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LAMIA.

PART II.

OVE in a hut, with water and a crust,

Is Love, forgive us!- cinders, ashes, dust;
Love in a palace is perhaps at last

More grievous torment than a hermit's fast:
That is a doubtful tale from faery land,
Hard for the non-elect to understand.

Had Lycius liv'd to hand his story down,

He might have given the moral a fresh frown,

Or clench'd it quite: but too short was their bliss

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To breed distrust and hate, that make the soft voice hiss.

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Besides, there, nightly, with terrific glare,

Love, jealous grown of so complete a pair,

Hover'd and buzz'd his wings, with fearful roar,
Above the lintel of their chamber door,

And down the passage cast a glow upon the floor.

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For all this came a ruin: side by side

They were enthroned, in the even tide,
Upon a couch, near to a curtaining
Whose airy texture, from a golden string,
Floated into the room, and let appear

Unveil'd the summer heaven, blue and clear,

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Betwixt two marble shafts : there they reposed,

Where use had made it sweet, with eyelids closed,

Saving a tythe which love still open kept,

That they might see each other while they almost slept;

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When from the slope side of a suburb hill,

Deafening the swallow's twitter, came a thrill

Of trumpets Lycius started the sounds fled,

But left a thought, a buzzing in his head.

For the first time, since first he harbour'd in

That purple-lined palace of sweet sin,

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(10) The manuscript reads makes for make.

His spirit pass'd beyond its golden bourn
Into the noisy world almost forsworn.
The lady, ever watchful, penetrant,
Saw this with pain, so arguing a want
Of something more, more than her empery

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That but a moment's thought is passion's passing bell.

Of joys; and she began to moan and sigh

Because he mus'd beyond her, knowing well

Why do you sigh, fair creature?" whisper'd he:

Why do you think?" return'd she tenderly:

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You have deserted me; - where am I now?

"Not in your heart while care weighs on your brow: "No, no, you have dismiss'd me; and I go

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From your breast houseless: aye, it must be so.” He answer'd, bending to her open eyes,

Where he was mirror'd small in paradise,

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Aye, a sweet kiss you see your mighty woes.
My thoughts! shall I unveil them? Listen then!

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"What mortal hath a prize, that other men

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May be confounded and abash'd withal,

But lets it sometimes pace abroad majestical,
And triumph, as in thee I should rejoice

"Amid the hoarse alarm of Corinth's voice.

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Let my foes choke, and my friends shout afar,

"While through the thronged streets your bridal car

"Wheels round its dazzling spokes.". The lady's cheek
Trembled; she nothing said, but, pale and meek,
Arose and knelt before him, wept a rain

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(45) In the manuscript, this speech has another couplet

Too fond was I believing, fancy fed

In high deliriums, and blossoms never shed!

(49) Keats adopted here, in the manuscript, a pointing noticed before: he placed the note of interrogation at the end of this line, a semi-colon at the end of line 51, and a full-stop at the end of line 54. The pointing of the text is from the first edition.

(53) In the manuscript —

Thy soul in mine, and labyrinth thee there...

Of sorrows at his words; at last with pain
Beseeching him, the while his hand she wrung,
To change his purpose. He thereat was stung,
Perverse, with stronger fancy to reclaim
Her wild and timid nature to his aim:
Besides, for all his love, in self despite,
Against his better self, he took delight
Luxurious in her sorrows, soft and new.
His passion, cruel grown, took on a hue

Fierce and sanguineous as 'twas possible

In one whose brow had no dark veins to swell.
Fine was the mitigated fury, like

Apollo's presence when in act to strike

The serpent

Was none.

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(67) Cancelled manuscript reading, at his purpose for at his words.

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(81) In the manuscript, in place of lines 82 to 105, the following were originally written:

Became herself a flame-'twas worth an age

Of minor joys to revel in such rage.

She was persuaded, and she fixt the hour

When he should make a Bride of his fair Paramour.
After the hot [t]est day comes languidest

The colour'd Eve, half-hidden in the west;

So they both look'd, so spake, if breathed sound,
That almost silence is, hath ever found
Compare with nature's quiet. Which lov'd most,
Which had the weakest, strongest, heart so lost,
So ruin'd, wreck'd, destroy'd: for certes they
Scarcely could tell
they could not guess

Whether 'twas misery or happiness.

Spells are but made to break. Whisper'd the Youth
"Sure some sweet name thou hast; though by my truth

"I had not ask'd it, ever thinking thee

"Not mortal but of heavenly progeny,

As still I do. Hast any mortal name?

