[469:1] First published in 1834. The date of composition cannot be ascertained. The MS., an early if not a first draft, is certainly of late date. The water-marks of the paper (Bath Post) are 1822 and 1828. There is a second draft (MS. b) of lines 97-112. Line 37, 'Dan Ovid's mazy tale of loves,' may be compared with line 100 of The Garden of Boccaccio, 'Peers Ovid's Holy Book of Love's sweet smart,' and it is probable that Alice Du Clos was written about the same time, 1828-9. In line 91 'Ellen' is no doubt a slip of the pen for 'Alice'.

LINENOTES:

Title] Alice Du Clos: or &c. MS.

[19-25]
Her sires had chosen for their Crest
 A star atwixt its brow,
 For she, already up and drest
 Sate in the garden bower below.
For she enwrapt in
Enwrapt in robe of
 
 
Maiden white
Her 
 
 
face half drooping
visage drooping from the sight
A snow-drop in a tuft of snow
 Ere the first lark had left the nest
 Sate in the garden bower below.

MS. erased.

[48]

Go tell him I am well at home MS. erased.

[49]

speed] fly MS. erased.

[50]

stronger] sweeter MS. erased.

[51]

gentler] lovelier MS. erased.

[53]

reel'd] pass'd MS. erased.

[54-7]
 
Like a tall Wave that
 
 
stormy
huge and dark
Reels sideway from a toiling Bark
 Toil'd in the deep sea-trough
Is traversed by
Catches askance
 
 
 
 the Lightning flash

or

Like a huge Billow, rude and dark
 
That
 
 
as it falls off from a Bark
tumbling mainward from
Toil'd in the deep Sea-trough

MS. erased.

[56]

shouldering] wheeling MS. erased.

[61]

A moment's pause MS. erased.

[65]
Yon May-thorn tree dimly—

or

O fairly flower yon may-thorn tree

MS. erased.

[69]

lightsome] glittering MS.

[71]

With] The MS.

[76]

Lord Julian in the Greenwood stays MS. erased.

[87]

With buskins and with quiver MS. erased.

[100]

huntsmen] huntsman MS. b.

[104]

He sought in vain twixt shame and pride MS. b.

[107]

He look'd far round MS. b.

[110]

sore] sair MS. b, MS. erased.

[111]

Tho' names too seldom MS. b.

[122]

With all his gay hunt round MS.

[126]

When] And MS.

[128]

And dark of Brow, without a word MS.

[135]

stifled] muttering MS. erased.

[136]

And Look askance MS.: Yet not unheard MS. erased.

[153-7]
 
God's wrath! speak out!
 
 
Lord Julian cry'd
What mean'st thou man?
 
 
Recoiling with a start
Cried Julian with a start.
 
With
 
 
well-feign'd anger
feign'd resentment blunt and rude
Sir Hugh his deep revenge pursued
Why scowl at me? Command my skill.

MS. erased (first draft).

[159]

She bade me tell you MS. erased.

[167]

For as she clos'd her scoffing phrase MS. erased.

[173-4]
And who from twixt those opening Trees
 Pricks on with laughing cheer

MS. erased (first draft).

LOVE'S BURIAL-PLACE[475:1]

Lady. If Love be dead—
 Poet. And I aver it!
 Lady. Tell me, Bard! where Love lies buried?
 Poet. Love lies buried where 'twas born:
 Oh, gentle dame! think it no scorn 5
 If, in my fancy, I presume
 To call thy bosom poor Love's Tomb.
 [476]And on that tomb to read the line:—
 'Here lies a Love that once seem'd mine,
 But caught a chill, as I divine, 10
 And died at length of a Decline.'

1828.

FOOTNOTES:

[475:1] First published in 1828: included in the Amulet, 1833, as the first of 'Three Scraps', and in 1852. The present text is that of the Amulet, 1833.

LINENOTES:

Title] The Alienated Mistress: A Madrigal (From an unfinished Melodrama) 1828, 1852.

[1-3]
Lady. If Love be dead (and you aver it!)
 Tell me Bard! where Love lies buried.

1828, 1852.

[5]

Ah faithless nymph 1828, 1852.

[7]

call] name 1828, 1852.

[9]

seem'd] was 1828, 1852.

[10]

caught] took 1828, 1852.

