# Poems and Ballads (Swinburne)/The Masque of Queen Bersabe

THE MASQUE OF QUEEN BERSABE.
A MIRACLE-PLAY.
king david.
I have a counsel to you all,
Because of this thing God lets fall Among us for a sign.
For some days hence as I did eat
From kingly dishes my good meat,
There flew a bird between my feet As red as any wine. This bird had a long bill of red
And a gold ring above his head; Long time he sat and nothing said,
Put softly down his neck and fed From the gilt patens fine: And as I marvelled at the last
He shut his two keen eyën fast
And suddenly woxe big and brast
Ere one should tell to nine.
primus miles.
That Lord who maketh corn with hay And morrows each of yesterday, He hath you in his hand.
secundus miles. (Paganus quidam).
For if wine swell within a king Whose ears for drink are hot and ring, The same shall dream of wine-bibbing Whilst he can lie or stand.
queen bersabe.
Ye chirk as starlings that be fed And gape as fishes newly dead; The devil put your bones to bed, Lo, this is all to say.
secundus miles.
This devil's bird to wring and spill; For now meseems our game goes ill, Ye have scant hearts to play.
tertius miles.
That Urias the knight is dead
Through some ill craft; by Poulis head, I doubt his blood hath made so red This bird that flew from the queen's bed Whereof ye have such fear.
king david.
That I can raise men from the dead? By God I think to have his head Who saith words of my lady's bed For any thief to hear,
Et percutiat eum in capite.
queen bersabe.
And say it were but right for thee That one should hang thee on a tree; Ho! it were a fair thing to see The big stones bruise her false body; Fie! who shall see her dead?
king david.
For as ye wot, the first good kiss I had must be the last of his; Now are ye queen of mine I wis, And lady of a house that is Full rich of meat and bread.
primus miles.
So fair a queen as all men see, And hold us for your lieges free ; By Peter's soul that hath the key, Ye have good hap of it.
secundus miles.
Who hath no joy to see your head With gold about it, barred on red ; I hold him as a sow of lead That is so scant of wit.
Tunc dicat Nathan propheta.
The child that is in Bersabe Shall wither without light to see ; This word is come of God by me For sin that ye have done. Because herein ye did not right, To take the fair one lamb to smite That was of Urias the knight ; Ye wist he had but one. Full many sheep I wot ye had, And many women, when ye bade To do your will and keep you glad ; And a good crown about your head With gold to show thereon.
This Urias had one poor house With low-barred latoun shot-windows And scant of corn to fill a mouse; And rusty basnets for his brows, To wear them to the bone. Yea the roofs also, as men sain, Were thin to hold against the rain; Therefore what rushes were there lain Grew wet withouten foot of men; The stancheons were all gone in twain As sick man's flesh is gone. Nathless he had great joy to see The long hair of this Bersabe Fall round her lap and round her knee Even to her small soft feet, that be Shod now with crimson royally And covered with clean gold. Likewise great joy he had to kiss Her throat, where now the scarlet is Against her little chin, I wis, That then was but cold. No scarlet then her kirtle had And little gold about it sprad; But her red mouth was always glad To kiss, albeit the eyes were sad With love they had to hold.
secundus miles.
To clip such it is no shame; I rede you in the devil's name, Ye come not here to make men game; By Termagaunt that maketh grame, I shall to-bete thine head. Hic Diabolus capiat eum. This knave hath sharp fingers, perfay; Mahound you thank and keep alway, And give you good knees to pray; What man hath no lust to play, The devil wring his ears, I say; There is no more but wellaway, For now am I dead.
king david.
Full little pence be in his sack; This devil hath him by the back, It is no boot to lie.
nathan.
A little while and ye shall see The face of God's strength presently. All queens made as this Bersabe,
All that were fair and foul ye be, Come hither; it am I. Et hìc omnes cantabunt.
herodias.
This headband of my temples was King Herod's gold band woven me, This broken dry staff in my hand Was the queen's staff of a great land Betwixen Perse and Samarie. For that one dancing of my feet, The fire is come in my green wheat, From one sea to the other sea.
aholibah.
