| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | On a Fan That Belonged to the Marquise de Pompadour | | By Henry Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
| | | CHICKEN-SKIN, delicate, white, | |
| Painted by Carlo Vanloo, | |
| Loves in a riot of light, | |
| Roses and vaporous blue; | |
| Hark to the dainty frou-frou! | 5 |
| Picture above if you can, | |
| Eyes that could melt as the dew,— | |
| This was the Pompadour’s fan! | |
| |
| See how they rise at the sight, | |
| Thronging the Œil de Bœuf through, | 10 |
| Courtiers as butterflies bright, | |
| Beauties that Fragonard drew, | |
| Talon-rouge, falbala, queue, | |
| Cardinal, Duke,—to a man, | |
| Eager to sigh or to sue,— | 15 |
| This was the Pompadour’s fan! | |
| |
| Ah! but things more than polite | |
| Hung on this toy, voyez vous! | |
| Matters of state and of might, | |
| Things that great ministers do; | 20 |
| Things that, maybe, overthrew | |
| Those in whose brains they began; | |
| Here was the sign and the cue,— | |
| This was the Pompadour’s fan! | |
| |
Envoy Where are the secrets it knew? | 25 |
| Weavings of plot and of plan? | |
| —But where is the Pompadour, too? | |
| This was the Pompadour’s Fan! | | | | |
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