"Fit silver appellation for this dazzling frame?

"Or friends, or kinsfolks on the citied Earth,

"To share our marriage feast and nuptial mirth?"
"I have no friends," said Lamia " as you list
"Intreat your many guests." Then all was wist
She fell asleep, and Lycius to the Shade

Of deep sleep in a moment was betray'd.

Before this was all struck out and remodelled according to the text, Keats cancelled from as you list, and wrote in

no not one;

My presence in wide Corinth is unknown;

and the next six lines as in the text, adding

With any pleasure on me, summon not
Old Apollonius. Lycius ignorant what

Strange thought had led her to an end so blank,

and so on as in the text, lines 103-5.

And, all subdu'd, consented to the hour

When to the bridal he should lead his paramour.

Whispering in midnight silence, said the youth,

"Sure some sweet name thou hast, though, by my truth, "I have not ask'd it, ever thinking thee

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"As still I do. Hast any mortal name,

"Not mortal, but of heavenly progeny,

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To share our marriage feast and nuptial mirth?"

"I have no friends," said Lamia, no, not one;

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My presence in wide Corinth hardly known:

My parents' bones are in their dusty urns
Sepulchred, where no kindled incense burns,
Seeing all their luckless race are dead, save me,
And I neglect the holy rite for thee.

"Even as you list invite your many guests;
"But if, as now it seems, your vision rests

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"With any pleasure on me, do not bid

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"Old Apollonius- from him keep me hid."

Lycius, perplex'd at words so blind and blank,

Made close inquiry; from whose touch she shrank,

Feigning a sleep; and he to the dull shade

Of deep sleep in a moment was betray'd.

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It was the custom then to bring away

The bride from home at blushing shut of day,
Veil'd, in a chariot, heralded along

By strewn flowers, torches, and a marriage song,

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Had not a friend. So being left alone,

(Lycius was gone to summon all his kin)
And knowing surely she could never win
His foolish heart from its mad pompousness,
She set herself, high-thoughted, how to dress
The misery in fit magnificence.

She did so, but 'tis doubtful how and whence

(83) In the rewritten version there is the cancelled reading —

When he should to the bridal lead his Paramour.

115

(89-90) In writing these two lines the second time, Keats inserted the word silver before appellation, and put kinsfolks again.

(101) Cancelled manuscript reading, from his eye in place of from him.

(112) Cancelled manuscript reading, being for was.

Came, and who were her subtle servitors.

About the halls, and to and from the doors,

There was a noise of wings, till in short space

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The glowing banquet-room shone with wide-arched grace.
A haunting music, sole perhaps and lone
Supportress of the faery-roof, made moan

Throughout, as fearful the whole charm might fade.
Fresh carved cedar, mimicking a glade

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Of palm and plantain, met from either side,

High in the midst, in honor of the bride:

Two palms and then two plantains, and so on,

From either side their stems branch'd one to one

All down the aisled place; and beneath all

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There ran a stream of lamps straight on from wall to wall.

So canopy'd, lay an untasted feast

Teeming with odours. Lamia, regal drest,

Silently pac'd about, and as she went,
In pale contented sort of discontent,
Mission'd her viewless servants to enrich

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The fretted splendour of each nook and niche.
Between the tree-stems, marbled plain at first,
Came jasper pannels; then, anon, there burst
Forth creeping imagery of slighter trees,
And with the larger wove in small intricacies.
Approving all, she faded at self-will,

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And shut the chamber up, close, hush'd and still,

Complete and ready for the revels rude,

When dreadful guests would come to spoil her solitude.

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The day appear'd, and all the gossip rout.
O senseless Lycius! Madman! wherefore flout
The silent-blessing fate, warm cloister'd hours,
And show to common eyes these secret bowers?
The herd approach'd; each guest, with busy brain,
Arriving at the portal, gaz'd amain,

(121) Cancelled manuscript reading, high-lamp'd for glowing.

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(122-4) Hunt notes (see Appendix) "This is the very quintessence of the

romantic."

(133) Cancelled manuscript readings, Teeming a perfume, and Teeming wing'd odours.

(138) Rejected reading, wainscoated for marbled plain.

(146) In the manuscript the words came soon are struck out in favour of appear'd.

(150) The manuscript reads The Herd arriv'd, the word arriv'd being substi tuted for came, and.

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