And pray persuade with thee-Ah, I have done,

All blisses be upon thee, my sweet son!"—

Thus the fair goddess: while Endymion
Knelt to receive those accents halcyon.

Meantime a glorious revelry began Before the Water-Monarch. Nectar ran

920

925

In courteous fountains to all cups outreach'd;

And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless, pleach'd
New growth about each shell and pendent lyre ;

The which, in disentangling for their fire,

Pull'd down fresh foliage and coverture

For dainty toying. Cupid, empire-sure,

930

Flutter'd and laugh'd, and oft-times through the throng
Made a delighted way. Then dance, and song,
And garlanding grew wild; and pleasure reign'd.
In harmless tendril they each other chain'd,
And strove who should be smother'd deepest in
Fresh crush of leaves.

935

O'tis a very sin

For one so weak to venture his
poor verse
In such a place as this. O do not curse,
High Muses! let him hurry to the ending.

940

manuscript and all printed editions, Visit my Cytherea, was the result of an error of transcription. The reference is unquestionably to the island Cythera.

(922) The draft has blithe in place of fair.

(930) In the draft, full instead of fresh.

(934-5) The draft reads thus

and wildness reigns.

They bound each other up in tendril chains...

(937) In the draft, crushing, not crush of.

Husin

All suddenly were silent. A soft blending Of dulcet instruments came charmingly ;

And then a hymn.

"KING of the stormy sea!

Brother of Jove, and co-inheritor

Of elements! Eternally before

945

Thee the waves awful bow. Fast, stubborn rock,

At thy fear'd trident shrinking, doth unlock

Its deep foundations, hissing into foam.

All mountain-rivers, lost in the wide home

Of thy capacious bosom, ever flow.

950

Thou frownest, and old Æolus thy foe

Skulks to his cavern, 'mid the gruff complaint

Of all his rebel tempests. Dark clouds faint
When, from thy diadem, a silver gleam

Slants over blue dominion. Thy bright team
Gulphs in the morning light, and scuds along

(945) This passage was written thus

Eternally in awe

Of thee the Waves bow down.

955

The reading of the text is inserted with a pencil in the finished manuscript.

(949-50) In the draft these two lines were written and pointed thus

A thousand rivers, lost in the wide home

Of thy capacious bosom, ever flow.

And in the finished manuscript also there is a comma after bosom and none after lost. This is clearly sufficient evidence on which to reject the punctuation of the first and other printed editions, which place a comma after lost and none after bosom.

(954-6) The draft reads—

When thy bright diadem a silver gleam

O'er blue dominion starts. Thy finny team
Snorts in the morning light, and sends along...

Compare Hyperion, Book II, Line 236—

I saw him on the calmed waters scud,...
VOL. I.
T

To bring thee nearer to that golden song
Apollo singeth, while his chariot

Waits at the doors of heaven. Thou art not

For scenes like this: an empire stern hast thou;
And it hath furrow'd that large front: yet now,
As newly come of heaven, dost thou sit

To blend and interknit

Subdued majesty with this glad time.

960

O shell-borne King sublime!

965

We lay our hearts before thee evermore-
We sing, and we adore!

"Breathe softly, flutes;

Be tender of your strings, ye soothing lutes;
Nor be the trumpet heard! O vain, O vain ;
Not flowers budding in an April rain,
Nor breath of sleeping dove, nor river's flow,—

970

No, nor the Æolian twang of Love's own bow,
Can mingle music fit for the soft ear

Of goddess Cytherea !

975

Yet deign, white Queen of Beauty, thy fair eyes
On our souls' sacrifice.

Who has another care when thou hast smil'd?
Unfortunates on earth, we see at last

980

All death-shadows, and glooms that overcast

(960) The manuscript shows a cancelled reading, these for this. (962) Woodhouse notes, presumably from the draft, the variation

Like a young child of heaven, dost thou sit...

(979) The draft reads

Who is not full of heaven when thou hast smil'd?

Our spirits, fann'd away by thy light pinions.
O sweetest essence! sweetest of all minions!
God of warm pulses, and dishevell❜d hair,
And panting bosoms bare!

Dear unseen light in darkness! eclipser
Of light in light! delicious poisoner!
Thy venom'd goblet will we quaff until
We fill-we fill!

And by thy Mother's lips

Was heard no more

For clamour, when the golden palace door
Opened again, and from without, in shone
A new magnificence. On oozy throne
Smooth-moving came Oceanus the old,
To take a latest glimpse at his sheep-fold,
Before he went into his quiet cave
To muse for ever-Then a lucid wave,
Scoop'd from its trembling sisters of mid-sea,
Afloat, and pillowing up the majesty

Of Doris, and the Ægean seer, her spouse-
Next, on a dolphin, clad in laurel boughs,
Theban Amphion leaning on his lute:
His fingers went across it-All were mute
To gaze on Amphitrite, queen of pearls,
And Thetis pearly too.-

985

990

995

1000

The palace whirls

1005

Around giddy Endymion; seeing he

(983) In the draft

O sweetest essence of all sweetest minions!

(1000) Nereus, the son of Oceanus, who espoused his sister Doris, and had by her fifty daughters, the Nereides.

Was there far strayed from mortality.
He could not bear it-shut his eyes in vain;
Imagination gave a dizzier pain.

"O I shall die! sweet Venus, be my stay!
Where is my lovely mistress? Well-away!
I die I hear her voice-I feel my wing-"
At Neptune's feet he sank. A sudden ring
Of Nereids were about him, in kind strife
To usher back his spirit into life:

But still he slept. At last they interwove
Their cradling arms, and purpos'd to convey
Towards a crystal bower far away.

Lo! while slow carried through the pitying crowd, To his inward senses these words spake aloud;

(1007) The draft gives this line thus

Was there, a stray lamb from mortality.

(1012) This line reads thus in the draft—

I die-love calls me hence "-thus muttering...

(1015) After this line are the four following in the draft-
They gave him nectar-shed bright drops, and strove
Long time in vain. At last they interwove
Their cradling arms, and carefully conveyed
His body towards a quiet bowery shade.

ΙΟΙΟ

1015

1020

Perhaps the last three words were found inappropriate to the submarine scenery and thus led to the loss of the rhyme. In the finished manuscript, after Their cradling arms, and, Keats had written did his, probably meaning to complete the line with some such expression as body move; but he struck did his out and wrote carried him, then cancelled that, and supplied the reading of the text. Were it not for the greater propriety of the crystal bower, there would be a strong temptation to restore the reading of the draft, merely substituting crystal for bowery.

(1019) Cancelled readings, parting crowd for pitying crowd in the draft, and throng for crowd in the finished manuscript.