Chapter 4 No.4

Not till he crossed the Danube did he find

Among the fountains and the storied eaves

Of Augsburg, one to share his task with him.

Paul Hainzel, of that city, greatly loved

To talk with Tycho of the strange new dreams

Copernicus had kindled. Did this earth

Move? Was the sun the centre of our scheme?

And Tycho told him, there is but one way

To know the truth, and that's to sweep aside

All the dark cobwebs of old sophistry,

And watch and learn that moving alphabet,

Each smallest silver character inscribed

Upon the skies themselves, noting them down,

Till on a day we find them taking shape

In phrases, with a meaning; and, at last,

The hard-won beauty of that celestial book

With all its epic harmonies unfold

Like some great poet's universal song.

He was a great magician, Tycho Brahe.

"Hainzel," he said, "we have no magic wand,

But what the truth can give us. If we find

Even with a compass, through a bedroom window,

That half the glittering Almagest is wrong,

Think you, what noble conquests might be ours,

Had we but nobler instruments."

He showed

Quivering with eagerness, his first rude plan

For that great quadrant,-not the wooden toy

Of old Scultetus, but a kingly weapon,

Huge as a Roman battering-ram, and fine

In its divisions as any goldsmith's work.

"It could be built," said Tycho, "but the cost

Would buy a dozen culverin for your wars."

Then Hainzel, fired by Tycho's burning brain,

Answered, "We'll make it We've a war to wage

On Chaos, and his kingdoms of the night."

They chose the cunningest artists of the town,

Clock-makers, jewellers, carpenters, and smiths,

And, setting them all afire with Tycho's dream,

Within a month his dream was oak and brass.

Its beams were fourteen cubits, solid oak,

Banded with iron. Its arch was polished brass

Whereon five thousand exquisite divisions

Were marked to show the minutes of degrees.

So huge and heavy it was, a score of men,

Could hardly drag and fix it to its place

In Hainzel's garden.

Many a shining night,

Tycho and Hainzel, out of that maze of flowers,

Charted the stars, discovering point by point,

How all the records erred, until the fame

Of this new master, hovering above the schools

Like a strange hawk, threatened the creeping dreams

Of all the Aristotelians, and began

To set their mouse-holes twittering "Tycho Brahe!"

Then Tycho Brahe came home, to find Christine.

Up to that whispering glade of ferns he sped,

At the first wink of Hesperus.

He stood

In shadow, under the darkest pine, to hide

The little golden mask upon his face.

He wondered, will she shrink from me in fear

Or loathing? Will she even come at all?

And, as he wondered, like a light she moved

Before him.

"Is it you?"-

"Christine! Christine,"

He whispered, "It is I, the mountebank,

Playing a jest upon you. It's only a mask!

Do not be frightened. I am here behind it."

Her red lips parted, and between them shone,

The little teeth like white pomegranate seeds.

He saw her frightened eyes.

Then, with a cry,

Her arms went round him, and her eyelids closed.

Lying against his heart, she set her lips

Against his lips, and claimed him for her own.