Browning's England: A Study in English Influences in Browning. Helen Archibald Clarke

walk to keep off gout;

       Or big seat sold by bankrupt peer:

       But then he takes the rail, that's clear.

      VII

      "Or, stop! I wager, taste selects

       Some out o' the way, some all-unknown

       Retreat: the neighborhood suspects

       Little that he who rambles lone

       Makes Rothschild tremble on his throne!"

      VIII

      Nowise! Nor Mayfair residence

       Fit to receive and entertain—

       Nor Hampstead villa's kind defence

       From noise and crowd, from dust and drain—

       Nor country-box was soul's domain!

      IX

      Nowise! At back of all that spread

       Of merchandize, woe's me, I find

       A hole i' the wall where, heels by head,

       The owner couched, his ware behind,

       —In cupboard suited to his mind.

      X

      For why? He saw no use of life

       But, while he drove a roaring trade,

       To chuckle "Customers are rife!"

       To chafe "So much hard cash outlaid

       Yet zero in my profits made!

      XI

      "This novelty costs pains, but—takes?

       Cumbers my counter! Stock no more!

      75 This article, no such great shakes,

       Fizzes like wildfire? Underscore

       The cheap thing—thousands to the fore!"

      XII

      'Twas lodging best to live most nigh

       (Cramp, coffinlike as crib might be)

       Receipt of Custom; ear and eye

       Wanted no outworld: "Hear and see

       The bustle in the shop!" quoth he.

XIII