And braver! Come, Lello! give me your hand!
And you, Filippa! No, I'll have your lips!
_Sancia._ (_interposing_). Or--less? One at a time, Messer Petrarca!
You learn too fast. Mine only for to-night.
_Petrarca._ And for a thousand nights, Sancia fair!
_Sancia._ You hear him? Santa Madonna! pour us wine, To pledge him in!
_Petrarca._ The tankards bubble o'er!
(_They go to the table._) And see, they are wreathed of April, With loving myrtle and laurel intertwined.
We'll hold symposium, as bacchanals!
_Sancia._ And that is--what? some dull and silly show Out of your sallow books?
_Petrarca._ Those books were writ With ink of the gods, my Sancia, upon Papyri of the stars!
_Sancia._ And--long ago?
Ha! long ago?
_Petrarca._ Returnless centuries!
_Sancia._ (_contemptuously_). Who loves the past, Loves mummies and their dust-- And he will mould!
Who loves the future loves what may not be, And feeds on fear.
Only one flower has Time--its name is Now!
Come, pluck it! pluck it!
_Lello._ Brava, maid! the Now!
_Sancia._ (_dancing_). Come, pluck it! pluck it!
_Petrarca._ By my soul, I will: (_Seizes her again._) It grows upon these lips--and if to-night They leant out over the brink of Hell, I would.
(_She breaks from him._)
_Flippa._ Enough! the wine! the wine!
_Sancia._ O ever-thirsty And ever-thrifty Pippa! Well, pour out!
(_She lifts a brimming cup._) We'll drink to Messer Petrarca-- Who's weary of his bed-mate, Solitude.
May he long revel in the courts of Venus!
_All (drinking)._ Aih, long!
_Petrarca._ As long as Sancia enchants them!
_Flippa._ I'd trust him not, Sancia. Put him to oath.
_Sancia._ And, to the rack, if faithless? This Flippa!
Messer Petrarca, should not be made High Jurisconsult to our lord, the Devil, Whose breath of life is oaths?...
But, swear it!--by the Saints!
Who were great sinners all!
And by the bones of every monk or nun Who ever darkened the world!
_Lello._ Or ever shall!
(_A pause._)
_Petrarca._ I'll swear your eyes are singing Under the shadow of your hair, mad Sancia, Like nightingales in the wood!
_Sancia._ Pah! Messer Poet-- Such words as those you vent without an end-- To the Lady Laura!
_Petrarca._ Stop!
(_Grows pale._) Not _her_ name--here!
(_All have sat down; he rises._)
_Sancia._ O-ho! this air will soil it? and it might Not sound so sweet in sonnets ever after?
(_To the rest--rising._) Shall we depart, that he may still indite them?
"To Laura--On the Vanity of Passion?"
"To Laura--Unrelenting?"
"To Laura--Whose Departing Darkens the Sky?"
(_Laughs._) "To Laura--Who Deigns Not a Single Tear?"
(Orso _enters_.) Shall we depart?
FOOTNOTE:
[71] Copyright, 1907, by McClure, Phillips and Company.
ROBERT M. McELROY
Robert McNutt McElroy, author of the best of the recent histories of Kentucky, was born at Perryville, Kentucky, December 28, 1872. He took the three degrees conferred by Princeton University; and since 1901 he has been assistant professor of American history in that institution.
For the _Metropolitan Magazine_ of New York Dr. McElroy wrote an excellent _History of the Mexican War_, but this work has not yet appeared in book form. His _Kentucky in the Nation's History_ (New York, 1909), gave him an honorable place among the younger generation of American historians, and certainly a high place in Kentucky literature. Upon his history of Kentucky Dr. McElroy labored for many years, no sacrifice was too great for him to make, no journey too long for him to undertake, provided a better perspective were to be obtained at the end of his travels. He spent many months with Colonel Reuben T. Durrett at Louisville, working in his library, and sitting at his feet drinking from the well of Western history which the Colonel has kept undefiled. This, too, was what so sadly mars his work: he does in the discussion of several great questions, hardly more than serve as amanuensis for Colonel Durrett and the late Colonel John Mason Brown. Their opinions and conclusions are accepted _carte-blanche_, and all other authorities are ruthlessly set aside.
Dr. McElroy accepts Colonel Brown's book upon the Spanish Conspiracy, and writes a single line concerning Thomas Marshall Green's great work! He brings his narrative down to the commencement of the Civil War, which probably indicates that a second volume is in preparation in order that the entire field may be surveyed. His work is most scholarly, the latest historical procedure is sustained throughout, and the pity is that he so slavishly followed one or two authorities, though both of them were wholly excellent and profound, to the exclusion of all others. Originality of opinion is what the work lacks, a lack which it might have easily possessed with the author's undoubted ability, had he not lingered so long in literary Louisville.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Letters from Dr. McElroy to the Author; _Who's Who in America_ (1912-1913).
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK[72]
[From _Kentucky in the Nation's History_ (New York, 1909)]
It was at this critical moment that George Rogers Clark, the future conqueror of the Northwest territory, took up his permanent abode among the Kentucky pioneers. Clark had visited Kentucky, on a brief tour of inspection, during the previous autumn (Sept., 1775), and had been placed in command of the irregular militia of the settlements. He had returned to Virginia, filled with the importance of establishing in Kentucky an extensive system of public defence, and with the firm conviction that the claims of Henderson & Company ought to be disallowed by Virginia. His return to Kentucky, in 1776, marks the beginning of the end of the Transylvania Company. In spite of his youth (he was only twenty-four) he was far the most dangerous opponent that Henderson & Company had in the province. A military leader by nature, he had served in Lord Dunmore's war with such conspicuous success that he had been offered a commission in the British Army.
This honor he had declined, preferring to remain free to serve his country in the event of a revolt from British tyranny.
Shortly after his arrival, Clark proposed that, in order to bring about a more certain connection with Virginia, and the more definitely to repudiate the authority of the Transylvania Company, a regular representative assembly should be held at Harrodsburg. His own views he expressed freely in advancing his suggestion. Agents, he said, should be appointed to urge once more the right of the region to be taken under the protection of Virginia, and, if this request should again be unheeded, we should "employ the lands of the country as a fund to obtain settlers, and establish an independent state."
The proposed assembly convened at Harrodsburg on the 6th of June.
Clark was not present when the session began, and when he arrived, he found that the pressing question of the day had already been acted upon, and that he himself, with Gabriel John Jones, had been elected a delegate to represent the settlements in the Virginia Assembly. Clark knew that such an election would not entitle them to seats, but he agreed to visit Williamsburg, and present the cause of his fellow pioneers. Provided with a formal memorial to the Virginia Assembly, he started, with Jones, for Virginia and, after a very painful journey, upon which, Clark declared, I suffered "more torment than I ever experienced before or since," they reached the neighborhood of Charlottesville, only to learn that the Assembly had adjourned. Jones set off for a visit to the settlements on the Holston; but Clark, intent upon his mission, pushed on to Hanover County, where he secured an interview with Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia.