His kindled duty kindled her mistrust,
That two red fires in both their faces blazed;
She thought he blushed, as
knowing Tarquin's lust,
And blushing with him, wistly on him gazed;
Her
earnest eye did make him more amazed;
The more she saw the blood his cheeks replenish,
The more she thought he spied in her some blemish.
But long she thinks till he return again,
And yet the duteous
vassalscarce is gone.
The weary time she cannot entertain,
For now 'tis stale to sigh, to weep and groan;
So woe hath wearied woe, moan tired moan,
That she her plaints a little while doth stay,
Pausing for means to mourn some newer way.
At last she calls to mind where hangs a piece
Of skilful
painting, made for Priam's Troy,
Before the which is drawn the power of Greece,
For Helen's rape the city to destroy,
Threat'ning cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy;
Which the
conceitedpainter drew so proud
As heaven, it seemed, to kiss the turrets bowed.
A thousand
lamentable objects there,
In scorn of nature, art gave
lifeless life:
Many a dry drop seemed a
weeping tear,
Shed for the slaught'red husband by the wife;
The red blood reeked, to show the
painter's strife;
And dying eyes gleamed forth their ashy lights,
Like dying coals burnt out in
tedious nights.
There might you see the labouring pioneer
Begrimed with sweat and smeared all with dust;
And from the towers of Troy there would appear
The very eyes of men through loop-holes thrust,
Gazing upon the Greeks with little lust.
Such sweet
observance in this work was had
That one might see those
far-off eyes look sad.
In great commanders grace and majesty
You might behold, triumphing in their faces;
In youth, quick
bearing and dexterity;
And here and there the
painter interlaces
Pale cowards marching on with trembling paces,
Which heartless peasants did so well resemble
That one would swear he saw them quake and tremble.
In Ajax and Ulysses, O what art
Of physiognomy might one behold!
The face of either ciphered either's heart;
Their face their manners most
expressly told:
In Ajax's eyes blunt rage and rigour rolled;
But the mild glance that sly Ulysses lent
Showed deep regard and smiling government.
There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand,
As 'twere encouraging the Greeks to fight,
Making such sober action with his hand
That it beguiled attention, charmed the sight.
In speech, it seemed, his beard all silver white
Wagged up and down, and from his lips did fly
Thin winding
breath which purled up to the sky.
About him were a press of gaping fades,
Which seemed to
swallow up his sound advice,
All jointly list'ning, but with several graces,
As if some mermaid did their ears entice,
Some high, some low, the
painter was so nice;
The scalps of many, almost hid behind,
To jump up higher seemed, to mock the mind.
Here one man's hand leaned on another's head,
His nose being shadowed by his neighbour's ear;
Here one being thronged bears back, all boll'n and red;
Another smothered seems to pelt and swear;
And in their rage such signs, of rage of rage they bear
As, but for loss of Nestor's golden words,
It seemed they would
debate with angry swords.
For much
imaginary work was there;
Conceit
deceitful" target="_blank" title="a.欺骗的,骗人的">
deceitful, so
compact, so kind,
That for Achilles' image stood his spear
Griped in an armed hand; himself behind
Was left
unseen, save to the eye of mind:
A hand, a foot, a face, a leg, a head,
Stood for the whole to be imagined.
And from the walls of strong-besieged Troy
When their brave hope, bold Hector, marched to field,
Stood many Trojan mothers sharing joy
To see their
youthful sons bright weapons wield;
And to their hope they such odd action yield
That through their light joy seemed to appear,
Like bright things stained, a kind of heavy fear.
And from the strand of Dardan where they fought
To Simois' reedy banks the red blood ran,
Whose waves to
imitate the battle sought
With swelling ridges; and their ranks began
To break upon the galled shore, and than
Retire again, till meeting greater ranks
They join and shoot their foam at Simois' banks.
To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come,
To find a face where all
distress is stelled.
Many she sees where cares have carved some,
But none where all
distress and dolour dwelled,
Till she
despairing Hecuba beheld,
Staring on Priam's wounds with her old eyes,
Which bleeding under Pyrrhus' proud foot lies.
In her the
painter had anatomized
Time's ruin, beauty's wrack, and grim care's reign;
Her cheeks with chaps and wrinkles were disguised;
Of what she was no
semblance did remain;
Her blue blood changed to black in every vein,
Wanting the spring that those shrunk pipes had fed,
Showed life imprisoned in a body dead.