LINES[476:1]

TO A COMIC AUTHOR, ON AN ABUSIVE REVIEW

What though the chilly wide-mouth'd quacking chorus
 From the rank swamps of murk Review-land croak:
 So was it, neighbour, in the times before us,
 When Momus, throwing on his Attic cloak,
 Romp'd with the Graces; and each tickled Muse 5
 (That Turk, Dan Phœbus, whom bards call divine,
 Was married to—at least, he kept—all nine)
 Fled, but still with reverted faces ran;
 Yet, somewhat the broad freedoms to excuse,
 They had allured the audacious Greek to use, 10
 Swore they mistook him for their own good man.
 This Momus—Aristophanes on earth
 Men call'd him—maugre all his wit and worth,
 [477]Was croak'd and gabbled at. How, then, should you,
 Or I, friend, hope to 'scape the skulking crew? 15
 No! laugh, and say aloud, in tones of glee,
 'I hate the quacking tribe, and they hate me!'

? 1825.

FOOTNOTES:

[476:1] First published in Friendship's Offering, 1834, as No. III of 'Lightheartednesses in Rhyme': included in 1834.

LINENOTES:

Title] To a Comic Author on an abusive review of his Aristophanes MS.

1 foll.

They fled;—
 Friend yet unknown! What tho' a brainless rout
 Usurp the sacred title of the Bard—
 What tho' the chilly wide-mouth'd chorus
 From Styx or Lethe's oozy Channel croak:
 So was it, Peter, in the times before us
 When Momus throwing on his Attic cloak
 Romp'd with the Graces and each tickled Muse
 The plighted coterie of Phœbus he bespoke
 And laughing with reverted faces ran,
 And somewhat the broad freedom to excuse
 They had allow'd the audacious Greek to use
 Swore they mistook him for their own good man!
 If the good dulness be the home of worth
 Duller than Frogs co-ax'd, or Jeffrey writ
 We, too, will Aristoff (sic) and welcome it—

First draft MS. B. M.

[7]

kept] kept F. O. 1834.

COLOGNE[477:1]

In Köhln[477:2], a town of monks and bones[477:3],
 And pavements fang'd with murderous stones
 And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;
 I counted two and seventy stenches,
 All well defined, and several stinks! 5
 Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
 The river Rhine, it is well known,
 Doth wash your city of Cologne;
 But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine
 Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine[477:4]? 10

1828.

FOOTNOTES:

[477:1] First published in Friendship's Offering, 1834, as No. IV of 'Lightheartednesses in Rhyme'. It follows the lines 'On my joyful Departure', &c., and is headed 'Expectoration the Second'. First collected in 1834.

[477:2] Köhln Coln F. O. The German Name of Cologne. F. O.]

[477:3] Of the eleven thousand virgin Martyrs. F. O.

[477:4] As Necessity is the mother of Invention, and extremes beget each other, the facts above recorded may explain how this ancient town (which, alas! as sometimes happens with venison, has been kept too long), came to be the birthplace of the most fragrant of spirituous fluids, the Eau de Cologne. F. O.

ON MY JOYFUL DEPARTURE[477:5]

FROM THE SAME CITY

As I am a Rhymer[477:6],
 And now at least a merry one,
 Mr. Mum's Rudesheimer[477:7]
 And the church of St. Geryon
 Are the two things alone 5
 That deserve to be known
 In the body-and-soul-stinking town of Cologne.

1828.

FOOTNOTES:

[477:5] First published in Friendship's Offering, 1834, with the heading 'An Expectoration, or Splenetic Extempore, on my joyful departure from the City of Cologne'. First collected in 1834.

[477:6] As I am Rhymer, F. O., P. W., 1834, 1893. The 'a' is inserted by Coleridge on a page of F. O., 1834; the correction was not adopted in P. W., 1834.

[477:7] The apotheosis of Rhenish wine.

THE GARDEN OF BOCCACCIO[478:1]

