Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
‘Good Night, Babette!’
Henry Austin Dobson (1840–1921)
‘Si vieillesse pouvait!—’
SCENE.—A small neat Room.In a high Voltaire Chair sits a white-haired old Gentleman.
MONSIEUR VIEUXBOISBABETTE
M. VIEUXBOIS(turning querulously)
D
AY of my life! Where
can she get?
BABETTE! I say! BABETTE!—BABETTE!!
BABETTE(entering hurriedly)
Coming, M’sieu! If M’sieu speaks
So loud he won’t be well for weeks!
M. VIEUXBOIS
Where have you been?
BABETTE
Why, M’sieu knows:—
April!… Ville-d’Avray!… Ma’am’selle ROSE!
M. VIEUXBOIS
Ah! I am old,—and I forget.
Was the place growing green, BABETTE?
BABETTE
But of a greenness!—yes, M’sieu!
And then the sky so blue!—so blue!
And when I dropped my immortelle,
How the birds sang!
(Lifting her apron to her eyes)
This poor Ma’am’selle!
M. VIEUXBOIS
You’re a good girl, BABETTE, but she,—
She was an Angel, verily.
Sometimes I think I see her yet
Stand smiling by the cabinet;
And once, I know, she peep’d and laugh’d
Betwixt the curtains …
Where ’s the draught?
(She gives him a cup)
Now I shall sleep, I think, B
ABETTE;—
Sing me your Norman chansonnette.
BABETTE(sings)
‘Once at the Angelus
(Ere I was dead),
Angels all glorious
Came to my Bed;—
Angels in blue and white
Crown’d on the Head.’
M. VIEUXBOIS(drowsily)
‘She was an Angel’ … ‘Once she laugh’d’ …
What, was I dreaming?
Where ’s the draught?
BABETTE(showing the empty cup)
The draught, M’sieu?
M. VIEUXBOIS
How I forget!
I am so old! But sing, BABETTE!
BABETTE(sings)
‘One was the Friend I left
Stark in the Snow;
One was the Wife that died
Long,—long ago;
One was the Love I lost …
How could she know?’
M. VIEUXBOIS(murmuring)
Ah, PAUL!… old PAUL!… EULALIE too!
And ROSE!… And O! ‘the sky so blue!’
BABETTE(sings)
‘One had my Mother’s eyes,
Wistful and mild;
One had my Father’s face;
One was a Child:
All of them bent to me,—
Bent down and smiled!’
(He is asleep!)
M. VIEUXBOIS(almost inaudibly)
How I forget!
I am so old! … Good night, BABETTE!
