_By the same Author._ POEMS AND LYRICS OF THE JOY OF EARTH. _Extra Fcap. 8vo._ 6_s._ MACMILLAN AND CO. 1883. _Forthcoming Volume._ THE READING OF EARTH: Poems and Lyrics. BALLADS AND POEMS OF TRAGIC LIFE BY GEORGE MEREDITH ROBERTS BROTHERS 3 SOMERSET STREET BOSTON 1887 _All rights reserved_ CONTENTS PAGE The Two Masks 1 Archduchess Anne 3 The Song of Theodolinda 25 A Preaching from a Spanish Ballad 35 The Young Princess 42 King Harald's Trance 58 Whimper of Sympathy 63 Young Reynard 65 Manfred 67 Hernani 69 The Nuptials of Attila 70 Aneurin's Harp 101 France, December 1870 111 Men and Man 127 The Last Contention 129 Periander 133 Solon 143 Bellerophon 148 Phaéthôn 152 NOTES 159 THE TWO MASKS I. Melpomene among her livid people, Ere stroke of lyre, upon Thaleia looks, Warned by old contests that one museful ripple Along those lips of rose with tendril hooks, Forebodes disturbance in the springs of pathos, Perchance may change of masks midway demand, Albeit the man rise mountainous as Athos, The woman wild as Cape Leucadia stand. II. For this the Comic Muse exacts of creatures Appealing to the fount of tears: that they Strive never to outleap our human features, And do Right Reason's ordinance obey, In peril of the hum to laughter nighest. But prove they under stress of action's fire Nobleness, to that test of Reason highest, She bows: she waves them for the loftier lyre. ARCHDUCHESS ANNE I. I. In middle age an evil thing Befel Archduchess Anne: She looked outside her wedding-ring Upon a princely man. II. Count Louis was for horse and arms; And if its beacon waved, For love; but ladies had not charms To match a danger braved. III. On battlefields he was the bow Bestrung to fly the shaft: In idle hours his heart would flow As winds on currents waft. IV. His blood was of those warrior tribes That streamed from morning's fire, Whom now with traps and now with bribes The wily Council wire. V. Archduchess Anne the Council ruled, Count Louis his great dame; And woe to both when one had cooled! Little was she to blame. VI.