- Do you repent you then

And hopeful featur'd. Ha! by heaven you weep
Tears, human tears
Of a curs'd torturer's office! Why shouldst join -
Tell me, the league of Devils? Confess

confess

The Lie.

GERSA.

Lie! - but begone all ceremonious points

Of honor battailous. I could not turn

My wrath against thee for the orbed world.

LUDOLPH.

Your wrath weak boy? Tremble at mine unless
Retraction follow close upon the heels
Of that late stounding insult: why has my sword
Not done already a sheer judgment on thee?
Despair, or eat thy words. Why, thou wast nigh
Whimpering away my reason: hark ye, Sir,
It is no secret ;

that Erminia

Thou mak'st me boil as hot as thou canst flame!

And in thy teeth I give thee back the lie!
Thou liest! Thou, Auranthe's fool, A wittol

LUDOLPH.

Look! look at this bright sword

There is no part of it to the very hilt

But shall indulge itself about thine heart

Draw but remember thou must cower thy plumes,

As yesterday the Arab made thee stoop

ΠΙΟ

(95-6) In the manuscript, your stands cancelled for that; and there is the rejected reading, Not done its judgment on thee?

(99) The manuscript reads To no secret instead of It is no secret, for which I presume Lord Houghton had other manuscript authority.

(103) The manuscript has fresh instead of last new, so as to make Erminia scan as four full syllables.

GERSA.

Patience not here, I would not spill thy blood
Here underneath this roof where Otho breathes,
Thy father almost mine

Stay, stay, here is one I have half a word with
Well-What ails thee child?

When anxiously

I hasten'd back, your grieving messenger,
I found the stairs all dark, the lamps extinct,
And not a foot or whisper to be heard.
I thought her dead, and on the lowest step
Sat listening; when presently came by
Two muffled up, -one sighing heavily,

The other cursing low, whose voice I knew

120

For the duke Conrad's. Close I follow'd them
Thro' the dark ways they chose to the open air;
And, as I follow'd, heard my lady speak.

Thy life answers the truth!

LUDOLPH.

125

(116) Lord Houghton reads What wouldst say? in place of Good fellow/ The second fragment of the manuscript ends with line 117.

No, no, no. My senses are

Still whole. I have surviv'd. My arm is strong

My appetite sharp-for revenge! I'll no sharer
In my feast; my injury is all my own,

And so is my revenge, my lawful chattels!

Terrier, ferret them out! Burn- burn the witch!
Trace me their footsteps! Away!

135

140

[Exeunt.

Who never shook before. There's moody death
In thy resolved looks - Yes, I could kneel

To pray thee far away. Conrad, go, go-
There! yonder underneath the boughs I see
Our horses!

CONRAD.

Aye, and the man.

AURANTHE.

Yes, he is there.

Go, go no blood, no blood, go gentle Conrad !

Farewell!

CONRAD.

AURANTHE.

5

Farewell, for this Heaven pardon you.

10

[Exit AURANTHE.

The third fragment of the manuscript begins with the opening of the fifth act; and the greater part of the act is preserved. This is so far fortunate, in that Brown attributes this act to the unprompted imagination of Keats. He seems to have taken great pains with this part of the work, as there is evidence indicating that a good deal must have been wholly re-written before the version given among the Literary Remains was arrived at. That version is of course adopted in the main here; but I have accommodated some minor details to the manuscript. (1-2) There is a cancelled reading here

you are

A plague-spot in the midst of miseries.

(8) The manuscript reads Aye and a Man.

(10-12) The word then is cancelled after Farewell, and Conrad's final speech begins thus in the manuscript

If he escape me may I die the death

Of unimagined tortures...

CONRAD.

If he survive one hour, then may I die

In unimagined tortures - or breathe through
A long life in the foulest sink of the world!
He dies 'tis well she do not advertise
The caitiff of the cold steel at his back.

Enter LUDOLPH and PAGE.

LUDOLPH.

Miss'd the way, boy, say not that on your peril!

PAGE.

Indeed, indeed I cannot trace them further.

LUDOLPH.

Must I stop here? Here solitary die?

(18-32) This passage as printed does not stand in the fragment of manuscript at all; but the corresponding draft of this and what is now the opening of the next scene stands crossed out after various minute amendments; and the final version was probably written upon the back of some leaf of the manuscript not now forthcoming. Here is the rejected version:

Ludolph. What here! here solitary must I die

Albert! here is hope!

[Enter ALBERT Wounded.

starts up] Glorious illuminate clamour yet; Thrice villainous Tell me where that detested woman is