Of Alleged Rogueries and Arcane Contrivance

A nimble answer to those who mistake productivity for deception, Of Alleged Rogueries and Arcane Contrivance imagines suspicious observers searching Seraphino’s lute, sleeves, and mind for forbidden machinery. Its brisk motion mirrors the very fluency under accusation: while others debate how the work was made, he has already made more of it.

There are persons who encounter skill and immediately begin searching for concealed gears. They tap the instrument, inspect the sleeve, and whisper of spirits because disciplined practice offendeth them more deeply than sorcery. Sorcery, at least, would excuse the difference.

I gave the song a light and agile bearing, for a ponderous defense would grant the accusation too much dignity. The verses move as swiftly as the quill they doubt, while the refrain turneth suspicion into its own indictment. I deny no useful contrivance merely because it is new; neither do I mistake a tool for the mind directing it. Craft may employ wood, wire, ink, mechanism, memory, or means not yet politely named. The question is not whether assistance existed. The question is whether judgment did. Whilst the assembly considereth this distinction, I shall have completed another song.