mortality.'

The point upon which the whole moral interest of the piece hinges, when
that speech is closed, occurs in this line,--

"'He kissed the consecrated Maid;'

And to bring back this to the reader, I repeated the epithet."

In a letter to Wordsworth about _The Waggoner_, Charles Lamb wrote, June
7, 1819, "I re-read _The White Doe of Rylstone_; the title should be
always written at length, as Mary Sabilla Novello, a very nice woman of
our acquaintance, always signs hers at the bottom of the shortest
note.... Manning had just sent it home, and it came as fresh to me as
the immortal creature it speaks of. M. sent it home with a note, having
this passage in it: 'I cannot help writing to you while I am reading
Wordsworth's poem.... 'Tis broad, noble, poetical, with a masterly
scanning of human actions, absolutely above common readers.'" (See _The
Letters of Charles Lamb_, edited by Alfred Ainger, vol. ii. pp. 25, 26.)

Henry Crabb Robinson's judgment, as given in his _Diary_, June 1815, is
interesting. (See vol. i. p. 484.)

The following is from Principal Shairp's estimate of _The White Doe of
Rylstone_ in his Oxford Lectures, _Aspects of Poetry_ (chapter xii. pp.
373-76). "What is it that gives to it" (the poem) "its chief power and
charm? Is it not the imaginative use which the poet has made of the
White Doe? With her appearance the poem opens, with her re-appearance it
closes. And the passages in which she is introduced are radiant with the
purest light of poetry. A mere floating tradition she was, which the
historian of Craven had preserved. How much does the poet bring out of
how little! It was a high stroke of genius to seize on this slight
traditionary incident, and make it the organ of so much. What were the
objects which he had to describe and blend into one harmonious whole.
They were these:

"1. The last expiring gleam of feudal chivalry, ending in the ruin of an
ancient race, and the desolation of an ancestral home.

"2. The sole survivor, purified and exalted by the sufferings she had to
undergo.

"3. The pathos of the decaying sanctities of Bolton, after wrong and
outrage, abandoned to the healing of nature and time.

"4. Lastly, the beautiful scenery of pastoral Wharfdale, and of the
fells around Bolton, which blend so well with these affecting memories.

"All these were before him--they had melted into his imagination, and
waited to be woven into one harmonious creation. He takes th