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diff --git a/25340.txt b/25340.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..caa16b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/25340.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21112 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2, by George Gordon Byron + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 + +Author: George Gordon Byron + +Editor: Ernest Coleridge + +Release Date: May 5, 2008 [EBook #25340] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON, VOLUME 2 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Cortesi, and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +This etext contains only characters from the Latin-1 set. The original +work contained a few phrases of Greek text. These are represented here +as Beta-code transliterations in brackets, e.g. [Greek: Liakyra]. + +The original text used a few other characters not found in the Latin-1 +set. These have been represented using bracket notation: [=a], [=i] [=e] +represent those letters with a macron. A few instances of superscript +letters are indicated by carets, as in "Concluded, Canto 2^d, Smyrna, +March 28^th^." + +An important feature of this edition is its copious notes, which are of +three types. Notes indexed with a number and a letter, for example +[4.B.], are end-notes provided by Byron or, following Canto IV, by J. C. +Hobhouse. These notes follow each Canto. + +Poems and end-notes have footnotes. Footnotes indexed with lowercase +letters (e.g. [c], [bf]) show variant forms of Byron's text from +manuscripts and other sources. Footnotes indexed with arabic numbers +(e.g. [17], [221]) are informational. In the original, footnotes are +printed at the foot of the page on which they are referenced, and their +indices start over on each page. In this etext, footnotes have been +collected at the end of each section, and have been numbered +consecutively throughout the book. Within each block of footnotes are +numbers in braces, e.g. {321}. These represent the page number on which +the following notes originally appeared. To find a note that was +originally printed on page 27, search for {27}. + +Text in footnotes and end-notes in square brackets is the work of Editor +E. H. Coleridge. Note text not in brackets is by Byron or Hobhouse. In +certain notes on variant text, the editor showed deleted text struck +through with lines. The struck-through words are noted here with braces +and dashes, as in {-deleted words-}. + + + + + + + + The Works + + OF + + LORD BYRON. + + + A NEW, REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION, + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + Poetry. Vol. II. + + EDITED BY + + ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M.A. + + + + LONDON: + JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. + NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. + + 1899. + + + + + PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. + +The text of the present edition of _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ is based +upon a collation of volume i. of the Library Edition, 1855, with the +following MSS.: (i.) the original MS. of the First and Second Cantos, in +Byron's handwriting [MS. M.]; (ii.) a transcript of the First and Second +Cantos, in the handwriting of R. C. Dallas [D.]; (iii.) a transcript of +the Third Canto, in the handwriting of Clara Jane Clairmont [C.]; (iv.) +a collection of "scraps," forming a first draft of the Third Canto, in +Byron's handwriting [MS.]; (v.) a fair copy of the first draft of the +Fourth Canto, together with the MS. of the additional stanzas, in +Byron's handwriting. [MS. M.]; (vi.) a second fair copy of the Fourth +Canto, as completed, in Byron's handwriting [D.]. + +The text of the First and Second Cantos has also been collated with the +text of the First Edition of the First and Second Cantos (quarto, +1812); the text of the Third and of the Fourth Cantos with the texts of +the First Editions of 1816 and 1818 respectively; and the text of the +entire poem with that issued in the collected editions of 1831 and 1832. + +Considerations of space have determined the position and arrangement of +the notes. + +Byron's notes to the First, Second, and Third Cantos, and Hobhouse's +notes to the Fourth Canto are printed, according to precedent, at the +end of each canto. + +Editorial notes are placed in square brackets. Notes illustrative of the +text are printed immediately below the variants. Notes illustrative of +Byron's notes or footnotes are appended to the originals or printed as +footnotes. Byron's own notes to the Fourth Canto are printed as +footnotes to the text. + +Hobhouse's "Historical Notes" are reprinted without addition or comment; +but the numerous and intricate references to classical, historical, and +archaeological authorities have been carefully verified, and in many +instances rewritten. + +In compiling the Introductions, the additional notes, and footnotes, I +have endeavoured to supply the reader with a compendious manual of +reference. With the subject-matter of large portions of the three +distinct poems which make up the five hundred stanzas of _Childe +Harold's Pilgrimage_ every one is more or less familiar, but details +and particulars are out of the immediate reach of even the most +cultivated readers. + +The poem may be dealt with in two ways. It may be regarded as a +repertory or treasury of brilliant passages for selection and quotation; +or it may be read continuously, and with some attention to the style and +message of the author. It is in the belief that _Childe Harold_ should +be read continuously, and that it gains by the closest study, reassuming +its original freshness and splendour, that the text as well as Byron's +own notes have been somewhat minutely annotated. + +In the selection and composition of the notes I have, in addition to +other authorities, consulted and made use of the following editions of +_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:_-- + +i. _Edition Classique_, par James Darmesteter, Docteur-es-lettres. +Paris, 1882. + +ii. Byron's _Childe Harold_, edited, with Introduction and Notes, by H. +F. Tozer, M.A. Oxford, 1885 (Clarendon Press Series). + +iii. _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, edited by the Rev. E.C. Everard Owen, +M.A. London, 1897 (Arnold's British Classics). + +Particular acknowledgments of my indebtedness to these admirable works +will be found throughout the volume. + +I have consulted and derived assistance from Professor Eugen Koelbing's +exhaustive collation of the text of the two first cantos with the Dallas +Transcript in the British Museum (_Zur Textueberlieferung von Byron's +Childe Harold, Cantos I., II. Leipsic_, 1896); and I am indebted to the +same high authority for information with regard to the Seventh Edition +(1814) of the First and Second Cantos. (See _Bemerkungen zu Byron's +Childe Harold, Engl. Stud._, 1896, xxi. 176-186.) + +I have again to record my grateful acknowledgments to Dr. Richard +Garnett, C.B., Dr. A. S. Murray, F.R.S., Mr. R. E. Graves, Mr. E. D. +Butler, F.R.G.S., and other officials of the British Museum, for +constant help and encouragement in the preparation of the notes to +_Childe Harold._ + +I desire to express my thanks to Dr. H. R. Mill, Librarian of the Royal +Geographical Society; Mr. J. C. Baker, F.R.S., Keeper of the Herbarium +and Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Mr. Horatio F. Brown +(author of _Venice, an Historical Sketch_, etc.); Mr. P. A. Daniel, Mr. +Richard Edgcumbe, and others, for valuable information on various points +of doubt and difficulty. + +On behalf of the Publisher, I beg to acknowledge the kindness of his +Grace the Duke of Richmond, in permitting Cosway's miniature of +Charlotte Duchess of Richmond to be reproduced for this volume. + +I have also to thank Mr. Horatio F. Brown for the right to reproduce the +interesting portrait of "Byron at Venice," which is now in his +possession. + + ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE. + +_April_, 1899. + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST AND SECOND CANTOS OF _CHILDE HAROLD_. + +The First Canto of _Childe Harold_ was begun at Janina, in Albania, +October 31, 1809, and the Second Canto was finished at Smyrna, March 28, +1810. The dates were duly recorded on the MS.; but in none of the +letters which Byron wrote to his mother and his friends from the East +does he mention or allude to the composition or existence of such a +work. In one letter, however, to his mother (January 14, 1811, +_Letters_, 1898, i. 308), he informs her that he has MSS. in his +possession which may serve to prolong his memory, if his heirs and +executors "think proper to publish them;" but for himself, he has "done +with authorship." Three months later the achievement of _Hints from +Horace_ and _The Curse of Minerva_ persuaded him to give "authorship" +another trial; and, in a letter written on board the _Volage_ frigate +(June 28, _Letters_, 1898, i. 313), he announces to his literary Mentor, +R. C. Dallas, who had superintended the publication of _English Bards, +and Scotch Reviewers_, that he has "an imitation of the _Ars Poetica_ of +Horace ready for Cawthorne." Byron landed in England on July 2, and on +the 15th Dallas "had the pleasure of shaking hands with him at Reddish's +Hotel, St. James's Street" (_Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, +1824, p. 103). There was a crowd of visitors, says Dallas, and no time +for conversation; but the _Imitation_ was placed in his hands. He took +it home, read it, and was disappointed. Disparagement was out of the +question; but the next morning at breakfast Dallas ventured to express +some surprise that he had written nothing else. An admission or +confession followed that "he had occasionally written short poems, +besides a great many stanzas in Spenser's measure, relative to the +countries he had visited." "They are not," he added, "worth troubling +you with, but you shall have them all with you if you like." "So," says +Dallas, "came I by _Childe Harold_. He took it from a small trunk, with +a number of verses." + +Dallas was "delighted," and on the evening of the same day (July +16)--before, let us hope, and not after, he had consulted his "Ionian +friend," Walter Rodwell Wright (see _Recollections_, p. 151, and _Diary_ +of H.C. Robinson, 1872, i. 17)--he despatched a letter of enthusiastic +approval, which gratified Byron, but did not convince him of the +extraordinary merit of his work, or of its certainty of success. It was, +however, agreed that the MS. should be left with Dallas, that he should +arrange for its publication and hold the copyright. Dallas would have +entrusted the poem to Cawthorne, who had published _English Bards, and +Scotch Reviewers,_ and with whom, as Byron's intermediary, he was in +communication; but Byron objected on the ground that the firm did not +"stand high enough in the trade," and Longmans, who had been offered but +had declined the _English Bards_, were in no case to be approached. An +application to Miller, of Albemarle Street, came to nothing, because +Miller was Lord Elgin's bookseller and publisher (he had just brought +out the _Memorandum on Lord Elgin's Pursuits in Greece_), and _Childe +Harold_ denounced and reviled Lord Elgin. But Murray, of Fleet Street, +who had already expressed a wish to publish for Lord Byron, was willing +to take the matter into consideration. On the first of August Byron lost +his mother, on the third his friend Matthews was drowned in the Cam, and +for some weeks he could devote neither time nor thought to the fortunes +of his poem; but Dallas had bestirred himself, and on the eighteenth was +able to report that he had "seen Murray again," and that Murray was +anxious that Byron's name should appear on the title-page. + +To this request Byron somewhat reluctantly acceded (August 21); and a +few days later (August 25) he informs Dallas that he has sent him +"exordiums, annotations, etc., for the forthcoming quarto," and has +written to Murray, urging him on no account to show the MS. to Juvenal, +that is, Gifford. But Gifford, as a matter of course, had been already +consulted, had read the First Canto, and had advised Murray to publish +the poem. Byron was, or pretended to be, furious; but the solid fact +that Gifford had commended his work acted like a charm, and his fury +subsided. On the fifth of September (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 24, note) he +received from Murray the first proof, and by December 14 "the Pilgrimage +was concluded," and all but the preface had been printed and seen +through the press. + +The original draft of the poem, which Byron took out of "the little +trunk" and gave to Dallas, had undergone considerable alterations and +modifications before this date. Both Dallas and Murray took exception to +certain stanzas which, on personal, or patriotic, or religious +considerations, were provocative and objectionable. They were +apprehensive, not only for the sale of the book, but for the reputation +of its author. Byron fought his ground inch by inch, but finally +assented to a compromise. He was willing to cut out three stanzas on the +Convention of Cintra, which had ceased to be a burning question, and +four more stanzas at the end of the First Canto, which reflected on the +Duke of Wellington, Lord Holland, and other persons of less note. A +stanza on Beckford in the First Canto, and two stanzas in the second on +Lord Elgin, Thomas Hope, and the "Dilettanti crew," were also omitted. +Stanza ix. of the Second Canto, on the immortality of the soul, was +recast, and "sure and certain" hopelessness exchanged for a pious, if +hypothetical, aspiration. But with regard to the general tenor of his +politics and metaphysics, Byron stood firm, and awaited the issue. + +There were additions as well as omissions. The first stanza of the First +Canto, stanzas xliii. and xc., which celebrate the battles of Albuera +and Talavera; the stanzas to the memory of Charles Skinner Matthews, +nos. xci., xcii.; and stanzas ix., xcv., xcvi. of the Second Canto, which +record Byron's grief for the death of an unknown lover or friend, +apparently (letter to Dallas, October 31, 1811) the mysterious Thyrza, +and others (_vide post_, note on the MSS. of the First and Second +Cantos of _Childe Harold_), were composed at Newstead, in the autumn of +1811. _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, quarto, was published on Tuesday, +March 10, 1812--Moore (_Life_, p. 157) implies that the date of issue +was Saturday, February 29; and Dallas (_Recollections_, p. 220) says +that he obtained a copy on Tuesday, March 3 (but see advertisements in +the _Times_ and _Morning Chronicle_ of Thursday, March 5, announcing +future publication, and in the _Courier_ and _Morning Chronicle_ of +Tuesday, March 10, announcing first appearance)--and in three days an +edition of five hundred copies was sold. A second edition, octavo, with +six additional poems (fourteen poems were included in the First +Edition), was issued on April 17; a third on June 27; a fourth, with the +"Addition to the Preface," on September 14; and a fifth on December 5, +1812,--the day on which Murray "acquainted his friends" (see +advertisement in the _Morning Chronicle_) that he had removed from Fleet +Street to No. 50, Albemarle Street. A sixth edition, identical with the +fifth and fourth editions, was issued August 11, 1813; and, on February +1, 1814 (see letter to Murray, February 4, 1814), _Childe Harold_ made a +"seventh appearance." The seventh edition was a new departure +altogether. Not only were nine poems added to the twenty already +published, but a dedication to Lady Charlotte Harley ("Ianthe"), written +in the autumn of 1812, was prefixed to the First Canto, and ten +additional stanzas were inserted towards the end of the Second Canto. +_Childe Harold_, as we have it, differs to that extent from the _Childe +Harold_ which, in a day and a night, made Byron "famous." The dedication +to Ianthe was the outcome of a visit to Eywood, and his devotion to +Ianthe's mother, Lady Oxford; but the new stanzas were probably written +in 1810. In a letter to Dallas, September 7, 1811 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. +28), he writes, "I had projected an additional canto when I was in the +Troad and Constantinople, and if I saw them again, it would go on." This +seems to imply that a beginning had been made. In a poem, a hitherto +unpublished fragment entitled _Il Diavolo Inamorato_ (_vide post_, vol. +iii.), which is dated August 31, 1812, five stanzas and a half, viz. +stanzas lxxiii. lines 5-9, lxxix., lxxx., lxxxi., lxxxii., xxvii. of the +Second Canto of _Childe Harold_ are imbedded; and these form part of +the ten additional stanzas which were first published in the seventh +edition. There is, too, the fragment entitled _The Monk of Athos_, which +was first published (_Life of Lord Byron_, by the Hon. Roden Noel) in +1890, which may have formed part of this projected Third Canto. + +No further alterations were made in the text of the poem; but an +eleventh edition of _Childe Harold_, Cantos I., II., was published in +1819. + +The demerits of _Childe Harold_ lie on the surface; but it is difficult +for the modern reader, familiar with the sight, if not the texture, of +"the purple patches," and unattracted, perhaps demagnetized, by a +personality once fascinating and always "puissant," to appreciate the +actual worth and magnitude of the poem. We are "o'er informed;" and as +with Nature, so with Art, the eye must be couched, and the film of +association removed, before we can see clearly. But there is one +characteristic feature of _Childe Harold_ which association and +familiarity have been powerless to veil or confuse--originality of +design. "By what accident," asks the Quarterly Reviewer (George Agar +Ellis), "has it happened that no other English poet before Lord Byron +has thought fit to employ his talents on a subject so well suited to +their display?" The question can only be answered by the assertion that +it was the accident of genius which inspired the poet with a "new song." +_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ had no progenitors, and, with the exception +of some feeble and forgotten imitations, it has had no descendants. The +materials of the poem; the Spenserian stanza, suggested, perhaps, by +Campbell's _Gertrude of Wyoming_, as well as by older models; the +language, the metaphors, often appropriated and sometimes stolen from +the Bible, from Shakespeare, from the classics; the sentiments and +reflections coeval with reflection and sentiment, wear a familiar hue; +but the poem itself, a pilgrimage to scenes and cities of renown, a song +of travel, a rhythmical diorama, was Byron's own handiwork--not an +inheritance, but a creation. + +But what of the eponymous hero, the sated and melancholy "Childe," with +his attendant page and yeoman, his backward glances on "heartless +parasites," on "laughing dames," on goblets and other properties of "the +monastic dome"? Is Childe Harold Byron masquerading in disguise, or is +he intended to be a fictitious personage, who, half unconsciously, +reveals the author's personality? Byron deals with the question in a +letter to Dallas (October 31): "I by no means intend to identify myself +with _Harold_, but to _deny_ all connection with him. If in parts I may +be thought to have drawn from myself, believe me it is but in parts, and +I shall not own even to that." He adds, with evident sincerity, "I would +not be such a fellow as I have made my hero for all the world." Again, +in the preface, "Harold is the child of imagination." This pronouncement +was not the whole truth; but it is truer than it seems. He was well +aware that Byron had sate for the portrait of Childe Harold. He had +begun by calling his hero Childe Burun, and the few particulars which he +gives of Childe Burun's past were particulars, in the main exact +particulars, of Byron's own history. He had no motive for concealment, +for, so little did he know himself, he imagined that he was not writing +for publication, that he had done with authorship. Even when the mood +had passed, it was the imitation of the _Ars Poetica_, not _Childe +Harold_, which he was eager to publish; and when _Childe Harold_ had +been offered to and accepted by a publisher, he desired and proposed +that it should appear anonymously. He had not as yet come to the pass of +displaying "the pageant of his bleeding heart" before the eyes of the +multitude. But though he shrank from the obvious and inevitable +conclusion that Childe Harold was Byron in disguise, and idly +"disclaimed" all connection, it was true that he had intended to draw a +fictitious character, a being whom he may have feared he might one day +become, but whom he did not recognize as himself. He was not sated, he +was not cheerless, he was not unamiable. He was all a-quiver with youth +and enthusiasm and the joy of great living. He had left behind him +friends whom he knew were not "the flatterers of the festal +hour"--friends whom he returned to mourn and nobly celebrate. Byron was +not Harold, but Harold was an ideal Byron, the creature and avenger of +his pride, which haunted and pursued its presumptuous creator to the +bitter end. + +_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ was reviewed, or rather advertised, by +Dallas, in the _Literary Panorama_ for March, 1812. To the reviewer's +dismay, the article, which appeared before the poem was out, was shown +to Byron, who was paying a short visit to his old friends at Harrow. +Dallas quaked, but "as it proved no bad advertisement," he escaped +censure. "The blunder passed unobserved, eclipsed by the dazzling +brilliancy of the object which had caused it" (_Recollections_, p. 221). + +Of the greater reviews, the _Quarterly_ (No. xiii., March, 1812) was +published on May 12, and the _Edinburgh_ (No. 38, June, 1812) was +published on August 5, 1812. + + + + + NOTES ON THE MSS. OF _CHILDE HAROLD_. + + I. + +The original MS. of the First and Second Cantos of _Childe Harold_, +consisting of ninety-one folios bound up with a single bluish-grey +cover, is in the possession of Mr. Murray.[1] A transcript from this +MS., in the handwriting of R. C. Dallas, with Byron's autograph +corrections, is preserved in the British Museum (Egerton MSS., No. +2027). The first edition (4to) was printed from the transcript as +emended by the author. The "Addition to the Preface" was first published +in the Fourth Edition. + +The following notes in Byron's handwriting are on the outside of the +cover of the original MS.:-- + + "Byron--Joannina in Albania + Begun Oct. 31^st.^ 1809. + Concluded, Canto 2^d, Smyrna, + March 28^th^, 1810. BYRON. + + The marginal remarks pencilled occasionally were made by two + friends who saw the thing in MS. sometime previous to publication. + 1812." + +On the verso of the single bluish-grey cover, the lines, "Dear Object of +Defeated Care," have been inscribed. They are entitled, "Written beneath +the picture of J. U. D." They are dated, "Byron, Athens, 1811." + +The following notes and memoranda have been bound up with the MS.:-- + + "Henry Drury, Harrow. Given me by Lord Byron. Being his original + autograph MS. of the _first_ canto of _Childe Harold_, commenced at + Joannina in Albania, proceeded with at Athens, and completed at + Smyrna." + + "How strange that he did not seem to know that the volume contains + Cantos I., II., and so written by L^d.^ B.!" [_Note by J. Murray._] + + "Sir,--I desire that you will settle any account for _Childe + Harold_ with Mr. R. C. Dallas, to whom I have presented the + copyright. + + Y^r.^ obed^t.^ Serv^t.,^ + BYRON. + To Mr. John Murray, + Bookseller, + 32, Fleet Street, + London, Mar. 17, 1812." + + * * * * * + + "Received, April 1st, 1812, of Mr. John Murray, the sum of one + hundred pounds 15/8, being my entire half-share of the profits of + the 1st Edition of _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ 4to. + + R. C. DALLAS. + + { Mem.: This receipt is for the above sum, + L101:15:8. { in part of five hundred guineas agreed to + { be paid by Mr. Murray for the Copyright + { of _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_." + + +The following poems are appended to the MS. of the First and Second +Cantos of _Childe Harold_:-- + +1. "Written at Mrs. Spencer Smith's request, in her memorandum-book-- + + "'As o'er the cold sepulchral stone.'" + +2. "Stanzas written in passing the Ambracian Gulph, November 14, 1809." + +3. "Written at Athens, January 16th, 1810-- + + "'The spell is broke, the charm is flown.'" + +4. "Stanzas composed October 11, 1809, during the night in a +thunderstorm, when the guides had lost the road to Zitza, in the range +of mountains formerly called Pindus, in Albania." + +On a blank leaf bound up with the MS. at the end of the volume, Byron +wrote-- + + "Dear D^s.,--This is all that was contained in the MS., but the + outside cover has been torn off by the booby of a binder. + Yours ever, + B." + +The volume is bound in smooth green morocco, bordered by a single gilt +line. "MS." in gilt lettering is stamped on the side cover. + + II. + + COLLATION OF FIRST EDITION, QUARTO, 1812, WITH MS. OF THE FIRST CANTO. + +The MS. numbers ninety-one stanzas, the First Edition ninety-three +stanzas. + + OMISSIONS FROM THE MS. + +Stanza vii. "Of all his train there was a henchman page,"-- +Stanza viii. "Him and one yeoman only did he take,"-- +Stanza xxii. "Unhappy Vathek! in an evil hour,"-- +Stanza xxv. "In golden characters right well designed,"-- +Stanza xxvii. "But when Convention sent his handy work,"-- +Stanza xxviii. "Thus unto Heaven appealed the people: Heaven,"-- +Stanza lxxxviii. "There may you read with spectacles on eyes,"-- +Stanza lxxxix. "There may you read--Oh, Phoebus, save Sir John,"-- +Stanza xc. "Yet here of Vulpes mention may be made,"-- + + INSERTIONS IN THE FIRST EDITION. + +Stanza i. "Oh, thou! in Hellas deemed of heavenly birth,"-- +Stanza viii. "Yet oft-times in his maddest mirthful mood,"-- +Stanza ix. "And none did love him!--though to hall and bower,"-- +Stanza xliii. "Oh, Albuera! glorious field of grief!"-- +Stanza lxxxv. "Adieu, fair Cadiz! yea, a long adieu!"-- +Stanza lxxxvi. "Such be the sons of Spain, and strange her Fate,"-- +Stanza lxxxviii. "Flows there a tear of Pity for the dead?"-- +Stanza lxxxix. "Not yet, alas! the dreadful work is done,"-- +Stanza xc. "Not all the blood at Talavera shed,"-- +Stanza xci. "And thou, my friend!--since unavailing woe,"-- +Stanza xcii. "Oh, known the earliest, and esteemed the most,"-- + +The MS. of the Second Canto numbers eighty stanzas; the First Edition +numbers eighty-eight stanzas. + + OMISSIONS FROM THE MS. + +Stanza viii. "Frown not upon me, churlish Priest! that I,"-- +Stanza xiv. "Come, then, ye classic Thieves of each degree,"-- +Stanza xv. "Or will the gentle Dilettanti crew,"-- +Stanza lxiii. "Childe Harold with that Chief held colloquy,"-- + + INSERTIONS IN THE FIRST EDITION. + +Stanza viii. "Yet if, as holiest men have deemed, there be,"-- +Stanza ix. "There, Thou! whose Love and Life together fled,"-- +Stanza xv. "Cold is the heart, fair Greece! that looks on Thee,"-- +Stanza lii. "Oh! where, Dodona! is thine aged Grove?"-- +Stanza lxiii. "Mid many things most new to ear and eye,"-- +Stanza lxxx. "Where'er we tread 'tis haunted, holy ground,"-- +Stanza lxxxiii. "Let such approach this consecrated Land,"-- +Stanza lxxxiv. "For thee, who thus in too protracted song,"-- +Stanza lxxxv. "Thou too art gone, thou loved and lovely one!"-- +Stanza lxxxvi. "Oh! ever loving, lovely, and beloved!"-- +Stanza lxxxvii. "Then must I plunge again into the crowd,"-- +Stanza lxxxviii. "What is the worst of woes that wait on Age?"-- + + ADDITIONS TO THE SEVENTH EDITION, 1814. + +The Second Canto, in the first six editions, numbers eighty-eight +stanzas; in the Seventh Edition the Second Canto numbers ninety-eight +stanzas. + + ADDITIONS. + + The Dedication, To Ianthe. +Stanza xxvii. "More blest the life of godly Eremite,"-- +Stanza lxxvii. "The city won for Allah from the Giaour,"-- +Stanza lxxviii. "Yet mark their mirth, ere Lenten days begin,"-- +Stanza lxxix. "And whose more rife with merriment than thine,"-- +Stanza lxxx. "Loud was the lightsome tumult on the shore,"-- +Stanza lxxxi. "Glanced many a light Caique along the foam,"-- +Stanza lxxxii. "But, midst the throng' in merry masquerade,"-- +Stanza lxxxiii. "This must he feel, the true-born son of Greece,"-- +Stanza lxxxix. "The Sun, the soil--but not the slave, the same,"-- +Stanza xc. "The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow,"-- + + + + + ITINERARY. + +1809. CANTO I. + +July 2. Sail from Falmouth in Lisbon packet. (Stanza xii. Letter 125.) + +July 6. Arrive Lisbon. (Stanzas xvi., xvii. Letter 126.) + Visit Cintra. (Stanzas xviii.-xxvi. Letter 128.) + Visit Mafra. (Stanza xxix.) + +July 17. Leave Lisbon. (Stanza xxviii. Letter 127.) + Ride through Portugal and Spain to Seville. + (Stanzas xxviii.-xlii. Letter 127.) + Visit Albuera. (Stanza xliii.) + +July 21. Arrive Seville. (Stanzas xlv., xlvi. Letters 127, 128.) + +July 25. Leave Seville. + Ride to Cadiz, across the Sierra Morena. (Stanza li.) + Cadiz. (Stanzas lxv.-lxxxiv. Letters 127, 128.) + + CANTO II. + +Aug. 6. Arrive Gibraltar. (Letters 127, 128.) + +Aug. 17. Sail from Gibraltar in Malta packet. (Stanzas xvii.-xxviii.) + Malta. (Stanzas xxix.-xxxv. Letter 130.) + +Sept. 19. Sail from Malta in brig-of-war _Spider_. (Letter 131.) + +Sept. 23. Between Cephalonia and Zante. + +Sept. 26. Anchor off Patras. + +Sept. 27. In the channel between Ithaca and the mainland. + (Stanzas xxxix.-xlii.) + +Sept. 28. Anchor off Prevesa (7 p.m.). (Stanza xlv.) + +Oct. 1. Leave Prevesa, arrive Salakhora (Salagoura). + +Oct. 3. Leave Salakhora, arrive Arta. + +Oct. 4. Leave Arta, arrive han St. Demetre (H. Dhimittrios). + +Oct. 5. Arrive Janina. (Stanza xlvii. Letter 131.) + +Oct. 8. Ride into the country. First day of Ramazan. + +Oct. 11. Leave Janina, arrive Zitza ("Lines written during + a Thunderstorm"). (Stanzas xlviii.-li. Letter 131.) + +Oct. 13. Leave Zitza, arrive Mossiani (Moseri). + +Oct. 14. Leave Mossiani, arrive Delvinaki (Dhelvinaki). (Stanza liv.) + +Oct. 15. Leave Delvinaki, arrive Libokhovo. + +Oct. 17. Leave Libokhovo, arrive Cesarades (Kestourataes). + +Oct. 18. Leave Cesarades, arrive Ereeneed (Irindi). + +Oct. 19. Leave Ereeneed, arrive Tepeleni. (Stanzas lv.-lxi.) + +Oct. 20. Reception by Ali Pacha. (Stanzas lxii.-lxiv.) + +Oct. 23. Leave Tepeleni, arrive Locavo (Lacovon). + +Oct. 24. Leave Locavo, arrive Delvinaki. + +Oct. 25. Leave Delvinaki, arrive Zitza. + +Oct. 26. Leave Zitza, arrive Janina. + +Oct. 31. Byron begins the First Canto of _Childe Harold_. + +Nov. 3. Leave Janina, arrive han St. Demetre. + +Nov. 4. Leave han St. Demetre, arrive Arta. + +Nov. 5. Leave Arta, arrive Salakhora. + +Nov. 7. Leave Salakhora, arrive Prevesa. + +Nov. 8. Sail from Prevesa, anchor off mainland near Parga. + (Stanzas lxvii., lxviii.) + +Nov. 9. Leave Parga, and, returning by land, arrive + Volondorako (Valanidorakhon). (Stanza lxix.) + +Nov. 10. Leave Volondorako, arrive Castrosikia (Kastrosykia). + +Nov. 11. Leave Castrosikia, arrive Prevesa. + +Nov. 13. Sail from Prevesa, anchor off Vonitsa. + +Nov. 14. Sail from Vonitsa, arrive Lutraki (Loutraki). + (Stanzas lxx., lxxii., Song "Tambourgi, Tambourgi;" + stanza written in passing the Ambracian Gulph. Letter 131.) + +Nov. 15. Leave Lutraki, arrive Katuna. + +Nov. 16. Leave Katuna, arrive Makala (? Machalas). + + +1809. + +Nov. 18. Leave Makala, arrive Guria. + +Nov. 19. Leave Guria, arrive AEtolikon. + +Nov. 20. Leave AEtolikon, arrive Mesolonghi. + +Nov. 23. Sail from Mesolonghi, arrive Patras. + +Dec. 4. Leave Patras, sleep at _Han_ on shore. + +Dec. 5. Leave _Han_, arrive Vostitsa (Oegion). + +Dec. 14. Sail from Vostitsa, arrive Larnaki (? Itea). + +Dec. 15. Leave Larnaki (? Itea), arrive Chryso. + +Dec. 16. Visit Delphi, the Pythian Cave, and stream of Castaly. + (Canto I. stanza i.) + +Dec. 17. Leave Chryso, arrive Arakhova (Rhakova). + +Dec. 18. Leave Arakhova, arrive Livadia (Livadhia). + +Dec. 21. Leave Livadia, arrive Mazee (Mazi). + +Dec. 22. Leave Mazee, arrive Thebes. + +Dec. 24. Leave Thebes, arrive Skurta. + +Dec. 25. Leave Skurta, pass Phyle, arrive Athens. + (Stanzas i.-xv., stanza lxxiv.) + +Dec. 30. Byron finishes the First Canto of _Childe Harold_. + +1810. + +Jan. 13. Visit Eleusis. + +Jan. 16. Visit Mendeli (Pentelicus). (Stanza lxxxvii.) + +Jan. 18. Walk round the peninsula of Munychia. + +Jan. 19. Leave Athens, arrive Vari. + +Jan. 20. Leave Vari, arrive Keratea. + +Jan. 23. Visit temple of Athene at Sunium. (Stanza lxxxvi.) + +Jan. 24. Leave Keratea, arrive plain of Marathon. + +Jan. 25. Visit plain of Marathon. (Stanzas lxxxix., xc.) + +Jan. 26. Leave Marathon, arrive Athens. + +Mar. 5. Leave Athens, embark on board the _Pylades_ (Letter 136.) + +Mar. 7. Arrive Smyrna. (Letters 132, 133.) + +Mar. 13. Leave Smyrna, sleep at _Han_, near the river Halesus. + +Mar. 14. Leave _Han_, arrive Aiasaluk (near Ephesus). + +Mar. 15. Visit site of temple of Artemis at Ephesus. (Letter 132.) + +Mar. 16. Leave Ephesus, return to Smyrna. (Letter 132.) + +Mar. 28. Byron finishes the Second Canto of _Childe Harold_. + +April 11. Sail from Smyrna in the _Salsette_ frigate. (Letter 134.) + +April 12. Anchor off Tenedos. + +April 13. Visit ruins of Alexandria Troas. + +April 14. Anchor off Cape Janissary. + +April 16. Byron attempts to swim across the Hellespont, explores + the Troad. (Letters 135, 136.) + +April 30. Visit the springs of Bunarbashi (Bunarbasi). + +May 1. Weigh anchor from off Cape Janissary, anchor eight miles + from Dardanelles. + +May 2. Anchor off Castle Chanak Kalessia (Kale i Sultaniye). + +May 3. Byron and Mr. Ekenhead swim across the Hellespont + (lines "Written after swimming," etc.). + +May 13. Anchor off Venaglio Point, arrive Constantinople. + (Stanzas lxxvii.-lxxxii. Letters 138-145.) + +July 14. Sail from Constantinople in _Salsette_ frigate. + +July 18. Byron returns to Athens. + + + NOTE TO "ITINERARY." + +[For dates and names of towns and villages, see _Travels in Albania, and +other Provinces of Turkey, in 1809 and 1810_, by the Right Hon. Lord +Broughton, G.C.B. [John Cam Hobhouse], two volumes, 1858. The +orthography is based on that of Longmans' _Gazetteer of the World_, +edited by G. G. Chisholm, 1895. The alternative forms are taken from +Heinrich Kiepert's _Carte de l'Epire et de la Thessalie_, Berlin, 1897, +and from Dr. Karl Peucker's _Griechenland_, Wien, 1897.] + + + + + CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + +Preface to Vol. II. of the Poems v + +Introduction to the First and Second Cantos ix + +Notes on the MSS. of the First and Second Cantos xvi + +Itinerary xxi + +Preface to the First and Second Cantos 3 + +To Ianthe 11 + +Canto the First 15 + +Notes 85 + +Canto the Second 97 + +Notes 165 + +Introduction to Canto the Third 211 + +Canto the Third 215 + +Notes 291 + +Introduction to Canto the Fourth 311 + +Original Draft, etc., of Canto the Fourth 316 + +Dedication 321 + +Canto the Fourth 327 + +Historical Notes by J. C. Hobhouse 465 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +1. Ianthe (Lady Charlotte Harley), from an Engraving _Frontispiece_ +by W. Finden, after a Drawing by R. Westall, R.A. + +2. The Duchess of Richmond, from a Miniature by +Richard Cosway, in the Possession of His Grace the +Duke of Richmond and Gordon, K.G. + _To face p._ 228 + +3. Portrait of Lord Byron at Venice, from a Painting +in Oils by Ruckard, in the Possession of Horatio F. +Brown, Esq. 326 + +4. The Horses of St. Mark, from a Photograph by +Alinari 338 + +5. S. Pantaleon, from a Woodcut published at Cremona +in 1493 340 + +6. The Dying Gaul, from the Original in the Museum of +the Capitol 432 + + + + + CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE + + _A ROMAUNT_. + + "L'univers est une espece de livre, dont on n'a lu que la + premiere page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuillete un + assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouve egalement mauvaises. Cet + examen ne m'a point ete infructueux. Je haissais ma patrie. Toutes + les impertinences des peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vecu, + m'ont reconcilie avec elle. Quand je n'aurais tire d'autre + benefice de mes voyages que celui-la, je n'en regretterais ni les + frais ni les fatigues."--_Le Cosmopolite, ou, le Citoyen du + Monde_, par Fougeret de Monbron. Londres, 1753. + + + + + PREFACE [a] + + [TO THE FIRST AND SECOND CANTOS.] + + +The following poem was written, for the most part, amidst the scenes +which it attempts[b] to describe. It was begun in Albania; and the parts +relative to Spain and Portugal were composed from the author's +observations in those countries. Thus much it may be necessary to state +for the correctness of the descriptions. The scenes attempted to be +sketched are in Spain, Portugal, Epirus, Acarnania and Greece. There, +for the present, the poem stops: its reception will determine whether +the author may venture to conduct his readers to the capital of the +East, through Ionia and Phrygia: these two cantos are merely +experimental. + +A fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some +connection to the piece; which, however, makes no pretension to +regularity. It has been suggested to me by friends, on whose opinions I +set a high value,[c]--that in this fictitious character, "Childe +Harold," I may incur the suspicion of having intended some real +personage: this I beg leave, once for all, to disclaim--Harold is the +child of imagination, for the purpose I have stated. + +In some very trivial particulars, and those merely local, there might +be grounds for such a notion;[d] but in the main points, I should hope, +none whatever.[e] + +It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation "Childe,"[2] as +"Childe Waters," "Childe Childers," etc., is used as more consonant with +the old structure of versification which I have adopted. The "Good +Night" in the beginning of the first Canto, was suggested by Lord +Maxwell's "Good Night"[3] in the _Border Minstrelsy_, edited by Mr. +Scott. + +With the different poems[4] which have been published on Spanish +subjects, there may be found some slight coincidence[f] in the first +part, which treats of the Peninsula, but it can only be casual; as, with +the exception of a few concluding stanzas, the whole of the poem was +written in the Levant. + +The stanza of Spenser, according to one of our most successful poets, +admits of every variety. Dr. Beattie makes the following observation:-- + +"Not long ago I began a poem in the style and stanza of Spenser, in +which I propose to give full scope to my inclination, and be either +droll or pathetic, descriptive or sentimental, tender or satirical, as +the humour strikes me; for, if I mistake not, the measure which I have +adopted admits equally of all these kinds of composition."[5] +Strengthened in my opinion by such authority, and by the example of some +in the highest order of Italian poets, I shall make no apology for +attempts at similar variations in the following composition;[g] +satisfied that, if they are unsuccessful, their failure must be in the +execution, rather than in the design sanctioned by the practice of +Ariosto, Thomson, and Beattie. + +London, February, 1812. + + + + ADDITION TO THE PREFACE. + +I have now waited till almost all our periodical journals have +distributed their usual portion of criticism. To the justice of the +generality of their criticisms I have nothing to object; it would ill +become me to quarrel with their very slight degree of censure, when, +perhaps, if they had been less kind they had been more candid. +Returning, therefore, to all and each my best thanks for their +liberality, on one point alone I shall venture an observation. Amongst +the many objections justly urged to the very indifferent character of +the "vagrant Childe" (whom, notwithstanding many hints to the contrary, +I still maintain to be a fictitious personage), it has been stated, +that, besides the anachronism, he is very _unknightly_, as the times of +the Knights were times of Love, Honour, and so forth.[6] Now it so +happens that the good old times, when "l'amour du bon vieux tems, +l'amour antique," flourished, were the most profligate of all possible +centuries. Those who have any doubts on this subject may consult +Sainte-Palaye, _passim_, and more particularly vol. ii. p. 69.[7] The +vows of chivalry were no better kept than any other vows whatsoever; and +the songs of the Troubadours were not more decent, and certainly were +much less refined, than those of Ovid. The "Cours d'Amour, parlemens +d'amour, ou de courtoisie et de gentilesse" had much more of love than +of courtesy or gentleness. See Rolland[8] on the same subject with +Sainte-Palaye. + +Whatever other objection may be urged to that most unamiable personage +Childe Harold, he was so far perfectly knightly in his attributes--"No +waiter, but a knight templar."[9] By the by, I fear that Sir Tristrem +and Sir Lancelot were no better than they should be, although very +poetical personages and true knights, "sans peur," though not "sans +reproche." If the story of the institution of the "Garter" be not a +fable, the knights of that order have for several centuries borne the +badge of a Countess of Salisbury, of indifferent memory. So much for +chivalry. Burke need not have regretted that its days are over, though +Marie-Antoinette was quite as chaste as most of those in whose honour +lances were shivered, and knights unhorsed.[10] + +Before the days of Bayard, and down to those of Sir Joseph Banks[11] +(the most chaste and celebrated of ancient and modern times) few +exceptions will be found to this statement; and I fear a little +investigation will teach us not to regret these monstrous mummeries of +the middle ages. + +I now leave "Childe Harold" to live his day such as he is; it had been +more agreeable, and certainly more easy, to have drawn an amiable +character. It had been easy to varnish over his faults, to make him do +more and express less, but he never was intended as an example, further +than to show, that early perversion of mind and morals leads to satiety +of past pleasures and disappointment in new ones, and that even the +beauties of nature and the stimulus of travel (except ambition, the most +powerful of all excitements) are lost on a soul so constituted, or +rather misdirected. Had I proceeded with the Poem, this character would +have deepened as he drew to the close; for the outline which I once +meant to fill up for him was, with some exceptions, the sketch of a +modern Timon,[12] perhaps a poetical Zeluco.[13] + + + + + CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE + + CANTO THE FIRST. + + + TO IANTHE.[h][14] + + Not in those climes where I have late been straying, + Though Beauty long hath there been matchless deemed, + Not in those visions to the heart displaying + Forms which it sighs but to have only dreamed, + Hath aught like thee in Truth or Fancy seemed: + Nor, having seen thee, shall I vainly seek + To paint those charms which varied as they beamed-- + To such as see thee not my words were weak; + To those who gaze on thee what language could they speak? + + Ah! may'st thou ever be what now thou art, + Nor unbeseem the promise of thy Spring-- + As fair in form, as warm yet pure in heart, + Love's image upon earth without his wing,[15] + And guileless beyond Hope's imagining! + And surely she who now so fondly rears + Thy youth, in thee, thus hourly brightening, + Beholds the Rainbow of her future years, + Before whose heavenly hues all Sorrow disappears. + + Young Peri of the West!--'tis well for me + My years already doubly number thine;[16] + My loveless eye unmoved may gaze on thee, + And safely view thy ripening beauties shine; + Happy, I ne'er shall see them in decline; + Happier, that, while all younger hearts shall bleed, + Mine shall escape the doom thine eyes assign + To those whose admiration shall succeed, + But mixed with pangs to Love's even loveliest hours decreed. + + Oh! let that eye, which, wild as the Gazelle's, + Now brightly bold or beautifully shy, + Wins as it wanders, dazzles where it dwells,[17] + Glance o'er this page, nor to my verse deny + That smile for which my breast might vainly sigh + Could I to thee be ever more than friend: + This much, dear Maid, accord; nor question why + To one so young my strain I would commend, + But bid me with my wreath one matchless Lily blend. + + Such is thy name[18] with this my verse entwined; + And long as kinder eyes a look shall cast[i] + On Harold's page, Ianthe's here enshrined + Shall thus be _first_ beheld, forgotten _last_: + My days once numbered--should this homage past + Attract thy fairy fingers near the Lyre + Of him who hailed thee loveliest, as thou wast-- + Such is the most my Memory may desire; + Though more than Hope can claim, could Friendship less require?[j] + + + + + * * * * * + + CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + A ROMAUNT. + + * * * * * + + + + + CANTO THE FIRST. + + I.[19] + + Oh, thou! in Hellas deemed of heavenly birth,[k] + Muse! formed or fabled at the Minstrel's will! + Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth,[l][20] + Mine dares not call thee from thy sacred Hill: + Yet there I've wandered by thy vaunted rill;[m] + Yes! sighed o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine,[1.B.] + Where, save that feeble fountain, all is still; + Nor mote my shell awake the weary Nine + To grace so plain a tale--this lowly lay of mine. + + II. + + Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth, + Who ne in Virtue's ways did take delight; + But spent his days in riot most uncouth, + And vexed with mirth the drowsy ear of Night. + Ah me! in sooth he was a shameless wight, + Sore given to revel and ungodly glee;[n] + Few earthly things found favour in his sight[o] + Save concubines and carnal companie, + And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.[21] + + III. + + Childe Harold was he hight:[22]--but whence his name[p] + And lineage long, it suits me not to say; + Suffice it, that perchance they were of fame, + And had been glorious in another day: + But one sad losel soils a name for ay,[23] + However mighty in the olden time; + Nor all that heralds rake from coffined clay, + Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme,[q] + Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime. + + IV. + + Childe Harold basked him in the Noontide sun,[r] + Disporting there like any other fly; + Nor deemed before his little day was done + One blast might chill him into misery. + But long ere scarce a third of his passed by, + Worse than Adversity the Childe befell; + He felt the fulness of Satiety: + Then loathed he in his native land to dwell, + Which seemed to him more lone than Eremite's sad cell. + + V. + + For he through Sin's long labyrinth had run,[s] + Nor made atonement when he did amiss, + Had sighed to many though he loved but one,[t][24] + And that loved one, alas! could ne'er be his. + Ah, happy she! to 'scape from him whose kiss + Had been pollution unto aught so chaste; + Who soon had left her charms for vulgar bliss, + And spoiled her goodly lands to gild his waste, + Nor calm domestic peace had ever deigned to taste. + + VI. + + And now Childe Harold was sore sick at heart,[u] + And from his fellow Bacchanals would flee; + 'Tis said, at times the sullen tear would start, + But Pride congealed the drop within his ee:[25] + Apart he stalked in joyless reverie,[v] + And from his native land resolved to go, + And visit scorching climes beyond the sea;[26] + With pleasure drugged, he almost longed for woe, + And e'en for change of scene would seek the shades below. + + VII. + + The Childe departed from his father's hall: + It was a vast and venerable pile; + So old, it seemed only not to fall, + Yet strength was pillared in each massy aisle. + Monastic dome! condemned to uses vile![w] + Where Superstition once had made her den + Now Paphian girls were known to sing and smile;[x] + And monks might deem their time was come agen,[27] + If ancient tales say true, nor wrong these holy men. + + VIII.[y] + + Yet oft-times in his maddest mirthful mood + Strange pangs would flash along Childe Harold's brow,[z] + As if the Memory of some deadly feud + Or disappointed passion lurked below: + But this none knew, nor haply cared to know; + For his was not that open, artless soul + That feels relief by bidding sorrow flow, + Nor sought he friend to counsel or condole, + Whate'er this grief mote be, which he could not control. + + IX.[aa] + + And none did love him!--though to hall and bower[28] + He gathered revellers from far and near, + He knew them flatterers of the festal hour, + The heartless Parasites of present cheer. + Yea! none did love him--not his lemans dear--[ab][29] + But pomp and power alone are Woman's care, + And where these are light Eros finds a feere;[30] + Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare, + And Mammon wins his way where Seraphs might despair. + + X. + + Childe Harold had a mother--not forgot,[ac] + Though parting from that mother he did shun; + A sister whom he loved, but saw her not[31] + Before his weary pilgrimage begun: + If friends he had, he bade adieu to none.[ad] + Yet deem not thence his breast a breast of steel:[ae][32] + Ye, who have known what 'tis to dote upon + A few dear objects, will in sadness feel + Such partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal. + + XI. + + His house, his home, his heritage, his lands,[af] + The laughing dames in whom he did delight,[ag] + Whose large blue eyes, fair locks, and snowy hands, + Might shake the Saintship of an Anchorite, + And long had fed his youthful appetite; + His goblets brimmed with every costly wine, + And all that mote to luxury invite, + Without a sigh he left, to cross the brine, + And traverse Paynim shores, and pass Earth's central line.[ah][33] + + XII. + + The sails were filled, and fair the light winds blew,[ai] + As glad to waft him from his native home; + And fast the white rocks faded from his view, + And soon were lost in circumambient foam: + And then, it may be, of his wish to roam + Repented he, but in his bosom slept[34] + The silent thought, nor from his lips did come + One word of wail, whilst others sate and wept, + And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept. + + XIII. + + But when the Sun was sinking in the sea + He seized his harp, which he at times could string, + And strike, albeit with untaught melody, + When deemed he no strange ear was listening: + And now his fingers o'er it he did fling, + And tuned his farewell in the dim twilight; + While flew the vessel on her snowy wing, + And fleeting shores receded from his sight, + Thus to the elements he poured his last "Good Night."[35] + + + CHILDE HAROLD'S GOOD NIGHT. + + 1. + + "Adieu, adieu! my native shore + Fades o'er the waters blue; + The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, + And shrieks the wild sea-mew. + Yon Sun that sets upon the sea + We follow in his flight; + Farewell awhile to him and thee, + My native Land--Good Night! + + 2. + + "A few short hours and He will rise + To give the Morrow birth; + And I shall hail the main and skies, + But not my mother Earth. + Deserted is my own good Hall, + Its hearth is desolate; + Wild weeds are gathering on the wall; + My Dog howls at the gate. + + 3. + + "Come hither, hither, my little page[36] + Why dost thou weep and wail? + Or dost thou dread the billows' rage, + Or tremble at the gale? + But dash the tear-drop from thine eye; + Our ship is swift and strong: + Our fleetest falcon scarce can fly[aj] + More merrily along."[ak] + + 4. + + "Let winds be shrill, let waves roll high,[al] + I fear not wave nor wind: + Yet marvel not, Sir Childe, that I + Am sorrowful in mind;[37] + For I have from my father gone, + A mother whom I love, + And have no friend, save these alone, + But thee--and One above. + + 5. + + 'My father blessed me fervently, + Yet did not much complain; + But sorely will my mother sigh + Till I come back again.'-- + "Enough, enough, my little lad! + Such tears become thine eye; + If I thy guileless bosom had, + Mine own would not be dry. + + 6. + + "Come hither, hither, my staunch yeoman,[38] + Why dost thou look so pale? + Or dost thou dread a French foeman? + Or shiver at the gale?"-- + 'Deem'st thou I tremble for my life? + Sir Childe, I'm not so weak; + But thinking on an absent wife + Will blanch a faithful cheek. + + 7. + + 'My spouse and boys dwell near thy hall, + Along the bordering Lake, + And when they on their father call, + What answer shall she make?'-- + "Enough, enough, my yeoman good,[am] + Thy grief let none gainsay; + But I, who am of lighter mood, + Will laugh to flee away. + + 8. + + "For who would trust the seeming sighs[an] + Of wife or paramour? + Fresh feeres will dry the bright blue eyes + We late saw streaming o'er. + For pleasures past I do not grieve, + Nor perils gathering near; + My greatest grief is that I leave + No thing that claims a tear.[39] + + 9. + + "And now I'm in the world alone, + Upon the wide, wide sea: + But why should I for others groan, + When none will sigh for me? + Perchance my Dog will whine in vain, + Till fed by stranger hands; + But long ere I come back again, + He'd tear me where he stands.[ao][40] + + 10. + + "With thee, my bark, I'll swiftly go + Athwart the foaming brine; + Nor care what land thou bear'st me to, + So not again to mine. + Welcome, welcome, ye dark-blue waves! + And when you fail my sight, + Welcome, ye deserts, and ye caves! + My native Land--Good Night!" + + XIV. + + On, on the vessel flies, the land is gone, + And winds are rude in Biscay's sleepless bay. + Four days are sped, but with the fifth, anon, + New shores descried make every bosom gay; + And Cintra's mountain[41] greets them on their way, + And Tagus dashing onward to the Deep, + His fabled golden tribute[42] bent to pay; + And soon on board the Lusian pilots leap, + And steer 'twixt fertile shores where yet few rustics reap.[ap] + + XV. + + Oh, Christ! it is a goodly sight to see + What Heaven hath done for this delicious land![aq] + What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree! + What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand! + But man would mar them with an impious hand: + And when the Almighty lifts his fiercest scourge + 'Gainst those who most transgress his high command, + With treble vengeance will his hot shafts urge + Gaul's locust host, and earth from fellest foemen purge[ar] + + XVI. + + What beauties doth Lisboa[43] first unfold![as] + Her image floating on that noble tide, + Which poets vainly pave with sands of gold,[at] + But now whereon a thousand keels did ride + Of mighty strength, since Albion was allied, + And to the Lusians did her aid afford: + A nation swoln with ignorance and pride,[44] + Who lick yet loathe the hand that waves the sword[au] + To save them from the wrath of Gaul's unsparing lord. + + XVII. + + But whoso entereth within this town, + That, sheening far, celestial seems to be, + Disconsolate will wander up and down, + 'Mid many things unsightly to strange ee;[av] + For hut and palace show like filthily:[aw] + The dingy denizens are reared in dirt;[ax] + Ne personage of high or mean degree + Doth care for cleanness of surtout or shirt, + Though shent with Egypt's plague, unkempt, unwashed, unhurt. + + XVIII. + + Poor, paltry slaves! yet born 'midst noblest scenes-- + Why, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men? + Lo! Cintra's glorious Eden intervenes[45] + In variegated maze of mount and glen. + Ah, me! what hand can pencil guide, or pen, + To follow half on which the eye dilates + Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken[ay] + Than those whereof such things the Bard relates, + Who to the awe-struck world unlocked Elysium's gates. + + XIX. + + The horrid crags, by toppling convent crowned,[az] + The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep, + The mountain-moss by scorching skies imbrowned, + The sunken glen, whose sunless shrubs must weep, + The tender azure[46] of the unruffled deep, + The orange tints that gild the greenest bough, + The torrents that from cliff to valley leap,[ba] + The vine on high, the willow branch below, + Mixed in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow. + + XX. + + Then slowly climb the many-winding way, + And frequent turn to linger as you go, + From loftier rocks new loveliness survey, + And rest ye at "Our Lady's house of Woe;"[47][2.B.] + Where frugal monks their little relics show, + And sundry legends to the stranger tell: + Here impious men have punished been, and lo! + Deep in yon cave Honorius long did dwell, + In hope to merit Heaven by making earth a Hell. + + XXI. + + And here and there, as up the crags you spring, + Mark many rude-carved crosses near the path:[48] + Yet deem not these Devotion's offering-- + These are memorials frail of murderous wrath: + For wheresoe'er the shrieking victim hath + Pour'd forth his blood beneath the assassin's knife, + Some hand erects a cross of mouldering lath; + And grove and glen with thousand such are rife + Throughout this purple land, where Law secures not life.[3.B.] + + XXII. + + On sloping mounds, or in the vale beneath,[49] + Are domes where whilome kings did make repair; + But now the wild flowers round them only breathe: + Yet ruined Splendour still is lingering there. + And yonder towers the Prince's palace fair: + There thou too, Vathek! England's wealthiest son,[bb][50] + Once formed thy Paradise, as not aware + When wanton Wealth her mightiest deeds hath done,[bc] + Meek Peace voluptuous lures was ever wont to shun. + + XXIII. + + Here didst thou dwell, here schemes of pleasure plan, + Beneath yon mountain's ever beauteous brow: + But now, as if a thing unblest by Man,[bd] + Thy fairy dwelling is as lone as Thou! + Here giant weeds a passage scarce allow + To Halls deserted, portals gaping wide: + Fresh lessons to the thinking bosom, how + Vain are the pleasaunces on earth supplied;[be] + Swept into wrecks anon by Time's ungentle tide! + + XXIV. + + Behold the hall where chiefs were late convened![4.B.] + Oh! dome displeasing unto British eye! + With diadem hight Foolscap, lo! a Fiend, + A little Fiend that scoffs incessantly, + There sits in parchment robe arrayed, and by[bf] + His side is hung a seal and sable scroll, + Where blazoned glare names known to chivalry,[bg] + And sundry signatures adorn the roll,[bh] + Whereat the Urchin points and laughs with all his soul.[bi] + + XXV. + + Convention is the dwarfish demon styled[51] + That foiled the knights in Marialva's dome: + Of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled, + And turned a nation's shallow joy to gloom. + Here Folly dashed to earth the victor's plume, + And Policy regained what arms had lost: + For chiefs like ours in vain may laurels bloom! + Woe to the conquering, not the conquered host, + Since baffled Triumph droops on Lusitania's coast. + + XXVI. + + And ever since that martial Synod met, + Britannia sickens, Cintra! at thy name; + And folks in office at the mention fret,[bj] + And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shame. + How will Posterity the deed proclaim! + Will not our own and fellow-nations sneer, + To view these champions cheated of their fame, + By foes in fight o'erthrown, yet victors here, + Where Scorn her finger points through many a coming year? + + XXVII. + + So deemed the Childe, as o'er the mountains he + Did take his way in solitary guise: + Sweet was the scene, yet soon he thought to flee, + More restless than the swallow in the skies:[bk] + Though here awhile he learned to moralise, + For Meditation fixed at times on him; + And conscious Reason whispered to despise + His early youth, misspent in maddest whim; + But as he gazed on truth his aching eyes grew dim.[52] + + XXVIII. + + To horse! to horse! he quits, for ever quits[53] + A scene of peace, though soothing to his soul:[bl] + Again he rouses from his moping fits, + But seeks not now the harlot and the bowl.[bm] + Onward he flies, nor fixed as yet the goal + Where he shall rest him on his pilgrimage; + And o'er him many changing scenes must roll + Ere toil his thirst for travel can assuage,[bn] + Or he shall calm his breast, or learn experience sage. + + XXIX. + + Yet Mafra shall one moment claim delay,[5.B.] + Where dwelt of yore the Lusians' luckless queen;[bo][54] + And Church and Court did mingle their array, + And Mass and revel were alternate seen; + Lordlings and freres--ill-sorted fry I ween! + But here the Babylonian Whore hath built + A dome, where flaunts she in such glorious sheen, + That men forget the blood which she hath spilt, + And bow the knee to Pomp that loves to varnish guilt. + + XXX. + + O'er vales that teem with fruits, romantic hills, + (Oh, that such hills upheld a freeborn race!) + Whereon to gaze the eye with joyaunce fills, + Childe Harold wends through many a pleasant place.[bp] + Though sluggards deem it but a foolish chase, + And marvel men should quit their easy chair, + The toilsome way, and long, long league to trace, + Oh! there is sweetness in the mountain air, + And Life, that bloated Ease can never hope to share. + + XXXI. + + More bleak to view the hills at length recede, + And, less luxuriant, smoother vales extend:[bq] + Immense horizon-bounded plains succeed! + Far as the eye discerns, withouten end, + Spain's realms appear whereon her shepherds tend + Flocks, whose rich fleece right well the trader knows-- + Now must the Pastor's arm his _lambs_ defend: + For Spain is compassed by unyielding foes, + And _all_ must shield their _all_, or share Subjection's woes. + + XXXII. + + Where Lusitania and her Sister meet, + Deem ye what bounds the rival realms divide?[br] + Or ere the jealous Queens of Nations greet, + Doth Tayo interpose his mighty tide? + Or dark Sierras rise in craggy pride? + Or fence of art, like China's vasty wall?-- + Ne barrier wall, ne river deep and wide, + Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tall, + Rise like the rocks that part Hispania's land from Gaul:[55] + + XXXIII. + + But these between a silver streamlet[56] glides, + And scarce a name distinguisheth the brook, + Though rival kingdoms press its verdant sides: + Here leans the idle shepherd on his crook, + And vacant on the rippling waves doth look, + That peaceful still 'twixt bitterest foemen flow; + For proud each peasant as the noblest duke: + Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know + 'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low.[6.B.] + + XXXIV. + + But ere the mingling bounds have far been passed,[bs] + Dark Guadiana rolls his power along + In sullen billows, murmuring and vast, + So noted ancient roundelays among.[bt] + Whilome upon his banks did legions throng + Of Moor and Knight, in mailed splendour drest: + Here ceased the swift their race, here sunk the strong; + The Paynim turban and the Christian crest + Mixed on the bleeding stream, by floating hosts oppressed.[57] + + XXXV. + + Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic Land! + Where is that standard[58] which Pelagio bore,[bu] + When Cava's traitor-sire first called the band + That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic gore?[7.B.] + Where are those bloody Banners which of yore + Waved o'er thy sons, victorious to the gale, + And drove at last the spoilers to their shore?[59] + Red gleamed the Cross, and waned the Crescent pale,[bv] + While Afric's echoes thrilled with Moorish matrons' wail. + + XXXVI. + + Teems not each ditty with the glorious tale?[60] + Ah! such, alas! the hero's amplest fate! + When granite moulders and when records fail, + A peasant's plaint prolongs his dubious date.[bw] + Pride! bend thine eye from Heaven to thine estate, + See how the Mighty shrink into a song! + Can Volume, Pillar, Pile preserve thee great? + Or must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue, + When Flattery sleeps with thee, and History does thee wrong? + + XXXVII. + + Awake, ye Sons of Spain! awake! advance! + Lo! Chivalry, your ancient Goddess, cries, + But wields not, as of old, her thirsty lance, + Nor shakes her crimson plumage in the skies: + Now on the smoke of blazing bolts she flies, + And speaks in thunder through yon engine's roar: + In every peal she calls--"Awake! arise!" + Say, is her voice more feeble than of yore, + When her war-song was heard on Andalusia's shore? + + XXXVIII. + + Hark!--heard you not those hoofs of dreadful note? + Sounds not the clang of conflict on the heath? + Saw ye not whom the reeking sabre smote, + Nor saved your brethren ere they sank beneath + Tyrants and Tyrants' slaves?