chalice--a
single emerald--lays his nosegay upon the altar, witnesses the mystery of
the eucharist, and is kissed upon the mouth by Christ. This poet is fond
of introducing old French words "to make his English sweet upon his
tongue"; _accueillade_, _valiantise_, _faineant_, _allegresse_,
_gentilesse_, _forte et dure_, and occasionally a phrase like _dieu vous
doint felicite_. Payne's ballads are less characteristic.[51] Perhaps
the most successful of them is "The Rime of Redemption"--in "The Masque
of Shadows" volume. Sir Loibich's love has died in her sins, and he sits
by the fire in bitter repentance. He hears the voice of her spirit
outside in the moonlight, and together they ride through the night on a
black steed, first to Fairyland, then to Purgatory, and then to the gate
of Heaven. Each of these in turn is offered him, but he rejects them
all--

"With thee in hell, I choose to dwell"--

and thereby works her redemption. The wild night ride has an obvious
resemblance to "Lenore":

"The wind screams past; they ride so fast,
Like troops of souls in pain
The snowdrifts spin, but none may win
To rest upon the twain."

Very different from these, and indeed with no pretensions to the formal
peculiarities of popular minstrelsy, is O'Shaughnessy's weird ballad
"Bisclaveret," [52] suggested by the superstition concerning were-wolves:

"The splendid fearful herds that stray
By midnight"--
"The multitudinous campaign
Of hosts not yet made fast in Hell."

_Bisclaveret_ is the Breton word for _loup garou_; and the poem is headed
with a caption to this effect from the "Lais" of Marie. The wild,
mystical beauty of which the Celtic imagination holds the secret is
visible in this lyrist; but it would perhaps be going too far to
attribute his interest in the work of Marie de France to a native
sympathy with the song spirit of that other great branch of the Celtic
race, the ancient Cymry.

Payne's volume of sonnets, "Intaglios" (a title perhaps prompted by the
chiselled workmanship of Gautier's "Emaux et Camees") bears the clearest
marks of Rossetti's influence--or of the influence of Dante through
Rossetti. The inscription poem is to Dante, and the series named
"Madonna dei Sogni" is particularly full of the imagery and sentiment of
the "Purgatorio" and the "Vita Nuova." Several of the sonnets in the
collection are written for pictures, like Rossetti's. Two are on
Spenseri