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Article THIS TAPESTRY-WEAVER OF BEAUVAIS. ← Page 4 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
This Tapestry-Weaver Of Beauvais.
to the wine they honoured . He would , with his thin voice , troll a sought praise of beauty , and , with quick conceits , prick on lusty youth to deeds of jollity and wild adventure ; nay , he would often mingle in the revelry . Many a time have the townsfolk of Beauvais laughed at the gambols of old Schatten , who , pranked in his best , would trip it with some blue-eyed belle , who , seemingly unconscious of the deformity of
her partner , would glide through the dance all smiles and sweetness , as though youth were wedded to immortality , antl wrinkles and gray hairs were not the inheritance of the children of earth . Alas ! but a few months , or weeks , and the poor maiden—she who seemed the embodied principle of beauty and motion—was as the " clods of the valley , " a mass of black insensibility .
Various were the ways by which old Schatten had insinuated himself into the good graces of the people of Beauvais . To please them , he would , when in the humour , act twenty different parts—now he would be a learned doctor , and now a mountebank : at times he would utter
the wisdom of sages—at times play a hundred antic tricks , making his audience shout with merriment . For one long winter did Schatten profoundl y lecture upon laurels , crowns , swords , and money-bags ; and , like a skilful chemist , would he analyse their component parts . " This , " cried Schatten , producing a semblance of the wreath , " this is the laurel crown of one of the Ctesars : —how fresh and green the
leaves remain ! Ha ! there ' s no such rjreservative as innocent blood —it embalms the names of mighty potentates , who else had never been heard of : steeped in it deformity becomes loveliness—fame , colours her most lasting pictures ivith its paint ! The fields that grew this branch were richly manured : —tens of thousands of hearts lay rotting therethe light of thousands of eyes was quenched—palaces and hovels , in
undistinguished heaps , were strewn about the soil—there lay the hoary and the unborn—the murdered wife and the outraged virgin—and , showers of tears falling on this garden of agony and horror , it was miraculously fertile—for lo ! it gave forth this one branch , to deck the forehead of one man ! In the veins that seam its leaves are the
heartstrings of murdered nations ; it is the plant of fire and blood , reaped by the sword ! Such is the conqueror ' s laurel . "And here is the despot ' s diadem ! Manya time , like glowing iron , hath it seared the brows it circled . Of what is it composed ? What wonderful ingredients meet in this quintessence of worldly wealth ? See , the passions and the feelings that helped to make it , still haunt
their handiwork : their shadows live in its glittering metal and its flashing gems . Full-blooded Power , with a deamon ' s eye , glares from this ruby—leprous Fear trembles in these pearls—in every diamond .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
This Tapestry-Weaver Of Beauvais.
to the wine they honoured . He would , with his thin voice , troll a sought praise of beauty , and , with quick conceits , prick on lusty youth to deeds of jollity and wild adventure ; nay , he would often mingle in the revelry . Many a time have the townsfolk of Beauvais laughed at the gambols of old Schatten , who , pranked in his best , would trip it with some blue-eyed belle , who , seemingly unconscious of the deformity of
her partner , would glide through the dance all smiles and sweetness , as though youth were wedded to immortality , antl wrinkles and gray hairs were not the inheritance of the children of earth . Alas ! but a few months , or weeks , and the poor maiden—she who seemed the embodied principle of beauty and motion—was as the " clods of the valley , " a mass of black insensibility .
Various were the ways by which old Schatten had insinuated himself into the good graces of the people of Beauvais . To please them , he would , when in the humour , act twenty different parts—now he would be a learned doctor , and now a mountebank : at times he would utter
the wisdom of sages—at times play a hundred antic tricks , making his audience shout with merriment . For one long winter did Schatten profoundl y lecture upon laurels , crowns , swords , and money-bags ; and , like a skilful chemist , would he analyse their component parts . " This , " cried Schatten , producing a semblance of the wreath , " this is the laurel crown of one of the Ctesars : —how fresh and green the
leaves remain ! Ha ! there ' s no such rjreservative as innocent blood —it embalms the names of mighty potentates , who else had never been heard of : steeped in it deformity becomes loveliness—fame , colours her most lasting pictures ivith its paint ! The fields that grew this branch were richly manured : —tens of thousands of hearts lay rotting therethe light of thousands of eyes was quenched—palaces and hovels , in
undistinguished heaps , were strewn about the soil—there lay the hoary and the unborn—the murdered wife and the outraged virgin—and , showers of tears falling on this garden of agony and horror , it was miraculously fertile—for lo ! it gave forth this one branch , to deck the forehead of one man ! In the veins that seam its leaves are the
heartstrings of murdered nations ; it is the plant of fire and blood , reaped by the sword ! Such is the conqueror ' s laurel . "And here is the despot ' s diadem ! Manya time , like glowing iron , hath it seared the brows it circled . Of what is it composed ? What wonderful ingredients meet in this quintessence of worldly wealth ? See , the passions and the feelings that helped to make it , still haunt
their handiwork : their shadows live in its glittering metal and its flashing gems . Full-blooded Power , with a deamon ' s eye , glares from this ruby—leprous Fear trembles in these pearls—in every diamond .