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DREAM-FUGUE:FOUNDED ON THE PRECEDING THEME OF SUDDEN DEATH
"Whence the sound Of instruments, that made melodious chime, Was heard, of harp and organ; and who moved Their stops and chords was seen; his volant touch Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue." _Par. Lost_, Bk. XI.
_Tumultuosissimamente_
Passion of sudden death! that once in youth I read and interpreted by the shadows of thy averted signs [Footnote: "_Averted signs_":--I read the course and changes of the lady`s agony in the succession of her involuntary gestures; but it must be remembered that I read all this from the rear, never once catching the lady`s full face, and even her profile imperfectly.]!--rapture of panic taking the shape (which amongst tombs in churches I have seen) of woman bursting her sepulchral bonds--of woman`s Ionic form bending forward from the ruins of her grave with arching foot, with eyes upraised, with clasped adoring hands--waiting, watching, trembling, praying for the trumpet`s call to rise from dust for ever! Ah, vision too fearful of shuddering humanity on the brink of almighty abysses!--vision that didst start back, that didst reel away, like a shrivelling scroll from before the wrath of fire racing on the wings of the wind! Epilepsy so brief of horror, wherefore is it that thou canst not die? Passing so suddenly into darkness, wherefore is it that still thou sheddest thy sad funeral blights upon the gorgeous mosaics of dreams? Fragment of music too passionate, heard once, and heard no more, what aileth thee, that thy deep rolling chords come up at intervals through all the worlds of sleep, and after forty years have lost no element of horror?
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