and readers of Mansfield Park will remember how fitly these words are applied to the languid speech of Lady Bertram. A “clever fancy” on the part of the Norns, to spin this slender thread connecting Jane Austen (of all people!) with the “Runick savages boozing ale!” Had she known more of them, she would doubtless have agreed with Frederick the Great, that all their works were not worth a charge of powder, and that she would have no such stuff in her library.
XIV
YOUNG SVEJDAL
1
It was he, young Svejdal,
Was playing at the ball;
The ball flew into the maiden’s breast,
And her cheeks grew white withal.
—Choose thy words well!
2
The ball flew into the maiden’s bower,