Peter Bell the Third | Page 2

seem?Ends of a disjointed dream.--?And the Third is he who has?O'er the grave been forced to pass?To the other side, which is,--?Go and try else,--just like this.
Peter Bell the First was Peter?Smugger, milder, softer, neater,?Like the soul before it is?Born from THAT world into THIS.?The next Peter Bell was he,?Predevote, like you and me,?To good or evil as may come;?His was the severer doom,--?For he was an evil Cotter,?And a polygamic Potter.?And the last is Peter Bell,?Damned since our first parents fell,?Damned eternally to Hell--?Surely he deserves it well!
PART 1.
DEATH.
1.?And Peter Bell, when he had been?With fresh-imported Hell-fire warmed,?Grew serious--from his dress and mien?'Twas very plainly to be seen?Peter was quite reformed.
2.?His eyes turned up, his mouth turned down;?His accent caught a nasal twang;?He oiled his hair; there might be heard?The grace of God in every word?Which Peter said or sang.
3.?But Peter now grew old, and had?An ill no doctor could unravel:?His torments almost drove him mad;--?Some said it was a fever bad--?Some swore it was the gravel.
4.?His holy friends then came about,?And with long preaching and persuasion?Convinced the patient that, without?The smallest shadow of a doubt,?He was predestined to damnation.
5.?They said--'Thy name is Peter Bell;?Thy skin is of a brimstone hue;?Alive or dead--ay, sick or well--?The one God made to rhyme with hell;?The other, I think, rhymes with you.
6.?Then Peter set up such a yell!--?The nurse, who with some water gruel?Was climbing up the stairs, as well?As her old legs could climb them--fell,?And broke them both--the fall was cruel.
7.?The Parson from the casement lept?Into the lake of Windermere--?And many an eel--though no adept?In God's right reason for it--kept?Gnawing his kidneys half a year.
8.?And all the rest rushed through the door?And tumbled over one another,?And broke their skulls.--Upon the floor?Meanwhile sat Peter Bell, and swore,?And cursed his father and his mother;
9.?And raved of God, and sin, and death,?Blaspheming like an infidel;?And said, that with his clenched teeth?He'd seize the earth from underneath,?And drag it with him down to hell.
10.?As he was speaking came a spasm,?And wrenched his gnashing teeth asunder;?Like one who sees a strange phantasm?He lay,--there was a silent chasm?Between his upper jaw and under.
11.?And yellow death lay on his face;?And a fixed smile that was not human?Told, as I understand the case,?That he was gone to the wrong place:--?I heard all this from the old woman.
12.?Then there came down from Langdale Pike?A cloud, with lightning, wind and hail;?It swept over the mountains like?An ocean,--and I heard it strike?The woods and crags of Grasmere vale.
13.?And I saw the black storm come?Nearer, minute after minute;?Its thunder made the cataracts dumb;?With hiss, and clash, and hollow hum,?It neared as if the Devil was in it.
14.?The Devil WAS in it:--he had bought?Peter for half-a-crown; and when?The storm which bore him vanished, nought?That in the house that storm had caught?Was ever seen again.
15.?The gaping neighbours came next day--?They found all vanished from the shore:?The Bible, whence he used to pray,?Half scorched under a hen-coop lay;?Smashed glass--and nothing more!
PART 2.
THE DEVIL.
1.?The Devil, I safely can aver,?Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting;?Nor is he, as some sages swear,?A spirit, neither here nor there,?In nothing--yet in everything.
2.?He is--what we are; for sometimes?The Devil is a gentleman;?At others a bard bartering rhymes?For sack; a statesman spinning crimes;?A swindler, living as he can;
3.?A thief, who cometh in the night,?With whole boots and net pantaloons,?Like some one whom it were not right?To mention;--or the luckless wight?From whom he steals nine silver spoons.
4.?But in this case he did appear?Like a slop-merchant from Wapping,?And with smug face, and eye severe,?On every side did perk and peer?Till he saw Peter dead or napping.
5.?He had on an upper Benjamin?(For he was of the driving schism)?In the which he wrapped his skin?From the storm he travelled in,?For fear of rheumatism.
6.?He called the ghost out of the corse;--?It was exceedingly like Peter,--?Only its voice was hollow and hoarse--?It had a queerish look of course--?Its dress too was a little neater.
7.?The Devil knew not his name and lot;?Peter knew not that he was Bell:?Each had an upper stream of thought,?Which made all seem as it was not;?Fitting itself to all things well.
8.?Peter thought he had parents dear,?Brothers, sisters, cousins, cronies,?In the fens of Lincolnshire;?He perhaps had found them there?Had he gone and boldly shown his
9.?Solemn phiz in his own village;?Where he thought oft when a boy?He'd clomb the orchard walls to pillage?The produce of his neighbour's tillage,?With marvellous pride and joy.
10.?And the Devil thought he had,?'Mid the misery and confusion?Of an unjust war, just made?A fortune by the gainful trade?Of giving soldiers rations bad--?The world is full of strange delusion--
11.?That he had a mansion planned?In a square like Grosvenor Square,?That he was aping fashion, and?That he now came to Westmoreland?To see what was romantic there.
12.?And all this, though quite ideal,--?Ready at a breath to vanish,--?Was