PART III. REUNION IN DEATH

(INTRODUCTION AND BALLAD AFTER BÜRGER'S "LENORE" )

4. _Allegro_

Of this symphony in three divisions (composed at Wiesbaden in 1872) only the last part, strictly speaking, is based on Bürger's[118] celebrated ballad "Lenore." The first two parts illustrate phases of the experience of the two lovers which antedate the beginning of the story told by the poem.

In Bürger's poem the maid Lenore laments the absence of her lover William, who has gone to war "on Prague's dread battle-field";

"Nor had he sent to tell If he were safe and well."[119]

The war ends, yet still no tidings come from the missing swain. Lenore, frenzied by doubt and longing, utters blasphemies. But that night a horse and rider draw up at the gate, and a knock summons her to the door. It is William. He bids her "bind her dress" and mount upon his horse behind him,

"... for to-day I thee A hundred leagues must bear, My nuptial couch to share."

Lenore complies, though after some questioning, and they make off through the moonlight. The pace is wild and terrible. They pass a train of mourners bearing a coffin to the grave, but at the behest of the bewildering bridegroom the funeral party leaves the body and joins in the mad ride. The croaking of night birds is heard, and spectres are seen dancing about a gibbet.

"How all beneath the moonbeams flew, How flew it far and fast! How o'er their head the heavens blue And stars flew swiftly past! 'Love, fear'st thou aught? The moon shines bright. Hurrah! The dead ride quick by night! Dost fear, my love, the dead?' 'Ah! speak not of the dead!'"

Finally, as day begins to break, they dash through an iron gateway into a graveyard. Then Lenore beholds a horrid transformation in her lover:

"The rider's jerkin, piece by piece, Like tinder falls asunder. Upon his head no lock of hair-- A naked skull, all grisly bare; A skeleton, alas! With scythe and hour-glass."

The "snorting charger" vanishes in flame; dreadful cries fill the air; in the moonlight grisly spirits are seen dancing, and howling as they dance:

"For hear! for hear! though hearts should break, Blaspheme not, lest God's wrath thou wake! Thy body's knell we toll, May God preserve thy soul!"