The Poetical Works of Laman Blanchard With a Memoir by Blanchard Jerrold |
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 | II. |
HELEN FAUCIT IN ‘THE LADY OF LYONS.’
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 | The Poetical Works of Laman Blanchard |  |
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HELEN FAUCIT IN ‘THE LADY OF LYONS.’
What need I, O Helen, comparisons draw
'Twixt thee and the belles of Circassia or Cadiz;
Since first the sweet Lady of Lyons I saw,
I swear I have deemed thee the Lion of Ladies.
'Twixt thee and the belles of Circassia or Cadiz;
Since first the sweet Lady of Lyons I saw,
I swear I have deemed thee the Lion of Ladies.
Start not, I would give thee no terrible shape,
A lion dove-voiced like the poet's I mean,
But such are my chains I might sooner escape
From the leonine paw than from you as Pauline.
A lion dove-voiced like the poet's I mean,
But such are my chains I might sooner escape
From the leonine paw than from you as Pauline.
Sweet Lady of Lyons! what lions of his,
Van Amburgh's, could move us like thee to applaud?
While he is avoiding a scratch on the phiz,
We, seeing you, wish—yes, we wish to be Claude.
Van Amburgh's, could move us like thee to applaud?
While he is avoiding a scratch on the phiz,
We, seeing you, wish—yes, we wish to be Claude.
Yes, Lady, the pride and the rapture of Claude,
Though at first his love-garden was wofully weedy,
In winning by faith what he'd captured by fraud,
Oh! it does make one long to be Mr. Macready.
Though at first his love-garden was wofully weedy,
In winning by faith what he'd captured by fraud,
Oh! it does make one long to be Mr. Macready.
309
The love, the disdain, the relenting, the bliss
Of being well cheated—that natural passion—
You feel it all keenly! but we too feel this,
Oh! Helen, you've brought heart and soul into fashion.
Of being well cheated—that natural passion—
You feel it all keenly! but we too feel this,
Oh! Helen, you've brought heart and soul into fashion.
While hearing from your lips the truths he has written,
While watching the thoughts your deep eyes are revealing,
I'm sure there must often steal over Sir Lytton,
A pleasant Pygmalionish sort of a feeling.
While watching the thoughts your deep eyes are revealing,
I'm sure there must often steal over Sir Lytton,
A pleasant Pygmalionish sort of a feeling.
Oh! Helen of Lyons! not she of old Troy
(The Helen of Paris) is Helen to me;
Nor Helen, the brave—minded rib of Rob Roy,
Nor Helen—Miss Edgeworth's—the best of the three;
(The Helen of Paris) is Helen to me;
Nor Helen, the brave—minded rib of Rob Roy,
Nor Helen—Miss Edgeworth's—the best of the three;
Nor Shakspeare's fond Helen, who felt 'twas affliction
To love, and not wed, some ‘particular star,’
Though stars they may be, shining sweetly in fiction,
You glisten, in fact, more enchantingly far.
To love, and not wed, some ‘particular star,’
Though stars they may be, shining sweetly in fiction,
You glisten, in fact, more enchantingly far.
1838.
| The Poetical Works of Laman Blanchard | |