XXXI.

These delicates he heap'd with glowing hand
On golden dishes and in baskets bright
Of wreathed silver: sumptuous they stand
In the retired quiet of the night,

Filling the chilly room with perfume light.-
"And now, my love, my seraph fair, awake!
"Thou art my heaven, and I thine eremite :

Open thine eyes, for meek St. Agnes' sake, "Or I shall drowse beside thee, so my soul doth ache."

Alcinöus reigned, fruit of all kinds, in coat

Rough or smooth rined, or bearded husk, or shell,
She gathers, tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand. For drink the grape
She crushes, inoffensive must, and meaths
From many a berry, and from sweet kernels pressed
She tempers dulcet creams-nor these to hold

Wants her fit vessels pure; then strews the ground
With rose and odours from the shrub unfumed.

It is further worth while to note the resemblance of the highly elaborate syrup line to a passage in Milton's Comus, lines 672-4:

And first behold this cordial julep here,

That flames, and dances in his crystal bounds,

With spirits of balm, and fragrant syrups mix'd.

We have here even the same prevalent assonance on the vowel sound. Leigh Hunt says in his dainty way, "Here is delicate modulation, and super-refined epicurean nicety!

Lucent syrups, tinct with cinnamon,

make us read the line delicately, and at the tip-end, as it were, of one's tongue."

(XXXI) The manuscript reads golden salvers in line 2; but I presume dishes was inserted in the proof to avoid using salvers twice, and he would scarcely disturb the lustrous salvers of the next stanza. Lines 4 &c. in the manuscript were originally written

Amid the quiet of St. Agnes' night

And now, saith he, my Seraph with perfume light

Teeming...

And line 4 is left standing so in the manuscript, while the rest gives

XXXII.

Thus whispering, his warm, unnerved arm
Sank in her pillow. Shaded was her dream

By the dusk curtains :-'twas a midnight charm
Impossible to melt as iced stream:

The lustrous salvers in the moonlight gleam;
Broad golden fringe upon the carpet lies :
It seem'd he never, never could redeem
From such a stedfast spell his lady's eyes;
So mus'd awhile, entoil'd in woofed phantasies.

XXXIII.

Awakening up, he took her hollow lute,-
Tumultuous, and, in chords that tenderest be,
He play'd an ancient ditty, long since mute,
In Provence call'd, "La belle dame sans mercy:'
Close to her ear touching the melody ;-
Wherewith disturb'd, she utter'd a soft moan:
He ceas'd-she panted quick-and suddenly
Her blue affrayed eyes wide open shone :

Upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone.

place to the reading of the text. There is a rejected reading of line 6

And now saith he my Seraph may awake.

(XXXII) There is a cancelled opening in the manuscript giving sleep for dream at the end of line 2, and dreamless of alarm as the end of line 3; and another gives shaded were her dreams in line 2, in which the manuscript reads sunk for sank. Of line 6 there is a rejected version, unfinished,

Broad golden fringe lies wealthy on the f...

(probably floor was the unfinished word); and in line 9 stood stands cancelled in favour of mus'd.

(XXX111) In line 5 he held and he touched stand cancelled in the manuscript in favour of touching; and in line 7 there is a rejected reading, her breathing ceased for she panted quick. The manuscript

XXXIV.

Her eyes were open, but she still beheld,
Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep:
There was a painful change, that nigh expell'd
The blisses of her dream so pure and deep
At which fair Madeline began to weep,
And moan forth witless words with many a sigh;
While still her gaze on Porphyro would keep;
Who knelt, with joined hands and piteous eye,
Fearing to move or speak, she look'd so dreamingly.

XXXV.

"Ah, Porphyro!" said she, "but even now
"Thy voice was at sweet tremble in mine ear,

reads half-frayed for affrayed in line 8, and sunk for sank in line 9. Hunt tells us in The Indicator for the 10th of May 1820 that Keats's wonderful poem La Belle Dame sans Mercy, was suggested by seeing that title at the head of a translation from Alain Chartier, at the end of Chaucer's works. The conceit of connecting the title here with a lost Provençal air is at the same time greatly imaginative and only a little less playful than Hunt's wish that Alain might have seen Keats's verses, because "He would have found a Troubadour air for them, and sung them to La Belle Dame Agnes Sorel, who was however not Sans Mercy."

