106
TENNYSONIANA.
ning "So Lilia sang," were added in the third edition (1850), in which, besides a hundred more or less important additions, alterations, and omissions in the body of the poem, the Prologue and Conclusion were entirely rewritten. All the passages relating to the Prince's "weird seizures" were added in the fourth edition (1851), and the fifteen lines which now stand in the Prologue (p. 3) from
"'O miracle of woman,' said the book,"
to
"So sang the gallant glorious chronicle,"
were added in 1853, in the fifth edition.
The following passage, in which the Prince describes his flight from his father's court, has been very curiously altered and re-altered. We give the readings of three different editions.
1847-1848.
"Down from the bastion'd walls we dropt by night,
And flying reach'd the frontier."
"Down from the bastion'd walls we dropt by night,
And flying reach'd the frontier."
1850.
"Down from the bastion'd wall, suspense by night,
Like threaded spiders from a balk, we dropt,
And flying reach'd the frontier."
"Down from the bastion'd wall, suspense by night,
Like threaded spiders from a balk, we dropt,
And flying reach'd the frontier."
