The Knight in Disguise

[Concerning O. Henry (Sidney Porter)]

            "He could not forget that he was a Sidney."


    Is this Sir Philip Sidney, this loud clown,
    The darling of the glad and gaping town?

    This is that dubious hero of the press
    Whose slangy tongue and insolent address
    Were spiced to rouse on Sunday afternoon
    The man with yellow journals round him strewn.
    We laughed and dozed, then roused and read again,
    And vowed O. Henry funniest of men.
    He always worked a triple-hinged surprise
    To end the scene and make one rub his eyes.

    He comes with vaudeville, with stare and leer.
    He comes with megaphone and specious cheer.
    His troupe, too fat or short or long or lean,
    Step from the pages of the magazine
    With slapstick or sombrero or with cane:
    The rube, the cowboy or the masher vain.
    They over-act each part.    But at the height
    Of banter and of canter and delight
    The masks fall off for one queer instant there
    And show real faces:    faces full of care
    And desperate longing:    love that's hot or cold;
    And subtle thoughts, and countenances bold.
    The masks go back.    'Tis one more joke.    Laugh on!
    The goodly grown-up company is gone.

    No doubt had he occasion to address
    The brilliant court of purple-clad Queen Bess,
    He would have wrought for them the best he knew
    And led more loftily his actor-crew.
    How coolly he misquoted.    'Twas his art -
    Slave-scholar, who misquoted - from the heart.
    So when we slapped his back with friendly roar
    Aesop awaited him without the door, -
    Aesop the Greek, who made dull masters laugh
    With little tales of FOX and DOG and CALF.
    And be it said, mid these his pranks so odd
    With something nigh to chivalry he trod
    And oft the drear and driven would defend -
    The little shopgirls' knight unto the end.
    Yea, he had passed, ere we could understand
    The blade of Sidney glimmered in his hand.
    Yea, ere we knew, Sir Philip's sword was drawn
    With valiant cut and thrust, and he was gone.