Some few that took their trains by stealth
And went. Can Grande shook his hair
And smote his thighs and laughed i' the air.
“Then facing on his guest, he cried:
‘Say, Messer Dante, how it is
I get out of a clown like this
More than your wisdom can provide?
And Dante: 'Tis man's ancient whim
That still his like seems good to him.’ ”
We cannot of course pretend to catalogue all Mr. Rosetti's beauties. But for the sake of quoting one stanza, we must say a word of the “Staff and Scrip.” A knight vowed to defend wronged innocence, finds himself, whilst returning from Palestine, in the land of a fair lady, which her triumphant foemen are ravaging, and where all hope of resistance is dead. He goes out on her behalf, and conquers and dies. This is the description of his return on the night of his victory: