writings I might be suspected of having imitated, either in particular passages or in the tone and the spirit of the whole, would be among the first to vindicate me from the charge, and who, on any striking coincidence, would permit me to address them in this doggerel version of two monkish Latin hexameters : "Tis mine and it is likewise yours;

But an if this will not do ;

Let it be mine, good friend! for I
Am the poorer of the two.

I have only to add that the metre of the Christabel is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from its being founded on a new principle— namely, that of counting in each line the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four. Nevertheless this occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition in the nature of the imagery or passion.

[1816.]

PART I.

'TIS

IS the middle of night by the castle clock,
And the owls have awaken'd the crowing
cock,

And hark, again! the crowing cock,

How drowsily it crew.

Sir Leoline, the Baron rich,

Hath a toothless mastiff bitch ;
From her kennel beneath the rock

*

She maketh answer to the clock,†

Four for the quarters, and twelve for the hour;
Ever and aye, by shine and shower, t
Sixteen short howls, not over loud;
Some say, she sees my lady's shroud.

Is the night chilly and dark?
The night is chilly, but not dark.
The thin gray cloud is spread on high,
It covers but not hides the sky.
The moon is behind, and at the full;
And yet she looks both small and dull.
The night is chill, the cloud is gray :
'Tis a month before the month of May,
And the Spring comes slowly up
this way.

The lovely lady, Christabel,
Whom her father loves so well,

What makes her in the wood so late,
A furlong from the castle gate?
She had dreams all yesternight

Of her own betrothed knight;
[Dreams that made her moan and leap
As on her bed she lay in sleep ;]

* Makes answer-1816.

† Hath a toothless mastiff, which

From her kennel beneath the rock

Maketh answer to the clock-1829.
Moonshine or shower-1816.

And she in the midnight wood will pray
For the weal of her lover that's far away.

She stole along, she nothing spoke,
The sighs she heaved were soft and low,*
And nought was green upon the oak
But moss and rarest misletoe :
She kneels beneath the huge oak tree,
And in silence prayeth she.

The lady sprang up† suddenly,
The lovely lady, Christabel !

It moan'd as near as near can be,
But what it is she cannot tell.-
On the other side it seems to be
Of the huge, broad-breasted, old oak tree.

The night is chill; the forest bare;
Is it the wind that moaneth bleak?
There is not wind enough in the air
To move away the ringlet curl
From the lovely lady's cheek-
There is not wind enough to twirl
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.

* The breezes they were still also-1816.
The breezes they were whispering low-

+ Leaps up-1816.

[S. T. C., MS. Copy, lent to

Mr. Payne Collier in 1811.]

Hush, beating heart of Christabel !
Jesu Maria, shield her well!

She folded her arms beneath her cloak,
And stole to the other side of the oak.
What sees she there?

There she sees a damsel bright,
Drest in a silken robe of white,

*That shadowy in the moonlight shone :
The neck that made that white robe wan,
Her stately neck and arms were bare ;
Her blue-vein'd feet unsandal'd were,
And wildly glitter'd here and there
The gems entangled in her hair.
I guess, 'twas frightful there to see
A lady so richly clad as she-
Beautiful exceedingly!

66

Mary mother, save me now!"

(Said Christabel,) " And who art thou?"

The lady strange made answer meet, And her voice was faint and sweet :"Have pity on my sore distress,

I scarce can speak for weariness:

Stretch forth thy hand, and have no fear !" Said Christabel, "How camest thou here?" And the lady, whose voice was faint and sweet, Did thus pursue her answer meet :

* Her neck, her feet, her arms were bare,
And the jewels disorder'd in her hair.-1816.

"My sire is of a noble line,

And my name is Geraldine :

*

Five warriors seized me yestermorn,

Me, even me, a maid forlorn :

They choked my cries with force and fright,
And tied me on a palfrey white.

The palfrey was as fleet as wind,

And they rode furiously behind.

They spurr'd amain, their steeds were white :
And once we cross'd the shade of night.
As sure as Heaven shall rescue me,
I have no thought what men they be;
Nor do I know how long it is
(For I have lain entranced I wis) †
Since one, the tallest of the five,
Took me from the palfrey's back,
A weary woman, scarce alive.

Some mutter'd words his comrades spoke :
He placed me underneath this oak;
He swore they would return with haste;
Whither they went I cannot tell-

I thought I heard, some minutes past,

Sounds as of a castle bell.

Stretch forth thy hand" (thus ended she),
"And help a wretched maid to flee."

*"Five ruffians" in Mr. Collier's Salisbury MS. This was a copy of Christabel made by a lady of Salisbury, Miss Stoddart, who afterwards became the wife of William Hazlitt.

† (For I have lain in fits, I wis)-1816.