To Sir Walter's sweeping indictment Margaret replies as follows. I keep to the text of the MS., noting some trifling changes made for the London Magazine [see page 85]:—
Margaret. All are not false. I knew a youth who died
For grief, because his Love proved so,
And married to[32] another.
I saw him on the wedding day,
For he was present in the church that day,
And in his best apparel too[33],
As one that came to grace the ceremony.
I mark'd him when the ring was given,
His countenance never changed;
And when the priest pronounced the marriage blessing,
He put a silent prayer up for the bride,
[For they stood near who saw his lips move.][34]
He came invited to the marriage-feast
With the bride's friends,
And was the merriest of them all that day;
But they, who knew him best, call'd it feign'd mirth;
And others said,
He wore a smile like death's[35] upon his face.
His presence dash'd all the beholders' mirth,
And he went away in tears.
Simon. What followed then?
Margaret. Oh! then
He did not as neglected suitors use
Affect a life of solitude in shades,
But lived,
In free discourse and sweet society,
Among his friends who knew his gentle nature best.
Yet ever when he smiled,
There was a mystery legible in his face,
That whoso saw him said he was a man
Not long for this world.——
And true it was, for even then
The silent love was feeding at his heart
Of which he died:
Nor ever spake word of reproach,
Only he wish'd in death that his remains[36]
Might find a poor grave in some spot, not far
From his mistress' family vault, "being the place
Where one day Anna should herself be laid."
(So far in the Magazine.)
[Footnote 32: "With" (London Magazine).]
[Footnote 33: "In festive bravery deck'd" (London Magazine).]
[Footnote 34: This line erased in MS. and nothing substituted. In the London Magazine this took its place:—"For so his moving lip interpreted.">[
[Footnote 35: "Death" (London Magazine).]
[Footnote 36: Lamb drew his pen through the four concluding lines, and wrote in the margin "very bad.">[