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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Henry Austin Dobson (1840–1921)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

‘Good Night, Babette!’

Henry Austin Dobson (1840–1921)

‘Si vieillesse pouvait!—’

SCENE.A small neat Room.In a high Voltaire Chair sits a white-haired old Gentleman.

MONSIEUR VIEUXBOISBABETTE

M. VIEUXBOIS(turning querulously)
DAY of my life! Where can she get?

BABETTE! I say! BABETTE!—BABETTE!!

BABETTE(entering hurriedly)
Coming, M’sieu! If M’sieu speaks

So loud he won’t be well for weeks!

M. VIEUXBOIS
Where have you been?

BABETTE
Why, M’sieu knows:—

April!… Ville-d’Avray!… Ma’am’selle ROSE!

M. VIEUXBOIS
Ah! I am old,—and I forget.

Was the place growing green, BABETTE?

BABETTE
But of a greenness!—yes, M’sieu!

And then the sky so blue!—so blue!

And when I dropped my immortelle,

How the birds sang!

(Lifting her apron to her eyes)
This poor Ma’am’selle!

M. VIEUXBOIS
You’re a good girl, BABETTE, but she,—

She was an Angel, verily.

Sometimes I think I see her yet

Stand smiling by the cabinet;

And once, I know, she peep’d and laugh’d

Betwixt the curtains …
Where ’s the draught?

(She gives him a cup)
Now I shall sleep, I think, BABETTE;

Sing me your Norman chansonnette.

BABETTE(sings)
‘Once at the Angelus

(Ere I was dead),

Angels all glorious

Came to my Bed;

Angels in blue and white

Crown’d on the Head.’

M. VIEUXBOIS(drowsily)
‘She was an Angel’ … ‘Once she laugh’d’ …

What, was I dreaming?
Where ’s the draught?

BABETTE(showing the empty cup)
The draught, M’sieu?

M. VIEUXBOIS
How I forget!

I am so old! But sing, BABETTE!

BABETTE(sings)
‘One was the Friend I left

Stark in the Snow;

One was the Wife that died

Long,—long ago;

One was the Love I lost

How could she know?’

M. VIEUXBOIS(murmuring)
Ah, PAUL!… old PAUL!… EULALIE too!

And ROSE!… And O! ‘the sky so blue!’

BABETTE(sings)
‘One had my Mother’s eyes,

Wistful and mild;

One had my Father’s face;

One was a Child:

All of them bent to me,

Bent down and smiled!’

(He is asleep!)

M. VIEUXBOIS(almost inaudibly)
How I forget!

I am so old! … Good night, BABETTE!