But, like a steward in honest dealings tried, His riches and his cares he did divide. Fearless he was, and scorning all disguise, start, He spoke with mild yet unaverted eyes; Liberal he was of soul, and frank of heart, If words he found those inmost thoughts to tell; And mortal hate their thousand voices rose, To those, or them, or any, whom life's sphere He knew not. Though his life day after day, Through which his soul, like Vesper's serene beam Piercing the chasms of ever rising clouds, Like reeds which quiver in impetuous floods; And through his sleep, and o'er each waking hour, Thoughts after thoughts, unresting multitudes, Were driven within him by some secret power, Which bade them blaze, and live, and roll afar, Like lights and sounds, from haunted tower to tower, O'er castled mountains borne, when tempest's war Is levied by the night-contending winds, And the pale dalesmen watch with eager ear;— Though such were in his spirit, as the fiends Which wake and feed on everliving woe,― What was this grief, which ne'er in other minds A mirror found,—he knew not—none could know; But on whoe'er might question him he turned The light of his frank eyes, as if to show He knew not of the grief within that burned, The cause of his disquietude; or shook To stir his secret pain without avail; For all who knew and loved him then perceived That there was drawn an adamantine veil Between his heart and mind,-both unrelieved Wrought in his brain and bosom separate strife. Some said that he was mad, others believed That memories of an antenatal life Made this, where now he dwelt, a penal hell: From God's displeasure, like a darkness, fell By mortal fear or supernatural awe : "But through the soul's abyss, like some dark stream Through shattered mines and caverns underground, Rolls, shaking its foundations; and no beam "Of joy may rise, but it is quenched and drowned In the dim whirlpools of this dream obscure. Soon its exhausted waters will have found "A lair of rest beneath thy spirit pure, O Athanase!—in one so good and great, Evil or tumult cannot long endure." So spake they, idly of another's state Men held with one another; nor did he, Another, not himself, he to and fro Questioned and canvassed it with subtlest wit; And none but those who loved him best could know That which he knew not, how it galled and bit His weary mind, this converse vain and cold; For like an eyeless nightmare grief did sit Upon his being; a snake which fold by fold Pressed out the life of life, a clinging fiend Which clenched him if he stirred with deadlier hold; And so his grief remained-let it remain―untold.* * The Author was pursuing a fuller development of the ideal character of Athanase, when it struck him that in an attempt at extreme refinement and analysis, his conceptions might be betrayed into the assuming a morbid character. The reader will judge whether he is a loser or gainer by this difference.-Author's Note. 78 FRAGMENTS OF PRINCE ATHANASE.* PART II. FRAGMENT I. PRINCE ATHANASE had one beloved friend, * The idea Shelley had formed of Prince Athanase was a good deal modelled on Alastor. In the first sketch of the poem he named it Pandemos and Urania. Athanase seeks through the world the one whom he may love. He meets, in the ship in which he is embarked, a lady, who appears to him to embody his ideal of love and beauty. But she proves to be Pandemos, or the earthly and unworthy Venus, who, after disappointing his cherished dreams and hopes, deserts him. Athanase, crushed by sorrow, pines and dies. "On his death-bed, the lady, who can really reply to his soul, comes and kisses his lips."-The Death-bed of Athanase. The poet describes her Her hair was brown, her sphered eyes were brown, Yet when the spirit flashed beneath, there came This slender note is all we have to aid our imagination in shaping out the form of the poem, such as its author imaged. M. S. |