| |
| THUS closed the tale of guilt and gloom, | |
| That cast upon each listener’s face | |
| Its shadow, and for some brief space | |
| Unbroken silence filled the room. | |
| The Jew was thoughtful and distressed; | 5 |
| Upon his memory thronged and pressed | |
| The persecution of his race, | |
| Their wrongs and sufferings and disgrace; | |
| His head was sunk upon his breast, | |
| And from his eyes alternate came | 10 |
| Flashes of wrath and tears of shame. | |
| |
| The Student first the silence broke, | |
| As one who long has lain in wait, | |
| With purpose to retaliate, | |
| And thus he dealt the avenging stroke. | 15 |
| “In such a company as this, | |
| A tale so tragic seems amiss, | |
| That by its terrible control | |
| O’ermasters and drags down the soul | |
| Into a fathomless abyss. | 20 |
| The Italian Tales that you disdain, | |
| Some merry Night of Straparole, | |
| Or Machiavelli’s Belphagor, | |
| Would cheer us and delight us more, | |
| Give greater pleasure and less pain | 25 |
| Than your grim tragedies of Spain!” | |
| |
| And here the Poet raised his hand, | |
| With such entreaty and command, | |
| It stopped discussion at its birth, | |
| And said: “The story I shall tell | 30 |
| Has meaning in it, if not mirth; | |
| Listen, and hear what once befell | |
| The merry birds of Killingworth!” | |
| |
