The Complete Works of Robert Browning Volume 3; The Ring and the Book (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 Excerpt: ...I am married, --neither scarecrow will return." Three weeks, I chuckled--" How would Giulia stare, And Tecla smile and Tisbe laugh outright, Were it not impudent for brides to talk "--Until one morning, as I sat and sang At the broidery-frame alone i' the chamber, --loud Voices, two, three together, sobbings too, And my name, "Guido," "Paolo," flung like stones From each to the other In I ran to see. There stood the very Guido and the priest With sly face, --formal but nowise afraid, --While Pietro seemed all red and angry, scarce Able to stutter out his wrath in words; And this it was that made my mother sob, As he reproached her--" You have murdered us, Me and yourself and this our child beside " Then Guido interposed, "Murdered or not, Be it enough your child is now my wife I claim and come to take her." Paul put in, "Consider--kinsman, dare I term you so?--What is the good of your sagacity Except to counsel in a strait like this? I guarantee the parties man and wife Whether you like or loathe it, bless or ban. May spilt milk be put back within the bowl--The done thing, undone? You, it is, we look For counsel to, you fitliest will advise Since milk, though spilt and spoilt, does marble good. Better we down on knees and scrub the floor, Than sigh, 'the waste would make a syllabub ' Help us so turn disaster to account, So predispose the groom, he needs shall grace The bride with favor from the very first, Not begin marriage an embittered man " He smiled, --the game so wholly in his hands While fast and faster sobbed Violante--" Ay, All of us murdered, past averting now 0 my sin, 0 my secret " and such like. Then I began to half surmise the truth1; Something had happened, low, mean, ...