Was just a brown-sleeve brother, merrily Appointed too," quoth he, "till Innocent Bade me relinquish, to my small content, My wife or my brown sleeves")--some brother spoke Ere nocturns of Crescentius, to revoke The edict issued, after his demise, Which blotted fame alike and effigies, All out except a floating power, a name Including, tending to produce the same Great act. Rome, dead, forgotten, lived at least Within that brain, though to a vulgar priest And a vile stranger,--two not worth a slave Of Rome's, Pope John, King Otho,--fortune gave The rule there: so, Crescentius, haply dressed In white, called Roman Consul for a jest, Taking the people at their word, forth stepped As upon Brutus' heel, nor ever kept Rome waiting,--stood erect, and from his brain Gave Rome out on its ancient place again, Ay, bade proceed with Brutus' Rome, Kings styled Themselves mere citizens of, and, beguiled Into great thoughts thereby, would choose the gem Out of a lapfull, spoil their diadem --The Senate's cypher was so hard to scratch! He flashes like a phanal, all men catch The flame, Rome 's just accomplished! when returned Otho, with John, the Consul's step had spurned, And Hugo Lord of Este, to redress The wrongs of each. Crescentius in the stress Of adverse fortune bent. "They crucified Their Consul in the Forum; and abide E'er since such slaves at Rome, that I--(for I Was once a brown-sleeve brother, merrily Appointed)--I had option to keep wife Or keep brown sleeves, and managed in the strife Lose both. A song of Rome!" And Rome, indeed, Robed at Goito in fantastic weed, The Mother-City of his Mantuan days, Looked an established point of light whence rays Traversed the world; for, all the clustered homes Beside of men, seemed bent on being Romes In their degree; the question was, how each Should most resemble Rome, clean out of reach. [Sidenote: How if, in the reintegration of Rome,] Nor, of the Two, did either principle Struggle to change--but to possess--Rome, still, Guelf Rome or Ghibellin Rome. Let Rome advance! Rome, as she struck Sordello's ignorance-- How could he doubt one moment? Rome 's the Cause! Rome of the Pandects, all the world's new laws-- Of the Capitol, of Castle Angelo; New structures, that inordinately glow, Subdued, brought back to harmony, made ripe By many a relic of the archetype Extant for wonder; every upstart church That hoped to leave old temples in the lurch, Corrected by the Theatre forlorn That,--as a mundane shell, its world late born,-- Lay and o'ershadowed it. These hints combined, [Sidenote: Be typified the triumph of mankind?] Rome typifies the scheme to put mankind