No More Learning

For such the merits of the damsel are,
And such had all her martial kindred shown,
Charles would not think he should exceed due measure
If spent for her was half his kingdom's treasure.

LXXIV
He a free court bids cry; whither his way
Securely every one that wills may wend;
And offers open lists till the ninth day
To whosoever would in arms contend;
And bids build bowers afield, and interlay
Green boughs therein, and flowers and foliage blend;
And make those bowers so gay with silk and gold,
No fairer place this ample world doth hold.

LXXV
Guested within fair Paris cannot be
The countless foreign bands that thither fare;
Who, rich and poor, of high and low degree,
And Greeks and Latins and Barbarians are.
There is no end of lord and embassy
That thither from all ends of earth repair;
All lodged conveniently, to their content,
Beneath pavilion, booth, and bower and tent.

LXXVI
The weird Melissa against the coming night
With singular and matchless ornament
Had for that pair the nuptial chamber dight;
Whereon long time before she had been bent:
Long time before desirous of the rite
Had been that dame, presageful of the event;
Presageful of futurity, she knew
What goodly fruit should from their stems ensue.

LXXVII
She had prepared the genial, fruitful bed,
Under a broad pavilion; one more rich,
Adorned, and jocund, never overhead
(Did this for peace or war its master pitch)
Was in the world, before or after, spread;
And this from Thracian strand had borne the witch.
The costly prize from Constantine she bore,
Who for disport was tented on that shore.

LXXVIII
She with young Leo's leave, or rather so
The Grecian's admiration to obtain,
And a rare token of that art to show,
Which on Hell's mighty dragon puts the rein,
And at her pleasure rules that impious foe
Of Heaven, together with his evil train,
Bade demons the pavilion through mid air
To Paris from Constantinople bear.

LXXIX
From Constantine that lay therein, who swayed
The Grecian empire's sceptre, at mid-day
This with its cordage, shaft whereby 'twas stayed,
And all within and out, she bore away;
And of the costly tent, through air conveyed,
For young Rogero made a lodging gay.
The bridal ended, this her demon crew
Thither, from whence 'twas brought, conveyed anew.

LXXX
Two thousand tedious years were nigh complete,
Since this fair work was fashioned by the lore
Of Trojan maid, warmed with prophetic heat;
Who, 'mid long labour and 'mid vigil sore,
With her own fingers all the storied sheet
Of the pavilion had embroidered o'er;
Cassandra hight; that maid to Hector brave
(Her brother he) this costly present gave.

LXXXI
The curtiest cavalier, the kindliest shoot
That ever from her brother's stock should grow
(Albeit she knew far distant from its root,
With many a branch between, should be that bough)
In silk and gold upon the gorgeous suit
Of hangings had she wrought in goodly show.
Much prized that gift, while living, Priam's son,
For its rare work and her by whom 'twas done.

LXXXII
But when by treachery perished Priam's heir,
And Greeks the Trojans scathed in cruel sort,
When her gates opened by false Sinon were,
And direr ill was done than tales report,
This plunder fell to Menelaus' share,
Wherewith to Egypt's land he made resort;
There left it to King Proteus, Egypt's lord,
In ransom for his prisoned wife restored;

LXXXIII
She Helen hight: her Menelaus to free,
To Proteus the pavilion gave away;
Which, passing through the line of Ptolemy,
To Cleopatra fell; from her in fray
Agrippa's band on the Leucadian sea
Bore off the treasure, amid other prey.
Augustus and Tiberius heired the loom,
Kept till the time of Constantine in Rome:

LXXXIV
That Constantine, whom thou shall ever rue
Fair Italy, while the heavens above are rolled.
Constantine to Byzantium, when he grew
Weary of Tyber, bore the tent of old.
Melissa from his namesake this withdrew,
Its pole of ivory and its cord of gold,
And all its cloth with beauteous figures fraught;
Fairer Apelles' pencil never wrought.

LXXXV
Here the three Graces in gay vesture gowned
Assisted the delivery of a queen.
Not in four ages in this earthly round
Was ever born a boy so fair of mien.
Jove, Venus, Mars, and Mercury renowned
For fluent speech, about the child are seen:
Him have they strewed, and stew with heaven's perfume,
Ambrosial odours and aetherial bloom.

LXXXVI
Hippolytus a little label said,
Inscribed upon the baby's swaddling clothes.
By the hand him Fortune leads in age more staid;
And Valour as a guide before him goes.
An unknown band in sweeping vest arraid,
With long descending locks, the tapestry shows,
Deputed by Corvinus to desire
The tender infant from his princely sire.

LXXXVII
He reverently parts from Hercules' side,
From her, his lady mother, Eleanor;
And to the Danube wends; where far and wide
They meet the boy, and as a god adore.
The prudent king of Hungary is descried,
Who does due honour to his ripened lore,
In yet unripe, yea, raw and tender years,
And ranks the stripling above all his peers.

LXXXVIII
One is there that in his green age and new
Places Strigonia's crozier in his hand.
Him ever at Corvinus' side we view;
Whether he doth in court or camp command,
Whether against the Turk, or German crew
The puissant monarch leads his martial band,
Watchful Hippolytus is at his side,
And gathers virtue from his generous guide.

LXXXIX
There is it seen, how he his blooming age
Divides mid arts and wholesome discipline:
The secret spirit of the ancient page
There Fuscus well instructs him to divine:
"This must thou shun, that follow" -- seems the sage
To say -- "if thou immortally wouldst shine. "
Fashioned withal with so much skill and care
By her who wrought that work, their gestures were.

XC
A cardinal he next is seen, though young
In years, at council in the Vatican;
Where for deep wisdom graced by eloquent tongue,
With wonder him the assembled conclave scan.
"What will he be" -- they seem to say among
Themselves -- "when he is ripened into man?