--the fires of Death, + The Bale-fires flash on high:--from rock to rock![bx] + Each volley tells that thousands cease to breathe; + Death rides upon the sulphury Siroc,[61] + Red Battle stamps his foot, and Nations feel the shock. + + XXXIX. + + Lo! where the Giant on the mountain stands, + His blood-red tresses deepening in the Sun, + With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands, + And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon; + Restless it rolls, now fixed, and now anon + Flashing afar,--and at his iron feet + Destruction cowers, to mark what deeds are done; + For on this morn three potent Nations meet, + To shed before his Shrine the blood he deems most sweet. + + XL. + + By Heaven! it is a splendid sight to see[62] + (For one who hath no friend, no brother there) + Their rival scarfs of mixed embroidery,[by] + Their various arms that glitter in the air! + What gallant War-hounds rouse them from their lair, + And gnash their fangs, loud yelling for the prey! + All join the chase, but few the triumph share;[63] + The Grave shall bear the chiefest prize away, + And Havoc scarce for joy can number their array. + + XLI. + + Three hosts combine to offer sacrifice; + Three tongues prefer strange orisons on high; + Three gaudy standards flout the pale blue skies;[64] + The shouts are France, Spain, Albion, Victory! + The Foe, the Victim, and the fond Ally + That fights for all, but ever fights in vain,[65] + Are met--as if at home they could not die-- + To feed the crow on Talavera's plain, + And fertilise the field that each pretends to gain. + + XLII. + + There shall they rot--Ambition's honoured fools![bz] + Yes, Honour decks the turf that wraps their clay![66] + Vain Sophistry! in these behold the tools,[ca] + The broken tools, that Tyrants cast away + By myriads, when they dare to pave their way + With human hearts--to what?--a dream alone. + Can Despots compass aught that hails their sway?[cb] + Or call with truth one span of earth their own, + Save that wherein at last they crumble bone by bone? + + XLIII. + + Oh, Albuera! glorious field of grief![cc][67] + As o'er thy plain the Pilgrim pricked his steed, + Who could foresee thee, in a space so brief, + A scene where mingling foes should boast and bleed![cd] + Peace to the perished! may the warrior's meed[ce] + And tears of triumph their reward prolong![cf] + Till others fall where other chieftains lead + Thy name shall circle round the gaping throng, + And shine in worthless lays, the theme of transient song.[cg][68] + + XLIV. + + Enough of Battle's minions! let them play + Their game of lives, and barter breath for fame: + Fame that will scarce reanimate their clay, + Though thousands fall to deck some single name. + In sooth 'twere sad to thwart their noble aim + Who strike, blest hirelings! for their country's good,[ch] + And die, that living might have proved her shame; + Perished, perchance, in some domestic feud, + Or in a narrower sphere wild Rapine's path pursued.[ci] + + XLV. + + Full swiftly Harold wends his lonely way[cj][69] + Where proud Sevilla triumphs unsubdued:[ck] + Yet is she free? the Spoiler's wished-for prey! + Soon, soon shall Conquest's fiery foot intrude, + Blackening her lovely domes with traces rude. + Inevitable hour! 'Gainst fate to strive + Where Desolation plants her famished brood + Is vain, or Ilion, Tyre might yet survive, + And Virtue vanquish all, and Murder cease to thrive + + XLVI. + + But all unconscious of the coming doom,[70] + The feast, the song, the revel here abounds; + Strange modes of merriment the hours consume, + Nor bleed these patriots with their country's wounds: + Nor here War's clarion, but Love's rebeck[71] sounds;[cl] + Here Folly still his votaries inthralls; + And young-eyed Lewdness walks her midnight rounds:[cm] + Girt with the silent crimes of Capitals, + Still to the last kind Vice clings to the tott'ring walls. + + XLVII. + + Not so the rustic--with his trembling mate + He lurks, nor casts his heavy eye afar, + Lest he should view his vineyard desolate, + Blasted below the dun hot breath of War. + No more beneath soft Eve's consenting star + Fandango twirls his jocund castanet:[72] + Ah, Monarchs! could ye taste the mirth ye mar, + Not in the toils of Glory would ye fret;[cn] + The hoarse dull drum would sleep, and Man be happy yet! + + XLVIII. + + How carols now the lusty muleteer? + Of Love, Romance, Devotion is his lay, + As whilome he was wont the leagues to cheer, + His quick bells wildly jingling on the way? + No! as he speeds, he chants "Viv[=a] el Rey!"[8.B.] + And checks his song to execrate Godoy, + The royal wittol Charles, and curse the day + When first Spain's queen beheld the black-eyed boy, + And gore-faced Treason sprung from her adulterate joy. + + XLIX. + + On yon long level plain, at distance crowned[73] + With crags, whereon those Moorish turrets rest, + Wide-scattered hoof-marks dint the wounded ground; + And, scathed by fire, the greensward's darkened vest + Tells that the foe was Andalusia's guest: + Here was the camp, the watch-flame, and the host, + Here the bold peasant stormed the Dragon's nest; + Still does he mark it with triumphant boast, + And points to yonder cliffs, which oft were won and lost. + + L. + + And whomsoe'er along the path you meet + Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue, + Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet:[9.B.] + Woe to the man that walks in public view + Without of loyalty this token true: + Sharp is the knife, and sudden is the stroke; + And sorely would the Gallic foeman rue, + If subtle poniards, wrapt beneath the cloke, + Could blunt the sabre's edge, or clear the cannon's smoke. + + LI. + + At every turn Morena's dusky height[74] + Sustains aloft the battery's iron load; + And, far as mortal eye can compass sight, + The mountain-howitzer, the broken road, + The bristling palisade, the fosse o'erflowed, + The stationed bands, the never-vacant watch,[co] + The magazine in rocky durance stowed, + The bolstered steed beneath the shed of thatch, + The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match,[10.B.] + + LII. + + Portend the deeds to come:--but he whose nod + Has tumbled feebler despots from their sway, + A moment pauseth ere he lifts the rod; + A little moment deigneth to delay: + Soon will his legions sweep through these their way; + The West must own the Scourger of the world.[cp] + Ah! Spain! how sad will be thy reckoning-day, + When soars Gaul's Vulture, with his wings unfurled,[cq] + And thou shall view thy sons in crowds to Hades hurled. + + LIII. + + And must they fall? the young, the proud, the brave, + To swell one bloated Chiefs unwholesome reign?[75] + No step between submission and a grave? + The rise of Rapine and the fall of Spain? + And doth the Power that man adores ordain + Their doom, nor heed the suppliant's appeal? + Is all that desperate Valour acts in vain? + And Counsel sage, and patriotic Zeal-- + The Veteran's skill--Youth's fire--and Manhood's heart of steel? + + LIV. + + Is it for this the Spanish maid, aroused, + Hangs on the willow her unstrung guitar, + And, all unsexed, the Anlace[76] hath espoused, + Sung the loud song, and dared the deed of war? + And she, whom once the semblance of a scar + Appalled, an owlet's 'larum chilled with dread,[77] + Now views the column-scattering bay'net jar,[cr] + The falchion flash, and o'er the yet warm dead + Stalks with Minerva's step where Mars might quake to tread. + + LV. + + Ye who shall marvel when you hear her tale, + Oh! had you known her in her softer hour, + Marked her black eye that mocks her coal-black veil, + Heard her light, lively tones in Lady's bower, + Seen her long locks that foil the painter's power, + Her fairy form, with more than female grace, + Scarce would you deem that Saragoza's tower + Beheld her smile in Danger's Gorgon face, + Thin the closed ranks, and lead in Glory's fearful chase. + + LVI. + + Her lover sinks--she sheds no ill-timed tear; + Her Chief is slain--she fills his fatal post; + Her fellows flee--she checks their base career; + The Foe retires--she heads the sallying host: + Who can appease like her a lover's ghost? + Who can avenge so well a leader's fall? + What maid retrieve when man's flushed hope is lost? + Who hang so fiercely on the flying Gaul, + Foiled by a woman's hand, before a battered wall?[11.B.] + + LVII. + + Yet are Spain's maids no race of Amazons, + But formed for all the witching arts of love: + Though thus in arms they emulate her sons, + And in the horrid phalanx dare to move, + 'Tis but the tender fierceness of the dove, + Pecking the hand that hovers o'er her mate: + In softness as in firmness far above + Remoter females, famed for sickening prate; + Her mind is nobler sure, her charms perchance as great. + + LVIII. + + The seal Love's dimpling finger hath impressed[cs] + Denotes how soft that chin which bears his touch:[12.B.] + Her lips, whose kisses pout to leave their nest, + Bid man be valiant ere he merit such: + Her glance how wildly beautiful! how much + Hath Phoebus wooed in vain to spoil her cheek, + Which glows yet smoother from his amorous clutch! + Who round the North for paler dames would seek? + How poor their forms appear! how languid, wan, and weak![78] + + LIX. + + Match me, ye climes! which poets love to laud; + Match me, ye harems of the land! where now + I strike my strain, far distant, to applaud + Beauties that ev'n a cynic must avow;[ct] + Match me those Houries, whom ye scarce allow + To taste the gale lest Love should ride the wind, + With Spain's dark-glancing daughters--deign to know, + There your wise Prophet's Paradise we find, + His black-eyed maids of Heaven, angelically kind. + + LX. + + Oh, thou Parnassus! whom I now survey,[79][13.B.] + Not in the phrensy of a dreamer's eye, + Not in the fabled landscape of a lay,[cu] + But soaring snow-clad through thy native sky, + In the wild pomp of mountain-majesty! + What marvel if I thus essay to sing? + The humblest of thy pilgrims passing by + Would gladly woo thine Echoes with his string, + Though from thy heights no more one Muse will wave her wing. + + LXI. + + Oft have I dreamed of Thee! whose glorious name + Who knows not, knows not man's divinest lore: + And now I view thee--'tis, alas, with shame + That I in feeblest accents must adore. + When I recount thy worshippers of yore + I tremble, and can only bend the knee; + Nor raise my voice, nor vainly dare to soar, + But gaze beneath thy cloudy canopy + In silent joy to think at last I look on Thee![80] + + LXII. + + Happier in this than mightiest Bards have been, + Whose Fate to distant homes confined their lot, + Shall I unmoved behold the hallowed scene, + Which others rave of, though they know it not? + Though here no more Apollo haunts his Grot, + And thou, the Muses' seat, art now their grave, + Some gentle Spirit still pervades the spot, + Sighs in the gale, keeps silence in the Cave, + And glides with glassy foot o'er yon melodious wave.[cv] + + LXIII. + + Of thee hereafter.--Ev'n amidst my strain + I turned aside to pay my homage here; + Forgot the land, the sons, the maids of Spain; + Her fate, to every freeborn bosom dear; + And hailed thee, not perchance without a tear. + Now to my theme--but from thy holy haunt + Let me some remnant, some memorial bear;[cw] + Yield me one leaf of Daphne's deathless plant, + Nor let thy votary's hope be deemed an idle vaunt. + + LXIV. + + But ne'er didst thou, fair Mount! when Greece was young, + See round thy giant base a brighter choir,[81] + Nor e'er did Delphi, when her Priestess sung + The Pythian hymn with more than mortal fire, + Behold a train more fitting to inspire + The song of love, than Andalusia's maids, + Nurst in the glowing lap of soft Desire: + Ah! that to these were given such peaceful shades + As Greece can still bestow, though Glory fly her glades. + + LXV. + + Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast + Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days;[14.B.] + But Cadiz, rising on the distant coast,[82] + Calls forth a sweeter, though ignoble praise. + Ah, Vice! how soft are thy voluptuous ways! + While boyish blood is mantling, who can 'scape[cx] + The fascination of thy magic gaze? + A Cherub-Hydra round us dost thou gape, + And mould to every taste thy dear delusive shape. + + LXVI. + + When Paphos fell by Time--accursed Time! + The Queen who conquers all must yield to thee-- + The Pleasures fled, but sought as warm a clime; + And Venus, constant to her native Sea, + To nought else constant, hither deigned to flee, + And fixed her shrine within these walls of white: + Though not to one dome circumscribeth She + Her worship, but, devoted to her rite, + A thousand Altars rise, for ever blazing bright.[83] + + LXVII. + + From morn till night, from night till startled Morn[84] + Peeps blushing on the Revel's laughing crew, + The Song is heard, the rosy Garland worn; + Devices quaint, and Frolics ever new, + Tread on each other's kibes.[85] A long adieu + He bids to sober joy that here sojourns: + Nought interrupts the riot, though in lieu[cy] + Of true devotion monkish incense burns, + And Love and Prayer unite, or rule the hour by turns.[cz] + + LXVIII. + + The Sabbath comes, a day of blessed rest: + What hallows it upon this Christian shore? + Lo! it is sacred to a solemn Feast: + Hark! heard you not the forest-monarch's roar? + Crashing the lance, he snuffs the spouting gore + Of man and steed, o'erthrown beneath his horn; + The thronged arena shakes with shouts for more; + Yells the mad crowd o'er entrails freshly torn, + Nor shrinks the female eye, nor ev'n affects to mourn. + + LXIX.[86] + + The seventh day this--the Jubilee of man! + London! right well thou know'st the day of prayer: + Then thy spruce citizen, washed artisan, + And smug apprentice gulp their weekly air: + Thy coach of hackney, whiskey,[87] one-horse chair, + And humblest gig through sundry suburbs whirl,[da] + To Hampstead, Brentford, Harrow make repair; + Till the tired jade the wheel forgets to hurl, + Provoking envious gibe from each pedestrian churl.[db] + + LXX. + + Some o'er thy Thamis row the ribboned fair,[dc] + Others along the safer turnpike fly; + Some Richmond-hill ascend, some scud to Ware, + And many to the steep of Highgate hie. + Ask ye, Boeotian Shades! the reason why?[15.B.] + 'Tis to the worship of the solemn Horn,[88] + Grasped in the holy hand of Mystery, + In whose dread name both men and maids are sworn, + And consecrate the oath with draught, and dance till morn. + + LXXI. + + All have their fooleries--not alike are thine, + Fair Cadiz, rising o'er the dark blue sea![89] + Soon as the Matin bell proclaimeth nine, + Thy Saint-adorers count the Rosary: + Much is the VIRGIN teased to shrive them free + (Well do I ween the only virgin there) + From crimes as numerous as her beadsmen be; + Then to the crowded circus forth they fare: + Young, old, high, low, at once the same diversion share. + + LXXII. + + The lists are oped, the spacious area cleared,[90] + Thousands on thousands piled are seated round; + Long ere the first loud trumpet's note is heard, + Ne vacant space for lated wight is found: + Here Dons, Grandees, but chiefly Dames abound, + Skilled in the ogle of a roguish eye, + Yet ever well inclined to heal the wound; + None through their cold disdain are doomed to die, + As moon-struck bards complain, by Love's sad archery. + + LXXIII. + + Hushed is the din of tongues--on gallant steeds, + With milk-white crest, gold spur, and light-poised lance, + Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds, + And lowly-bending to the lists advance; + Rich are their scarfs, their chargers featly prance: + If in the dangerous game they shine to-day, + The crowd's loud shout and ladies' lovely glance, + Best prize of better acts! they bear away, + And all that kings or chiefs e'er gain their toils repay. + + LXXIV. + + In costly sheen and gaudy cloak arrayed. + But all afoot, the light-limbed Matadore + Stands in the centre, eager to invade + The lord of lowing herds; but not before + The ground, with cautious tread, is traversed o'er, + Lest aught unseen should lurk to thwart his speed: + His arms a dart, he fights aloof, nor more + Can Man achieve without the friendly steed-- + Alas! too oft condemned for him to bear and bleed. + + LXXV. + + Thrice sounds the Clarion; lo! the signal falls, + The den expands, and Expectation mute + Gapes round the silent circle's peopled walls. + Bounds with one lashing spring the mighty brute, + And, wildly staring, spurns, with sounding foot, + The sand, nor blindly rushes on his foe: + Here, there, he points his threatening front, to suit + His first attack, wide-waving to and fro + His angry tail; red rolls his eye's dilated glow. + + LXXVI. + + Sudden he stops--his eye is fixed--away-- + Away, thou heedless boy! prepare the spear: + Now is thy time, to perish, or display + The skill that yet may check his mad career! + With well-timed croupe[91] the nimble coursers veer; + On foams the Bull, but not unscathed he goes; + Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear: + He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes; + Dart follows dart--lance, lance--loud bellowings speak his woes. + + LXXVII. + + Again he comes; nor dart nor lance avail, + Nor the wild plunging of the tortured horse; + Though Man and Man's avenging arms assail, + Vain are his weapons, vainer is his force. + One gallant steed is stretched a mangled corse; + Another, hideous sight! unseamed appears, + His gory chest unveils life's panting source; + Though death-struck, still his feeble frame he rears; + Staggering, but stemming all, his Lord unharmed he bears. + + LXXVIII. + + Foiled, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last, + Full in the centre stands the Bull at bay, + Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast,[92] + And foes disabled in the brutal fray: + And now the Matadores[93] around him play, + Shake the red cloak, and poise the ready brand: + Once more through all he bursts his thundering way-- + Vain rage! the mantle quits the conynge hand, + Wraps his fierce eye--'tis past--he sinks upon the sand![dd] + + LXXIX. + + Where his vast neck just mingles with the spine, + Sheathed in his form the deadly weapon lies. + He stops--he starts--disdaining to decline: + Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries, + Without a groan, without a struggle dies. + The decorated car appears--on high + The corse is piled--sweet sight for vulgar eyes--[de][94] + Four steeds that spurn the rein, as swift as shy, + Hurl the dark bulk along, scarce seen in dashing by. + + LXXX. + + Such the ungentle sport that oft invites + The Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain. + Nurtured in blood betimes, his heart delights + In vengeance, gloating on another's pain. + What private feuds the troubled village stain! + Though now one phalanxed host should meet the foe, + Enough, alas! in humble homes remain, + To meditate 'gainst friend the secret blow, + For some slight cause of wrath, whence Life's warm stream must flow.[95] + + LXXXI. + + But Jealousy has fled: his bars, his bolts, + His withered Centinel,[96] Duenna sage! + And all whereat the generous soul revolts,[df] + Which the stern dotard deemed he could encage, + Have passed to darkness with the vanished age. + Who late so free as Spanish girls were seen, + (Ere War uprose in his volcanic rage,) + With braided tresses bounding o'er the green, + While on the gay dance shone Night's lover-loving Queen? + + LXXXII. + + Oh! many a time and oft, had Harold loved, + Or dreamed he loved, since Rapture is a dream; + But now his wayward bosom was unmoved, + For not yet had he drunk of Lethe's stream; + And lately had he learned with truth to deem + Love has no gift so grateful as his wings: + How fair, how young, how soft soe'er he seem, + Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs[dg] + Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.[16.B.] + + LXXXIII. + + Yet to the beauteous form he was not blind, + Though now it moved him as it moves the wise; + Not that Philosophy on such a mind + E'er deigned to bend her chastely-awful eyes: + But Passion raves herself[97] to rest, or flies; + And Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb, + Had buried long his hopes, no more to rise:[dh] + Pleasure's palled Victim! life-abhorring Gloom + Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain's unresting doom.[98] + + LXXXIV. + + Still he beheld, nor mingled with the throng; + But viewed them not with misanthropic hate: + Fain would he now have joined the dance, the song; + But who may smile that sinks beneath his fate? + Nought that he saw his sadness could abate: + Yet once he struggled 'gainst the Demon's sway, + And as in Beauty's bower he pensive sate, + Poured forth his unpremeditated lay, + To charms as fair as those that soothed his happier day. + + + TO INEZ.[99] + + 1. + + Nay, smile not at my sullen brow; + Alas! I cannot smile again: + Yet Heaven avert that ever thou + Shouldst weep, and haply weep in vain. + + 2. + + And dost thou ask what secret woe + I bear, corroding Joy and Youth? + And wilt thou vainly seek to know + A pang, ev'n thou must fail to soothe? + + 3. + + It is not love, it is not hate, + Nor low Ambition's honours lost, + That bids me loathe my present state, + And fly from all I prized the most: + + 4. + + It is that weariness which springs + From all I meet, or hear, or see: + To me no pleasure Beauty brings; + Thine eyes have scarce a charm for me. + + 5. + + It is that settled, ceaseless gloom + The fabled Hebrew Wanderer bore; + That will not look beyond the tomb, + But cannot hope for rest before. + + 6. + + What Exile from himself can flee?[100] + To zones though more and more remote,[di] + Still, still pursues, where'er I be, + The blight of Life--the Demon Thought.[101] + + 7. + + Yet others rapt in pleasure seem, + And taste of all that I forsake; + Oh! may they still of transport dream, + And ne'er--at least like me--awake! + + 8. + + Through many a clime 'tis mine to go, + With many a retrospection curst; + And all my solace is to know, + Whate'er betides, I've known the worst. + + 9. + + What is that worst? Nay do not ask-- + In pity from the search forbear: + Smile on--nor venture to unmask + Man's heart, and view the Hell that's there. + + Jan. 25. 1810.--[MS.] + + + LXXXV. + + Adieu, fair Cadiz! yea, a long adieu! + Who may forget how well thy walls have stood? + When all were changing thou alone wert true, + First to be free and last to be subdued;[102] + And if amidst a scene, a shock so rude, + Some native blood was seen thy streets to dye, + A Traitor only fell beneath the feud: [17.B.] + Here all were noble, save Nobility; + None hugged a Conqueror's chain, save fallen Chivalry! + + LXXXVI. + + Such be the sons of Spain, and strange her Fate! + They fight for Freedom who were never free, + A Kingless people for a nerveless state;[103] + Her vassals combat when their Chieftains flee, + True to the veriest slaves of Treachery: + Fond of a land which gave them nought but life, + Pride points the path that leads to Liberty; + Back to the struggle, baffled in the strife, + War, war is still the cry, "War even to the knife!"[18.B.] + + LXXXVII. + + Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know[dj] + Go, read whate'er is writ of bloodiest strife: + Whate'er keen Vengeance urged on foreign foe + Can act, is acting there against man's life: + From flashing scimitar to secret knife, + War mouldeth there each weapon to his need-- + So may he guard the sister and the wife, + So may he make each curst oppressor bleed-- + So may such foes deserve the most remorseless deed! + + LXXXVIII.[104] + + Flows there a tear of Pity for the dead? + Look o'er the ravage of the reeking plain; + Look on the hands with female slaughter red; + Then to the dogs resign the unburied slain, + Then to the vulture let each corse remain, + Albeit unworthy of the prey-bird's maw; + Let their bleached bones, and blood's unbleaching stain, + Long mark the battle-field with hideous awe: + Thus only may our sons conceive the scenes we saw! + + LXXXIX. + + Nor yet, alas! the dreadful work is done; + Fresh legions pour adown the Pyrenees: + It deepens still, the work is scarce begun, + Nor mortal eye the distant end foresees. + Fall'n nations gaze on Spain; if freed, she frees + More than her fell Pizarros once enchained: + Strange retribution! now Columbia's ease + Repairs the wrongs that Quito's sons sustained,[105] + While o'er the parent clime prowls Murder unrestrained. + + XC. + + Not all the blood at Talavera shed, + Not all the marvels of Barossa's fight, + Not Albuera lavish of the dead, + Have won for Spain her well asserted right. + When shall her Olive-Branch be free from blight? + When shall she breathe her from the blushing toil? + How many a doubtful day shall sink in night, + Ere the Frank robber turn him from his spoil, + And Freedom's stranger-tree grow native of the soil![106] + + XCI. + + And thou, my friend!--since unavailing woe[dk][107][19.B.] + Bursts from my heart, and mingles with the strain-- + Had the sword laid thee with the mighty low, + Pride might forbid e'en Friendship to complain: + But thus unlaurelled to descend in vain, + By all forgotten, save the lonely breast, + And mix unbleeding with the boasted slain, + While Glory crowns so many a meaner crest! + What hadst thou done to sink so peacefully to rest? + + XCII. + + Oh, known the earliest, and esteemed the most![dl][108] + Dear to a heart where nought was left so dear![dm] + Though to my hopeless days for ever lost, + In dreams deny me not to see thee here! + And Morn in secret shall renew the tear + Of Consciousness awaking to her woes, + And Fancy hover o'er thy bloodless bier,[dn] + Till my frail frame return to whence it rose, + And mourned and mourner lie united in repose. + + XCIII. + + Here is one fytte[109] of Harold's pilgrimage: + Ye who of him may further seek to know, + Shall find some tidings in a future page, + If he that rhymeth now may scribble moe. + Is this too much? stern Critic! say not so: + Patience! and ye shall hear what he beheld + In other lands, where he was doomed to go: + Lands that contain the monuments of Eld, + Ere Greece and Grecian arts by barbarous hands were quelled. + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "The first and second cantos of _Childe Harold_ were written in +separate portions by the noble author. They were afterwards arranged for +publication; and when thus arranged, the whole was copied. This copy was +placed in Lord Byron's hands, and he made various alterations, +corrections, and large additions. These, together with the notes, are in +his Lordship's own handwriting. The manuscript thus corrected was sent +to the press, and was printed under the direction of Robt. Chas. Dallas, +Esq., to whom Lord Byron had given the copyright of the poem. The MS., +as it came from the printers, was preserved by Mr. Dallas, and is now in +the possession of his son, the Rev. Alex. Dallas." + +[See Dallas Transcript, p. 1. Mus. Brit. Bibl. Egerton, 2027. Press 526. +H. T.] + +[a] {3} _Advertisement to be prefixed y^e Poem_.--[MS. B.M.] + +[b] _Professes to describe_.--[MS. B.M.] + +[c] ----_that in the fictitious character of "Childe Harold" I may incur +the suspicion of having drawn "from myself." This I beg leave once for +all to disclaim. I wanted a character to give some connection to the +poem, and the one adopted suited my purpose as well as any other_.--[MS. +B.M.] + +[d] {4} _Such an idea_.--[MS. B.M.] + +[e] _My readers will observe that where the author speaks in his own +person he assumes a very different tone from that of_ + + "_The cheerless thing, the man without a friend_," + +_at least, till death had deprived him of his nearest connections_. + +_I crave pardon for this Egotism, which proceeds from my wish to discard +any probable imputation of it to the text_.--[MS. B.M.] + +[2] ["In the 13th and 14th centuries the word 'child,' which signifies a +youth of gentle birth, appears to have been applied to a young noble +awaiting knighthood, e.g. in the romances of _Ipomydon_, _Sir Tryamour_, +etc. It is frequently used by our old writers as a title, and is +repeatedly given to Prince Arthur in the _Faerie Queene_"--(_N. Eng. +Dict._, art. "Childe"). + +Byron uses the word in the Spenserian sense, as a title implying youth +and nobility.] + +[3] [John, Lord Maxwell, slew Sir James Johnstone at Achmanhill, April +6, 1608, in revenge for his father's defeat and death at Dryffe Sands, +in 1593. He was forced to flee to France. Hence his "Good Night." +Scott's ballad is taken, with "some slight variations," from a copy in +Glenriddel's MSS.--_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, 1810, i. +290-300.] + +[4] [Amongst others, _The Battle of Talavera_, by John Wilson Croker, +appeared in 1809; _The Vision of Don Roderick_, by Walter Scott, in +1811; and _Portugal, a Poem_, by Lord George Grenville, in 1812.] + +[f] _Some casual coincidence_.--[MS. B.M.] + +[5] {5} Beattie's Letters. [See letter to Dr. Blacklock, September 22, +1766 (_Life of Beattie_, by Sir W. Forbes, 1806, i. 89).] + +[g] _Satisfied that their failure_.--[MS. B.M.] + +[6] [See _Quarterly Review_, March, 1812, vol. vii. p. 191: "The moral +code of chivalry was not, we admit, quite pure and spotless, but its +laxity on some points was redeemed by the noble spirit of gallantry +which courted personal danger in the defence of the sovereign ... of +women because they are often lovely, and always helpless; and of the +priesthood.... Now, _Childe Harold_, if not absolutely craven and +recreant, is at least a mortal enemy to all martial exertion, a scoffer +at the fair sex, and, apparently, disposed to consider all religions as +different modes of superstition." The tone of the review is severer than +the Preface indicates. Nor does Byron attempt to reply to the main issue +of the indictment, an unknightly aversion from war, but rides off on a +minor point, the licentiousness of the Troubadours.] + +[7] {6} [See _Memoires sur l'Ancienne Chevalerie_, par M. De la Curne de +Sainte-Palaye, Paris, 1781: "Qu'on lise dans l'auteur du roman de Gerard +de Roussillon, en Provencal, les details tres-circonstancies dans +lesquels il entre sur la reception faite par le Comte Gerard a +l'ambassadeur du roi Charles; on y verra des particularites singulieres +qui donnent une etrange idee des moeurs et de la politesse de ces +siecles aussi corrompus qu'ignorans" (ii. 69). See, too, _ibid., ante_, +p. 65: "Si l'on juge des moeurs d'un siecle par les ecrits qui nous en +sont restes, nous serons en droit de juger que nos ancetres observerent +mal les loix que leur prescrivirent la decence et l'honnetete."] + +[8] [See _Recherches sur les Prerogatives des Dames chez les Gaulois sur +les Cours d'Amours_, par M. le President Rolland [d'Erceville], de +l'Academie d'Amiens. Paris, 1787, pp. 18-30, 117, etc.] + +[9] [The phrase occurs in _The Rovers, or the Double Arrangement_ +(_Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin_, 1854, p. 199), by J. Hookham Frere, a +skit on the "moral inculcated by the German dramas--the reciprocal +duties of one or more husbands to one or more wives." The waiter at the +Golden Eagle at Weimar is a warrior in disguise, and rescues the hero, +who is imprisoned in the abbey of Quedlinburgh.] + +[10] {7} ["But the age of chivalry is gone--the unbought grace of life, +the cheap defence of nations," etc. (_Reflections on the Revolution in +France_, by the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, M.P., 1868, p. 89).] + +[11] [Passages relating to the Queen of Tahiti, in _Hawkesworth's +Voyages, drawn from journals kept by the several commanders, and from +the papers of Joseph Banks, Esq._ (1773, ii. 106), gave occasion to +malicious and humorous comment. (See _An Epistle from Mr. Banks, +Voyager, Monster-hunter, and Amoroso, To Oberea, Queen of Otaheite_, by +A.B.C.) The lampoon, "printed at Batavia for Jacobus Opani" (the Queen's +Tahitian for "Banks"), was published in 1773. The authorship is assigned +to Major John Scott Waring (1747-1819).] + +[12] {8} [Compare _Childish Recollections: Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 84, +_var_. i.-- + + "Weary of love, of life, devour'd with spleen, + I rest a perfect Timon, not nineteen."] + +[13] [John Moore (1729-1802), the father of the celebrated Sir John +Moore, published _Zeluco. Various views of Human Nature, taken from Life +and Manners, Foreign and Domestic_, in 1789. Zeluco was an unmitigated +scoundrel, who led an adventurous life; but the prolix narrative of his +villanies does not recall _Childe Harold_. There is, perhaps, some +resemblance between Zeluco's unbridled childhood and youth, due to the +indulgence of a doting mother, and Byron's early emancipation from +discipline and control.] + +[h] {11} _To the Lady Charlotte Harley_.--[MS. M.] + +[14] [The Lady Charlotte Mary Harley, second daughter of Edward, fifth +Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, was born 1801. She married, in 1823, +Captain Anthony Bacon (died July 2, 1864), who had followed "young, +gallant Howard" (see _Childe Harold_, III. xxix.) in his last fatal +charge at Waterloo, and who, subsequently, during the progress of the +civil war between Dom Miguel and Maria da Gloria of Portugal (1828-33), +held command as colonel of cavalry in the Queen's forces, and finally as +a general officer. Lady Charlotte Bacon died May 9, 1880. Byron's +acquaintance with her probably dated from his visit to Lord and Lady +Oxford, at Eywood House, in Herefordshire, in October-November, 1812. +Her portrait, by Westall, which was painted at his request, is included +among the illustrations in Finden's _Illustrations of the Life and Works +of Lord Byron_, ii. See _Gent. Mag_., N.S., vol. xvii. (1864) p. 261; +and an obituary notice in the Times, May 10, 1880, See, too, letter to +Murray, March 29, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 200).] + +[15] {12} [The reference is to the French proverb, _L'Amitie est l'Amour +sans Ailes_, which suggested the last line (line 412) of _Childish +Recollections_, "And Love, without his pinion, smil'd on youth," and +forms the title of one of the early poems, first published in 1832 +(_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 106, 220).] + +[16] [In 1814, when the dedication was published, Byron completed his +twenty-sixth year, Ianthe her thirteenth.] + +[17] {13} [For the modulation of the verse, compare Pope's lines-- + + "Correctly cold, and regularly low." + _Essay on Criticism_, line 240. + + "Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes." + _Ibid_., line 198.] + +[18] [Ianthe ("Flower o' the Narcissus") was the name of a Cretan girl +wedded to one Iphis (_vid_. Ovid., _Metamorph_., ix. 714). Perhaps +Byron's dedication was responsible for the Ianthe of _Queen Mab_ (1812, +1813), who in turn bestowed her name on Shelley's eldest daughter (Mrs. +Esdaile, d. 1876), who was born June 28, 1813.] + +[i] + _And long as kinder eyes shall deign to cast_ + _A look along my page, that name enshrined_ + _Shalt thou be_ first _beheld, forgotten_ last.--[MS.] + +[j] {13} _Though more than Hope can claim--Ah! less could I +require?_--[MS.] + +[19] {15} [The MS. does not open with stanza i., which was written after +Byron returned to England, and appears first in the Dallas Transcript +(see letter to Murray, September 5, 1811). Byron and Hobhouse visited +Delphi, December 16, 1809, when the First Canto (see stanza lx.) was +approaching completion (_Travels in Albania_, by Lord Broughton, 1858, +i. 199).] + +[k] _Oh, thou of yore esteemed_----.--[D.] + +[l] _Since later lyres are only strung on earth_.--[D.] + +[20] [For the substitution of the text for _vars_. ii., iii., see letter +to Dallas, September 21, 1811 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 43).] + +[m] + ----_thy glorious rill_.--[D.] + or, --_wooed thee, drank the vaunted rill_.--[D.] + +[n] {16} _Sore given to revel and to Pageantry_.--[MS. erased.] + +[o] + _He chused the bad, and did the good affright_ + _With concubines_----.--[MS.] + _No earthly things_----.--[D.] + +[21] ["We [i.e. Byron and C.S. Matthews] went down [April, 1809] to +Newstead together, where I had got a famous cellar, and _Monks'_ dresses +from a masquerade warehouse. We were a company of some seven or eight, +... and used to sit up late in our friars' dresses, drinking burgundy, +claret, champagne, and what not, out of the _skull-cup_, and all sorts +of glasses, and buffooning all round the house, in our conventual +garments" (letter to Murray, November 19, 1820. See, too, the account of +this visit which Matthews wrote to his sister in a letter dated May 22, +1809 [_Letters_, 1898, i. 150-160, and 153, note]). Moore (_Life_, p. +86) and other apologists are anxious to point out that the Newstead +"wassailers" were, on the whole, a harmless crew of rollicking +schoolboys "--were, indeed, of habits and tastes too intellectual for +mere vulgar debauchery." And as to the "alleged 'harems,'" the "Paphian +girls," there were only one or two, says Moore, "among the ordinary +menials." But, even so, the "wassailers" were not impeccable, and it is +best to leave the story, fact or fable, to speak for itself.] + +[22] {17} ["Hight" is the preterite of the passive "hote," and means +"was called." "Childe Harold he hight" would be more correct. Compare +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, bk. i. c. ix. 14. 9, "She Queene of Faeries +hight." But "hight" was occasionally used with the common verbs "is," +"was." Compare _The Ordinary_, 1651, act iii. sc. 1-- + + "... the goblin + That is _hight_ Good-fellow Robin." + Dodsley (ed. Hazlitt), xii. 253.] + +[p] _Childe Burun_------.--[MS.] + +[23] [William, fifth Lord Byron (the poet's grand-uncle), mortally +wounded his kinsman, Mr. Chaworth, in a duel which was fought, without +seconds or witnesses, at the Star and Garter Tavern, Pall Mall, January +29, 1765. He was convicted of wilful murder by the coroner's jury, and +of manslaughter by the House of Lords; but, pleading his privilege as a +peer, he was set at liberty. He was known to the country-side as the +"wicked Lord," and many tales, true and apocryphal, were told to his +discredit (_Life of Lord Byron_, by Karl Elze, 1872, pp. 5, 6).] + +[q] ------_nor honied glose of rhyme_.--[D. pencil.] + +[r] _Childe Burun_------.--[MS.] + +[s] {18} _For he had on the course too swiftly run_.--[MS. erased.] + +[t] _Had courted many_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[24] [Mary Chaworth. (Compare "Stanzas to a Lady, on leaving England," +passim: _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 285.)] + +[u] ----_Childe Burun_----.--[MS.] + +[25] {19} [Compare _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_, Canto I, +stanza ix. 9-- + + "And burning pride and high disdain + Forbade the rising tears to flow."] + +[v] + _And strait he fell into a reverie_.--[MS.] + ----_sullen reverie_.--[D.] + +[26] [_Vide post_, stanza xi. line 9, note.] + +[w] _Strange fate directed still to uses vile_.--[MS. erased.] + +[x] + _Now Paphian jades were heard to sing and smile_.--[MS. erased.] + _Now Paphian nymphs_----.--[D. pencil.] + +[27] [The brass eagle which was fished out of the lake at Newstead in +the time of Byron's predecessor contained, among other documents, "a +grant of full pardon from Henry V. of every possible crime ... which the +monks might have committed previous to the 8th of December preceding +(_Murdris_, per ipsos _post decimum nonum Diem Novembris_, ultimo +praeteritum perpetratis, si quae fuerint, _exceptis_)" (_Life_, p. 2, +note). The monks were a constant source of delight to the Newstead +"revellers." Francis Hodgson, in his "Lines on a Ruined Abbey in a +Romantic Country" (_Poems_, 1809), does not spare them-- + + "'Hail, venerable pile!' whose ivied walls + Proclaim the desolating lapse of years: + And hail, ye hills, and murmuring waterfalls, + Where yet her head the ruin'd Abbey rears. + No longer now the matin tolling bell, + Re-echoing loud among the woody glade, + Calls the fat abbot from his drowsy cell, + And warns the maid to flee, if yet a maid. + No longer now the festive bowl goes round, + Nor monks get drunk in honour of their God."] + +[y] {20} The original MS. inserts two stanzas which were rejected during +the composition of the poem:-- + + _Of all his train there was a henchman page,_ + _peasant_ _served_ + _A {-dark eyed-} boy, who {-loved-} his master well;_ + _And often would his pranksome prate engage_ + _Harold's_ + _Childe {-Burun's-} ear, when his proud heart did swell_ + _With sable thoughts that he disdained to tell_. + _Alwin_ + _Then would he smile on him, as {-Rupert-} smiled,_ + _{-Robin-}_ + _When aught that from his young lips archly fell_ + _Harold's_ + _The gloomy film from {-Burun's-} eye beguiled;_ + _And pleased the Childe appeared nor ere the boy reviled_.} + _And pleased for a glimpse appeared the woeful Childe_. } + + _Him and one yeoman only did he take_ + _To travel Eastward to a far countree;_ + _And though the boy was grieved to leave the lake_ + _On whose firm banks he grew from Infancy,_ + _Eftsoons his little heart beat merrily_ + _With hope of foreign nations to behold,_ + _And many things right marvellous to see,_ + _vaunting_ + _Of which our {-lying-} voyagers oft have told,_ + _{-From Mandevilles' and scribes of similar mold.-}_ } + or, _In tomes pricked out with prints to monied ... sold_} + _In many a tome as true as Mandeville's of old_. } + +[z] ----_Childe Burun_----.--[MS.] + +[aa] {21} Stanza ix. was the result of much elaboration. The first +draft, which was pasted over the rejected stanzas (_vide supra_, p. 20, +_var_. i.), retains the numerous erasures and emendations. It ran as +follows:-- + + _And none did love him though to hall and bower_ + _{-few could-}_ + _Haughty he gathered revellers from far and near_ + _{-An evil smile just bordering on a sneer-}_ + _He knew them flatterers of the festal hour_ + _{-Curled on his lip-}_ + _The heartless Parasites of present cheer,_ + _As if_ + _{-And deemed no mortal wight his peer-}_ + _Yea! none did love him not his lemmans dear_ + _{-To gentle Dames still less he could be dear-}_ + _{-Were aught-} But pomp and power alone are Woman's care_ + _{-But-} And where these are let no Possessor fear_ + _{-The sex are slaves-} Maidens like moths are ever caught by glare_ + _{-Love shrinks outshone by Mammons dazzling-} glare_ + _And Mammon_ + _{-That Demon-} wins his_ [MS. torn] _where Angels might despair._ + +[28] [The "trivial particular" which suggested to Byron the +friendlessness and desolation of the Childe may be explained by the +refusal of an old schoolfellow to spend the last day with him before he +set out on his travels. The friend, possibly Lord Delawarr, excused +himself on the plea that "he was engaged with his mother and some ladies +to go shopping." "Friendship!" he exclaimed to Dallas. "I do not believe +I shall leave behind me, yourself and family excepted, and, perhaps, my +mother, a single being who will care what becomes of me" (Dallas, +_Recollections, etc._, pp. 63, 64). Byron, to quote Charles Lamb's +apology for Coleridge, was "full of fun," and must not be taken too +seriously. Doubtless he was piqued at the moment, and afterwards, to +heighten the tragedy of Childe Harold's exile, expanded a single act of +negligence into general abandonment and desertion at the hour of trial.] + +[ab] {22} _No! none did love him_----.--[D. pencil.] + +[29] The word "lemman" is used by Chaucer in both senses, but more +frequently in the feminine.--[_MS. M._] + +[30] "Feere," a consort or mate. [Compare the line, "What when lords go +with their _feires_, she said," in "The Ancient Fragment of the Marriage +of Sir Gawaine" (Percy's _Reliques_, 1812, iii. 416), and the lines-- + + "As with the woful _fere_, + And father of that chaste dishonoured dame." + _Titus Andronicus_, act iv. sc. 1. + +Compare, too, "That woman and her fleshless Pheere" (_The Rime of the +Ancyent Marinere_, line 180 of the reprint from the first version in the +_Lyrical Ballads_, 1798; _Poems_ by S. T. Coleridge, 1893, App. E, p. +515).] + +[ac] {23} _Childe Burun_----.--[MS.] + +[31] [In a suppressed stanza of "Childe Harold's Good Night" (see p. 27, +_var._ ii.), the Childe complains that he has not seen his sister for +"three long years and moe." Before her marriage, in 1807, Augusta Byron +divided her time between her mother's children, Lady Chichester and the +Duke of Leeds; her cousin, Lord Carlisle; and General and Mrs. Harcourt. +After her marriage to Colonel Leigh, she lived at Newmarket. From the +end of 1805 Byron corresponded with her more or less regularly, but no +meeting took place. In a letter to his sister, dated November 30, 1808 +(_Letters_, 1898, i. 203), he writes, "I saw Col. Leigh at Brighton in +July, where I should have been glad to have seen you; I only know your +husband by sight." Colonel Leigh was his first cousin, as well as his +half-sister's husband, and the incidental remark that "he only knew him +by sight" affords striking proof that his relations and connections were +at no pains to seek him out, but left him to fight his own way to social +recognition and distinction. (For particulars of "the Hon. Augusta +Byron," see _Letters_, 1898, i. 18, note.)] + +[ad] _Of friends he had but few, embracing none_.--[MS. erased.] + +[ae] _Yet deem him not from this with breast of steel_.--[MS. D.] + +[32] [Compare Campbell's _Gertrude of Wyoming_, ii. 8. 1--"Yet deem not +Gertrude sighed for foreign joy."] + +[af] {24} _His house, his home, his vassals, and his lands_.--[MS. D.] + +[ag] + + _The Dalilahs_----.--[MS. D.] + _His damsels all_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[ah] ----_where brighter sunbeams shine_.--[MS. erased.] + +[33] "Your objection to the expression 'central line' I can only meet by +saying that, before Childe Harold left England, it was his full +intention to traverse Persia, and return by India, which he could not +have done without passing the equinoctial" (letter to Dallas, September +7, 1811; see, too, letter to his mother, October 7, 1808: _Letters_, +1898, i. 193; ii. 27). + +[ai] _The sails are filled_----.--[MS.] + +[34] He experienced no such emotion on the resumption of his Pilgrimage +in 1816. With reference to the confession, he writes (Canto III. stanza +i. lines 6-9)-- + + "... I depart, + Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by, + When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye." + +[35] {25} [See Lord Maxwell's "Good Night" in Scott's _Minstrelsy of the +Scottish Border_ (_Poetical Works_, ii. 141, ed. 1834): "Adieu, madam, +my mother dear," etc. [MS.]. Compare, too, Armstrong's "Good Night" +_ibid._-- + + "This night is my departing night, + For here nae langer mun I stay; + There's neither friend nor foe of mine, + But wishes me away. + What I have done thro' lack of will, + I never, never can recall; + I hope ye're a' my friends as yet. + Good night, and joy be with you all."] + +[36] {26} [Robert Rushton, the son of one of the Newstead tenants. +"Robert I take with me; I like him, because, like myself, he seems a +friendless animal. Tell Mr. Rushton his son is well, and doing well" +(letter to Mrs. Byron, Falmouth, June 22, 1809: _Letters_, 1898, i. +224).] + +[aj] {27} + + _Our best gos-hawk can hardly fly_ + _So merrily along_.--[MS.] + _Our best greyhound can hardly fly_.--[D. erased.] + +[ak] Here follows in the MS. the following erased stanza:-- + + _My mother is a high-born dame_, + _And much misliketh me;_ + _She saith my riot bringeth shame_ + _On all my ancestry_. + _I had a sister once I ween_, + _Whose tears perhaps will flow;_ + _But her fair face I have not seen_ + _For three long years and moe._ + +[al] + _Oh master dear I do not cry_ + _From fear of wave or wind_.--[MS.] + +[37] [Robert was sent back from Gibraltar under the care of Joe Murray +(see letter to Mr. Rushton, August 15, 1809: _Letters_, 1898, i. 242).] + +[38] {28} [William Fletcher, Byron's valet. He was anything but +"staunch" in the sense of the song (see Byron's letters of November 12, +1809, and June 28, 1810) (_Letters_, 1898, i. 246, 279); but for twenty +years he remained a loyal and faithful servant, helped to nurse his +master in his last illness, and brought his remains back to England.] + +[am] {29} + _Enough, enough, my yeoman good_. + _All this is well to say;_ + _But if I in thy sandals stood_ + _I'd laugh to get away_.--[MS. erased, D.] + +[an] + _For who would trust a paramour_ + _Or e'en a wedded feere_-- + _Though her blue eyes were streaming o'er_, + _And torn her yellow hair?_--[MS.] + +[39] ["I leave England without regret--I shall return to it without +pleasure. I am like Adam, the first convict sentenced to transportation, +but I have no Eve, and have eaten no apple but what was sour as a crab" +(letter to F. Hodgson, Falmouth, June 25, 1809, _Letters_, 1898, i. +230). If this _Confessio Amantis_, with which compare the "Stanzas to a +Lady, on leaving England," is to be accepted as _bona fide_, he leaves +England heart-whole, but for the bitter memory of Mary Chaworth.] + +[ao] {30} Here follows in the MS., erased:-- + + _Methinks it would my bosom glad_, + _To change my proud estate_, + _And be again a laughing lad_ + _With one beloved playmate_. + _Since youth I scarce have pass'd an hour_ + _Without disgust or pain_, + _Except sometimes in Lady's bower_, + _Or when the bowl I drain_. + +[40] ["I do not mean to exchange the ninth verse of the 'Good Night.' I +have no reason to suppose my dog better than his brother brutes, +mankind; and Argus we know to be a fable" (letter to Dallas, September +23, 1811: _Letters_, 1898, ii. 44). + +Byron was recalling an incident which had befallen him some time +previously (see letter to Moore, January 19, 1815): "When I thought he +was going to enact Argus, he bit away the backside of my breeches, and +never would consent to any kind of recognition, in despite of all kinds +of bones which I offered him." See, too, for another thrust at Argus, +_Don Juan_, Canto III. stanza xxiii. But he should have remembered that +this particular Argus "was half a _wolf_ by the she side." His portrait +is preserved at Newstead (see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 280, _Edition +de Luxe_). + +For the expression of a different sentiment, compare _The Inscription on +the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog_ (first published in Hobhouse's +_Imit. and Transl_., 1809), and the prefatory inscription on Boatswain's +grave in the gardens of Newstead, dated November 16, 1808 (_Life_, p. +73).] + +[41] {31} [Cintra's "needle-like peaks," to the north-west of Lisbon, +are visible from the mouth of the Tagus.] + +[42] [Compare Ovid, _Amores_, i. 15, and Pliny, _Hist. Nat._, iv. 22. +Small particles of gold are still to be found in the sands of the Tagus, +but the quantity is, and perhaps always was, inconsiderable.] + +[ap] ----_where thronging rustics reap_.--[MS. erased.] + +[aq] {32} _What God hath done_--[MS. D.] + +[ar] _Those Lusian brutes and earth from worst of wretches +purge_.--[MS.] + +[43] ["_Lisboa_ is the Portuguese word, consequently the very best. +Ulissipont is pedantic; and as I have _Hellas_ and _Eros_ not very long +before, there would be something like an affectation of Greek terms, +which I wish to avoid" (letter to Dallas, September 23, 1811: _Letters_, +1898, ii. 44. See, too, _Poetical Works_, 1883, p. 5).] + +[as] _Ulissipont, or Lisbona_.--[MS. pencil.] + +[at] + _Which poets, prone to lie, have paved with gold_.--[MS.] + _Which poets sprinkle o'er with sands of gold_.--[MS. pencil.] + _Which fabling poets_--[D. pencil.] + +[44] {33} [For Byron's estimate of the Portuguese, see _The Curse of +Minerva_, lines 233, 234, and note to line 231 (_Poetical Works_, 1898, +i. 469, 470). In the last line of the preceding stanza, the substitution +of the text for _var._ i. was no doubt suggested by Dallas in the +interests of prudence.] + +[au] + _Who hate the very hand that waves the sword_ + _To shield them, etc_.--[MS. D.] + _To guard them, etc_.--[MS. pencil.] + +[av] + _Mid many things that grieve both nose and ee_.--[MS.] + _Midst many_----.--[MS. D.] + +[aw] ----_smelleth filthily_.--[MS. D.] + +[ax] ----_dammed with dirt_.--[MS. erased.] + +[45] {34} [For a fuller description of Cintra, see letter to Mrs. Byron, +dated August 11, 1808 (_Life_, p. 92; _Letters_, 1898, i. 237). Southey, +not often in accord with Byron, on his return from Spain (1801) +testified that "for beauty all English, perhaps all existing, scenery +must yield to Cintra" (_Life and Corr. of R. Southey_, ii. 161).] + +[ay] ----_views too sweet and vast_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[az] + ----_by tottering convent crowned_.--[MS. erased.] + _Alcornoque_.--[Note (pencil).] + +[46] "The sky-worn robes of tenderest blue." Collins' _Ode to Pity_ [MS. +and D.]. + +[ba] _The murmur that the sparkling torrents keep_.--[MS. erased.] + +[47] {35} [The convent of Nossa Senora (now the Palazio) da Pena, and +the Cork Convent, were visited by Beckford (circ. 1780), and are +described in his _Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal_ (8vo, +1834), the reissue of his _Letters Picturesque and Poetical_ (4to, +1783). + +"Our first object was the convent of Nossa Senhora da Penha, the little +romantic pile of white building I had seen glittering from afar when I +first sailed by the coast of Lisbon. From this pyramidical elevation the +view is boundless; you look immediately down upon an immense expanse of +sea. + +... A long series of detached clouds of a dazzling whiteness suspended +low over the waves had a magic effect, and in pagan times might have +appeared, without any great stretch of fancy, the cars of marine +divinities, just risen from the bosom of their element."--_Italy, etc._, +p. 249. + +"Before the entrance, formed by two ledges of ponderous rock, extends a +smooth level of greensward.... The Hermitage, its cell, chapel, and +refectory, are all scooped out of the native marble, and lined with the +bark of the cork tree. Several of the passages are not only roofed, but +floored with the same material ... The shrubberies and garden-plots +dispersed amongst the mossy rocks ... are delightful, and I took great +pleasure in ... following the course of a transparent rill, which was +conducted through a rustic water-shoot, between bushes of lavender and +roses, many of the tenderest green."--_Ibid._, p. 250. + +The inscription to the memory of Honorius (d. 159, aet. 95) is on a stone +in front of the cave-- + + "Hic Honorius vitam finivit; + Et ideo cum Deo in coelis revivit."] + +[48] {36} "I don't remember any crosses there."--[Pencilled note by J.C. +Hobhouse.] + +[The crosses made no impression upon Hobhouse, who, no doubt, had +realized that they were nothing but guideposts. For an explanation, see +letter of Mr. Matthew Lewtas to the _Athenaeum_, July 19, 1873: "The +track from the main road to the convent, rugged and devious, leading up +to the mountain, is marked out by numerous crosses now, just as it was +when Byron rode along it in 1809, and it would appear he fell into the +mistake of considering that the crosses were erected to show where +assassinations had been committed."] + +[49] [Beckford, describing the view from the convent, notices the wild +flowers which adorned "the ruined splendour." "Amidst the crevices of +the mouldering walls ... I noticed some capillaries and polypodiums of +infinite delicacy; and on a little flat space before the convent a +numerous tribe of pinks, gentians, and other Alpine plants, fanned and +invigorated by the fresh mountain air."--_Italy, etc.,_ 1834, p. 229. + +The "Prince's palace" (line 5) may be the royal palace at Cintra, "the +Alhambra of the Moorish kings," or, possibly, the palace (_vide post_, +stanza xxix. line 7) at Mafra, ten miles from Cintra.] + +[bb] {37} _There too proud Vathek--England's wealthiest son_.--[MS. D.] + +[50] [William Beckford, 1760 (?1759)-1844, published _Vathek_ in French +in 1784, and in English in 1787. He spent two years (1794-96) in +retirement at Quinta da Monserrate, three miles from Cintra. Byron +thought highly of _Vathek_. "I do not know," he writes (_The Giaour_, l. +1328, note), "from what source the author ... may have drawn his +materials ... but for correctness of costume ... and power of +imagination, it surpasses all European imitations.... As an Eastern +tale, even _Rasselas_ must bow before it; his happy valley will not bear +a comparison with the 'Hall of Eblis.'" In the MS. there is an +additional stanza reflecting on Beckford, which Dallas induced him to +omit. It was afterwards included by Moore among the _Occasional Pieces_, +under the title of _To Dives: a Fragment_ (_Poetical Works_, 1883, p. +548). (For Beckford, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 228, note 1; and with +regard to the "Stanzas on Vathek," see letter to Dallas, September 26, +1811: _Letters_, 1898, ii. 47.)] + +[bc] + _When Wealth and Taste their worst and best have done_, + _Meek Peace pollution's lure voluptuous still must shun_.--[MS.] + +[bd] + _But now thou blasted Beacon unto man_.--[MS.] + ----_thou Beacon unto erring man_.--[MS. D.] + +[be] {38} _Vain are the pleasaunces by art supplied_.--[MS. D.] + +[bf] ----_yclad, and by_.--[MS. D.] + +[bg] _Where blazoned glares a name spelt "Wellesley."_--[MS. D.] + +[bh] ----_are on the roll_.--[MS. erased, D.] + +[bi] The following stanzas, which appear in the MS., were excluded at +the request of Dallas (see his letter of October 10, 1811, +_Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, 1824, pp. 173-187), +_Letters_, 1898, ii. 51:-- + + In golden characters right well designed + First on the list appeareth one "Junot;" + Then certain other glorious names we find, + (Which Rhyme compelleth me to place below:) + Dull victors! baffled by a vanquished foe, + Wheedled by conynge tongues of laurels due, + Stand, worthy of each other in a row-- + Sirs Arthur, Harry, and the dizzard Hew + Dalrymple, seely wight, sore dupe of t'other tew. + + Convention is the dwarfy demon styled + That failed the knights in Marialva's dome: + Of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled, + And turned a nation's shallow joy to gloom. + For well I wot, when first the news did come + That Vimiera's field by Gaul was lost, + For paragraph ne paper scarce had room, + Such Paeans teemed for our triumphant host, + In Courier, Chronicle, and eke in Morning Post. + + But when Convention sent his handy work + Pens, tongues, feet, hands combined in wild uproar; + Mayor, Aldermen, laid down the uplifted fork; + The Bench of Bishops half forgot to snore; + Stern Cobbett,[Sec.]--who for one whole week forbore + To question aught, once more with transport leapt, + And bit his devilish quill agen, and swore + With foes such treaty never should be kept, + While roared the blatant Beast,[Sec.Sec.] and roared, and raged, and--slept!! + + Thus unto Heaven appealed the people: Heaven + Which loves the lieges of our gracious King, + Decreed that ere our Generals were forgiven, + Enquiry should be held about the thing. + But Mercy cloaked the babes beneath her wing; + And as they spared our foes so spared we them; + (Where was the pity of our Sires for Byng?)[Sec.Sec.Sec.] + Yet knaves, not idiots should the law condemn; + Then live ye gallant Knights! and bless your Judges' phlegm! + +[Sec.] [Sir Hew Dalrymple's despatch on the so-called Convention of Cintra +is dated September 3, and was published in the _London Gazette +Extraordinary_, September 16, 1808. The question is not alluded to in +the _Weekly Political Register_ of September 17, but on the 24th Cobbett +opened fire with a long article (pp. 481-502) headed, "Conventions in +Portugal," which was followed up by articles on the same subject in the +four succeeding issues. Articles iii., iv., v., vi., of the "Definitive +Convention" provided for the restoration of the French troops and their +safe convoy to France, with their artillery, equipments, and cavalry. +"Did the men," asks Cobbett (September 24), "who made this promise beat +the Duke d'Abrantes [Junot], or were they like curs, who, having felt +the bite of the mastiff, lose all confidence in their number, and, +though they bark victory, suffer him to retire in quiet, carrying off +his bone to be disposed of at his leisure? No, not so; for they +complaisantly carry the bone for him." The rest of the article is +written in a similar strain.] + +[Sec.Sec.] "'Blatant beast.'[*] A figure for the mob. I think first used by +Smollett, in his _Adventures of an Atom_.[**] Horace has the 'bellua +multorum capitum.'[***] In England, fortunately enough, the illustrious +mobility has not even one."--[MS.] + +[*] [Spenser (_Faerie Queene_, bk. vi. cantos iii. 24; xii. 27, sq.) +personifies the _vox populi_, with its thousand tongues, as the "blatant +beast."] + +[**][In _The History and Adventures of an Atom_ (Smollett's Works, 1872, +vi. 385), Foksi-Roku (Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland) passes judgment +on the populace. "The multitude, my lords, is a many-headed monster, it +is a Cerberus that must have a sop; it is a wild beast, so ravenous that +nothing but blood will appease its appetite; it is a whale, that must +have a barrel for its amusement; it is a demon, to which we must offer +human sacrifice.... Bihn-Goh must be the victim--happy if the sacrifice +of his single life can appease the commotions of his country." +Foksi-Roku's advice is taken, and Bihn-Goh (Byng) "is crucified for +cowardice."] + +[***][Horace, _Odes_, II. xiii. 34: "Bellua centiceps."] + +[Sec.Sec.Sec.] "By this query it is not meant that our foolish generals should have +been shot, but that Byng [Admiral John Byng, born 1704, was executed +March 14, 1757] might have been spared; though the one suffered and the +others escaped, probably for Candide's reason 'pour encourager les +autres.'"[*]--[MS.] + +[*]["Dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral +pour encourager les autres."--_Candide_, xxii.] + +[51] {39} [On August 21, 1808, Sir Harry Burrard (1755-1813) superseded +in command Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had, on the same day, repulsed +Junot at Vimiera. No sooner had he assumed his position as +commander-in-chief, than he countermanded Wellesley's order to give +pursuit and make good the victory. The next day (August 22) Sir Hew +Dalrymple in turn superseded Burrard, and on the 23rd, General Kellerman +approached the English with certain proposals from Junot, which a week +later were formulated by the so-called Convention of Cintra, to which +Kellerman and Wellesley affixed their names. When the news reached +England that Napoleon's forces had been repulsed with loss, and yet the +French had been granted a safe exit from Portugal, the generals were +assailed with loud and indiscriminate censure. Burrard's interference +with Wellesley's plans was no doubt ill-judged and ill-timed; but the +opportunity of pursuit having been let slip, the acceptance of Junot's +terms was at once politic and inevitable. A court of inquiry, which was +held in London in January, 1809, upheld both the armistice of August 22 +and the Convention; but neither Dalrymple nor Burrard ever obtained a +second command, and it was not until Talavera (July 28, 1809) had +effaced the memories of Cintra that Wellesley was reinstated in popular +favour.] + +[bj] {41} ----_at the mention sweat_.--[MS. D.] + +[bk] {42} _More restless than the falcon as he flies_.--[MS. erased.] + +[52] [With reference to this passage, while yet in MS., an early reader +(?Dallas) inquires, "What does this mean?" And a second (?Hobhouse) +rejoins, "What does the question mean? It is one of the finest stanzas I +ever read."] + +[53] [Byron and Hobhouse sailed from Falmouth, July 2, 1809; reached +Lisbon on the 6th or 7th; and on the 17th started from Aldea Galbega +("the first stage from Lisbon, which is only accessible by water") on +horseback for Seville. "The horses are excellent--we rode seventy miles +a day" (see letters of August 6 to F. Hodgson, and August 11, 1809, to +Mrs. Byron; _Letters_, 1898, i. 234, 236).] + +[bl] ----_long foreign to his soul_.--[MS. erased.] + +[bm] ----_the strumpet and the bowl_.--[MS. D] + +[bn] {43} _And countries more remote his hopes engage_.--[MS. erased.] + +[bo] + _Where dwelt of yore the Lusians' crazy queen_,--[MS.] + _Where dwelt of yore Lusania's_----.