'Squire Norton's Song (II)'
Description
Creator
Source
The Village Coquettes, An Operatic Burletta in Two Acts (1836). London: John Dicks.
Date
Contributor
Rights
Internet Archive: Access to the Archive’s Collections is provided at no cost and is granted for scholarship and research purposes only (https://archive.org/about/terms.php).
Type
Bibliographic Citation
Dickens, Charles. 'Round.' The Village Coquettes (1836): p. 9. Dickens Search. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1836-The_Village_Coquettes_Squire_Nortons_SongII.
Transcription
The child and the old man sat alone
In the quiet, peaceful shade
Of the old green boughs, that had richly grown
In the deep, thick forest glade.
It was a soft and pleasant sound,
That rustling of the oak;
And the gentle breeze played lightly round,
As thus the fair boy spoke: –
‘Dear father, what can honour be,
Of which I hear men rave?
Field, cell and cloister, laud and sea,
The tempest and the grave: –
It lives in all, ‘tis sought in each,
‘Tis never heard or seen:
Now tell me, father, I beseech,
What can this honour mean?’
‘It is a name – a name, my child, -
It lived in other days,
When men were rude, their passions wild,
Their sport, thick battle-frays.
When, in armour bright, the warrior bold
Knelt to his lady’s eyes:
Beneath the abbey pavement old
That warrior’s dust now lies.
‘The iron hearts of that old day
Have mouldered in the grave;
And chivalry has passed away,
With knights so true and brave;
The honour, which to them was life,
Throbs in no bosom now;
It only gilds the gambler’s strife,
Or decks the worthless vow.’