Without a gap, yet ne'er before had seen.
That royal porch, that high-built fair demesne ;
So in they hurried all, maz'd, curious and keen:
Save one, who look'd thereon with eye severe,
And with calm-planted steps walk'd in austere ;
'Twas Apollonius: something too he laugh'd,
As though some knotty problem, that had daft
His patient thought, had now begun to thaw,
And solve and melt :-'twas just as he foresaw.

155

160

He met within the murmurous vestibule His young disciple. ""Tis no common rule, "Lycius," said he, "for uninvited guest "To force himself upon you, and infest

165

"With an unbidden presence the bright throng

"Of younger friends; yet must I do this wrong,
"And you forgive me." Lycius blush'd, and led

The old man through the inner doors broad-spread; 170
With reconciling words and courteous mien
Turning into sweet milk the sophist's spleen.

Of wealthy lustre was the banquet-room,
Fill'd with pervading brilliance and perfume :
Before each lucid pannel fuming stood
A censer fed with myrrh and spiced wood,

(163-72) This passage was an afterthought. 162 in the manuscript in the first instance was

175

The line following

Of wealthy Lustre was the Banquet room,

but this is cancelled, and lines 163-72 are interpolated, first on the back of the preceding page of the manuscript, and then rewritten on a separate leaf.

(174) Cancelled reading

Fill'd with light, music, jewels, gold, perfume.

Each by a sacred tripod held aloft,

Whose slender feet wide-swerv'd upon the soft.
Wool-woofed carpets: fifty wreaths of smoke
From fifty censers their light voyage took

To the high roof, still mimick'd as they rose
Along the mirror'd walls by twin-clouds odorous.
Twelve sphered tables, by silk seats inspher'd,

High as the level of a man's breast rear'd
On libbard's paws, upheld the heavy gold

185

Of cups and goblets, and the store thrice told
Of Ceres' horn, and, in huge vessels, wine
Come from the gloomy tun with merry shine.
Thus loaded with a feast the tables stood,
Each shrining in the midst the image of a God.

When in an antichamber every guest
Had felt the cold full sponge to pleasure press'd,
By minist'ring slaves, upon his hands and feet,
And fragrant oils with ceremony meet
Pour'd on his hair, they all mov'd to the feast
In white robes, and themselves in order plac'd
Around the silken couches, wondering

190

195

Whence all this mighty cost and blaze of wealth could spring.

Soft went the music the soft air along, While fluent Greek a vowel'd undersong Kept up among the guests, discoursing low

At first, for scarcely was the wine at flow;

But when the happy vintage touch'd their brains,
Louder they talk, and louder come the strains

200

(177) The manuscript has slender in lieu of sacred, and in the next line tripple instead of slender.

(203) Cancelled reading, Sicilian vintage.

Of powerful instruments :-the gorgeous dyes,
The space, the splendour of the draperies,
The roof of awful richness, nectarous cheer,
Beautiful slaves, and Lamia's self, appear,
Now, when the wine has done its rosy deed,
And every soul from human trammels freed,
No more so strange; for merry wine, sweet wine,
Will make Elysian shades not too fair, too divine.
Soon was God Bacchus at meridian height;

205

210

Flush'd were their cheeks, and bright eyes double bright : Garlands of every green, and every scent

215

From vales deflower'd, or forest-trees branch-rent,
In baskets of bright osier'd gold were brought
High as the handles heap'd, to suit the thought
Of every guest; that each, as he did please,
Might fancy-fit his brows, silk-pillow'd at his ease.

What wreath for Lamia? What for Lycius? What for the sage, old Apollonius?

Upon her aching forehead be there hung
The leaves of willow and of adder's tongue;

And for the youth, quick, let us strip for him
The thyrsus, that his watching eyes may swim
Into forgetfulness; and, for the sage,

220

225

Let spear-grass and the spiteful thistle wage
War on his temples. Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?

230

There was an awful rainbow once in heaven :

(218-19) Cancelled reading

High as the handles heap'd, of every sort

Of fragrant wreath, that each as he did please.....

(226) In the manuscript, Thyrsis.

(231) In the Autobiography of Haydon, as edited by the late Mr.

We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine-
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade.

235

240

By her glad Lycius sitting, in chief place, Scarce saw in all the room another face, Till, checking his love trance, a cup he took Full brimm'd, and opposite sent forth a look 'Cross the broad table, to beseech a glance From his old teacher's wrinkled countenance, And pledge him. The bald-head philosopher Had fix'd his eye, without a twinkle or stir Full on the alarmed beauty of the bride, Brow-beating her fair form, and troubling her sweet pride.

Lycius then press'd her hand, with devout touch,

As pale it lay upon the rosy couch :

'Twas icy, and the cold ran through his veins;

245

250

Tom Taylor, we read at page 354 of Volume I (edition of 1853) that Keats and Lamb, at one of the meetings at Haydon's house, agreed that Newton "had destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow, by reducing it to the prismatic colours". This meeting was what Haydon calls "the immortal dinner " of the 28th of December 1817; so that the idea appears to have persisted in Keats's mind.

(237) Cancelled readings, Destroy for Unweave, and once for erewhile.

(239) The manuscript reads By whom.

(243) Cancelled reading, ensure for beseech.
(246-7) The manuscript reads-

Had got his eye, without a twinkle or stir,
Fix'd on the alarmed Beauty of his Bride.

Then sudden it grew hot, and all the pains

Of an unnatural heat shot to his heart.

"Lamia, what means this? Wherefore dost thou start? "Know'st thou that man?" Poor Lamia answer'd not.

He gaz'd into her eyes, and not a jot

256

Own'd they the lovelorn piteous appeal:

More, more he gaz'd: his human senses reel :

Some hungry spell that loveliness absorbs;

There was no recognition in those orbs.

260

"Lamia!" he cry'd-and no soft-ton'd reply.

The many heard, and the loud revelry

Grew hush; the stately music no more breathes;
The myrtle sicken'd in a thousand wreaths.

By faint degrees, voice, lute, and pleasure ceased;

265

A deadly silence step by step increased,

Until it seem'd a horrid presence there,

And not a man but felt the terror in his hair.

"Lamia!" he shriek'd; and nothing but the shriek With its sad echo did the silence break.

270

"Begone, foul dream!" he cry'd, gazing again

In the bride's face, where now no azure vein

Wander'd on fair-spac'd temples; no soft bloom
Misted the cheek; no passion to illume

275

The deep-recessed vision :—all was blight;
Lamia, no longer fair, there sat a deadly white.
"Shut, shut those juggling eyes, thou ruthless man!
"Turn them aside, wretch! or the righteous ban
"Of all the Gods, whose dreadful images

"Here represent their shadowy presences,

(254-5) In the manuscript,

Wherefore dost so start?

Dost know that Man?

(260) Cancelled reading, is for was.

280