--[D.] + +[54] [Her luckless Majesty went subsequently mad; and Dr. Willis, who so +dexterously cudgelled kingly pericraniums, could make nothing of hers. +(For the Rev. Francis Willis, see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 416.) + +Maria I. (b. 1734), who married her uncle, Pedro III., reigned with him +1777-86, and, as sole monarch, from 1786 to 1816. The death of her +husband, of her favourite confessor, Ignatio de San Caetano, who had +been raised by Pombal from the humblest rank to the position of +archbishop _in partibus_, and of her son, turned her brain, and she +became melancholy mad. She was only queen in name after 1791, and in +1799 her son, Maria Jose Luis, was appointed regent. Beckford saw her in +1787, and was impressed by her dignified bearing. "Justice and +clemency," he writes, "the motto so glaringly misapplied on the banner +of the abhorred Inquisition, might be transferred, with the strictest +truth, to this good princess" (_Italy, with Sketches of Spain and +Portugal_, 1834, p. 256). Ten years later, Southey, in his _Letters from +Spain_, 1797, p. 541, ascribes the "gloom" of the court of Lisbon to +"the dreadful malady of the queen." When the Portuguese royal family +were about to embark for Brazil in November, 1807, the queen was once +more seen in public after an interval of sixteen years. "She had to wait +some while upon the quay for the chair in which she was to be carried to +the boat, and her countenance, in which the insensibility of madness was +only disturbed by wonder, formed a striking contrast to the grief which +appeared in every other face" (Southey's _History of the Peninsular +War_, i. 110).] + +[bp] {44} _Childe Burun_----.--[MS.] + +[bq] + _Less swoln with culture soon the vales extend_ + _And long horizon-bounded realms appear_.--[MS. erased.] + +[br] {45} _Say Muse what bounds_----.--[MS. D.] + +[55] The Pyrenees.--[MS.] + +[56] [If, as stanza xliii. of this canto (added in 1811) intimates, +Byron passed through "Albuera's plain" on his way from Lisbon to +Seville, he must have crossed the frontier at a point between Elvas and +Badajoz. In that case the "silver streamlet" may be identified as the +Caia. Beckford remarks on "the rivulet which separates the two kingdoms" +(_Italy, etc_., 1834, p. 291).] + +[bs] {46} _But eer the bounds of Spain have far been passed_.--[MS. D.] + +[bt] + _For ever famed--in many a native song_.--[MS. erased.] + ----_a noted song_.--[MS. D.] + +[57] [Compare Virgil, _AEneid_, i. 100-- + + "Ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis + Scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volvit."] + +[58] [The standard, a cross made of Asturian oak (_La Cruz de la +Victoria_), which was said to have fallen from heaven before Pelayo +gained the victory over the Moors at Cangas, in A.D. 718, is preserved +at Oviedo. Compare Southey's _Roderick_, XXV.: _Poetical Works_, 1838, +ix. 241, and note, pp. 370, 371.] + +[bu] --_which Pelagius bore_.--[MS. D.] + +[59] {47} [The Moors were finally expelled from Granada in 1492, in the +reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.] + +[bv] ----_waxed the Crescent pale_.--[MS. erased.] + +[60] [The reference is to the Romanceros and Caballerias of the +sixteenth century.] + +[bw] ----_thy little date_.--[MS. erased.] + +[bx] + ----_from rock to rock_ + _Blue columns soaring loft in sulphury wreath_ + _Fragments on fragments in contention knock_.--[MS. erased, D.] + +[61] "The Siroc is the violent hot wind that for weeks together blows +down the Mediterranean from the Archipelago. Its effects are well known +to all who have passed the Straits of Gibraltar."--[MS. D.] + +[62] {49} [The battle of Talavera began July 27, 1809, and lasted two +days. As Byron must have reached Seville by the 21st or 22nd of the +month, he was not, as might be inferred, a spectator of any part of the +engagement. Writing to his mother, August 11, he says, "You have heard +of the battle near Madrid, and in England they would call it a +victory--a pretty victory! Two hundred officers and five thousand men +killed, all English, and the French in as great force as ever. I should +have joined the army, but we have no time to lose before we get up the +Mediterranean."--_Letters_, i. 241.] + +[by] + _Their rival scarfs that shine so gloriously_.--[MS. erased.] + _Their rural scarfs_----.--[MS. D.] + +[63] [Compare Campbell's "Hohenlinden"--"Few, few shall part where many +meet."] + +[64] {50} [Compare _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 2, line 51--"Where the Norweyan +banners flout the sky."] + +[65] [In a letter to Colonel Malcolm, December 3, 1809, the Duke admits +that the spoils of conquest were of a moral rather than of a material +kind. "The battle of Talavera was certainly the hardest fought of modern +days.... It is lamentable that, owing to the miserable inefficiency of +the Spaniards, ... the glory of the action is the only benefit which we +have derived from it.... I have in hand a most difficult task.... In +such circumstances one may fail, but it would be dishonourable to shrink +from the task."--_Wellington Dispatches_, 1844, iii. 621.] + +[bz] + _There shall they rot--while rhymers tell the fools_ + _How honour decks the turf that wraps their clay!_ + _Liars avaunt!_----.--[MS.] + +[66] Two lines of Collins' _Ode_, "How sleep the brave," etc., have been +compressed into one-- + + "There Honour comes a pilgrim grey, + To bless the turf that wraps their clay." + +[ca] _But Reason's elf in these beholds_----.--[D.] + +[cb] {51} + ----_a fancied throne_ + _As if they compassed half that hails their sway_.--[MS. erased.] + +[cc] ----_glorious sound of grief_.--[D.] + +[67] [The battle of Albuera (May 16, 1811), at which the English, under +Lord Beresford, repulsed Soult, was somewhat of a Pyrrhic victory. +"Another such a battle," wrote the Duke, "would ruin us. I am working +hard to put all right again." The French are said to have lost between +8000 and 9000 men, the English 4158, the Spaniards 1365.] + +[cd] _A scene for mingling foes to boast and bleed_.--[D.] + +[ce] _Yet peace be with the perished_---.--[D. erased.] + +[cf] _And tears and triumph make their memory long_.--[D. erased.] + +[cg] ----_there sink with other woes_.--[D. erased.] + +[68] [Albuera was celebrated by Scott, in his _Vision of Don Roderick_. +_The Battle of Albuera_, a Poem (anon.), was published in October, +1811.] + +[ch] {52} _Who sink in darkness_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[ci] ----_swift Rapines path pursued_.--[MS. D.] + +[cj] _To Harold turn we as_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[69] [In this "particular" Childe Harold did not resemble his _alter +ego_. Hobhouse and "part of the servants" (Joe Murray, Fletcher, a +German, and the "page" Robert Rushton, constituted his "whole suite"), +accompanied Byron in his ride across Spain from Lisbon to Gibraltar. +(See _Letters_, 1898, i. 224, 236.)] + +[ck] _Where proud Sevilha_----.--[MS. D.] + +[70] {53} [Byron, _en route_ for Gibraltar, passed three days at Seville +at the end of July or the beginning of August, 1809. By the end of +January, 1810, the French had appeared in force before Seville. Unlike +Zaragoza and Gerona, the pleasure-loving city, "after some negotiations, +surrendered, with all its stores, foundries, and arsenal complete, and +on the 1st of February the king [Joseph] entered in triumph" (Napier's +_History of the War in the Peninsula_, ii. 295).] + +[71] [A kind of fiddle with only two strings, played on by a bow, said +to have been brought by the Moors into Spain.] + +[cl] _Not here the Trumpet, but the rebeck sounds_.--[MS. erased.] + +[cm] _And dark-eyed Lewdness_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[72] [See _The Waltz: Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 492, note 1.] + +[cn] {54} _Not in the toils of Glory would ye sweat._--[MS. erased, D.] + +[73] [The scene is laid on the heights of the Sierra Morena. The +travellers are looking across the "long level plain" of the Guadalquivir +to the mountains of Ronda and Granada, with their "hill-forts ...perched +everywhere like eagles' nests" (Ford's _Handbook for Spain_, i. 252). +The French, under Dupont, entered the Morena, June 2, 1808. They stormed +the bridge at Alcolea, June 7, and occupied Cordoba, but were defeated +at Bailen, July 19, and forced to capitulate. Hence the traces of war. +The "Dragon's nest" (line 7) is the ancient city of Jaen, which guards +the skirts of the Sierras "like a watchful Cerberus." It was taken by +the French, but recaptured by the Spanish, early in July, 1808 (_History +of the War in the Peninsula_, i. 71-80).] + +[74] {55} [The Sierra Morena gets its name from the classical _Montes +Mariani_, not, as Byron seems to imply, from its dark and dusky aspect.] + +[co] {56} ----_the never-changing watch_.--[MS. D.] + +[cp] _The South must own_----.--[MS. D.] + +[cq] _When soars Gaul's eagle_----.--[MS. D.] + +[75] [As time went on, Byron's sentiments with regard to Napoleon +underwent a change, and he hesitates between sympathetic admiration and +reluctant disapproval. At the moment his enthusiasm was roused by +Spain's heroic resistance to the new Alaric, "the scourger of the +world," and he expresses himself like Southey "or another" (_vide post_, +Canto III., pp. 238, 239).] + +[76] {57} ["A short two-edged knife or dagger ... formerly worn at the +girdle" (_N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Anlace"). The "anlace" of the Spanish +heroines was the national weapon, the _punal_, or _cuchillo_, which was +sometimes stuck in the sash (_Handbook for Spain_, ii. 803).] + +[77] [Compare _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 10-- + + "The Time has been, my senses would have cooled + To hear a night-shriek."] + +[cr] + -----_the column-scattering bolt afar,_ + _The falchion's flash_--[MS. erased, D.] + +[cs] {59} + _The seal Love's rosy finger has imprest_ + _On her fair chin denotes how soft his touch:_ + _Her lips where kisses make voluptuous nest_.--[MS. erased.] + +[78] [Writing to his mother (August 11, 1809), Byron compares "the +Spanish style" of beauty to the disadvantage of the English: "Long black +hair, dark languishing eyes, _clear_ olive complexions, and forms more +graceful in motion than can be conceived by an Englishman ... render a +Spanish beauty irresistible" (_Letters_, 1898, i. 239). Compare, too, +the opening lines of _The Girl of Cadiz_, which gave place to the +stanzas _To Inez_, at the close of this canto-- + + "Oh never talk again to me + Of northern climes and British ladies." + +But in _Don Juan_, Canto XII. stanzas lxxiv.-lxxvii., he makes the +_amende_ to the fair Briton-- + + "She cannot step as doth an Arab barb, + Or Andalusian girl from mass returning. + + * * * * * + + But though the soil may give you time and trouble, + Well cultivated, it will render double."] + +[ct] {60} + + _Beauties that need not fear a broken vow_.--[MS. erased.] + ----_a lecher's vow_.--[MS.] + +[79] [The summit of Parnassus is not visible from Delphi or the +neighbourhood. Before he composed "these stanzas" (December 16), (see +note 13.B.) at the foot of Parnassus, Byron had first surveyed its +"snow-clad" majesty as he sailed towards Vostizza (on the southern shore +of the Gulf of Corinth), which he reached on the 5th, and quitted on the +14th of December. "The Echoes" (line 8) which were celebrated by the +ancients (Justin, _Hist._, lib. xxiv. cap. 6), are those made by the +Phaedriades, or "gleaming peaks," a "lofty precipitous escarpment of red +and grey limestone" at the head of the valley of the Pleistus, facing +southwards.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 188, 199; _Geography of Greece_, +by H. F. Tozer, 1873, p. 230.] + +[cu] _Not in the landscape of a fabled lay_.--[MS. D.] + +[80] {61} ["Upon Parnassus, going to the fountain of Delphi (Castri) in +1809, I saw a flight of twelve eagles (Hobhouse said they were +vultures--at least in conversation), and I seized the omen. On the day +before, I composed the lines to Parnassus [in _Childe Harold_] and, on +beholding the birds, had a hope that Apollo had accepted my homage. I +have, at least, had the name and fame of a poet during the poetical +period of life (from twenty to thirty). Whether it will last is another +matter; but I have been a votary of the deity and the place, and am +grateful for what he has done in my behalf, leaving the future in his +hands, as I left the past" (B. _Diary_, 1821).] + +[cv] {62} _And walks with glassy steps o'er Aganippe's wave_.--[MS. +erased.] + +[cw] + _Let me some remnant of thy Spirit bear_ + _Some glorious thought to my petition grant_.--[MS. erased, D.] + +[81] ["Parnassus ... is distinguished from all other Greek mountains by +its mighty mass. This, with its vast buttresses, almost fills up the +rest of the country" (_Geography of Greece_, by H.F. Tozer, 1873, p. +226).] + +[82] {63} [In his first letter from Spain (to F. Hodgson, August 6, +1809) Byron exclaims, "Cadiz, sweet Cadiz!--it is the first spot in the +creation ... Cadiz is a complete Cythera." See, too, letter to Mrs. +Byron, August 11, 1809 (Letters, 1898, i. 234, 239).] + +[cx] + _While boyish blood boils gaily, who can 'scape_ + _The lurking lures of thy enchanting gaze_.--[MS. erased.] + +[83] {64} [It must not be supposed that the "thousand altars" of Cadiz +correspond with and are in contrast to the "one dome" of Paphos. The +point is that where Venus fixes her shrine, at Paphos or at Cadiz, +altars blaze and worshippers abound (compare _AEneid_, i. 415-417)-- + + "Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit + Laeta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo + Ture calent arae."] + +[84] [Compare Milton's _Paradise Lost_, i.-- + + ... from morn + To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve.] + +[85] [It was seldom that Byron's memory played him false, but here a +vague recollection of a Shakespearian phrase has beguiled him into a +blunder. He is thinking of Hamlet's jibe on the corruption of manners, +"The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near +the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe" (act v. sc. 1, line 150), +and he forgets that a kibe is not a heel or a part of a heel, but a +chilblain.] + +[cy] + ----_though in lieu_ + _Of true devotion monkish temples share_ + _The hours misspent, and all in turns is Love or Prayer_.---- + [_MS. erased_.] + +[cz] ----_or rule the hour in turns_.----[D.] + +[86] {65} [As he intimates in the Preface to _Childe Harold_, Byron had +originally intended to introduce "variations" in his poem of a droll or +satirical character. Beattie, Thomson, Ariosto, were sufficient +authorities for these humorous episodes. The stanzas on the Convention +of Cintra (stanzas xxv.-xxviii. of the MS.), and the four stanzas on Sir +John Carr; the concluding stanzas of the MS., which were written in this +lighter vein, were suppressed at the instance of Dallas, or Murray, or +Gifford. From a passage in a letter to Dallas (August 21, 1811), it +appears that Byron had almost made up his mind to leave out "the two +stanzas of a buffooning cast on London's Sunday" (_Letters_, 1898, i. +335). But, possibly, owing to their freedom from any compromising +personalities, or because wiser counsels prevailed, they were allowed to +stand, and continued (wrote Moore in 1832) to "disfigure the poem."] + +[87] [A whiskey is a light carriage in which the traveller is _whisked_ +along.] + +[da] {66} _And humbler gig_----.--[MS.] + +[db] _And droughty man alights and roars for "Roman Purl."_[Sec.]--[MS. D.] + +[Sec.] A festive liquor so called. Query why "Roman"? [Query if "Roman"? +"'Purl Royal,' Canary wine with a dash of the tincture of wormwood" +(Grose's _Class. Dict._).] + +----_for Punch or Purl_.--[D.] + +[dc] _Some o'er thy Thames convoy_----.--[MS. D.] + +[88] [Hone's _Everyday Book_ (1827, ii. 80-87) gives a detailed account +of the custom of "swearing on the horns" at Highgate. "The horns, fixed +on a pole of about five feet in length, were erected by placing the pole +upright on the ground near the person to be sworn, who is requested to +take off his hat," etc. The oath, or rather a small part of it, ran as +follows: "Take notice what I am saying unto you, for _that_ is the first +word of your oath--mind _that_! You must acknowledge me [the landlord] +to be your adopted father, etc.... You must not eat brown bread while +you can get white, except you like the brown best. You must not drink +small beer while you can get strong, except you like the small best. You +must not kiss the maid while you can kiss the mistress, but sooner than +lose a good chance you may kiss them both," etc. Drovers, who frequented +the "Gate House" at the top of the hill, and who wished to keep the +tavern to themselves, are said to have been responsible for the rude +beginnings of this tedious foolery.] + +[89] {67} [M. Darmesteter quotes a striking passage from Gautier's +_Voyage en Espagne_ (xv.), in appreciation of Cadiz and Byron: "L'aspect +de Cadix, en venant du large, est charmant. A la voir ainsi etincelante +de blancheur entre l'azur de la mer et l'azur du ciel, on dirait une +immense couronne de filigrane d'argent; le dome de la cathedrale, peint +en jaune, semble une tiare de vermeil posee au milieu. Les pots de +fleurs, les volutes et les tourelles qui terminent les maisons, varient +a l'infini la dentelure. Byron a merveilleusement caracterise la +physionomie de Cadix en une seule touche: + +"Brillante Cadix, qui t'eleves vers le ciel du milieu du bleu fonce de +la mer."] + +[90] [The actors in a bull-fight consist of three or four classes: the +_chulos_ or footmen, the _banderilleros_ or dart-throwers, the +_picadores_ or horsemen, the _matadores_ or _espadas_ the executioners. +Each bull-fight, which lasts about twenty minutes, is divided into three +stages or acts. In the first act the _picadores_ receive the charge of +the bull, defending themselves, but not, as a rule, attacking the foe +with their lances or _garrochas_. In the second act the _chulos_, who +are not mounted, wave coloured cloaks or handkerchiefs in the bull's +face, and endeavour to divert his fury from the _picadores_, in case +they have been thrown or worsted in the encounter. At the same time, the +_banderilleros_ are at pains to implant in either side of the bull's +neck a number of barbed darts ornamented with cut paper, and, sometimes, +charged with detonating powder. It is _de rigeur_ to plant the barbs +exactly on either side. In the third and final act, the protagonist, the +_matador_ or _espada_, is the sole performer. His function is to entice +the bull towards him by waving the _muleta_ or red flag, and, standing +in front of the animal, to inflict the death-wound by plunging his sword +between the left shoulder and the blade. "The teams of mules now enter, +glittering with flags and tinkling with bells, whose gay decorations +contrast with the stern cruelty and blood; the dead bull is carried off +at a rapid gallop, which always delights the populace."--_Handbook for +Spain_, by Richard Ford, 1898, i. 67-76.] + +[91] {70} "The croupe is a particular leap taught in the manege."--[MS.] +[_Croupe_, or _croup_, denotes the hind quarters of a horse. Compare +Scott's ballad of "Young Lochinvar"--"So light to the croupe the fair +lady he swung." Here it is used for "croupade," "a high curvet in which +the hind legs are brought up under the belly of the horse" (_N. Eng. +Dict._, art. "Croupade.")] + +[92] {71} ["Brast" for "burst" is found in Spenser (_Faerie Queene_, i. +9. 21. 7), and is still current in Lancashire dialect. See _Lanc. +Gloss._ (E. D. S. "brast").] + +[93] [One bull-fight, one matador. In describing the last act Byron +confuses the _chulos_ or cloak-waving footmen, who had already played +their part, with the single champion, the matador, who is about to +administer the _coup de grace_.] + +[dd] ----_he lies along the sand._--[MS. erased.] + +[de] + _The trophy corse is reared--disgusting prize_. + or, _The corse is reared--sparkling the chariot flies_.--[MS. M.] + +[94] [Compare Virgil, _AEneid_, viii. 264-- + + "Pedibusque informe cadaver + Protrahitur. Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo--"] + +[95] {72} "The Spaniards are as revengeful as ever. At Santa Otella, I +heard a young peasant threaten to stab a woman (an old one, to be sure, +which mitigates the offence), and was told, on expressing some small +surprise, that this ethic was by no means uncommon."--[MS.] + +[96] [Byron's "orthodoxy" of the word "centinel" was suggested by the +Spanish _centinela_, or, perhaps, by Spenser's "centonell" (_Faerie +Queene_, bk. i. c. ix. st. 41, line 8).] + +[df] + _And all whereat the wandering soul revolts_ + _Which that stern dotard dreamed he could encage_.--[MS. erased.] + +[dg] {73} + _Full from the heart of Joy's delicious springs_ + _Some Bitter bubbles up, and even on Roses stings_.--[MS.] + +[97] [The Dallas Transcript reads "itself," but the MS. and earlier +editions "herself."] + +[dh] {74} + _Had buried then his hopes, no more to rise:_ + _Drugged with dull pleasure! life-abhorring Gloom_ + _Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain's wandering doom_.-- + [MS. erased.] + _Had buried there_.--[MS. D.] + +[98] [Byron's belief or, rather, haunting dread, that he was predestined +to evil is to be traced to the Calvinistic teaching of his boyhood +(compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxx. lines 8, 9; and Canto +IV. stanza xxxiv. line 6). Lady Byron regarded this creed of despair as +the secret of her husband's character, and the source of his +aberrations. In a letter to H. C. Robinson, March 5, 1855, she writes, +"Not merely from casual expressions, but from the whole tenour of Lord +Byron's feelings, I could not but conclude he was a believer in the +inspiration of the Bible, and had the gloomiest Calvinistic tenets. To +that unhappy view of the relation of the creature to the Creator, I have +always ascribed the misery of his life.... Instead of being made happier +by any apparent good, he felt convinced that every blessing would be +'turned into a curse' to him. Who, possessed by such ideas, could lead a +life of love and service to God or man? They must in a measure realize +themselves. 'The worst of it is, I _do_ believe,' he said. I, like all +connected with him, was broken against the rock of predestination."] + +[99] {75} "Stanzas to be inserted after stanza 86th in _Childe Harold's +Pilgrimage_, instead of the song at present in manuscript."-[MS. note to +"To Inez."] [The stanzas _To Inez_ are dated January 25, 1810, on which +day Byron and Hobhouse visited Marathon. Most likely they were addressed +to Theresa Macri, the "Maid of Athens," or some favourite of the moment, +and not to "Florence" (Mrs. Spencer Smith), whom he had recently +(January 16) declared _emerita_ to the tune of "The spell is broke, the +charm is flown." A fortnight later (February 10), Hobhouse, accompanied +by the Albanian Vasilly and the Athenian Demetrius, set out for the +Negroponte. "Lord Byron was unexpectedly detained at Athens" (_Travels +in Albania_, i. 390). (For the stanzas to _The Girl of Cadiz_, which +were suppressed in favour of those _To Inez,_ see _Poetical Works_, +1891, p. 14, and vol. iii. of the present issue.)] + +[100] {76} [Compare Horace, _Odes_, II. xvi. 19, 20-- + + "Patriae quis exsul + Se quoque fugit?"] + +[di] + _To other zones howe'er remote_ + _Still, still pursuing clings to me._--[MS. erased.] + +[101] [Compare Prior's _Solomon_, bk. iii. lines 85, 86-- + + "In the remotest wood and lonely grot + Certain to meet that worst of evils--_thought."_] + +[102] {77} [Cadiz was captured from the Moors by Alonso el Sabio, in +1262. It narrowly escaped a siege, January-February, 1810. Soult +commenced a "serious bombardment," May 16, 1812, but, three months +later, August 24, the siege was broken up. Stanza lxxxv. is not in the +original MS.] + +[103] {78} [Charles IV. abdicated March 19, 1808, in favour of his son +Ferdinand VII.; and in the following May, Charles once more abdicated on +his own behalf, and Ferdinand for himself and his heirs, in favour of +Napoleon. Thenceforward Charles was an exile, and Ferdinand a prisoner +at Valencay, and Spain, so far as the Bourbons were concerned, remained +"kingless," until motives of policy procured the release of the latter, +who re-entered his kingdom March 22, 1814.] + +[dj] + Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know, + Sights, Saints, Antiques, Arts, Anecdotes and War, + Go hie ye hence to Paternoster Row-- + Are they not written in the Boke of Carr,[Sec.1] + Green Erin's Knight and Europe's wandering star! + Then listen, Readers, to the Man of Ink, + Hear what he did, and sought, and wrote afar; + All those are cooped within one Quarto's brink, + This borrow, steal,--don't buy,--and tell us what you think. + + There may you read with spectacles on eyes, + How many Wellesleys did embark for Spain,[Sec.2] + As if therein they meant to colonise, + How many troops y-crossed the laughing main + That ne'er beheld the said return again: + How many buildings are in such a place, + How many leagues from this to yonder plain, + How many relics each cathedral grace, + And where Giralda stands on her gigantic base.[Sec.3] + + There may you read (Oh, Phoebus, save Sir John! + That these my words prophetic may not err)[Sec.4] + All that was said, or sung, and lost, or won, + By vaunting Wellesley or by blundering Frere,[Sec.a] + He that wrote half the "Needy Knife-Grinder,"[Sec.5] + Thus Poesy the way to grandeur paves--[Sec.b] + Who would not such diplomatists prefer? + But cease, my Muse, thy speed some respite craves, + Leave legates to the House, and armies to their graves. + + Yet here of Vulpes mention may be made,[Sec.c][Sec.6] + Who for the Junta modelled sapient laws, + Taught them to govern ere they were obeyed: + Certes fit teacher to command, because + His soul Socratic no Xantippe awes; + Blest with a Dame in Virtue's bosom nurst,-- + With her let silent Admiration pause!-- + True to her second husband and her first: + On such unshaken fame let Satire do its worst. + +[Sec.1] "Porphyry said that the prophecies of Daniel were written after +their completion, and such may be my fate here; but it requires no +second sight to foretell a tome; the first glimpse of the knight was +enough."--[MS.] + +["I have seen Sir John Carr at Seville and Cadiz, and, like Swift's +barber, have been down on my knees to beg he would not put me into black +and white" (letter to Hodgson, August 6, 1809, _Letters_, 1898, i. 235, +note).] + +[Sec.2] "I presume Marquis and Mr. and Pole and Sir A. are returned by this +time, and eke the bewildered Frere whose conduct was canvassed by the +Commons."--[MS.] + +[A motion which had been brought forward in the House of Commons, +February 24, 1809, "to inquire into the causes ...of the late campaign +in Spain," was defeated, but the Government recalled J. Hookham Frere, +British Minister to the Supreme Junta, and nominated the Marquis +Wellesley Ambassador Extraordinary to Seville. Wellesley landed in Spain +early in August, but a duel which took place, September 21, between +Perceval and Canning led to changes in the ministry, and, with a view to +taking office, he left Cadiz November 10, 1809. His brother, Henry +Wellesley (1773-1847, first Baron Cowley), succeeded him as Envoy +Extraordinary. If "Mr." stands for Henry Wellesley, "Pole" may be +William Wellesley Pole, afterwards third Earl of Mornington.] + +[Sec.3] [The base of the Giralda, the cathedral tower at Seville, is a +square of fifty feet. The pinnacle of the filigree belfry, which +surmounts the original Moorish tower, "is crowned with _El Girardillo_, +a bronze statue of _La Fe_, The Faith.... Although 14 feet high, and +weighing 2800 lbs., it turns with the slightest breeze."--Ford's +_Handbook for Spain_, i. 174.] + +[Sec.4] [_Vide ante_, p. 78, note 2.] + +[Sec.a] _By shrivelled Wellesley_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[Sec.b] + _None better known for doing things by halves_ + _As many in our Senate did aver_.--[MS. erased.] + +[Sec.c] _Yet surely Vulpes merits some applause_.--[MS. erased.] + +[Sec.5] "The Needy Knife-grinder," in the _Anti-Jacobin_, was a joint +production of Messrs. Frere and Canning. + +[Sec.6] [Henry Richard Vassall Fox, second Lord Holland (1773-1840), +accompanied Sir David Baird to Corunna, September, 1808, and made a +prolonged tour in Spain, returning in the autumn of 1809. He suggested +to the Junta of Seville to extend their functions as a committee of +defence, and proposed a new constitution. His wife, Elizabeth Vassall, +the daughter of a rich Jamaica planter, was first married (June 27, +1786) to Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart. Sir Godfrey divorced his wife July +3, 1797, and three days later she was married to Lord Holland. She had +lived with him for some time previously, and before the divorce had +borne him a son, Charles Richard Fox (1796-1873), who was acknowledged +by Lord Holland.] + +[104] {81} [Stanzas lxxxviii.-xciii., which record the battles of +Barossa (March 5, 1811) and Albuera (May 16, 1811), and the death of +Byron's school-friend Wingfield (May 14, 1811), were written at Newstead +in August, 1811, and take the place of four omitted stanzas (_q.v. +supra_).] + +[105] [Francisco Pizarro (1480-1541), with his brothers, Hernando, Juan +Gonzalo, and his half-brother Martin de Alcantara, having revisited +Spain, set sail for Panama in 1530. During his progress southward from +Panama, he took the island of Puna, which formed part of the province of +Quito. His defeat and treacherous capture of Atuahalpa, King of Quito, +younger brother of Huascar the Supreme Inca, took place in 1532, near +the town of Caxamarca, in Peno (_Mod. Univ. History_, 1763, xxxviii. +295, _seq._). Spain's weakness during the Napoleonic invasion was the +opportunity of her colonies. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, rose in +rebellion, August 10, 1810, and during the same year Mexico and La Plata +began their long struggle for independence.] + +[106] {82} [During the American War of Independence (1775-83), and +afterwards during the French Revolution, it was the custom to plant +trees as "symbols of growing freedom." The French trees were decorated +with "caps of Liberty." No such trees had ever been planted in Spain. +(See note by the Rev. E.C. Everard Owen, _Childe Harold_, 1897, p. +158.)] + +[dk] + _And thou, my friend! since thus my selfish woe_ + {_to weaken in_ + _Bursts from my heart,_ {_however light my strain,_ + {_for ever light the_----.--[D.] + _Had the sword laid thee, with the mighty, low_ + _Pride had forbade me of thy fall to plain_.--[MS. D.] + +[107] [Compare the In Memoriam stanzas at the end of Beattie's +_Minstrel_--"And am I left to unavailing woe?" II. 63, line 2.] + +[dl] {83} ----_belov'd the most_.--[MS. D.] + +[108] [With reference to this stanza, Byron wrote to Dallas, October 25, +1811 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 58, 59), "I send you a conclusion to the +_whole_. In a stanza towards the end of Canto I. in the line, + + "Oh, known the earliest and _beloved_ the most, + +I shall alter the epithet to '_esteemed_ the most.'"] + +[dm] ----_where none so long was dear_.--[MS. D.] + +[dn] _And fancy follow to_----.--[MS. D.] + +[109] "Fytte" means "part."--[Note erased.] + + * * * * * + + + + + NOTES TO CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + CANTO I. + + 1. + + Yes! sighed o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine. + Stanza i. line 6. + +The little village of Castri stands partially on the site of Delphi. +Along the path of the mountain, from Chrysso, are the remains of +sepulchres hewn in and from the rock:--"One," said the guide, "of a king +who broke his neck hunting." His majesty had certainly chosen the +fittest spot for such an achievement. + +A little above Castri is a cave, supposed the Pythian, of immense depth; +the upper part of it is paved, and now a cowhouse. + +On the other side of Castri stands a Greek monastery; some way above +which is the cleft in the rock, with a range of caverns difficult of +ascent, and apparently leading to the interior of the mountain; probably +to the Corycian Cavern mentioned by Pausanias. From this part descend +the fountain and the "Dews of Castalie." + +[Byron and Hobhouse slept at Crissa December 15, and visited Delphi +December 16, 1809.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 199-209.] + + 2. + + And rest ye at "Our Lady's house of Woe." + Stanza xx. line 4. + +The convent of "Our Lady of Punishment," _Nossa Senora de Pena_, on the +summit of the rock. Below, at some distance, is the Cork Convent, where +St. Honorius dug his den, over which is his epitaph. From the hills, the +sea adds to the beauty of the view.--[_Note to First Edition_.] Since +the publication of this poem, I have been informed [by W. Scott, July 1, +1812] of the misapprehension of the term _Nossa Senora de Pena_. It was +owing to the want of the _tilde_, or mark over the _n_, which alters the +signification of the word: with it, _Pena_ signifies a rock; without it, +_Pena_ has the sense I adopted. _I_ do not think it necessary to alter +the passage; as, though the common acceptation affixed to it is "Our +Lady of the Rock," I may well assume the other sense from the severities +practised there.--[_Note to Second Edition._] + + 3. + + Throughout this purple land, where Law secures not life. + Stanza xxi. line 9. + +It is a well-known fact that in the year 1809, the assassinations in the +streets of Lisbon and its vicinity were not confined by the Portuguese +to their countrymen; but that Englishmen were daily butchered: and so +far from redress being obtained, we were requested not to interfere if +we perceived any compatriot defending himself against his allies. I was +once stopped in the way to the theatre at eight o'clock in the evening, +when the streets were not more empty than they generally are at that +hour, opposite to an open shop, and in a carriage with a friend: had we +not fortunately been armed, I have not the least doubt that we should +have "adorned a tale" instead of telling one. The crime of assassination +is not confined to Portugal; in Sicily and Malta we are knocked on the +head at a handsome average nightly, and not a Sicilian or Maltese is +ever punished! + + 4. + + Behold the hall where chiefs were late convened! + Stanza xxiv. line 1. + +The Convention of Cintra was signed in the palace of the Marchese +Marialva. The late exploits of Lord Wellington have effaced the follies +of Cintra. He has, indeed, done wonders; he has perhaps changed the +character of a nation, reconciled rival superstitions, and baffled an +enemy who never retreated before his predecessor. + +["The armistice, the negotiations, the convention, the execution of its +provisions, were commenced, conducted, concluded, at the distance of +thirty miles from Cintra, with which place they had not the slightest +connection, political, military, or local. Yet Lord Byron has sung that +the convention was signed in the Marquis of Marialva's house at Cintra" +(Napier's _History of the War in the Peninsula_, i. 161). The +"suspension of arms" is dated "Head Quarters of the British Army, August +22, 1808." The "Definitive Convention for the Evacuation of Portugal by +the British Army" is dated "Head Quarters, Lisbon, August 30, 1808." +(See Wordsworth's pamphlet _Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, +Spain, and Portugal, etc._, 1809, App. pp. 199-201. For sentiments +almost identical with those expressed in stanzas xxiv., xxv., see +_ibid._, p. 49, _et passim_.)] + + 5. + + Yet Mafra shall one moment claim delay. + Stanza xxix. line 1. + +The extent of Mafra is prodigious; it contains a palace, convent, and +most superb church. The six organs are the most beautiful I ever beheld, +in point of decoration: we did not hear them, but were told that their +tones were correspondent to their splendour. Mafra is termed the +Escurial of Portugal. + +[Mafra was built by D. Joao V. The foundation-stone was laid November 7, +1717, and the church consecrated October 22, 1730. (For descriptions of +Mafra, see Southey's _Life and Correspondence_, ii. 113; and _Letters_, +1898, i. 237.)] + + 6. + + Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know + 'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low. + Stanza xxxiii. lines 8 and 9. + +As I found the Portuguese, so I have characterised them. That they are +since improved, at least in courage, is evident. + +[The following "Note on Spain and Portugal," part of the original draft +of Note 3 (p. 86), was suppressed at the instance of Dallas: "We have +heard wonders of the Portuguese lately, and their gallantry. Pray Heaven +it continue; yet 'would it were bed-time, Hal, and all were well!' They +must fight a great many hours, by 'Shrewsbury clock,' before the number +of their slain equals that of our countrymen butchered by these kind +creatures, now metamorphosed into 'Cacadores,' and what not. I merely +state a fact, not confined to Portugal; for in Sicily and Malta we are +knocked on the head at a handsome average nightly, and not a Sicilian or +Maltese is ever punished! The neglect of protection is disgraceful to +our government and governors; for the murders are as notorious as the +moon that shines upon them, and the apathy that overlooks them. The +Portuguese, it is to be hoped, are complimented with the 'Forlorn +Hope,'--if the cowards are become brave (like the rest of their kind, in +a corner), pray let them display it. But there is a subscription for +these [Greek: thrasy/deiloi][110] (they need not be ashamed of the +epithet once applied to the Spartans); and all the charitable +patronymics, from ostentatious A. to diffident Z., and L1 1s. 0d. from +'An Admirer of Valour,' are in requisition for the lists at Lloyd's, and +the honour of British benevolence. Well! we have fought, and subscribed, +and bestowed peerages, and buried the killed by our friends and foes; +and, lo! all this is to be done over again! Like Lien Chi (in +Goldsmith's _Citizen of the World_), as we 'grow older, we grow never +the better.' It would be pleasant to learn who will subscribe for us, in +or about the year 1815, and what nation will send fifty thousand men, +first to be decimated in the capital, and then decimated again (in the +Irish fashion, _nine_ out of _ten_), in the 'bed of honour;' which, as +Serjeant Kite says [in Farquhar's _Recruiting Officer_, act i. sc. 1], +is considerably larger and more commodious than 'the bed of Ware.' Then +they must have a poet to write the 'Vision of Don Perceval,'[111] and +generously bestow the profits of the well and widely printed quarto, to +rebuild the 'Backwynd' and the 'Canongate,' or furnish new kilts for the +half-roasted Highlanders. Lord Wellington, however, has enacted marvels; +and so did his Oriental brother, whom I saw charioteering over the +French flag, and heard clipping bad Spanish, after listening to the +speech of a patriotic cobler of Cadiz, on the event of his own entry +into that city, and the exit of some five thousand bold Britons out of +this 'best of all possible worlds' [Pangloss, in _Candide_]. Sorely were +we puzzled how to dispose of that same victory of Talavera; and a +victory it surely was somewhere, for everybody claimed it. The Spanish +despatch and mob called it Cuesta's, and made no great mention of the +Viscount; the French called it _theirs_[1] (to my great +discomfiture,--for a French consul stopped my mouth in Greece with a +pestilent Paris Gazette, just as I had killed Sebastiani'[112] 'in +buckram,' and King Joseph 'in Kendal green'),--and we have not yet +determined _what_ to call it, or _whose_; for, certes, it was none of +our own. Howbeit, Massena's retreat [May, 1811] is a great comfort; and +as we have not been in the habit of pursuing for some years past, no +wonder we are a little awkward at first. No doubt we shall improve; or, +if not, we have only to take to our old way of retrograding, and there +we are at home."--_Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, 1824, pp. +179-185.] + + 7. + + When Cava's traitor-sire first called the band + That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic gore. + Stanza xxxv. lines 3 and 4. + +Count Julian's daughter, the Helen of Spain. Pelagius preserved his +independence in the fastnesses of the Asturias, and the descendants of +his followers, after some centuries, completed their struggle by the +conquest of Grenada. + +[Roderick the Goth violated Florinda, or Caba, or Cava, daughter of +Count Julian, one of his principal lieutenants. In revenge for this +outrage, Julian allied himself with Musca, the Caliph's lieutenant in +Africa, and countenanced the invasion of Spain by a body of Saracens and +Africans commanded by Tarik, from whom Jebel Tarik, Tarik's Rock, that +is, Gibraltar, is said to have been named. The issue was the defeat and +death of Roderick and the Moorish occupation of Spain. A Spaniard, +according to Cervantes, may call his dog, but not his daughter, +Florinda. (See _Vision of Don Roderick_, by Sir W. Scott, stanza iv. +note 5.)] + + 8. + + No! as he speeds, he chants "Viv[=a] el Rey!" + Stanza xlviii. line 5. + +"Viv[=a] el Rey Fernando!" Long live King Ferdinand! is the chorus of +most of the Spanish patriotic songs. They are chiefly in dispraise of +the old King Charles, the Queen, and the Prince of Peace. I have heard +many of them: some of the airs are beautiful. Godoy, the _Principe de la +Paz_, of an ancient but decayed family, was born at Badajoz, on the +frontiers of Portugal, and was originally in the ranks of the Spanish +guards; till his person attracted the queen's eyes, and raised him to +the dukedom of Alcudia, etc., etc. It is to this man that the Spaniards +universally impute the ruin of their country. + +[Manuel de Godoy (1767-1851) received the title of _Principe de la Paz_, +Prince of the Peace, in 1795, after the Treaty of Basle, which ceded +more than half St. Domingo to France. His tenure of power, as prime +minister and director of the king's policy, coincided with the downfall +of Spanish power, and before the commencement of the Peninsular War he +was associated in the minds of the people with national corruption and +national degradation. He was, moreover, directly instrumental in the +betrayal of Spain to France. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, October 27, +1807, Portugal was to be divided between the King of Etruria and Godoy +as Prince of the Algarves, Portuguese America was to fall to the King of +Spain, and to bring this about Napoleon's troops were to enter Spain and +march directly to Lisbon. The sole outcome of the treaty was the +occupation of Portugal and subsequent invasion of Spain. Before Byron +had begun his pilgrimage, Godoy's public career had come to an end. +During the insurrection at Aranjuez, March 17-19, 1808, when Charles IV. +abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand VII., Godoy was only preserved +from the fury of the populace by a timely imprisonment. In the following +May, by which time Ferdinand himself was a prisoner in France, he was +released at the instance of Murat, and ordered to accompany Charles to +Bayonne, for the express purpose of cajoling his master into a second +abdication in favour of Napoleon. The remainder of his long life was +passed, first at Rome, and afterwards at Paris, in exile and dependence. +The execration of Godoy, "who was really a mild, good-natured man," +must, in Napier's judgment, be attributed to Spanish venom and Spanish +prejudice. The betrayal of Spain was, he thinks, the outcome of +Ferdinand's intrigues no less than of Godoy's unpatriotic ambition. +Another and perhaps truer explanation of popular odium is to be found in +his supposed atheism and well-known indifference to the rites of the +Church, which many years before had attracted the attention of the Holy +Office. The peasants cursed Godoy because the priests triumphed over his +downfall (Napier's _History of the War in the Peninsula_, i. 8; +Southey's _Peninsular War_, i. 85 note, 93, 215, 280).] + + 9. + + Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue, + Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet. + Stanza l. lines 2 and 3. + +The red cockade, with "Fernando Septimo" in the centre. + + 10. + + The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match. + Stanza li. line 9. + +All who have seen a battery will recollect the pyramidal form in which +shot and shells are piled. The Sierra Morena was fortified in every +defile through which I passed in my way to Seville. + + 11. + + Foiled by a woman's hand, before a battered wall. + Stanza lvi. line 9. + +Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragoza, who by her valour +elevated herself to the highest rank of heroines. When the author was at +Seville, she walked daily on the Prado, decorated with medals and +orders, by command of the Junta. + +[The story, as told by Southey (who seems to have derived his +information from _The Narrative of the Siege of Zaragoza_, by Charles +Richard Vaughan, M.B., 1809), is that "Augustina Zaragoza (_sic_), a +handsome woman of the lower class, about twenty-two years of age," a +vivandiere, in the course of her rounds came with provisions to a +battery near the Portello gate. The gunners had all been killed, and, as +the citizens held back, "Augustina sprang over the dead and dying, +snatched a match from the hand of a dead artilleryman, and fired off a +twenty-six pounder; then, jumping upon the gun, made a solemn vow never +to quit it alive during the siege." + +After the retreat of the French, "a pension was settled upon Augustina, +and the daily pay of an artilleryman. She was also to wear a small +shield of honour, embroidered upon the sleeve of her gown, with +'Zaragoza' inscribed upon it" (Southey's _Peninsular War_, ii. 14, 34). + +Napier, "neither wholly believing nor absolutely denying these +exploits," which he does not condescend to give in detail, remarks "that +for a long time afterwards, Spain swarmed with Zaragoza heroines, +clothed in half-uniforms, and theatrically loaded with weapons." + +A picture of "The Defence of Saragossa," painted by Sir David Wilkie, +which contained her portrait, was exhibited in the Royal Academy in +1829, and was purchased by the king (Napier's _History of the War in the +Peninsula_, i. 45; _Life of Sir D. Wilkie_, by John W. Mollett, 1881, p. +83). Compare, too, _The Age of Bronze_, vii. lines 53-56-- + + "... the desperate wall + Of Saragossa, mightiest in her fall; + The man nerved to a spirit, and the maid + Waving her more than Amazonian blade."] + + 12. + + The seal Love's dimpling finger hath impressed + Denotes how soft that chin which bears his touch. + Stanza lviii. lines 1 and 2. + + "Sigilla in mento impressa Amoris digitulo + Vestigio demonstrant mollitudinem." + Aul. Gel. + +[The quotation does not occur in Aulus Gellius, but is a fragment in +iambic metre from the Papia papae [Greek: peri\ e)nkomi/on] of M. +Terentius Varro, cited by the grammarian Nonius Marcellus (_De Comp. +Doct_., ii. 135, lines 19-23). _Sigilla_ is a variant of the word in the +text, _laculla_, a diminutive of _lacuna_, signifying a dimple in the +chin. _Lacullum_ is not to be found in Facciolati. (_Vide_ Riese, +_Varro. Satur. Menipp. Rel_., 1865, p. 164.)] + + 13. + + Oh, thou Parnassus! + Stanza lx. line 1. + +These stanzas were written in Castri (Delphos), at the foot of +Parnassus, now called [Greek: Liakyra] (Liakura), Dec. [16], 1809. + + 14. + + Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast + Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days. + Stanza lxv. lines 1 and 2. + +Seville was the Hispalis of the Romans. + + 15. + + Ask ye, Boeotian Shades! the reason why? + Stanza lxx. line 5. + +This was written at Thebes, and consequently in the best situation for +asking and answering such a question; not as the birthplace of Pindar, +but as the capital of Boeotia, where the first riddle was propounded and +solved. + +[Byron reached Thebes December 22, 1809. By the first riddle he means, +of course, the famous enigma of Oedipus--the prototype of Boeotian wit.] + + 16. + + Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings. + Stanza lxxxii. line 9. + + "Medio de fonte leporum + Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipseis floribus angat." + Lucr., iv. 1133. + + 17. + + A Traitor only fell beneath the feud. + Stanza lxxxv. line 7. + +Alluding to the conduct and death of Solano, the governor of Cadiz, in +May, 1808. + +[The Marquis of Solano, commander-in-chief of the forces at Cadiz, was +murdered by the populace. The "Supreme Junta" of Seville had directed +him to attack the French fleet anchored off Cadiz, and Admiral Purvis, +acting in concert with General Spencer, had offered to co-operate, but +Solano was unwilling to take his orders "from a self-constituted +authority, and hesitated to commit his country in war with a power whose +strength he knew better than the temper of his countrymen." "His +abilities, courage, and unblemished character have never been +denied."--Napier's _War in the Peninsula_, i. 20, 21.] + + 18. + + "War even to the knife!" + Stanza lxxxvi. line 9. + +"War to the knife." Palafox's answer to the French general at the siege +of Saragoza. + +[Towards the close of the first siege of Zaragoza, August 5, 1808, +Marshal Lefebvre (1755-1820), under the impression that the city had +fallen into his hands, "required Palafox to surrender in these words: +'Quartel-general, Santa Engracia. La Capitulation!' ['Head-quarters, St. +Engracia. Capitulation']. The reply was, 'Quartel-general, Zaragoza. +Guerra al cuchillo' ['Head-quarters, Zaragoza. War at the knife's +point']." Subsequently, December, 1808, when Moncey (1754-1842) again +called upon him to surrender, he appealed to the people of Madrid. "The +dogs," he said, "by whom he was beset scarcely left him time to clean +his sword from their blood; but they still found their grave at +Zaragoza." Southey notes that "all Palafox's proclamations had the high +tone and something of the inflection of Spanish romance, suiting the +character of those to whom it was directed" (_Peninsular War_, ii. 25; +iii. 152; _Narrative of the Siege_, by C. R. Vaughan, 1809, pp. 22, 23). +Napier, whose account of the first siege of Zaragoza is based on +Caballero's _Victoires et Conquetes des Francais_, and on the _Journal +of Lefebvre's Operations_ (MSS.), does not record these romantic +incidents. He attributes the raising of the siege to the "bad discipline +of the French, and the system of terror established by the Spanish +leaders." The inspirers and proclaimers of "war even to the knife" were, +he maintains, _Tio_ or Goodman Jorge (Jorge Ibort) and Tio Murin, and +not Palafox, who was ignorant of war, and who, on more than one +occasion, was careful to provide for his own safety (_History of the War +in the Peninsula_, i. 41-46).] + + 19. + + And thou, my friend! etc. + Stanza xci. line 1. + +The Honourable John Wingfield, of the Guards, who died of a fever at +Coimbra (May 14, 1811). I had known him ten years, the better half of +his life, and the happiest part of mine. In the short space of one month +I have lost _her_ who gave me being, and most of those who had made +that being tolerable. To me the lines of Young are no fiction-- + + "Insatiate archer! could not one suffice? + Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain, + And thrice ere thrice yon moon had fill'd her horn." + _Night Thoughts: The Complaint_, Night i. + (London, 1825, p. 5). + +I should have ventured a verse to the memory of the late Charles Skinner +Matthews, Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, were he not too much +above all praise of mine. His powers of mind, shown in the attainment of +greater honours, against the ablest candidates, than those of any +graduate on record at Cambridge, have sufficiently established his fame +on the spot where it was acquired; while his softer qualities live in +the recollection of friends who loved him too well to envy his +superiority. [To an objection made by Dallas to this note, Byron +replied, "I was so sincere in my note on the late Charles Matthews, and +do feel myself so totally unable to do justice to his talents, that the +passage must stand for the very reason you bring against it. To him all +the men I ever knew were pigmies. He was an intellectual giant. It is +true I loved Wingfield better; he was the earliest and the dearest, and +one of the few one could never repent of having loved: but in +ability--ah! you did not know Matthews,!"--_Letters_, 1898, ii. 8. [For +Charles Skinner Matthews, and the Honourable John Wingfield, see +_Letters_, 1898, i. 150 note, 180 note. See, too, "Childish +Recollections," _Poems_, 1898, i. 96, note.] + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[110] {88} [_Vide post_, p. 196, note 1.] + +[111] [In a letter to J. B. S. Morritt, April 26, 1811, Sir Walter Scott +writes, "I meditate some wild stanzas referring to the Peninsula; if I +can lick them into any shape, I hope to get something handsome from the +booksellers for the Portuguese sufferers: 'Silver and gold have I none, +but that which I have I will give unto them.' My lyrics are called The +Vision of Don Roderick."--Lockhart's _Mem. of the Life of Sir W. Scott_, +1871, p. 205.] + +[112] {89} [Francois Horace Bastien Sebastiani (1772-1851), one of +Napoleon's generals, defeated the Spanish at Ciudad Real, March 17, +1809. In his official report he said that he had sabred more than 3000 +Spaniards in flight. At the battle of Talavera, July 27, his corps +suffered heavily; but at Almonacid, August 11, he was again victorious +over the Spanish.] + + * * * * * + + CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE + + CANTO THE SECOND. + + + Childe Harold + Canto 2. + + Byron. Joannina in Albania. + Begun Oct. 31st 1809. + Concluded Canto 2. Smyrna. + March 28^th^, 1810. [MS. D.] + + * * * * * + + + + + CANTO THE SECOND + + I.[113] + + Come, blue-eyed Maid of Heaven!--but Thou, alas! + Didst never yet one mortal song inspire-- + Goddess of Wisdom! here thy temple was, + And is, despite of War and wasting fire,[1.B.] + And years, that bade thy worship to expire: + But worse than steel, and flame, and ages slow,[2.B.] + Is the dread sceptre and dominion dire + Of men who never felt the sacred glow + That thoughts of thee and thine on polished breasts bestow. + + II. + + Ancient of days! august Athena! where,[do] + Where are thy men of might? thy grand in soul? + Gone--glimmering through the dream of things that were:[dp] + First in the race that led to Glory's goal, + They won, and passed away--is this the whole? + A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour! + The Warrior's weapon and the Sophist's stole[114] + Are sought in vain, and o'er each mouldering tower, + Dim with the mist of years, gray flits the shade of power.[dq] + + III. + + Son of the Morning, rise! approach you here! + Come--but molest not yon defenceless Urn: + Look on this spot--a Nation's sepulchre! + Abode of Gods, whose shrines no longer burn.[dr] + Even Gods must yield--Religions take their turn: + 'Twas Jove's--'tis Mahomet's--and other Creeds + Will rise with other years, till Man shall learn + Vainly his incense soars, his victim bleeds; + Poor child of Doubt and Death, whose hope is built on reeds.[ds] + + IV. + + Bound to the Earth, he lifts his eye to Heaven-- + Is't not enough, Unhappy Thing! to know + Thou art? Is this a boon so kindly given, + That being, thou would'st be again, and go, + Thou know'st not, reck'st not to what region, so[115] + On Earth no more, but mingled with the skies? + Still wilt thou dream on future Joy and Woe?[dt] + Regard and weigh yon dust before it flies: + That little urn saith more than thousand Homilies. + + V. + + Or burst the vanished Hero's lofty mound; + Far on the solitary shore he sleeps:[3.B.] + He fell, and falling nations mourned around; + But now not one of saddening thousands weeps, + Nor warlike worshipper his vigil keeps + Where demi-gods appeared, as records tell.[du][116] + Remove yon skull from out the scattered heaps: + Is that a Temple where a God may dwell? + Why ev'n the Worm at last disdains her shattered cell! + + VI. + + Look on its broken arch, its ruined wall, + Its chambers desolate, and portals foul: + Yes, this was once Ambition's airy hall, + The Dome of Thought, the Palace of the Soul: + Behold through each lack-lustre, eyeless hole, + The gay recess of Wisdom and of Wit[117] + And Passion's host, that never brooked control: + Can all Saint, Sage, or Sophist ever writ, + People this lonely tower, this tenement refit? + + VII. + + Well didst thou speak, Athena's wisest son![118] + "All that we know is, nothing can be known." + Why should we shrink from what we cannot shun? + Each hath its pang, but feeble sufferers groan + With brain-born dreams of Evil all their own. + Pursue what Chance or Fate proclaimeth best; + Peace waits us on the shores of Acheron: + There no forced banquet claims the sated guest, + But Silence spreads the couch of ever welcome Rest. + + VIII.[119] + + Yet if, as holiest men have deemed, there be[dv] + A land of Souls beyond that sable shore, + To shame the Doctrine of the Sadducee + And Sophists, madly vain of dubious lore; + How sweet it were in concert to adore + With those who made our mortal labours light! + To hear each voice we feared to hear no more! + Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight, + The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the Right! + + IX.[120] + + There, Thou!--whose Love and Life together fled, + Have left me here to love and live in vain-- + Twined with my heart, and can I deem thee dead + When busy Memory flashes on my brain? + Well--I will dream that we may meet again, + And woo the vision to my vacant breast: + If aught of young Remembrance then remain, + Be as it may Futurity's behest,[dw] + For me 'twere bliss enough to know thy spirit blest! + + X. + + Here let me sit upon this massy stone, + The marble column's yet unshaken base; + Here, son of Saturn! was thy favourite throne:[4.B.] + Mightiest of many such! Hence let me trace + The latent grandeur of thy dwelling-place. + It may not be: nor ev'n can Fancy's eye + Restore what Time hath laboured to deface. + Yet these proud Pillars claim no passing sigh; + Unmoved the Moslem sits, the light Greek carols by. + + XI. + + But who, of all the plunderers of yon Fane[121] + On high--where Pallas linger'd, loth to flee + The latest relic of her ancient reign-- + The last, the worst, dull spoiler, who was he?[dx] + Blush, Caledonia! such thy son could be! + England! I joy no child he was of thine: + Thy free-born men should spare what once was free; + Yet they could violate each saddening shrine, + And hear these altars o'er the long-reluctant brine.[5.B.] + + XII. + + But most the modern Pict's ignoble boast,[dy][122] + To rive what Goth, and Turk, and Time hath spared:[6.B.] + Cold as the crags upon his native coast, + His mind as barren and his heart as hard, + Is he whose head conceived, whose hand prepared. + Aught to displace Athenae's poor remains: + Her Sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard, + Yet felt some portion of their Mother's pains,[7.B.] + And never knew, till then, the weight of Despot's chains. + + XIII. + + What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue,[dz] + Albion was happy in Athena's tears? + Though in thy name the slaves her bosom wrung, + Tell not the deed to blushing Europe's ears; + The Ocean Queen, the free Britannia, bears + The last poor plunder from a bleeding land: + Yes, she, whose generous aid her name endears, + Tore down those remnants with a Harpy's hand, + Which envious Eld forbore, and tyrants left to stand.[ea] + + XIV. + + Where was thine AEgis, Pallas! that appalled[eb] + Stern Alaric and Havoc on their way?[8.B.] + Where Peleus' son? whom Hell in vain enthralled. + His shade from Hades upon that dread day + Bursting to light in terrible array! + What! could not Pluto spare the Chief once more, + To scare a second robber from his prey? + Idly he wandered on the Stygian shore, + Nor now preserved the walls he loved to shield before. + + XV. + + Cold is the heart, fair Greece! that looks on Thee, + Nor feels as Lovers o'er the dust they loved; + Dull is the eye that will not weep to see + Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed + By British hands, which it had best behoved[ec] + To guard those relics ne'er to be restored:-- + Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved, + And once again thy hapless bosom gored, + And snatched thy shrinking Gods to Northern climes abhorred![123] + + XVI. + + But where is Harold? shall I then forget + To urge the gloomy Wanderer o'er the wave? + Little recked he of all that Men regret; + No loved-one now in feigned lament could rave;[124] + No friend the parting hand extended gave, + Ere the cold Stranger passed to other climes: + Hard is his heart whom charms may not enslave; + But Harold felt not as in other times, + And left without a sigh the land of War and Crimes. + + XVII. + + He that has sailed upon the dark blue sea + Has viewed at times, I ween, a full fair sight, + When the fresh breeze is fair as breeze may be, + The white sail set, the gallant Frigate tight-- + Masts, spires, and strand retiring to the right, + The glorious Main expanding o'er the bow, + The Convoy spread like wild swans in their flight, + The dullest sailer wearing bravely now-- + So gaily curl the waves before each dashing prow. + + XVIII. + + And oh, the little warlike world within! + The well-reeved guns, the netted canopy,[9.B.] + The hoarse command, the busy humming din, + When, at a word, the tops are manned on high: + Hark, to the Boatswain's call, the cheering cry! + While through the seaman's hand the tackle glides; + Or schoolboy Midshipman that, standing by, + Strains his shrill pipe as good or ill betides, + And well the docile crew that skilful Urchin guides.[ed] + + XIX. + + White is the glassy deck, without a stain, + Where on the watch the staid Lieutenant walks: + Look on that part which sacred doth remain[ee] + For the lone Chieftain, who majestic stalks, + Silent and feared by all--not oft he talks + With aught beneath him, if he would preserve + That strict restraint, which broken, ever balks + Conquest and Fame: but Britons rarely swerve + From law, however stern, which tends their strength to nerve[ef]. + + XX. + + Blow! swiftly blow, thou keel-compelling gale! + Till the broad Sun withdraws his lessening ray: + Then must the Pennant-bearer slacken sail, + That lagging barks may make their lazy way.[125] + Ah! grievance sore, and listless dull delay, + To waste on sluggish hulks the sweetest breeze! + What leagues are lost, before the dawn of day, + Thus loitering pensive on the willing seas, + The flapping sail hauled down to halt for logs like these! + + XXI. + + The Moon is up; by Heaven, a lovely eve! + Long streams of light o'er dancing waves expand; + Now lads on shore may sigh, and maids believe[eg]: + Such be our fate when we return to land! + Meantime some rude Arion's restless hand[eh] + Wakes the brisk harmony that sailors love; + A circle there of merry listeners stand + Or to some well-known measure featly move, + Thoughtless, as if on shore they still were free to rove. + + XXII. + + Through Calpe's straits survey the steepy shore;[ei] + Europe and Afric on each other gaze![126] + Lands of the dark-eyed Maid and dusky Moor + Alike beheld beneath pale Hecate's blaze: + How softly on the Spanish shore she plays![127] + Disclosing rock, and slope, and forest brown,[128] + Distinct, though darkening with her waning phase; + But Mauritania's giant-shadows frown, + From mountain-cliff to coast descending sombre down. + + XXIII. + + 'Tis night, when Meditation bids us feel + We once have loved, though Love is at an end: + The Heart, lone mourner of its baffled zeal,[ej] + Though friendless now, will dream it had a friend. + Who with the weight of years would wish to bend, + When Youth itself survives young Love and Joy? + Alas! when mingling souls forget to blend, + Death hath but little left him to destroy! + Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy?[ek] + + XXIV. + + Thus bending o'er the vessel's laving side, + To gaze on Dian's wave-reflected sphere,[el] + The Soul forgets her schemes of Hope and Pride,[em] + And flies unconscious o'er each backward year; + None are so desolate but something dear,[en] + Dearer than self, possesses or possessed + A thought, and claims the homage of a tear; + A flashing pang! of which the weary breast + Would still, albeit in vain, the heavy heart divest. + + XXV.