Note 6 — CONCERNING
Reading edition
Avay and avay vent this proud young porter, Avay and avay and avay vent he.
Nothing perhaps could be more ingeniously contrived to express the vastness of Lord Bateman's family mansion than this remarkable passage. The proud young porter had to thread courts, corridors, galleries, and staircases innumerable, before he could penetrate to those exquisite apartments in which Lord Bateman was wont to solace his leisure hours, with the most refined pleasures of his time. We behold him hastening to the presence of his lord: the repetition of the word "avay" causes us to feel the speed with which he hastens—at length he arrives. Does he appear before the chief with indecent haste? Is he described as rushing madly into his presence to impart his message? No! a different atmosphere surrounds that remarkable man. Even this proud young porter is checked in his impetuous career which lasted only
Until he came to Lord Bateman's chamber, Vere he vent down on his bended knee.
Lord Bateman's eye is upon him, and he quails.