No More Learning

]

PURGANAX:
Ha! what do I hear?

[ENTER THE GADFLY. ]

MAMMON:
Your Gadfly, as it seems, is tired of gadding.

GADFLY:
Hum! hum! hum! _220
From the lakes of the Alps, and the cold gray scalps
Of the mountains, I come!
Hum! hum! hum!
From Morocco and Fez, and the high palaces
Of golden Byzantium; _225
From the temples divine of old Palestine,
From Athens and Rome,
With a ha! and a hum!
I come! I come!
All inn-doors and windows _230
Were open to me:
I saw all that sin does,
Which lamps hardly see
That burn in the night by the curtained bed,--
The impudent lamps! for they blushed not red, _235
Dinging and singing,
From slumber I rung her,
Loud as the clank of an ironmonger;
Hum! hum! hum!

Far, far, far! _240
With the trump of my lips, and the sting at my hips,
I drove her--afar!
Far, far, far!
From city to city, abandoned of pity,
A ship without needle or star;-- _245
Homeless she passed, like a cloud on the blast,
Seeking peace, finding war;--
She is here in her car,
From afar, and afar;--
Hum! hum! _250

I have stung her and wrung her,
The venom is working;--
And if you had hung her
With canting and quirking,
She could not be deader than she will be soon;-- _255
I have driven her close to you, under the moon,
Night and day, hum! hum! ha!
I have hummed her and drummed her
From place to place, till at last I have dumbed her,
Hum! hum! hum! _260

NOTE:
_260 Edd.