ELOISA TO ABELARD. In these deep solitudes and awful cells, What means this tumult in a vestal's veins ? 6 10 Dear, fatal name! rest ever unreveal'd, Nor pass these lips in holy silence seal'd: Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise, Where, mix'd with God's, his loved idea lies: O, write it not, my hand!—the name appears Already written-wash it out, my tears! In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays; Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeys. Relentless walls, whose darksome round contains Repentant sighs and voluntary pains! 15 17 Relentless walls. This passage exhibits the Miltonic study which so strikingly distinguishes this poem from all the others of Pope. Forgot myself to stone,' 'horrid thorn,' 'pale Ye rugged rocks, which holy knees have worn! 19 All is not Heaven's while Abelard has part; 25 Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose, Now warm in love, now withering in my bloom, 30 35 There stern Religion quench'd the unwilling flame; 44 eyed,' low-thoughted care,' are phrases used in Milton's minor poems, which he was known to have read with diligence. 50 Then share thy pain; allow that sad relief; Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires; 55 Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame, When love approach'd me under friendship's name; 60 64 My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind, 70 51 Heaven first taught letters. Warton traces the idea of those beautiful lines to the fourth book of Diodorus Siculus, which we know not whether the poet ever read: it certainly is not due to the passage generally quoted from the first letter of Eloisa - Si imagines nobis amicorum absentium jucundæ sunt, quæ memoriam renovant, et desiderium absentiæ falso atque inani solatio levant; quanto jucundiores sunt literæ, quæ amici absentis veras notas afferunt!' How oft, when press'd to marriage, have I said, Curse on all laws but those which love has made! 75 Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, all: Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove; 81 86 More fond than mistress, make me that to thee. O, happy state! when souls each other draw, 91 When love is liberty, and nature law: All then is full, possessing and possess'd, No craving void left aching in the breast: 88 No, make me mistress to the man I love. This monstrous sentiment is scarcely justified by the original. Eloisa merely puts a case :-' -If Augustus should offer me the honors of matrimony, and the world along with it, I should think it dearer, and more honorable, to be called your mistress than his empress.' The often quoted, and untrue sentiment, that love is inconsistent with the common obligations of society, is perhaps borrowed from Chaucer : Love will not be confined by maisterie: When maisterie comes, the lord of love anon Ev'n thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part; 95 And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart. This sure is bliss, if bliss on earth there be; 100 Alas, how changed! what sudden horrors rise! A naked lover bound and bleeding lies! Where, where was Eloise? her voice, her hand, Her poniard had opposed the dire command. Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke restrain; The crime was common, common be the pain. I can no more: by shame, by rage suppress'd, 105 Let tears and burning blushes speak the rest. Canst thou forget that sad, that solemn day, When victims at yon altar's foot we lay? Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell, When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell? As with cold lips I kiss'd the sacred veil, The shrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale: 111 115 Heaven scarce believed the conquest it survey'd, Come, with thy looks, thy words, relieve my wo; 120 119 Come, with thy looks. The original here simply applies to the letters of Abelard :- Listen, I beseech you,' says Eloisa, 'to what I ask you will see it to be but little, and, to you, of the easiest kind: while I am deprived of your presence, |