560
POEMS WRITTEN IN 1818
MARENGHI[1]
[Published in part (stanzas vii-xv) by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824; stanzas i-xxviii by W. M. Rossetti, Complete P. W. of P. B. S., 1870. The Boscombe MS.—evidently a first draft—from which (through Dr. Garnett) Rossetti derived the text of 1870 is now at the Bodleian, and has recently been collated by Mr. C. D. Locock, to whom the enlarged and emended text here printed is owing. The substitution, in title and text, of Marenghi for Mazenghi (1824) is due to Rossetti. Here as elsewhere in the footnotes B.=the Bodleian MS.]
I
Let those who pine in pride or in revenge,
Or think that ill for ill should be repaid,
Who[2] barter wrong for wrong, until the exchange
Ruins the merchants of such thriftless trade,
Visit the tower of Vado, and unlearn 5
Such bitter faith beside Marenghi's[3] urn.
Let those who pine in pride or in revenge,
Or think that ill for ill should be repaid,
Who[2] barter wrong for wrong, until the exchange
Ruins the merchants of such thriftless trade,
Visit the tower of Vado, and unlearn 5
Such bitter faith beside Marenghi's[3] urn.
II
A massy tower yet overhangs the town,[4]
A scattered group of ruined[5] dwellings now . . . .
·······
A massy tower yet overhangs the town,[4]
A scattered group of ruined[5] dwellings now . . . .
·······
III
Another scene ere wise Etruria knew
Its second ruin through internal strife, 10
And tyrants through the breach of discord threw[6]
The chain which binds and kills. As death to life,
As winter to fair flowers (though some be poison)
So Monarchy succeeds to Freedom's foison.
Another scene ere wise Etruria knew
Its second ruin through internal strife, 10
And tyrants through the breach of discord threw[6]
The chain which binds and kills. As death to life,
As winter to fair flowers (though some be poison)
So Monarchy succeeds to Freedom's foison.
IV
In Pisa's church a cup of sculptured gold 15
Was brimming with the blood of feuds forsworn:
A Sacrament more[7] holy ne'er of old
Etrurians mingled mid[8] the shades forlorn
Of moon-illumined forests, when . . . .[9]
In Pisa's church a cup of sculptured gold 15
Was brimming with the blood of feuds forsworn:
A Sacrament more[7] holy ne'er of old
Etrurians mingled mid[8] the shades forlorn
Of moon-illumined forests, when . . . .[9]
V
And reconciling factions wet their lips 20
With that dread wine, and swear to keep each spirit
Undarkened by their country's last eclipse . . . .
·······
And reconciling factions wet their lips 20
With that dread wine, and swear to keep each spirit
Undarkened by their country's last eclipse . . . .
·······
- ↑ This fragment refers to an event told in Sismondi's Histoire des Républiques Italiennes, which occurred during the war when Florence finally subdued Pisa, and reduced it to a province.—[Mrs. Shelley's Note, 1824.]
- ↑ 3 Who B.; Or 1870.
- ↑ 6 Marenghi's 1870; Mazenghi's B.
- ↑ 7 town 1870; sea B.
- ↑ 8 ruined 1870; squalid B. ('the whole line is cancelled,' Locock).
- ↑ 11 threw 1870; cancelled, B.
- ↑ 17 A Sacrament more B.; At Sacrament: more 1870.
- ↑ 18 mid B.; with 1870.
- ↑ 19 forests when . . . B.; forests. 1870.