My lips kissed dumb the word of Ah Sighed on strange lips grown sick thereby. God wrought to me my royal bed; The inner work thereof was red, The outer work was ivory. My mouth's heat was the heat of flame For lust towards the kings that came With horsemen riding royally.
cleopatra.
Love bade my kissing eyelids ope That men beholding might praise love. My hair was wonderful and curled; My lips held fast the mouth o' the world To spoil the strength and speech thereof. The latter triumph in my breath Bowed down the beaten brows of death, Ashamed they had not wrath enough.
abihail.
My hair was glorious for twelve spans, That dried to loose dust afterward. My stature was a strong man's length: My neck was like a place of strength Built with white walls, even and hard. Like the first noise of rain leaves catch One from another, snatch by snatch, Is my praise, hissed against and marred.
azubah.
My face was like a place of lights With multitudes at festival. The glory of my gracious brows Was like God's house made glorious With colours upon either wall. Between my brows and hair there was
A white space like a space of glass With golden candles over all.
aholah.
There was no tender touch or fleck To spoil my body or bared feet. My words were soft like dulcimers, And the first sweet of grape-flowers Made each-side of my bosom sweet. My raiment was as tender fruit Whose rind smells sweet of spice-tree root, Bruised balm-blossom and budded wheat.
ahinoam.
Like the throat of a soft slain lamb Was my throat, softer veined than his: My lips were as two grapes the sun Lays his whole weight of heat upon Like a mouth heavy with a kiss: My hair's pure purple a wrought fleece, My temples therein as a piece Of a pomegranate’s cleaving is.
atarah.
My face made faint the face of man,
And strength was bound between my brows, Spikenard was hidden in my ships, Honey and wheat and myrrh in strips, White wools that shine as colour does, Soft linen dyed upon the fold, Split spice and cores of scented gold, Cedar and broken calamus.
semiramis.
The whole world and the sea that is In fashion like a chrysopras, The noise of all men labouring, The priest's mouth tired through thanksgiving, The sound of love in the blood's pause, The strength of love in the blood's beat, All these were cast beneath my feet And all found lesser than I was.
hesione.
The seasons that increased in me Made my face fairer than all men's. I had the summer in my hair; And all the pale gold autumn air Was as the habit of my sense. My body was as fire that shone; God's beauty that makes all things one Was one among my handmaidens.
chrysothemis.
God, making roses, made my face As a rose filled up full with red. My prows made sharp the straitened seas From Pontus to that Chersonese Whereon the ebbed Asian stream is shed. My hair was as sweet scent that drips; Love's breath begun about my lips Kindled the lips of people dead.
thomyris.
My strength was like no strength of man's, My face like day, my breast like spring. My fame was felt in the extreme land That hath sunshine on the one hand And on the other star-shining. Yea, and the wind there fails of breath; Yea, and there life is waste like death; Yea, and there death is a glad thing.
harhas.
In the spent years whose speech is dim, Whose raiment is the dust and death, My stately body without stain Shone as the shining race of rain
Whose hair a great wind scattereth, Now hath God turned my lips to sighs, Plucked off mine eyelids from mine eyes, And sealed with seals my way of breath.
myrrha.
The tears wherewith mine eyelids ran Smelt like my perfumed eyelids' smell. A harsh thirst made my soft mouth hard, That ached with kisses afterward; My brain rang like a beaten bell. As tears on eyes, as fire on wood, Sin fed upon my breath and blood, Sin made my breasts subside and swell.
pasiphae.
Not all the pure clean-coloured sea Could cleanse or cool my yearning veins; Nor any root nor herb that grew, Flag-leaves that let green water through, Nor washing of the dews and rains. From shame's pressed core I wrung the sweet Fruit's savour that was death to eat, Whereof no seed but death remains.
sappho.
My love, that had no part in man's, Was sweeter than all shape of sweet. The intolerable infinite desire Made my face pale like faded fire When the ashen pyre falls through with heat. My blood was hot wan wine of love, And my song's sound the sound thereof, The sound of the delight of it.
messalina.
These were the signs God set on me; A barren beauty subtle and sleek, Curled carven hair, and cheeks worn wan With fierce false lips of many a man, Large temples where the blood ran weak, A mouth athirst and amorous And hungering as the grave's mouth does, That, being an-hungred, cannot speak.
amestris.
