Behold I find it! so exalted too!

So after my own heart! I knew, I knew
There was a place untenanted in it:

In that same void white Chastity shall sit,
And monitor me nightly to lone slumber.
With sanest lips I vow me to the number
Of Dian's sisterhood; and, kind lady,
With thy good help, this very night shall see
My future days to her fane consecrate."

As feels a dreamer what doth most create
His own particular fright, so these three felt:
Or like one who, in after ages, knelt
To Lucifer or Baal, when he'd pine
After a little sleep or when in mine

Far under-ground, a sleeper meets his friends
Who know him not. Each diligently bends

880

885

890

895

Towards common thoughts and things for very fear;
Striving their ghastly malady to cheer,

By thinking it a thing of yes and no,

That housewives talk of. But the spirit-blow
Was struck, and all were dreamers.

At the last

900

Endymion said: "Are not our fates all cast?
Why stand we here? Adieu, ye tender pair!
Adieu!" Whereat those maidens, with wild stare,
Walk'd dizzily away. Pained and hot

His eyes went after them, until they got
Near to a cypress grove, whose deadly maw,

905

(882) Woodhouse notes the variation void for place.
(888-9) The draft reads in for to and can for doth.
(892) In the draft, at strife in place of he'd pine.
(904) The draft reads patiently for dizzily.
(906) In the draft, shade for maw.

In one swift moment, would what then he saw
Engulph for ever. "Stay!" he cried, "ah, stay!
Turn, damsels! hist! one word I have to say.
Sweet Indian, I would see thee once again.

It is a thing I dote on : so I'd fain,
Peona, ye should hand in hand repair
Into those holy groves, that silent are

910

Behind great Dian's temple. I'll be yon,

At vesper's earliest twinkle-they are gone

915

But once, once, once again-" At this he press'd

His hands against his face, and then did rest
His head upon a mossy hillock green,
And so remain'd as he a corpse had been

All the long day; save when he scantly lifted
His eyes abroad, to see how shadows shifted
With the slow move of time,-sluggish and weary
Until the poplar tops, in journey dreary,

920

Had reach'd the river's brim. Then up he rose,
And, slowly as that very river flows,

925

Walk'd towards the temple grove with this lament: "Why such a golden eve? The breeze is sent Careful and soft, that not a leaf may fall

Before the serene father of them all

(918-22) In the draft this passage stands thus :-
His hands upon a pillow of green moss
And so remained without impatient toss
All the day long-save when he scantly lifted
His eyes abroad, to see how shadows shifted,
And note the weary time.-Ah weary, weary,...

The word hands in line 918 was probably a mere slip,

(926-7) Woodhouse gives, presumably from the draft, the couplet, Walk'd towards the temple grove lamenting "O

"Why such a golden eve? The breezes blow...

Bows down his summer head below the west.
Now am I of breath, speech, and speed possest,
But at the setting I must bid adieu

To her for the last time.

Night will strew

On the damp grass myriads of lingering leaves,
And with them shall I die; nor much it grieves

930

935

To die, when summer dies on the cold sward.

Why, I have been a butterfly, a lord

Of flowers, garlands, love-knots, silly posies,

Groves, meadows, melodies, and arbour roses;

My kingdom's at its death, and just it is

940

That I should die with it: so in all this

We miscall grief, bale, sorrow, heartbreak, woe,
What is there to plain of? By Titan's foe
I am but rightly serv'd." So saying, he
Tripp'd lightly on, in sort of deathful glee;
Laughing at the clear stream and setting sun,

945

As though they jests had been : nor had he done
His laugh at nature's holy countenance,

Until that grove appear'd, as if perchance,
And then his tongue with sober seemlihed

950

Gave utterance as he enter'd: "Ha! I said, "King of the butterflies; but by this gloom,

(933) This line, though possibly corrupt, stands thus in the finished manuscript and in Keats's edition. Woodhouse does not bring the draft in evidence.

(934) In the manuscript, ling'ring for lingering.

(949-50) In the draft

Until he saw that grove, as if perchance,

And then his soul was changed...

(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.

And by old Rhadamanthus' tongue of doom,
This dusk religion, pomp of solitude,

And the Promethean clay by thief endued,

955

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

960

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

965

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

66

By chilly finger'd spring. Unhappy wight!
Endymion!" said Peona, "we are here!

What wouldst thou ere we all are laid on bier?"
Then he embrac'd her, and his lady's hand

970

(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...

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,
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
Has our delaying been; but foolish fear
Withheld me first; and then decrees of fate;
And then 'twas fit that from this mortal state

975

980

985

990

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,

1000

(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.