The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,299 pages of information about The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,299 pages of information about The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

FRIAR JOHN. 
No danger! to-night he will let us alone,
As I happen to know he has guests of his own.

FRIAR CUTHBERT. 
Who are they?

FRIAR JOHN. 
A German Prince and his train,
Who arrived here just before the rain. 
There is with him a damsel fair to see,
As slender and graceful as a reed! 
When she alighted from her steed,
It seemed like a blossom blown from a tree.

FRIAR CUTHBERT. 
None of your pale-faced girls for me! 
None of your damsels of high degree!

FRIAR JOHN. 
Come, old fellow, drink down to your peg! 
But do not drink any further, I beg!

FRIAR PAUL sings. 
     In the days of gold,
     The days of old,
     Crosier of wood
     And bishop of gold!

FRIAR CUTHBERT. 
What an infernal racket and riot! 
Can you not drink your wine in quiet? 
Why fill the convent with such scandals,
As if we were so many drunken Vandals?

FRIAR PAUL continues. 
     Now we have changed
     That law so good
     To crosier of gold
     And bishop of wood!

FRIAR CUTHBERT. 
Well, then, since you are in the mood
To give your noisy humors vent,
Sing and howl to your heart’s content!

CHORUS OF MONKS. 
  Funde vinum, funde! 
  Tanquam sint fluminis undae,
  Nec quaeras unde,
  Sed fundas semper abunde!

FRIAR JOHN. 
What is the name of yonder friar,
With an eye that glows like a coal of fire,
And such a black mass of tangled hair?

FRIAR PAUL. 
He who is sitting there,
With a rollicking,
Devil may care,
Free and easy look and air,
As if he were used to such feasting and frolicking?

FRIAR JOHN. 
The same.

FRIAR PAUL. 
He’s a stranger.  You had better ask his name,
And where he is going and whence he came.

FRIAR JOHN. 
Hallo!  Sir Friar!

FRIAR PAUL. 
You must raise your voice a little higher,
He does not seem to hear what you say. 
Now, try again!  He is looking this way.

FRIAR JOHN. 
Hallo!  Sir Friar,
We wish to inquire
Whence you came, and where you are going,
And anything else that is worth the knowing. 
So be so good as to open your head.

LUCIFER. 
I am a Frenchman born and bred,
Going on a pilgrimage to Rome. 
My home
Is the convent of St. Gildas de Rhuys,
Of which, very like, you never have heard.

MONKS. 
Never a word.

LUCIFER. 
You must know, then, it is in the diocese
Called the Diocese of Vannes,
In the province of Brittany. 
From the gray rocks of Morbihan
It overlooks the angry sea;
The very sea-shore where,
In his great despair,
Abbot Abelard walked to and fro,
Filling the night with woe,
And wailing aloud to the merciless seas
The name of his sweet Heloise,

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Project Gutenberg
The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.