His laugh at nature's holy countenance,
Until that grove appear'd, as if perchance,
And then his tongue with sober seemlihed
Gave utterance as he enter'd: "Ha! I said,
"C King of the butterflies; but by this gloom,
And by old Rhadamanthus' tongue of doom,
This dusk religion, pomp of solitude,
And the Promethean clay by thief endued,
By old Saturnus' forelock, by his head
Shook with eternal palsy, I did wed
Myself to things of light from infancy;
And thus to be cast out, thus lorn to die,
Is sure enough to make a mortal man
Grow impious." So he inwardly began
On things for which no wording can be found
Deeper and deeper sinking, until drown'd
Beyond the reach of music: for the choir
Of Cynthia he heard not, though rough briar
Nor muffling thicket interpos'd to dull
The vesper hymn, far swollen, soft and full,
Through the dark pillars of those sylvan aisles.
He saw not the two maidens, nor their smiles,
Wan as primroses gather'd at midnight
By chilly finger'd spring. "Unhappy wight!
Endymion!" said Peona, we are here!

950

955

960

;

What wouldst thou ere we all are laid on bier?"
Then he embrac'd her, and his lady's hand
Press'd, saying: "Sister, I would have command,
If it were heaven's will, on our sad fate.”
At which that dark-ey'd stranger stood elate
And said, in a new voice, but sweet as love,

949-50. In the draft

Until he saw that grove, as if perchance,
And then his soul was changed...

965

970

975

951. The inverted commas are closed after 'Ha!' in the first edition; but it is not so in the manuscript; and the matter is set right in the corrected copy. 955. Cancelled reading of the manuscript, And by Promethean...'. This was probably rejected to get rid of the repetition of the word by.

956. The draft reads 'And by old Saturn's single forelock... '.

967. The draft reads 'prelude' for 'vesper'.

968. It is worth noting that, when writing out the fair copy, Keats made three several attempts to spell this word 'aisles' rightly, having first written it 'isles', then 'ailes' and lastly 'aisles'.

974-7. The draft reads as follows:

Her brother kiss'd her, and his lady's hand
Saying, "Sweet sister I would have command,
If it were heaven's will, on our sad fate."
Then that dark-tressed stranger stood elate...

To Endymion's amaze : "By Cupid's dove,
And so thou shalt ! and by the lilly truth
Of my own breast thou shalt, beloved youth!"
And as she spake, into her face there came
Light, as reflected from a silver flame :
Her long black hair swell'd ampler, in display
Full golden; in her eyes a brighter day
Dawn'd blue and full of love. Aye, he beheld
Phoebe, his passion! joyous she upheld
Her lucid bow, continuing thus:

Drear, drear

980

985

Has our delaying been; but foolish fear

Withheld me first; and then decrees of fate ;

990

And then 'twas fit that from this mortal state

Thou shouldst, my love, by some unlook'd for change

Be spiritualiz'd. Peona, we shall range

These forests, and to thee they safe shall be

As was thy cradle; hither shalt thou flee

995

To meet us many a time." Next Cynthia bright

Peona kiss'd, and bless'd with fair good night :
Her brother kiss'd her too, and knelt adown
Before his goddess, in a blissful swoon.

She gave her fair hands to him, and behold,
Before three swiftest kisses he had told,

1000

They vanish'd far away!-Peona went

Home through the gloomy wood in wonderment.

THE END,

984-6. In the draft thus:

Her long black hair swell'd ampler, while it turned

Golden-and her eyes of jet dawned forth a brighter day
Blue-blue-and full of love.

997-8. In the finished manuscript the word 'kist' occurs twice in these two lines instead of 'kiss'd' as in the first edition; but 'bless'd' is not similarly transformed to 'blest'.

1003. At the end of the draft Keats wrote-'Burford Bridge Nov. 28, 1817'. Looking back at the several cases, recorded in the notes, of lines standing rhymeless, I am convinced that Palgrave was not right in assuming intention on Keats's part thus to vary his form.

LIST OF WORDS ALTERED SO AS TO CONSIST WITH

KEATS'S RULE OR PRACTICE,

Page 18, Line 73 for 'bright-eyed' read 'bright-ey'd'.

Page 18, Line 105 for 'pressed' read 'press'd'.

Page 47, Sonnet XII, Line 8 for 'discover'd' read 'discovered'.
Page 73, Line 63 for 'Latmus' read 'Latmos'.

Page 103, Line 974 for 'farewel' read 'farewell'.
Page 189, Line 492 for 'to' read 'of'.

ADDENDUM.

Under the title "A Shelf of Old Books," Mrs. Fields contributed to 'Scribner's Magazine' for March 1888 an account of some books of personal interest owned by the late Mr. James T. Fields. One of these was a volume containing the poems of Coleridge, Shelley and Keats, annotated in manuscript by Leigh Hunt. Inserted in this were a letter from Coleridge, a tiny business note from Shelley, and a fragment of Keats's holograph draft of "I stood tip-toe upon a little hill."

It seems to follow line 37; and it would appear that Keats at first thought it needful to have an ash-tree in his landscape; for the fragment begins, after 'there Ash'. Then comes

too should be,' with the words 'The {delicate} Ash

The frequent chequer of seme a youngling tree
Of livelier green-

That (sprouts with many of its light green peers

Shouts

with a score of light green Brethren shoots From the quaint Mossiness of aged roots

Round which is heard a

of clear waters

{ {found the} springhead
}springhead of a stream
(blooming

That Babbles sweetly of its

The woodland Hyacinths

fragrant-daughters

blue-eyed

The Spreading Blue Bells-it may haply mourn
That such fair Clusters should be rudely torn

From their fresh Beds and scattered though[t]lessly

By Urchin's Hand left on the Path to die

Come ye bright Marigolds

Open afresh your congregated-of starry folds
Ye ardent Marigolds

Above the cancelled word 'congregated' is written and cancelled 'crowd' above that 'cirques' (uncancelled) and above that again 'round' (also uncancelled). The line which Keats altered in the act of writing down was of course

Open afresh your congregated folds

which is a good line, though not so good as the reading selected when he came to transcribe fairly, and print, namely—

Open afresh your round of starry folds.

I regret that I had mislaid this interesting excerpt from 'Scribner's Magazine' when the sheet of this volume containing the poem (see page 8) was passing

through the press.

1 The alternative word is illegible.

!

End of Volume I

H. B. F.