Or late, in one of those most weary hours,
 When life seems emptied of all genial powers,
 A dreary mood, which he who ne'er has known
 May bless his happy lot, I sate alone;
 And, from the numbing spell to win relief, 5
 Call'd on the Past for thought of glee or grief.
 In vain! bereft alike of grief and glee,
 I sate and cow'r'd o'er my own vacancy!
 And as I watch'd the dull continuous ache,
 Which, all else slumb'ring, seem'd alone to wake; 10
 O Friend[478:2]! long wont to notice yet conceal,
 And soothe by silence what words cannot heal,
 I but half saw that quiet hand of thine
 Place on my desk this exquisite design.
 Boccaccio's Garden and its faery, 15
 The love, the joyaunce, and the gallantry!
 An Idyll, with Boccaccio's spirit warm,
 Framed in the silent poesy of form.
Like flocks adown a newly-bathed steep
 Emerging from a mist: or like a stream 20
 Of music soft that not dispels the sleep,
 But casts in happier moulds the slumberer's dream,
 Grazed by an idle eye with silent might
 The picture stole upon my inward sight.
 A tremulous warmth crept gradual o'er my chest, 25
 As though an infant's finger touch'd my breast.
 And one by one (I know not whence) were brought
 All spirits of power that most had stirr'd my thought
 In selfless boyhood, on a new world tost
 Of wonder, and in its own fancies lost; 30
 Or charm'd my youth, that, kindled from above,
 Loved ere it loved, and sought a form for love;
 Or lent a lustre to the earnest scan
 Of manhood, musing what and whence is man!
 Wild strain of Scalds, that in the sea-worn caves 35
 Rehearsed their war-spell to the winds and waves;
 Or fateful hymn of those prophetic maids,
 [479]That call'd on Hertha in deep forest glades;
 Or minstrel lay, that cheer'd the baron's feast;
 Or rhyme of city pomp, of monk and priest, 40
 Judge, mayor, and many a guild in long array,
 To high-church pacing on the great saint's day:
 And many a verse which to myself I sang,
 That woke the tear, yet stole away the pang
 Of hopes, which in lamenting I renew'd: 45
 And last, a matron now, of sober mien,
 Yet radiant still and with no earthly sheen,
 Whom as a faery child my childhood woo'd
 Even in my dawn of thought—Philosophy;
 Though then unconscious of herself, pardie, 50
 She bore no other name than Poesy;
 And, like a gift from heaven, in lifeful glee,
 That had but newly left a mother's knee,
 Prattled and play'd with bird and flower, and stone,
 As if with elfin playfellows well known, 55
 And life reveal'd to innocence alone.
Thanks, gentle artist! now I can descry
 Thy fair creation with a mastering eye,
 And all awake! And now in fix'd gaze stand,
 Now wander through the Eden of thy hand; 60
 Praise the green arches, on the fountain clear
 See fragment shadows of the crossing deer;
 And with that serviceable nymph I stoop,
 The crystal, from its restless pool, to scoop.
 I see no longer! I myself am there, 65
 Sit on the ground-sward, and the banquet share.
 'Tis I, that sweep that lute's love-echoing strings,
 And gaze upon the maid who gazing sings:
 Or pause and listen to the tinkling bells
 From the high tower, and think that there she dwells. 70
 With old Boccaccio's soul I stand possest,
 And breathe an air like life, that swells my chest.
 The brightness of the world, O thou once free,
 [480]And always fair, rare land of courtesy!
 O Florence! with the Tuscan fields and hills 75
 And famous Arno, fed with all their rills;
 Thou brightest star of star-bright Italy!
 Rich, ornate, populous,—all treasures thine,
 The golden corn, the olive, and the vine.
 Fair cities, gallant mansions, castles old, 80
 And forests, where beside his leafy hold
 The sullen boar hath heard the distant horn,
 And whets his tusks against the gnarled thorn;
 Palladian palace with its storied halls;
 Fountains, where Love lies listening to their falls; 85
 Gardens, where flings the bridge its airy span,
 And Nature makes her happy home with man;
 Where many a gorgeous flower is duly fed
 With its own rill, on its own spangled bed,
 And wreathes the marble urn, or leans its head, 90
 A mimic mourner, that with veil withdrawn
 Weeps liquid gems, the presents of the dawn;—
 Thine all delights, and every muse is thine;
 And more than all, the embrace and intertwine
 Of all with all in gay and twinkling dance! 95
 Mid gods of Greece and warriors of romance,
 See! Boccace sits, unfolding on his knees
 The new-found roll of old Maeonides;[480:1]
 But from his mantle's fold, and near the heart,
 Peers Ovid's Holy Book of Love's sweet smart![480:2] 100
 [481]O all-enjoying and all-blending sage,
 Long be it mine to con thy mazy page,
 Where, half conceal'd, the eye of fancy views
 Fauns, nymphs, and wingéd saints, all gracious to thy muse!
Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks, 105
 And see in Dian's vest between the ranks
 Of the trim vines, some maid that half believes
 The vestal fires, of which her lover grieves,
 With that sly satyr peeping through the leaves!

1828.

