And the mother smelt blood with a cat-like instinct,As her cheek quick whitened through all its quince-tinct. 315Oh, but the lady heard the whole truth at once!What meant she?--Who was she?--Her duty and station,The wisdom of age and the folly of youth, at once,Its decent regard and its fitting relation--In brief, my friend, set all the devils in hell free 320And turn them out to carouse in a belfryAnd treat the priests to a fifty-part canon,And then you may guess how that tongue of hers ran on!Well, somehow or other it ended at lastAnd, licking her whiskers, out she passed; 325And after her--making (he hoped) a faceLike Emperor Nero or Sultan Saladin,Stalked the Duke's self with the austere graceOf ancient hero or modern paladin,From door to staircase--oh, such a solemn 330Unbending of the vertebral column!
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