_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."] _Simon_. A melancholy catastrophe. For my part I shall never die for love, being as I am, too general-contemplative for the narrow passion. I am in some sort a general lover. _Margaret_. In the name of the Boy-god who plays at blind man's buff with the Muses, and cares not whom he catches; what is it you love? And so on until the end of Simon's famous description of the delights of forest life [page 173]. To this _Margaret_ (_smiling_). And afterwards them paint in simile.