Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

She lay on one side, with her hand under her cheek, and her face

towards me; but her hair had fallen partly over her face, so that I

could not see the expression of the whole. What I did see appeared to

me perfectly lovely; more near the face that had been born with me in

my soul, than anything I had seen before in nature or art. The actual

outlines of the rest of the form were so indistinct, that the more than

semi-opacity of the alabaster seemed insufficient to account for

the fact; and I conjectured that a light robe added its obscurity.

Numberless histories passed through my mind of change of substance from

enchantment and other causes, and of imprisonments such as this before

me. I thought of the Prince of the Enchanted City, half marble and half

a man; of Ariel; of Niobe; of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood; of the

bleeding trees; and many other histories. Even my adventure of the

preceding evening with the lady of the beech-tree contributed to arouse

the wild hope, that by some means life might be given to this form also,

and that, breaking from her alabaster tomb, she might glorify my eyes

with her presence.

"For," I argued, "who can tell but this cave may be

the home of Marble, and this, essential Marble--that spirit of marble

which, present throughout, makes it capable of being moulded into any

form? Then if she should awake! But how to awake her? A kiss awoke

the Sleeping Beauty! a kiss cannot reach her through the incrusting

alabaster." I kneeled, however, and kissed the pale coffin; but she

slept on. I bethought me of Orpheus, and the following stones--that

trees should follow his music seemed nothing surprising now. Might not a

song awake this form, that the glory of motion might for a time displace

the loveliness of rest? Sweet sounds can go where kisses may not enter.

I sat and thought. Now, although always delighting in music, I had never

been gifted with the power of song, until I entered the fairy forest. I

had a voice, and I had a true sense of sound; but when I tried to sing,

the one would not content the other, and so I remained silent. This

morning, however, I had found myself, ere I was aware, rejoicing in a

song; but whether it was before or after I had eaten of the fruits

of the forest, I could not satisfy myself. I concluded it was after,

however; and that the increased impulse to sing I now felt, was in part

owing to having drunk of the little well, which shone like a brilliant

eye in a corner of the cave.