On this sad shadow Lucrece spends her eyes,
And shapes her sorrow to the beldam's woes,
Who nothing wants to answer her but cries,
And bitter words to ban her cruel foes:
The
painter was no god to lend her those;
And
therefore Lucrece swears he did her wrong,
To give her so much grief and not a tongue.
'Poor instrument', quoth she, 'without a sound,
I'll tune thy woes with my lamenting tongue,
And drop sweet balm in Priam's painted wound,
And rail on Pyrrhus that hath done him wrong,
And with my tears
quench Troy that burns so long,
And with my knife
scratch out the angry eyes
Of all the Greeks that are thine enemies.
'Show me the strumpet that began this stir,
That with my nails her beauty I may tear.
Thy heat of lust, fond Paris, did incur
This load of wrath that burning Troy doth bear.
Thy eye kindled the fire that burneth here;
And here in Troy, for
trespass of thine eye,
The sire, the son, the dame and daughter die.
'Why should the private pleasure of some one
Become the public
plague of many moe?
Let sin, alone committed, light alone
Upon his head that hath transgressed so;
Let
guiltless souls be freed from
guilty woe.
For one's-offence why should so many fall,
To
plague a private sin in general?
'Lo, here weeps Hecuba, here Priam dies,
Here manly Hector faints, here Troilus swounds,
Here friend by friend in
bloodychannel lies,
And friend to friend gives unadvised wounds,
And one man's lust these many lives confounds.
Had doting Priam checked his son's desire,
Troy had been bright with fame and not with fire.'
Here feelingly she weeps Troy's painted woes;
For sorrow, like a heavy-hanging bell
Once set on ringing, with his own weight goes;
Then little strength rings out the dolefull knell;
So Lucrece, set a-work, sad tales doth tell
To pencilled pensiveness and coloured sorrow;
She lends them words, and she their looks doth borrow.
She throws her eyes about the
painting round,
And who she finds
forlorn she doth lament.
At last she sees a
wretched image bound
That piteous looks to Phrygian shepherds lent;
His face,.though full of cares, yet showed content;
Onward to Troy with the blunt swains he goes,
So mild that Patience seemed to scorn his woes.
In him the
painter laboured with his skill
To hide
deceit and give the
harmless show
An
humble gait, calm looks, eyes wailing still,
A brow unbent that seemed to
welcome woe;
Cheeks neither red nor pale, but mingled so
That blushing red no
guiltyinstance gave,
Nor ashy pale the fear that false hearts have.
But, like a
constant and confirmed devil,
He entertained a show so
seeming just,
And
therein so ensconced his secret evil,
That
jealousy itself could not mistrust
False creeping craft and perjury should thrust
Into so bright a day such black-faced storms,
Or blot with hell-born sin such saint-like forms.
The well-skilled
workman this mild image drew
For perjured Sinon, whose enchanting story
The
credulous old Priam after slew;
Whose words, like wildfire, burnt the shining glory
Of rich-built Ilion, that the skies were sorry,
And little stars shot from their fixed places,
When their glass fell
wherein they viewed their faces.
This picture she advisedly perused,
And chid the
painter for his
wondrous skill,
Saying, some shape in Sinon's was abused;
So fair a form lodged not a mind so ill;
And still on him she gazed, and gazing still
Such signs of truth in his plain face she spied
That she concludes the picture was belied.
'It cannot be', quoth she, 'that so much guile'-
She would have said 'can lurk in such a look';
But Tarquin's shape came in her mind the while,
And from her tongue 'can lurk' from 'cannot' took;
'It cannot be' she in that sense forsook,
And turned it thus, 'It cannot be, I find,
But such a face should bear a
wicked mind;
'For even as subtle Sinon here is painted,
So sober-sad, so weary and so mild,
As if with grief or travail he had fainted,
To me came Tarquin armed to beguild
With
outwardhonesty, but yet defiled
With
inward vice. As Priam him did cherish,
So did I Tarquin; so my Troy did perish.
Look, look, how list'ning Priam wets his eyes,
To see those borrowed tears that Sinon sheds.
Priam, why art thou old and yet not wise?
For every tear he falls a Trojan bleeds;
His eye drops fire, no water
thence proceeds;