[eo][129] + + To sit on rocks--to muse o'er flood and fell-- + To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, + Where things that own not Man's dominion dwell, + And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been; + To climb the trackless mountain all unseen, + With the wild flock that never needs a fold; + Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;[ep] + This is not Solitude--'tis but to hold + Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled. + + XXVI. + + But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, + To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, + And roam along, the World's tired denizen, + With none who bless us, none whom we can bless; + Minions of Splendour shrinking from distress![130] + None that, with kindred consciousness endued, + If we were not, would seem to smile the less, + Of all that flattered--followed--sought, and sued: + This is to be alone--This, This is Solitude![eq] + + XXVII.[131] + + More blest the life of godly Eremite, + Such as on lonely Athos may be seen, + Watching at eve upon the Giant Height, + Which looks o'er waves so blue, skies so serene, + That he who there at such an hour hath been + Will wistful linger on that hallowed spot; + Then slowly tear him from the 'witching scene, + Sigh forth one wish that such had been his lot, + Then turn to hate a world he had almost forgot. + + XXVIII. + + Pass we the long unvarying course, the track + Oft trod, that never leaves a trace behind; + Pass we the calm--the gale--the change--the tack, + And each well known caprice of wave and wind; + Pass we the joys and sorrows sailors find, + Cooped in their winged sea-girt citadel; + The foul--the fair--the contrary--the kind-- + As breezes rise and fall and billows swell, + Till on some jocund morn--lo, Land! and All is well! + + XXIX. + + But not in silence pass Calypso's isles,[10.B.] + The sister tenants of the middle deep; + There for the weary still a Haven smiles, + Though the fair Goddess long hath ceased to weep, + And o'er her cliffs a fruitless watch to keep + For him who dared prefer a mortal bride: + Here, too, his boy essayed the dreadful leap + Stern Mentor urged from high to yonder tide; + While thus of both bereft, the Nymph-Queen doubly sighed.[132] + + XXX. + + Her reign is past, her gentle glories gone: + But trust not this; too easy Youth, beware! + A mortal Sovereign holds her dangerous throne, + And thou may'st find a new Calypso there. + Sweet Florence[133] could another ever share + This wayward, loveless heart, it would be thine: + But checked by every tie, I may not dare + To cast a worthless offering at thy shrine, + Nor ask so dear a breast to feel one pang for _mine_. + + XXXI. + + Thus Harold deemed, as on that Lady's eye + He looked, and met its beam without a thought, + Save Admiration glancing harmless by: + Love kept aloof, albeit not far remote, + Who knew his Votary often lost and caught, + But knew him as his Worshipper no more, + And ne'er again the Boy his bosom sought: + Since now he vainly urged him to adore, + Well deemed the little God his ancient sway was o'er. + + XXXII. + + Fair Florence found, in sooth with some amaze, + One who, 'twas said, still sighed to all he saw, + Withstand, unmoved, the lustre of her gaze, + Which others hailed with real or mimic awe, + Their hope, their doom, their punishment, their law; + All that gay Beauty from her bondsmen claims: + And much she marvelled that a youth so raw + Nor felt, nor feigned at least, the oft-told flames, + Which though sometimes they frown, yet rarely anger dames. + + XXXIII. + + Little knew she that seeming marble heart, + Now masked in silence or withheld by Pride, + Was not unskilful in the spoiler's art, + And spread its snares licentious far and wide;[134] + Nor from the base pursuit had turned aside, + As long as aught was worthy to pursue: + But Harold on such arts no more relied; + And had he doted on those eyes so blue, + Yet never would he join the lover's whining crew. + + XXXIV. + + Not much he kens, I ween, of Woman's breast, + Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs; + What careth she for hearts when once possessed? + Do proper homage to thine Idol's eyes; + But not too humbly, or she will despise + Thee and thy suit, though told in moving tropes: + Disguise ev'n tenderness, if thou art wise; + Brisk Confidence still best with woman copes:[er] + Pique her and soothe in turn--soon Passion crowns thy hopes. + + XXXV. + + 'Tis an old lesson--Time approves it true, + And those who know it best, deplore it most; + When all is won that all desire to woo, + The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost: + Youth wasted--Minds degraded--Honour lost--[es] + These are thy fruits, successful Passion! these![135] + If, kindly cruel, early Hope is crost, + Still to the last it rankles, a disease, + Not to be cured when Love itself forgets to please. + + XXXVI. + + Away! nor let me loiter in my song, + For we have many a mountain-path to tread, + And many a varied shore to sail along, + By pensive Sadness, not by Fiction, led-- + Climes, fair withal as ever mortal head[et] + Imagined in its little schemes of thought;[eu] + Or e'er in new Utopias were ared,[136] + To teach Man what he might be, or he ought-- + If that corrupted thing could ever such be taught. + + XXXVII. + + Dear Nature is the kindest mother still! + Though always changing, in her aspect mild; + From her bare bosom let me take my fill, + Her never-weaned, though not her favoured child.[ev] + Oh! she is fairest in her features wild, + Where nothing polished dares pollute her path: + To me by day or night she ever smiled, + Though I have marked her when none other hath, + And sought her more and more, and loved her best in wrath.[137] + + XXXVIII. + + Land of Albania! where Iskander rose,[138] + Theme of the young, and beacon of the wise,[139] + And he his namesake, whose oft-baffled foes + Shrunk from his deeds of chivalrous emprize: + Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes[11.B.] + On thee, thou rugged Nurse of savage men! + The Cross descends, thy Minarets arise, + And the pale Crescent sparkles in the glen, + Through many a cypress-grove within each city's ken. + + XXXIX. + + Childe Harold sailed, and passed the barren spot,[140] + Where sad Penelope o'erlooked the wave;[12.B.] + And onward viewed the mount, not yet forgot, + The Lover's refuge, and the Lesbian's grave. + Dark Sappho! could not Verse immortal save + That breast imbued with such immortal fire? + Could she not live who life eternal gave? + If life eternal may await the lyre, + That only Heaven to which Earth's children may aspire.[141] + + XL. + + 'Twas on a Grecian autumn's gentle eve + Childe Harold hailed Leucadia's cape afar; + A spot he longed to see, nor cared to leave: + Oft did he mark the scenes of vanished war, + Actium--Lepanto--fatal Trafalgar;[13.B.] + Mark them unmoved, for he would not delight + (Born beneath some remote inglorious star)[142] + In themes of bloody fray, or gallant fight, + But loathed the bravo's trade, and laughed at martial wight.[ew] + + XLI. + + But when he saw the Evening star above + Leucadia's far-projecting rock of woe, + And hailed the last resort of fruitless love,[14.B.] + He felt, or deemed he felt, no common glow: + And as the stately vessel glided slow[143] + Beneath the shadow of that ancient mount, + He watched the billows' melancholy flow, + And, sunk albeit in thought as he was wont,[ex] + More placid seemed his eye, and smooth his pallid front. + + XLII. + + Morn dawns; and with it stern Albania's hills, + Dark Suli's rocks, and Pindus' inland peak,[144] + Robed half in mist, bedewed with snowy rills, + Arrayed in many a dun and purple streak, + Arise; and, as the clouds along them break, + Disclose the dwelling of the mountaineer: + Here roams the wolf--the eagle whets his beak-- + Birds--beasts of prey--and wilder men appear, + And gathering storms around convulse the closing year. + + XLIII. + + Now Harold felt himself at length alone, + And bade to Christian tongues a long adieu; + Now he adventured on a shore unknown,[145] + Which all admire, but many dread to view: + His breast was armed 'gainst fate, his wants were few + Peril he sought not, but ne'er shrank to meet: + The scene was savage, but the scene was new; + _This_ made the ceaseless toil of travel sweet, + Beat back keen Winter's blast, and welcomed Summer's heat. + + XLIV. + + Here the red Cross, for still the Cross is here, + Though sadly scoffed at by the circumcised, + Forgets that Pride to pampered priesthood dear; + Churchman and Votary alike despised. + Foul Superstition! howsoe'er disguised, + Idol--Saint--Virgin--Prophet--Crescent--Cross-- + For whatsoever symbol thou art prized, + Thou sacerdotal gain, but general loss! + Who from true Worship's gold can separate thy dross? + + XLV. + + Ambracia's gulf behold, where once was lost + A world for Woman, lovely, harmless thing![ey][146] + In yonder rippling bay, their naval host + Did many a Roman chief and Asian King[15.B.] + To doubtful conflict, certain slaughter bring: + Look where the second Caesar's trophies rose![147][16.B.] + Now, like the hands that reared them, withering: + Imperial Anarchs, doubling human woes![ez] + GOD! was thy globe ordained for such to win and lose? + + XLVI. + + From the dark barriers of that rugged clime, + Ev'n to the centre of Illyria's vales, + Childe Harold passed o'er many a mount sublime, + Through lands scarce noticed in historic tales: + Yet in famed Attica such lovely dales + Are rarely seen; nor can fair Tempe boast + A charm they know not; loved Parnassus fails, + Though classic ground and consecrated most, + To match some spots that lurk within this lowering coast. + + XLVII. + + He passed bleak Pindus, Acherusia's lake,[17.B.] + And left the primal city of the land, + And onwards did his further journey take[148] + To greet Albania's Chief, whose dread command[18.B.] + Is lawless law; for with a bloody hand + He sways a nation,--turbulent and bold: + Yet here and there some daring mountain-band + Disdain his power, and from their rocky hold + Hurl their defiance far, nor yield, unless to gold.[19.B.] + + XLVIII. + + Monastic Zitza![149] from thy shady brow,[20.B.] + Thou small, but favoured spot of holy ground! + Where'er we gaze--around--above--below,-- + What rainbow tints, what magic charms are found! + Rock, river, forest, mountain, all abound, + And bluest skies that harmonise the whole: + Beneath, the distant Torrent's rushing sound + Tells where the volumed Cataract doth roll + Between those hanging rocks, that shock yet please the soul. + + XLIX. + + Amidst the grove that crowns yon tufted hill, + Which, were it not for many a mountain nigh + Rising in lofty ranks, and loftier still, + Might well itself be deemed of dignity, + The Convent's white walls glisten fair on high: + Here dwells the caloyer, nor rude is he,[21.B.] + Nor niggard of his cheer;[150] the passer by + Is welcome still; nor heedless will he flee + From hence, if he delight kind Nature's sheen to see. + + L. + + Here in the sultriest season let him rest, + Fresh is the green beneath those aged trees; + Here winds of gentlest wing will fan his breast,[fa] + From Heaven itself he may inhale the breeze: + The plain is far beneath--oh! let him seize + Pure pleasure while he can; the scorching ray + Here pierceth not, impregnate with disease: + Then let his length the loitering pilgrim lay, + And gaze, untired, the Morn--the Noon--the Eve away. + + LI. + + Dusky and huge, enlarging on the sight, + Nature's volcanic Amphitheatre,[22.B.] + Chimaera's Alps extend from left to right: + Beneath, a living valley seems to stir; + Flocks play, trees wave, streams flow, the mountain-fir + Nodding above; behold black Acheron![23.B.] + Once consecrated to the sepulchre. + Pluto! if this be Hell I look upon, + Close shamed Elysium's gates, my shade shall seek for none[fb]. + + LII. + + Ne city's towers pollute the lovely view; + Unseen is Yanina, though not remote, + Veiled by the screen of hills: here men are few, + Scanty the hamlet, rare the lonely cot: + But, peering down each precipice, the goat[fc] + Browseth; and, pensive o'er his scattered flock, + The little shepherd in his white capote[24.B.] + Doth lean his boyish form along the rock, + Or in his cave awaits the Tempest's short-lived shock.[fd] + + LIII. + + Oh! where, Dodona![151] is thine aged Grove, + Prophetic Fount, and Oracle divine? + What valley echoed the response of Jove? + What trace remaineth of the Thunderer's shrine? + All, all forgotten--and shall Man repine + That his frail bonds to fleeting life are broke?[152] + Cease, Fool! the fate of Gods may well be thine: + Wouldst thou survive the marble or the oak? + When nations, tongues, and worlds must sink beneath the stroke! + + LIV. + + Epirus' bounds recede, and mountains fail;[153] + Tired of up-gazing still, the wearied eye + Reposes gladly on as smooth a vale + As ever Spring yclad in grassy dye:[154] + Ev'n on a plain no humble beauties lie, + Where some bold river breaks the long expanse, + And woods along the banks are waving high, + Whose shadows in the glassy waters dance, + Or with the moonbeam sleep in Midnight's solemn trance. + + LV. + + The Sun had sunk behind vast Tomerit,[25.B.] + And Laos wide and fierce came roaring by;[26.B.] + The shades of wonted night were gathering yet, + When, down the steep banks winding warily, + Childe Harold saw, like meteors in the sky,[155] + The glittering minarets of Tepalen, + Whose walls o'erlook the stream; and drawing nigh, + He heard the busy hum of warrior-men + Swelling the breeze that sighed along the lengthening glen. + + LVI. + + He passed the sacred Haram's silent tower, + And underneath the wide o'erarching gate + Surveyed the dwelling of this Chief of power, + Where all around proclaimed his high estate. + Amidst no common pomp the Despot sate, + While busy preparation shook the court, + Slaves, eunuchs, soldiers, guests, and santons[156] wait;[fe] + Within, a palace, and without, a fort: + Here men of every clime appear to make resort. + + LVII. + + Richly caparisoned, a ready row + Of armed horse, and many a warlike store, + Circled the wide-extending court below; + Above, strange groups adorned the corridore; + And oft-times through the area's echoing door + Some high-capped Tartar spurred his steed away: + The Turk--the Greek--the Albanian--and the Moor, + Here mingled in their many-hued array, + While the deep war-drum's sound announced the close of day.[ff] + + LVIII. + + The wild Albanian kirtled to his knee, + With shawl-girt head and ornamented gun, + And gold-embroidered garments, fair to see; + The crimson-scarfed men of Macedon; + The Delhi with his cap of terror on, + And crooked glaive--the lively, supple Greek + And swarthy Nubia's mutilated son; + The bearded Turk that rarely deigns to speak, + Master of all around, too potent to be meek, + + LIX. + + Are mixed conspicuous: some recline in groups,[157] + Scanning the motley scene that varies round; + There some grave Moslem to devotion stoops, + And some that smoke, and some that play, are found; + Here the Albanian proudly treads the ground; + Half-whispering there the Greek is heard to prate; + Hark! from the Mosque the nightly solemn sound, + The Muezzin's call doth shake the minaret, + "There is no god but God!--to prayer--lo! God is great!" + + LX. + + Just at this season Ramazani's fast[158] + Through the long day its penance did maintain: + But when the lingering twilight hour was past, + Revel and feast assumed the rule again: + Now all was bustle, and the menial train + Prepared and spread the plenteous board within; + The vacant Gallery now seemed made in vain, + But from the chambers came the mingling din, + As page and slave anon were passing out and in.[159] + + LXI. + + Here woman's voice is never heard: apart, + And scarce permitted, guarded, veiled, to move,[fg] + She yields to one her person and her heart, + Tamed to her cage, nor feels a wish to rove: + For, not unhappy in her Master's love,[fh] + And joyful in a mother's gentlest cares, + Blest cares! all other feelings far above! + Herself more sweetly rears the babe she bears + Who never quits the breast--no meaner passion shares. + + LXII. + + In marble-paved pavilion, where a spring + Of living water from the centre rose, + Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling, + And soft voluptuous couches breathed repose, + ALI reclined, a man of war and woes:[160] + Yet in his lineaments ye cannot trace, + While Gentleness her milder radiance throws[161] + Along that aged venerable face, + The deeds that lurk beneath, and stain him with disgrace. + + LXIII. + + It is not that yon hoary lengthening beard + Ill suits the passions which belong to Youth;[fi] + Love conquers Age--so Hafiz hath averr'd, + So sings the Teian, and he sings in sooth[162]-- + But crimes that scorn the tender voice of ruth,[fj][163] + Beseeming all men ill, but most the man + In years, have marked him with a tiger's tooth; + Blood follows blood, and, through their mortal span, + In bloodier acts conclude those who with blood began.[fk][164] + + LXIV. + + 'Mid many things most new to ear and eye[fl] + The Pilgrim rested here his weary feet, + And gazed around on Moslem luxury, + Till quickly, wearied with that spacious seat + Of Wealth and Wantonness, the choice retreat + Of sated Grandeur from the city's noise: + And were it humbler it in sooth were sweet; + But Peace abhorreth artificial joys, + And Pleasure, leagued with Pomp, the zest of both destroys. + + LXV. + + Fierce are Albania's children, yet they lack + Not virtues, were those virtues more mature. + Where is the foe that ever saw their back? + Who can so well the toil of War endure? + Their native fastnesses not more secure + Than they in doubtful time of troublous need: + Their wrath how deadly! but their friendship sure, + When Gratitude or Valour bids them bleed, + Unshaken rushing on where'er their Chief may lead. + + LXVI. + + Childe Harold saw them in their Chieftain's tower + Thronging to War in splendour and success; + And after viewed them, when, within their power, + Himself awhile the victim of distress; + That saddening hour when bad men hotlier press: + But these did shelter him beneath their roof, + When less barbarians would have cheered him less, + And fellow-countrymen have stood aloof--[27.B.] + In aught that tries the heart, how few withstand the proof! + + LXVII. + + It chanced that adverse winds once drove his bark + Full on the coast of Suli's shaggy shore,[165] + When all around was desolate and dark; + To land was perilous, to sojourn more; + Yet for awhile the mariners forbore, + Dubious to trust where Treachery might lurk: + At length they ventured forth, though doubting sore + That those who loathe alike the Frank and Turk + Might once again renew their ancient butcher-work. + + LXVIII. + + Vain fear! the Suliotes stretched the welcome hand, + Led them o'er rocks and past the dangerous swamp, + Kinder than polished slaves though not so bland, + And piled the hearth, and wrung their garments damp, + And filled the bowl, and trimmed the cheerful lamp, + And spread their fare; though homely, all they had: + Such conduct bears Philanthropy's rare stamp: + To rest the weary and to soothe the sad, + Doth lesson happier men, and shames at least the bad. + + LXIX. + + It came to pass, that when he did address + Himself to quit at length this mountain-land, + Combined marauders half-way barred egress, + And wasted far and near with glaive and brand; + And therefore did he take a trusty band + To traverse Acarnania's forest wide, + In war well-seasoned, and with labours tanned, + Till he did greet white Achelous' tide, + And from his further bank AEtolia's wolds espied.[166] + + LXX. + + Where lone Utraikey forms its circling cove,[167] + And weary waves retire to gleam at rest, + How brown the foliage of the green hill's grove, + Nodding at midnight o'er the calm bay's breast, + As winds come lightly whispering from the West, + Kissing, not ruffling, the blue deep's serene:-- + Here Harold was received a welcome guest; + Nor did he pass unmoved the gentle scene, + For many a joy could he from Night's soft presence glean. + + LXXI. + + On the smooth shore the night-fires brightly blazed, + The feast was done, the red wine circling fast,[28.B.] + And he that unawares had there ygazed + With gaping wonderment had stared aghast; + For ere night's midmost, stillest hour was past, + The native revels of the troop began; + Each Palikar his sabre from him cast,[29.B.] + And bounding hand in hand, man linked to man, + Yelling their uncouth dirge, long daunced the kirtled clan.[168] + + LXXII. + + Childe Harold at a little distance stood + And viewed, but not displeased, the revelrie, + Nor hated harmless mirth, however rude: + In sooth, it was no vulgar sight to see + Their barbarous, yet their not indecent, glee; + And, as the flames along their faces gleamed, + Their gestures nimble, dark eyes flashing free, + The long wild locks that to their girdles streamed, + While thus in concert they this lay half sang, + half screamed:--[169][30.B.] + + + 1. + + Tambourgi![170] Tambourgi! thy 'larum afar[fm][31.B.] + Gives hope to the valiant, and promise of war; + All the Sons of the mountains arise at the note, + Chimariot, Illyrian, and dark Suliote! + + 2. + + Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote, + In his snowy camese[171] and his shaggy capote? + To the wolf and the vulture he leaves his wild flock, + And descends to the plain like the stream from the rock. + + 3. + + Shall the sons of Chimari, who never forgive[fn] + The fault of a friend, bid an enemy live? + Let those guns so unerring such vengeance forego? + What mark is so fair as the breast of a foe?[172] + + 4. + + Macedonia sends forth her invincible race; + For a time they abandon the cave and the chase: + But those scarfs of blood-red shall be redder, before + The sabre is sheathed and the battle is o'er. + + 5. + + Then the Pirates of Parga that dwell by the waves, + And teach the pale Franks what it is to be slaves, + Shall leave on the beach the long galley and oar, + And track to his covert the captive on shore. + + 6. + + I ask not the pleasures that riches supply, + My sabre shall win what the feeble must buy; + Shall win the young bride with her long flowing hair,[fo] + And many a maid from her mother shall tear. + + 7. + + I love the fair face of the maid in her youth,[fp] + Her caresses shall lull me, her music shall soothe;[fq] + Let her bring from the chamber her many-toned lyre, + And sing us a song on the fall of her Sire. + + 8. + + Remember the moment when Previsa fell,[173][32.B.] + The shrieks of the conquered, the conquerors' yell; + The roofs that we fired, and the plunder we shared, + The wealthy we slaughtered, the lovely we spared. + + 9. + + I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear; + He neither must know who would serve the Vizier: + Since the days of our Prophet the Crescent ne'er saw + A chief ever glorious like Ali Pashaw. + + 10. + + Dark Muchtar his son to the Danube is sped,[174] + Let the yellow-haired[175] Giaours[176] + view his horse-tail[177] with dread; + When his Delhis[178] come dashing in blood o'er the banks, + How few shall escape from the Muscovite ranks! + + 11. + + Selictar![179] unsheathe then our chief's Scimit[=a]r; + Tambourgi! thy 'larum gives promise of War.[fr] + Ye Mountains, that see us descend to the shore, + Shall view us as Victors, or view us no more! + + LXXIII. + + Fair Greece! sad relic of departed Worth![33.B.] + Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great! + Who now shall lead thy scattered children forth, + And long accustomed bondage uncreate? + Not such thy sons who whilome did await, + The helpless warriors of a willing doom, + In bleak Thermopylae's sepulchral strait-- + Oh! who that gallant spirit shall resume, + Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from the tomb?[180] + + LXXIV. + + Spirit of Freedom! when on Phyle's brow[34.B.] + Thou sat'st with Thrasybulus and his train, + Couldst thou forebode the dismal hour which now + Dims the green beauties of thine Attic plain? + Not thirty tyrants now enforce the chain, + But every carle can lord it o'er thy land; + Nor rise thy sons, but idly rail in vain, + Trembling beneath the scourge of Turkish hand, + From birth till death enslaved; in word, in deed, unmanned.[fs] + + LXXV. + + In all save form alone, how changed! and who + That marks the fire still sparkling in each eye, + Who but would deem their bosoms burned anew + With thy unquenched beam, lost Liberty![ft] + And many dream withal the hour is nigh + That gives them back their fathers' heritage: + For foreign arms and aid they fondly sigh, + Nor solely dare encounter hostile rage, + Or tear their name defiled from Slavery's mournful page. + + LXXVI. + + Hereditary Bondsmen! know ye not + _Who_ would be free _themselves_ must strike the blow? + By their right arms the conquest must be wrought?[181] + Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? No! + True--they may lay your proud despoilers low, + But not for you will Freedom's Altars flame. + Shades of the Helots! triumph o'er your foe! + Greece! change thy lords, thy state is still the same; + Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thine years of shame. + + LXXVII. + + The city won for Allah from the Giaour + The Giaour from Othman's race again may wrest; + And the Serai's impenetrable tower + Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest;[35.B.] + Or Wahab's[182] rebel brood who dared divest + The Prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil,[36.B.] + May wind their path of blood along the West; + But ne'er will Freedom seek this fated soil, + But slave succeed to slave through years of endless toil. + + LXXVIII. + + Yet mark their mirth--ere Lenten days begin, + That penance which their holy rites prepare + To shrive from Man his weight of mortal sin, + By daily abstinence and nightly prayer; + But ere his sackcloth garb Repentance wear, + Some days of joyaunce are decreed to all, + To take of pleasaunce each his secret share, + In motley robe to dance at masking ball, + And join the mimic train of merry Carnival. + + LXXIX.[183] + + And whose more rife with merriment than thine, + Oh Stamboul! once the Empress of their reign? + Though turbans now pollute Sophia's shrine, + And Greece her very altars eyes in vain: + (Alas! her woes will still pervade my strain!) + Gay were her minstrels once, for free her throng, + All felt the common joy they now must feign, + Nor oft I've seen such sight, nor heard such song, + As wooed the eye, and thrilled the Bosphorus along. + + LXXX. + + Loud was the lightsome tumult on the shore,[184] + Oft Music changed, but never ceased her tone, + And timely echoed back the measured oar, + And rippling waters made a pleasant moan: + The Queen of tides on high consenting shone, + And when a transient breeze swept o'er the wave, + 'Twas, as if darting from her heavenly throne, + A brighter glance her form reflected gave, + Till sparkling billows seemed to light the banks they lave. + + LXXXI. + + Glanced many a light Caique along the foam, + Danced on the shore the daughters of the land, + No thought had man or maid of rest or home, + While many a languid eye and thrilling hand + Exchanged the look few bosoms may withstand, + Or gently prest, returned the pressure still: + Oh Love! young Love! bound in thy rosy band, + Let sage or cynic prattle as he will, + These hours, and only these, redeem Life's years of ill![185] + + LXXXII. + + But, midst the throng in merry masquerade, + Lurk there no hearts that throb with secret pain, + Even through the closest searment[186] half betrayed? + To such the gentle murmurs of the main + Seem to re-echo all they mourn in vain; + To such the gladness of the gamesome crowd + Is source of wayward thought and stern disdain: + How do they loathe the laughter idly loud, + And long to change the robe of revel for the shroud! + + LXXXIII. + + This must he feel, the true-born son of Greece, + If Greece one true-born patriot still can boast: + Not such as prate of War, but skulk in Peace, + The bondsman's peace, who sighs for all he lost, + Yet with smooth smile his Tyrant can accost, + And wield the slavish sickle, not the sword: + Ah! Greece! they love thee least who owe thee most-- + Their birth, their blood, and that sublime record[187] + Of hero Sires, who shame thy now degenerate horde! + + LXXXIV. + + When riseth Lacedemon's Hardihood, + When Thebes Epaminondas rears again, + When Athens' children are with hearts endued,[fu] + When Grecian mothers shall give birth to men, + Then may'st thou be restored; but not till then. + A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; + An hour may lay it in the dust: and when + Can Man its shattered splendour renovate, + Recall its virtues back, and vanquish Time and Fate? + + LXXXV. + + And yet how lovely in thine age of woe, + Land of lost Gods and godlike men, art thou! + Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow,[37.B.] + Proclaim thee Nature's varied favourite now: + Thy fanes, thy temples to thy surface bow, + Commingling slowly with heroic earth, + Broke by the share of every rustic plough: + So perish monuments of mortal birth, + So perish all in turn, save well-recorded _Worth_:[188] + + LXXXVI. + + Save where some solitary column[189] mourns + Above its prostrate brethren of the cave;[38.B.] + Save where Tritonia's[190] airy shrine adorns + Colonna's cliff,[191] and gleams along the wave; + Save o'er some warrior's half-forgotten grave, + Where the gray stones and unmolested grass + Ages, but not Oblivion, feebly brave; + While strangers, only, not regardless pass, + Lingering like me, perchance, to gaze, and sigh "Alas!" + + LXXXVII. + + Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild; + Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields, + Thine olive ripe as when Minerva[192] smiled, + And still his honied wealth Hymettus[193] yields; + There the blithe Bee his fragrant fortress builds, + The free-born wanderer of thy mountain-air; + Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds, + Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare:[fv] + Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair. + + LXXXVIII.[194] + + Where'er we tread 'tis haunted, holy ground; + No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould, + But one vast realm of Wonder spreads around, + And all the Muse's tales seem truly told, + Till the sense aches with gazing to behold + The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon; + Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold + Defies the power which crushed thy temples gone: + Age shakes Athenae's tower, but spares gray Marathon.[195] + + LXXXIX. + + The Sun, the soil--but not the slave, the same;-- + Unchanged in all except its foreign Lord, + Preserves alike its bounds and boundless fame[fw] + The Battle-field, where Persia's victim horde + First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword, + As on the morn to distant Glory dear, + When Marathon became a magic word;[39.B.] + Which uttered, to the hearer's eye appear[fx] + The camp, the host, the fight, the Conqueror's career,[fy] + + XC. + + The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow--[fz][196] + The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear; + Mountains above--Earth's, Ocean's plain below-- + Death in the front, Destruction in the rear! + Such was the scene--what now remaineth here? + What sacred Trophy marks the hallowed ground, + Recording Freedom's smile and Asia's tear?[ga] + The rifled urn, the violated mound,[197] + The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger! spurns around. + + XCI. + + Yet to the remnants of thy Splendour past[gb] + Shall pilgrims, pensive, but unwearied, throng; + Long shall the voyager, with th' Ionian blast,[198] + Hail the bright clime of Battle and of Song: + Long shall thine annals and immortal tongue + Fill with thy fame the youth of many a shore; + Boast of the aged! lesson of the young! + Which Sages venerate and Bards adore, + As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore. + + XCII. + + The parted bosom clings to wonted home, + If aught that's kindred cheer the welcome hearth; + He that is lonely--hither let him roam, + And gaze complacent on congenial earth. + Greece is no lightsome land of social mirth: + But he whom Sadness sootheth may abide, + And scarce regret the region of his birth, + When wandering slow by Delphi's sacred side, + Or gazing o'er the plains where Greek and Persian died.[199] + + XCIII. + + Let such approach this consecrated Land, + And pass in peace along the magic waste; + But spare its relics--let no busy hand + Deface the scenes, already how defaced! + Not for such purpose were these altars placed: + Revere the remnants Nations once revered: + So may our Country's name be undisgraced, + So may'st thou prosper where thy youth was reared, + By every honest joy of Love and Life endeared! + + XCIV. + + For thee, who thus in too protracted song + Hast soothed thine Idlesse with inglorious lays, + Soon shall thy voice be lost amid the throng + Of louder Minstrels in these later days: + To such resign the strife for fading Bays-- + Ill may such contest now the spirit move + Which heeds nor keen Reproach nor partial Praise,[gc] + Since cold each kinder heart that might approve-- + And none are left to please when none are left to love. + + XCV. + + Thou too art gone, thou loved and lovely one! + Whom Youth and Youth's affections bound to me; + Who did for me what none beside have done, + Nor shrank from one albeit unworthy thee. + What is my Being! thou hast ceased to be! + Nor staid to welcome here thy wanderer home, + Who mourns o'er hours which we no more shall see-- + Would they had never been, or were to come! + Would he had ne'er returned to find fresh cause to roam![gd][200] + + XCVI. + + Oh! ever loving, lovely, and beloved! + How selfish Sorrow ponders on the past, + And clings to thoughts now better far removed! + But Time shall tear thy shadow from me last.[ge] + All thou couldst have of mine, stern Death! thou hast; + The Parent, Friend, and now the more than Friend: + Ne'er yet for one thine arrows flew so fast,[201] + And grief with grief continuing still to blend, + Hath snatched the little joy that Life had yet to lend. + + XCVII. + + Then must I plunge again into the crowd, + And follow all that Peace disdains to seek? + Where Revel calls, and Laughter, vainly loud, + False to the heart, distorts the hollow cheek, + To leave the flagging spirit doubly weak; + Still o'er the features, which perforce they cheer, + To feign the pleasure or conceal the pique: + Smiles form the channel of a future tear, + Or raise the writhing lip with ill-dissembled sneer. + + XCVIII. + + What is the worst of woes that wait on Age? + What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? + To view each loved one blotted from Life's page, + And be alone on earth, as I am now. + Before the Chastener humbly let me bow, + O'er Hearts divided and o'er Hopes destroyed: + Roll on, vain days! full reckless may ye flow, + Since Time hath reft whate'er my soul enjoyed,[gf] + And with the ills of Eld mine earlier years alloyed. + + * * * * * + +[Note.--The MS. closes with stanza xcii. Stanzas xciii.-xcviii. were +added after _Childe Harold_ was in the press. Byron sent them to Dallas, +October 11, 1811, and, apparently, on the same day composed the _Epistle +to a Friend_ (F. Hodgson) _in answer to some lines exhorting the Author +to be cheerful, and to "Banish Care,"_ and the first poem _To Thyrza_ +("Without a stone to mark the Spot"). "I have sent," he writes, "two or +three additional stanzas for both '_Fyttes_.' I have been again shocked +with a _death_, and have lost one very dear to me in happier times; but +'I have almost forgot the taste of grief,' and 'supped full of horrors' +till I have become callous, nor have I a tear left for an event which, +five years ago, would have bowed down my head to the earth. It seems as +though I were to experience in my youth the greatest misery of age. My +friends fall around me, and I shall be left a lonely tree before I am +withered." In one respect he would no longer disclaim identity with +Childe Harold. "Death had deprived him of his nearest connections." He +had seen his friends "around him fall like leaves in wintry weather." He +felt "like one deserted;" and in the "dusky shadow" of that early +desolation he was destined to walk till his life's end. It is not +without cause when "a man of great spirit grows melancholy." + +In connection with this subject, it may be noted that lines 6 and 7 of +stanza xcv. do not bear out Byron's contention to Dallas (_Letters_, +October 14 and 31, 1811), that in these three _in memoriam_ stanzas +(ix., xcv., xcvi.) he is bewailing an event which took place _after_ he +returned to Newstead. The "more than friend" had "ceased to be" before +the "wanderer" returned. It is evident that Byron did not take Dallas +into his confidence.] + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[113] {99} [Stanzas i.-xv. form a kind of dramatic prologue to the +Second Canto of the Pilgrimage. The general meaning is clear enough, but +the unities are disregarded. The scene shifts more than once, and there +is a moral within a moral. The poet begins by invoking Athena (Byron +wrote Athenae) to look down on the ruins of "her holy and beautiful +house," and bewails her unreturning heroes of the sword and pen. He then +summons an Oriental, a "Son of the Morning," Moslem or "light Greek," +possibly a _Canis venaticus_, the discoverer or vendor of a sepulchral +urn, and, with an adjuration to spare the sacred relic, points to the +Acropolis, the cemetery of dead divinities, and then once more to the +urn at his feet. "'Vanity of vanities--all is vanity!' Gods and men may +come and go, but Death 'goes on for ever.'" The scene changes, and he +feigns to be present at the rifling of a barrow, the "tomb of the +Athenian heroes" on the plain of Marathon, or one of the lonely tumuli +on Sigeum and Rhoeteum, "the great and goodly tombs" of Achilles and +Patroclus ("they twain in one golden urn"); of Antilochus, and of +Telamonian Ajax. Marathon he had already visited, and marked "the +perpendicular cut" which at Fauvel's instigation had been recently +driven into the large barrow; and he had, perhaps, read of the real or +pretended excavation by Signor Ghormezano (1787) of a tumulus at the +Sigean promontory. The "mind's eye," which had conjured up "the +shattered heaps," images a skull of one who "kept the world in awe," +and, after moralizing in Hamlet's vein on the humorous catastrophe of +decay, the poet concludes with the Preacher "that there is no work, nor +device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave." After this profession +of unfaith, before he returns to Harold and his pilgrimage, he takes up +his parable and curses Elgin and all his works. The passage as a whole +suggests the essential difference between painting and poetry. As a +composition, it recalls the frontispiece of a seventeenth-century +classic. The pictured scene, with its superfluity of accessories, is +grotesque enough; but the poetic scenery, inconsequent and yet vivid as +a dream, awakens, and fulfills the imagination. (_Travels in Albania_, +by Lord Broughton, 1858, i. 380; ii. 128, 129, 138; _The Odyssey_, xxiv. +74, _sq_. See, too, Byron's letters to his mother, April 17, and to H. +Drury, May 3, 1810: _Letters_, 1898, i. 262.)] + +[do] {100} _Ancient of days! august Athenae! where_.--[MS. D.] + +[dp] _Gone--mingled with the waste_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[114] {101} ["Stole," apart from its restricted use as an ecclesiastical +vestment, is used by Spenser and other poets as an equivalent for any +long and loosely flowing robe, but is, perhaps inaccurately, applied to +the short cloak (_tribon_), the "habit" of Socrates when he lived, and, +after his death, the distinctive dress of the cynics.] + +[dq] ----_gray flits the Ghost of Power_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[dr] ----_whose altars cease to burn_.--[D.] + +[ds] ----_whose Faith is built on reeds_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[115] {102} [Compare Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_, act iii, sc. 1, +lines 5-7-- + + "Reason thus with life: + If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing + That none but fools would keep."] + +[dt] _Still wilt thou harp_----.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[du] _Though 'twas a God, as graver records tell_.--[MS. erased.] + +[116] [The demigods Erechtheus and Theseus "appeared" at Marathon, and +fought side by side with Miltiades (Grote's _History of Greece_, iv. +284).] + +[117] {103} [Compare Shakespeare, _Hamlet_, act v. sc. 1, _passim_.] + +[118] [Socrates affirmed that true self-knowledge was to know that we +know nothing, and in his own case he denied any other knowledge; but +"this confession of ignorance was certainly not meant to be a sceptical +denial of all knowledge." "The idea of knowledge was to him a boundless +field, in the face of which he could not but be ignorant" (_Socrates and +the Socratic Schools_, by Dr. E. Zeller, London, 1868, p. 102).] + +[119] [Stanzas viii. and ix. are not in the MS. + +The expunged lines (see _var._ i.) carried the Lucretian tenets of the +preceding stanza to their logical conclusion. The end is silence, not a +reunion with superior souls. But Dallas objected; and it may well be +that, in the presence of death, Byron could not "guard his unbelief," or +refrain from a renewed questioning of the "Grand Perhaps." Stanza for +stanza, the new version is an improvement on the original. (See +_Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, 1824, p. 169. See, too, +letters to Hodgson, September 3 and September 13, 1811: _Letters_, 1898, +ii. 18, 34.)] + +[dv] + + _Frown not upon me, churlish Priest! that I_ + _Look not for Life, where life may never be:_ + _I am no sneerer at thy phantasy;_ + _Thou pitiest me, alas! I envy thee,_ + _Thou bold Discoverer in an unknown sea_ + _Of happy Isles and happier Tenants there;_ + _I ask thee not to prove a Sadducee;_[Sec.1] + _Still dream of Paradise, thou know'st not where,_[Sec.2] + _Which if it be thy sins will never let thee share_.[Sec.3] + --[MS. D. erased.]_ + +[Sec.1] The Sadducees did not believe in the Resurrection.--[MS. D.] + +[Sec.2] + + _But look upon a scene that once was fair_.--[Erased.] + _Zion's holy hill which thou wouldst fancy fair_.--[Erased.] + +[Sec.3] + + _As those, which thou delight'st to rear in upper air_.--[Erased.] + _Yet lovs't too well to bid thine erring brother share_.--[D. erased.] + +[120] {104} [Byron forwarded this stanza in a letter to Dallas, dated +October 14, 1811, and was careful to add, "I think it proper to state to +you, that this stanza alludes to an event which has taken place since my +arrival here, and not to the death of any _male_ friend" (_Letters_. +1898, ii. 57). The reference is not to Edleston, as Dallas might have +guessed, and as Wright (see _Poetical Works_, 1891, p. 17) believed. +Again, in a letter to Dallas, dated October 31, 1811 (_ibid_., ii. 65), +he sends "a few stanzas," presumably the lines "To Thyrza," which are +dated October 31, 1811, and says that "they refer to the death of one to +whose name you are a _stranger_, and, consequently, cannot be interested +(_sic_) ... They relate to the same person whom I have mentioned in Canto +2nd, and at the conclusion of the poem." It follows from this second +statement that we have Byron's authority for connecting stanza ix. with +stanzas xcv., xcvi., and, inferentially, his authority for connecting +stanzas ix., xcv., xcvi. with the group of "Thyrza" poems. And there our +knowledge ends. We must leave the mystery where Byron willed that it +should be left. "All that we know is, nothing can be known."] + +[dw] {105} + + _Whate'er beside_} + } _Futurity's behest_.[Sec.] + _Howe'er may be_ } + Or seeing thee no more to sink in sullen rest_.--[MS. D.] + +[Sec.] [See letter to Dallas, October 14, 1811.] + +[121] {106} [For note on the "Elgin Marbles," see _Introduction to the +Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 453-456.] + +[dx] + _The last, the worst dull Robber, who was he?_ + _Blush Scotland such a slave thy son could be_-- + _England! I joy no child he was of thine:_ + _Thy freeborn men revere what once was free,_ + _Nor tear the Sculpture from its saddening shrine,_ + _Nor bear the spoil away athwart the weeping Brine_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[dy] + _This be the wittol Picts ignoble boast_.--[MS. D.] + _To rive what Goth and Turk, and Time hath spared:_ + _Cold and accursed as his native coast_.--[MS. D. erased] + +[122] ["On the plaster wall of the Chapel of Pandrosos adjoining the +Erechtheum, these words have been very deeply cut-- + + 'Quod non fecerunt Goti, + Hoc fecerunt Scoti'" + +(_Travels in Albania_, 1858, i. 299). M. Darmesteter quotes the +original: "mot sur les Barberini" ("Quod non fecere Barbari, Fecere +Barberini"). It may be added that Scotchmen are named among the +volunteers who joined the Hanoverian mercenaries in the Venetian +invasion of Greece in 1686. (See _The Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works_, +1898, i. 463, note 1; Finlay's _Hist. of Greece_, v. 189.)] + +[dz] {107} + + What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue, + Albion was happy while Athenae mourned? + Though in thy name the slave her bosom wrung, + Albion! I would not see thee thus adorned + With gains thy generous spirit should have scorned, + From Man distinguished by some monstrous sign, + Like Attila the Hun was surely horned,[Sec.1] + Who wrought the ravage amid works divine: + Oh that Minerva's voice lent its keen aid to mine.--[MS. D. erased.] + + What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue, + Albion was happy in Athenae's tears? + Though in thy name the slave her bosom wrung, + Let it not vibrate in pale Europe's ears,[Sec.2] + The Saviour Queen, the free Britannia, wears + The last poor blunder of a bleeding land: + That she, whose generous aid her name endears, + Tore down those remnants with a Harpy's hand, + Which Envious Eld forbore and Tyrants left to stand.--[MS. D.][Sec.3] + +[Sec.1] Attila was horned, if we may trust contemporary legends, and the +etchings of his visage in Lavater.--[M.S.] + +[Sec.2] Lines 5-9 in the Dallas transcript are in Byron's handwriting. + +[Sec.3] _Which centuries forgot_----.--[D. erased.] + +[ea] {108} After stanza xiii. the MS. inserts the two following +stanzas:-- + + Come then, ye classic Thieves of each degree, + Dark Hamilton[Sec.1] and sullen Aberdeen, + Come pilfer all the Pilgrim loves to see, + All that yet consecrates the fading scene: + Ah! better were it ye had never been, + Nor ye, nor Elgin, nor that lesser wight. + The victim sad of vase-collecting spleen. + House-furnisher withal, one Thomas[Sec.2] hight, + Than ye should bear one stone from wronged Athenae's site. + + Or will the gentle Dilettanti crew + Now delegate the task to digging Gell,[Sec.3] + That mighty limner of a bird's eye view, + How like to Nature let his volumes tell: + Who can with him the folio's limit swell + With all the Author saw, or said he saw? + Who can topographize or delve so well? + No boaster he, nor impudent and raw, + His pencil, pen, and spade, alike without a flaw.--[D. erased.] + +[Sec.1] [William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859) was the son of Anthony +Hamilton, Archdeacon of Colchester, etc., and grandson of Richard +Terrick, Bishop of London. In 1799, when Lord Elgin was appointed +Ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Hamilton accompanied him as private +secretary. After the battle of Ramassieh (Alexandria, March 20, 1801), +and the subsequent evacuation of Egypt by the French (August 30, 1801), +Hamilton, who had been sent on a diplomatic mission, was successful in +recapturing the Rosetta Stone, which, in violation of a specified +agreement, had been placed on board a French man-of-war. He was +afterwards employed by Elgin as agent plenipotentiary in the purchase, +removal, and deportation of marbles. He held office (1809-22) as +Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and as Minister at the Court of +Naples (1822-25). From 1838 to 1858 he was a Trustee of the British +Museum. He published, in 1809, _AEgyptiaca, or Some Account of the +Ancient and Modern State of Egypt_; and, in 1811, his _Memorandum on the +Subject of the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece_. (For Hamilton, see +_English Bards_, etc., line 509; _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 336, note +2.)] + +[Sec.2] Thomas Hope, Esqr., if I mistake not, the man who publishes quartos +on furniture and costume. + +[Thomas Hope (1770-1831) (see _Hints from Horace_, line 7: _Poetical +Works_, 1898, i. 390, note 1) published, in 1805, a folio volume +entitled, _Household Furniture and Internal Decoration_. It was severely +handled in the _Edinburgh Review_ (No. xx.) for July, 1807.] + +[Sec.3] It is rumoured Gell is coming out to dig in Olympia. I wish him +more success than he had at Athens. According to Lusieri's account, he +began digging most furiously without a firmann, but before the +resurrection of a single sauce-pan, the Painter countermined and the +Way-wode countermanded and sent him back to bookmaking.--[MS. D.] + +[See _English Bards, etc._, lines 1033, 1034: _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. +379, _note_ 1.] + +[eb] _Where was thine AEgis, Goddess_----.--[MS. D. erased] + +[ec] {110} ----_which it had well behoved_.--[MS. D.] + +[123] [The Athenians believed, or feigned to believe, that the marbles +themselves shrieked out in shame and agony at their removal from their +ancient shrines.] + +[124] [Byron is speaking of his departure from Spain, but he is thinking +of his departure from Malta, and his half-hearted amour with Mrs. +Spencer Smith.] + +[ed] {111} ----_that rosy urchin guides_.--[MS.] + +[ee] _Save on that part_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[ef] {112} + _From Discipline's stern law_----.--[MS.] + ----_keen law_----.--[MS. D.] + +[125] An additional "misery to human life!"--lying to at sunset for a +large convoy, till the sternmost pass ahead. Mem.: fine frigate, fair +wind likely to change before morning, but enough at present for ten +knots!--[MS. D.] + +[eg] ----_their melting girls believe_.--[MS.] + +[eh] {113} + _Meantime some rude musician's restless hand_ + _Ply's the brisk instrument that sailors love_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[ei] _Through well-known straits behold the steepy shore_.--[MS. +erased.] + +[126] [Compare Coleridge's reflections, in his diary for April 19, 1804, +on entering the Straits of Gibraltar: "When I first sat down, with +Europe on my left and Africa on my right, both distinctly visible, I +felt a quickening of the movements in the blood, but still felt it as a +pleasure of _amusement_ rather than of thought and elevation; and at the +same time, and gradually winning on the other, the nameless silent forms +of nature were working in me, like a tender thought in a man who is +hailed merrily by some acquaintance in his work, and answers it in the +same tone" (_Anima Poetae_, 1895, pp. 70, 71).] + +[127] ["The moon is in the southern sky as the vessel passes through the +Straits; consequently, the coast of Spain is in light, that of Africa in +shadow" (_Childe Harold_, edited by H. F. Tozer, 1885, p. 232).] + +[128] [Campbell, in _Gertrude of Wyoming_, Canto I. stanza ii. line 6, +speaks of "forests brown;" but, as Mr. Tozer points out, "'brown' is +Byron's usual epithet for landscape seen in moonlight." (Compare Canto +II. stanza lxx. line 3; _Parisina_, i. 10; and _Siege of Corinth_, ii. +1.)] + +[ej] {114} + _Bleeds the lone heart, once boundless in its zeal_.--[D.] + _And friendless now, yet dreams it had a friend_.--[MS.] + or, _Far from affection's chilled or changing zeal_.--[MS.] + _Divided far by fortune, wave or steel_ + _Though friendless now we once have had a friend_.-- + [MS. D. erased.] + +[ek] _Ah! happy years! I would I were once more a boy_.--[MS.] + +[el] _To gaze on Dian's wan reflected sphere_.--[MS. D] + +[em] ----_her dreams of hope and pride_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[en] {115} _None are so wretched[Sec.] but that_----.--[MS.D.] + +[Sec.] "Desolate."--[MS. pencil.] + +[eo] _T.t.b._ [tres tres bien], _but why insert here_.--[MS. pencil.] + +[129] [In this stanza M. Darmesteter detects "l'accent Wordsworthien" +prior to any "doses" as prescribed by Shelley, and quotes as a possible +model the following lines from Beattie's _Minstrel_:-- + + "And oft the craggy cliff he lov'd to climb, + When all in mist the world below was lost, + What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime, + Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert coast, + And view th' enormous waste of vapour, tost + In billows, lengthening to th' horizon round, + Now scoop'd in gulfs, with mountains now emboss'd! + And hear the voice of mirth, and song rebound, + Flocks, herds, and waterfalls, along the hoar profound." + +In felicity of expression, the copy, if it be a copy, surpasses the +original; but in the scope and originality of the image, it is vastly +inferior. Nor are these lines, with the possible exception of line +3--"Where things that own not Man's dominion dwell," at all +Wordsworthian. They fail in that imaginative precision which the Lake +poets regarded as essential, and they lack the glamour and passion +without which their canons of art would have profited nothing. Six years +later, when Byron came within sound of Wordsworth's voice, he struck a +new chord--a response, not an echo. Here the motive is rhetorical, not +immediately poetical.] + +[ep] {116} ----_and foaming linns to lean_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[130] [There are none to bless us, for when we are in distress the +great, the rich, the gay, shrink from us; and when we are popular and +prosperous those who court us care nothing for us apart from our +success. Neither do they bless us, or we them.] + +[eq] _This is to live alone--This, This is solitude_.--[MS. D.] + +[131] [The MS. of stanza xxvii. is on the fly-leaf of a bound volume of +proof-sheets entitled "Additions to Childe Harold," It was first +published in the seventh edition, 1814. It may be taken for granted that +Byron had seen what he describes. There is, however, no record of any +visit to Mount Athos, either in his letters from the East or in +Hobhouse's journals. + +The actual mount, "the giant height [6350 feet], rears itself in +solitary magnificence, an insulated cone of white limestone." "When it +is seen from a distance, the peninsula [of which the southern portion +rises to a height of 2000 feet] is below the horizon, and the peak rises +quite solitary from the sea." Of this effect Byron may have had actual +experience; but Hobhouse, in describing the prospect from Cape +Janissary, is careful to record that "Athos itself is said to be +sometimes visible in the utmost distance (circ. 90 miles), but it was +not discernible during our stay on the spot." (Murray's _Handbook for +Greece_, p. 843; _Childe Harold_, edited by H. F. Tozer, p. 233; +_Travels in Albania_, 1858, ii. 103. Compare, too, the fragment entitled +the _Monk of Athos_, first published in the Hon. Roden Noel's _Life of +Lord Byron_, 1890.)] + +[132] {118} ["Le sage Mentor, poussant Telemaque, qui etait assis sur le +bord du rocher, le precipite dans le mer et s'y jette avec lui.... +Calypso inconsolable, rentra dans sa grotte, qu'elle remplit de ses +hurlements."--Fenelon's _Telemaque_, vi., Paris, 1837. iii. 43.] + +[133] [For Mrs. Spencer Smith, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 244, 245, note. +Moore (_Life_, pp. 94, 95) contrasts stanzas xxx.-xxxv., with their +parade of secret indifference and plea of "a loveless heart," with the +tenderness and warmth of his after-thoughts in Albania ("Lines composed +during a Thunderstorm," etc.), and decides the coldness was real, the +sentiment assumed. He forgets the flight of time. The lines were written +in October, 1809, within a month of his departure from "Calypso's +isles," and the _Childe Harold_ stanzas belong to the early spring of +1810. "Ou sont les neiges d'antan?" Moreover, he speaks by the card. +Writing at Athens, January 16, 1810, he tells us, "The spell is broke, +the charm is flown."] + +[134] {120} [More than one commentator gravely "sets against" this +line--Byron's statement to Dallas (_Corr. of Lord Byron_, Paris, 1824, +iii. 91), "I am not a Joseph or a Scipio; but I can safely affirm that +never in my life I seduced any woman." Compare _Memoirs of Count Carlo +Gozzi_, 1890, ii. 12, "Never have I employed the iniquitous art of +seduction ... Languishing in soft and thrilling sentiments, I demanded +from a woman a sympathy and inclination of like nature with my own. If +she fell ... I should have remembered how she made for me the greatest +of all sacrifices.... I should have worshipped her like a deity. I could +have spent my life's blood in consoling her; and without swearing +eternal constancy, I should have been most stable on my side in loving +such a mistress."] + +[er] {121} _Brisk Impudence_----.--[MS.] + +[es] _Youth wasted, wretches born_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[135] [Compare Lucretius, iv. 1121-4-- + + "Adde quod absumunt viris pereuntque labore, + + * * * * * + + Labitur interea res, et Babylonica fiunt: + Languent officia, atque aegrotat fama vacillans."] + +[et] {122} _Climes strange withal as ever mortal head_.--[MS.] + +[eu] _Suspected in its little pride of thought_.--[MS. erased.] + +[136] ["Were counselled or advised." The passive "were ared" seems to +lack authority. (See _N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Aread.")] + +[ev] + _Her not unconscious though her weakly child_. + or, ----_her rudest child_.--[MS. erased.] + +[137] [Compare the description of the thunderstorm in the Alps (Canto +III. stanzas xcii.-xcvi., pp. 273-275); and _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 2-- + + "My joy was in the wilderness; to breathe + The difficult air of the iced mountain-top-- + * * * * * + In them my early strength exulted; or + To follow through the night the moving moon, + The stars and their development; or catch + The dazzling lightnings till my eyes grew dim." + +Beattie, who describes the experiences of his own boyhood in the person +of Edwin in _The Minstrel_, had already made a like protestation-- + + "In sooth he was a strange and wayward youth. + Fond of each gentle and each dreadful scene. + In darkness and in storm he found delight; + Not less than when on ocean-wave serene + The Southern sun diffus'd his dazzling sheen; + Even sad vicissitude amus'd his soul." + +Kirke White, too, who was almost Byron's contemporary, and whose verses +he professed to admire-- + + "Would run a visionary boy + When the hoarse tempest shook the vaulted sky." + +This love of Nature in her wilder aspects, which was perfectly genuine, +and, indeed, meritorious, was felt to be out of the common, a note of +the poetic temperament, worth recording, but unlikely to pass without +questioning and remonstrance.] + +[138] {123} [Alexander's mother, Olympias, was an Epiriote. She had a +place in the original draft of Tennyson's _Palace of Art_ (_Life of Lord +Tennyson_,. 119)-- + + "One was Olympias; the floating snake + Roll'd round her ankles, round her waist + Knotted," etc. + +Plutarch (_Vitae_, Lipsiae:, 1814, vi. 170) is responsible for the legend: +[Greek: O)\phthe de/ pote kai\ dra/kon koimome/nes te~s O)lympia/dou +parektetame/ns to~| so/mati], "Now, one day, when Olympias lay abed, +beside her body a dragon was espied stretched out at full length." +(Compare, too, Dryden's _Alexander's Feast_, stanza ii.)] + +[139] [Mr. Tozer (_Childe Harold_, p. 236) takes this line to mean "whom +the young love to talk of, and the wise to follow as an example," and +points to Alexander's foresight as a conqueror, and the "extension of +commerce and civilization" which followed his victories. But, surely, +the antithesis lies between Alexander the ideal of the young, and +Alexander the deterrent example of the old. The phrase, "beacon of the +wise," if Hector in _Troilus and Cressida_ (act ii. sc. 2, line 16) is +an authority, is proverbial. + + " ... The wound of peace is surety, + Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd + The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches + To the bottom of the worst." + +The beauty, the brilliance, the glory of Alexander kindle the enthusiasm +of the young; but the murder of Clytus and the early death which he +brought upon himself are held up by the wise as beacon-lights to save +others from shipwreck.] + +[140] [Byron and Hobhouse sailed for Malta in the brig-of-war _Spider_ +on Tuesday, September 19, 1809 (Byron, in a letter to his mother, +November 12, says September 21), and anchored off Patras on the night of +Sunday, the 24th. On Tuesday, the 26th, they were under way at 12 noon, +and on the evening of that day they saw the sun set over Mesalonghi. The +next morning, September 27, they were in the channel between Ithaca and +the mainland, with Ithaca, then in the hands of the French, to the left. +"We were close to it," says Hobhouse, "and saw a few shrubs on a brown +heathy land, two little towns in the hills scattered among trees." The +travellers made "but little progress this day," and, apparently, having +redoubled Cape St. Andreas, the southern extremity of Ithaca, they +sailed (September 28) through the channel between Ithaca and Cephalonia, +passed the hill of AEtos, on which stood the so-called "Castle of +Ulysses," whence Penelope may have "overlooked the wave," and caught +sight of "the Lover's refuge" in the distance. Towards the close of the +same day they doubled Cape Ducato ("Leucadia's cape," the scene of +Sappho's leap), and, sailing under "the ancient mount," the site of the +Temple of Apollo, anchored off Prevesa at seven in the evening. Poetry +and prose are not always in accord. If, as Byron says, it was "an +autumn's eve" when they hailed "Leucadia's cape afar," if the evening +star shone over the rock when they approached it, they must have sailed +fast to reach Prevesa, some thirty miles to the north, by seven o'clock. +But _de minimis_, the Muse is as disregardful as the Law. And, perhaps, +after all, it was Hobhouse who misread his log-book. (_Travels in +Albania_, i. 4, 5; Murray's _Handbook for Greece_, pp. 40, 46.)] + +[141] {125} [The meaning of this passage is not quite so obvious as it +seems. He has in his mind the words, "He saved others, Himself He cannot +save," and, applying this to Sappho, asks, "Why did she who conferred +immortality on herself by her verse prove herself mortal?" Without Fame, +and without verse the cause and keeper of Fame, there is no heaven, no +immortality, for the sons of men. But what security is there for the +eternity of verse and Fame? "_Quis custodiet custodes_?"] + +[142] {126} [For Byron's "star" similes, see Canto III. stanza xxxviii. +line 9.] + +[ew] ----_and looked askance on Mars_.--[MS. erased.] + +[143] [Compare the line in Tennyson's song, _Break, break, break,_ "And +the stately ships go on."] + +[ex] + _And roused him more from thought than he was wont_ + _While Pleasure almost seemed to smooth his pallid front_.--[MS. D.] + _While Pleasure almost smiled along_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[144] [By "Suli's rocks" Byron means the mountainous district in the +south of the Epirus. The district of Suli formed itself into a small +republic at the close of the last century, and offered a formidable +resistance to Ali Pacha. "Pindus' inland peak," Monte Metsovo, which +forms part of the ridge which divides Epirus from Thessaly, is not +visible from the sea-coast.] + +[145] {127} ["Shore unknown." (See Byron's note to stanza xxxviii. line +5.)] + +[ey] {128} ----_lovely harmful thing_.--[MS. pencil.] + +[146] [Compare Byron's _Stanzas written on passing the Ambracian +Gulph_.] + +[147] [Nicopolis, "the city of victory," which Augustus, "the second +Caesar," built to commemorate Actium, is some five miles to the north of +Prevesa. Byron and Hobhouse visited the ruins on the 30th of September, +and again on the 12th of November (see Byron's letter to Mrs. Byron. +November 12, 1809: _Letters_, 1898, i. 251).] + +[ez] + _Imperial wretches, doubling human woes!_ + _God!