He had left thinking of the mystery,
And was now rapt in tender hoverings
Over the vanish'd bliss. Ah! what is it sings
His dream away? What melodies are these?
They sound as through the whispering of trees,
Not native in such barren vaults. Give ear!

“O Arethusa, peerless nymph! why fear
Such tenderness as mine? Great Dian, why,
Why didst thou hear her prayer? O that I
Were rippling round her dainty fairness now,
Circling about her waist, and striving how
To entice her to a dive! then stealing in
Between her luscious lips and eyelids thin.
O that her shining hair was in the sun,
And I distilling from it thence to run
In amorous rillets down her shrinking form!
To linger on her lilly shoulders, warm
Between her kissing breasts, and every charm
Touch raptur'd !—See how painfully I flow :
Fair maid, be pitiful to my great woe.
Stay, stay thy weary course, and let me lead,
A happy wooer, to the flowery mead

930

935

940

945

950

Where all that beauty snar'd me.”—“Cruel god,
Desist! or my offended mistress' nod

Will stagnate all thy fountains :-teaze me not

With syren words-Ah, have I really got

955

Such power to madden thee? And is it true—
Away, away, or I shall dearly rue

My very thoughts: in mercy then away,
Kindest Alpheus, for should I obey

My own dear will, 'twould be a deadly bane.

960

932. In the draft, this line began with 'O'er past and future' The finished manuscript reads 'is't' for 'is it".

945. The draft reads-

Amorous and slow adown her shrinking form!

947-9. These three lines stood thus in the draft

pouting breasts, and every charm

About her {Budding)

Kiss, raptur'd, even to her milky toes.
O foolish maid be gentle to my woes.

952. The draft reads 'slew' for 'snar'd'.

954. Cancelled reading of the manuscript, 'waters' for 'fountains'.

960. In the first edition Arethusa's speech is closed at the end of this line, and taken up again at 'Alas, I burn', in line 363, the intermediate portion being separated from it by independent marks of quotation, as if spoken by Alpheus; but in the manuscript the one speech extends from 'Cruel God' (952) to 'cruel thing' (975); and this obviously correct arrangement is restored in the copy revised by Keats.

O, Oread-Queen! would that thou hadst a pain
Like this of mine, then would I fearless turn
And be a criminal. Alas, I burn,

I shudder-gentle river, get thee hence.
Alpheus! thou enchanter! every sense

Of mine was once made perfect in these woods.
Fresh breezes, bowery lawns, and innocent floods,
Ripe fruits, and lonely couch, contentment gave ;
But ever since I heedlessly did lave
In thy deceitful stream, a panting glow

Grew strong within me: wherefore serve me so,
And call it love? Alas, 'twas cruelty.
Not once more did I close my happy eye
Amid the thrushes' song. Away! Avaunt!

965

970

O 'twas a cruel thing."-"Now thou dost taunt
So softly, Arethusa, that I think

975

If thou wast playing on my shady brink,

Thou wouldst bathe once again. Innocent maid!
Stifle thine heart no more; nor be afraid
Of angry powers: there are deities

980

Will shade us with their wings. Those fitful sighs
'Tis almost death to hear: O let me pour

A dewy balm upon them !-fear no more,
Sweet Arethusa! Dian's self must feel

Sometime these very pangs. Dear maiden, steal
Blushing into my soul, and let us fly
These dreary caverns for the open sky.
I will delight thee all my winding course,
From the green sea up to my hidden source
About Arcadian forests; and will show

964. The draft reads

$996

990

I shudder-for sweet mercy get thee hence. 966-9. The draft reads 'happy' for 'perfect', 'shady' for 'bowery', 'leafy' for 'lonely', and 'gan' for 'did'.

973. This line ends with 'eyes' both in the finished manuscript and in the first edition; but it is certain that 'eye' was the expression in the poet's mind, for in the draft the line stood thus

974. In the finished manuscript, not 'thrush's' but 'Thrushes', without any apostrophe. As Woodhouse records that the draft read 'thrushes'', it seems safe to adopt that form,

977. In the draft 'by' in place of ‘on'.

985. In the manuscript, Some time', without the final s as in the first edition. I think the insertion of the s must have been overlooked by Keats. 990. The draft reads

About Arcadia's Plains; and I will show

The channels where my coolest waters flow

Through mossy rocks; where, 'mid exuberant green,
I roam in pleasant darkness, more unseen

Than Saturn in his exile; where I brim

Round flowery islands, and take thence a skim

995

Of mealy sweets, which myriads of bees

Buzz from their honey'd wings: and thou shouldst please
Thyself to choose the richest, where we might
Be incense-pillow'd every summer night.
Doff all sad fears, thou white deliciousness,
And let us be thus comforted; unless

1000

Thou couldst rejoice to see my hopeless stream
Hurry distracted from Sol's temperate beam,
And pour to death along some hungry sands.".
"What can I do, Alpheus? Dian stands
Severe before me: persecuting fate!
Unhappy Arethusa! thou wast late

1005

A huntress free in "—At this, sudden fell

Those two sad streams adown a fearful dell.