My breasts were lordlier than bright swans, My body as amber fair and thin. Strange flesh was given my lips for bread, With poisonous hours my days were fed,
And my feet shod with adder-skin. In Shushan toward Ecbatane I wrought my joys with tears and pain, My loves with blood and bitter sin.
ephrath.
God, that some while refraineth him, Made in the end a spoil of me. My rumour was upon the world As strong sound of swoln water hurled Through porches of the straining sea. My hair was like the flag-flower, And my breasts carven goodlier Than beryl with chalcedony.
pasithea.
Mine oarsmen, labouring with brown throats, Sang of me many a tender thing. My maidens, girdled loose and braced With gold from bosom to white waist, Praised me between their wool-combing. All that praise Venus all night long With lips like speech and lids like song Praised me till song lost heart to sing.
alaciel.
My mouth was like that moist gold cell Whereout the thickest honey drips. Mine eyes were as a grey-green sea; The amorous blood that smote on me Smote to my feet and finger-tips. My throat was whiter than the dove, Mine eyelids as the seals of love, And as the doors of love my lips.
erigone.
The wild wine shed as blood on me Made my face brighter than a bride's. My large lips had the old thirst of earth, Mine arms the might of the old sea's girth Bound round the whole world's iron sides. Within mine eyes and in mine ears Were music and the wine of tears, And light, and thunder of the tides. Et hìc exeant, et dicat Bersabe regina;
Alas, God, for thy great pity And for the might that is in thee, Behold, I woful Bersabe Cry out with stoopings of my knee And thy wrath laid and bound on me Till I may see thy love.
Behold, Lord, this child is grown Within me between bone and bone To make me mother of a son, Made of my body with strong moan; There shall not be another one That shall be made hereof.
king david.
Lo, thou art as an hundred men Both to break and build again: The wild ways thou makest plain, Thine hands hold the hail and rain, And thy fingers both grape and grain; Of their largess we be all well fain, And of their great pity: The sun thou madest of good gold, Of clean silver the moon cold, All the great stars thou hast told As thy cattle in thy fold Every one by his name of old; Wind and water thou hast in hold, Both the land and the long sea; Both the green sea and the land, Lord God, thou hast in hand, Both white water and grey sand; Upon thy right or thy left hand There is no man that may stand;
Lord, thou rue on me. O wise Lord, if thou be keen To note things amiss that been, I am not worth a shell of bean More than an old mare meagre and lean; For all my wrong-doing with my queen, It grew not of our heartès clean, But it began of her body. For it fell in the hot May I stood within a paven way Built of fair bright stone, perfay, That is as fire of night and day And lighteth all my house. Therein be neither stones nor sticks, Neither red nor white bricks, But for cubits five or six There is most goodly sardonyx And amber laid in rows. It goes round about my roofs, (If ye list ye shall have proofs) There is good space for horse and hoofs, Plain and nothing perilous. For the fair green weather's heat, And for the smell of leavès sweet, It is no marvel, well ye weet, A man to waxen amorous. This I say now by my case That spied forth of that royal place;
There I saw in no great space Mine own sweet, both body and face, Under the fresh boughs. In a water that was there She wesshe her goodly body bare And dried it with her owen hair: Both her arms and her knees fair, Both bosom and brows; Both shoulders and eke thighs Tho she wesshe upon this wise; Ever she sighed with little sighs, And ever she gave God thank. Yea, God wot I can well see yet Both her breast and her sides all wet And her long hair withouten let Spread sideways like a drawing net; Full dear bought and full far fet Was that sweet thing there y-set; It were a hard thing to forget How both lips and eyen met, Breast and breath sank. So goodly a sight as there she was, Lying looking on her glass By wan water in green grass, Yet saw never man. So soft and great she was and bright With all her body waxen white, I woxe nigh blind to see the light
Shed out of it to left and right; This bitter sin from that sweet sight Between us twain began.
nathan.
For ye shall have a full wise son, Goodly and great of flesh and bone; There shall no king be such an one, I swear by Godis rood. Therefore, lord, be merry here, And go to meat withouten fear, And hear a mass with goodly cheer; For to all folk ye shall be dear, And all folk of your blood.
Et tunc dicant Laudamus.