--was thy globe ere made_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[148] {129} [The travellers left Prevesa on October 1, and arrived at +Janina on October 5. They left Janina on October 11, and reached Zitza +at nightfall (Byron at 3 a.m., October 12). They left Zitza on October +13, and arrived at Tepeleni on October 19.] + +[149] [On the evening of October 11, as the party was approaching Zitza, +Hobhouse and the Albanian, Vasilly, rode on, leaving "Lord Byron and the +baggage behind." It was getting dark, and just as the luckier Hobhouse +contrived to make his way to the village, the rain began to fall in +torrents. Before long, "the thunder roared as it seemed without any +intermission; for the echoes of one peal had not ceased to roll in the +mountains before another crash burst over our heads." Byron, dragoman, +and baggage were not three miles from Zitza when the storm began, and +they lost their way. After many wanderings and adventures they were +finally conducted by ten men with pine torches to the hut; but by that +time it was three o'clock in the morning. Hence the "Stanzas composed +during a Thunderstorm."--Hobhouse's _Travels in Albania_, i. 69-71.] + +[150] {130} ["The prior of the monastery, a humble, meek-mannered man, +entertained us in a warm chamber with grapes and a pleasant white wine +...We were so well pleased with everything about us that we agreed to +lodge with him."--Hobhouse's _Travels in Albania_, i. 73.] + +[fa] _Here winds, if winds there be, will fan his breast_.--[MS. D. +erased.] + +[fb] _Keep Heaven for better souls, my shade shall seek for none_.--[MS. +erased.] + +[fc] {132} + _But frequent is the lamb, the kid, the goat_-- + _And watching pensive with his browsing flock_.--[MS. erased.] + +[fd] _Counting the hours beneath yon skies unerring shock_.--[MS. +erased.] + +[151] [The site of Dodona, a spot "at the foot of Mount Tomaros" (Mount +Olytsika) in the valley of Tcharacovista, was finally determined, in +1876, by excavations carried out, at his own expense, by M. Constantin +Carapanos, a native of Arta. In his monograph, _Dodone et ses Ruines_ +(Paris, 1878, 4to), M. Carapanos gives a detailed description of the +theatre, the twofold Temenos (I. _L'Enceinte du Temple_, II. _Temenos_, +pp. 13-28), including the Temple of Zeus and a sanctuary of Aphrodite, +and of the numerous _ex voto_ offerings and inscriptions on lead which +were brought to light during the excavations, and helped to identify the +ruins. An accompanying folio volume of plates contains (Planches, i., +ii.) a map of the valley of Tcharacovista, and a lithograph of Mount +Tomaros, "d'un aspect majestueux et pittoresque ... un roc nu sillonne +par le lit de nombreux torrents" (p. 8). Behind Dodona, on the summit of +the many-named chain of hills which confronts Mount Tomaros, are +"bouquets de chene," sprung it may be from the offspring of the [Greek: +prose/goroi dry/es] (AEsch., _Prom._, 833), the "talking oaks," which +declared the will of Zeus. For the "prophetic fount" (line 2), Servius, +commenting on Virgil, _AEneid_, iii. 41-66, seems to be the authority: +"Circa hoc templum quercus immanis fuisse dicitur ex cujus radicibus +fons manebat, qui suo murmure instinctu Deorum diversis oracula +reddebat" (_Virgilii Opera_, Leovardiae, 1717, i. 548). + +Byron and Hobhouse, on one of their excursions from Janina, explored and +admired the ruins of the "amphitheatre," but knew not that "here and +nowhere else" was Dodona (_Travels in Albania_, i. 53-56).] + +[152] {133} [The sentiment that man, "whose breath is in his nostrils," +should consider the impermanence of all that is stable and durable +before he cries out upon his own mortality, may have been drawn +immediately from the famous letter of consolation sent by Sulpitius +Severus to Cicero, which Byron quotes in a note to Canto IV. stanza +xliv., or, in the first instance, from Tasso's _Gerusalemme Liberata_, +xv. 20-- + + "Giace l'alta Cartago; appena i segni + Dell' alte sue ruini il lido serba. + Muojono le citta; muojono i regni: + Copre i fasti, e le pompe, arena ed erba; + E l'uom d'esser mortal par cue si sdegni!" + +Compare, too, Addison's "Reflections in Westminster Abbey," _Spectator_, +No. 26.] + +[153] [The six days' journey from Zitza to Tepeleni is compressed into a +single stanza. The vale (line 3) may be that of the Kalama, through +which the travellers passed (October 13) soon after leaving Zitza, or, +more probably, the plain of Deropoli ("well-cultivated, divided by rails +and low hedges, and having a river flowing through it to the south"), +which they crossed (October 15) on their way from Delvinaki, the +frontier village of Illyria, to Libokhovo.] + +[154] {134} ["Yclad," used as a preterite, not a participle (compare +Coleridge's "I wis" [_Christabel_, part i. line 92]), is a +Byronism--"archaisme incorrect," says M. Darmesteter.] + +[155] ["During the fast of the Ramazan, ... the gallery of each minaret +is decorated with a circlet of small lamps. When seen from a distance, +each minaret presents a point of light, 'like meteors in the sky;' and +in a large city, where they are numerous, they resemble a swarm of +fireflies."--H.F. Tozer. (Compare _The Giaour_, i. 449-452-- + + "When Rhamazan's last sun was set, + And flashing from each minaret. + Millions of lamps proclaimed the feast + Of Bairam through the boundless East.")] + +[156] {135} ["A kind of dervish or recluse ... regarded as a +saint."--_Cent. Dict._, art. "Santon."] + +[fe] ----_guests and vassals wait_.--[MS. erased.] + +[ff] _While the deep Tocsin's sound_----.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[157] {136} ["We were disturbed during the night by the perpetual +carousal which seemed to be kept up in the gallery, and by the drum, and +the voice of the 'muezzinn,' or chanter, calling the Turks to prayers +from the minaret of the mosck attached to the palace. This chanter was a +boy, and he sang out his hymn is a sort of loud melancholy recitative. +He was a long time repeating the Eraun. The first exclamation was +repeated four times, the remaining words twice; and the long and +piercing note in which he concluded his confession of faith, by twice +crying out the word 'hou!' ['At solemn sound of "Alla Hu!"' _Giaour_, i. +734] still rings in my ears."--Hobhouse's _Travels in Albania_, i. 95. +D'Ohsonn gives the Eraun at full length: "Most high God! [four times +repeated]. I acknowledge that there is no other God except God! I +acknowledge that there is no other God except God! I acknowledge that +Mohammed is the prophet of God! Come to prayer! Come to prayer! Come to +the temple of salvation! Come to the temple of salvation! Great God! +great God! There is no God except God!"--_Oriental Antiquities_ +(Philadelphia, 1788), p. 341.] + +[158] {137} ["The Ramazan, or Turkish Lent, which, as it occurs in each +of the thirteen months in succession, fell this year in October ... +Although during this month the strictest abstinence, even from tobacco +and coffee, is observed in the daytime, yet with the setting of the sun +the feasting commences."--_Travels in Albania_, i. 66. "The Ramadan or +Rhamazan is the ninth month of the Mohammedan year. As the Mohammedans +reckon by lunar time, it begins each year eleven days earlier than in +the preceding year, so that in thirty-three years it occurs successively +in all the seasons."--_Imp. Dictionary_.] + +[159] [The feast was spread within the courtyard, "in the part farthest +from the dwelling," and when the revelry began the "immense large +gallery" or corridor, which ran along the front of the palace and was +open on one side to the court, was deserted. "Opening into the gallery +were the doors of several apartments," and as the servants passed in and +out, the travellers standing in the courtyard could hear the sound of +voices.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 93.] + +[fg] {138} + ----_even for health to move_.--[MS.] + _She saves for one_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[fh] + _For boyish minions of unhallowed love_ + _The shameless torch of wild desire is lit_, + _Caressed, preferred even to woman's self above_, + _Whose forms for Nature's gentler errors fit_ + _All frailties mote excuse save that which they commit_. + --[MS. D. erased.] + +[160] [For an account of Ali Pasha (1741-1822), see _Letters_, 1898, i. +246, note.] + +[161] [In a letter to his mother, November 12, 1809, Byron writes, "He +[Ali] said he was certain I was a man of birth, because I had small +ears, curling hair, and little white hands. ... He told me to consider +him as a father whilst I was in Turkey, and said he looked on me as his +son. Indeed, he treated me like a child, sending me almonds and sugared +sherbet, fruit and sweetmeats, twenty times a day." Many years after, in +the first letter _On Bowles' Strictures_, February 7, 1821, he +introduces a reminiscence of Ali: "I never judge from manners, for I +once had my pocket picked by the civillest gentleman I ever met with; +and one of the mildest persons I ever saw was Ali Pasha" (_Life_, p. +689).] + +[fi] {139} _Delights to mingle with the lips of youth_.--[MS. D. +erased.] + +[162] [Anacreon sometimes bewails, but more often defies old age. +(_Vide_ Carmina liv., xi., xxxiv.) + +The paraphrase "Teian Muse" recurs in the song, "The Isles of Greece," +_Don Juan_, Canto III.] + +[fj] _But 'tis those ne'er forgotten acts of ruth_.--[MS. D.] + +[163] [In the first edition the reading (see _var_. ii.) is, "But +crimes, those ne'er forgotten crimes of ruth." The mistake was pointed +out in the _Quarterly Review_ (March, 1812, No. 13, vol. vii. p. 193). + +But in Spenser "ruth" means sorrow as well as pity, and three weeks +after _Childe Harold_ was published, Ali committed a terrible crime, the +outcome of an early grief. On March 27, 1812, in revenge for wrongs done +to his mother and sister nearly thirty years before, he caused 670 +Gardhikiots to be massacred in the khan of Valiare, and followed up the +act of treachery by sacking, plundering, and burning the town of +Gardiki, and, "in direct violation of the Mohammedan law," carrying off +and reducing to slavery the women and children.--Finlay's _Hist. of +Greece_ (edited by Rev. H. F. Tozer, 1877), vi. 67, 68.] + +[fk] {140} _Those who in blood begin in blood conclude their +span_.--[MS. erased.] + +[164] [This was prophetic. "On the 5th of February, 1822, a meeting took +place between Ali and Mohammed Pasha.... When Mohammed rose to depart, +the two viziers, being of equal rank, moved together towards the +door.... As they parted Ali bowed low to his visitor, and Mohammed, +seizing the moment when the watchful eye of the old man was turned away, +drew his hanjar, and plunged it in Ali's heart. He walked on calmly to +the gallery, and said to the attendants, 'Ali of Tepalen is dead.' ... +The head of Ali was exposed at the gate of the serai."--Finlay's _Hist. +of Greece_, 1877, vi. 94, 95.] + +[fl] + _Childe Harold with that chief held colloquy_ + _Yet what they spake it boots not to repeat;_ + _Converse may little charm strange ear or eye;_ + _Albeit he rested on that spacious seat,_ + _Of Moslem luxury the choice retreat_.--[MS. D. erased.] + _Four days he rested on that worthy seat_.-[MS. erased.] + +[165] {141} [The travellers left Janina on November 3, and reached +Prevesa November 7. At midday November 9 they set sail for Patras in a +galliot of Ali's, "a vessel of about fifty tons burden, with three short +masts and a large lateen sail." Instead of doubling Cape Ducato, they +were driven out to sea northward, and, finally, at one o'clock in the +morning, anchored off the Port of Phanari on the Suliote coast. Towards +the evening of the next day (November 10) they landed in "the marshy +bay" (stanza lxviii. line 2) and rode to Volondorako, where they slept. +"Here they were well received by the Albanian primate of the place and +by the Vizier's soldiers quartered there." Instead of re-embarking in +the galliot, they returned to Prevesa by land (November 11). As the +country to the north of the Gulf of Arta was up in arms, and bodies of +robbers were abroad, they procured an escort of thirty-seven Albanians, +hired another galliot, and on Monday, the 13th, sailed across the +entrance of the gulf as far as the fortress of Vonitsa, where they +anchored for the night. By four o'clock in the afternoon of November 14 +they reached Utraikey or Lutraki, "situated in a deep bay surrounded +with rocks at the south-east corner of the Gulf of Arta." The courtyard +of a barrack on the shore is the scene of the song and dance (stanzas +lxx.-lxxii.). Here, in the original MS., the pilgrimage abruptly ends, +and in the remaining stanzas the Childe moralizes on the fallen fortunes +and vanished heroism of Greece.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 157-165.] + +[166] {143} [The route from Utraikey to Gouria (November 15-18) lay +through "thick woods of oak," with occasional peeps of the open +cultivated district of AEtolia on the further side of the Aspropotamo, +"white Achelous' tide." The Albanian guard was not dismissed until the +travellers reached Mesolonghi (November 21).] + +[167] [With this description Mr. Tozer compares Virgil, _AEneid_, i. +159-165, and Tasso's imitation in _Gerus. Lib._, canto xv. stanzas 42, +43. The following lines from Hoole's translation (_Jerusalem Delivered_, +bk. xv. lines 310, 311, 317, 318) may be cited:-- + + "Amidst these isles a lone recess is found, + Where circling shores the subject flood resound ... + Within the waves repose in peace serene; + Black forests nod above, a silvan scene!"] + +[168] {144} ["In the evening the gates were secured, and preparations +were made for feeding our Albanians. A goat was killed and roasted +whole, and four fires were kindled in the yard, round which the soldiers +seated themselves in parties. After eating and drinking, the greater +part of them assembled round the largest of the fires, and, whilst +ourselves and the elders of the party were seated on the ground, danced +round the blaze to their own songs, in the manner before described, but +with astonishing energy. All their songs were relations of some robbing +exploits. One of them ... began thus: 'When we set out from Parga there +were sixty of us!' then came the burden of the verse-- + + 'Robbers all at Parga! + Robbers all at Parga!' + [Greek: Kle/phteis pote\ Pa/rga!] + [Greek: Kle/phteis pote\ Pa/rga!] + +And as they roared out this stave, they whirled round the fire, dropped, +and rebounded from their knees, and again whirled round as the chorus +was again repeated."--_Travels in Albania_, i. 166, 167.] + +[169] {145} [This was not Byron's first experience of an Albanian +war-song. At Salakhora, on the Gulf of Arta (nine miles north-east of +Prevesa), which he reached on October 1, the Albanian guard at the +custom-house entertained the travellers by "singing some songs." "The +music is extremely monotonous and nasal; and the shrill scream of their +voices was increased by each putting his hand behind his ear and cheek, +to give more force to the sound."--_Travels in Albania_, i. 28. + +Long afterwards, in 1816, one evening, on the Lake of Geneva, Byron +entertained Shelley, Mary, and Claire with "an Albanian song." They seem +to have felt that such melodies "unheard are sweeter." Hence, perhaps, +his _petit nom_, "Albe," that is, the "Albaneser."--_Life of Shelley_, +by Edward Dowden, 1896, p. 309.] + +[170] {146} [Tambourgi, "drummer," a Turkish word, formed by affixing +the termination _-gi_, which signifies "one who discharges any +occupation," to the French _tambour_ (H. F. Tozer, _Childe Harold_, p. +246).] + +[fm] ----_thy tocsin afar_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[171] [The _camese_ is the _fustanella_ or white kilt of the Toska, a +branch of the Albanian, or Shkipetar, race. Spenser has the forms +"camis," "camus." The Arabic _quam[=i]c_ occurs in the Koran, but is +thought to be an adaptation of the Latin _camisia, camisa_.--Finlay's +_Hist, of Greece_, vi. 39; _N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Camis." (For "capote," +_vide post_, p. 181.)] + +[fn] _Shall the sons of Chimaera_----.--[MS. D.] + +[172] [The Suliotes, after a protracted and often successful resistance, +were finally reduced by Ali, in December, 1803. They are adjured to +forget their natural desire for vengeance, and to unite with the +Albanians against their common foe, the Russians.] + +[fo] {147} _Shall win the young minions_----.--[MS. D.] + +[fp] ----_the maid and the youth_.--[MS.] + +[fq] _Their caresses shall lull us, their voices shall soothe_.--[MS. D. +erased.] + +[173] {148} [So, too, at Salakhora (October 1): "One of the songs was on +the taking of Prevesa, an exploit of which the Albanians are vastly +proud; and there was scarcely one of them in which the name of Ali Pasha +was not roared out and dwelt upon with peculiar energy."--_Travels in +Albania_, i. 29. + +Prevesa, which, with other Venetian possessions, had fallen to the +French in 1797, was taken in the Sultan's name by Ali, in October, 1798. +The troops in the garrison (300 French, 460 Greeks) encountered and were +overwhelmed by 5000 Albanians, on the plain of Nicopolis. The victors +entered and sacked the town.] + +[174] [Ali's eldest son, Mukhtar, the Pasha of Berat, had been sent +against the Russians, who, in 1809, invaded the trans-Danubian provinces +of the Ottoman Empire.] + +[175] Yellow is the epithet given to the Russians. + +[176] Infidel. + +[177] The insignia of a Pacha. + +[178] {149} [The literal meaning of Delhi or Deli, is, says M. +Darmesteter, "fou" ["properly madmen" (D'Herbelot)], a title bestowed on +Turkish warriors _honoris causu_. Byron suggests "forlorn hope" as an +equivalent; but there is a wide difference between the blood-drunkenness +of the Turk and the "foolishness" of British chivalry.] + +[179] Sword-bearer. + +[fr] _Tambourgi! thy tocsin_----.--[MS. D. erased] + +[180] [Compare "The Isles of Greece," stanza 7 (_Don Juan_, Canto +III.)-- + + "Earth! render back from out thy heart + A remnant of our Spartan dead! + Of the three hundred grant but three + To make a new Thermopylae!" + +The meaning is, "When shall another Lysander spring from Laconia +('Eurotas' banks') and revive the heroism of the ancient Spartans?"] + +[fs] {150} _A fawning feeble race, untaught, enslaved, unmanned_.--[MS. +erased.] + +[ft] ----_fair Liberty_.--[MS. erased, D.] + +[181] {151} [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, vi. lines 39-46.] + +[182] [The Wahabees, who took their name from the Arab sheik Mohammed +ben Abd-el-Wahab, arose in the province of Nedj, in Central Arabia, +about 1760. Half-socialists, half-puritans, they insisted on fulfilling +to the letter the precepts of the Koran. In 1803-4 they attacked and +ravaged Mecca and Medinah, and in 1808 they invaded Syria and took +Damascus. During Byron's residence in the East they were at the height +of their power, and seemed to threaten the very existence of the Turkish +empire.] + +[183] {152} [Byron spent two months in Constantinople (Stamboul, i.e. +[Greek: ei)s te po/lin] )--from May 14 to July 14, 1810. The "Lenten +days," which were ushered in by a carnival, were those of the second +"great" Lent of the Greek Church, that of St. Peter and St. Paul, which +begins on the first Monday after Trinity, and ends on the 29th of June.] + +[184] {153} [These _al-fresco_ festivities must, it is presumed, have +taken place on the two days out of the seven when you "might not 'damn +the climate' and complain of the spleen." Hobhouse records excursions to +the Valley of Sweet Waters; to Belgrade, where "the French minister gave +a sort of _fete-champetre_," when "the carousal lasted four days," and +when "night after night is kept awake by the pipes, tabors, and fiddles +of these moonlight dances;" and to the grove of +Fanar-Baktchesi.--_Travels in Albania_, ii. 242-258.] + +[185] + ["There's nothing like young Love, No! No! + There's nothing like young love at last."] + +[186] {154} [It has been assumed that "searment" is an incorrect form of +"cerement," the cloth dipped "in melting wax, in which dead bodies were +enfolded when embalmed" (_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 4), but the sense of the +passage seems rather to point to "cerecloth," "searcloth," a plaster to +cover up a wound. The "robe of revel" does but half conceal the sore and +aching heart.] + +[187] [For the accentuation of the word, compare Chaucer, "The +Sompnour's Tale" (_Canterbury Tales_, line 7631)-- + + "And dronkennesse is eke a foul record + Of any man, and namely of a lord."] + +[fu] _When Athens' children are with arts endued_.--[MS. D.] + +[188] [Compare _Ecclus._ xliv. 8, 9: "There be of them, that have left a +name behind them, that their praises might be reported. And some there +be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never +been."] + +[189] {156} [The "solitary column" may be that on the shore of the +harbour of Colonna, in the island of Kythnos (Thermia), or one of the +detached columns of the Olympeion.] + +[190] [Tritonia, or Tritogenia, one of Athena's names of uncertain +origin. Hofmann's _Lexicon Universale_, Tooke's _Pantheon_, and Smith's +_Classical Dictionary_ are much in the same tale. Lucan (_Pharsalia_, +lib. ix. lines 350-354) derives the epithet from Lake Triton, or +Tritonis, on the Mediterranean coast of Libya-- + + "Hanc et Pallas amat: patrio quae vertice nata + Terrarum primum Libyen (nam proxima coelo est, + Ut probat ipse calor) tetigit, stagnique quieta + Vultus vidit aqua, posuitque in margine plantas, + Et se dilecta Tritonida dixit ab unda."] + +[191] [Hobhouse dates the first visit to Cape Colonna, January 24, +1810.] + +[192] {157} [Athene's dower of the olive induced the gods to appoint her +as the protector and name-giver of Athens. Poseidon, who had proffered a +horse, was a rejected candidate. (See note by Rev. E. C. Owen, _Childe +Harold_, 1897, p. 175.)] + +[193] ["The wild thyme is in great abundance; but there are only two +stands of bee-hives on the mountains, and very little of the real honey +of Hymettus is to be now procured at Athens.... A small pot of it was +shown to me as a rarity" (_Travels in Albania_, i. 341). There is now, a +little way out of Athens, a "honey-farm, where the honey from Hymettus +is prepared for sale" (_Handbook for Greece_, p. 500).] + +[fv] ----_Pentele's marbles glare_.--[MS. D. erased.] + +[194] [Stanzas lxxxviii.-xc. are not in the MS., but were first included +in the seventh edition, 1814.] + +[195] [Byron and Hobhouse, after visiting Colonna, slept at Keratea, and +proceeded to Marathon on January 25, returning to Athens on the +following day.] + +[fw] {158} _Preserve alike its form_----.--[MS. L.] + +[fx] _When uttered to the listener's eye_----.--[MS. L.] + +[fy] _The host, the plain, the fight_----.--[MS. L.] + +[fz] _The shattered Mede who flies with broken bow_.--[MS. L.] + +[196] ["The plain of Marathon is enclosed on three sides by the rocky +arms of Parnes and Pentelicus, while the fourth is bounded by the sea." +After the first rush, when the victorious wings, where the files were +deep, had drawn together and extricated the shallower and weaker centre, +which had been repulsed by the Persians and the Sakae, "the pursuit +became general, and the Persians were chased to their ships, ranged in +line along the shore. Some of them became involved in the impassable +marsh, and there perished." (See _Childe Harold_, edited by H. F. Tozer, +1885, p. 253; Grote's _History of Greece_, iv. 276. See, too, _Travels +in Albania_, i. 378-384.)] + +[ga] _To tell what Asia troubled but to hear_.--[MS. L.] + +[197] [See note to Canto II. stanzas i.-xv., pp. 99, 100.] + +[gb] _Long to the remnants_--.----[D.] + +[198] [The "Ionian blast" is the western wind that brings the voyager +across the Ionian Sea.] + +[199] {160} [The original MS. closes with this stanza.] + +[gc] _Which heeds nor stern reproach_----.--[D.] + +[gd] {161}_Would I had ne'er returned_----.--[D.] + +[200] + "To Mr. Dallas. +The 'he' refers to 'Wanderer' and anything is better than +_I I I I_ always _I_. + Yours, + BYRON." +[4th Revise B.M.] + +[ge] _But Time the Comforter shall come at last_.--[MS. erased.] + +[201] [Compare Young's _Night Thoughts_ ("The Complaint," Night i.). +_Vide ante_, p. 95.] + +[gf] + + _Though Time not yet hath ting'd my locks with snow,_[Sec.] + _Yet hath he reft whate'er my soul enjoy'd_.--[D.] + +[Sec.] "To Mr. Dallas. + +If Mr. D. wishes me to adopt the former line so be it. I prefer the +other I confess, it has less egotism--the first sounds affected. + +Yours, + +B." + +[Dallas assented, and directed the printer to let the Roll stand.] + + * * * * * + + + + + NOTES TO CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + CANTO II. + + 1. + + Despite of War and wasting fire. + Stanza i. line 4. + +Part of the Acropolis was destroyed by the explosion of a magazine +during the Venetian siege. + +[In 1684, when the Venetian Armada threatened Athens, the Turks removed +the Temple of Victory, and made use of the materials for the +construction of a bastion. In the autumn of 1687, when the city was +besieged by the Venetians under Francesco Morosini (1618-1694; Doge of +Venice, 1688), "mortars were planted ... near the north-east corner of +the rock, which threw their shells at a high angle, with a low charge, +into the Acropolis.... On the 25th of September, a Venetian bomb blew up +a small powder-magazine in the Propylaea, and on the following evening +another fell in the Parthenon, where the Turks had deposited ... a +considerable quantity of powder.... A terrific explosion took place; the +central columns of the peristyle, the walls of the cella, and the +immense architraves and cornices they supported, were scattered around +the remains of the temple. The Propylaea had been partly destroyed in +1656 by the explosion of a magazine which was struck by +lightning."--Finlay's _History of Greece_, 1887, i. 185.] + + 2. + + But worse than steel, and flame, and ages slow, + Is the dread sceptre and dominion dire. + Stanza i. lines 6, 7. + +We can all feel, or imagine, the regret with which the ruins of cities, +once the capitals of empires, are beheld: the reflections suggested by +such objects are too trite to require recapitulation. But never did the +littleness of man, and the vanity of his very best virtues, of +patriotism to exalt, and of valour to defend his country appear more +conspicuous than in the record of what Athens was, and the certainty of +what she now is. This theatre of contention between mighty factions, of +the struggles of orators, the exaltation and deposition of tyrants, the +triumph and punishment of generals, is now become a scene of petty +intrigue and perpetual disturbance, between the bickering agents of +certain British nobility and gentry. "The wild foxes, the owls and +serpents in the ruins of Babylon,"[202] were surely less degrading than +such inhabitants. The Turks have the plea of conquest for their tyranny, +and the Greeks have only suffered the fortune of war, incidental to the +bravest; but how are the mighty fallen, when two painters[203] contest +the privilege of plundering the Parthenon, and triumph in turn, +according to the tenor of each succeeding firman! Sylla could but +punish, Philip subdue, and Xerxes burn Athens; but it remained for the +paltry antiquarian, and his despicable agents, to render her +contemptible as himself and his pursuits. The Parthenon, before its +destruction, in part, by fire during the Venetian siege, had been a +temple, a church, and a mosque.[204] In each point of view it is an +object of regard: it changed its worshippers; but still it was a place +of worship thrice sacred to devotion: its violation is a triple +sacrifice. But-- + + "Man, proud man, + Drest in a little brief authority, + Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven + As make the angels weep." + [Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_, + act ii. sc. 2, lines 117-122.] + + 3. + + Far on the solitary shore he sleeps. + Stanza v. line 2. + +It was not always the custom of the Greeks to burn their dead; the +greater Ajax, in particular, was interred entire. Almost all the chiefs +became gods after their decease; and he was indeed neglected, who had +not annual games near his tomb, or festivals in honour of his memory by +his countrymen, as Achilles, Brasidas, etc., and at last even Antinous, +whose death was as heroic as his life was infamous. + + 4. + + Here, son of Saturn! was thy favourite throne. + Stanza x. line 3. + +The Temple of Jupiter Olympius, of which sixteen columns, entirely of +marble, yet survive; originally there were one hundred and fifty. These +columns, however, are by many supposed to have belonged to the Pantheon. + +[The Olympieion, or Temple of Zeus Olympius, on the south-east of the +Acropolis, some five hundred yards from the foot of the rock, was begun +by Pisistratos, and completed seven hundred years later by Hadrian. It +was one of the three or four largest temples of antiquity. The cella had +been originally enclosed by a double row of twenty columns at the sides, +and a triple row of eight columns at each front, making a hundred and +four columns in all; but in 1810 only sixteen "lofty Corinthian columns" +were standing. Mr. Tozer points out that "'base' is accurate, because +Corinthian columns have bases, which Doric columns have not," and notes +that the word "'unshaken' implies that the column itself had fallen, but +the base remains."--_Childe Harold_, 1888, p. 228.] + + 5. + + And bear these altars o'er the long-reluctant brine. + Stanza xi. line 9. + +The ship was wrecked in the Archipelago. + +[The _Mentor_, which Elgin had chartered to convey to England a cargo +consisting of twelve chests of antiquities, was wrecked off the Island +of Cerigo, in 1803. His secretary, W. R. Hamilton, set divers to work, +and rescued four chests; but the remainder were not recovered till +1805.] + + 6. + + To rive what Goth, and Turk, and Time hath spared. + Stanza xii. line 2. + +At this moment (January 3, 1810), besides what has been already +deposited in London, an Hydriot vessel is in the Pyraeus to receive every +portable relic. Thus, as I heard a young Greek observe, in common with +many of his countrymen--for, lost as they are, they yet feel on this +occasion--thus may Lord Elgin boast of having ruined Athens. An Italian +painter of the first eminence, named Lusieri[205], is the agent of +devastation; and like the Greek _finder_[206] of Verres in Sicily, who +followed the same profession, he has proved the able instrument of +plunder. Between this artist and the French Consul Fauvel[207], who +wishes to rescue the remains for his own government, there is now a +violent dispute concerning a car employed in their conveyance, the wheel +of which--I wish they were both broken upon it!--has been locked up by +the Consul, and Lusieri has laid his complaint before the Waywode. Lord +Elgin has been extremely happy in his choice of Signer Lusieri. During a +residence of ten years in Athens, he never had the curiosity to proceed +as far as Sunium (now Cape Colonna),[208] till he accompanied us in our +second excursion. However, his works, as far as they go, are most +beautiful: but they are almost all unfinished. While he and his patrons +confine themselves to tasting medals, appreciating cameos, sketching +columns, and cheapening gems, their little absurdities are as harmless +as insect or fox-hunting, maiden-speechifying, barouche-driving, or any +such pastime; but when they carry away three or four shiploads of the +most valuable and massy relics that time and barbarism have left to the +most injured and most celebrated of cities: when they destroy, in a vain +attempt to tear down, those works which have been the admiration of +ages, I know no motive which can excuse, no name which can designate, +the perpetrators of this dastardly devastation. It was not the least of +the crimes laid to the charge of Verres, that he had plundered Sicily, +in the manner since imitated at Athens. The most unblushing impudence +could hardly go farther than to affix the name of its plunderer to the +walls of the Acropolis; while the wanton and useless defacement of the +whole range of the basso-relievos, in one compartment of the temple, +will never permit that name to be pronounced by an observer without +execration. + +On this occasion I speak impartially: I am not a collector or admirer of +collections, consequently no rival; but I have some early prepossession +in favour of Greece, and do not think the honour of England advanced by +plunder, whether of India or Attica. + +Another noble Lord [Aberdeen] has done better, because he has done less: +but some others, more or less noble, yet "all honourable men," have done +_best_, because, after a deal of excavation and execration, bribery to +the Waywode, mining and countermining, they have done nothing at all. We +had such ink-shed, and wine-shed, which almost ended in bloodshed![209] +Lord E.'s "prig"--see Jonathan Wild for the definition of +"priggism"[210]--quarrelled with another, _Gropius_[211] by name (a very +good name too for his business), and muttered something about +satisfaction, in a verbal answer to a note of the poor Prussian: this +was stated at table to Gropius, who laughed, but could eat no dinner +afterwards. The rivals were not reconciled when I left Greece. I have +reason to remember their squabble, for they wanted to make me their +arbitrator. + + 7. + + Her Sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard, + Yet felt some portion of their Mother's pains. + Stanza xii. lines 7 and 8. + +I cannot resist availing myself of the permission of my friend Dr. +Clarke, whose name requires no comment with the public, but whose +sanction will add tenfold weight to my testimony, to insert the +following extract from a very obliging letter of his to me, as a note to +the above lines:--"When the last of the Metopes was taken from the +Parthenon, and, in moving of it, great part of the superstructure with +one of the triglyphs was thrown down by the workmen whom Lord Elgin +employed, the Disdar, who beheld the mischief done to the building, took +his pipe from his mouth, dropped a tear, and in a supplicating tone of +voice, said to Lusieri, [Greek: Telos]!--I was present." The Disdar +alluded to was the father of the present Disdar. + +[Disdar, or Dizdar, i.e. castle-holder--the warden of a castle or fort +(_N. Eng. Dict_., art. "Dizdar"). The story is told at greater length in +_Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa_, by Edward +Daniel Clarke, LL.D., 1810-14, Part II. sect. ii. p. 483.] + + 8. + + Where was thine AEgis, Pallas! that appalled + Stern Alaric and Havoc on their way? + Stanza xiv. lines i and 2. + +According to Zosimus, Minerva and Achilles frightened Alaric from the +Acropolis: but others relate that the Gothic king was nearly as +mischievous as the Scottish peer.--See Chandler. + +[Zosimus, _Historiae_, lib. v. cap. 6, _Corp. Scr. Byz_., 1837, p. 253. +As a matter of fact, Alaric, King of the Visigoths, occupied Athens in +A.D. 395 without resistance, and carried off the movable treasures of +the city, though he did not destroy buildings or works of art.--Note by +Rev. E. C. Owen, _Childe Harold_, 1898, p. 162.] + + 9. + + The netted canopy. + Stanza xviii. line 2. + +To prevent blocks or splinters from falling on deck during action. + + 10. + + But not in silence pass Calypso's isles. + Stanza xxix. line 1. + +Goza is said to have been the island of Calypso. + +[Strabo (Paris, 1853), lib. i. cap. ii. 57 and lib. vii. cap. iii. 50, +says that Apollodorus blamed the poet Callimachus, who was a grammarian +and ought to have known better, for his contention that Gaudus, i.e. +Gozo, was Calypso's isle. Ogygia (_Odyssey_, i. 50) was + + "a sea-girt isle, + Where is the navel of the sea, a woodland isle." + +It was surely as a poet, not as a grammarian, that Callimachus was at +fault.] + + 11. + + Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes + On thee, thou rugged Nurse of savage men! + Stanza xxxviii. lines 5 and 6. + +Albania comprises part of Macedonia, Illyria, Chaonia, and Epirus. +Iskander is the Turkish word for Alexander; and the celebrated +Scanderbeg[212] (Lord Alexander) is alluded to in the third and fourth +lines of the thirty-eighth stanza. I do not know whether I am correct +in making Scanderbeg the countryman of Alexander, who was born at Pella +in Macedon, but Mr. Gibbon terms him so, and adds Pyrrhus to the list, +in speaking of his exploits. + +Of Albania Gibbon remarks that a country "within sight of Italy is less +known than the interior of America." Circumstances, of little +consequence to mention, led Mr. Hobhouse and myself into that country +before we visited any other part of the Ottoman dominions; and with the +exception of Major Leake,[213] then officially resident at Joannina, no +other Englishmen have ever advanced beyond the capital into the +interior, as that gentleman very lately assured me. Ali Pacha was at +that time (October, 1809) carrying on war against Ibrahim Pacha, whom he +had driven to Berat, a strong fortress, which he was then besieging: on +our arrival at Joannina we were invited to Tepaleni, his highness's +birthplace, and favourite Serai, only one day's distance from Berat; at +this juncture the Vizier had made it his headquarters. After some stay +in the capital, we accordingly followed; but though furnished with every +accommodation, and escorted by one of the Vizier's secretaries, we were +nine days (on account of the rains) in accomplishing a journey which, on +our return, barely occupied four. On our route we passed two cities, +Argyrocastro and Libochabo, apparently little inferior to Yanina in +size; and no pencil or pen can ever do justice to the scenery in the +vicinity of Zitza and Delvinachi, the frontier village of Epirus and +Albania Proper. + +On Albania and its inhabitants I am unwilling to descant, because this +will be done so much better by my fellow-traveller, in a work which may +probably precede this in publication, that I as little wish to follow as +I would to anticipate him.[214] But some few observations are necessary +to the text. The Arnaouts, or Albanese, struck me forcibly by their +resemblance to the Highlanders of Scotland, in dress, figure, and manner +of living. Their very mountains seemed Caledonian, with a kinder +climate. The kilt, though white; the spare, active form; their dialect, +Celtic in its sound; and their hardy habits, all carried me back to +Morven. No nation are so detested and dreaded by their neighbours as the +Albanese; the Greeks hardly regard them as Christians, or the Turks as +Moslems; and in fact they are a mixture of both, and sometimes neither. +Their habits are predatory--all are armed; and the red-shawled Arnaouts, +the Montenegrins, Chimariots, and Gegdes, are treacherous;[215] the +others differ somewhat in garb, and essentially in character. As far as +my own experience goes, I can speak favourably. I was attended by two, +an Infidel and a Mussulman, to Constantinople and every other part of +Turkey which came within my observation; and more faithful in peril, or +indefatigable in service, are rarely to be found. The Infidel was named +Basilius; the Moslem, Dervish Tahiri; the former a man of middle age, +and the latter about my own. Basili was strictly charged by Ali Pacha in +person to attend us; and Dervish was one of fifty who accompanied us +through the forests of Acarnania to the banks of Achelous, and onward to +Messalonghi in AEtolia. There I took him into my own service, and never +had occasion to repent it till the moment of my departure. + +When, in 1810, after the departure of my friend Mr. Hobhouse for +England, I was seized with a severe fever in the Morea, these men saved +my life by frightening away my physician, whose throat they threatened +to cut if I was not cured within a given time. To this consolatory +assurance of posthumous retribution, and a resolute refusal of Dr. +Romanelli's prescriptions, I attributed my recovery.[gg] I had left my +last remaining English servant at Athens; my dragoman was as ill as +myself, and my poor Arnaouts nursed me with an attention which would +have done honour to civilization. They had a variety of adventures; for +the Moslem, Dervish, being a remarkably handsome man, was always +squabbling with the husbands of Athens; insomuch that four of the +principal Turks paid me a visit of remonstrance at the Convent on the +subject of his having taken a woman from the bath--whom he had lawfully +bought, however--a thing quite contrary to etiquette. Basili also was +extremely gallant amongst his own persuasion, and had the greatest +veneration for the church, mixed with the highest contempt of churchmen, +whom he cuffed upon occasion in a most heterodox manner. Yet he never +passed a church without crossing himself; and I remember the risk he +ran in entering St. Sophia, in Stambol, because it had once been a place +of his worship. On remonstrating with him on his inconsistent +proceedings, he invariably answered, "Our church is holy, our priests +are thieves:" and then he crossed himself as usual, and boxed the ears +of the first "papas" who refused to assist in any required operation, as +was always found to be necessary where a priest had any influence with +the Cogia Bashi[216] of his village. Indeed, a more abandoned race of +miscreants cannot exist than the lower orders of the Greek clergy. + +When preparations were made for my return, my Albanians were summoned to +receive their pay. Basili took his with an awkward show of regret at my +intended departure, and marched away to his quarters with his bag of +piastres. I sent for Dervish, but for some time he was not to be found; +at last he entered, just as Signor Logotheti,[217] father to the +ci-devant Anglo-consul of Athens, and some other of my Greek +acquaintances, paid me a visit. Dervish took the money in his hand, but +on a sudden dashed it to the ground; and clasping his hands, which he +raised to his forehead, rushed out of the room weeping bitterly. From +that moment to the hour of my embarkation, he continued his +lamentations, and all our efforts to console him only produced this +answer, "[Greek: M'apheinei]", "He leaves me." Signer Logotheti, who +never wept before for anything less than the loss of a para (about the +fourth of a farthing), melted; the padre of the convent, my attendants, +my visitors--and I verily believe that even Sterne's "foolish fat +scullion" would have left her "fish-kettle" to sympathize with the +unaffected and unexpected sorrow of this barbarian.[218] + +For my own part, when I remembered that, a short time before my +departure from England, a noble and most intimate associate had excused +himself from taking leave of me because he had to attend a female +relation "to a milliner's,"[219] I felt no less surprised than +humiliated by the present occurrence and the past recollection. That +Dervish would leave me with some regret was to be expected; when master +and man have been scrambling over the mountains of a dozen provinces +together, they are unwilling to separate; but his present feelings, +contrasted with his native ferocity, improved my opinion of the human +heart. I believe this almost feudal fidelity is frequent amongst them. +One day, on our journey over Parnassus, an Englishman in my service gave +him a push in some dispute about the baggage, which he unluckily mistook +for a blow; he spoke not, but sat down leaning his head upon his hands. +Foreseeing the consequences, we endeavoured to explain away the affront, +which produced the following answer:--"I _have been_ a robber; I _am_ a +soldier; no captain ever struck me; _you_ are my master, I have eaten +your bread, but by _that_ bread! (a usual oath) had it been otherwise, I +would have stabbed the dog, your servant, and gone to the mountains." So +the affair ended, but from that day forward he never thoroughly forgave +the thoughtless fellow who insulted him. Dervish excelled in the dance +of his country, conjectured to be a remnant of the ancient Pyrrhic: be +that as it may, it is manly, and requires wonderful agility. It is very +distinct from the stupid Romaika,[220] the dull round-about of the +Greeks, of which our Athenian party had so many specimens. + +The Albanians in general (I do not mean the cultivators of the earth in +the provinces, who have also that appellation, but the mountaineers) +have a fine cast of countenance; and the most beautiful women I ever +beheld, in stature and in features, we saw _levelling_ the _road_ broken +down by the torrents between Delvinachi and Libochabo. Their manner of +walking is truly theatrical; but this strut is probably the effect of +the capote, or cloak, depending from one shoulder. Their long hair +reminds you of the Spartans, and their courage in desultory warfare is +unquestionable. Though they have some cavalry amongst the Gegdes, I +never saw a good Arnaout horseman; my own preferred the English saddles, +which, however, they could never keep. But on foot they are not to be +subdued by fatigue. + + 12. + + And passed the barren spot, + Where sad Penelope o'erlooked the wave. + Stanza xxxix. lines 1 and 2. + +Ithaca. + + 13. + + Actium--Lepanto--fatal Trafalgar. + Stanza xl. line 5. + +Actium and Trafalgar need no further mention. The battle of Lepanto +[October 7, 1571], equally bloody and considerable, but less known, was +fought in the Gulf of Patras. Here the author of Don Quixote lost his +left hand. + +["His [Cervantes'] galley the _Marquesa_, was in the thick of the fight, +and before it was over he had received three gun-shot wounds, two in the +breast and one on the left hand or arm." In consequence of his wound "he +was seven months in hospital before he was discharged. He came out with +his left hand permanently disabled; he had lost the use of it, as +Mercury told him in the 'Viaje del Parnase,' for the greater glory of +the right."--_Don Quixote_, A Translation by John Ormsby, 1885, +_Introduction_, i. 13.] + + 14. + + And hailed the last resort of fruitless love. + Stanza xli. line 3. + +Leucadia, now Santa Maura. From the promontory (the Lover's Leap) Sappho +is said to have thrown herself. + +[Strabo (lib. x. cap. 2, ed. Paris, 1853, p. 388) gives Menander as an +authority for the legend that Sappho was the first to take the "Lover's +Leap" from the promontory of Leucate. Writers, he adds, better versed in +antiquities [Greek: a)rchaiologiko/teroi], prefer the claims of one +Cephalus. Another legend, which he gives as a fact, perhaps gave birth +to the later and more poetical fiction. The Leucadians, he says, once a +year, on Apollo's day, were wont to hurl a criminal from the rock into +the sea by way of expiation and propitiation. Birds of all kinds were +attached to the victim to break his fall, and, if he reached the sea +uninjured, there was a fleet of little boats ready to carry him to other +shores. It is possible that dim memories of human sacrifice lingered in +the islands, that in course of time victims were transformed into +"lovers," and it is certain that poets and commentators, "prone to lie," +are responsible for names and incidents.] + + 15. + + Many a Roman chief and Asian King. + Stanza xlv. line 4. + +It is said, that on the day previous to the battle of Actium, Antony had +thirteen kings at his levee. + +[Plutarch, in his _Antonius_, gives the names of "six auxiliary kings +who fought under his banners," and mentions six other kings who did not +attend in person but sent supplies. Shakespeare (_Anthony and +Cleopatra_, act iii. sc. 6, lines 68-75), quoting Plutarch almost +_verbatim_, enumerates ten kings who were "assembled" in Anthony's +train-- + + "Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus, + Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, king + Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas; + King Malchus of Arabia; king of Pont; + Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king + Of Comagene; Polemon and Amintas, + The kings of Mede and Lycaonia, + With a more larger list of sceptres." + +Other authorities for the events of the campaign and battle of Actium +(Dion Cassius, Appian, and Orosius) are silent as to "kings;" but Florus +(iv. 11) says that the wind-tossed waters "vomited back" to the shore +gold and purple, the spoils of the Arabians and Sabaeans, and a thousand +other peoples of Asia.] + + 16. + + Look where the second Caesar's trophies rose. + Stanza xlv. line 6. + +Nicopolis, whose ruins are most extensive, is at some distance from +Actium, where the wall of the Hippodrome survives in a few fragments. +These ruins are large masses of brickwork, the bricks of which are +joined by interstices of mortar, as large as the bricks themselves, and +equally durable. + + 17. + + Acherusia's lake. + Stanza xlvii. line 1. + +According to Pouqueville, the lake of Yanina; but Pouqueville is always +out. + +[The lake of Yanina (Janina or Joannina) was the ancient Pambotis. "At +the mouth of the gorge [of Suli], where it suddenly comes to an end, was +the marsh, the Palus Acherusia, in the neighbourhood of which was the +Oracle."--_Geography of Greece_, by H. F. Tozer, 1873, p. 121.] + + 18. + + To greet Albania's Chief. + Stanza xlvii. line 4. + +The celebrated Ali Pacha. Of this extraordinary man there is an +incorrect account in Pouqueville's _Travels_. [For note on Ali Pasha +(1741-1822), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 246.] + + 19. + + Yet here and there some daring mountain-band + Disdain his power, and from their rocky hold + Hurl their defiance far, nor yield, unless to gold. + Stanza xlvii. lines 7, 8, and 9. + +Five thousand Suliotes, among the rocks and in the castle of Suli, +withstood thirty thousand Albanians for eighteen years; the castle at +last was taken by bribery. In this contest there were several acts +performed not unworthy of the better days of Greece. + +[Ali Pasha assumed the government of Janina in 1788, but it was not till +December 12, 1803, that the Suliotes, who were betrayed by their +leaders, Botzaris and Koutsonika and others, finally +surrendered.--Finlay's _History of Greece_, 1877, vi. 45-50.] + + 20. + + Monastic Zitza! etc. + Stanza xlviii. line 1. + +The convent and village of Zitza are four hours' journey from Joannina, +or Yanina, the capital of the Pachalick. In the valley the river Kalamas +(once the Acheron) flows, and, not far from Zitza, forms a fine +cataract. The situation is perhaps the finest in Greece, though the +approach to Delvinachi and parts of Acarnania and AEtolia may contest the +palm. Delphi, Parnassus, and, in Attica, even Cape Colonna and Port +Raphti, are very inferior; as also every scene in Ionia, or the Troad: I +am almost inclined to add the approach to Constantinople; but, from the +different features of the last, a comparison can hardly be made. + + 21. + + Here dwells the caloyer. + Stanza xlix. line 6. + +The Greek monks are so called. + +[_Caloyer_ is derived from the late Greek [Greek: kalo/geros], "good in +old age," through the Italian _caloieso_. Hence the accent on the last +syllable.--_N. Eng. Dict._] + + 22. + + Nature's volcanic Amphitheatre. + Stanza li. line 2. + +The Chimariot mountains appear to have been volcanic. + +[By "Chimaera's Alps" Byron probably meant the Ceraunian Mountains, which +are "woody to the top, but disclose some wide chasms of red rock" +(_Travels in Albania_, i. 73) to the north of Jannina,--not the +Acroceraunian (Chimariot) Mountains, which run from north to south-west +along the coast of Mysia. "The walls of rock (which do not appear to be +volcanic) rise in tiers on every side, like the seats and walls of an +amphitheatre" (H. F. Tozer). The near distance may have suggested an +amphitheatre; but he is speaking of the panorama which enlarged on his +view, and uses the word not graphically, but metaphorically, of the +entire "circle of the hills."] + + 23. + + Behold black Acheron! + Stanza li. line 6. + +Now called Kalamas. + + 24. + + In his white capote. + Stanza lii. line 7. + +Albanese cloak. + +[The _capote_ (feminine of _capot_, masculine diminutive of _cope_, +cape) was a long shaggy cloak or overcoat, with a hood, worn by +soldiers, etc.--_N. Eng. Dict_., art. "Capote."] + + 25. + + The Sun had sunk behind vast Tomerit. + Stanza lv. line 1. + +Anciently Mount Tomarus. + +["Mount Tomerit, or Tomohr," says Mr. Tozer, "lies north-east of +Tepalen, and therefore the sun could not set behind it" (_Childe +Harold_, 1885, p. 272). But, writing to Drury, May 3, 1810, Byron says +that "he penetrated as far as Mount Tomarit." Probably by "Tomarit" he +does not mean Mount Tomohr, which lies to the north-east of Berat, but +Mount Olytsika, ancient Tomaros (_vide ante_, p. 132, note 1), which +lies to the west of Janina, between the valley of Tcharacovista and the +sea. "Elle domine," writes M. Carapanos, "toutes les autres montagnes +qui l'entourent." "Laos," Mr. Tozer thinks, "is a mere blunder for Aoeus, +the Viosa (or Voioussa), which joins the Derapuli a few miles south of +Tepaleni, and flows under the walls of the city" (_Dodone et ses +Ruines_, 1878, p. 8). (For the Aoeus and approach to Tepeleni, see +_Travels in Albania_, i. 91.)] + + 26. + + And Laos wide and fierce came roaring by. + Stanza lv. line 2. + +The river Laos was full at the time the author passed it; and, +immediately above Tepaleen, was to the eye as wide as the Thames at +Westminster; at least in the opinion of the author and his +fellow-traveller. In the summer it must be much narrower. It certainly +is the finest river in the Levant; neither Achelous, Alpheus, Acheron, +Scamander, nor Cayster, approached it in breadth or beauty. + + 27. + + And fellow-countrymen have stood aloof. + Stanza lxvi. line 8. + +Alluding to the wreckers of Cornwall. + + 28. + + The red wine circling fast. + Stanza lxxi. line 2. + +The Albanian Mussulmans do not abstain from wine, and, indeed, very few +of the others. + + 29. + + Each Palikar his sabre from him cast. + Stanza lxxi. line 7. + +Palikar, shortened when addressed to a single person, from [Greek: +Palikari] [[Greek: palleka/ri]], a general name for a soldier amongst +the Greeks and Albanese, who speak Romaic: it means, properly, "a lad." + + 30. + + While thus in concert, etc. + Stanza lxxii. line 9. + +As a specimen of the Albanian or Arnaout dialect of the Illyric, I here +insert two of their most popular choral songs, which are generally +chanted in dancing by men or women indiscriminately. The first words are +merely a kind of chorus without meaning, like some in our own and all +other languages. + + 1. Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, 1. Lo, Lo, I come, I come; + Naciarura, popuso. be thou silent. + + 2. Naciarura na civin 2. I come, I run; open the + Ha pen derini ti hin. door that I may enter. + + 3. Ha pe uderi escrotini 3. Open the door by halves, + Ti vin ti mar servetini. that I may take my turban. + + 4. Caliriote me surme 4. Caliriotes[Sec.] with the dark + Ea ha pe pse dua tive. eyes, open the gate that + I may enter. + + 5. Buo, Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, 5. Lo, Lo, I hear thee, my soul. + Gi egem spirta esimiro. + + 6. Caliriote vu le funde 6. An Arnaout girl, in costly + Ede vete tunde tunde. garb, walks with graceful pride. + + 7. Caliriote me surme 7. Caliriot maid of the dark + Ti mi put e poi mi le. eyes, give me a kiss. + + 8. Se ti puta citi mora 8. If I have kissed thee, + what hast thou gained? + Si mi ri ni veti udo gia. My soul is consumed with fire. + + 9. Va le ni il che cadale 9. Dance lightly, more + Celo more, more celo. gently, and gently still. + +10. Plu hari ti tirete 10. Make not so much dust + Plu huron cia pra seti. to destroy your embroidered hose. + +[Sec.]The Albanese, particularly the women, are frequently termed +"Caliriotes," for what reason I inquired in vain. + +The last stanza would puzzle a commentator: the men have certainly +buskins of the most beautiful texture, but the ladies (to whom the above +is supposed to be addressed) have nothing under their little yellow +boots and slippers but a well-turned and sometimes very white ankle. The +Arnaout girls are much handsomer than the Greeks, and their dress is far +more picturesque. They preserve their shape much longer also, from being +always in the open air. It is to be observed, that the Arnaout is not a +_written_ language: the words of this song, therefore, as well as the +one which follows, are spelt according to their pronunciation. They are +copied by one who speaks and understands the dialect perfectly, and who +is a native of Athens. + +1. Ndi sefda tinde ulavossa 1. I am wounded by thy love, and + Vettimi upri vi lofsa. have loved but to scorch myself. + +2. Ah vaisisso mi privi lofse 2. Thou hast consumed me! Ah, maid! + Si mi rini mi la vosse. thou has struck me to the heart. + +3. Uti tasa roba stua 3. I have said I wish no dowry, + Sitti eve tulati dua. but thine eyes and eyelashes. + +4. Roba stinori ssidua 4. The accursed dowry I + Qu mi sini vetti dua. want not, but thee only. + +5. Qurmini dua civileni 5. Give me thy charms, and + Roba ti siarmi tildi eni. let the portion feed the flames. + +6. Utara pisa vaisisso me 6. I have loved thee, maid, + simi rin ti hapti with a sincere soul, but + Eti mi bire a piste si gui thou hast left me like + dendroi tiltati. a withered tree. + +7. Udi vura udorini udiri 7. If I have placed my hand on + cicova cilti mora thy bosom, what have I gained? + Udorini talti hollna u ede my hand is withdrawn, but + caimoni mora. retains the flame. + +I believe the two last stanzas, as they are in a different measure, +ought to belong to another ballad. An idea something similar to the +thought in the last lines was expressed by Socrates, whose arm having +come in contact with one of his "[Greek: hupokolpioi]," Critobulus or +Cleobulus, the philosopher complained of a shooting pain as far as his +shoulder for some days after, and therefore very properly resolved to +teach his disciples in future without touching them. + + 31. + + Tambourgi! Tambourgi! thy 'larum afar. + Song, stanza 1, line 1. + +These stanzas are partly taken from different Albanese songs, as far as +I was able to make them out by the exposition of the Albanese in Romaic +and Italian. + + 32. + + Remember the moment when Previsa fell. + Song, stanza 8, line 1. + +It was taken by storm from the French [October, 1798]. + + 33. + + Fair Greece! sad relic of departed Worth! etc. + Stanza lxxiii. line 1. + +Some thoughts on this subject will be found in the subjoined papers, pp. +187-208. + + 34. + + Spirit of Freedom! when on Phyle's brow + Thou sat'st with Thrasybulus and his train. + Stanza lxxiv. lines 1 and 2. + +Phyle, which commands a beautiful view of Athens, has still considerable +remains: it was seized by Thrasybulus, previous to the expulsion of the +Thirty. + +[Byron and Hobhouse caught their first glance of Athens from this spot, +December 25, 1809. (See Byron's note.) "The ruins," says Hobhouse, "are +now called Bigla Castro, or The Watchtower."] + + 35. + + Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest. + Stanza lxxvii. line 4. + +When taken by the Latins, and retained for several years. See Gibbon. +[From A.D. 1204 to 1261.] + + 36. + + The Prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil. + Stanza lxxvii. line 6. + +Mecca and Medina were taken some time ago by the Wahabees, a sect yearly +increasing. [_Vide supra_, p. 151.] + + 37. + + Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow. + Stanza lxxxv. line 3. + +On many of the mountains, particularly Liakura, the snow never is +entirely melted, notwithstanding the intense heat of the summer; but I +never saw it lie on the plains, even in winter. + +[This feature of Greek scenery, in spring, may, now and again, be +witnessed in our own country in autumn--a blue lake, bordered with +summer greenery in the foreground, with a rear-guard of "hills of snow" +glittering in the October sunshine.] + + 38. + + Save where some solitary column mourns + Above its prostrate brethren of the cave. + Stanza lxxxvi. lines 1 and 2. + +Of Mount Pentelicus, from whence the marble was dug that constructed the +public edifices of Athens. The modern name is Mount Mendeli. An immense +cave, formed by the quarries, still remains, and will till the end of +time. + +[Mendeli is the ancient Pentelicus. "The white lines marking the +projecting veins" of marble are visible from Athens (_Geography of +Greece_, by H.F. Tozer, 1873, p. 129).] + + 39. + + When Marathon became a magic word. + Stanza lxxxix. line 7. + +"Siste Viator--heroa calcas!" was the epitaph on the famous Count +Merci;[221]--what then must be our feelings when standing on the +tumulus of the two hundred (Greeks) who fell on Marathon? The principal +barrow has recently been opened by Fauvel: few or no relics, as vases, +etc. were found by the excavator. The plain of Marathon[222] was offered +to me for sale at the sum of sixteen thousand piastres, about nine +hundred pounds! Alas!--"Expende[223]--quot _libras_ in duce +summo--invenies!"--was the dust of Miltiades worth no more? It could +scarcely have fetched less if sold by _weight_. + + + PAPERS REFERRED TO BY NOTE 33. + + I.[224] + +Before I say anything about a city of which every body, traveller or +not, has thought it necessary to say something, I will request Miss +Owenson,[225] when she next borrows an Athenian heroine for her four +volumes, to have the goodness to marry her to somebody more of a +gentleman than a "Disdar Aga" (who by the by is not an Aga), the most +impolite of petty officers, the greatest patron of larceny[226] Athens +ever saw (except Lord E.), and the unworthy occupant of the Acropolis, +on a handsome annual stipend of 150 piastres (eight pounds sterling), +out of which he has only to pay his garrison, the most ill-regulated +corps in the ill-regulated Ottoman Empire. I speak it tenderly, seeing I +was once the cause of the husband of "Ida of Athens" nearly suffering +the bastinado; and because the said "Disdar" is a turbulent husband, and +beats his wife; so that I exhort and beseech Miss Owenson to sue for a +separate maintenance in behalf of "Ida." Having premised thus much, on a +matter of such import to the readers of romances, I may now leave Ida to +mention her birthplace. + +Setting aside the magic of the name, and all those associations which it +would be pedantic and superfluous to recapitulate, the very situation of +Athens would render it the favourite of all who have eyes for art or +nature. The climate, to me at least, appeared a perpetual spring; during +eight months I never passed a day without being as many hours on +horseback: rain is extremely rare, snow never lies in the plains, and a +cloudy day is an agreeable rarity. In Spain, Portugal, and every part of +the East which I visited, except Ionia and Attica, I perceived no such +superiority of climate to our own; and at Constantinople, where I passed +May, June, and part of July (1810), you might "damn the climate, and +complain of spleen," five days out of seven.[227] + +The air of the Morea is heavy and unwholesome, but the moment you pass +the isthmus in the direction of Megara the change is strikingly +perceptible. But I fear Hesiod will still be found correct in his +description of a Boeotian winter.[228] + +We found at Livadia an "esprit fort" in a Greek bishop, of all +free-thinkers! This worthy hypocrite rallied his own religion with great +intrepidity (but not before his flock), and talked of a mass as a +"coglioneria."[229] It was impossible to think better of him for this; +but, for a Boeotian, he was brisk with all his absurdity. This +phenomenon (with the exception indeed of Thebes, the remains of +Chaeronea, the plain of Platea, Orchomenus, Livadia, and its nominal +cave of Trophonius) was the only remarkable thing we saw before we +passed Mount Cithaeron. + +The fountain of Dirce turns a mill: at least my companion (who, +resolving to be at once cleanly and classical, bathed in it) pronounced +it to be the fountain of Dirce,[230] and any body who thinks it worth +while may contradict him. At Castri we drank of half a dozen streamlets, +some not of the purest, before we decided to our satisfaction which was +the true Castalian, and even that had a villanous twang, probably from +the snow, though it did not throw us into an epic fever, like poor Dr. +Chandler.