The Angel in the House
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Contents and reading sections
CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY
* * * * *
THE
ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.
* * * * *
BY
COVENTRY PATMORE.
* * * * *
“Par la grace infinie, Dieu les mist au monde ensemble.”
_Rousier des Dames_.
[Picture: Decorative graphic]
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
_LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE_.
1891.
* * * * *
THIS POEM
IS INSCRIBED
TO
THE MEMORY OF HER
BY WHOM AND FOR WHOM I BECAME A POET.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
THERE could be but one answer to the suggestion of Mr. Coventry Patmore
that his “Angel in the House” might usefully have a place in this
“National Library.” The suggestion was made with the belief that wide
and cheap diffusion would not take from the value of a copyright library
edition, while the best use of writing is fulfilled by the spreading of
verse dedicated to the sacred love of home. The two parts of the Poem
appeared in 1854 and 1856, were afterwards elaborately revised, and have
since obtained a permanent place among the Home Books of the English
People. Our readers will join, surely, in thanks to the author for the
present he has made us.
H. M.
CONTENTS
BOOK I.
PAGE
THE PROLOGUE. 13
CANTO
I. THE CATHEDRAL CLOSE 17
Preludes:
1. The Impossibility 17
2. Love’s Really 17
3. The Poet’s Confidence 18
The Cathedral Close 19
II. MARY AND MILDRED 24
Preludes:
1. The Paragon 24
2. Love at Large 26
3. Love and Duty 27
4. A Distinction 28
Mary and Mildred 28
III. HONORIA 32
Preludes:
1. The Lover 32
2. Love a Virtue 34
3. The Attainment 34
Honoria 35
IV. THE MORNING CALL 39
Preludes:
1. The Rose of the World 39
2. The Tribute 41
3. Compensation 42
The Morning Call 42
V. THE VIOLETS 46
Preludes:
1. The Comparison 46
2. Love in Tears 48
3. Prospective Faith 48
4. Venus Victrix 49
The Violets 49
VI. THE DEAN 53
Preludes:
1. Perfect Love rare 53
2. Love Justified 54
3. Love Serviceable 55
4. A Riddle Solved 56
The Dean 56
VII. ÆTNA AND THE MOON 60
Preludes:
1. Love’s Immortality 60
2. Heaven and Earth 61
Ætna and the Moon 62
VIII. SARUM PLAIN 66
Preludes:
1. Life of Life 66
2. The Revelation 67
3. The Spirit’s Epochs 67
4. The Prototype 68
5. The Praise of Love 68
Sarum Plain 69
IX. SAHARA 74
Preludes:
1. The Wife’s Tragedy 74
2. Common Graces 75
3. The Zest of Life 76
4. Fool and Wise 76
Sahara 77
X. CHURCH TO CHURCH 81
Preludes:
1. The Joyful Wisdom 81
2. The Devices 84
Going to Church 84
XI. THE DANCE 89
Preludes:
1. The Daughter of Eve 89
2. Aurea Dicta 91
The Dance 93
XII. THE ABDICATION 97
Preludes:
1. The Chace 97
2. Denied 100
3. The Churl 101
The Abdication 102
BOOK II.
THE PROLOGUE 105
I. ACCEPTED 109
Preludes:
1. The Song of Songs 109
2. The Kites 110
3. Orpheus 111
4. Nearest the Dearest 111
5. Perspective 112
Accepted 112
II. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE 116
Preludes:
1. The Changed Allegiance 116
2. Beauty 120
3. Lais and Lucretia 120
The Course of True Love 121
III. THE COUNTRY BALL 126
Preludes:
1. Love Ceremonious 126
2. The Rainbow 127
3. A Paradox 127
The County Ball 128
IV. LOVE IN IDLENESS 132
Preludes:
1. Honour and Desert 132
2. Love and Honour 133
3. Valour Misdirected 134
Love in Idleness 134
V. THE QUEEN’S ROOM 139
Preludes:
1. Rejected 139
2. Rachel 140
3. The Heart’s Prophecies 141
The Queen’s Room 141
VI. THE LOVE-LETTERS 145
Preludes:
1. Love’s Perversity 145
2. The Power of Love 147
The Love-Letters 148
VII. THE REVULSION 152
Preludes:
1. Joy and Use 152
2. ‘She was Mine’ 153
The Revulsion 153
VIII. THE KOH-I-NOOR 158
Preludes:
1. In Love 158
2. Love Thinking 160
3. The Kiss 161
The Koh-i-noor 161
IX. THE FRIENDS 165
Preludes:
1. The Nursling of Civility 165
2. The Foreign Land 166
3. Disappointment 166
The Friends 167
X. THE EPITAPH 170
Preludes:
1. Frost in Harvest 170
2. Felicity 171
3. Marriage Indissoluble 172
The Epitaph 172
XI. THE WEDDING 176
Preludes:
1. Platonic Love 176
2. A Demonstration 177
3. The Symbol 178
4. Constancy Rewarded 178
The Wedding 179
XII. HUSBAND AND WIFE 183
Preludes:
1. The Married Lover 183
2. The Amaranth 184
Husband and Wife 185
The Epilogue 189
Book I.
THE PROLOGUE.
1
‘MINE is no horse with wings, to gain
The region of the spheral chime;
He does but drag a rumbling wain,
Cheer’d by the coupled bells of rhyme;
And if at Fame’s bewitching note
My homely Pegasus pricks an ear,
The world’s cart-collar hugs his throat,
And he’s too wise to prance or rear.’
2
Thus ever answer’d Vaughan his Wife,
Who, more than he, desired his fame;
But, in his heart, his thoughts were rife
How for her sake to earn a name.
With bays poetic three times crown’d,
And other college honours won,
He, if he chose, might be renown’d,
He had but little doubt, she none;
And in a loftier phrase he talk’d
With her, upon their Wedding-Day,
(The eighth), while through the fields they walk’d,
Their children shouting by the way.
3
‘Not careless of the gift of song,
Nor out of love with noble fame,
I, meditating much and long
What I should sing, how win a name,
Considering well what theme unsung,
What reason worth the cost of rhyme,
Remains to loose the poet’s tongue
In these last days, the dregs of time,
Learn that to me, though born so late,
There does, beyond desert, befall
(May my great fortune make me great!)
The first of themes, sung last of all.
In green and undiscover’d ground,
Yet near where many others sing,
I have the very well-head found
Whence gushes the Pierian Spring.’
4
Then she: ‘What is it, Dear? The Life
Of Arthur, or Jerusalem’s Fall?’
‘Neither: your gentle self, my Wife,
And love, that grows from one to all.
And if I faithfully proclaim
Of these the exceeding worthiness,
Surely the sweetest wreath of Fame
Shall, to your hope, my brows caress;
And if, by virtue of my choice
Of this, the most heart-touching theme
That ever tuned a poet’s voice,
I live, as I am bold to dream,
To be delight to many days,
And into silence only cease
When those are still, who shared their bays
With Laura and with Beatrice,
Imagine, Love, how learned men
Will deep-conceiv’d devices find,
Beyond my purpose and my ken,
An ancient bard of simple mind.
You, Sweet, his Mistress, Wife, and Muse,