(XXXIV) Line 2 was originally written

The vision of her sleep, now wide awake :

the transposition is marked in the manuscript, where, in line 3, some painful change stands altered to a painful change. Line 5 originally began with At which she, and in line 6 the manuscript reads | little words, though witless is written by way of memorandum in the margin. Lines 8 and 9 read

Who with an aching brow and piteous eye
Feared to move or speak she look'd so dreamingly.

(xxxv) There are two half cancelled openings,

and

1

At length she speaks, 'Ah Porphyro here

Ah Porphyro, saith she but even now...

and no complete line is supplied in the manuscript. In line 2 by is

"Made tuneable with every sweetest vow;

"And those sad eyes were spiritual and clear:

"How chang'd thou art! how pallid, chill, and drear! "Give me that voice again, my Porphyro,

"Those looks immortal, those complainings dear!

"Oh leave me not in this eternal woe,

"For if thou diest, my Love, I know not where to go."

XXXVI.

Beyond a mortal man impassion'd far
At these voluptuous accents, he arose,
Ethereal, flush'd, and like a throbbing star
Seen mid the sapphire heaven's deep repose;
Into her dream he melted, as the rose

Blendeth its odour with the violet,

Solution sweet: meantime the frost-wind blows Like Love's alarum pattering the sharp sleet Against the window-panes; St. Agnes' moon hath set.

cancelled in favour of in, and the manuscript reads by for with in line 3, thy kind eyes for those sad eyes in line 4, and a[r]t thou for thou art in line 5. Compare the first quatrain with A MidsummerNight's Dream (Act I, Scene 1, lines 183-4)—

Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,...

(XXXVI) Line I was originally written thus :

Impassion❜d far beyond a mortal man—

but the transposition is marked in the manuscript. In line 2 words for accents stands cancelled. Line 4 originally began with Was either, as if the magnificent third line was at first intended to refer to Porphyro's eyes-" like a throbbing star was either eye.” With her bright dream and In her bright dream are rejected readings for Into her dream. In line 6 the manuscript reads her odour, and originally read her perfume. For line 7 there is a false start, And are one, and for line 8 another, Darkness. Line 9 originally opened

XXXVII.

'Tis dark: quick pattereth the flaw-blown sleet:
"This is no dream, my bride, my Madeline!"
'Tis dark the iced gusts still rave and beat :
"No dream, alas! alas! and woe is mine!

Porphyro will leave me here to fade and pine.—
"Cruel! what traitor could thee hither bring?
"I curse not, for my heart is lost in thine,
"Though thou forsakest a deceived thing;—
"A dove forlorn and lost with sick unpruned wing."

XXXVIII.

"My Madeline! sweet dreamer! lovely bride! "Say, may I be for aye thy vassal blest?

"Thy beauty's shield, heart-shap'd and vermeil dy'd? "Ah, silver shrine, here will I take my rest

with Against the Casement gloom, successively altered to Window's gloom, Casement dark, and Windows dark: the line finally standsAgainst the windows dark. St. Agnes moon had set.

The reading of the text is not in the manuscript. Against the words Beyond a mortal man, Hunt makes the note "Madeline is half awake, and Porphyro reassures her with loving, kind looks, and an affectionate embrace." I cannot but think that in this one instance the commentator is very decidedly at fault, and that no embrace is referred to in the stanza.

(XXXVII) The manuscript reads still for quick in line 1. The word Ah stands cancelled at the beginning of line 6. Line 8 was originally written as in the text; but forsakest stands cancelled, in favour of shouldst leave forsaken, of which reading the words shouldst leave are also struck out. Line 9 has the word To cancelled at the beginning, and the rejected reading A silent mateless dove.

(XXXVIII) There is a rejected reading of line in the manuscriptMy Madeline! Dark is this wintry night—