[231] + +From Fort Phyle, of which large remains still exist, the plain of +Athens, Pentelicus, Hymettus, the AEgean, and the Acropolis, burst upon +the eye at once; in my opinion, a more glorious prospect than even +Cintra or Istambol. Not the view from the Troad, with Ida, the +Hellespont, and the more distant Mount Athos, can equal it, though so +superior in extent. + +I heard much of the beauty of Arcadia, but excepting the view from the +Monastery of Megaspelion (which is inferior to Zitza in a command of +country), and the descent from the mountains on the way from Tripolitza +to Argos, Arcadia has little to recommend it beyond the name. + + "Sternitur, et _dulces_ moriens reminiscitur Argos." + _AEneid_, x. 782. + +Virgil could have put this into the mouth of none but an Argive, and +(with reverence be it spoken) it does not deserve the epithet. And if +the Polynices of Statius, "In mediis audit duo litora campis" +(_Thebaidos_, i. 335), did actually hear both shores in crossing the +isthmus of Corinth, he had better ears than have ever been worn in such +a journey since. + +"Athens," says a celebrated topographer, "is still the most polished +city of Greece."[232] Perhaps it may of _Greece_, but not of the +_Greeks_; for Joannina in Epirus is universally allowed, amongst +themselves, to be superior in the wealth, refinement, learning, and +dialect of its inhabitants. The Athenians are remarkable for their +cunning; and the lower orders are not improperly characterised in that +proverb, which classes them with the "Jews of Salonica, and the Turks of +the Negropont." + +Among the various foreigners resident in Athens, French, Italians, +Germans, Ragusans, etc., there was never a difference of opinion in +their estimate of the Greek character, though on all other topics they +disputed with great acrimony. + +M. Fauvel, the French Consul, who has passed thirty years principally at +Athens, and to whose talents as an artist, and manners as a gentleman, +none who have known him can refuse their testimony, has frequently +declared in my hearing, that the Greeks do not deserve to be +emancipated; reasoning on the grounds of their "national and individual +depravity!" while he forgot that such depravity is to be attributed to +causes which can only be removed by the measure he reprobates. + +M. Roque,[233] a French merchant of respectability long settled in +Athens, asserted with the most amusing gravity, "Sir, they are the same +_canaille_ that existed _in the days of Themistocles!_" an alarming +remark to the "Laudator temporis acti." The ancients banished +Themistocles; the moderns cheat Monsieur Roque; thus great men have ever +been treated! + +In short, all the Franks who are fixtures, and most of the Englishmen, +Germans, Danes, etc., of passage, came over by degrees to their opinion, +on much the same grounds that a Turk in England would condemn the nation +by wholesale, because he was wronged by his lacquey, and overcharged by +his washerwoman. + +Certainly it was not a little staggering when the Sieurs Fauvel and +Lusieri, the two greatest demagogues of the day, who divide between them +the power of Pericles and the popularity of Cleon, and puzzle the poor +Waywode with perpetual differences, agreed in the utter condemnation, +"nulla virtute redemptum" (Juvenal, lib. i. _Sat._ iv. line 2), of the +Greeks in general, and of the Athenians in particular. For my own humble +opinion, I am loth to hazard it, knowing as I do, that there be now in +MS. no less than five tours of the first magnitude, and of the most +threatening aspect, all in typographical array, by persons of wit and +honour, and regular common-place books: but, if I may say this, without +offence, it seems to me rather hard to declare so positively and +pertinaciously, as almost everybody has declared, that the Greeks, +because they are very bad, will never be better. + +Eton and Sonnini[234] have led us astray by their panegyrics and +projects; but, on the other hand, De Pauw and Thornton[235] have debased +the Greeks beyond their demerits. + +The Greeks will never be independent; they will never be sovereigns as +heretofore, and God forbid they ever should! but they may be subjects +without being slaves. Our colonies are not independent, but they are +free and industrious, and such may Greece be hereafter. + +At present, like the Catholics of Ireland and the Jews throughout the +world, and such other cudgelled and heterodox people, they suffer all +the moral and physical ills that can afflict humanity. Their life is a +struggle against truth; they are vicious in their own defence. They are +so unused to kindness, that when they occasionally meet with it they +look upon it with suspicion, as a dog often beaten snaps at your fingers +if you attempt to caress him. "They are ungrateful, notoriously, +abominably ungrateful!"--this is the general cry. Now, in the name of +Nemesis! for what are they to be grateful? Where is the human being that +ever conferred a benefit on Greek or Greeks? They are to be grateful to +the Turks for their fetters, and to the Franks for their broken promises +and lying counsels. They are to be grateful to the artist who engraves +their ruins, and to the antiquary who carries them away; to the +traveller whose janissary flogs them, and to the scribbler whose journal +abuses them. This is the amount of their obligations to foreigners. + + + II. + + Franciscan Convent, Athens, _January_ 23, 1811.[236] + +Amongst the remnants of the barbarous policy of the earlier ages, are +the traces of bondage which yet exist in different countries; whose +inhabitants, however divided in religion and manners, almost all agree +in oppression. + +The English have at last compassionated their negroes, and under a less +bigoted government, may probably one day release their Catholic +brethren; but the interposition of foreigners alone can emancipate the +Greeks, who, otherwise, appear to have as small a chance of redemption +from the Turks, as the Jews have from mankind in general. + +Of the ancient Greeks we know more than enough; at least the younger men +of Europe devote much of their time to the study of the Greek writers +and history, which would be more usefully spent in mastering their own. +Of the moderns, we are perhaps more neglectful than they deserve; and +while every man of any pretensions to learning is tiring out his youth, +and often his age, in the study of the language and of the harangues of +the Athenian demagogues in favour of freedom, the real or supposed +descendants of these sturdy republicans are left to the actual tyranny +of their masters, although a very slight effort is required to strike +off their chains. + +To talk, as the Greeks themselves do, of their rising again to their +pristine superiority, would be ridiculous: as the rest of the world must +resume its barbarism, after reasserting the sovereignty of Greece: but +there seems to be no very great obstacle, except in the apathy of the +Franks, to their becoming an useful dependency, or even a free state, +with a proper guarantee;--under correction, however, be it spoken, for +many and well-informed men doubt the practicability even of this. + +The Greeks have never lost their hope, though they are now more divided +in opinion on the subject of their probable deliverers. Religion +recommends the Russians; but they have twice been deceived and abandoned +by that power, and the dreadful lesson they received after the Muscovite +desertion in the Morea has never been forgotten. The French they +dislike; although the subjugation of the rest of Europe will, probably, +be attended by the deliverance of continental Greece. The islanders look +to the English for succour, as they have very lately possessed +themselves of the Ionian republic, Corfu excepted.[237] But whoever +appear with arms in their hands will be welcome; and when that day +arrives, Heaven have mercy on the Ottomans; they cannot expect it from +the Giaours. + +But instead of considering what they have been, and speculating on what +they may be, let us look at them as they are. + +And here it is impossible to reconcile the contrariety of opinions: +some, particularly the merchants, decrying the Greeks in the strongest +language; others, generally travellers, turning periods in their eulogy, +and publishing very curious speculations grafted on their former state, +which can have no more effect on their present lot, than the existence +of the Incas on the future fortunes of Peru. + +One very ingenious person terms them the "natural allies of Englishmen;" +another no less ingenious, will not allow them to be the allies of +anybody, and denies their very descent from the ancients; a third, more +ingenious than either, builds a Greek empire on a Russian foundation, +and realises (on paper) all the chimeras of Catharine II. As to the +question of their descent, what can it import whether the Mainotes[238] +are the lineal Laconians or not? or the present Athenians as indigenous +as the bees of Hymettus, or as the grasshoppers, to which they once +likened themselves? What Englishman cares if he be of a Danish, Saxon, +Norman, or Trojan blood? or who, except a Welshman, is afflicted with a +desire of being descended from Caractacus? + +The poor Greeks do not so much abound in the good things of this world, +as to render even their claims to antiquity an object of envy; it is +very cruel, then, in Mr. Thornton to disturb them in the possession of +all that time has left them; viz. their pedigree, of which they are the +more tenacious, as it is all they can call their own. It would be worth +while to publish together, and compare, the works of Messrs. Thornton +and De Pauw, Eton and Sonnini; paradox on one side, and prejudice on the +other. Mr. Thornton conceives himself to have claims to public +confidence from a fourteen years' residence at Pera; perhaps he may on +the subject of the Turks, but this can give him no more insight into the +real state of Greece and her inhabitants, than as many years spent in +Wapping into that of the Western Highlands. + +The Greeks of Constantinople live in Fanal;[239] and if Mr. Thornton did +not oftener cross the Golden Horn than his brother merchants are +accustomed to do, I should place no great reliance on his information. I +actually heard one of these gentlemen boast of their little general +intercourse with the city, and assert of himself, with an air of +triumph, that he had been but four times at Constantinople in as many +years. + +As to Mr. Thornton's voyages in the Black Sea with Greek vessels, they +gave him the same idea of Greece as a cruise to Berwick in a Scotch +smack would of Johnny Groat's house. Upon what grounds then does he +arrogate the right of condemning by wholesale a body of men of whom he +can know little? It is rather a curious circumstance that Mr. Thornton, +who so lavishly dispraises Pouqueville on every occasion of mentioning +the Turks, has yet recourse to him as authority on the Greeks, and terms +him an impartial observer. Now, Dr. Pouqueville is as little entitled to +that appellation as Mr. Thornton to confer it on him. + +The fact is, we are deplorably in want of information on the subject of +the Greeks, and in particular their literature; nor is there any +probability of our being better acquainted, till our intercourse becomes +more intimate, or their independence confirmed. The relations of +passing travellers are as little to be depended on as the invectives of +angry factors; but till something more can be attained, we must be +content with the little to be acquired from similar sources.[240] + +However defective these may be, they are preferable to the parodoxes of +men who have read superficially of the ancients, and seen nothing of the +moderns, such as De Pauw; who, when he asserts that the British breed of +horses is ruined by Newmarket, and that the Spartans[241] were cowards +in the field,[242] betrays an equal knowledge of English horses and +Spartan men. His "philosophical observations" have a much better claim +to the title of "poetical." It could not be expected that he who so +liberally condemns some of the most celebrated institutions of the +ancient, should have mercy on the modern Greeks; and it fortunately +happens, that the absurdity of his hypothesis on their forefathers +refutes his sentence on themselves. + +Let us trust, then, that, in spite of the prophecies of De Pauw, and the +doubts of Mr. Thornton, there is a reasonable hope of the redemption of +a race of men, who, whatever may be the errors of their religion and +policy, have been amply punished by three centuries and a half of +captivity. + + + III.[243] + + Athens, Franciscan Convent, _March_ 17, 1811. + + "I must have some talk with this learned Theban."[244] + +Some time after my return from Constantinople to this city I received +the thirty-first number of the _Edinburgh Review_[245] as a great +favour, and certainly at this distance an acceptable one, from the +captain of an English frigate off Salamis. In that number, Art. 3, +containing the review of a French translation of Strabo,[246] there are +introduced some remarks on the modern Greeks and their literature, with +a short account of Coray, a co-translator in the French version. On +those remarks I mean to ground a few observations; and the spot where I +now write will, I hope, be sufficient excuse for introducing them in a +work in some degree connected with the subject. Coray, the most +celebrated of living Greeks, at least among the Franks, was born at Scio +(in the _Review_, Smyrna is stated, I have reason to think, +incorrectly), and besides the translation of Beccaria and other works +mentioned by the Reviewer, has published a lexicon in Romaic and French, +if I may trust the assurance of some Danish travellers lately arrived +from Paris; but the latest we have seen here in French and Greek is that +of Gregory Zolikogloou.[247] Coray has recently been involved in an +unpleasant controversy with M. Gail,[248] a Parisian commentator and +editor of some translations from the Greek poets, in consequence of the +Institute having awarded him the prize for his version of Hippocrates' +"[Greek: Peri\ y(da/ton]," etc., to the disparagement, and consequently +displeasure, of the said Gail. To his exertions, literary and patriotic, +great praise is undoubtedly due; but a part of that praise ought not to +be withheld from the two brothers Zosimado (merchants settled in +Leghorn), who sent him to Paris and maintained him, for the express +purpose of elucidating the ancient, and adding to the modern, +researches of his countrymen. Coray, however, is not considered by his +countrymen equal to some who lived in the two last centuries; more +particularly Dorotheus of Mitylene,[249] whose Hellenic writings are so +much esteemed by the Greeks, that Meletius[250] terms him "[Greek: Meta\ +to Thoukydi/den kai\ Xenopho/nta a)/ristos E(lle/non]" (p. 224, +_Ecclesiastical History_, iv.). + +Panagiotes Kodrikas, the translator of Fontenelle, and Kamarases,[251] +who translated Ocellus Lucanus on the Universe into French, +Christodoulus,[252] and more particularly Psalida,[253] whom I have +conversed with in Joannina, are also in high repute among their +literati. The last-mentioned has published in Romaic and Latin a work on +_True Happiness_, dedicated to Catherine II. But Polyzois,[254] who is +stated by the Reviewer to be the only modern except Coray who has +distinguished himself by a knowledge of Hellenic, if he be the Polyzois +Lampanitziotes of Yanina, who has published a number of editions in +Romaic, was neither more nor less than an itinerant vender of books; +with the contents of which he had no concern beyond his name on the +title page, placed there to secure his property in the publication; and +he was, moreover, a man utterly destitute of scholastic acquirements. As +the name, however, is not uncommon, some other Polyzois may have edited +the Epistles of Aristaenetus. + +It is to be regretted that the system of continental blockade has closed +the few channels through which the Greeks received their publications, +particularly Venice and Trieste. Even the common grammars for children +are become too dear for the lower orders. Amongst their original works +the Geography of Meletius, Archbishop of Athens, and a multitude of +theological quartos and poetical pamphlets, are to be met with; their +grammars and lexicons of two, three, and four languages are numerous and +excellent. Their poetry is in rhyme. The most singular piece I have +lately seen is a satire in dialogue between a Russian, English, and +French traveller, and the Waywode of Wallachia (or Blackbey, as they +term him), an archbishop, a merchant,[255] and Cogia Bachi (or primate), +in succession; to all of whom under the Turks the writer attributes +their present degeneracy. Their songs are sometimes pretty and pathetic, +but their tunes generally unpleasing to the ear of a Frank; the best is +the famous "[Greek: Deu/te, pai~des to~n E(lle/non]," by the unfortunate +Riga.[256] But from a catalogue of more than sixty authors, now before +me, only fifteen can be found who have touched on any theme except +theology. + +I am intrusted with a commission by a Greek of Athens named Marmarotouri +to make arrangements, if possible, for printing in London a translation +of Barthelemi's _Anacharsis_ in Romaic, as he has no other opportunity, +unless he dispatches the MS. to Vienna by the Black Sea and Danube. + +The Reviewer mentions a school established at Hecatonesi,[257] and +suppressed at the instigation of Sebastiani:[258] he means Cidonies, or, +in Turkish, Haivali; a town on the continent, where that institution for +a hundred students and three professors still exists. It is true that +this establishment was disturbed by the Porte, under the ridiculous +pretext that the Greeks were constructing a fortress instead of a +college; but on investigation, and the payment of some purses to the +Divan, it has been permitted to continue. The principal professor, named +Ueniamin (i.e. Benjamin), is stated to be a man of talent, but a +freethinker. He was born in Lesbos, studied in Italy, and is master of +Hellenic, Latin, and some Frank languages: besides a smattering of the +sciences. + +Though it is not my intention to enter farther on this topic than may +allude to the article in question, I cannot but observe that the +Reviewer's lamentation over the fall of the Greeks appears singular, +when he closes it with these words: "_The change is to be attributed to +their misfortunes rather than to any 'physical degradation.'_" It may be +true that the Greeks are not physically degenerated, and that +Constantinople contained on the day when it changed masters as many men +of six feet and upwards as in the hour of prosperity; but ancient +history and modern politics instruct us that something more than +physical perfection is necessary to preserve a state in vigour and +independence; and the Greeks, in particular, are a melancholy example of +the near connexion between moral degradation and national decay. + +The Reviewer mentions a plan "_we believe_" by Potemkin[259] for the +purification of the Romaic; and I have endeavoured in vain to procure +any tidings or traces of its existence. There was an academy in St. +Petersburg for the Greeks; but it was suppressed by Paul, and has not +been revived by his successor. + +There is a slip of the pen, and it can only be a slip of the pen, in p. +58, No. 31, of the _Edinburgh Review_, where these words occur: "We are +told that when the capital of the East yielded to _Solyman_"--It may be +presumed that this last word will, in a future edition, be altered to +Mahomet II.[260] The "ladies of Constantinople," it seems, at that +period spoke a dialect, "which would not have disgraced the lips of an +Athenian." I do not know how that might be, but am sorry to say that the +ladies in general, and the Athenians in particular, are much altered; +being far from choice either in their dialect or expressions, as the +whole Attic race are barbarous to a proverb:-- + + "[Greek: O) A)the~nai, pro/te cho/ra], + [Greek: Ti/ gaida/rous tre/pheis to/ra];"[261] + +In Gibbon, vol. x. p. 161, is the following sentence:--"The vulgar +dialect of the city was gross and barbarous, though the compositions of +the church and palace sometimes affected to copy the purity of the Attic +models." Whatever may be asserted on the subject, it is difficult to +conceive that the "ladies of Constantinople," in the reign of the last +Caesar, spoke a purer dialect than Anna Comnena[262] wrote, three +centuries before: and those royal pages are not esteemed the best models +of composition, although the princess [Greek: glo~ttan ei~)chen A)KRIBOE +A)ttikisou/san].[263] In the Fanal, and in Yanina, the best Greek is +spoken: in the latter there is a flourishing school under the direction +of Psalida. + +There is now in Athens a pupil of Psalida's, who is making a tour of +observation through Greece: he is intelligent, and better educated than +a fellow-commoner of most colleges. I mention this as a proof that the +spirit of inquiry is not dormant among the Greeks. + +The Reviewer mentions Mr. Wright,[264] the author of the beautiful poem +_Horae Ionicae_, as qualified to give details of these nominal Romans and +degenerate Greeks; and also of their language: but Mr. Wright, though a +good poet and an able man, has made a mistake where he states the +Albanian dialect of the Romaic to approximate nearest to the Hellenic; +for the Albanians speak a Romaic as notoriously corrupt as the Scotch of +Aberdeenshire, or the Italian of Naples. Yanina, (where, next to the +Fanal, the Greek is purest,) although the capital of Ali Pacha's +dominions, is not in Albania, but Epirus; and beyond Delvinachi in +Albania Proper up to Argyrocastro and Tepaleen (beyond which I did not +advance) they speak worse Greek than even the Athenians. I was attended +for a year and a half by two of these singular mountaineers, whose +mother tongue is Illyric, and I never heard them or their countrymen +(whom I have seen, not only at home, but to the amount of twenty +thousand in the army of Vely Pacha[265]) praised for their Greek, but +often laughed at for their provincial barbarisms. + +I have in my possession about twenty-five letters, amongst which some +from the Bey of Corinth, written to me by Notaras, the Cogia Bachi, and +others by the dragoman of the Caimacam[266] of the Morea (which last +governs in Vely Pacha's absence), are said to be favourable specimens of +their epistolary style. I also received some at Constantinople from +private persons, written in a most hyperbolical style, but in the true +antique character. + +The Reviewer proceeds, after some remarks on the tongue in its past and +present state, to a paradox (page 59) on the great mischief the +knowledge of his own language has done to Coray, who, it seems, is less +likely to understand the ancient Greek, because he is perfect master of +the modern! This observation follows a paragraph, recommending, in +explicit terms, the study of the Romaic, as "a powerful auxiliary," not +only to the traveller and foreign merchant, but also to the classical +scholar; in short, to every body except the only person who can be +thoroughly acquainted with its uses; and by a parity of reasoning, our +own language is conjectured to be probably more attainable by +"foreigners" than by ourselves! Now, I am inclined to think, that a +Dutch Tyro in our tongue (albeit himself of Saxon blood) would be sadly +perplexed with "Sir Tristram,"[267] or any other given "Auchinleck MS." +with or without a grammar or glossary; and to most apprehensions it +seems evident that none but a native can acquire a competent, far less +complete, knowledge of our obsolete idioms. We may give the critic +credit for his ingenuity, but no more believe him than we do Smollett's +Lismahago,[268] who maintains that the purest English is spoken in +Edinburgh. That Coray may err is very possible; but if he does, the +fault is in the man rather than in his mother tongue, which is, as it +ought to be, of the greatest aid to the native student.--Here the +Reviewer proceeds to business on Strabo's translators, and here I close +my remarks. + +Sir W. Drummond, Mr. Hamilton, Lord Aberdeen, Dr. Clarke, Captain Leake, +Mr. Gell, Mr. Walpole,[269] and many others now in England, have all the +requisites to furnish details of this fallen people. The few +observations I have offered I should have left where I made them, had +not the article in question, and above all the spot where I read it, +induced me to advert to those pages, which the advantage of my present +situation enabled me to clear, or at least to make the attempt. + +I have endeavoured to waive the personal feelings which rise in despite +of me in touching upon any part of the _Edinburgh Review_; not from a +wish to conciliate the favour of its writers, or to cancel the +remembrance of a syllable I have formerly published, but simply from a +sense of the impropriety of mixing up private resentments with a +disquisition of the present kind, and more particularly at this distance +of time and place. + + + ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE TURKS. + +The difficulties of travelling in Turkey have been much exaggerated, or +rather have considerably diminished, of late years. The Mussulmans have +been beaten into a kind of sullen civility very comfortable to voyagers. + +It is hazardous to say much on the subject of Turks and Turkey; since it +is possible to live amongst them twenty years without acquiring +information, at least from themselves. As far as my own slight +experience carried me, I have no complaint to make; but am indebted for +many civilities (I might almost say for friendship), and much +hospitality, to Ali Pacha, his son Vely Pacha of the Morea, and several +others of high rank in the provinces. Suleyman Aga, late Governor of +Athens, and now of Thebes, was a _bon vivant_, and as social a being as +ever sat cross-legged at a tray or a table. During the carnival, when +our English party were masquerading, both himself and his successor were +more happy to "receive masks" than any dowager in Grosvenor-square.[270] + +On one occasion of his supping at the convent, his friend and visitor, +the Cadi[271] of Thebes, was carried from table perfectly qualified for +any club in Christendom; while the worthy Waywode himself triumphed in +his fall. + +In all money transactions with the Moslems, I ever found the strictest +honour, the highest disinterestedness. In transacting business with +them, there are none of those dirty peculations, under the name of +interest, difference of exchange, commission, etc., etc., uniformly +found in applying to a Greek consul to cash bills, even on the first +houses in Pera. + +With regard to presents, an established custom in the East, you will +rarely find yourself a loser; as one worth acceptance is generally +returned by another of similar value--a horse, or a shawl. + +In the capital and at court the citizens and courtiers are formed in the +same school with those of Christianity; but there does not exist a more +honourable, friendly, and high-spirited character than the true Turkish +provincial Aga, or Moslem country gentleman. It is not meant here to +designate the governors of towns, but those Agas who, by a kind of +feudal tenure, possess lands and houses, of more or less extent, in +Greece and Asia Minor. + +The lower orders are in as tolerable discipline as the rabble in +countries with greater pretensions to civilisation. A Moslem, in walking +the streets of our country-towns, would be more incommoded in England +than a Frank in a similar situation in Turkey. Regimentals are the best +travelling dress. + +The best accounts of the religion and different sects of Islamism may be +found in D'Ohsson's[272] French; of their manners, etc., perhaps in +Thornton's English. The Ottomans, with all their defects, are not a +people to be despised. Equal at least to the Spaniards, they are +superior to the Portuguese. If it be difficult to pronounce what they +are, we can at least say what they are _not_: they are _not_ +treacherous, they are _not_ cowardly, they do _not_ burn heretics, they +are _not_ assassins, nor has an enemy advanced to _their_ capital. They +are faithful to their sultan till he becomes unfit to govern, and devout +to their God without an inquisition. Were they driven from St. Sophia +to-morrow, and the French or Russians enthroned in their stead, it would +become a question whether Europe would gain by the exchange. England +would certainly be the loser. + +With regard to that ignorance of which they are so generally, and +sometimes justly accused, it may be doubted, always excepting France and +England, in what useful points of knowledge they are excelled by other +nations. Is it in the common arts of life? In their manufactures? Is a +Turkish sabre inferior to a Toledo? or is a Turk worse clothed or +lodged, or fed and taught, than a Spaniard? Are their Pachas worse +educated than a Grandee? or an Effendi[273] than a Knight of St. Jago? I +think not. + +I remember Mahmout, the grandson of Ali Pacha, asking whether my +fellow-traveller and myself were in the upper or lower House of +Parliament. Now, this question from a boy of ten years old proved that +his education had not been neglected. It may be doubted if an English +boy at that age knows the difference of the Divan from a College of +Dervises; but I am very sure a Spaniard does not. How little Mahmout, +surrounded as he had been entirely by his Turkish tutors, had learned +that there was such a thing as a Parliament, it were useless to +conjecture, unless we suppose that his instructors did not confine his +studies to the Koran. + +In all the mosques there are schools established, which are very +regularly attended; and the poor are taught without the church of Turkey +being put into peril. I believe the system is not yet printed (though +there is such a thing as a Turkish press, and books printed on the late +military institution of the Nizam Gedidd);[274] nor have I heard whether +the Mufti and the Mollas have subscribed, or the Caimacan and the +Tefterdar taken the alarm, for fear the ingenuous youth of the turban +should be taught not to "pray to God their way." The Greeks also--a kind +of Eastern Irish papists--have a college of their own at Maynooth,--no, +at Haivali; where the heterodox receive much the same kind of +countenance from the Ottoman as the Catholic college from the English +legislature. Who shall then affirm that the Turks are ignorant bigots, +when they thus evince the exact proportion of Christian charity which is +tolerated in the most prosperous and orthodox of all possible kingdoms? +But though they allow all this, they will not suffer the Greeks to +participate in their privileges: no, let them fight their battles, and +pay their haratch (taxes), be drubbed in this world, and damned in the +next. And shall we then emancipate our Irish Helots? Mahomet forbid! We +should then be bad Mussulmans, and worse Christians: at present we unite +the best of both--jesuitical faith, and something not much inferior to +Turkish toleration. + + + APPENDIX. + +Amongst an enslaved people, obliged to have recourse to foreign presses +even for their books of religion, it is less to be wondered at that we +find so few publications on general subjects than that we find any at +all. The whole number of the Greeks, scattered up and down the Turkish +empire and elsewhere, may amount, at most, to three millions; and yet, +for so scanty a number, it is impossible to discover any nation with so +great a proportion of books and their authors as the Greeks of the +present century. "Aye," but say the generous advocates of oppression, +who, while they assert the ignorance of the Greeks, wish to prevent +them from dispelling it, "ay, but these are mostly, if not all, +ecclesiastical tracts, and consequently good for nothing." Well! and +pray what else can they write about? It is pleasant enough to hear a +Frank, particularly an Englishman, who may abuse the government of his +own country; or a Frenchman, who may abuse every government except his +own, and who may range at will over every philosophical, religious, +scientific, sceptical, or moral subject, sneering at the Greek legends. +A Greek must not write on politics, and cannot touch on science for want +of instruction; if he doubts he is excommunicated and damned; therefore +his countrymen are not poisoned with modern philosophy; and as to +morals, thanks to the Turks! there are no such things. What then is left +him, if he has a turn for scribbling? Religion and holy biography; and +it is natural enough that those who have so little in this life should +look to the next. It is no great wonder then, that in a catalogue now +before me of fifty-five Greek writers, many of whom were lately living, +not above fifteen should have touched on anything but religion. The +catalogue alluded to is contained in the twenty-sixth chapter of the +fourth volume of Meletius' _Ecclesiastical History_. + +[The above forms a preface to an Appendix, headed "Remarks on the Romaic +or Modern Greek Language, with Specimens and Translations," which was +printed at the end of the volume, after the "Poems," in the first and +successive editions of _Childe Harold_. It contains (1) a "List of +Romaic Authors;" (2) the "Greek War-Song," [Greek: Deu~te, Pai~des to~n +E(lle/non]; (3) "Romaic Extracts," of which the first, "a Satire in +dialogue" (_vide_ Note III. _supra_), is translated (see _Epigrams, +etc._, vol. vi. of the present issue); (4) scene from [Greek: O +Kaphene\s] (the Cafe), translated from the Italian of Goldoni by +Spiridion Vlanti, with a "Translation;" (5) "Familiar Dialogues" in +Romaic and English; (6) "Parallel Passages from St. John's Gospel;" (7) +"The Inscriptions at Orchomenos from Meletius" (see _Travels in Albania, +etc._, i. 224); (8) the "Prospectus of a Translation of Anacharsis into +Romaic, by my Romaic master, Marmarotouri, who wished to publish it in +England;" (9) "The Lord's Prayer in Romaic" and in Greek. + +The Excursus, which is remarkable rather for the evidence which it +affords of Byron's industry and zeal for acquiring knowledge, than for +the value or interest of the subject-matter, has been omitted from the +present issue. The "Remarks," etc., are included in the "Appendix" to +_Lord Byron's Poetical Works_, 1891, pp. 792-797. (See, too, letter to +Dallas, September 21, 1811: _Letters_, ii. 43.)] + + * * * * * + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[202] {166} ["Owls and serpents" are taken from _Isa._ xiii. 21, 22; +"foxes" from _Lam._ v. 18, "Zion is desolate, the foxes walk upon it."] + +[203] [For Herr Gropius, _vide post_, note 6.] + +[204] [The Parthenon was converted into a church in the sixth century by +Justinian, and dedicated to the _Divine Wisdom_. About 1460 the church +was turned into a mosque. After the siege in 1687 the Turks erected a +smaller mosque within the original enclosure. "The only relic of the +mosque dedicated by Mohammed the Conqueror (1430-1481) is the base of +the minaret ... at the south-west corner of the Cella" (_Handbook for +Greece_, p. 319).] + +[205] {168} ["Don Battista Lusieri, better known as Don Tita," was born +at Naples. He followed Sir William Hamilton "to Constantinople, in 1799, +whence he removed to Athens." "It may be said of Lusieri, as of Claude +Lorraine, 'If he be not the _poet_, he is the historian of +nature.'"--_Travels, etc_., by E. D. Clarke, 1810-1823, Part II. sect. +ii. p. 469, note. See, too, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 455.] + +[206] ["Mirandum in modum (canes venaticos diceres) ita odorabantur +omnia et pervestigabant, ut, ubi quidque esset, aliqua ratione +invenirent" (Cicero, _In Verrem_, Act. II. lib. iv. 13). Verres had two +_finders_: Tlepolemus a worker in wax, and Hiero a painter. (See +_Introduction to The Curse of Minerva: Poems_, 1898, i. 455.)] + +[207] [M. Fauvel was born in Burgundy, circ. 1754. In 1787 he was +attached to the suite of the Count Choiseul-Gouffier, French Ambassador +at Constantinople, and is said to have prepared designs and +illustrations for his patron's _Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece_, vol. i. +1787, vol. ii. 1809. He settled at Athens, and was made vice-consul by +the French Government. In his old age, after more than forty years' +service at Athens, he removed finally to Smyrna, where he was appointed +consul-general.--_Biographic des Contemporains_ (Rabbe), 1834, art. +"(N.) Fauvel."] + +[208] {169} In all Attica, if we except Athens itself and Marathon, +there is no scene more interesting than Cape Colonna.[Sec.1] To the +antiquary and artist, sixteen columns are an inexhaustible source of +observation and design; to the philosopher, the supposed scene of some +of Plato's conversations will not be unwelcome; and the traveller will +be struck with the beauty of the prospect over "Isles that crown the +AEgean deep:" but, for an Englishman, Colonna has yet an additional +interest, as the actual spot of Falconer's[Sec.2] shipwreck. Pallas and +Plato are forgotten in the recollection of Falconer and Campbell:-- + + "Here in the dead of night, by Lonna's steep,[Sec.3] + The seaman's cry was heard along the deep." + +This temple of Minerva may be seen at sea from a great distance. In two +journeys which I made, and one voyage to Cape Colonna, the view from +either side, by land, was less striking than the approach from the +isles. In our second land excursion, we had a narrow escape from a party +of Mainotes, concealed in the caverns beneath. We were told afterwards, +by one of their prisoners, subsequently ransomed, that they were +deterred from attacking us by the appearance of my two Albanians: +conjecturing very sagaciously, but falsely, that we had a complete guard +of these Arnaouts at hand, they remained stationary, and thus saved our +party, which was too small to have opposed any effectual resistance. +Colonna is no less a resort of painters than of pirates; there + + "The hireling artist plants his paltry desk, + And makes degraded nature picturesque." + +See Hodgson's _Lady Jane Grey_, etc.[Sec.4][1809, p. 214]. + +But there Nature, with the aid of Art, has done that for herself. I was +fortunate enough to engage a very superior German artist; and hope to +renew my acquaintance with this and many other Levantine scenes, by the +arrival of his performances. + +[Sec.1] [This must have taken place in 1811, after Hobhouse returned to +England.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 373, note.] + +[Sec.2] [William Falconer (1732-1769), second mate of a vessel in the +Levant trade, was wrecked between Alexandria and Venice. Only three of +the crew survived. His poem, _The Shipwreck_, was published in 1762. It +was dedicated to the Duke of York, and through his intervention he was +"rated as a midshipman in the Royal Navy." Either as author or naval +officer, he came to be on intimate terms with John Murray the first, who +thought highly of his abilities, and offered him (October 16, 1768) a +partnership in his new bookselling business in Fleet Street. In +September, 1769, he embarked for India as purser of the _Aurora_ +frigate, which touched at the Cape, but never reached her destination. +See _Memoir_, by J. S. Clarke; _The Shipwreck_, 1804, pp. viii.-xlvi.] + +[Sec.3] _Yes, at the dead of night_, etc.--_Pleasures of Hope_, +lines 149, 150. + +[Sec.4] [The quotation is from Hodgson's "Lines on a Ruined Abbey in a +Romantic Country," _vide ante_, Canto I., p. 20, note.] + +[209] {171} ["It was, however, during our stay in the place, to be +lamented that a war, more than civil, was raging on the subject of Lord +Elgin's pursuits in Greece, and had enlisted all the French settlers and +the principal Greeks on one side or the other of the controversy. The +factions of Athens were renewed."--_Travels in Albania, etc._, i. 243.] + +[210] This word, in the cant language, signifies thieving.--Fielding's +_History of Jonathan Wild_, i. 3, note. + +[211] This Sr. Gropius was employed by a noble Lord for the sole purpose +of sketching, in which he excels: but I am sorry to say, that he has, +through the abused sanction of that most respectable name, been treading +at humble distance in the steps of Sr. Lusieri.--A shipful of his +trophies was detained, and I believe confiscated, at Constantinople in +1810. I am most happy to be now enabled to state, that "this was not in +his bond;" that he was employed solely as a painter, and that his noble +patron disavows all connection with him, except as an artist. If the +error in the first and second edition of this poem has given the noble +Lord a moment's pain, I am very sorry for it: Sr. Gropius has assumed +for years the name of his agent; and though I cannot much condemn myself +for sharing in the mistake of so many, I am happy in being one of the +first to be undeceived. Indeed, I have as much pleasure in contradicting +this as I felt regret in stating it.--[_Note to Third Edition._] + +[According to Bryant's _Dict. of Painters_, and other biographical +dictionaries, Karl Wilhelm Gropius (whom Lamartine, in his _Voyage en +Orient_, identifies with the Gropius "injustement accuse par lord Byron +dans ses notes mordantes sur Athenes") was born at Brunswick, in 1793, +travelled in Italy and Greece, making numerous landscape and +architectural sketches, and finally settled at Berlin in 1827, where he +opened a diorama, modelled on that of Daguerre, "in connection with a +permanent exhibition of painting.... He was considered the first wit in +Berlin, where he died in 1870." In 1812, when Byron wrote his note to +the third edition of _Childe Harold_, Gropius must have been barely of +age, and the statement "that he has for years assumed the name of his (a +noble Lord's) agent" is somewhat perplexing.] + +[212] {173} [George Castriota (1404-1467) (Scanderbeg, or Scander Bey), +the youngest son of an Albanian chieftain, was sent with his four +brothers as hostage to the Sultan Amurath II. After his father's death +in 1432 he carried on a protracted warfare with the Turks, and finally +established the independence of Albania. "His personal strength and +address were such as to make his prowess in the field resemble that of a +knight of romance." He died at Lissa, in the Gulf of Venice, and when +the island was taken by Mohammed II., the Turks are said to have dug up +his bones and hung them round their necks, either as charms against +wounds or "amulets to transfer his courage to themselves." (Hofmann's +_Lexicon Universale_; Gorton's _Biog. Dict._, art. "Scanderbeg.")] + +[213] {174} [William Martin Leake (1777-1860), traveller and +numismatist, published (_inter alia_) _Researches in Greece_, in 1814. +He was "officially resident" in Albania, February, 1809-March, 1810.] + +[214] [_A Journey through Albania during the Years 1809-10_, London, +1812.] + +[215] {175} [The inhabitants of Albania, of the Shkipetar race, consist +of two distinct branches: the Gueghs, who belong to the north, and are +for the most part Catholics; and the Tosks of the south, who are +generally Mussulmans (Finlay's _History of Greece_, i. 35).] + +[gg] _I laughed so much as to induce a violent perspiration to which ... +I attribute my present individuality_.--[D.] + +[216] {176} [The mayor of the village; in Greek, [Greek: proestos].] + +[217] [The father of the Consulina Teodora Macri, and grandfather of the +"Maid of Athens."] + +[218] [_Tristram Shandy_, 1775, iv. 44.] + +[219] [See _Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, 1824, p.64.] + +[220] {177} [Compare _The Waltz_, line 125--"O say, shall dull +_Romaika's_ heavy sound." _Poems_, 1898, i. 492.] + +[221] {186} [Francois Mercy de Lorraine, who fought against the +Protestants in the Thirty Years' War, was mortally wounded at the battle +of Nordlingen, August 3, 1645.] + +[222] {187} [Byron and Hobhouse visited Marathon, January 25, 1810. The +unconsidered trifle of the "plain" must have been offered to Byron +during his second residence at Athens, in 1811.] + +[223] ["Expende Annibalem--quot libras," etc. (Juvenal, x. 147), is the +motto of the _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_, which was written April 10, +1814.--_Journal_, 1814; _Life_, p. 325.] + +[224] [Compare letter to Hodgson, September 25, 1811: _Letters_, 1898, +ii. 45.] + +[225] [Miss Owenson (Sydney, Lady Morgan), 1783-1859, published her +_Woman, or Ida of Athens_, in 4 vols., in 1812. Writing to Murray, +February 20, 1818, Byron alludes to the "cruel work" which an article +(attributed to Croker but, probably, written by Hookham Frere) had made +with her _France_ in the _Quarterly Review_ (vol. xvii. p. 260); and in +a note to _The Two Foscari_, act iii. sc. 1, he points out that his +description of Venice as an "Ocean-Rome" had been anticipated by Lady +Morgan in her "fearless and excellent work upon Italy." The play was +completed July 9, 1821, but the work containing the phrase, "Rome of the +Ocean," had not been received till August 16 (see, too, his letter to +Murray, August 23, 1821). His conviction of the excellence of Lady +Morgan's work was, perhaps strengthened by her outspoken eulogium.] + +[226] {188} [For the Disdar's extortions, see _Travels in Albania_, i. +244.] + +[227] + ["The poor ...when once abroad, + Grow sick, and damn the climate like a lord." + Pope, _Imit. of Horace_, Ep. 1, lines 159, 160.] + +[228] [_Works and Days_, v. 493, _et seq.; Hesiod. Carm._, C. +Goettlingius (1843), p. 215.] + +[229] Nonsense; humbug. + +[230] {189} [Hobhouse pronounced it to be the Fountain of Ares, the +Paraporti Spring, "which serves to swell the scanty waters of the +Dirce." The Dirce flows on the west; the Ismenus, which forms the +fountain, to the east of Thebes. "The water was tepid, as I found by +bathing in it" (_Travels in Albania_, i. 233; _Handbook for Greece_, p. +703).] + +[231] [_Travels in Greece_, ch. lxvii.] + +[232] [Gell's _Itinerary of Greece_ (1810), Preface, p. xi.] + +[233] {190} [For M. Roque, see _Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem: Oeuvres +Chateaubriand_, Paris, 1837, ii. 258-266.] + +[234] {191} [William Eton published (1798-1809) _A Survey of the Turkish +Empire_, in which he advocated the cause of Greek independence. Sonnini +de Manoncourt (1751-1812), another ardent phil-Hellenist, published his +_Voyage en Grece et en Turquie_ in 1801.] + +[235] [Cornelius de Pauw (1739-1799), Dutch historian, published, in +1787, _Recherches philosophiques sur les Grecs_. Byron reflects upon his +paradoxes and superficiality in Note II., _infra_. Thomas Thornton +published, in 1807, a work entitled _Present State of Turkey_ (see Note +II., _infra_).] + +[236] {192} [The MSS. of _Hints from Horace_ and _The Curse of Minerva_ +are dated, "Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 12 and March 17, 1811." +Proof B of _Hints from Horace_ is dated, "Athens, Franciscan Convent, +March 12, 1811." Writing to Hodgson, November 14, 1810, he says, "I am +living alone in the Franciscan monastery with one 'fri_ar_' (a Capuchin +of course) and one 'fri_er_' (a bandy-legged Turkish cook)" (_Letters_, +1898, i. 307).] + +[237] {193} [The Ionian Islands, with the exception of Corfu and Paxos, +fell into the hands of the English in 1809, 1810. Paxos was captured in +1814, but Corfu, which had been blockaded by Napoleon, was not +surrendered till the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815.] + +[238] [The Mainotes or Mainates, who take their name from Maina, near +Cape Taenaron, were the Highlanders of the Morea, "remarkable for their +love of violence and plunder, but also for their frankness and +independence." "Pedants have termed the Mainates descendants of the +ancient Spartans," but "they must be either descended from the Helots, +or from the Perioikoi.... To an older genealogy they can have no +pretension."--Finlay's History of Greece, 1877, v. 113; vi. 26.] + +[239] {194} [The Fanal, or Phanar, is to the left, Pera to the right, of +the Golden Horn. "The water of the Golden Horn, which flows between the +city and the suburbs, is a line of separation seldom transgressed by the +Frank residents."--_Travels in Albania_, ii. 208.] + +[240] {195} A word, _en passant_, with Mr. Thornton and Dr. Pouqueville, +who have been guilty between them of sadly clipping the Sultan's +Turkish.[Sec.1] + +Dr. Pouqueville tells a long story of a Moslem who swallowed corrosive +sublimate in such quantities that he acquired the name of "_Suleyman +Yeyen_" i.e. quoth the Doctor, "_Suleyman the eater of corrosive +sublimate_." "Aha," thinks Mr. Thornton (angry with the Doctor for the +fiftieth time), "have I caught you?"[Sec.2]--Then, in a note, twice the +thickness of the Doctor's anecdote, he questions the Doctor's +proficiency in the Turkish tongue, and his veracity in his own.--"For," +observes Mr. Thornton (after inflicting on us the tough participle of a +Turkish verb), "it means nothing more than '_Suleyman the eater_,' and +quite cashiers the supplementary '_sublimate_.'" Now both are right, and +both are wrong. If Mr. Thornton, when he next resides "fourteen years in +the factory," will consult his Turkish dictionary, or ask any of his +Stamboline acquaintance, he will discover that "_Suleyma'n yeyen_," put +together discreetly, mean the "_Swallower of sublimate_" without any +"Suleyman" in the case: "_Suleyma_" signifying "_corrosive sublimate_" +and not being a proper name on this occasion, although it be an orthodox +name enough with the addition of _n_. After Mr. Thornton's frequent +hints of profound Orientalism, he might have found this out before he +sang such paeans over Dr. Pouqueville. + +After this, I think "Travellers _versus_ Factors" shall be our motto, +though the above Mr. Thornton has condemned "hoc genus omne," for +mistake and misrepresentation. "Ne Sutor ultra crepidam," "No merchant +beyond his bales." N.B. For the benefit of Mr. Thornton, "Sutor" is not +a proper name. + +[Sec.1][For Pouqueville's story of the "theriakis" or opium-eaters, see +_Voyage en Moree_, 1805, ii. 126.] + +[Sec.2][Thornton's _Present State of Turkey_, ii. 173.] + +[241] _Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs_, 1787, i. 155. + +[242] {196} [De Pauw (_Rech. Phil. sur les Grecs_, 1788, ii. 293), in +repeating Plato's statement (_Laches_, 191), that the Lacedaemonians at +Plataea first fled from the Persians, and then, when the Persians were +broken, turned upon them and won the battle, misapplies to them the term +[Greek: thrasy/deiloi] (Arist., _Eth. Nic._, iii. 9.7)--men, that is, +who affect the hero, but play the poltroon.] + +[243] [Attached as a note to line 562 _of Hints from Horace_ (MS. M.).] + +[244] ["I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban." Shakespeare, +_King Lear_, act iii. sc. 4, line 150.] + +[245] [For April, 1810: vol. xvi. pp. 55, _sq_.] + +[246] [Diamant or Adamantius Coray (1748-1833), scholar and +phil-Hellenist, declared his views on the future of the Greeks in the +preface to a translation of Beccaria Bonesani's treatise, _Dei Delitti e +delle Pene_ (1764), which was published in Paris in 1802. He began to +publish his _Bibliotheque Hellenique_, in 17 vols., in 1805. He was of +Chian parentage, but was born at Smyrna. [Greek: Korae Au)tobiographia], +Athens, 1891.] + +[247] I have in my possession an excellent lexicon "[Greek: +tri/glosson]" which I received in exchange from S. G----, Esq., for a +small gem: my antiquarian friends have never forgotten it or forgiven +me. + +[[Greek: Lexiko tri/glosson te~s Gallike~s, I)talike~s, kai\ 'Romaike~s +diale/ktou, k.t.l.], 3 vols., Vienna, 1790. By Georgie Vendoti +(Bentotes, or Bendotes) of Joanina. The book was in Hobhouse's +possession in 1854.] + +[248] In Gail's pamphlet against Coray, he talks of "throwing the +insolent Hellenist out of the windows." On this a French critic +exclaims, "Ah, my God! throw an Hellenist out of the window! what +sacrilege!" It certainly would be a serious business for those authors +who dwell in the attics: but I have quoted the passage merely to prove +the similarity of style among the controversialists of all polished +countries; London or Edinburgh could hardly parallel this Parisian +ebullition. + +[Jean Baptiste Gail (1755-1829), Professor of Greek in the College de +France, published, in 1810, a quarto volume entitled, _Reclamations de +J. B. Gail, ... et observations sur l'opinion en virtu de laquelle le +juri--propose de decerner un prix a M. Coray, a l'exclusion de la chasse +de Xenophon, du Thucydide, etc., grec-latin-francais, etc._] + +[249] {198} Dorotheus of Mitylene (fl. sixteenth century), Archbishop of +Monembasia (Anglice "Malmsey"), on the south-east coast of Laconia, was +the author of a _Universal History_ ([Greek: Biblion I(storiko/n, +k.t.l.]), edited by A. Tzigaras, Venice, 1637, 4to. + +[250] Meletius of Janina (1661-1714) was Archbishop of Athens, 1703-14. +His principal work is _Ancient and Modern Geography_, Venice, 1728, fol. +He also wrote an Ecclesiastical History, in four vols., Vienna, 1783-95. + +[251] Panagios (Panagiotes) Kodrikas, Professor of Greek at Paris, +published at Vienna, in 1794, a Greek translation of Fontenelle's +_Entretiens sur la Pluralite des Mondes_. John Camarases, a +Constantinopolitan, translated into French the apocryphal treatise, _De +Universi Natura_, attributed to Ocellus Lucanus, a Pythagorean +philosopher, who is said to have flourished in Lucania in the fifth +century B.C. + +[252] Christodoulos, an Acarnanian, published a work, [Greek: Peri\ +Philoso/phou, Philosophi/as, Physio~n, Metaphysiko~n, k.t.l.], at +Vienna, in 1786. + +[253] Athanasius Psalidas published, at Vienna, in 1791, a sceptical +work entitled, _True Felicity_ ([Greek: A)lethe\s Eu)daimoni/a]). "Very +learned, and full of quotations, but written in false taste."--_MS. M._ +He was a schoolmaster at Janina, where Byron and Hobhouse made his +acquaintance--"the only person," says Hobhouse, "I ever saw who had what +might be called a library, and that a very small one" (_Travels in +Albania, etc._, i. 508). + +[254] Hobhouse mentions a patriotic poet named Polyzois, "the new +Tyrtaeus," and gives, as a specimen of his work, "a war-song of the +Greeks in Egypt, fighting in the cause of Freedom."--_Travels in +Albania, etc._, i. 507; ii. 6, 7. + +[255] {199} [By Blackbey is meant Bey of Vlack, i.e. Wallachia. (See a +_Translation_ of this "satire in dialogue"--"Remarks on the Romaic," +etc., _Poetical Works_, 1891, p. 793.)] + +[256] [Constantine Rhigas (born 1753), the author of the original of +Byron's "Sons of the Greeks, arise," was handed over to the Turks by the +Austrians, and shot at Belgrade in 1793, by the orders of Ali Pacha.] + +[257] {200} [The Hecatonnesi are a cluster of islands in the Gulf of +Adramyttium, over against the harbour and town of Aivali or Aivalik. +Cidonies may stand for [Greek: e(po/lis kydoni\s], the quince-shaped +city. "At Haivali or Kidognis, opposite to Mytilene, there is a sort of +university for a hundred students and three professors, now +superintended by a Greek of Mytilene, who teaches not only the Hellenic, +but Latin, French, and Italian."--_Travels in Albania_, _etc._, i. 509, +510.] + +[258] [Francois Horace Bastien, Conte Sebastiani (1772-1851), was +ambassador to the _Sublime Porte_, May, 1806-June, 1807.] + +[259] [Gregor Alexandrovitch Potemkin (1736-1791), the favourite of the +Empress Catherine II.] + +[260] {201} In a former number of the _Edinburgh Review_, 1808, it is +observed: "Lord Byron passed some of his early years in Scotland, where +he might have learned that _pibroch_ does not mean a _bagpipe_, any more +than _duet_ means a _fiddle_." Query,--Was it in Scotland that the young +gentlemen of the _Edinburgh Review_ _learned_ that _Solyman_ means +_Mahomet II._ any more than _criticism_ means _infallibility_?--but thus +it is, + + "Caedimus, inque vicem praebemus crura sagittis." + Persius, _Sat._ iv. 42. + +The mistake seemed so completely a lapse of the pen (from the great +_similarity_ of the two words, and the _total absence of error_ from the +former pages of the literary leviathan) that I should have passed it +over as in the text, had I not perceived in the _Edinburgh Review_ much +facetious exultation on all such detections, particularly a recent one, +where words and syllables are subjects of disquisition and +transposition; and the above-mentioned parallel passage in my own case +irresistibly propelled me to hint how much easier it is to be critical +than correct. The _gentlemen_, having enjoyed many a _triumph_ on such +victories, will hardly begrudge me a slight _ovation_ for the present. + +[At the end of the review of _Childe Harold_, February, 1812 (xix., +476), the editor inserted a ponderous retort to this harmless and +good-natured "chaff:" "To those strictures of the noble author we feel +no inclination to trouble our readers with any reply ... we shall merely +observe that if we viewed with astonishment the immeasurable fury with +which the minor poet received the innocent pleasantry and moderate +castigation of our remarks on his first publication, we now feel nothing +but pity for the strange irritability of temperament which can still +cherish a private resentment for such a cause, or wish to perpetuate +memory of personalities as outrageous as to have been injurious only to +their authors."] + +[261] ["O Athens, first of all lands, why in these latter days dost thou +nourish asses?"] + +[262] [Anna Comnena (1083-1148), daughter of Alexis I., wrote the +_Alexiad_, a history of her father's reign.] + +[263] [Zonaras (_Annales_, B 240), lib. viii. cap. 26, A 4. Venice, +1729.] + +[264] [See _English Bards, etc._, line 877: _Poems_, 1898, i. 366, _note +1._] + +[265] {203} [For Vely Pacha, the son of Ali Pacha, Vizier of the Morea, +see _Letters_, 1898, i. 248, note 1.] + +[266] [The Caimacam was the deputy or lieutenant of the grand Vizier.] + +[267] [Scott published "_Sir Tristrem, a Metrical Romance of the +Thirteenth Century_, by Thomas of Ercildoun," in 1804.] + +[268] [Captain Lismahago, a paradoxical and pedantic Scotchman, the +favoured suitor of Miss Tabitha Bramble, in Smollett's _Expedition of +Humphry Clinker_.] + +[269] {204} [Sir William Drummond (1780?-1828) published, _inter alia_, +_A Review of the Government of Athens and Sparta_, in 1795; and +_Herculanensia, an Archaeological and Philological Dissertation +containing a Manuscript found at Herculaneum_, in conjunction with the +Rev. Robert Walpole (see letter to Harness, December 8, 1811. See +_Letters_, 1898, ii. 79, note 3). + +For Aberdeen and Hamilton, see _English Bards, etc._, line 509: +_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 336, note 2, and _Childe Harold_, Canto II. +supplementary stanzas, _ibid._, ii. 108. + +Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. (1769-1822), published _Travels in Various +Countries_, 1810-1823 (_vide ante_, p. 172, note 7). + +For Leake, _vide ante_, p. 174, note 1. + +For Gell, see _English Bards, etc._, line 1034, note 1: _Poetical +Works_, 1898, i. 379. + +The Rev. Robert Walpole (1781-1856), in addition to his share in +_Herculanensia_, completed the sixth volume of Clarke's _Travels_, which +appeared in 1823.] + +[270] {205} [Compare English Bards, etc., line 655, note 2: _Poetical +Works_, 1898, i. 349.] + +[271] [The judge of a town or village--the Spanish _alcalde_.--_N. Eng. +Dict._, art. "Cadi."] + +[272] {206} [Mouradja D'Ohsson (1740-1804), an Armenian by birth, spent +many years at Constantinople as Swedish envoy. He published at Paris +(1787-90, two vols. fol.) his _Tableau general de l'empire Othoman_, a +work still regarded as the chief authority on the subject.] + +[273] ["Effendi," derived from the Greek [Greek: au)the/ntes], through +the Romaic [Greek: a)phe/ntes], an "absolute master," is a title borne +by distinguished civilians. + +The Spanish order of St. James of Compostella was founded circ. A.D. +1170.] + +[274] {207} [The "Nizam Gedidd," or new ordinance, which aimed at +remodelling the Turkish army on a quasi-European system, was promulgated +by Selim III in 1808. + +A "mufti" is an expounder, a "molla" or "mollah" a superior judge, of +the sacred Moslem law. The "tefterdars" or "defterdars" were provincial +registrars and treasurers under the supreme defterdar, or Chancellor of +the Exchequer.] + + * * * * * + + + + CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + + CANTO THE THIRD. + + "Afin que cette application vous forcat a penser a autre chose. + Il n'y a en verite de remede que celui-la et le temps."--_Lettres + du Roi de Prusse et de M. D'Alembert_.[275] [_Lettre_ cxlvi. + Sept. 7, 1776.] + + * * * * * + + + + + INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD CANTO. + +The Third Canto of _Childe Harold_ was begun early in May, and finished +at Ouchy, near Lausanne, on the 27th of June, 1816. Byron made a fair +copy of the first draft of his poem, which had been scrawled on loose +sheets, and engaged the services of "Claire" (Jane Clairmont) to make a +second transcription. Her task was completed on the 4th of July. The +fair copy and Claire's transcription remained in Byron's keeping until +the end of August or the beginning of September, when he consigned the +transcription to "his friend Mr. Shelley," and the fair copy to Scrope +Davies, with instructions to deliver them to Murray (see Letters to +Murray, October 5, 9, 15, 1816). Shelley landed at Portsmouth, September +8, and on the 11th of September he discharged his commission. + +"I was thrilled with delight yesterday," writes Murray (September 12), +"by the announcement of Mr. Shelley with the MS. of _Childe Harold_. I +had no sooner got the quiet possession of it than, trembling with +auspicious hope, ... I carried it ... to Mr. Gifford.... He says that +what you have heretofore published is nothing to this effort.... Never, +since my intimacy with Mr. Gifford, did I see him so heartily pleased, +or give one fiftieth part of the praise, with one thousandth part of the +warmth." + +The correction of the press was undertaken by Gifford, not without some +remonstrance on the part of Shelley, who maintained that "the revision +of the proofs, and the retention or alteration of certain particular +passages had been entrusted to his discretion" (Letter to Murray, +October 30, 1816). + +When, if ever, Mr. Davies, of "inaccurate memory" (Letter to Murray, +December 4, 1816), discharged his trust is a matter of uncertainty. The +"original MS." (Byron's "fair copy") is not forthcoming, and it is +improbable that Murray, who had stipulated (September 20) "for all the +original MSS., copies, and scraps," ever received it. The "scraps" were +sent (October 5) in the first instance to Geneva, and, after many +wanderings, ultimately fell into the possession of Mrs. Leigh, from whom +they were purchased by the late Mr. Murray. + +The July number of the _Quarterly Review_ (No. XXX.) was still in the +press, and, possibly, for this reason it was not till October 29 that +Murray inserted the following advertisement in the _Morning Chronicle:_ +"Lord Byron's New Poems. On the 23^d of November will be published The +Prisoners (_sic_) of Chillon, a Tale and other Poems. A Third Canto of +Childe Harold...." But a rival was in the field. The next day (October +30), in the same print, another advertisement appeared: "_The R. H. Lord +Byron's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land...._ Printed for J. Johnston, +Cheapside.... Of whom may be had, by the same author, a new ed. (the +third) of _Farewell to England: with three other poems...._" It was, no +doubt, the success of his first venture which had stimulated the +"Cheapside impostor," as Byron called him, to forgery on a larger scale. + +The controversy did not end there. A second advertisement (_Morning +Chronicle_, November 15) of "Lord Byron's Pilgrimage," etc., stating +that "the copyright of the work was consigned" to the Publisher +"exclusively by the Noble Author himself, and for which he gives 500 +guineas," precedes Murray's second announcement of _The Prisoners of +Chillon_, and the Third Canto of _Childe Harold_, in which he informs +"the public that the poems lately advertised are not written by Lord +Byron. The only bookseller at present authorised to print Lord Byron's +poems is Mr. Murray...." Further precautions were deemed necessary. An +injunction in Chancery was applied for by Byron's agents and +representatives (see, for a report of the case in the _Morning +Chronicle_, November 28, 1816, _Letters_, vol. iv., Letter to Murray, +December 9, 1816, note), and granted by the Chancellor, Lord Eldon. +Strangely enough, Sir Samuel Romilly, whom Byron did not love, was +counsel for the plaintiff. + +In spite of the injunction, a volume entitled "_Lord Byron's Pilgrimage +to the Holy Land_, a Poem in Two Cantos. To which is attached a +fragment, _The Tempest_," was issued in 1817. It is a dull and, +apparently, serious production, suggested by, but hardly an imitation +of, _Childe Harold_. The notes are descriptive of the scenery, customs, +and antiquities of Palestine. _The Tempest_, on the other hand, is a +parody, and by no means a bad parody, of Byron at his worst; e.g.