ABSTRACT
Written loosely in pencil on f. 3r of Nbk 12, between ink drafts for I love. What me? aye child, I love thee too (no. 215) and To lay my weary head upon thy lap (no. 216), these three lines were first printed (with the variants recorded in the notes below) in Relics (79) where they are dated 1818 and introduced by the following note: ‘This would seem to have originally formed a portion of “Julian and Maddalo”.’ The source of Garnett's text would appear to be the transcription in Mary Copybk 1; see the notes below. In Huntington Nbks i 139 Forman modified Garnett's hypothesis slightly, grouping the lines with other fragments under the heading ‘Jottings: probably for “Julian and Maddalo”’: see headnote to What think you the dead are? (no. 217). In Relics the three lines are dated 1818, the date assigned to J&M in 1840. It is more likely that they were composed between c. 1 July and 15 August 1819 for reasons set out in the headnote to What think you the dead are? It remains possible, however, that they date from later in the autumn of that year. They were probably not composed before 6 April 1819 when S. described in a letter of that date a scene in St. Peter's square where he witnessed
about 300 fettered criminals at work, hoeing out the weeds that grow between the stones of the pavement. Their legs are heavily ironed, & some are chained two by two … The iron discord of those innumerable chains clanks up into the sonorous air, and produces, contrasted with the musical dashing of the fountains, & the deep azure beauty of the sky & the magnif[ic]ence of the architecture around a conflict of sensations allied to madness. It is the emblem of Italy: moral degradation contrasted with the glory of nature & the arts
(L ii 93–4).