AmyLowell:TheCremonaViolin

Part First

Frau Concert-Meister Altgelt shut the door.

A storm was rising, heavy gusts of wind

Swirled through the trees, and scattered leaves before

Her on the clean, flagged path. The sky behind

The distant town was black, and sharp defined

Against it shone the lines of roofs and towers,

Superimposed and flat like cardboard flowers.

A pasted city on a purple ground,

Picked out with luminous paint, it seemed. The cloud

Split on an edge of lightning, and a sound

Of rivers full and rushing boomed through bowed,

Tossed, hissing branches. Thunder rumbled loud

Beyond the town fast swallowing into gloom.

Frau Altgelt closed the windows of each room.

She bustled round to shake by constant moving

The strange, weird atmosphere. She stirred the fire,

She twitched the supper-cloth as though improving

Its careful setting, then her own attire

Came in for notice, tiptoeing higher and higher

She peered into the wall-glass, now adjusting

A straying lock, or else a ribbon thrusting

This way or that to suit her. At last

sitting,

Or rather plumping down upon a chair,

She took her work, the stocking she was knitting,

And watched the rain upon the window glare

In white, bright drops. Through the black glass a flare

Of lightning squirmed about her needles. Oh!

She cried. What can be keeping Theodore so!

A roll of thunder set the casements clapping.

Frau Altgelt flung her work aside and ran,

Pulled open the house door, with kerchief flapping

She stood and gazed along the street. A man

Flung back the garden-gate and nearly ran

Her down as she stood in the door. Why, Dear,

What in the name of patience brings you here?

Quick, Lotta, shut the door, my violin

I fear is wetted. Now, Dear, bring a light.

This clasp is very much too worn and thin.

Ill take the other fiddle out to-night

If it still rains. Tut! Tut! my child, youre quite

Clumsy. Here, help me, hold the case while I --

Give me the candle. No, the insides dry.

Thank God for that! Well, Lotta, how

are you?

A bad storm, but the house still stands, I see.

Is my pipe filled, my Dear? Ill have a few

Puffs and a snooze before I eat my tea.

What do you say? That you were feared for me?

Nonsense, my child. Yes, kiss me, now dont talk.

I need a rest, the theatres a long walk.

Her needles still, her hands upon her lap

Patiently laid, Charlotta Altgelt sat

And watched the rain-run window. In his nap

Her husband stirred and muttered. Seeing that,

Charlotta rose and softly, pit-a-pat,

Climbed up the stairs, and in her little room

Found sighing comfort with a moon in bloom.

But even rainy windows, silver-lit

By a new-burst, storm-whetted moon, may give

But poor content to loneliness, and it

Was hard for young Charlotta so to strive

And down her eagerness and learn to live

In placid quiet. While her husband slept,

Charlotta in her upper chamber wept.

Herr Concert-Meister Altgelt was a man

Gentle and unambitious, that alone

Had kept him back. He played as few men can,

Drawing out of his instrument a tone

So shimmering-sweet and palpitant, it shone

Like a bright thread of sound hung in the air,

Afloat and swinging upward, slim and fair.

Above all things, above Charlotta his wife,

Herr Altgelt loved his violin, a fine

Cremona pattern, Stradivaris life

Was flowering out of early discipline

When this was fashioned. Of soft-cutting pine

The belly was. The back of broadly curled

Maple, the head made thick and sharply whirled.

The slanting, youthful sound-holes

through

The belly of fine, vigorous pine

Mellowed each note and blew

It out again with a woody flavour

Tanged and fragrant as fir-trees are

When breezes in their needles jar.

The varnish was an orange-brown

Lustered like glass thats long laid down

Under a crumbling villa stone.

Purfled stoutly, with mitres which point

Straight up the corners. Each curve

and joint

Clear, and bold, and thin.

Such was Herr Theodores violin.

Seven oclock, the Concert-Meister gone

With his best violin, the rain being stopped,

Frau Lotta in the kitchen sat alone

Watching the embers which the fire dropped.

The china shone upon the dresser, topped

By polished copper vessels which her skill

Kept brightly burnished. It was very still.

An air from `Orfeo hummed in her head.

Herr Altgelt had been practising before

The nights performance. Charlotta had plead

With him to stay with her. Even at the door

Shed begged him not to go. I do implore

You for this evening, Theodore, she had said.

Leave them to-night, and stay with me instead.

A silly poppet! Theodore pinched her

ear.

Youd like to have our good Elector turn

Me out I think. But, Theodore, something queer

Ails me. Oh, do but notice how they burn,

My cheeks! The thunder worried me. Youre

stern,

And cold, and only love your work, I know.

But Theodore, for this evening, do not go.

But he had gone, hurriedly at the end,

For she had kept him talking. Now she sat

Alone again, always alone, the trend

Of all her thinking brought her back to that

She wished to banish. What would life be? What?

For she was young, and loved, while he was moved

Only by music. Each day that was proved.

Each day he rose and practised. While

he played,

She stopped her work and listened, and her heart

Swelled painfully beneath her bodice. Swayed

And longing, she would hide from him her smart.

Well, Lottchen, will that do? Then what a start

She gave, and she would run to him and cry,

And he would gently chide her, Fie, Dear, fie.

Im glad I played it well. But such

a taking!

Youll hear the thing enough before Ive done.

And she would draw away from him, still shaking.

