THE PRINCESS.
107
1851.
"—from the bastion'd walls
Like threaded spiders, one by one, we dropt,
And flying reach'd the frontier."
"—from the bastion'd walls
Like threaded spiders, one by one, we dropt,
And flying reach'd the frontier."
Here is another instance, from the description of Gama, the father of the Princess, in which the edition of 1850 has a reading peculiar to itself:
1850.
"His name was Gama; crack'd and small his voice,
But bland the smile that pucker'd up his cheeks"
"His name was Gama; crack'd and small his voice,
But bland the smile that pucker'd up his cheeks"
1851.
"But bland the smile that like a wrinkling wind
On glassy water drove his cheek in lines."
"But bland the smile that like a wrinkling wind
On glassy water drove his cheek in lines."
The first and second editions contained many very beautiful and forcible lines, which for various reasons the Poet has since omitted. The italicized lines in the following passage, as it originally stood, afford an instance of this:
"'More soluble is this knot,
Like almost all the rest if men were wise,
By gentleness than war. I want her love.
Like almost all the rest if men were wise,
By gentleness than war. I want her love.
