stanzas were then numbered 3, 2, i to show that their position was to be
inverted, and later the figure 3 was struck out to mark the cancellation of
' Who will exchange . . . dungeon floor,' a boundary line being drawn around
the two retained stanzas. This gives us the poem in its fullest and best
form B.
Blake's next alteration was to erase the two Fayette stanzas on p. 99 (B
iv, v), leaving only that beginning ' Fayette beheld the King & Queen,' which
he re-transcribed below, B vii. Cancelling the two stanzas above (B vii and
B viii) Blake then added a slightly amended form of the lines beginning
' Who will exchange his own fireside,' and, at the head of the second column,
the stanza ' O who would smile on the wintry seas,' the prefixed numbers
2, I, 3, added later, indicating a new but not very happy revision of the
arrangement of the three last stanzas. These changes are manifestly for the
worse. Blake seems to have lost his grip of the poem, and to have
abandoned any further attempt at completion. In version C I print the
poem as he left it.
Under the title ' Lafayette,' WMR prints the stanzas in the following
order : B i B ii A *iii B iv B v B iii (is/ rdg.) C v B vii B viii. EY (ii. 24-
27 "i give a not very accurate account of the evolution of the poem, omitting one
stanza (A iv) altogether and ignoring or misinterpreting the successive
re-arrangements of lines and stanzas indicated by Blake's marginal numbers.
On p. 98 we reach the point at which Blake reversed the MS. Book and
began writing from the other end. Passages of ' The Everlasting Gospel '
and one epigram are found upside down upon the same page.
[i]
'Let the Brothels of Paris be opened i
With many an alluring dance,
To awake the Physicians thro' the city,'
Said the beautiful Queen of France.
["]
The King awoke on his couch of gold, 5
As soon as he heard these tidings told :
'Arise & come, both fife & drum,
And the [Famine] shall eat both crust & crumb.'
Physicians] Pestilence MS. Book is/ rdg. del, EY. 8 Famine] MS.
Book is/ rdg. del, ; no word substituted. N 2