FOOTNOTES:

[478:1] First published in The Keepsake for 1829, to accompany a plate by Stothard: included in 1829 and 1834. The variant of lines 49-56, probably a fragment of some earlier unprinted poem, is inserted in one of Coleridge's Notebooks.

[478:2] Mrs. Gillman.

[480:1] Boccaccio claimed for himself the glory of having first introduced the works of Homer to his countrymen.

[480:2] I know few more striking or more interesting proofs of the overwhelming influence which the study of the Greek and Roman classics exercised on the judgments, feelings, and imaginations of the literati of Europe at the commencement of the restoration of literature, than the passage in the Filocopo of Boccaccio, where the sage instructor, Racheo, as soon as the young prince and the beautiful girl Biancofiore had learned their letters, sets them to study the Holy Book, Ovid's Art of Love. 'Incominciò Racheo a mettere il suo [officio] in esecuzione con intera sollecitudine. E loro, in breve tempo, insegnato a conoscer le lettere, fece leggere il santo libro d'Ovvidio, [!! S. T. C.] nel quale il sommo poeta mostra, come i santi fuochi di Venere si debbano ne' freddi cuori con sollecitudine accendere.' ['Deeply interesting—but observe, p. 63, ll. 33-5 [loc. cit.], The holy Book—Ovid's Art of Love!! This is not the result of mere Immorality:—

Multum, Multum
 Hic jacet sepultum.'

MS. note on the fly-leaf of S. T. C.'s copy of vol. i of Boccaccio's Opere, 1723.

LINENOTES:

[49-56]
And there was young Philosophy
 Unconscious of herself, pardie;
 And now she hight poesy,
 And like a child in playful glee
 Prattles and plays with flower and stone,
 As youth's fairy playfellows
 Revealed to Innocence alone.

MS. S. T. C.

[59]

all] all Keepsake, 1829.

[108]

vestal] vestal Keepsake, 1829.

LOVE, HOPE, AND PATIENCE IN EDUCATION[481:1]

O'er wayward childhood would'st thou hold firm rule,
 And sun thee in the light of happy faces;
 Love, Hope, and Patience, these must be thy graces,
 And in thine own heart let them first keep school.
 For as old Atlas on his broad neck places 5
 Heaven's starry globe, and there sustains it;—so
 Do these upbear the little world below
 Of Education,—Patience, Love, and Hope.
 [482]Methinks, I see them group'd in seemly show,
 The straiten'd arms upraised, the palms aslope, 10
 And robes that touching as adown they flow,
 Distinctly blend, like snow emboss'd in snow.
O part them never! If Hope prostrate lie,
 Love too will sink and die.
 But Love is subtle, and doth proof derive 15
 From her own life that Hope is yet alive;
 And bending o'er, with soul-transfusing eyes,
 And the soft murmurs of the mother dove,
 Woos back the fleeting spirit, and half supplies;—
 Thus Love repays to Hope what Hope first gave to Love. 20
Yet haply there will come a weary day,
 When overtask'd at length
 Both Love and Hope beneath the load give way.
 Then with a statue's smile, a statue's strength,
 Stands the mute sister, Patience, nothing loth, 25
 And both supporting does the work of both.

1829.

FOOTNOTES:

[481:1] First published in The Keepsake for 1830: included in P. W., 1834, iii. 381. An MS. version was forwarded to W. Sotheby in an unpublished letter of July 12, 1829. A second MS., dated July 1, 1829, is inscribed in an album now in the Editor's possession, which belonged to Miss Emily Trevenen (the author of Little Derwent's Breakfast, 1839). With regard to the variant of ll. 24-6, vide infra, Coleridge writes (Letter of July 12, 1829):—'They were struck out by the author, not because he thought them bad lines in themselves (quamvis Delia Cruscam fortasse nimis redolere videantur), but because they diverted and retarded the stream of the thought, and injured the organic unity of the composition. Più nel uno is Francesco de Sallez' brief and happy definition of the beautiful, and the shorter the poem the more indispensable is it that the Più should not overlay the Uno, that the unity should be evident. But to sacrifice the gratification, the sting of pleasure, from a fine passage to the satisfaction, the sense of complacency arising from the contemplation of a symmetrical Whole is among the last conquests achieved by men of genial powers.'

LINENOTES:

Title] Lines in a Lady's Album in answer to her question respecting the accomplishments most desirable in the Mistress or Governess of a Preparatory School Letter, July 1829: The Poet's Answer, To a Lady's Question respecting the accomplishments most desirable in an instructress of Children Keepsake, 1830.