Hour after hour, to each lush-leav'd rill.
Now he is sitting by a shady spring,
And elbow-deep with feverous fingering
Stems the upbursting cold: a wild rose tree
Pavillions him in bloom, and he doth see

A bud which snares his fancy: lo! but now
He plucks it, dips its stalk in the water: how!
It swells, it buds, it flowers beneath his sight;
And, in the middle, there is softly pight
A golden butterfly; upon whose wings
There must be surely character'd strange things,
For with wide eye he wonders, and smiles oft.

Lightly this little herald flew aloft,
Follow'd by glad Endymion's clasped hands:
Onward it flies. From languor's sullen bands
His limbs are loos'd, and eager, on he hies
Dazzled to trace it in the sunny skies.

55

60

65

(52) This line is precisely according to the manuscript and the first edition, so that there can be no doubt the word hour is to be scanned first as one syllable and then as two.

(53) E'en now he's occurs in the draft in place of Now he is. (56) The draft gives the reading Bends lightly over him for Pavillions him in bloom.

(57) In the draft, takes for snares.

(58) In the manuscript, in was originally contracted to i; but in is inserted as a correction.

(59) Cancelled manuscript reading, blooms for flowers.

(60) The original reading of the draft was in its middle. The word pight (for pitched), occurs in Troilus and Cressida (V, 10), Lear (II, 1), and Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book III, Canto VII, stanza 41,

Or on the marble Pillour that is pight

Upon the top of Mount Olympus hight,...

(67-68) The draft gives two rejected readings of this coupletVOL. I.

N

It seem'd he flew, the way so easy was;
And like a new-born spirit did he pass

Through the green evening quiet in the sun,

O'er many a heath, through many a woodland dun,
Through buried paths, where sleepy twilight dreams
The summer time away. One track unseams

A wooded cleft, and, far away, the blue

70

75

Of ocean fades upon him; then, anew,

He sinks adown a solitary glen,

Where there was never sound of mortal men,

Saving, perhaps, some snow-light cadences

Melting to silence, when upon the breeze

80

Some holy bark let forth an anthem sweet,
To cheer itself to Delphi. Still his feet
Went swift beneath the merry-winged guide,
Until it reach'd a splashing fountain's side
That, near a cavern's mouth, for ever pour'd
Unto the temperate air: then high it soar'd,
And, downward, suddenly began to dip,

and

His limbs are loos'd, and eagerly he paces
With nimble feet beneath its airy traces-

His limbs are loos'd, and eagerly he traces
With nimble footsteps all its airy paces.

(69) The draft reads path for way.

(75) The original reading of the draft is Thro' woody cleft. (80) The draft has Thawing in place of Melting.

(83) This line was written in the draft

Went swift beneath the flutter-loving guide...

85

The expression flutter-loving was struck out; but nothing was substituted till the reading of the text was supplied in the finished manuscript, in which, in the next line, he was originally where it now stands.

(86) The draft reads whereat it soar'd, and begins the next line with Then instead of And.

As if, athirst with so much toil, 'twould sip
The crystal spout-head: so it did, with touch
Most delicate, as though afraid to smutch
Even with mealy gold the waters clear.
But, at that very touch, to disappear
So fairy-quick, was strange! Bewildered,
Endymion sought around, and shook each bed
Of covert flowers in vain; and then he flung
Himself along the grass. What gentle tongue,
What whisperer disturb'd his gloomy rest?
It was a nymph uprisen to the breast

In the fountain's pebbly margin, and she stood
'Mong lillies, like the youngest of the brood.
To him her dripping hand she softly kist,
And anxiously began to plait and twist

Her ringlets round her fingers, saying: "Youth!
Too long, alas, hast thou starv'd on the ruth,
The bitterness of love: too long indeed,

Seeing thou art so gentle. Could I weed

(93) At this point the draft has the rejected reading—

Endymion all around the welkin sped

His anxious sight,

and a further variation is Endymion pry'd around.
(96-97) In the draft these two lines were written-

His sullen limbs upon the grass—what tongue,
What airy whisperer spoilt his angry rest?

90

95

100

105

(99) Here is a further instance of the contracted I' being altered to In in the finished manuscript. In the draft basin occurs in the place of margin.

(102) In the draft is the variation

And carelessly began to twine and twist

Her ringlets 'bout her fingers...

(104) This line originally began with the words Long hast thou tasted, and the next line with The bitter ruth of love.

Thy soul of care, by heavens, I would offer
All the bright riches of my crystal coffer
To Amphitrite; all my clear-ey'd fish,
Golden, or rainbow-sided, or purplish,
Vermilion-tail'd, or finn'd with silvery gauze ;
Yea, or my veined pebble-floor, that draws
A virgin light to the deep; my grotto-sands
Tawny and gold, ooz'd slowly from far lands
By my diligent springs; my level lillies, shells,
My charming rod, my potent river spells;
Yes, every thing, even to the pearly cup
Meander gave me,-for I bubbled up
To fainting creatures in a desert wild.
But woe is me, I am but as a child

110

115

120

To gladden thee; and all I dare to say,

Is, that I pity thee; that on this day

I've been thy guide; that thou must wander far
In other regions, past the scanty bar

To mortal steps, before thou cans't be ta'en

From every wasting sigh, from every pain,

Into the gentle bosom of thy love.

Why it is thus, one knows in heaven above:
But, a poor Naiad, I guess not.

I have a ditty for my hollow cell."

Farewell!

125

130

(116) Variation in the draft, water for river.

(117) In the manuscript, e'en for even.

(121) The draft reads all that I may say.

(128) The reading some know for one knows occurs in the draft, where the next two lines were first written

But, a poor Naiad, I guess not nor tell

Farewell I must away to my hollow cell

and then as in the text, but with I've a new ditty for I have a ditty.

Hereat, she vanished from Endymion's gaze,
Who brooded o'er the water in amaze :
The dashing fount pour'd on, and where its pool
Lay, half asleep, in grass and rushes cool,
Quick waterflies and gnats were sporting still,
And fish were dimpling, as if good nor ill
Had fallen out that hour. The wanderer,
Holding his forehead, to keep off the burr
Of smothering fancies, patiently sat down;
And, while beneath the evening's sleepy frown
Glow-worms began to trim their starry lamps,
Thus breath'd he to himself: "Whoso encamps
To take a fancied city of delight,

O what a wretch is he! and when 'tis his,

135

140

After long toil and travelling, to miss

145

(131-4) These two couplets originally stood in the draft thus—

Hereat, she vanish'd from the listener's gaze,

Whose soul kept o'er the water in amaze ;

The dashing fall pour'd on, and where the pool

Crept smoothly by fresh grass and rushes cool,...

(139) Rejected reading from the draft, drowning for smothering. (140) Cancelled readings, from the draft gentle, and from the manuscript mild, for sleepy.

(143) The manner in which the rhyme to this line was lost appears from the draft, where the passage originally stood thus:

Whoso encamps

His soul to take a city of delight

O what a wretch is he: 'tis in his sight...

Then 'tis in his sight was struck out in favour of and when 'tis his; but nothing was done, in transcribing for the press, to remedy the defect thus produced.

(145) The original reading in the draft was After long siege and travailing; but the finished manuscript reads toil and travelling as in the text.