Had he but guessed she was another one,

Another violin. Her strings were aching,

Stretched to the touch of his bow hand, again

He played and she almost broke at the strain.

Where was the use of thinking of it now,

Sitting alone and listening to the clock!

Shed best make haste and knit another row.

Three hours at least must pass before his knock

Would startle her. It always was a shock.

She listened -- listened -- for so long before,

That when it came her hearing almost tore.

She caught herself just starting in to listen.

What nerves she had: rattling like brittle sticks!

She wandered to the window, for the glisten

Of a bright moon was tempting. Snuffed the wicks

Of her two candles. Still she could not fix

To anything. The moon in a broad swath

Beckoned her out and down the garden-path.

Against the house, her hollyhocks stood high

And black, their shadows doubling them. The night

Was white and still with moonlight, and a sigh

Of blowing leaves was there, and the dim flight

Of insects, and the smell of aconite,

And stocks, and Marvel of Peru. She flitted

Along the path, where blocks of shadow pitted

The even flags. She let herself go dreaming

Of Theodore her husband, and the tune

From `Orfeo swam through her mind, but seeming

Changed -- shriller. Of a sudden, the clear moon

Showed her a passer-by, inopportune

Indeed, but here he was, whistling and striding.

Lotta squeezed in between the currants, hiding.

The best laid plans of mice and men, alas!

The stranger came indeed, but did not pass.

Instead, he leant upon the garden-gate,

Folding his arms and whistling. Lottas state,

Crouched in the prickly currants, on wet grass,

Was far from pleasant. Still the stranger stayed,

And Lotta in her currants watched, dismayed.

He seemed a proper fellow standing there

In the bright moonshine. His cocked hat was laced

With silver, and he wore his own brown hair

Tied, but unpowdered. His whole bearing graced

A fine cloth coat, and ruffled shirt, and chased

Sword-hilt. Charlotta looked, but her position

Was hardly easy. When would his volition

Suggest his walking on? And then that

tune!

A half-a-dozen bars from `Orfeo

Gone over and over, and murdered. What Fortune

Had brought him there to stare about him so?

Ach, Gott im Himmel! Why will he not go!

Thought Lotta, but the young man whistled on,

And seemed in no great hurry to be gone.

Charlotta, crouched among the currant bushes,

Watched the moon slowly dip from twig to twig.

If Theodore should chance to come, and blushes

Streamed over her. He would not care a fig,

Hed only laugh. She pushed aside a sprig

Of sharp-edged leaves and peered, then she uprose

Amid her bushes. Sir, said she, pray whose

Garden do you suppose youre watching? Why

Do you stand there? I really must insist

Upon your leaving. Tis unmannerly

To stay so long. The young man gave a twist

And turned about, and in the amethyst

Moonlight he saw her like a nymph half-risen

From the green bushes which had been her prison.

He swept his hat off in a hurried bow.

Your pardon, Madam, I had no idea

I was not quite alone, and that is how

I came to stay. My trespass was not sheer

Impertinence. I thought no one was here,

And really gardens cry to be admired.

To-night especially it seemed required.

And may I beg to introduce myself?

Heinrich Marohl of Munich. And your name?

Charlotta told him. And the artful elf

Promptly exclaimed about her husbands fame.

So Lotta, half-unwilling, slowly came

To conversation with him. When she went

Into the house, she found the evening spent.

Theodore arrived quite wearied out and teased,

With all excitement in him burned away.

It had gone well, he said, the audience pleased,

And he had played his very best to-day,

But afterwards he had been forced to stay

And practise with the stupid ones. His head

Ached furiously, and he must get to bed.

Part Second

Herr Concert-Meister Altgelt

played,

And the four strings of his violin

Were spinning like bees on a day in Spring.

The notes rose into the wide sun-mote

Which slanted through the window,

They lay like coloured beads a-row,

They knocked together and parted,

And started to dance,

Skipping, tripping, each one slipping

Under and over the others so

That the polychrome fire streamed like a lance

Or a comets tail,

Behind them.

Then a wail arose -- crescendo --

And dropped from off the end of the bow,

And the dancing stopped.

A scent of lilies filled the room,

Long and slow. Each large white bloom

Breathed a sound which was holy perfume from a

blessed censer,

And the hum of an organ tone,

And they waved like fans in a hall of stone

Over a bier standing there in the centre, alone.

Each lily bent slowly as it was blown.

Like smoke they rose from the violin --

Then faded as a swifter bowing

Jumbled the notes like wavelets flowing

In a splashing, pashing, rippling motion

Between broad meadows to an ocean

Wide as a day and blue as a flower,

Where every hour

Gulls dipped, and scattered, and squawked, and

squealed,

And over the marshes the Angelus pealed,

And the prows of the fishing-boats were spattered

With spray.

And away a couple of frigates were starting

To race to Java with all sails set,

Topgallants, and royals, and stunsails, and jibs,

And wide moonsails; and the shining rails

Were polished so bright they sparked in the sun.

All the sails went up with a run:

They call me Hanging Johnny,

Away-i-oh;

They call me Hanging Johnny,

So hang,

boys, hang.

And the sun had set and the high moon whitened,

And the ship heeled over to the breeze.

He drew her into the shade of the sails,

And whispered tales

Of voyages in the China seas,

And his arm around her

Held and bound her.