Ban and Arriere Ban   By: Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Contents

Dedication A Scot to Jeanne d'Arc How they held the Bass for King James Three portraits of Prince Charles From Omar Khayyam Aesop Les Roses de Sadi The Haunted Tower Boat song Lost Love The Promise of Helen The Restoration of Romance Central American Antiquities in South Kensington Museum On Calais Sands Ballade of Yule Poscimur On his Dead Sea Mew From Meleager On the Garland Sent to Rhodocleia A Galloway Garland Celia's Eyes Britannia Gallia The Fairy Minister To Robert Louis Stevenson For Mark Twain's Jubilee Poems Written under the Influence of Wordsworth Mist Lines Lines Ode to Golf Freshman's Term A toast Death in June To Correspondents Ballade of Difficult Rhymes Ballant o'Ballantrae Song by the Sub Conscious Self The Haunted Homes of England The Disappointment To the Gentle Reader The Sonnet The Tournay of the Heroes Ballad of the Philanthropist Neiges d'Antan In Ercildoune For a Rose's Sake The Brigand's Grave The New Liveried Year More Strong than Death Silentia Lunae His Lady's Tomb The Poet's Apology Notes

DEDICATION: TO ELEANOR CHARLOTTE SELLAR

'Ban and Arriere Ban!' a host Broken, beaten, all unled, They return as doth a ghost From the dead.

Sad or glad my rallied rhymes, Sought our dusty papers through, For the sake of other times Come to you.

Times and places new we know, Faces fresh and seasons strange But the friends of long ago Do not change.

ERRATUM: Reader, a blot hath escaped the watchfulness of the setter forth: if thou wilt thou mayst amend it. The sonnet on the forty fourth page, against all right Italianate laws, hath but thirteen lines withal: add another to thy liking, if thou art a Maker; or, if thou art none, even be content with what is set before thee. If it be scant measure, be sure it is choicely good.

A SCOT TO JEANNE D'ARC

Dark Lily without blame, Not upon us the shame, Whose sires were to the Auld Alliance true, They, by the Maiden's side, Victorious fought and died, One stood by thee that fiery torment through, Till the White Dove from thy pure lips had passed, And thou wert with thine own St. Catherine at the last.

Once only didst thou see In artist's imagery, Thine own face painted, and that precious thing Was in an Archer's hand From the leal Northern land. Alas, what price would not thy people bring To win that portrait of the ruinous Gulf of devouring years that hide the Maid from us!

Born of a lowly line, Noteless as once was thine, One of that name I would were kin to me, Who, in the Scottish Guard Won this for his reward, To fight for France, and memory of thee: Not upon us, dark Lily without blame, Not on the North may fall the shadow of that shame.

On France and England both The shame of broken troth, Of coward hate and treason black must be; If England slew thee, France Sent not one word, one lance, One coin to rescue or to ransom thee. And still thy Church unto the Maid denies The halo and the palms, the Beatific prize.

But yet thy people calls Within the rescued walls Of Orleans; and makes its prayer to thee; What though the Church have chidden These orisons forbidden, Yet art thou with this earth's immortal Three, With him in Athens that of hemlock died, And with thy Master dear whom the world crucified.

HOW THEY HELD THE BASS FOR KING JAMES 1691 1693

[Time of Narrating 1743]

Ye hae heard Whigs crack o' the Saints in the Bass, my faith, a gruesome tale; How the Remnant paid at a tippeny rate, for a quart o' ha'penny ale! But I'll tell ye anither tale o' the Bass, that'll hearten ye up to hear, Sae I pledge ye to Middleton first in a glass, and a health to the Young Chevalier!