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55

Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue
Through the late twilight: and though now the bat
Wheels silent by, and not a swallow twitters,
Yet still the solitary humble-bee

Sings in the bean-flower! Henceforth I shall know
That Nature ne'er deserts the wise and pure;
No plot so narrow, be but Nature there,
No waste so vacant, but may well employ
Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart
Awake to Love and Beauty! and sometimes
'Tis well to be bereft of promis'd good,
That we may lift the soul, and contemplate
With lively joy the joys we cannot share.
My gentle-hearted Charles! when the last rook
Beat its straight path along the dusky air
Homewards, I blest it! deeming its black wing
(Now a dim speck, now vanishing in light)
Had cross'd the mighty Orb's dilated glory,
While thou stood'st gazing; or, when all was still,
Flew creeking o'er thy head, and had a charm 1
For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom
No sound is dissonant which tells of Life.
1797.

1

60

65

70

75

1 Some months after I had written this line, it gave me pleasure to find [to observe An. Anth., S. L. 1828] that Bartram had observed the same circumstance of the Savanna Crane. When these Birds move their wings in flight, their strokes are slow, moderate and regular; and even when at a considerable distance or high above us, we plainly hear the quill-feathers: their shafts and webs upon one another creek as the joints or working of a vessel in a tempestuous sea.'

55 branches] foliage MS. Letter to Southey. 56 and though the rapid bat MS. Letter to Southey. 60-64 om. in MS. Letter to Lloyd. 61-2 No scene so narrow but may well employ MS. Letter to Southey, An. Anth. 68 My Sister and my Friends MS. Letter to Southey: My Sara and my Friends MS. Letter to Lloyd. 70 Homewards] Homeward MS. L tter to L'oyd. 71 om. in MS. Letter to Lloyd. in the light An. Anth., S. L. (omit the before light. Errata. S. L., [p xi]). 72 Cross'd like a speck the blaze of setting day MS. Letter to Southey: Had cross'd the mighty orb's dilated blase. MS. Letter to Lloyd. 73 While ye [you MS. Letter to Lloyd] stood MS. Letter to Southey. 74 thy head] your heads MSS. Letters to Southey and Lloyd. 75 For you my Sister and my Friends MS. Letter to Southey: For you my Sara and my Friends MS. Letter to Lloyd.

THE FOSTER-MOTHER'S TALE1

A DRAMATIC FRAGMENT

[From Osorio, Act IV. The title and text are here printed from Lyrical Ballads, 1798.]

Foster-Mother. I never saw the man whom you describe. Maria. 'Tis strange! he spake of you familiarly As mine and Albert's common Foster-mother.

Foster-Mother. Now blessings on the man, whoe'er he be,
That joined your names with mine! O my sweet lady,
As often as I think of those dear times

When you two little ones would stand at eve
On each side of my chair, and make me learn
All you had learnt in the day; and how to talk
In gentle phrase, then bid me sing to you-

"Tis more like heaven to come than what has been!

5

10

Maria. O my dear Mother! this strange man has left me Troubled with wilder fancies, than the moon

1 First published in the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads, 1798, and reprinted in the editions of 1800, 1803, and 1805. The 'dramatic fragment' was excluded from the acting version of Remorse, but was printed in an Appendix, p. 75, to the Second Edition of the Play, 1813. It is included in the body of the work in Sibylline Leaves, 1817, and again in 1852, and in the Appendix to Remorse in the editions of 1828, 1829, and 1834. It is omitted from 1844. The "Foster-Mother's Tale," (From Mr. C.'s own handwriting)' was published in Cottle's Early Recollections, i. 235.

The following scene as unfit for the stage was taken from the Tragedy in 1797, and published in the Lyrical Ballads. But this work having been long out of print, and it having been determined, that this with my other poems in that collection (the Nightingale, Love, and the Ancient Mariner) should be omitted in any future edition, I have been advised to reprint it as a Note to the Second Scene of Act the Fourth, p. 55.' App. to Remorse, Ed. 2, 1813. [This note is reprinted in 1828 and 1829, but in 1834 only the first sentence is prefixed to the scene.]

The Foster-Mother's Tale-Title] Foster-Mother's Tale. (Scene-Spain) Cottle, 1837: The, &c. A Narration in Dramatic Blank Verse L. B. 1800. In Remorse, App., 1813 and in 1828, 1829, 1834, the dramatis personae are respectively Teresa and Selma. The fragment opens thus:-Enter Teresa and Selma.

Ter. 'Tis said, he spake of you familiarly
As mine and Alvar's common foster-mother.

12-16 O my dear Mother...

In Cottle's version, the scene begins at line 4. I man] Moor Osorio, MS. I. gazes idly! om. 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834. the] yon Osorio, MS. Í.

12 me] us Cottle, 1837.

She

13

Breeds in the love-sick maid who gazes at it,
Till lost in inward vision, with wet eye

She gazes idly!-But that entrance, Mother!

Foster-Mother. Can no one hear? It is a perilous tale!
Maria. No one.

Foster-Mother. My husband's father told it me,

Poor old Leoni!-Angels rest his soul!

He was a woodman, and could fell and saw

With lusty arm.

You know that huge round beam

Which props the hanging wall of the old Chapel?
Beneath that tree, while yet it was a tree,

15

20

He found a baby wrapt in mosses, lined

With thistle-beards, and such small locks of wool

35

As hang on brambles. Well, he brought him home,

And rear'd him at the then Lord Velez' cost.

And so the babe grew up a pretty boy,

A pretty boy, but most unteachable

And never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead,

30

But knew the names of birds, and mock'd their notes,
And whistled, as he were a bird himself:
And all the autumn 'twas his only play

To get the seeds of wild flowers, and to plant them

With earth and water, on the stumps of trees.

35

A Friar, who gather'd simples in the wood,

A grey-haired man-he lov'd this little boy,

The boy lov'd him—and, when the Friar taught him,

He soon could write with the pen: and from that time, Lived chiefly at the Convent or the Castle.

40

So he became a very learned youth.

Till his brain turn'd-and ere his twentieth year,

But Oh! poor wretch !-he read, and read, and read,

He had unlawful thoughts of many things:

And though he prayed, he never lov'd to pray
With holy men, nor in a holy place-

45

But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet,

The late Lord Velez ne'er was wearied with him.

But that

19 Leoni] Sesina

16 In Lyrical Ballads, 1800, the scene begins with the words: entrance'. But that entrance, Selma? 1813. 1813, 1828, 1829, 1884. 27 Velez'] Valdez' 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834: Valez' 34 To gather seeds 1813, S. L. 1817, 1828, 1829, 1834. 41 So he became a rare and learned

S. L. 1817.
gather'd] oft culled S. L. 1817.

youth 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834.

41-2

So he became a very learned man.
But O poor youth Cottle, 1837.

48 Velez] Valdez 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834: Valez S. L. 1817.

36

And once, as by the north side of the Chapel
They stood together, chain'd in deep discourse,
The earth heav'd under them with such a groan,
That the wall totter'd, and had well-nigh fallen

50

Right on their heads. My Lord was sorely frighten'd;
A fever seiz'd him, and he made confession
Of all the heretical and lawless talk

55

Which brought this judgment: so the youth was seiz'd
And cast into that hole. My husband's father
Sobb'd like a child-it almost broke his heart:
And once as he was working in the cellar,
He heard a voice distinctly; 'twas the youth's,
Who sung a doleful song about green fields,
How sweet it were on lake or wild savannah,
To hunt for food, and be a naked man,
And wander up and down at liberty.
He always doted on the youth, and now
His love grew desperate; and defying death,
He made that cunning entrance I describ'd:
And the young man escap'd.

Maria.
"Tis a sweet tale:
Such as would lull a listening child to sleep,
His rosy face besoil'd with unwiped tears. —
And what became of him?

Foster-Mother.
He went on shipboard
With those bold voyagers, who made discovery
Of golden lands. Leoni's younger brother

Went likewise, and when he return'd to Spain,
He told Leoni, that the poor mad youth,
Soon after they arriv'd in that new world,
In spite of his dissuasion, seiz'd a boat,

And all alone, set sail by silent moonlight
Up a great river, great as any sea,

And ne'er was heard of more: but 'tis suppos'd.
He liv'd and died among the savage men.

1797.

54 made a confession Osorio, confession Cottle, 1837.

A fever seiz'd the youth and he made 57 hole] cell L. B. 1800: den 1813. 59 in the cellar] 62 wild] wide 1813, 68-9 om. L. B. younger] youngest

[And fetter'd in that den. MS. S. T. C].
near this dungeon 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834.
1828, 1829, 1834. 65 He always] Leoni L. B. 1800.
1800. 73 Leoni's] Sesina's 1813, 182, 1829, 1834.
75 Leoni] Sesina 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834.

S. L. 1817.

THE DUNGEON 1

[From Osorio, Act V; and Remorse, Act V, Scene i. The title and text are here printed from Lyrical Ballads, 1798.]

AND this place our forefathers made for man!
This is the process of our love and wisdom,
To each poor brother who offends against us—
Most innocent, perhaps and what if guilty?
Is this the only cure? Merciful God!
Each pore and natural outlet shrivell❜d up
By Ignorance and parching Poverty,
His energies roll back upon his heart,

And stagnate and corrupt; till chang'd to poison,
They break out on him, like a loathsome plague-spot;
Then we call in our pamper'd mountebanks-
And this is their best cure! uncomforted

And friendless solitude, groaning and tears,
And savage faces, at the clanking hour,

5

IO

Seen through the steams and vapour of his dungeon,
By the lamp's dismal twilight! So he lies
Circled with evil, till his very soul

Unmoulds its essence, hopelessly deform'd
By sights of ever more deformity!

With other ministrations thou, O Nature!

Healest thy wandering and distemper'd child:

Thou pourest on him thy soft influences,

15

20

Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets,

Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters,
Till he relent, and can no more endure
To be a jarring and a dissonant thing,
Amid this general dance and minstrelsy;
But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,
His angry spirit heal'd and harmoniz'd

By the benignant touch of Love and Beauty.

1797.

25

30

1 First published in the Lyrical Ballads, 1798, and reprinted in the Lyrical Ballads, 1800. First collected (as a separate poem) in Poems, 1893, p. 85.

I our] my Osorio, Act V, i. 107. 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834. Osorio. 15 steams and vapour] steaming vapours Osorio, steam and vapours 1813, 1828, 1829, 1834.