-- + + "There was a sternness in his eye, + Which chilled the soul--one knew not why-- + But when returning vigour came, + And kindled the dark glare to flame, + So fierce it flashed, one well might swear, + A thousand souls were centred there." + +It is possible that this _Pilgrimage_ was the genuine composition of +some poetaster who failed to get his poems published under his own name, +or it may have been the deliberate forgery of John Agg, or Hewson +Clarke, or C. F. Lawler, the _pseudo_ Peter Pindar--"Druids" who were in +Johnston's pay, and were prepared to compose pilgrimages to any land, +holy or unholy, which would bring grist to their employer's mill. (See +the _Advertisements_ at the end of _Lord Byron's Pilgrimage, etc._) + +The Third Canto was published, not as announced, on the 23rd, but on the +18th of November. Murray's "auspicious hope" of success was amply +fulfilled. He "wrote to Lord Byron on the 13th of December, 1816, +informing him that at a dinner at the Albion Tavern, he had sold to the +assembled booksellers 7000 of his Third Canto of _Childe Harold_...." +The reviews were for the most part laudatory. Sir Walter Scott's +finely-tempered eulogium (_Quart. Rev_., No. xxxi., October, 1816 +[published February 11, 1817]), and Jeffrey's balanced and cautious +appreciation (_Edin. Rev_., No. liv., December, 1816 [published February +14, 1817]) have been reprinted in their collected works. Both writers +conclude with an aspiration--Jeffrey, that + + "This puissant spirit + Yet shall reascend, + Self-raised, and repossess its native seat!" + +Scott, in the "tenderest strain" of Virgilian melody-- + + "I decus, i nostrum, melioribus utere fatis!" + + + NOTE ON MSS. OF THE THIRD CANTO. + +[The following memorandum, in Byron's handwriting, is prefixed to the +Transcription:-- + + "This copy is to be printed from--subject to comparison with the + original MS. (from which this is a transcription) in such parts as + it may chance to be difficult to decypher in the following. The + notes in this copy are more complete and extended than in the + former--and there is also _one stanza more_ inserted and added to + this, viz. the 33d. B. + Byron. July 10th, 1816. + Diodati, near y^e Lake of Geneva." + +The "original MS." to which the memorandum refers is not forthcoming +(_vide ante_, p. 212), but the "scraps" (MS.) are now in Mr. Murray's +possession. Stanzas i.-iii., and the lines beginning, "The castled Crag +of Drachenfels," are missing. + +Claire's Transcription (C.) occupies the first 119 pages of a +substantial quarto volume. Stanzas xxxiii. and xcix.-cv. and several of +the notes are in Byron's handwriting. The same volume contains _Sonnet +on Chillon_, in Byron's handwriting; a transcription of the _Prisoners_ +(_sic_) _of Chillon_ (so, too, the advertisement in the _Morning +Chronicle_, October 29, 1816); _Sonnet_, "Rousseau," etc., in Byron's +handwriting, and transcriptions of _Stanzas to_----, "Though the day of +my destiny's over;" _Darkness_; _Churchill's Grave_; _The Dream_; _The +Incantation_ (_Manfred_, act ii. sc. 1); and _Prometheus_.] + + + + + CANTO THE THIRD. + + I. + + Is thy face like thy mothers, my fair child! + ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart?[276] + When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled, + And then we parted,--not as now we part, + But with a hope.-- + Awaking with a start, + The waters heave around me; and on high + The winds lift up their voices: I depart, + Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by, + When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.[gh] + + II. + + Once more upon the waters! yet once more![277] + And the waves bound beneath me as a steed + That knows his rider.[278] Welcome to their roar! + Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead! + Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed, + And the rent canvass fluttering strew the gale,[gi] + Still must I on; for I am as a weed, + Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sail + Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail. + + III. + + In my youth's summer I did sing of One, + The wandering outlaw of his own dark mind;[279] + Again I seize the theme, then but begun, + And bear it with me, as the rushing wind + Bears the cloud onwards: in that Tale I find + The furrows of long thought, and dried-up tears, + Which, ebbing, leave a sterile track behind, + O'er which all heavily the journeying years + Plod the last sands of life,--where not a flower appears. + + IV. + + Since my young days of passion--joy, or pain-- + Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string-- + And both may jar: it may be, that in vain + I would essay as I have sung to sing[gj]: + Yet, though a dreary strain, to this I cling; + So that it wean me from the weary dream + Of selfish grief or gladness--so it fling + Forgetfulness around me--it shall seem + To me, though to none else, a not ungrateful theme. + + V. + + He, who grown aged in this world of woe, + In deeds, not years,[280] piercing the depths of life, + So that no wonder waits him--nor below + Can Love or Sorrow, Fame, Ambition, Strife, + Cut to his heart again with the keen knife + Of silent, sharp endurance--he can tell + Why Thought seeks refuge in lone caves, yet rife + With airy images, and shapes which dwell + Still unimpaired, though old, in the Soul's haunted cell.[gk] + + VI. + + 'Tis to create, and in creating live[281] + A being more intense that we endow[gl] + With form our fancy, gaining as we give + The life we image, even as I do now-- + What am I? Nothing: but not so art thou, + Soul of my thought! with whom I traverse earth, + Invisible but gazing, as I glow-- + Mixed with thy spirit, blended with thy birth, + And feeling still with thee in my crushed feelings' dearth. + + VII. + + Yet must I think less wildly:--I _have_ thought + Too long and darkly, till my brain became, + In its own eddy boiling and o'erwrought, + A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame:[gm] + And thus, untaught in youth my heart to tame, + My springs of life were poisoned.[282] 'Tis too late: + Yet am I changed; though still enough the same + In strength to bear what Time can not abate,[gn] + And feed on bitter fruits without accusing Fate. + + VIII. + + Something too much of this:--but now 'tis past, + And the spell closes with its silent seal--[283] + Long absent HAROLD re-appears at last; + He of the breast which fain no more would feel,[go] + Wrung with the wounds which kill not, but ne'er heal; + Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him + In soul and aspect as in age: years steal + Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb; + And Life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim. + + IX. + + His had been quaffed too quickly, and he found + The dregs were wormwood; but he filled again, + And from a purer fount, on holier ground, + And deemed its spring perpetual--but in vain! + Still round him clung invisibly a chain + Which galled for ever, fettering though unseen, + And heavy though it clanked not; worn with pain, + Which pined although it spoke not, and grew keen, + Entering with every step he took through many a scene. + + X. + + Secure in guarded coldness, he had mixed[gp] + Again in fancied safety with his kind, + And deemed his spirit now so firmly fixed + And sheathed with an invulnerable mind, + That, if no joy, no sorrow lurked behind; + And he, as one, might 'midst the many stand + Unheeded, searching through the crowd to find + Fit speculation--such as in strange land + He found in wonder-works of God and Nature's hand.[gq] + + XI. + + But who can view the ripened rose, nor seek[gr] + To wear it? who can curiously behold + The smoothness and the sheen of Beauty's cheek, + Nor feel the heart can never all grow old?[gs] + Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold + The star[284] which rises o'er her steep, nor climb? + Harold, once more within the vortex, rolled + On with the giddy circle, chasing Time, + Yet with a nobler aim than in his Youth's fond prime.[gt][285] + + XII. + + But soon he knew himself the most unfit[gu] + Of men to herd with Man, with whom he held + Little in common; untaught to submit + His thoughts to others, though his soul was quelled + In youth by his own thoughts; still uncompelled, + He would not yield dominion of his mind + To Spirits against whom his own rebelled, + Proud though in desolation--which could find + A life within itself, to breathe without mankind. + + XIII. + + Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends;[gv] + Where rolled the ocean, thereon was his home; + Where a blue sky, and glowing clime, extends, + He had the passion and the power to roam; + The desert, forest, cavern, breaker's foam, + Were unto him companionship; they spake + A mutual language, clearer than the tome + Of his land's tongue, which he would oft forsake + For Nature's pages glassed by sunbeams on the lake. + + XIV. + + Like the Chaldean, he could watch the stars,[gw] + Till he had peopled them with beings bright + As their own beams; and earth, and earth-born jars, + And human frailties, were forgotten quite: + Could he have kept his spirit to that flight + He had been happy; but this clay will sink + Its spark immortal, envying it the light + To which it mounts, as if to break the link + That keeps us from yon heaven which woos us to its brink.[gx] + + XV. + + But in Man's dwellings he became a thing[gy] + Restless and worn, and stern and wearisome, + Drooped as a wild-born falcon with clipt wing, + To whom the boundless air alone were home: + Then came his fit again, which to o'ercome, + As eagerly the barred-up bird will beat + His breast and beak against his wiry dome + Till the blood tinge his plumage--so the heat + Of his impeded Soul would through his bosom eat. + + XVI. + + Self-exiled Harold wanders forth again,[286] + With nought of Hope left--but with less of gloom; + The very knowledge that he lived in vain, + That all was over on this side the tomb, + Had made Despair a smilingness assume, + Which, though 'twere wild,--as on the plundered wreck + When mariners would madly meet their doom + With draughts intemperate on the sinking deck,-- + Did yet inspire a cheer, which he forbore to check. + + XVII. + + Stop!--for thy tread is on an Empire's dust! + An Earthquake's spoil is sepulchred below! + Is the spot marked with no colossal bust?[287] + Nor column trophied for triumphal show? + None; but _the moral's truth_ tells simpler so.--[gz][288] + As the ground was before, thus let it be;--[ha] + How that red rain hath made the harvest grow! + And is this all the world has gained by thee, + Thou first and last of Fields! king-making Victory? + + XVIII. + + And Harold stands upon this place of skulls, + The grave of France, the deadly Waterloo![hb] + How in an hour the Power which gave annuls + Its gifts, transferring fame as fleeting too!-- + In "pride of place" here last the Eagle flew,[1.B.] + Then tore with bloody talon the rent plain,[hc] + Pierced by the shaft of banded nations through; + Ambition's life and labours all were vain-- + He wears the shattered links of the World's broken chain.[hd] + + XIX. + + Fit retribution! Gaul may champ the bit + And foam in fetters;--but is Earth more free?[289] + Did nations combat to make _One_ submit? + Or league to teach all Kings true Sovereignty?[he] + What! shall reviving Thraldom again be + The patched-up Idol of enlightened days? + Shall we, who struck the Lion down, shall we + Pay the Wolf homage? proffering lowly gaze + And servile knees to Thrones? No! _prove_ before ye praise! + + XX. + + If not, o'er one fallen Despot boast no more! + In vain fair cheeks were furrowed with hot tears + For Europe's flowers long rooted up before + The trampler of her vineyards; in vain, years + Of death, depopulation, bondage, fears, + Have all been borne, and broken by the accord + Of roused-up millions: all that most endears + Glory, is when the myrtle wreathes a Sword, + Such as Harmodius[2.B.] drew on Athens' tyrant Lord. + + XXI. + + There was a sound of revelry by night,[290] + And Belgium's Capital had gathered then + Her Beauty and her Chivalry--and bright + The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;[hf] + A thousand hearts beat happily; and when + Music arose with its voluptuous swell, + Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, + And all went merry as a marriage bell;[3.B.] + But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! + + XXII. + + Did ye not hear it?--No--'twas but the Wind, + Or the car rattling o'er the stony street; + On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; + No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet + To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet-- + But hark!--that heavy sound breaks in once more, + As if the clouds its echo would repeat; + And nearer--clearer--deadlier than before![hg] + Arm! Arm! it is--it is--the cannon's opening roar![hh] + + XXIII. + + Within a windowed niche of that high hall + Sate Brunswick's fated Chieftain; he did hear[291] + That sound the first amidst the festival, + And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear; + And when they smiled because he deemed it near, + His heart more truly knew that peal too well[hi] + Which stretched his father on a bloody bier, + And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell; + He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. + + XXIV. + + Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro-- + And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,[hj] + And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago + Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness-- + And there were sudden partings, such as press[hk] + The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs + Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess + If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, + Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise![hl] + + XXV. + + And there was mounting in hot haste--the steed, + The mustering squadron, and the clattering car, + Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, + And swiftly forming in the ranks of war-- + And the deep thunder peal on peal afar; + And near, the beat of the alarming drum + Roused up the soldier ere the Morning Star; + While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,[hm] + Or whispering, with white lips--"The foe! They come! they come!" + + XXVI. + + And wild and high the "Cameron's Gathering" rose! + The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills + Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes;-- + How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills, + Savage and shrill! But with the breath which fills + Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers + With the fierce native daring which instils + The stirring memory of a thousand years, + And Evan's--Donald's[4.B.] fame rings in each clansman's ears! + + XXVII. + + And Ardennes[5.B.] waves above them her green leaves,[hn] + Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pass-- + Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, + Over the unreturning brave,--alas! + Ere evening to be trodden like the grass + Which now beneath them, but above shall grow + In its next verdure, when this fiery mass + Of living Valour, rolling on the foe + And burning with high Hope, shall moulder cold and low. + + XXVIII. + + Last noon beheld them full of lusty life;-- + Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay; + The Midnight brought the signal-sound of strife, + The Morn the marshalling in arms,--the Day + Battle's magnificently-stern array! + The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent + The earth is covered thick with other clay + Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, + Rider and horse,--friend,--foe,--in one red burial blent! + + XXIX. + + Their praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine; + Yet one I would select from that proud throng, + Partly because they blend me with his line, + And partly that I did his Sire some wrong,[292] + And partly that bright names will hallow song;[ho] + And his was of the bravest, and when showered + The death-bolts deadliest the thinned files along, + Even where the thickest of War's tempest lowered, + They reached no nobler breast than thine, young, gallant Howard![293] + + XXX. + + There have been tears and breaking hearts for thee, + And mine were nothing, had I such to give; + But when I stood beneath the fresh green tree, + Which living waves where thou didst cease to live, + And saw around me the wide field revive + With fruits and fertile promise, and the Spring[294] + Come forth her work of gladness to contrive, + With all her reckless birds upon the wing, + I turned from all she brought to those she could not bring.[6.B.] + + XXXI. + + I turned to thee, to thousands, of whom each + And one as all a ghastly gap did make + In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach + Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake; + The Archangel's trump, not Glory's, must awake + Those whom they thirst for; though the sound of Fame + May for a moment soothe, it cannot slake + The fever of vain longing, and the name + So honoured but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim. + + XXXII. + + They mourn, but smile at length--and, smiling, mourn: + The tree will wither long before it fall; + The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn;[hp] + The roof-tree sinks, but moulders on the hall + In massy hoariness; the ruined wall + Stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone; + The bars survive the captive they enthral; + The day drags through though storms keep out the sun;[hq] + And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on:[295] + + XXXIII. + + Even as a broken Mirror,[296] which the glass + In every fragment multiplies--and makes + A thousand images of one that was, + The same--and still the more, the more it breaks; + And thus the heart will do which not forsakes, + Living in shattered guise; and still, and cold, + And bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches, + Yet withers on till all without is old, + Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold. + + XXXIV. + + There is a very life in our despair, + Vitality of poison,--a quick root + Which feeds these deadly branches; for it were + As nothing did we die; but Life will suit + Itself to Sorrow's most detested fruit, + Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore,[7.B.] + All ashes to the taste: Did man compute + Existence by enjoyment, and count o'er + Such hours 'gainst years of life,--say, would he name threescore? + + XXXV. + + The Psalmist numbered out the years of man: + They are enough; and if thy tale be _true_,[hr] + Thou, who didst grudge him even that fleeting span,[297] + More than enough, thou fatal Waterloo! + Millions of tongues record thee, and anew + Their children's lips shall echo them, and say-- + "Here, where the sword united nations drew,[hs] + Our countrymen were warring on that day!" + And this is much--and all--which will not pass away. + + XXXVI. + + There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men, + Whose Spirit, antithetically mixed, + One moment of the mightiest, and again + On little objects with like firmness fixed;[ht] + Extreme in all things! hadst thou been betwixt, + Thy throne had still been thine, or never been; + For Daring made thy rise as fall: thou seek'st[hu][298] + Even now to re-assume the imperial mien,[299] + And shake again the world, the Thunderer of the scene! + + XXXVII. + + Conqueror and Captive of the Earth art thou! + She trembles at thee still, and thy wild name[hv] + Was ne'er more bruited in men's minds than now + That thou art nothing, save the jest of Fame, + Who wooed thee once, thy Vassal, and became[hw] + The flatterer of thy fierceness--till thou wert + A God unto thyself; nor less the same + To the astounded kingdoms all inert, + Who deemed thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert. + + XXXVIII. + + Oh, more or less than man--in high or low-- + Battling with nations, flying from the field; + Now making monarchs' necks thy footstool, now + More than thy meanest soldier taught to yield; + An Empire thou couldst crush, command, rebuild, + But govern not thy pettiest passion, nor, + However deeply in men's spirits skilled, + Look through thine own, nor curb the lust of War, + Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest Star. + + XXXIX. + + Yet well thy soul hath brooked the turning tide + With that untaught innate philosophy, + Which, be it Wisdom, Coldness, or deep Pride,[hx] + Is gall and wormwood to an enemy. + When the whole host of hatred stood hard by, + To watch and mock thee shrinking, thou hast smiled[hy] + With a sedate and all-enduring eye;-- + When Fortune fled her spoiled and favourite child, + He stood unbowed beneath the ills upon him piled. + + XL. + + Sager than in thy fortunes; for in them[hz] + Ambition steeled thee on too far to show + That just habitual scorn, which could contemn + Men and their thoughts; 'twas wise to feel, not so + To wear it ever on thy lip and brow, + And spurn the instruments thou wert to use + Till they were turned unto thine overthrow: + 'Tis but a worthless world to win or lose; + So hath it proved to thee, and all such lot who choose. + + XLI. + + If, like a tower upon a headlong rock, + Thou hadst been made to stand or fall alone, + Such scorn of man had helped to brave the shock; + But men's thoughts were the steps which paved thy throne, + _Their_ admiration thy best weapon shone; + The part of Philip's son was thine, not then + (Unless aside thy Purple had been thrown) + Like stern Diogenes to mock at men-- + For sceptred Cynics Earth were far too wide a den.[8.B.] + + XLII. + + But Quiet to quick bosoms is a Hell, + And _there_ hath been thy bane; there is a fire + And motion of the Soul which will not dwell + In its own narrow being, but aspire + Beyond the fitting medium of desire; + And, but once kindled, quenchless evermore, + Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire[ia] + Of aught but rest; a fever at the core, + Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore. + + XLIII. + + This makes the madmen who have made men mad + By their contagion; Conquerors and Kings, + Founders of sects and systems, to whom add + Sophists, Bards, Statesmen, all unquiet things + Which stir too strongly the soul's secret springs,[ib] + And are themselves the fools to those they fool; + Envied, yet how unenviable! what stings + Are theirs! One breast laid open were a school + Which would unteach Mankind the lust to shine or rule: + + XLIV. + + Their breath is agitation, and their life + A storm whereon they ride, to sink at last, + And yet so nursed and bigoted to strife, + That should their days, surviving perils past, + Melt to calm twilight, they feel overcast[ic] + With sorrow and supineness, and so die; + Even as a flame unfed, which runs to waste + With its own flickering, or a sword laid by, + Which eats into itself, and rusts ingloriously. + + XLV. + + He who ascends to mountain-tops, shall find + The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; + He who surpasses or subdues mankind, + Must look down on the hate of those below.[id] + Though high _above_ the Sun of Glory glow, + And far _beneath_ the Earth and Ocean spread, + _Round_ him are icy rocks, and loudly blow + Contending tempests on his naked head,[ie] + And thus reward the toils which to those summits led. + + XLVI. + + Away with these! true Wisdom's world will be[if] + Within its own creation, or in thine, + Maternal Nature! for who teems like thee,[ig] + Thus on the banks of thy majestic Rhine? + There Harold gazes on a work divine, + A blending of all beauties; streams and dells, + Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine, + And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells + From gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells.[ih] + + XLVII. + + And there they stand, as stands a lofty mind, + Worn, but unstooping to the baser crowd, + All tenantless, save to the crannying Wind, + Or holding dark communion with the Cloud + There was a day when they were young and proud; + Banners on high, and battles[300] passed below; + But they who fought are in a bloody shroud, + And those which waved are shredless dust ere now,[ii] + And the bleak battlements shall bear no future blow. + + XLVIII. + + Beneath these battlements, within those walls, + Power dwelt amidst her passions; in proud state + Each robber chief upheld his armed halls, + Doing his evil will, nor less elate + Than mightier heroes of a longer date. + What want these outlaws conquerors should have[ij][9.B.] + But History's purchased page to call them great? + A wider space--an ornamented grave? + Their hopes were not less warm, their souls were full as brave.[ik] + + XLIX. + + In their baronial feuds and single fields, + What deeds of prowess unrecorded died! + And Love, which lent a blazon to their shields,[301] + With emblems well devised by amorous pride, + Through all the mail of iron hearts would glide; + But still their flame was fierceness, and drew on + Keen contest and destruction near allied, + And many a tower for some fair mischief won, + Saw the discoloured Rhine beneath its ruin run. + + L. + + But Thou, exulting and abounding river! + Making thy waves a blessing as they flow + Through banks whose beauty would endure for ever + Could man but leave thy bright creation so, + Nor its fair promise from the surface mow[il] + With the sharp scythe of conflict, then to see + Thy valley of sweet waters, were to know[302] + Earth paved like Heaven--and to seem such to me,[im] + Even now what wants thy stream?--that it should Lethe be. + + LI. + + A thousand battles have assailed thy banks, + But these and half their fame have passed away, + And Slaughter heaped on high his weltering ranks: + Their very graves are gone, and what are they?[303] + Thy tide washed down the blood of yesterday, + And all was stainless, and on thy clear stream + Glassed, with its dancing light, the sunny ray;[in] + But o'er the blacken'd memory's blighting dream + Thy waves would vainly roll, all sweeping as they seem. + + LII. + + Thus Harold inly said, and passed along, + Yet not insensible to all which here + Awoke the jocund birds to early song + In glens which might have made even exile dear: + Though on his brow were graven lines austere, + And tranquil sternness, which had ta'en the place + Of feelings fierier far but less severe-- + Joy was not always absent from his face, + But o'er it in such scenes would steal with transient trace. + + LIII. + + Nor was all Love shut from him, though his days + Of Passion had consumed themselves to dust. + It is in vain that we would coldly gaze + On such as smile upon us; the heart must + Leap kindly back to kindness, though Disgust[io] + Hath weaned it from all worldlings: thus he felt, + For there was soft Remembrance, and sweet Trust + In one fond breast, to which his own would melt, + And in its tenderer hour on that his bosom dwelt.[304] + + LIV. + + And he had learned to love,--I know not why, + For this in such as him seems strange of mood, + The helpless looks of blooming Infancy, + Even in its earliest nurture; what subdued, + To change like this, a mind so far imbued + With scorn of man, it little boots to know; + But thus it was; and though in solitude + Small power the nipped affections have to grow, + In him this glowed when all beside had ceased to glow. + + LV. + + And there was one soft breast, as hath been said,[ip] + Which unto his was bound by stronger ties + Than the church links withal; and--though unwed, + _That_ love was pure--and, far above disguise,[iq] + Had stood the test of mortal enmities + Still undivided, and cemented more + By peril, dreaded most in female eyes;[305] + But this was firm, and from a foreign shore + Well to that heart might his these absent greetings pour![ir] + + 1. + + The castled Crag of Drachenfels[306][10.B.] + Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine, + Whose breast of waters broadly swells + Between the banks which bear the vine, + And hills all rich with blossomed trees, + And fields which promise corn and wine, + And scattered cities crowning these, + Whose far white walls along them shine, + Have strewed a scene, which I should see + With double joy wert _thou_ with me. + + 2. + + And peasant girls, with deep blue eyes, + And hands which offer early flowers, + Walk smiling o'er this Paradise; + Above, the frequent feudal towers + Through green leaves lift their walls of gray; + And many a rock which steeply lowers, + And noble arch in proud decay, + Look o'er this vale of vintage-bowers; + But one thing want these banks of Rhine,-- + Thy gentle hand to clasp in mine! + + 3. + + I send the lilies given to me-- + Though long before thy hand they touch, + I know that they must withered be, + But yet reject them not as such; + For I have cherished them as dear, + Because they yet may meet thine eye, + And guide thy soul to mine even here, + When thou behold'st them drooping nigh, + And know'st them gathered by the Rhine, + And offered from my heart to thine! + + 4. + + The river nobly foams and flows-- + The charm of this enchanted ground, + And all its thousand turns disclose + Some fresher beauty varying round: + The haughtiest breast its wish might bound + Through life to dwell delighted here; + Nor could on earth a spot be found + To Nature and to me so dear-- + Could thy dear eyes in following mine + Still sweeten more these banks of Rhine! + + LVI. + + By Coblentz, on a rise of gentle ground, + There is a small and simple Pyramid, + Crowning the summit of the verdant mound; + Beneath its base are Heroes' ashes hid-- + Our enemy's--but let not that forbid + Honour to Marceau! o'er whose early tomb[is] + Tears, big tears, gushed from the rough soldier's lid, + Lamenting and yet envying such a doom, + Falling for France, whose rights he battled to resume. + + LVII. + + Brief, brave, and glorious was his young career,-- + His mourners were two hosts, his friends and foes; + And fitly may the stranger lingering here + Pray for his gallant Spirit's bright repose;-- + For he was Freedom's Champion, one of those, + The few in number, who had not o'erstept[307] + The charter to chastise which she bestows + On such as wield her weapons; he had kept + The whiteness of his soul--and thus men o'er him wept.[11.B.] + + LVIII. + + Here Ehrenbreitstein,[12.B.] with her shattered wall + Black with the miner's blast, upon her height + Yet shows of what she was, when shell and ball + Rebounding idly on her strength did light:-- + A Tower of Victory! from whence the flight + Of baffled foes was watched along the plain: + But Peace destroyed what War could never blight, + And laid those proud roofs bare to Summer's rain-- + On which the iron shower for years had poured in vain.[308] + + LIX. + + Adieu to thee, fair Rhine! How long delighted + The stranger fain would linger on his way! + Thine is a scene alike where souls united + Or lonely Contemplation thus might stray; + And could the ceaseless vultures cease to prey[it] + On self-condemning bosoms, it were here, + Where Nature, nor too sombre nor too gay, + Wild but not rude, awful yet not austere,[iu] + Is to the mellow Earth as Autumn to the year.[309] + + LX. + + Adieu to thee again! a vain adieu! + There can be no farewell to scene like thine; + The mind is coloured by thy every hue; + And if reluctantly the eyes resign + Their cherished gaze upon thee, lovely Rhine! + 'Tis with the thankful glance of parting praise; + More mighty spots may rise--more glaring shine,[iv] + But none unite in one attaching maze + The brilliant, fair, and soft,--the glories of old days, + + LXI. + + The negligently grand, the fruitful bloom[310] + Of coming ripeness, the white city's sheen, + The rolling stream, the precipice's gloom, + The forest's growth, and Gothic walls between,-- + The wild rocks shaped, as they had turrets been, + In mockery of man's art; and these withal + A race of faces happy as the scene, + Whose fertile bounties here extend to all, + Still springing o'er thy banks, though Empires near them fall. + + LXII. + + But these recede. Above me are the Alps, + The Palaces of Nature, whose vast walls + Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,[iw] + And throned Eternity in icy halls + Of cold Sublimity, where forms and falls[311] + The Avalanche--the thunderbolt of snow! + All that expands the spirit, yet appals, + Gather around these summits, as to show + How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below. + + LXIII. + + But ere these matchless heights I dare to scan, + There is a spot should not be passed in vain,-- + Morat! the proud, the patriot field! where man + May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain, + Nor blush for those who conquered on that plain; + Here Burgundy bequeathed his tombless host, + A bony heap, through ages to remain, + Themselves their monument;[312]--the Stygian coast + Unsepulchred they roamed, and shrieked each + wandering ghost.[ix][313][13.B.] + + LXIV. + + While Waterloo with Cannae's carnage vies,[314] + Morat and Marathon twin names shall stand; + They were true Glory's stainless victories, + Won by the unambitious heart and hand + Of a proud, brotherly, and civic band, + All unbought champions in no princely cause + Of vice-entailed Corruption; they no land[iy] + Doomed to bewail the blasphemy of laws + Making Kings' rights divine, by some Draconic clause. + + LXV. + + By a lone wall a lonelier column rears + A gray and grief-worn aspect of old days; + 'Tis the last remnant of the wreck of years, + And looks as with the wild-bewildered gaze + Of one to stone converted by amaze, + Yet still with consciousness; and there it stands + Making a marvel that it not decays, + When the coeval pride of human hands, + Levelled Aventicum,[14.B.] hath strewed her subject lands. + + LXVI. + + And there--oh! sweet and sacred be the name!-- + Julia--the daughter--the devoted--gave + Her youth to Heaven; her heart, beneath a claim + Nearest to Heaven's, broke o'er a father's grave. + Justice is sworn 'gainst tears, and hers would crave + The life she lived in--but the Judge was just-- + And then she died on him she could not save.[iz] + Their tomb was simple, and without a bust,[ja] + And held within their urn one mind--one heart--one dust.[15.B.] + + LXVII. + + But these are deeds which should not pass away, + And names that must not wither, though the Earth + Forgets her empires with a just decay, + The enslavers and the enslaved--their death and birth; + The high, the mountain-majesty of Worth + Should be--and shall, survivor of its woe, + And from its immortality, look forth + In the sun's face, like yonder Alpine snow,[16.B.] + Imperishably pure beyond all things below. + + LXVIII. + + Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face, + The mirror where the stars and mountains view + The stillness of their aspect in each trace + Its clear depth yields of their far height and hue:[jb] + There is too much of Man here,[315] to look through + With a fit mind the might which I behold; + But soon in me shall Loneliness renew + Thoughts hid, but not less cherished than of old, + Ere mingling with the herd had penned me in their fold. + + LXIX. + + To fly from, need not be to hate, mankind: + All are not fit with them to stir and toil, + Nor is it discontent to keep the mind + Deep in its fountain, lest it overboil[jc][316] + In the hot throng, where we become the spoil + Of our infection, till too late and long + We may deplore and struggle with the coil, + In wretched interchange of wrong for wrong + Midst a contentious world, striving where none are strong.[jd] + + LXX. + + There, in a moment, we may plunge our years[317] + In fatal penitence, and in the blight + Of our own Soul turn all our blood to tears, + And colour things to come with hues of Night; + The race of life becomes a hopeless flight + To those that walk in darkness: on the sea + The boldest steer but where their ports invite-- + But there are wanderers o'er Eternity[je][318] + Whose bark drives on and on, and anchored ne'er shall be. + + LXXI. + + Is it not better, then, to be alone, + And love Earth only for its earthly sake? + By the blue rushing of the arrowy[319] Rhone,[17.B.] + Or the pure bosom of its nursing Lake, + Which feeds it as a mother who doth make + A fair but froward infant her own care, + Kissing its cries away as these awake;--[jf] + Is it not better thus our lives to wear, + Than join the crushing crowd, doomed to inflict or bear? + + LXXII. + + I live not in myself, but I become + Portion of that around me; and to me + High mountains are a feeling, but the hum[320] + Of human cities torture: I can see[jg] + Nothing to loathe in Nature, save to be[jh] + A link reluctant in a fleshly chain, + Classed among creatures, when the soul can flee, + And with the sky--the peak--the heaving plain[ji] + Of Ocean, or the stars, mingle--and not in vain. + + LXXIII. + + And thus I am absorbed, and this is life:-- + I look upon the peopled desert past, + As on a place of agony and strife, + Where, for some sin, to Sorrow I was cast, + To act and suffer, but remount at last[jj] + With a fresh pinion; which I feel to spring, + Though young, yet waxing vigorous as the Blast + Which it would cope with, on delighted wing, + Spurning the clay-cold bonds which round our being cling.[jk][321] + + LXXIV. + + And when, at length, the mind shall be all free + From what it hates in this degraded form,[jl] + Reft of its carnal life, save what shall be + Existent happier in the fly and worm,-- + When Elements to Elements conform, + And dust is as it should be, shall I not + Feel all I see less dazzling but more warm? + The bodiless thought? the Spirit of each spot?[jm] + Of which, even now, I share at times the immortal lot?[322] + + LXXV. + + Are not the mountains, waves, and skies, a part[jn] + Of me and of my Soul, as I of them? + Is not the love of these deep in my heart + With a pure passion? should I not contemn + All objects, if compared with these? and stem + A tide of suffering, rather than forego + Such feelings for the hard and worldly phlegm + Of those whose eyes are only turned below, + Gazing upon the ground, with thoughts which dare not glow?[jo][323] + + LXXVI. + + But this is not my theme; and I return[jp] + To that which is immediate, and require + Those who find contemplation in the urn, + To look on One, whose dust was once all fire,-- + A native of the land where I respire + The clear air for a while--a passing guest, + Where he became a being,--whose desire + Was to be glorious; 'twas a foolish quest, + The which to gain and keep, he sacrificed all rest. + + LXXVII. + + Here the self-torturing sophist, wild Rousseau,[jq] + The apostle of Affliction, he who threw + Enchantment over Passion, and from Woe + Wrung overwhelming eloquence, first drew + The breath which made him wretched; yet he knew + How to make Madness beautiful, and cast + O'er erring deeds and thoughts, a heavenly hue[jr] + Of words, like sunbeams, dazzling as they past + The eyes, which o'er them shed tears feelingly and fast. + + LXXVIII. + + His love was Passion's essence--as a tree + On fire by lightning; with ethereal flame + Kindled he was, and blasted; for to be + Thus, and enamoured, were in him the same.[js] + But his was not the love of living dame, + Nor of the dead who rise upon our dreams, + But of ideal Beauty, which became + In him existence, and o'erflowing teems + Along his burning page, distempered though it seems. + + LXXIX. + + _This_ breathed itself to life in Julie, _this_ + Invested her with all that's wild and sweet; + This hallowed, too, the memorable kiss[18.B.] + Which every morn his fevered lip would greet, + From hers, who but with friendship his would meet; + But to that gentle touch, through brain and breast + Flashed the thrilled Spirit's love-devouring heat;[jt] + In that absorbing sigh perchance more blest + Than vulgar minds may be with all they seek possest. + + LXXX. + + His life was one long war with self-sought foes, + Or friends by him self-banished;[324] for his mind + Had grown Suspicion's sanctuary, and chose, + For its own cruel sacrifice, the kind,[ju] + 'Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind. + But he was phrensied, wherefore, who may know? + Since cause might be which Skill could never find;[jv] + But he was phrensied by disease or woe, + To that worst pitch of all, which wears a reasoning show. + + LXXXI. + + For then he was inspired,[325] and from him came, + As from the Pythian's mystic cave of yore, + Those oracles which set the world in flame,[326] + Nor ceased to burn till kingdoms were no more: + Did he not this for France? which lay before + Bowed to the inborn tyranny of years?[327] + Broken and trembling to the yoke she bore, + Till by the voice of him and his compeers, + Roused up to too much wrath which follows o'ergrown fears? + + LXXXII. + + They made themselves a fearful monument! + The wreck of old opinions--things which grew,[jw] + Breathed from the birth of Time: the veil they rent, + And what behind it lay, all earth shall view.[jx] + But good with ill they also overthrew, + Leaving but ruins, wherewith to rebuild + Upon the same foundation, and renew + Dungeons and thrones, which the same hour refilled, + As heretofore, because Ambition was self-willed. + + LXXXIII. + + But this will not endure, nor be endured! + Mankind have felt their strength, and made it felt. + They might have used it better, but, allured + By their new vigour, sternly have they dealt + On one another; Pity ceased to melt + With her once natural charities. But they, + Who in Oppression's darkness caved had dwelt, + They were not eagles, nourished with the day; + What marvel then, at times, if they mistook their prey? + + LXXXIV. + + What deep wounds ever closed without a scar? + The heart's bleed longest, and but heal to wear + That which disfigures it; and they who war + With their own hopes, and have been vanquished, bear + Silence, but not submission: in his lair + Fixed Passion holds his breath, until the hour + Which shall atone for years; none need despair: + It came--it cometh--and will come,--the power + To punish or forgive--in _one_ we shall be slower.[jy][328] + + LXXXV. + + Clear, placid Leman! thy contrasted lake, + With the wild world I dwelt in, is a thing + Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake + Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring. + This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing + To waft me from distraction; once I loved + Torn Ocean's roar, but thy soft murmuring + Sounds sweet as if a Sister's voice reproved, + That I with stern delights should e'er have been so moved. + + LXXXVI. + + It is the hush of night, and all between + Thy margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear, + Mellowed and mingling, yet distinctly seen, + Save darkened Jura,[329] whose capt heights appear + Precipitously steep; and drawing near, + There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, + Of flowers yet fresh with childhood; on the ear + Drops the light drip of the suspended oar, + Or chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more. + + LXXXVII. + + He is an evening reveller, who makes[jz] + His life an infancy, and sings his fill;[ka][330] + At intervals, some bird from out the brakes + Starts into voice a moment, then is still. + There seems a floating whisper on the hill, + But that is fancy--for the Starlight dews + All silently their tears of Love instil, + Weeping themselves away, till they infuse + Deep into Nature's breast the spirit of her hues.[kb] + + LXXXVIII. + + Ye Stars! which are the poetry of Heaven! + If in your bright leaves we would read the fate + Of men and empires,--'tis to be forgiven, + That in our aspirations to be great, + Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, + And claim a kindred with you; for ye are + A Beauty and a Mystery, and create + In us such love and reverence from afar, + That Fortune,--Fame,--Power,--Life, have named themselves a Star.[331] + + LXXXIX. + + All Heaven and Earth are still--though not in sleep, + But breathless, as we grow when feeling most;[332] + And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep:-- + All Heaven and Earth are still: From the high host + Of stars, to the lulled lake and mountain-coast, + All is concentered in a life intense, + Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, + But hath a part of Being, and a sense + Of that which is of all Creator and Defence.[333] + + XC. + + Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt[kc] + In solitude, where we are _least_ alone; + A truth, which through our being then doth melt, + And purifies from self: it is a tone, + The soul and source of Music, which makes known[kd] + Eternal harmony, and sheds a charm + Like to the fabled Cytherea's zone,[334] + Binding all things with beauty;--'twould disarm + The spectre Death, had he substantial power to harm. + + XCI. + + Not vainly did the early Persian make[335] + His altar the high places, and the peak + Of earth-o'ergazing mountains,[19.B.] --and thus take + A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek + The Spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak + Upreared of human hands. Come, and compare + Columns and idol-dwellings--Goth or Greek-- + With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air-- + Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer! + + XCII. + + The sky is changed!--and such a change! Oh Night,[20.B.] + And Storm, and Darkness, ye are wondrous strong, + Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light + Of a dark eye in Woman![336] Far along, + From peak to peak, the rattling crags among + Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, + But every mountain now hath found a tongue, + And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, + Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud! + + XCIII. + + And this is in the Night:--Most glorious Night![ke] + Thou wert not sent for slumber! let me be + A sharer in thy fierce and far delight,-- + A portion of the tempest and of thee![kf] + How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea,[kg] + And the big rain comes dancing to the earth! + And now again 'tis black,--and now, the glee + Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain-mirth, + As if they did rejoice o'er a young Earthquake's birth.[kh] + + XCIV. + + Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way between + Heights which appear as lovers who have parted[ki][337] + In hate, whose mining depths so intervene, + That they can meet no more, though broken-hearted: + Though in their souls, which thus each other thwarted, + Love was the very root of the fond rage + Which blighted their life's bloom, and then departed:-- + Itself expired, but leaving them an age + Of years all winters,--war within themselves to wage:[kj] + + XCV. + + Now, where the quick Rhone thus hath cleft his way, + The mightiest of the storms hath ta'en his stand: + For here, not one, but many, make their play, + And fling their thunder-bolts from hand to hand, + Flashing and cast around: of all the band, + The brightest through these parted hills hath forked + His lightnings,--as if he did understand, + That in such gaps as Desolation worked, + There the hot shaft should blast whatever therein lurked. + + XCVI. + + Sky--Mountains--River--Winds--Lake--Lightnings! ye! + With night, and clouds, and thunder--and a Soul + To make these felt and feeling, well may be + Things that have made me watchful; the far roll + Of your departing voices, is the knoll[338] + Of what in me is sleepless,--if I rest. + But where of ye, O Tempests! is the goal? + Are ye like those within the human breast? + Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest? + + XCVII. + + Could I embody and unbosom now + That which is most within me,--could I wreak + My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw + Soul--heart--mind--passions--feelings--strong or weak-- + All that I would have sought, and all I seek, + Bear, know, feel--and yet breathe--into _one_ word, + And that one word were Lightning, I would speak; + But as it is, I live and die unheard, + With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword. + + XCVIII. + + The Morn is up again, the dewy Morn, + With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom-- + Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn, + And living as if earth contained no tomb,-- + And glowing into day: we may resume + The march of our existence: and thus I, + Still on thy shores, fair Leman! may find room + And food for meditation, nor pass by + Much, that may give us pause, if pondered fittingly. + + XCIX. + + Clarens! sweet Clarens[339] birthplace of deep Love! + Thine air is the young breath of passionate Thought; + Thy trees take root in Love; the snows above,[kk] + The very Glaciers have his colours caught, + And Sun-set into rose-hues sees them wrought[21.B.] + By rays which sleep there lovingly: the rocks,[kl] + The permanent crags, tell here of Love, who sought + In them a refuge from the worldly shocks, + Which stir and sting the Soul with Hope that woos, then mocks. + + C. + + Clarens! by heavenly feet thy paths are trod,--[km] + Undying Love's, who here ascends a throne + To which the steps are mountains; where the God + Is a pervading Life and Light,--so shown[kn] + Not on those summits solely, nor alone + In the still cave and forest; o'er the flower + His eye is sparkling, and his breath hath blown, + His soft and summer breath, whose tender power[ko] + Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour. + + CI. + + All things are here of _Him_; from the black pines,[340] + Which are his shade on high, and the loud roar + Of torrents, where he listeneth, to the vines + Which slope his green path downward to the shore, + Where the bowed Waters meet him, and adore, + Kissing his feet with murmurs; and the Wood, + The covert of old trees, with trunks all hoar, + But light leaves, young as joy, stands where it stood,[kp] + Offering to him, and his, a populous solitude. + + CII. + + A populous solitude of bees and birds, + And fairy-formed and many-coloured things, + Who worship him with notes more sweet than words,[kq] + And innocently open their glad wings, + Fearless and full of life: the gush of springs, + And fall of lofty fountains, and the bend + Of stirring branches, and the bud which brings + The swiftest thought of Beauty, here extend + Mingling--and made by Love--unto one mighty end. + + CIII. + + He who hath loved not, here would learn that lore,[341] + And make his heart a spirit; he who knows + That tender mystery, will love the more; + For this is Love's recess, where vain men's woes, + And the world's waste, have driven him far from those,[kr] + For 'tis his nature to advance or die; + He stands not still, but or decays, or grows + Into a boundless blessing, which may vie + With the immortal lights, in its eternity! + + CIV. + + 'Twas not for fiction chose Rousseau this spot, + Peopling it with affections; but he found + It was the scene which Passion must allot + To the Mind's purified beings; 'twas the ground + Where early Love his Psyche's zone unbound,[342] + And hallowed it with loveliness: 'tis lone, + And wonderful, and deep, and hath a sound, + And sense, and sight of sweetness; here the Rhone + Hath spread himself a couch, the Alps have reared a throne. + + CV. + + Lausanne! and Ferney! ye have been the abodes + Of Names which unto you bequeathed a name;[22.B.] + Mortals, who sought and found, by dangerous roads, + A path to perpetuity of Fame: + They were gigantic minds, and their steep aim + Was, Titan-like, on daring doubts to pile + Thoughts which should call down thunder, and the flame + Of Heaven again assailed--if Heaven, the while, + On man and man's research could deign do more than smile. + + CVI. + + The one was fire and fickleness,[343] a child + Most mutable in wishes, but in mind + A wit as various,--gay, grave, sage, or wild,-- + Historian, bard, philosopher, combined;[ks] + He multiplied himself among mankind, + The Proteus of their talents: But his own + Breathed most in ridicule,--which, as the wind, + Blew where it listed, laying all things prone,-- + Now to o'erthrow a fool, and now to shake a throne.[344] + + CVII. + + The other, deep and slow, exhausting thought,[kt] + And hiving wisdom with each studious year, + In meditation dwelt--with learning wrought, + And shaped his weapon with an edge severe, + Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer; + The lord of irony,--that master-spell, + Which stung his foes to wrath, which grew from fear[ku][345] + And doomed him to the zealot's ready Hell, + Which answers to all doubts so eloquently well. + + CVIII. + + Yet, peace be with their ashes,--for by them, + If merited, the penalty is paid; + It is not ours to judge,--far less condemn; + The hour must come when such things shall be made + Known unto all,--or hope and dread allayed + By slumber, on one pillow, in the dust,[kv] + Which, thus much we are sure, must lie decayed; + And when it shall revive, as is our trust,[346] + 'Twill be to be forgiven--or suffer what is just. + + CIX. + + But let me quit Man's works, again to read + His Maker's, spread around me, and suspend + This page, which from my reveries I feed, + Until it seems prolonging without end. + The clouds above me to the white Alps tend, + And I must pierce them, and survey whate'er[347] + May be permitted, as my steps I bend + To their most great and growing region, where + The earth to her embrace compels the powers of air. + + CX. + + Italia too! Italia! looking on thee, + Full flashes on the Soul the light of ages, + Since the fierce Carthaginian almost won thee, + To the last halo of the Chiefs and Sages + Who glorify thy consecrated pages; + Thou wert the throne and grave of empires; still,[348] + The fount at which the panting Mind assuages + Her thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill, + Flows from the eternal source of Rome's imperial hill. + + CXI. + + Thus far have I proceeded in a theme + Renewed with no kind auspices:--to feel + We are not what we have been, and to deem + We are not what we should be,--and to steel + The heart against itself; and to conceal, + With a proud caution, love, or hate, or aught,-- + Passion or feeling, purpose, grief, or zeal,-- + Which is the tyrant Spirit of our thought, + Is a stern task of soul:--No matter,--it is taught.[349] + + CXII. + + And for these words, thus woven into song, + It may be that they are a harmless wile,--[kw] + The colouring of the scenes which fleet along,[kx] + Which I would seize, in passing, to beguile + My breast, or that of others, for a while. + Fame is the thirst of youth,--but I am not[ky] + So young as to regard men's frown or smile, + As loss or guerdon of a glorious lot;-- + I stood and stand alone,--remembered or forgot. + + CXIII. + + I have not loved the World, nor the World me; + I have not flattered its rank breath,[350] nor bowed + To its idolatries a patient knee, + Nor coined my cheek to smiles,--nor cried aloud + In worship of an echo: in the crowd + They could not deem me one of such--I stood + Among them, but not of them[351]--in a shroud + Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could, + Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued.[23.B.] + + CXIV. + + I have not loved the World, nor the World me,-- + But let us part fair foes; I do believe, + Though I have found them not, that there may be + Words which are things,--hopes which will not deceive, + And Virtues which are merciful, nor weave + Snares for the failing; I would also deem + O'er others' griefs that some sincerely grieve--[kz][24.B.] + That two, or one, are almost what they seem,-- + That Goodness is no name--and Happiness no dream. + + CXV.[352] + + My daughter! with thy name this song begun! + My daughter! with thy name thus much shall end!-- + I see thee not--I hear thee not--but none + Can be so wrapt in thee; Thou art the Friend + To whom the shadows of far years extend: + Albeit my brow thou never should'st behold, + My voice shall with thy future visions blend, + And reach into thy heart,--when mine is cold,-- + A token and a tone, even from thy father's mould. + + CXVI. + + To aid thy mind's developement,--to watch + Thy dawn of little joys,--to sit and see + Almost thy very growth,--to view thee catch + Knowledge of objects,--wonders yet to thee! + To hold thee lightly on a gentle knee, + And print on thy soft cheek a parent's kiss,-- + This, it should seem, was not reserved for me-- + Yet this was in my nature:--as it is, + I know not what is there, yet something like to this. + + CXVII. + + Yet, though dull Hate as duty should be taught,[353] + I know that thou wilt love me: though my name + Should be shut from thee, as a spell still fraught + With desolation, and a broken claim: + Though the grave closed between us,--'twere the same, + I know that thou wilt love me--though to drain[354] + _My_ blood from out thy being were an aim, + And an attainment,--all would be in vain,-- + Still thou would'st love me, still that more than life retain. + + CXVIII. + + The child of Love![355] though born in bitterness, + And nurtured in Convulsion! Of thy sire + These were the elements,--and thine no less. + As yet such are around thee,--but thy fire + Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher! + Sweet be thy cradled slumbers! O'er the sea + And from the mountains where I now respire, + Fain would I waft such blessing upon thee, + As--with a sigh--I deem thou might'st have been to me![la] + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[275] {209} [D'Alembert (Jean-le-Rond, philosopher, mathematician, and +belletrist, 1717-1783) had recently lost his friend, Mlle. (Claire +Francoise) L'Espinasse, who died May 23, 1776. Frederick prescribes +_quelque probleme bien difficile a resoudre_ as a remedy for vain +regrets (_Oeuvres de Frederic II., Roi de Prusse_, 1790, xiv. 64, 65).] + +[276] {215} ["If you turn over the earlier pages of the Huntingdon +peerage story, you will see how common a name Ada was in the early +Plantagenet days. I found it in my own pedigree in the reigns of John +and Henry.... It is short, ancient, vocalic, and had been in my family; +for which reasons I gave it to my daughter."--Letter to Murray, Ravenna, +October 8, 1820. + +The Honourable Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815; was married +July 8, 1835, to William King Noel (1805-1893), eighth Baron King, +created Earl of Lovelace, 1838; and died November 27, 1852. There were +three children of the marriage--Viscount Ockham (d. 1862), the present +Earl of Lovelace, and the Lady Anna Isabella Noel, who was married to +Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq., in 1869. + +"The Countess of Lovelace," wrote a contributor to the _Examiner_, +December 4, 1852, "was thoroughly original, and the poet's temperament +was all that was hers in common with her father. Her genius, for genius +she possessed, was not poetic, but metaphysical and mathematical, her +mind having been in the constant practice of investigation, and with +rigour and exactness." Of her devotion to science, and her original +powers as a mathematician, her translation and explanatory notes of F. +L. Menabrea's _Notices sur le machine Analytique de Mr. Babbage_, 1842, +a defence of the famous "calculating machine," remain as evidence. + +"Those who view mathematical science not merely as a vast body of +abstract and immutable truths, ... but as possessing a yet deeper +interest for the human race, when it is remembered that this science +constitutes the language through which alone we can adequately express +the great facts of the natural world ... those who thus think on +mathematical truth as the instrument through which the weak mind of man +can most effectually read his Creator's works, will regard with especial +interest all that can tend to facilitate the translation of its +principles into explicit practical forms." So, for the moment turning +away from algebraic formulae and abstruse calculations, wrote Ada, Lady +Lovelace, in her twenty-eighth year. See "Translator's Notes," signed A. +A. L., to _A Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles +Babbage, Esq._, London, 1843. + +It would seem, however, that she "wore her learning lightly as a +flower." "Her manners [_Examiner_], her tastes, her accomplishments, in +many of which, music especially, she was proficient, were feminine in +the nicest sense of the word." Unlike her father in features, or in the +bent of her mind, she inherited his mental vigour and intensity of +purpose. Like him, she died in her thirty-seventh year, and at her own +request her coffin was placed by his in the vault at Hucknall Torkard. +(See, too, _Athenaeum_, December 4, 1852, and _Gent. Mag._, January, +1853.)] + +[gh] {216} _could grieve my gazing eye._--[C. erased.] + +[277] Compare _Henry V._, act iii. sc. 1, line 1--"Once more unto the +breach, dear friends, once more." + +[278] {217} [Compare _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ (now attributed to +Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Massinger), act ii. sc. 1, lines 73, _seq._-- + + "Oh, never + Shall we two exercise like twins of Honour + Our arms again, and feel our fiery horses + Like proud seas under us." + +"Out of this somewhat forced simile," says the editor (John Wright) of +Lord Byron's _Poetical Works_, issued in 1832, "by a judicious +transposition of the comparison, and by the substitution of the more +definite _waves_ for _seas_, Lord Byron's clear and noble thought has +been produced." But the literary artifice, if such there be, is +subordinate to the emotion of the writer. It is in movement, progress, +flight, that the sufferer experiences a relief from the poignancy of his +anguish.] + +[gi] _And the rent canvass tattering_----.--[C.] + +[279] ["The metaphor is derived from a torrent-bed, which, when dried +up, serves for a sandy or shingly path."--Note by H. F. Tozer, _Childe +Harold_, 1885, p. 257. Or, perhaps, the imagery has been suggested by +the action of a flood, which ploughs a channel for itself through +fruitful soil, and, when the waters are spent, leaves behind it "a +sterile track," which does, indeed, permit the traveller to survey the +desolation, but serves no other purpose of use or beauty.] + +[gj] {218} _I would essay of all I sang to sing_.--[MS.] + +[280] [Compare Manfred, act ii. sc. 1, lines 51, 52-- + + "Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? + It doth; but actions are our epoch."] + +[gk] {219} _Still unimpaired though worn_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[281] [It is the poet's fond belief that he can find the true reality in +"the things that are not seen." + + "Out of these create he can + Forms more real than living man-- + Nurslings of Immortality." + +"Life is but thought," and by the power of the imagination he thinks to +"gain a being more intense," to add a cubit to his spiritual stature. +Byron professes the same faith in _The Dream_ (stanza i. lines 19-22), +which also belongs to the summer of 1816-- + + "The mind can make + Substance, and people planets of its own + With beings brighter than have been, and give + A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh." + +At this stage of his poetic growth, in part converted by Shelley, in +part by Wordsworth as preached by Shelley, Byron, so to speak, "got +religion," went over for a while to the Church of the mystics. There +was, too, a compulsion from within. Life had gone wrong with him, and, +driven from memory and reflection, he looks for redemption in the new +earth which Imagination and Nature held in store.] + +[gl] + _A brighter being that we thus endow_ + _With form our fancies_----.--[MS.] + +[gm] {220} _A dizzy world_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[282] [Compare _The Dream_, viii. 6, _seq_.-- + + "Pain was mixed + In all which was served up to him, until + * * * * * + He fed on poisons, and they had no power, + But were a kind of nutriment."] + +[gn] _To bear unbent what Time cannot abate_.--[MS.] + +[283] [Of himself as distinct from Harold he will say no more. On the +tale or spell of his own tragedy is set the seal of silence; but of +Harold, the idealized Byron, he once more takes up the parable. In +stanzas viii.