The Latmian listen'd, but he heard no more,
Save echo, faint repeating o'er and o'er
The name of Arethusa. On the verge

1010

Of that dark gulph he wept, and said: "I urge
Thee, gentle Goddess of my pilgrimage,

By our eternal hopes, to soothe, to assuage,

1015

If thou art powerful, these lovers' pains;

And make them happy in some happy plains."

He turn'd-there was a whelming sound-he stept,

There was a cooler light; and so he kept

Towards it by a sandy path, and lo!

1020

More suddenly than doth a moment go,

The visions of the earth were gone and fled-
He saw the giant sea above his head.

and the finished manuscript,

About Arcadian Forests; and I will shew...

Probably Keats meant to cancel 'I'; and it does not appear in his printed edition. 996. The draft reads 'powdery' for 'mealy'.

997. Cancelled reading of the manuscript, 'Shake' for 'Buzz'.

998. In the draft, 'choose the freshest'.

1004. The draft reads 'along hot Afric's sands', and in the next line but one 'cruel, cruel fate!'.

1016. 'Lovers' in the manuscript and in the first edition, without the apostrophe; and the speech is not closed with a mark of quotation in either.

1017. The draft reads 'their native plains'.

1020. Cancelled reading of the finished manuscript, 'scanty' for 'sandy'.

ENDYMION.

BOOK III.

THERE are who lord it o'er their fellow-men
With most prevailing tinsel: who unpen
Their baaing vanities, to browse away
The comfortable green and juicy hay

From human pastures; or, O torturing fact!

5

Who, through an idiot blink, will see unpack'd

Fire-branded foxes to sear up and singe

Our gold and ripe-ear'd hopes. With not one tinge
Of sanctuary splendour, not a sight

Able to face an owl's, they still are dight

10

By the blear-ey'd nations in empurpled vests,

And crowns, and turbans. With unladen breasts,
Save of blown self-applause, they proudly mount
To their spirit's perch, their being's high account,
Their tiptop nothings, their dull skies, their thrones-
Amid the fierce intoxicating tones

15

Of trumpets, shoutings, and belabour'd drums,
And sudden cannon. Ah! how all this hums,
In wakeful ears, like uproar past and gone—
Like thunder clouds that spake to Babylon,
And set those old Chaldeans to their tasks.-
| Are then regalities all gilded masks?
No, there are throned seats unscalable
But by a patient wing, a constant spell,
Or by ethereal things that, unconfin'd,
Can make a ladder of the eternal wind,

20

25

1. Woodhouse notes that "Keats said, with much simplicity, 'It will be easily seen what I think of the present ministers, by the beginning of the third Book.'"' Perhaps the Quarterly Reviewer had heard of that simple saying.

5. The draft reads 'O devilish fact!'-and in the next line 'with' for 'through'.

19. The draft has 'almost' in place of 'past and'.
21-3. The following rejected reading is from the draft:

And set these old Chaldeans to their work. -
Are then all regal things so gone, so murk?
No there are other thrones to mount.

142

And poize about in cloudy thunder-tents
To watch the abysm-birth of elements.
Aye, 'bove the withering of old-lipp'd Fate
A thousand Powers keep religious state,
In water, fiery realm, and airy bourne ;
And, silent as a consecrated urn,
Hold spherey sessions for a season due.
Yet few of these far majesties, ah, few!
Have bar'd their operations to this globe-
Few, who with gorgeous pageantry enrobe
Our piece of heaven-whose benevolence
Shakes hand with our own Ceres; every sense
Filling with spiritual sweets to plenitude,

As bees gorge full their cells. And, by the feud
'Twixt Nothing and Creation, I here swear,
Eterne Apollo! that thy Sister fair
Is of all these the gentlier-mightiest.

When thy gold breath is misting in the west,
She unobserved steals unto her throne,

45

And there she sits most meek and most alone;
As if she had not pomp subservient;
As if thine eye, high Poet! was not bent

Towards her with the Muses in thine heart ;
As if the ministring stars kept not apart,
Waiting for silver-footed messages.

31-2. The draft yields the rejected couplet

In the several vastnesses of air and fire;
And silent, as a corpse upon a pyre.

34. The draft reads

How few of these far majesties, how few!

38-9. These two lines stood thus in the draft

Salutes our native Ceres-{and each

every

With spiritual honey fills to plenitude...

sense

50

41. At the end of this line Keats wrote in the original draft, as if to localize the oath he was recording, "Oxford, Septr. 5."

42. The word 'eterne seems to be another reminiscence of Spenser: see 'Faerie Queene,' Book III, Canto vi, Stanza 47:

When thy gold hair falls thick about the west.

49. The draft has 'Upon' in place of 'Towards'.

50. This attribution of an active life of ministration to the stars is a recurrence of the idea in Book II, lines 184-5