Idly watching the Furnace-flames, The men of the stithy Are in their smithy, Brutal monsters, with bulky frames,
Beings Humanity scarcely claims, But hybrids rather of demon race, Unbless'd by the holy rite of grace, Who never had gone by Christian names,
Mark, or Matthew, Peter, or James — Naked, foul, unshorn, unkempt, From touch of natural shame exempt, Things of which Delirium has dreamt —
But wherefore dwell on these verbal sketches, When traced with frightful truth and vigor, Costume, attitude, face, and figure, Retsch has drawn the very wretches!
However, there they lounge about, The grim, gigantic fellows, Hardly hearing the storm without, That makes so very dreadful a rout,
For the constant roar From the furnace door. And the blast of the monstrous bellows! Oh, what a scene
That Forge had been For Salvator Rosa's study! With wall, and beam, and post, and pin, And those ruffianly creatures, like Shapes of Sin,
Hair, and eyes, and rusty skin, Illumed by a light so ruddy The Hut, and whatever there is therein, Looks either red-hot or bloody!
And, oh! to hear the frequent burst Of strange, extravagant laughter, Harsh and hoarse, And resounding perforce
From echoing roof and rafter! Though curses, the worst That ever were curst, And threats that Cain invented the first,
Come growling the instant after! But again the livelier peal is rung, For the Smith, hight Salamander, In the jargon of some Titanic tongue,
Elsewhere never said or sung, With the voice of a Stentor in joke has flung Some cumbrous sort Of sledge-hammer retort
At Red Beard, the crew's commander. Some frightful jest — who knows how wild, Or obscene, from a monster so defiled, And a horrible mouth, of such extent,
From flapping ear to ear it went, And show'd such tusks whenever it smiled — The very mouth to devour a child! But fair or foul the jest gives birth
To another bellow of demon mirth, That far outroars the weather, As if all the Hyænas that prowl the earth Had clubb'd their laughs together!
And lo! in the middle of all the din, Not seeming to care a single pin, For a prospect so volcanic, A Stranger steps abruptly in,
Of an aspect rather Satanic: And he looks with a grin at those Cyclops grim, Who stare and grin again at him With wondrous little panic.
Then up to the Furnace the Stranger goes, Eager to thaw his ears and nose, And warm his frozen fingers and toes — While each succeeding minute,
Hotter and hotter the Smithy grows, And seems to declare, By a fiercer glare, On wall, roof, floor, and everywhere,
It knows the Devil is in it! Still not a word Is utter'd or heard, But the beetle-brow'd Foreman nods and winks,
Much as a shaggy old Lion blinks, And makes a shift To impart his drift To a smoky brother, who, joining the links,
Hints to a third the thing he thinks; And whatever it be, They all agree In smiling with faces full of glee,
As if about to enjoy High Jinks. What sort of tricks they mean to play By way of diversion, who can say, Of such ferocious and barbarous folk,
Who chuckled, indeed, and never spoke Of burning Robert the Jäger to coke, Except as a capital practical joke! Who never thought of Mercy, or heard her,
Or any gentle emotion felt; But hard as the iron they had to melt, Sported with Danger and romp'd with Murder! Meanwhile the Stranger —
The Brocken Ranger, Besides another and hotter post, That renders him not averse to a roast,— Creeping into the Furnace almost,
Has made himself as warm as a toast — When, unsuspicious of any danger, And least of all of any such maggot As treating a body like a faggot,
All at once he is seized and shoven In pastime cruel, Like so much fuel, Headlong into the blazing oven!
In he goes! with a frightful shout Mock'd by the rugged ruffianly band, As round the Furnace mouth they stand, Bar, and shovel, and ladle in hand,
To hinder their Butt from crawling out, Who making one fierce attempt, but vain, Receives such a blow From Red-Beard's crow
As crashes the skull and gashes the brain, And blind, and dizzy, and stunn'd with pain, With merely an interjectional “oh!” Back he rolls in the flames again.
“Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!” That second fall Seerns the very best joke of all, To judge by the roar, Twice as loud as before,
That fills the Hut, from the roof to the floor, And flies a league or two out of the door, Up the mountains and over the moor — But scarcely the jolly echoes they wake
Have well begun To take up the fun, Ere the shaggy Felons have cause to quake, And begin to feel that the deed they have done,
Instead of being a pleasant one, Was a very great error — and no mistake. For why?— in lieu Of its former hue,
So natural, warm, and florid, The Furnace burns of a brimstone blue, And instead of the couleur de rose it threw, With a cooler reflection,— justly due —
Exhibits each of the Pagan crew, Livid, ghastly, and horrid! But vainly they close their guilty eyes Against prophetic fears;
Or with hard and horny palms devise To dam their enormous ears — There are sounds in the air, Not here or there,
Irresistible voices everywhere, No bulwarks can ever rebut, And to match the screams Tremendous gleams,
Of Horrors that like the Phantoms of dreams, They see with their eyelids shut! For awful coveys of terrible things, With forked tongues and venomous stings,
On hagweed, broomsticks, and leathern wings, Are hovering round the Hut! Shapes, that within the focus bright Of the Forge, are like shadows and blots;
But farther off, in the shades of night, Clothed with their own phosphoric light, Are seen in the darkest spots. Sounds! that fill the air with noises,
Strange and indescribable voices, From Hags, in a diabolical clatter — Cats that spit curses, and apes that chatter Scraps of cabalistical matter —
Owls that screech, and dogs that yell — Skeleton hounds that will never be fatter — All the domestic tribes of Hell, Shrieking for flesh to tear and tatter,
Bones to shatter, And limbs to scatter, And who it is that must furnish the latter Those blue-looking Men know well!
Those blue-looking men that huddle together, For all their sturdy limbs and thews Their unshorn locks, like Nazarene Jews, And buffalo beards, and hides of leather,
Huddled all in a heap together, Like timid lamb, and ewe, and wether, And as females say, In a similar way,
Fit for knocking down with a feather! In and out, in and out, The gathering Goblins hover about, Ev'ry minute augmenting the rout;
For like a spell The unearthly smell That fumes from the Furnace, chimney and mouth, Draws them in — an infernal Legion
From East, and West, and North, and South, Like carrion birds from ev'ry region, Till not a yard square Of the sickening air
But has a Demon or two for its share, Breathing fury, woe, and despair, Never, never was such a sight! It beats the very Walpurgis Night,
Displayed in the story of Doctor Faustus, For the scene to describe Of the awful tribe, If we were two Göthes, would quite exhaust us!
Suffice it, amid that dreary swarm, There musters each foul repulsive form That ever a fancy overwarm Begot in its worst delirium;
Besides some others of monstrous size, Never before revealed to eyes, Of the genus Megatherium! Meanwhile the demons, filthy and foul,
Gorgon, Chimera, Harpy, and Ghoul, Are not contented to jibber and howl As a dirge for their late commander; But one of the bevy — witch or wizard,
Disguised as a monstrous flying lizard, Springs on the grisly Salamander, Who stoutly fights, and struggles, and kicks. And tries the best of his wrestling tricks,
No paltry strife, But for life, dear life. But the ruthless talons refuse to unfix, Till far beyond a surgical case,
With starting eyes, and black in the face, Down he tumbles as dead as bricks! A pretty sight for his mates to view! Those shaggy murderers looking so blue,
And for him above all, Red-bearded and tall, With whom, at that very particular nick, There is such an unlucky crow to pick,
As the one of iron that did the trick In a recent bloody affair — No wonder feeling a little sick, With pulses beating uncommonly quick,
And breath he never found so thick, He longs for the open air! Three paces, or four, And he gains the door;
But ere he accomplishes one, The sound of a blow comes, heavy and dull, And clasping his fingers round his skull — However the deed was done,
That gave him that florid Red gash on the forehead — With a roll of the eyeballs perfectly horrid, There's a tremulous quiver,
The last death-shiver, And Red-Beard's course is run! Halloo! Halloo! They have done for two!
But a heavyish job remains to do! For yonder, sledge and shovel in hand, Like elder Sons of Giant Despair, A couple of Cyclops make a stand,
And fiercely hammering here and there, Keep at bay the Powers of Air — But desperation is all in vain!— They faint — they choke,
For the sulphurous smoke Is poisoning heart, and lung, and brain, They reel, they sink, they gasp, they smother. One for a moment survives his brother,
Then rolls a corpse across the other! Halloo! Halloo! And Hullabaloo! There is only one more thing to do —
And seized by beak, and talon, and claw, Bony hand, and hairy paw, Yea, crooked horn, and tusky jaw, The four huge Bodies are haul'd and shoven
Each after each in the roaring oven! That Eisen Hutte is standing still, Go to the Hartz whenever you will, And there it is beside a hill,
And a rapid stream that turns many a mill; The self-same Forge,— you'll know it at sight — Casting upward, day and night, Flames of red, and yellow, and white!
Ay, half a mile from the mountain gorge, There it is, the famous Forge, With its Furnace,— the same that blazed of yore,— Hugely fed with fuel and ore;
But ever since that tremendous Revel, Whatever Iron is melted therein,— As Travellers know who have been to Berlin — Is all as black as the Devil!
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