Robert Browning

“ Here loomed her head, life-large, the devil knew!
Look out, Salvini! Here's your man, your match!
He and I sat applauding, stall by stall,
Last Monday—'Here's Othello' was our word,
'But where's Iago?' Where? Why, there! And now
The fellow-artist, female specimen—
Oh, lady, you must needs describe yourself!
He's grea in art, but you—how greater still
— (If I can rightly, out of all I learned,
Apply one bit of Latin that assures
'Art means just art's concealment' ) —tower yourself! ”

“ And yet, unharmed I breathe—perchance, repent—
Thanks to the mercifully-politic!"
"Ignorance is not innocence but sin—
Witness your own ignoring after-pangs
Pursue the plague-infected. Merciful
Am I? Perhaps! the more contempt, the less
Hatred ”

“ I wonder now if I could rummage out
—Just to match weapons—some old scorpion-scourge!
Madam, you hear my pupil, may applaud
His triumph o'er the master. I—no more
Bully, since I'm forbidden: but entreat—
Wait and return—for my sake, no! but just
To save your own defender, should he chance
Get thwacked thro' awkward flourish of his thong. ”