ities to witness: only Infant
would not have rymed.

[188] _Juan_, viii. 3; compare 14 and 63, with all its lovely context
61--68: then 82, and afterwards slowly and with thorough attention, the
Devil's speech, beginning, 'Yes, Sir, you forget' in scene 2 of _The
Deformed Transformed_: then Sardanapalus's, act i. scene 2, beginning
'he is gone, and on his finger bears my signet,' and finally, the
_Vision of Judgment_, stanzas 3 to 5.

[189] _Island_, iii. 3, and compare, of shore surf, the 'slings its high
flakes, shivered into sleet' of stanza 7.

[190] A modern editor--of whom I will not use the expressions which
occur to me--finding the 'we' a redundant syllable in the iambic line,
prints 'we're.' It is a little thing--but I do not recollect, in the
forty years of my literary experience, any piece of editor's retouch
quite so base. But I don't read the new editions much; that must be
allowed for.

[191] _Island_, ii. 5. I was going to say, 'Look to the context.' but am
fain to give it here; for the stanza, learned by heart, ought to be our
school-introduction to the literature of the world.

'Such was this ditty of Tradition's days,
Which to the dead a lingering fame conveys
In song, where fame as yet hath left no sign
Beyond the sound whose charm is half divine;
Which leaves no record to the sceptic eye,
But yields young history all to harmony;
A boy Achilles, with the centaur's lyre
In hand, to teach him to surpass his sire.
For one long-cherish'd ballad's simple stave
Rung from the rock, or mingled with the wave,
Or from the bubbling streamlet's grassy side,
Or gathering mountain echoes as they glide,
Hath greater power o'er each true heart and ear,
Than all the columns Conquest's minions rear;
Invites, when hieroglyphics are a theme
For sages' labours or the student's dream;
Attracts, when History's volumes are a toil--
The first, the freshest bud of Feeling's soil.
Such was this rude rhyme--rhyme is of the rude,
But such inspired the Norseman's solitude,
Who came and conquer'd; such, wherever rise
Lands which no foes destroy or civilise,
Exist; and what can our accomplish'd art
Of verse do more than reach the a waken'd heart?'

[192] _Shepherd's Calendar._ 'Coronation,' loyal-pastoral for Carnation;
'sops in wine,' jolly-pastoral for double pink; 'paunce,' thoughtless
pastoral for pansy; 'chevisaunce' I