- end_line
- 11241
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 11203
- text
- And--odder yet--sealed walls but windows be!
Death’s open secret.--Well, we are;
And here comes the jolly angel with the jar!’
Wherein, in the ultimate verse, Lugar-Lips did particularise, doubtless,
one of the twain in the _relievo_ of the little medallion on one side of
the vase, of which cunning piece I have in the foregoing made account.
‘And is that all?’ said My Lord, composedly, but scarce cheerfully, when
the renegado had made an end; ‘and is that all? And call you that a
crushing from the grape? the black grape, I wis’; there checking
himself, as a wise man will do, catching himself tripping in an
indiscreet sincerity; which to cover, peradventure, he, suddenly rising,
retired to his chamber, and though commanding his visage somewhat, yet
in pace and figure showing the spirit within sadly distraught; forsooth,
the last Michaelmas, his birthday, he was threescore and three years
old, and in privy fear, as I knew who long was near him, of a certain
sudden malady whereof his father and grandfather before him had died
about that age. But for my part I always esteemed it a mighty weakness
in so great a man to let the ribald wit of a vain ballader, and he a
heathen, make heavy his heart. For me who am but a small one, I was in
secret pleased with the lax pleasantry of this Lugar-Lips, but in such
sort as one is tickled with the profane capering of a mountebank at
Bartholomew’s Fair by Thames. Howbeit, had I been, God knows, of equal
reverend years with my master, and subject by probable inheritance to
the like sudden malady, peradventure I myself in that case might have
waxed sorrowful, doubting whether the grape was not indeed the black
grape, as he phrased it, wherefrom that vain balladry had been
distilled.
But now no more hereof, nor of the amber vase, which like unto some
little man in great place hath been made overmuch of, as the judicious
reader hereof may opine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- title
- Chunk 5