No More Learning

hist! thou canst not say
Thou hearest not now, Baldazzar?

Bal. Indeed I hear not.

Pol. Not hear it! --listen now! --listen! --the faintest sound
And yet the sweetest that ear ever heard!
A lady's voice! --and sorrow in the tone!
Baldazzar, it oppresses me like a spell!
Again! --again! --how solemnly it falls
Into my heart of hearts!
that eloquent voice
Surely I never heard--yet it were well
Had I but heard it with its thrilling tones
In earlier days!

Bal. I myself hear it now.
Be still! --the voice, if I mistake not greatly,
Proceeds from yonder lattice--which you may see
Very plainly through the window--it belongs,
Does it not? unto this palace of the Duke.
The singer is undoubtedly beneath
The roof of his Excellency--and perhaps
Is even that Alessandra of whom he spoke
As the betrothed of Castiglione,
His son and heir.

Pol. Be still! --it comes again!

Voice "And is thy heart so strong
(very faintly) As for to leave me thus
Who hath loved thee so long

In wealth and woe among?
And is thy heart so strong
As for to leave me thus?
Say nay--say nay! "

Bal. The song is English, and I oft have heard it
In merry England--never so plaintively--
Hist! hist!