"_Clerk of the Bow Bell, With the yellow locks, For thy late ringing Thy head shall have knocks!_"
Then Heywood, seeing the Clerk was all a-quake, Went to an upper casement that o'er-looked The whole of Bread Street. Heywood knew their ways, And parleyed with them till their anger turned To shouts of merriment. Then, like one deep bell His voice rang out, in answer to their peal:--
"_Children of Cheape, Hold you all still! You shall have Bow Bell Rung at your will!_"
Loudly they cheered him. Courteously he bowed, Then firmly shut the window; and, ere I filled His cup with sack again, the crowd had gone.
"My clochard, sirs, is warm," quavered the Clerk. "I do confess I took some forty winks! They are good lads, our prentices of Cheape, But hasty!" "Wine!" said Ben. He filled a cup And thrust it into Gregory's trembling hands. "Yours is a task," said Dekker, "a great task! You sit among the gods, a lord of time, Measuring out the pulse of London's heart." "Yea, sir, above the hours and days and years, I sometimes think. 'Tis a great Bell--the Bow! And hath been, since the days of Whittington." "The good old days," growled Ben. "Both good and bad Were measured by my Bell," the Clerk replied. And, while he spoke, warmed by the wine, his voice Mellowed and floated up and down the scale As if the music of the London bells Lingered upon his tongue. "I know them all, And love them, all the voices of the bells.
FLOS MERCATORUM! That's the Bell of Bow Remembering Richard Whittington. You should hear The bells of London when they tell his tale. Once, after hearing them, I wrote it down. I know the tale by heart now, every turn." "Then ring it out," said Heywood. Gregory smiled And cleared his throat. "You must imagine, sirs, The Clerk, sitting on high, among the clouds, With London spread beneath him like a map. Under his tower, a flock of prentices Calling like bells, of little size or weight, But bells no less, ask that the Bell of Bow Shall tell the tale of Richard Whittington, As thus." Then Gregory Clopton, mellowing all The chiming vowels, and dwelling on every tone In rhythm or rhyme that helped to swell the peal Or keep the ringing measure, beat for beat, Chanted this legend of the London bells:--