THE VAUDOIS TEACHER.
[_]
This poem was suggested by the account given of the manner
in which the Waldenses disseminated their principles among the
Catholic gentry. They gained access to the house through their
occupation as peddlers of silks, jewels, and trinkets. “Having
disposed of some of their goods,” it is said by a writer who
quotes the inquisitor Rainerus Sacco, “they cautiously intimated
that they had commodities far more valuable than these, inestimable
jewels, which they would show if they could be protected
from the clergy. They would then give their purchasers a Bible
or Testament; and thereby many were deluded into heresy.”
The poem, under the title Le Colporteur Vaudois, was translated
into French by Professor G. de Felice, of Montauban, and further
naturalized by Professor Alexandre Rodolphe Vinet, who quoted
it in his lectures on French literature, afterwards published. It
became familiar in this form to the Waldenses, who adopted it
as a household poem. An American clergyman, J. C. Fletcher,
frequently heard it when he was a student, about the year 1850,
in the theological seminary at Geneva, Switzerland, but the authorship
of the poem was unknown to those who used it. Twenty-five
years later, Mr. Fletcher, learning the name of the author,
wrote to the moderator of the Waldensian synod at La Tour, giving
the information. At the banquet which closed the meeting
of the synod, the moderator announced the fact, and was instructed
in the name of the Waldensian church to write to me a
letter of thanks. My letter, written in reply, was translated into
Italian and printed throughout Italy.
“O lady fair, these silks of mine are beautiful and rare,—
The richest web of the Indian loom, which beauty's queen might wear;
And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, with whose radiant light they vie;
I have brought them with me a weary way,—will my gentle lady buy?”
The lady smiled on the worn old man through the dark and clustering curls
Which veiled her brow, as she bent to view his silks and glittering pearls;
And she placed their price in the old man's hand and lightly turned away,
But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call,—“My gentle lady, stay!
“O lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer lustre flings,
Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown on the lofty brow of kings;
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue shall not decay,
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee and a blessing on thy way!”
The lady glanced at the mirroring steel where her form of grace was seen,
Where her eye shone clear, and her dark locks waved their clasping pearls between;
“Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, thou traveller gray and old,
And name the price of thy precious gem, and my page shall count thy gold.”
The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, as a small and meagre book,
Unchased with gold or gem of cost, from his folding robe he took!
“Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it prove as such to thee!
Nay, keep thy gold—I ask it not, for the word of God is free!”
The hoary traveller went his way, but the gift he left behind
Hath had its pure and perfect work on that highborn maiden's mind,
And she hath turned from the pride of sin to the lowliness of truth,
And given her human heart to God in its beautiful hour of youth!
And she hath left the gray old halls, where an evil faith had power,
The courtly knights of her father's train, and the maidens of her bower;
And she hath gone to the Vaudois vales by lordly feet untrod,
Where the poor and needy of earth are rich in the perfect love of God!
1830.
