Alchemy. Maureen Duffy

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      And so we jousted through the verses in our litany of praise.

      

      He:

      Astrea is our chiefest joy,

      Our chiefest guard against annoy,

      Our chiefest wealth, our treasure.

      I:

      Where chiefest are, there others be

      To us none else but only she.

      When wilt thou speak in measure?

      He:

      Astrea may be justly sayd,

      A field in flowry robe arrayed,

      In season freshly springing.

      I:

      That spring endures but shortest time,

      This never leaves Astrea’s clime,

      Thou liest instead of singing.

      Thenot:

      As heavenly light that guides the day

      Right so doth shine each lovely ray

      That from Astrea flyeth.

      Piers:

      Nay darkness oft that light enclouds

      Astrea’s beams no darkness shrouds.

      How loudly Thenot lyeth.

      Coming all too soon as it seemed to me to the last verse he began:

      Then Piers of friendship tell me why,

      My meaning true, my words should lie

      And strive in vain to raise her.

      I answered:

      Words from conceit do only rise,

      Above conceit her honour flies;

      But silence, naught can praise her.

      As we ended we both fell upon our knees before the countess, for we spoke in homage to her who was our queen indeed however she might have writ for another and greater. I was aware of the richness of her dress of her favourite white silk sewn all over with pearls and the intricacy of her lace at throat and wrists, floating gossamer against the darkness of the hall as the winter day passed, lit only by sconces and the leaping flames from the hearth. There was much applause and our lady rising to her feet clapped her hands too and cried out, ‘Excellently done. I would that her majesty herself had seen it. Let more candles be brought and the music play now for dancing. Come, Piers who would praise by silence, and lead me out. I would not have you dumb for ever.’

      ‘Madam, as I have never acted before so too I have never danced.’

      ‘It is only to put one foot before the other in time to the music. Give me your hand. You will soon learn. Was there no dancing in your father’s house?’

      ‘His only visitors were old grey physicians like himself.’

      ‘Dancing is good for body and mind. You will see you have only to observe what others do and all is easy.’

      So I learned to lead my lady by her soft hand, to turn her about and gaze into her face and bow, and all the while my heart felt caged in my chest like some animal that would break forth. When the music stopped I bowed deeply and handed her to her chair where she sat fanning herself while she watched the other dancers. ‘We must have back the dancing master who taught my children so that you may learn new steps to please me, Amyntas.’

      ‘As my lady pleases.’

      ‘Your lady does please. There is no one else here I care to dance with.’

      Though my head swam with pleasure at this, nevertheless I saw that such a liking was dangerous if perceived by others, for now Mistress Griffiths approached and asked if she might borrow my lady’s dancing partner and on permission being given she said as we took our place: ‘Do not count on my lady’s favour to last for ever, boy, pretty as you are. Great ones are ever fickle and you will find yourself soon cast aside when your beard begins to grow and pustules come on that pretty cheek.’

      I quickly learned that where it had been my lady’s pleasure to encourage me, it was Mistress Griffiths’ to cause me to stumble. My lady had put out her hand to guide me even as she made it seem that the taking was mine. Mistress Griffiths held back so that I did not know which way to move until I got the trick of watching my neighbour from the corner of my eye.

      ‘You have much to learn of women as well as dancing,’ Mistress Griffiths said as we bowed to each other at the end of the coranto.

      ‘You must dance with the other my ladies Amyntas, or they will be jealous. But you must return to me again.’

      So I took out each one in turn and whether it was the music, the motion or the touching of hands and meeting of eyes, I felt myself lifted up in an eager body, proud and full of a new quick spirit that found an answer in my partners. Then I thought of Thenot’s words in praise of Astrea that she was both a ‘manly palm and a maiden boy’ and that I was myself indeed the two in one. And I found that I could cause the maidens I danced with, apart from Mistress Griffiths, to raise their eyes to mine and then to cast them down again simply by my own gaze upon their faces.

      My lady too observed all this which was a kind of play acting, and whispered laughing. ‘Have a care, Amyntas, or you will have all the ladies in love with you and what does the player say: “that they had better love a dream”.’ Then she sighed. ‘How my brother would have smiled to see his Arcadia played out in this sport of ours. But you must beware Mistress Griffiths who is not as enamoured of you as the rest or inclined to fall under your spell. Her eye is on marriage for wealth and position not an idle dalliance with one of neither. She may yet unmask you and then I cannot save you.’

      I should have taken warning from this but I was too dazzled and besides she said it laughing as a thing of no importance and as if she jested merely.

      The next day I took a quiet horse and rode into Salisbury, pausing on the brow of the hill before the city to look down at the spires of its churches rising above the huddle of roofs, and, taller than all, the great needle of the cathedral piercing the winter sky. I rode down to the market where stalls were set up for the goose fair with all manner of birds, fishes and sweetmeats for the Christmas feast.

      I was afraid the noise would alarm the horse so I dismounted to lead it. Suddenly a young pig that had been tethered by a leg to a post bit through the thong that bound it and set off through the market square with a hue and cry after it. A young boy was nimblest and at last contrived to throw himself upon the piglet and pin it to the ground and was given a groat for his pains. Away from the market, and in the din of birds clucking in their baskets, wheels over cobbles and the bawling of the hucksters I mounted again and turned right through Green Croft, past the Pheasant and up towards our house beside St Edmund’s church where I had lived in what seemed a whole life ago. Now the house must be another’s. I stared at its dark windows СКАЧАТЬ