The first did her most anxious care bestow To impress one point from which I ne'er should go: "Upon a good beginning must be based A good rondeau." Zeal bid the other's choicest language glow: She softly said: "Recount your weal or woe, Your every subject, free from pause or haste; Ne'er let your hero fail, nor be disgraced." The third: "With varying emphasis should flow A good rondeau." (J. R. BEST: _Ung Bon Rondeau_, in _Rondeaulx_. Translated from the French, ed. 1527. 1838. Quoted in _Ballades and Rondeaus_, Introduction, p. xxxviii.) Death, of thee do I make my moan, Who hadst my lady away from me, Nor wilt assuage thine enmity Till with her life thou hast my own; For since that hour my strength has flown. Lo! what wrong was her life to thee, Death? Two we were, and the heart was one; Which now being dead, dead I must be, Or seem alive as lifelessly As in the choir the painted stone, Death! (ROSSETTI: _To Death, of his Lady_, from the French of Villon, 1450.) This represents an early short form of the rondeau. With pipe and flute the rustic Pan Of old made music sweet for man; And wonder hushed the warbling bird, And closer drew the calm-eyed herd,-- The rolling river slowlier ran. Ah! would,--ah! would, a little span, Some air of Arcady could fan This age of ours, too seldom stirred With pipe and flute! But now for gold we plot and plan; And from Beersheba unto Dan Apollo's self might pass unheard, Or find the night-jar's note preferred.-- Not so it fared, when time began With pipe and flute! (AUSTIN DOBSON: _With Pipe and Flute._) What is to come we know not. But we know That what has been was good--was good to show, Better to hide, and best of all to bear. We are the masters of the days that were: We have lived, we have loved, we have suffered--even so. Shall we not take the ebb who had the flow? Life was our friend. Now, if it be our foe-- Dear, though it break and spoil us!--need we care What is to come? Let the great winds their worst and wildest blow, Or the gold weather round us mellow slow: We have fulfilled ourselves, and we can dare And we can conquer, though we may not share In the rich quiet of the afterglow What is to come. (W. E. HENLEY: _What is to Come._) A man must live! We justify Low shift and trick to treason high, A little vote for a little gold, To a whole senate bought and sold, With this self-evident reply. But is it so? Pray tell me why Life at such cost you have to buy? In what religion were you told "A man must live"?