Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
The Court HistorianGeorge Walter Thornbury (18281876)
T
That shone with a blood-red light
Just now as the sun began to sink;
His vellum was pumiced a silvery white;
‘The Basileus’—for so he began—
‘Is a royal sagacious Mars of a man,
Than the very lion bolder;
He has married the stately widow of Thrace—’
‘Hush!’ cried a voice at his shoulder.
Bright as a dragon-fly’s skin:
His gold-leaf shone like the robe of a queen,
His azure glow’d as a cloud worn thin,
Deep as the blue of the king-whale’s lair:
‘The Porphyrogenita Zoë the fair
Is about to wed with a Prince much older,
Of an unpropitious mien and look—’
‘Hush!’ cried a voice at his shoulder.
The birds leap’d up on the spray,
The yellow fruit sway’d and droop’d and swung,
It was Autumn mixt up with May.
(O, but his cheek was shrivell’d and shrunk!)
‘The child of the Basileus,’ wrote the Monk,
‘Is golden-hair’d—tender the Queen’s arms fold her.
Her step-mother Zoë doth love her so—’
‘Hush!’ cried a voice at his shoulder.
All gather’d to guard the text:
There was Daniel snug in the lions’ den
Singing no whit perplex’d—
Brazen Samson with spear and helm—
‘The Queen,’ wrote the Monk, ‘rules firm this realm,
For the King gets older and older.
The Norseman Thorkill is brave and fair—’
‘Hush!’ cried a voice at his shoulder.