bitterness, William Watson possesses a rarely used vein of ironical
wit that immediately recalls Byron, who might himself have written
some of the stanzas in _The Eloping Angels_. Faust requests
Mephisto to procure for them both admission into heaven for
half-an-hour:

To whom Mephisto: "Ah, you underrate
The hazards and the dangers, my good Sir.
Peter is stony as his name; the gate,
Excepting to invited guests, won't stir.
'Tis long since he and I were intimate;
We differed;--but to bygones why refer?
Still, there are windows; if a peep through these
Would serve your turn, we'll start whene'er you please...."

So Faust and his companion entered, by
The window, the abodes where seraphs dwell.
"Already morning quickens in the sky,
And soon will sound the heavenly matin bell;
Our time is short," Mephisto said, "for I
Have an appointment about noon in hell.
Dear, dear! why, heaven has hardly changed one bit
Since the old days before the historic split."

The excellent conventional technique displayed in _The Prince's
Quest_ has characterized nearly every page of Mr. Watson's works.
He is not only content to walk in the ways of traditional poesy, he
glories in it. He has a contempt for heretics and experimenters, which
he has expressed frequently not only in prose, but in verse. It is
natural that he should worship Tennyson; natural (and unfortunate for