-xv. he puts the reader in possession of some natural +changes, and unfolds the development of thought and feeling which had +befallen the Pilgrim since last they had journeyed together. The +youthful Harold had sounded the depth of joy and woe. Man delighted him +not--no, nor woman neither. For a time, however, he had cured himself of +this trick of sadness. He had drunk new life from the fountain of +natural beauty and antique lore, and had returned to take his part in +the world, inly armed against dangers and temptations. And in the world +he had found beauty, and fame had found him. What wonder that he had +done as others use, and then discovered that he could not fare as others +fared? Henceforth there remained no comfort but in nature, no refuge but +in exile!] + +[go] {221} + + _He of the breast that strove no more to feel,_ + _Scarred with the wounds_----.--[MS.] + +[gp] {222} _Secure in curbing coldness_----.--[MS.] + +[gq] _Shines through the wonder-works--of God and Nature's hand_.--[MS.] + +[gr] + _Who can behold the flower at noon, nor seek_ + _To pluck it? who can stedfastly behold_.--[MS.] + +[gs] _Nor feel how Wisdom ceases to be cold_.--[MS. erased.] + +[284] [The Temple of Fame is on the summit of a mountain; "Clouds +overcome it;" but to the uplifted eye the mists dispel, and behold the +goddess pointing to her star--the star of glory!] + +[gt] {223} _Yet with a steadier step than in his earlier time_.--[MS. +erased.] + +[285] [Compare _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 2, lines 50-58-- + + "From my youth upwards + My spirit walked not with the souls of men, + Nor looked upon the earth with human eyes; + * * * * * + My joys, my griefs, my passions, and my powers + Made me a stranger; though I wore the form, + I had no sympathy with breathing flesh." + +Compare, too, with stanzas xiii., xiv., _ibid_., lines 58-72.] + +[gu] _Fool he not to know_.--[MS. erased.] + +[gv] + _Where there were mountains there for him were friends_. + _Where there was Ocean--there he was at home_.--[MS.] + +[gw] {224} + _Like the Chaldean he could gaze on stars_.--[MS.] + ----_adored the stars_.--[MS. erased.] + +[gx] _That keeps us from that Heaven on which we love to think_.--[MS.] + +[gy] + _But in Man's dwelling--Harold was a thing_ + _Restless and worn, and cold and wearisome_.--[MS.] + +[286] {225} [In this stanza the mask is thrown aside, and "the real Lord +Byron" appears _in propria persona_.] + +[287] [The mound with the Belgian lion was erected by William I. of +Holland, in 1823.] + +[gz] {226} _None; but the moral truth tells simpler so_.--[MS.] + +[288] [Stanzas xvii., xviii., were written after a visit to Waterloo. +When Byron was in Brussels, a friend of his boyhood, Pryse Lockhart +Gordon, called upon him and offered his services. He escorted him to the +field of Waterloo, and received him at his house in the evening. Mrs. +Gordon produced her album, and begged for an autograph. The next morning +Byron copied into the album the two stanzas which he had written the day +before. Lines 5-8 of the second stanza (xviii.) ran thus-- + + "Here his last flight the haughty Eagle flew, + Then tore with bloody beak the fatal plain, + Pierced with the shafts of banded nations through ..." + +The autograph suggested an illustration to an artist, R. R. Reinagle +(1775-1863), "a pencil-sketch of a spirited chained eagle, grasping the +earth with his talons." Gordon showed the vignette to Byron, who wrote +in reply, "Reinagle is a better poet and a better ornithologist than I +am; eagles and all birds of prey attack with their talons and not with +their beaks, and I have altered the line thus-- + + "'Then tore with bloody talon the rent plain.'" + +(See _Personal Memoirs of Pryse Lockhart Gordon_, 1830, ii. 327, 328.)] + +[ha] ----_and still must be_.--[MS.] + +[hb] ----_the fatal Waterloo_.--[MS.] + +[hc] + _Here his last flight the haughty eagle flew_.--[MS.] + _Then bit with bloody beak the rent plain_.--[MS. erased.] + _Then tore with bloody beak_----.--[MS.] + +[hd] {227} _And Gaul must wear the links of her own broken +chain_.--[MS.] + +[289] [With this "obstinate questioning" of the final import and outcome +of "that world-famous Waterloo," compare the _Ode from the French_, "We +do not curse thee, Waterloo," written in 1815, and published by John +Murray in _Poems_ (1816). Compare, too, _The Age of Waterloo_, v. 93, +"Oh, bloody and most bootless Waterloo!" and _Don Juan_, Canto VIII. +stanzas xlviii.-l., etc. Shelley, too, in his sonnet on the _Feelings of +a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte_ (1816), utters a like lament +(Shelley's _Works_, 1895, ii. 385)-- + + "I know + Too late, since thou and France are in the dust, + That Virtue owns a more eternal foe + Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal Crime, + And bloody Faith, the foulest birth of Time." + +Even Wordsworth, after due celebration of this "victory sublime," in his +sonnet _Emperors and Kings, etc._ (_Works_, 1889, p. 557), solemnly +admonishes the "powers"-- + + "Be just, be grateful; nor, the oppressor's creed + Reviving heavier chastisement deserve + Than ever forced unpitied hearts to bleed." + +But the Laureate had no misgivings, and in _The Poet's Pilgrimage_, iv. +60, celebrates the national apotheosis-- + + "Peace hath she won ... with her victorious hand + Hath won thro' rightful war auspicious peace; + Nor this alone, but that in every land + The withering rule of violence may cease. + Was ever War with such blest victory crowned! + Did ever Victory with such fruits abound!"] + +[he] {228} _Or league to teach their kings_----.--[MS.] + +[290] [The most vivid and the best authenticated account of the Duchess +of Richmond's ball, which took place June 15, the eve of the Battle of +Quatrebras, in the duke's house in the Rue de la Blanchisserie, is to be +found in Lady de Ros's (Lady Georgiana Lennox) _Personal Recollections +of the Great Duke of Wellington_, which appeared first in _Murray's +Magazine_, January and February, 1889, and were republished as _A Sketch +of the Life of Georgiana, Lady de Ros_, by her daughter, the Hon. Mrs. +J. R. Swinton (John Murray, 1893). "My mother's now famous ball," writes +Lady de Ros (_A Sketch, etc._, pp. 122, 123), "took place in a large +room on the ground-floor on the left of the entrance, connected with the +rest of the house by an ante-room. It had been used by the coachbuilder, +from whom the house was hired, to put carriages in, but it was papered +before we came there; and I recollect the paper--a trellis pattern with +roses.... When the duke arrived, rather late, at the ball, I was +dancing, but at once went up to him to ask about the rumours. 'Yes, they +are true; we are off to-morrow.' This terrible news was circulated +directly, and while some of the officers hurried away, others remained +at the ball, and actually had not time to change their clothes, but +fought in evening costume."] + +[hf] {229} + + _The lamps shone on lovely dames and gallant men_.--[MS.] + _The lamps shone on ladies_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[hg] {230} _With a slow deep and dread-inspiring roar_.--[MS. erased.] + +[hh] + _Arm! arm, and out! it is the opening cannon's roar_.--[MS.] + _Arm--arm--and out--it is--the cannon's opening roar_.--[C.] + +[291] [Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick (1771-1815), brother to +Caroline, Princess of Wales, and nephew of George III., fighting at +Quatrebras in the front of the line, "fell almost in the beginning of +the battle." His father, Charles William Ferdinand, born 1735, the +author of the fatal manifesto against the army of the French Republic +(July 15, 1792), was killed at Auerbach, October 14, 1806. In the plan +of the Duke of Richmond's house, which Lady de Ros published in her +_Recollections_, the actual spot is marked (the door of the ante-room +leading to the ball-room) where Lady Georgiana Lennox took leave of the +Duke of Brunswick. "It was a dreadful evening," she writes, "taking +leave of friends and acquaintances, many never to be seen again. The +Duke of Brunswick, as he took leave of me ... made me a civil speech as +to the Brunswickers being sure to distinguish themselves after 'the +honour' done them by my having accompanied the Duke of Wellington to +their review! I remember being quite provoked with poor Lord Hay, a +dashing, merry youth, full of military ardour, whom I knew very well, +for his delight at the idea of going into action ... and the first news +we had on the 16th was that he and the Duke of Brunswick were +killed."--_A Sketch, etc._, pp. 132, 133.] + +[hi] {231} + _His heart replying knew that sound too well_.--[MS.] + _And the hoped vengeance for a Sire so dear_ + _As him who died on Jena--whom so well_ + _His filial heart had mourned through many a year_ + _Roused him to valiant fury nought could quell_.--[MS. erased.] + +[hj] ----_tremors of distress_.--[MS.] + +[hk] + ----_which did press_ + _Like death upon young hearts_----.--[MS.] + +[hl] _Oh that on night so soft, such heavy morn should rise_.--[MS.] + +[hm] {232} + _And wakening citizens with terror dumb_ + _Or whispering with pale lips--"The foe--They come, they come."_--[MS.] + _Or whispering with pale lips--"The Desolation's come."_--[MS. erased.] + +[hn] + _And Soignies waves above them_----.--[MS.] + _And Ardennes_----.--[C.] + +[292] {233} [_Vide ante, English Bards, etc._, line 726, note: _Poetical +Works_, 1898, i. 354.] + +[ho] _But chiefly_----.--[MS.] + +[293] {234} [The Hon. Frederick Howard (1785-1815), third son of +Frederick, fifth Earl of Carlisle, fell late in the evening of the 18th +of June, in a final charge of the left square of the French Guard, in +which Vivian brought up Howard's hussars against the French. Neither +French infantry nor cavalry gave way, and as the Hanoverians fired but +did not charge, a desperate combat ensued, in which Howard fell and many +of the 10th were killed.--_Waterloo: The Downfall of the First +Napoleon_, G. Hooper, 1861, p. 236. + +Southey, who had visited the field of Waterloo, September, 1815, in his +_Poet's Pilgrimage_ (iii. 49), dedicates a pedestrian stanza to his +memory-- + + "Here from the heaps who strewed the fatal plain + Was Howard's corse by faithful hands conveyed; + And not to be confounded with the slain, + Here in a grave apart with reverence laid, + Till hence his honoured relics o'er the seas + Were borne to England, where they rest in peace."] + +[294] [Autumn had been beforehand with spring in the work of renovation. + + "Yet Nature everywhere resumed her course; + Low pansies to the sun their purple gave, + And the soft poppy blossomed on the grave." + _Poet's Pilgrimage_, iii. 36. + +But the contrast between the continuous action of nature and the doom of +the unreturning dead, which does not greatly concern Southey, fills +Byron with a fierce desire to sum the price of victory. He flings in the +face of the vain-glorious mourners the bitter reality of their abiding +loss. It was this prophetic note, "the voice of one crying in the +wilderness," which sounded in and through Byron's rhetoric to the men of +his own generation.] + +[hp] {235} _And dead within behold the Spring return_.--[MS. erased.] + +[hq] {236} _It still is day though clouds keep out the Sun_.--[MS.] + +[295] [So, too, Coleridge. "Have you never seen a stick broken in the +middle, and yet cohering by the rind? The fibres, half of them actually +broken and the rest sprained, and, though tough, unsustaining? Oh, many, +many are the broken-hearted for those who know what the moral and +practical heart of the man is."--_Anima Poetae_, 1895, p. 303.] + +[296] [According to Lady Blessington (_Conversations_, p. 176), Byron +maintained that the image of the broken mirror had in some mysterious +way been suggested by the following quatrain which Curran had once +repeated to him:-- + + "While memory, with more than Egypt's art + Embalming all the sorrows of the heart, + Sits at the altar which she raised to woe, + And finds the scene whence tears eternal flow." + +But, as M. Darmesteter points out, the true source of inspiration was a +passage in Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_--"the book," as Byron +maintained, "in my opinion most useful to a man who wishes to acquire +the reputation of being well-read with the least trouble" (_Life_, p. +48). Burton is discoursing on injury and long-suffering. "'Tis a Hydra's +head contention; the more they strive, the more they may; and as +Praxiteles did by his glass [see Cardan, _De Consolatione_, lib. iii.], +when he saw a scurvy face in it, break it in pieces; but for the one he +saw, he saw many more as bad in a moment; for one injury done, they +provoke another _cum fanore_, and twenty enemies for one."--_Anatomy of +Melancholy_, 1893, ii. 228. Compare, too, Carew's poem, _The Spark_, +lines 23-26-- + + "And as a looking-glass, from the aspect, + Whilst it is whole doth but one face reflect, + But being crack'd or broken, there are shewn + Many half-faces, which at first were one. + Anderson's _British Poets_, 1793, iii. 703.] + +[hr] {237} _But not his pleasure--such might be a task_.--[MS. erased.] + +[297] [The "tale" or reckoning of the Psalmist, the span of threescore +years and ten, is contrasted with the tale or reckoning of the age of +those who fell at Waterloo. A "fleeting span" the Psalmist's; but, +reckoning by Waterloo, "more than enough." Waterloo grudges even what +the Psalmist allows.] + +[hs] {238} + + _Here where the sword united Europe drew_ + _I had a kinsman warring on that day_.--[MS.] + +[ht] _On little thoughts with equal firmness fixed._--[MS.] + +[hu] + _For thou hast risen as fallen--even now thou seek'st_ + _An hour_----.--[MS.] + +[298] [Byron seems to have been unable to make up his mind about +Napoleon. "It is impossible not to be dazzled and overwhelmed by his +character and career," he wrote to Moore (March 17, 1815), when his +Heros de Roman, as he called him, had broken open his "captive's cage" +and was making victorious progress to the capital. In the _Ode to +Napoleon Buonaparte_, which was written in April, 1814, after the first +abdication at Fontainebleau, the dominant note is astonishment mingled +with contempt. It is the lamentation over a fallen idol. In these +stanzas (xxxvi.-xlv.) he bears witness to the man's essential greatness, +and, with manifest reference to his own personality and career, +attributes his final downfall to the peculiar constitution of his genius +and temper. A year later (1817), in the Fourth Canto (stanzas +lxxxix.-xcii.), he passes a severe sentence. Napoleon's greatness is +swallowed up in weakness. He is a "kind of bastard Caesar," +self-vanquished, the creature and victim of vanity. Finally, in The Age +of Bronze, sections iii.-vi., there is a reversion to the same theme, +the tragic irony of the rise and fall of the "king of kings, and yet of +slaves the slave." + +As a schoolboy at Harrow, Byron fought for the preservation of +Napoleon's bust, and he was ever ready, in defiance of national feeling +and national prejudice, to celebrate him as "the glorious chief;" but +when it came to the point, he did not "want him here," victorious over +England, and he could not fail to see, with insight quickened by +self-knowledge, that greatness and genius possess no charm against +littleness and commonness, and that the "glory of the terrestrial" meets +with its own reward. The moral is obvious, and as old as history; but +herein lay the secret of Byron's potency, that he could remint and issue +in fresh splendour the familiar coinage of the world's wit. Moreover, he +lived in a great age, when great truths are born again, and appear in a +new light.] + +[299] [The stanza was written while Napoleon was still under the +guardianship of Admiral Sir George Cockburn, and before Sir Hudson Lowe +had landed at St. Helena; but complaints were made from the first that +imperial honours which were paid to him by his own suite were not +accorded by the British authorities.] + +[hv] {239} + ----_and thy dark name_ + _Was ne'er more rife within men's mouths than now_.--[MS.] + +[hw] _Who tossed thee to and fro till_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[hx] _Which be it wisdom, weakness_----.--[MS.] + +[hy] + _To watch thee shrinking calmly hadst thou smiled._--[MS.] + _With a sedate tho' not unfeeling eye._--[MS. erased.] + +[hz] {241} + _Greater than in thy fortunes; for in them_ + _Ambition lured thee on too far to show_ + _That true habitual scorn_----.--[MS.] + +[ia] {242} _Feeds on itself and all things_----.--[MS.] + +[ib] + _Which stir too deeply_----[MS.] + _Which stir the blood too boiling in its springs_.--[MS. erased.] + +[ic] {243} ----_they rave overcast_.--[MS.] + +[id] ----_the hate of all below_.--[MS.] + +[ie] ----_on his single head_.--[MS.] + +[if] ----_the wise man's World will be_.--[MS.] + +[ig] ----_for what teems like thee_.--[MS.] + +[ih] {244} _From gray and ghastly walls--where Ruin kindly +dwells_.--[MS.] + +[300] [For the archaic use of "battles" for "battalions," compare +_Macbeth_, act v. sc. 4, line 4; and Scott's _Lord of the Isles_, +vi. 10-- + + "In battles four beneath their eye, + The forces of King Robert lie."] + +[ii] ----_are shredless tatters now_.--[MS.] + +[ij] {245} + _What want these outlaws that a king should have_ + _But History's vain page_----.--[MS.] + +[ik] ----_their hearts were far more brave_.--[MS.] + +[301] [The most usual device is a bleeding heart.] + +[il] + _Nor mar it frequent with an impious show_ + _Of arms or angry conflict_----.--[MS.] + +[302] {246} [Compare Moore's lines, _The Meeting of the Waters_-- + + "There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet + As that vale in whose bosom the wide waters meet."] + +[im] + _Earth's dreams of Heaven--and such to seem to me_ + _But one thing wants thy stream_----.--[MS.] + +[303] [Compare Lucan's _Pharsalia_, ix. 969, "Etiam periere ruinae;" and +the lines from Tasso's _Gerusalemme Liberata_, xv. 20, quoted in +illustration of Canto II. stanza liii.] + +[in] + _Glassed with its wonted light, the sunny ray;_ + _But o'er the mind's marred thoughts--though but a dream_.--[MS.] + +[io] {247} _Repose itself on kindness_----[MS.] + +[304] [Two lyrics, entitled _Stanzas to Augusta_, and the _Epistle to +Augusta_, which were included in _Domestic Pieces_, published in 1816, +are dedicated to the same subject--the devotion and faithfulness of his +sister.] + +[ip] {248} _But there was one_----.--[MS.] + +[iq] _Yet was it pure_----.--[MS.] + +[305] [It has been supposed that there is a reference in this passage, +and again in _Stanzas to Augusta_ (dated July 24, 1816), to "the only +important calumny"--to quote Shelley's letter of September 29, +1816--"that was even ever advanced" against Byron. "The poems to +Augusta," remarks Elze (_Life of Lord Byron_, p. 174), "prove, further, +that she too was cognizant of the calumnious accusations; for under no +other supposition is it possible to understand their allusions." But the +mere fact that Mrs. Leigh remained on terms of intimacy and affection +with her brother, when he was under the ban of society, would expose her +to slander and injurious comment, "peril dreaded most in female eyes;" +whereas to other calumnies, if such there were, there could be no other +reference but silence, or an ecstasy of wrath and indignation.] + +[ir] + _Thus to that heart did his its thoughts in absence pour_.--[MS.] + ----_its absent feelings pour_.--[MS. erased.] + +[306] {249} [Written on the Rhine bank, May 11, 1816.--MS. M.] + +[is] {251} _A sigh for Marceau_----.--[MS.] + +[307] [Marceau (_vide post_, note 2, p. 296) took part in crushing the +Vendean insurrection. If, as General Hoche asserts in his memoirs, six +hundred thousand fell in Vendee, Freedom's charter was not easily +overstepped.] + +[308] {252} [Compare Gray's lines in _The Fatal Sisters_-- + + "Iron-sleet of arrowy shower + Hurtles in the darken'd air."] + +[it] _And could the sleepless vultures_----.--[MS.] + +[iu] _Rustic not rude, sublime yet not austere_.--[MS.] + +[309] [Lines 8 and 9 may be cited as a crying instance of Byron's faulty +technique. The collocation of "awful" with "austere," followed by +"autumn" in the next line, recalls the afflictive assonance of "high +Hymettus," which occurs in the beautiful passage which he stole from +_The Curse of Minerva_ and prefixed to the third canto of _The Corsair_. +The sense of the passage is that, as in autumn, the golden mean between +summer and winter, the year is at its full, so in the varied scenery of +the Rhine there is a harmony of opposites, a consummation of beauty.] + +[iv] {253} + _More mighty scenes may rise--more glaring shine_ + _But none unite in one enchanted gaze_ + _The fertile--fair--and soft--the glories of old days_.--[MS.] + +[310] [The "negligently grand" may, perhaps, refer to the glories of old +days, now in a state of neglect, not to the unstudied grandeur of the +scene taken as a whole; but the phrase is loosely thrown out in order to +convey a general impression, "an attaching maze," an engaging attractive +combination of images, and must not be interrogated too closely.] + +[iw] {254} + _Around in chrystal grandeur to where falls_ + _The avalanche--the thunder-clouds of snow_.--[MS.] + +[311] [Compare the opening lines of Coleridge's _Hymn before Sunrise in +the Valley of Chamouni_-- + + "Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star + In his steep course? So long he seems to pause + On thy bald awful head, O sovran Blanc!" + +The "thunderbolt" (line 6) recurs in _Manfred_, act i. sc. 1-- + + "Around his waist are forests braced, + The Avalanche in his hand; + But ere its fall, that thundering ball + Must pause for my command."] + +[312] {255} [The inscription on the ossuary of the Burgundian troops +which fell in the battle of Morat, June 14, 1476, suggested this variant +of _Si monumentum quaeris_-- + + "Deo Optimo Maximo. + + Inclytissimi et fortissimi Burgundiae ducis exercitus, Moratum + obsidens, ab Helvetiis caesus, hoc sui monumentum reliquit."] + +[ix] _Unsepulchred they roam, and shriek_----[MS.] + +[313] [The souls of the suitors when Hermes "roused and shepherded them +followed gibbering" ([Greek: tri/zousai]).--_Od._, xxiv. 5. Once, too, +when the observance of the _dies Parentales_ was neglected, Roman ghosts +took to wandering and shrieking. + + "Perque vias Urbis, Latiosque ululasse per agros + Deformes animas, vulgus inane ferunt." + Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. lines 553, 554. + +The Homeric ghosts gibbered because they were ghosts; the Burgundian +ghosts because they were confined to the Stygian coast, and could not +cross the stream. For once the "classical allusions" are forced and +inappropriate.] + +[314] [Byron's point is that at Morat 15,000 men were slain in a +righteous cause--the defence of a republic against an invading tyrant; +whereas the lives of those that fell at Cannae and at Waterloo were +sacrificed to the ambition of rival powers fighting for the mastery.] + +[iy] {255} + ----_their proud land_ + _Groan'd not beneath_----.--[MS.] + +[iz] {257} _And thus she died_----.--[MS.] + +[ja] _And they lie simply_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[jb] _The dear depths yield_----.--[MS.] + +[315] ["Haunted and hunted by the British tourist and gossip-monger, +Byron took refuge, on June 10, at the Villa Diodati; but still the +pursuers strove to win some wretched consolation by waylaying him in his +evening drives, or directing the telescope upon his balcony, which +overlooked the lake, or upon the hillside, with its vineyards, where he +lurked obscure" (Dowden's _Life of Shelley_, 1896, p. 309). It is +possible, too, that now and again even Shelley's companionship was felt +to be a strain upon nerves and temper. The escape from memory and +remorse, which could not be always attained in the society of a chosen +few, might, he hoped, be found in solitude, face to face with nature. +But it was not to be. Even nature was powerless to "minister to a mind +diseased." At the conclusion of his second tour (September 29, 1816), he +is constrained to admit that "neither the music of the shepherd, the +crashing of the avalanche, nor the torrent, the mountain, the glacier, +the forest, nor the cloud, have for one moment lightened the weight upon +my heart, nor enabled me to lose my own wretched identity in the +majesty, and the power, and the glory, around, above, and beneath me" +(_Life_, p. 315). Perhaps Wordsworth had this confession in his mind +when, in 1834, he composed the lines, "Not in the Lucid Intervals of +Life," of which the following were, he notes, "written with Lord Byron's +character as a past before me, and that of others, his contemporaries, +who wrote under like influences:"-- + + "Nor do words, + Which practised talent readily affords, + Prove that his hand has touched responsive chords + Nor has his gentle beauty power to move + With genuine rapture and with fervent love + The soul of Genius, if he dare to take + Life's rule from passion craved for passion's sake; + Untaught that meekness is the cherished bent + Of all the truly great and all the innocent. + But who is innocent? By grace divine, + Not otherwise, O Nature! are we thine, + Through good and evil there, in just degree + Of rational and manly sympathy." + _The Works of W. Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 729. + +Wordsworth seems to have resented Byron's tardy conversion to "natural +piety," regarding it, no doubt, as a fruitless and graceless endeavour +without the cross to wear the crown. But if Nature reserves her balms +for "the innocent," her quality of inspiration is not "strained." Byron, +too, was nature's priest-- + + "And by that vision splendid + Was on his way attended."] + +[jc] {259} _In its own deepness_----[MS.] + +[316] [The metaphor is derived from a hot spring which appears to boil +over at the moment of its coming to the surface. As the particles of +water, when they emerge into the light, break and bubble into a seething +mass; so, too, does passion chase and beget passion in the "hot throng" +of general interests and individual desires.] + +[jd] _One of a worthless world--to strive where none are strong._--[MS.] + +[317] [The thought which underlies the whole of this passage is that man +is the creature and thrall of fate. In society, in the world, he is +exposed to the incidence of passion, which he can neither resist nor +yield to without torture. He is overcome by the world, and, as a last +resource, he turns to nature and solitude. He lifts up his eyes to the +hills, unexpectant of Divine aid, but in the hope that, by claiming +kinship with Nature, and becoming "a portion of that around" him, he may +forego humanity, with its burden of penitence, and elude the curse. +There is a further reference to this despairing recourse to Nature in +_The Dream_, viii. 10, _seq_.-- + + " ... he lived + Through that which had been death to many men, + And made him friends of mountains: with the stars + And the quick Spirit of the Universe + He held his dialogues! and they did teach + To him the magic of their mysteries."] + +[je] {260} ----_through Eternity._--[MS.] + +[318] [Shelley seems to have taken Byron at his word, and in the +_Adonais_ (xxx. 3, _seq._) introduces him in the disguise of-- + + "The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame + Over his living head like Heaven is bent, + An early but enduring monument." + +Notwithstanding the splendour of Shelley's verse, it is difficult to +suppress a smile. For better or for worse, the sense of the ludicrous +has asserted itself, and "brother" cannot take "brother" quite so +seriously as in "the brave days of old." But to each age its own humour. +Not only did Shelley and Byron worship at the shrine of Rousseau, but +they took delight in reverently tracing the footsteps of St. Preux and +Julie.] + +[319] {261} [The name "Tigris" is derived from the Persian _tir_ +(Sanscrit _Tigra_), "an arrow." If Byron ever consulted Hofmann's +_Lexicon Universale_, he would have read, "_Tigris_, a velocitate dictus +quasi _sagitta_;" but most probably he neither had nor sought an +authority for his natural and beautiful simile.] + +[jf] _To its young cries and kisses all awake._--[MS.] + +[320] [Compare _Tintern Abbey_. In this line, both language and +sentiment are undoubtedly Wordsworth's-- + + "The sounding cataract + Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, + The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, + Their colours, and their forms, were then to me + An appetite, a _feeling_, and a love, + That had no need of a remoter charm." + +But here the resemblance ends. With Wordsworth the mood passed, and he +learned + + "To look on Nature, not as in the hour + Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes + The still, sad music of humanity, + Not harsh nor grating, but of amplest power + To chasten and subdue." + +He would not question Nature in search of new and untainted pleasure, +but rests in her as inclusive of humanity. The secret of Wordsworth is +acquiescence; "the still, sad music of humanity" is the key-note of his +ethic. Byron, on the other hand, is in revolt. He has the ardour of a +pervert, the rancorous scorn of a deserter. The "hum of human cities" is +a "torture." He is "a link reluctant in a fleshly chain." To him Nature +and Humanity are antagonists, and he cleaves to the one, yea, he would +take her by violence, to mark his alienation and severance from the +other.] + +[jg] _Of peopled cities_----[MS.] + +[jh] {262} + ----_but to be_ + _A link reluctant in a living chain_ + _Classing with creatures_----[MS.] + +[ji] _And with the air_----[MS.] + +[jj] _To sink and suffer_----[MS.] + +[jk] ----_which partly round us cling._--[MS.] + +[321] [Compare Horace, _Odes_, iii. 2. 23, 24-- + + "Et udam + Spernit humum fugiente penna."] + +[jl] {263} ----_in this degrading form._--[MS.] + +[jm] ----_the Spirit in each spot._--[MS.] + +[322][The "bodiless thought" is the object, not the subject, of his +celestial vision. "Even now," as through a glass darkly, and with eyes + + "Whose half-beholdings through unsteady tears + Gave shape, hue, distance to the inward dream," + +his soul "had sight" of the spirit, the informing idea, the essence of +each passing scene; but, hereafter, his bodiless spirit would, as it +were, encounter the place-spirits face to face. It is to be noted that +warmth of feeling, not clearness or fulness of perception, attends this +spiritual recognition.] + +[jn] [_Is not_] _the universe a breathing part?_--[MS.] + +[jo] {264} _And gaze upon the ground with sordid thoughts and +slow._--[MS.] + +[323] [Compare Coleridge's _Dejection. An Ode_, iv. 4-9-- + + "And would we aught behold, of higher worth, + Than that inanimate cold world allowed + To the poor, loveless, ever-anxious crowd; + Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth + A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud + Enveloping the earth."] + +[jp] _But this is not a time--I must return._--[MS.] + +[jq] _Here the reflecting Sophist_----.--[MS.] + +[jr] {265} + _O'er sinful deeds and thoughts the heavenly hue_ + _With words like sunbeams dazzling as they passed_ + _The eye that o'er them shed deep tears which flowed too fast_.--[MS.] + _O'er deeds and thoughts of error the bright hue_.--[MS. erased.] + +[js] _Like him enamoured were to die the same_.--[MS.] + +[jt] {266} ----_self-consuming heat_.--[MS. erased.] + +[324] [As, for instance, with Madame de Warens, in 1738; with Madame +d'Epinay; with Diderot and Grimm, in 1757; with Voltaire; with David +Hume, in 1766 (see "Rousseau in England," _Q. R._, No. 376, October, +1898); with every one to whom he was attached or with whom he had +dealings, except his illiterate mistress, Theresa le Vasseur. (See +_Rousseau_, by John Morley, 2 vols., 1888, _passim_.)] + +[ju] _For its own cruel workings the most kind_.--[MS. erased.] + +[jv] _Since cause might be yet leave no trace behind_.--[MS.] + +[325] ["He was possessed, as holier natures than his have been, by an +enthusiastic vision, an intoxicated confidence, a mixture of sacred rage +and prodigious love, an insensate but absolutely disinterested revolt +against the stone and iron of a reality which he was bent on melting in +a heavenly blaze of splendid aspiration and irresistibly persuasive +expression."--_Rousseau_, by John Morley, 1886, i. 137.] + +[326] {267} [Rousseau published his _Discourses_ on the influence of the +sciences, on manners, and on inequality (_Sur l'Origine ... de +l'Inegalite parmi les Hommes_) in 1750 and 1753; _Emile, ou, de +l'Education_, and _Du Contrat Social_ in 1762.] + +[327] ["What Rousseau's Discourse [_Sur l'Origine ... de l'Inegalite_, +etc.] meant ... is not that all men are born equal. He never says +this.... His position is that the artificial differences, springing from +the conditions of the social union, do not coincide with the differences +in capacity springing from original constitution; that the tendency of +the social union as now organized is to deepen the artificial +inequalities, and make the gulf between those endowed with privileges +and wealth, and those not so endowed, ever wider and wider.... It was +... [the influence of Rousseau ... and those whom he inspired] which, +though it certainly did not produce, yet did as certainly give a deep +and remarkable bias, first to the American Revolution, and a dozen years +afterwards to the French Revolution."--_Rousseau_, 1888, i. 181, 182.] + +[jw] + ----_thoughts which grew_ + _Born with the birth of Time_----.--[MS.] + +[jx] + ----_even let me view_ + _But good alas_----.--[MS.] + +[jy] {268} ----_in both we shall lie slower_.--[MS. erased.] + +[328] [The substitution of "one" for "both" (see _var._ i.) affords +conclusive proof that the meaning is that the next revolution would do +its work more thoroughly and not leave things as it found them.] + +[329] {269} [After sunset the Jura range, which lies to the west of the +Lake, would appear "darkened" in contrast to the afterglow in the +western sky.] + +[jz] {270} _He is an endless reveller_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[ka] _Him merry with light talking with his mate_.--[MS. erased.] + +[330] [Compare Anacreon ([Greek: Ei)s te/ttiga]), _Carm._ xliii. line 15-- + + [Greek: To\ de\ ge~ras ou)\ se tei/rei.].] + +[kb] _Deep into Nature's breast the existence which they lose_.--[MS.] + +[331] [For the association of "Fortune" and "Fame" with a star, compare +stanza xi. lines 5, 6-- + + "Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold + The _star_ which rises o'er her steep," etc.? + +And the allusion to Napoleon's "star," stanza xxxviii. line 9-- + + "Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest _Star_." + +Compare, too, the opening lines of the _Stanzas to Augusta_ (July 24, +1816)-- + + "Though the day of my destiny's over, + And the _star_ of my fate has declined." + +"Power" is symbolized as a star in _Numb._ xxiv. 17, "There shall come a +_star_ out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel;" and in the +divine proclamation, "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the +bright and morning _star_" (_Rev._ xxii. 16). + +The inclusion of "life" among star similes may have been suggested by +the astrological terms, "house of life" and "lord of the ascendant." +Wordsworth, in his Ode (_Intimations of Immortality, etc._) speaks of +the soul as "our life's _star_." Mr. Tozer, who supplies most of these +"comparisons," adds a line from Shelley's _Adonais_, 55. 8 (Pisa, +1821)-- + + "The soul of Adonais, like a _star_."] + +[332] {271} [Compare Wordsworth's sonnet, "It is a Beauteous," etc.-- + + "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, + The holy time is quiet as a nun + Breathless with adoration."] + +[333] [Here, too, the note is Wordsworthian, though Byron represents as +inherent in Nature, that "sense of something far more deeply +interfused," which Wordsworth (in his _Lines_ on Tintern Abbey) assigns +to his own consciousness.] + +[kc] {272} _It is a voiceless feeling chiefly felt_.--[MS.] + +[kd] _Of a most inward music_----.--[MS.] + +[334] [As the cestus of Venus endowed the wearer with magical +attraction, so the immanence of the Infinite and the Eternal in "all +that formal is and fugitive," binds it with beauty and produces a +supernatural charm which even Death cannot resist.] + +[335] [Compare Herodotus, i. 131, [Greek: Oi(de\ nomi/zousi Dii) me, +e)pi\ ta\ y(pselo/tata to~n ou)re/on a)nabai/nontes, thysi/as e(/rdein, +to ky/klon pa/nta tou~ y)rano Di/a kale/ontes]. Perhaps, however, "early +Persian" was suggested by a passage in "that drowsy, frowsy poem, _The +Excursion_"-- + + "The Persian--zealous to reject + Altar and image and the inclusive walls + And roofs and temples built by human hands-- + To loftiest heights ascending, from their tops + With myrtle-wreathed tiara on his brow, + Presented sacrifice to moon and stars." + +_The Excursion_, iv. (_The Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 461).] + +[336] {273} [Compare the well-known song which forms the prelude of the +_Hebrew Melodies_-- + + "She walks in beauty, like the night + Of cloudless climes and starry skies; + And all that's best of dark and bright + Meet in her aspect and her eyes."] + +[ke] + ----_Oh glorious Night_ + _That art not sent_----.--[MS.] + +[kf] {274} _A portion of the Storm--a part of thee_.--[MS.] + +[kg] ----_a fiery sea_.--[MS.] + +[kh] _As they had found an heir and feasted o'er his birth_.--[MS. +erased.] + +[ki] + _Hills which look like brethren with twin heights_ + _Of a like aspect_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[337] [There can be no doubt that Byron borrowed this metaphor from the +famous passage in Coleridge's _Christabel_ (ii. 408-426), which he +afterwards prefixed as a motto to _Fare Thee Well_. + +The latter half of the quotation runs thus-- + + "But never either found another + To free the hollow heart from paining-- + They stood aloof, the scars remaining, + Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; + A dreary sea now flows between, + But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, + Shall wholly do away, I ween, + The marks of that which once had been."] + +[kj] {275} _Of separation drear_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[338] [There are numerous instances of the use of "knoll" as an +alternative form of the verb "to knell;" but Byron seems, in this +passage, to be the authority for "knoll" as a substantive.] + +[339] [For Rousseau's description of Vevey, see _Julie; ou, La Nouvelle +Heloise_, Partie I. Lettre xxiii., _Oevres de J. J. Rousseau_, 1836, ii. +36: "Tantot d'immenses rochers pendoient en ruines au-dessus de ma tete. +Tantot de hautes et bruyantes cascades m'inondoient de leur epais +brouillard: tantot un torrent eternel ouvroit a mes cotes un abime dont +les yeux n'osoient sonder la profondeur. Quelquefois je me perdois dans +l'obscurite d'un bois touffu. Quelquefois, en sortant d'un gouffre, une +agreable prairie, rejouissoit tout-a-coup mes regards. Un melange +etonnant de la nature sauvage et de la nature cultivee, montroit partout +la main des hommes, ou l'on eut cru qu'ils n'avoient jamais penetre: a +cote d'une caverne on trouvoit des maisons; on voyoit des pampres secs +ou l'on n'eut cherche que des ronces, des vignes dans des terres +eboullees, d'excellens fruits sur des rochers, et des champs dans des +precipices." See, too, Lettre xxxviii. p. 56; Partie IV. Lettre xi. p. +238 (the description of Julie's Elysium); and Partie IV. Lettre xvii. p. +260 (the excursion to Meillerie). + +Byron infuses into Rousseau's accurate and charming compositions of +scenic effects, if not the "glory," yet "the freshness of a dream." He +belonged to the new age, with its new message from nature to man, and, +in spite of theories and prejudices, listened and was convinced. He +extols Rousseau's recognition of nature, lifting it to the height of his +own argument; but, consciously or unconsciously, he desires to find, and +finds, in nature a spring of imagination undreamt of by the Apostle of +Sentiment. There is a whole world of difference between Rousseau's +persuasive and delicate patronage of Nature, and Byron's passionate, +though somewhat belated, surrender to her inevitable claim. With +Rousseau, Nature is a means to an end, a conduct of refined and +heightened fancy; whereas, to Byron, "her reward was with her," a +draught of healing and refreshment.] + +[kk] {277} _The trees have grown from Love_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[kl] {278} _By rays which twine there_----.--[MS.] + +[km] + _Clarens--sweet Clarens--thou art Love's abode_-- + _Undying Love's--who here hath made a throne_.--[MS.] + +[kn] + _And girded it with Spirit which is shown_ + _From the steep summit to the rushing Rhone_.--[MS. erased.] + +[ko] + ----_whose searching power_ + _Surpasses the strong storm in its most desolate hour_.--[MS.] + +[340] [Compare _La Nouvelle Heloise_, Partie IV. Lettre xvii, _Oeuvres, +etc._, ii. 262: "Un torrent, forme par la fonte des neiges, rouloit a +vingt pas de nous line eau bourbeuse, et charrioit avec bruit du limon, +du sable et des pierres.... Des forets de noirs sapins nous ombrageoient +tristement a droite. Un grand bois de chenes etoit a gauche au-dela du +torrent."] + +[kp] {279} _But branches young as Heaven_----[MS. erased,] + +[kq] ----_with sweeter voice than words_.--[MS.] + +[341] [Compare the _Pervigilium Veneris_-- + + "Cras amet qui nunquam amavit, + Quique amavit eras amet." + ("Let those love now, who never loved before; + Let those who always loved, now love the more.") + +Parnell's _Vigil of Venus: British Poets_, 1794, vii. 7.] + +[kr] {279} ----_driven him to repose._--[MS.] + +[342] [Compare _Confessions of J. J. Rousseau_, lib. iv., _passim._] + +[343] {281} [In his appreciation of Voltaire, Byron, no doubt, had in +mind certain strictures of the lake school--"a school, as it is called, +I presume, from their education being still incomplete." Coleridge, in +_The Friend_ (1850, i. 168), contrasting Voltaire with Erasmus, affirms +that "the knowledge of the one was solid through its whole extent, and +that of the other extensive at a chief rate in its superficiality," and +characterizes "the wit of the Frenchman" as being "without imagery, +without character, and without that pathos which gives the magic charm +to genuine humour;" and Wordsworth, in the second book of _The +Excursion_ (_Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 434), "unalarmed" by any +consideration of wit or humour, writes down Voltaire's _Optimist_ +(_Candide, ou L'Optimisme_), which was accidentally discovered by the +"Wanderer" in the "Solitary's" pent-house, "swoln with scorching damp," +as "the dull product of a scoffer's pen." Byron reverts to these +contumelies in a note to the Fifth Canto of _Don Juan_ (see _Life_, +Appendix, p. 809), and lashes "the school" _secundum artem._] + +[ks] + _Coping with all and leaving all behind_ + _Within himself existed all mankind_-- + _And laughing at their faults betrayed his own_ + _His own was ridicule which as the Wind_.--[MS.] + +[344] {282} [In his youth Voltaire was imprisoned for a year (1717-18) +in the Bastille, by the regent Duke of Orleans, on account of certain +unacknowledged lampoons (_Regnante Puero, etc._); but throughout his +long life, so far from "shaking thrones," he showed himself eager to +accept the patronage and friendship of the greatest monarchs of the +age--of Louis XV., of George II. and his queen, Caroline of Anspach, of +Frederick II., and of Catharine of Russia. Even the Pope Benedict XIV. +accepted the dedication of _Mahomet_ (1745), and bestowed an apostolical +benediction on "his dear son." On the other hand, his abhorrence of war, +his protection of the oppressed, and, above all, the questioning spirit +of his historical and philosophical writings (e.g. _Les Lettres sur les +Anglais_, 1733; _Annales de l'Empire depuis Charlemagne_, 1753, etc.) +were felt to be subversive of civil as well as ecclesiastical tyranny, +and, no doubt, helped to precipitate the Revolution. + +The first half of the line may be illustrated by his quarrel with +Maupertuis, the President of the Berlin Academy, which resulted in the +production of the famous _Diatribe of Doctor Akakia, Physician to the +Pope_ (1752), by a malicious attack on Maupertuis's successor, Le Franc +de Pompignan, and by his caricature of the critic Elie Catharine Freron, +as _Frelon_ ("Wasp"), in _L'Ecossaise_, which was played at Paris in +1760.--_Life of Voltaire_, by F. Espinasse, 1892, pp. 94, 114, 144.] + +[kt] + ----_concentering thought_ + _And gathering wisdom_----.--[MS.] + +[ku] {283} _Which stung his swarming foes with rage and fear_.--[MS.] + +[345] [The first three volumes of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire_, contrary to the author's expectation, did not escape +criticism and remonstrance. The Rev. David Chetsum (in 1772 and +(enlarged) 1778) published _An Examination of, etc._, and Henry Edward +Davis, in 1778, _Remarks on_ the memorable Fifteenth and Sixteenth +Chapters. Gibbon replied by a _Vindication_, issued in 1779. Another +adversary was Archdeacon George Travis, who, in his _Letter_, defended +the authenticity of the text on "Three Heavenly Witnesses" (1 _John_ v. +7), which Gibbon was at pains to deny (ch. xxxvii. note 120). Among +other critics and assailants were Joseph Milner, Joseph Priestley, and +Richard Watson afterwards Bishop of Llandaff. (For Porson's estimate of +Gibbon, see preface to _Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis, etc._, 1790.)] + +[kv] _In sleep upon one pillow_----.--[MS.] + +[346] [There is no reason to suppose that this is to be taken +ironically. He is not certain whether the "secrets of all hearts shall +be revealed," or whether all secrets shall be kept in the silence of +universal slumber; but he looks to the possibility of a judgment to +come. He is speaking for mankind generally, and is not concerned with +his own beliefs or disbeliefs.] + +[347] {284} [The poet would follow in the wake of the clouds. He must +pierce them, and bend his steps to the region of their growth, the +mountain-top, where earth begets and air brings forth the vapours. +Another interpretation is that the Alps must be pierced in order to +attain the great and ever-ascending regions of the mountain-tops +("greater and greater as we proceed"). In the next stanza he pictures +himself looking down from the summit of the Alps on Italy, the goal of +his pilgrimage.] + +[348] [The Roman Empire engulfed and comprehended the great empires of +the past--the Persian, the Carthaginian, the Greek. It fell, and +kingdoms such as the Gothic (A.D. 493-554), the Lombardic (A.D. 568-774) +rose out of its ashes, and in their turn decayed and passed away.] + +[349] {285} [The task imposed upon his soul, which dominates every other +instinct, is the concealment of any and every emotion--"love, or hate, +or aught," not the concealment of the particular emotion "love or hate," +which may or may not be the "master-spirit" of his thought. He is +anxious to conceal his feelings, not to keep the world in the dark as to +the supreme feeling which holds the rest subject.] + +[kw] _They are but as a self-deceiving wile_.-[MS. erased.] + +[kx] _The shadows of the things that pass along_.--[MS.] + +[ky] {286} + _Fame is the dream of boyhood--I am not_ + _So young as to regard the frown or smile_ + _Of crowds as making an immortal lot_.--[MS. (lines 6, 7 erased).] + +[350] [Compare Shakespeare, _Coriolanus_, act iii. sc. 1, lines 66, 67-- + + "For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them + Regard me as I do not flatter."] + +[351] [Compare _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 2, lines 54-57-- + + "My spirit walked not with the souls of men, + Nor looked upon the earth with human eyes; + The thirst of their ambition was not mine, + The aim of their existence was not mine."] + +[kz] {287} _O'er misery unmixedly some grieve_.--[MS.] + +[352] [Byron was at first in some doubt whether he should or should not +publish the "concluding stanzas of _Childe Harold_ (those to my +_daughter_);" but in a letter to Murray, October 9, 1816, he reminds him +of his later determination to publish them with "the rest of the +Canto."] + +[353] {288} ["His allusions to me in _Childe Harold_ are cruel and cold, +but with such a semblance as to make _me_ appear so, and to attract +sympathy to himself. It is said in this poem that hatred of him will be +taught as a lesson to his child. I might appeal to all who have ever +heard me speak of him, and still more to my own heart, to witness that +there has been no moment when I have remembered injury otherwise than +affectionately and sorrowfully. It is not my duty to give way to +hopeless and wholly unrequited affection, but so long as I live my chief +struggle will probably be not to remember him too kindly."--(_Letter of +Lady Byron to Lady Anne Lindsay_, extracted from Lord Lindsay's letter +to the _Times_, September 7, 1869.) + +According to Mrs. Leigh (see her letter to Hodgson, Nov., 1816, _Memoirs +of Rev. F. Hodgson_, 1878, ii. 41), Murray paid Lady Byron "the +compliment" of showing her the transcription of the Third Canto, a day +or two after it came into his possession. Most probably she did not know +or recognize Claire's handwriting, but she could not fail to remember +that but one short year ago she had herself been engaged in transcribing +_The Siege of Corinth_ and _Parisina_ for the press. Between the making +of those two "fair copies," a tragedy had intervened.] + +[354] {289} [The Countess Guiccioli is responsible for the statement +that Byron looked forward to a time when his daughter "would know her +father by his works." "Then," said he, "shall I triumph, and the tears +which my daughter will then shed, together with the knowledge that she +will have the feelings with which the various allusions to herself and +me have been written, will console me in my darkest hours. Ada's mother +may have enjoyed the smiles of her youth and childhood, but the tears of +her maturer age will be for me."--_My Recollections of Lord Byron_, by +the Countess Guiccioli, 1869, p. 172.] + +[355] [For a biographical notice of Ada Lady Lovelace, including +letters, elsewhere unpublished, to Andrew Crosse, see _Ada Byron_, von +E. Koelbing, _Englische Studien_, 1894, xix. 154-163.] + +[la] + + _End of Canto Third_. + _Byron. July 4, 1816, Diodati_.--[C.] + + + + + NOTES TO CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + CANTO III. + + 1. + + In "pride of place" here last the Eagle flew. + Stanza xviii. line 5. + +"Pride of place" is a term of falconry, and means the highest pitch of +flight. See _Macbeth_, etc.-- + + "An eagle towering in his pride of place + Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and killed." + + ["A falcon towering in her pride of place," etc. + _Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 4, line 12.] + + 2. + + Such as Harmodius drew on Athens' tyrant Lord. + Stanza xx. line 9. + +See the famous song on Harmodius and Aristogeiton. The best English +translation is in Bland's _Anthology_, by Mr. Denman-- + + "With myrtle my sword will I wreathe," etc. + +[_Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology, etc._, 1806, pp. 24, +25. The _Scholium_, attributed to Callistratus (_Poetae Lyrici Graeci_, +Bergk. Lipsiae, 1866, p. 1290), begins thus-- + + E)n my/rtou kladi\ to\ xi/phos phore/so, + O(\sper A(rmo/dios kai\ A)ristogei/ton, + O(/te to\n y/rannon ktaneten + I)sono/mous t' A)the/nas e)poiesa/ten + +"Hence," says Mr. Tozer, "'the sword in myrtles drest' (Keble's +_Christian Year_, Third Sunday in Lent) became the emblem of assertors +of liberty."--_Childe Harold_, 1885, p. 262.] + + 3. + + And all went merry as a marriage bell. + Stanza xxi. line 8. + +On the night previous to the action, it is said that a ball was given at +Brussels. [See notes to the text.] + + 4. + + And Evan's--Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears! + Stanza xxvi. line 9. + +Sir Evan Cameron, and his descendant, Donald, the "gentle Lochiel" of +the "forty-five." + +[Sir Evan Cameron (1629-1719) fought against Cromwell, finally yielding +on honourable terms to Monk, June 5, 1658, and for James II. at +Killiecrankie, June 17, 1689. His grandson, Donald Cameron of Lochiel +(1695-1748), celebrated by Campbell, in _Lochiel's Warning_, 1802, was +wounded at Culloden, April 16, 1746. His great-great-grandson, John +Cameron, of Fassieferne (b. 1771), in command of the 92nd Highlanders, +was mortally wounded at Quatre-Bras, June 16, 1815. Compare Scott's +stanzas, _The Dance of Death_, lines 33, _sq_.-- + + "Where through battle's rout and reel, + Storm of shot and hedge of steel, + Led the grandson of Lochiel, + Valiant Fassiefern. + * * * * * + And Morven long shall tell, + And proud Ben Nevis hear with awe, + How, upon bloody Quatre-Bras, + Brave Cameron heard the wild hurra + Of conquest as he fell." + +Compare, too, Scott's _Field of Waterloo_, stanza xxi. lines 14, 15-- + + "And Cameron, in the shock of steel. + Die like the offspring of Lochiel."] + + 5. + + And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves. + Stanza xxvii. line 1. + +The wood of Soignies is supposed to be a remnant of the forest of +Ardennes, famous in Bojardo's _Orlando_, and immortal in Shakspeare's +_As You Like It_. It is also celebrated in Tacitus, as being the spot of +successful defence by the Germans against the Roman encroachments. I +have ventured to adopt the name connected with nobler associations than +those of mere slaughter. + +[It is a far cry from Soignies in South Brabant to Ardennes in +Luxembourg. Possibly Byron is confounding the "saltus quibus nomen +Arduenna" (Tacitus, _Ann._, 3. 42), the scene of the revolt of the +Treviri, with the "saltus Teutoburgiensis" (the Teutoburgen or Lippische +Wald, which divides Lippe Detmold from Westphalia), where Arminius +defeated the Romans (Tacitus, _Ann_., 1. 60). (For Boiardo's "Ardenna," +see _Orlando Innamorato_, lib. i. canto 2, st. 30.) Shakespeare's Arden, +the "immortal" forest, in _As You Like It_, "favours" his own Arden in +Warwickshire, but derived its name from the "forest of Arden" in Lodge's +_Rosalynd_.] + + 6. + + I turned from all she brought to those she could not bring. + Stanza xxx. line 9. + +My guide from Mount St. Jean over the field seemed intelligent and +accurate. The place where Major Howard fell was not far from two tall +and solitary trees (there was a third cut down, or shivered in the +battle), which stand a few yards from each other at a pathway's side. +Beneath these he died and was buried. The body has since been removed to +England. A small hollow for the present marks where it lay, but will +probably soon be effaced; the plough has been upon it, and the grain is. +After pointing out the different spots where Picton and other gallant +men had perished; the guide said, "Here Major Howard lay: I was near him +when wounded." I told him my relationship, and he seemed then still more +anxious to point out the particular spot and circumstances. The place is +one of the most marked in the field, from the peculiarity of the two +trees above mentioned. I went on horseback twice over the field, +comparing it with my recollection of similar scenes. As a plain, +Waterloo seems marked out for the scene of some great action, though +this may be mere imagination: I have viewed with attention those of +Platea, Troy, Mantinea, Leuctra, Chaeronea, and Marathon; and the field +around Mount St. Jean and Hougoumont appears to want little but a better +cause, and that undefinable but impressive halo which the lapse of ages +throws around a celebrated spot, to vie in interest with any or all of +these, except, perhaps, the last mentioned. + +[For particulars of the death of Major Howard, see _Personal Memoirs, +etc._, by Pryse Lockhart Gordon, 1830, ii. 322, 323.] + + 7. + + Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore. + Stanza xxxiv. line 6. + +The (fabled) apples on the brink of the lake Asphaltites were said to be +fair without, and, within, ashes. + +[Compare Tacitus, _Histor._, lib. v. 7, "Cuncta sponte edita, aut manu +sata, sive herbae tenues, aut flores, ut solitam in speciem adolevere, +atra et inania velut in cinerem vanescunt." See, too, _Deut._ xxxii. 32, +"For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: +their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter." + +They are a species of gall-nut, and are described by Curzon (_Visits to +Monasteries of the Levant_, 1897, p. 141), who met with the tree that +bears them, near the Dead Sea, and, mistaking the fruit for a ripe plum, +proceeded to eat one, whereupon his mouth was filled "with a dry bitter +dust." + +"The apple of Sodom ... is supposed by some to refer to the fruit of +_Solanum Sodomeum_ (allied to the tomato), by others to the _Calotropis +procera_" (_N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Apple").] + + 8. + + For sceptred Cynics Earth were far too wide a den. + Stanza xli. line 9. + +The great error of Napoleon, "if we have writ our annals true," was a +continued obtrusion on mankind of his want of all community of feeling +for or with them; perhaps more offensive to human vanity than the active +cruelty of more trembling and suspicious tyranny. Such were his speeches +to public assemblies as well as individuals; and the single expression +which he is said to have used on returning to Paris after the Russian +winter had destroyed his army, rubbing his hands over a fire, "This is +pleasanter than Moscow," would probably alienate more favour from his +cause than the destruction and reverses which led to the remark. + + 9. + + What want these outlaws conquerors should have? + Stanza xlviii. line 6. + +"What wants that knave that a king should have?" was King James's +question on meeting Johnny Armstrong and his followers in full +accoutrements. See the Ballad. + +[Johnie Armstrong, the laird of Gilnockie, on the occasion of an +enforced surrender to James V. (1532), came before the king somewhat too +richly accoutred, and was hanged for his effrontery-- + + "There hang nine targats at Johnie's hat, + And ilk ane worth three hundred pound-- + 'What wants that knave a king suld have + But the sword of honour and the crown'?" + _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, 1821, i. 127.] + + 10. + + The castled Crag of Drachenfels. + Song, stanza 1, line 1. + +The castle of Drachenfels stands on the highest summit of "the Seven +Mountains," over the Rhine banks; it is in ruins, and connected with +some singular traditions. It is the first in view on the road from Bonn, +but on the opposite side of the river: on this bank, nearly facing it, +are the remains of another, called the Jew's Castle, and a large cross, +commemorative of the murder of a chief by his brother. The number of +castles and cities along the course of the Rhine on both sides is very +great, and their situations remarkably beautiful. + +[The castle of Drachenfels (Dragon's Rock) stands on the summit of one, +but not the highest, of the Siebengebirge, an isolated group of volcanic +hills on the right bank of the Rhine between Remagen and Bonn. The +legend runs that in one of the caverns of the rock dwelt the dragon +which was slain by Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen Lied. Hence the +_vin du pays_ is called _Drachenblut_.] + + 11. + + The whiteness of his soul--and thus men o'er him wept. + Stanza lvii. line 9. + +The monument of the young and lamented General Marceau (killed by a +rifle-ball at Alterkirchen, on the last day of the fourth year of the +French Republic) still remains as described. The inscriptions on his +monument are rather too long, and not required: his name was enough; +France adored, and her enemies admired; both wept over him. His funeral +was attended by the generals and detachments from both armies. In the +same grave General Hoche is interred, a gallant man also in every sense +of the word; but though he distinguished himself greatly in battle, he +had not the good fortune to die there: his death was attended by +suspicions of poison. + +A separate monument (not over his body, which is buried by Marceau's) is +raised for him near Andernach, opposite to which one of his most +memorable exploits was performed, in throwing a bridge to an island on +the Rhine [April 18, 1797]. The shape and style are different from that +of Marceau's, and the inscription more simple and pleasing. + + "The Army of the Sambre and Meuse + to its Commander-in-Chief + Hoche." + +This is all, and as it should be. Hoche was esteemed among the first of +France's earlier generals, before Buonaparte monopolised her triumphs. +He was the destined commander of the invading army of Ireland. + +[The tomb of Francois Severin Desgravins Marceau (1769-1796, general of +the French Republic) bears the following epitaph and inscription:-- + + "'Hic cineres, ubique nomen.' + + "Ici repose Marceau, ne a Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, soldat a seize + ans, general a vingtdeux ans. Il mourut en combattant pour sa + patrie, le dernier jour de l'an iv. de la Republique francaise. Qui + que tu sois, ami ou ennemi de ce jeune heros, respecte ces + cendres." + +A bronze statue at Versailles, raised to the memory of General Hoche +(1768-1797) bears a very similar record-- + + "A Lazare Hoche, ne a Versailles le 24 juin, 1768, sergent a seize + ans, general en chef a vingt-cinq, mort a vingt-neuf, pacificateur + de la Vendee."] + + 12. + + Here Ehrenbreitstein with her shattered wall. + Stanza lviii. line 1. + +Ehrenbreitstein, i.e. "the broad stone of honour," one of the strongest +fortresses in Europe, was dismantled and blown up by the French at the +truce of Leoben. It had been, and could only be, reduced by famine or +treachery. It yielded to the former, aided by surprise. After having +seen the fortifications of Gibraltar and Malta, it did not much strike +by comparison; but the situation is commanding. General Marceau besieged +it in vain for some time, and I slept in a room where I was shown a +window at which he is said to have been standing observing the progress +of the siege by moonlight, when a ball struck immediately below it. + +[Ehrenbreitstein, which had resisted the French under Marshal Boufflers +in 1680, and held out against Marceau (1795-96), finally capitulated to +the French after a prolonged siege in 1799. The fortifications were +dismantled when the French evacuated the fortress after the Treaty of +Luneville in 1801. The Treaty of Leoben was signed April 18, 1797.] + + 13. + + Unsepulchred they roamed, and shrieked each wandering ghost. + Stanza lxiii. line 9. + +The chapel is destroyed, and the pyramid of bones diminished to a small +number by the Burgundian Legion in the service of France; who anxiously +effaced this record of their ancestors' less successful invasions. A few +still remain, notwithstanding the pains taken by the Burgundians for +ages (all who passed that way removing a bone to their own country), and +the less justifiable larcenies of the Swiss postilions, who carried them +off to sell for knife-handles; a purpose for which the whiteness imbibed +by the bleaching of years had rendered them in great request. Of these +relics I ventured to bring away as much as may have made a quarter of a +hero, for which the sole excuse is, that if I had not, the next +passer-by might have perverted them to worse uses than the careful +preservation which I intend for them. + +[Charles the Bold was defeated by the Swiss at the Battle of Morat, June +22, 1476. It has been computed that more than twenty thousand +Burgundians fell in the battle. At first, to avoid the outbreak of a +pestilence, the bodies were thrown into pits. "Nine years later ... the +mouldering remains were unearthed, and deposited in a building ... on +the shore of the lake, near the village of Meyriez.... During three +succeeding centuries this depository was several times rebuilt.... But +the ill-starred relics were not destined even yet to remain undisturbed. +At the close of the last century, when the armies of the French Republic +were occupying Switzerland, a regiment consisting mainly of Burgundians, +under the notion of effacing an insult to their ancestors, tore down the +'bone-house' at Morat, covered the contents with earth, and planted on +the mound 'a tree of liberty.' But the tree had no roots; the rains +washed away the earth; again the remains were exposed to view, and lay +bleaching in the sun for a quarter of a century. Travellers stopped to +gaze, to moralize, and to pilfer; postilions and poets scraped off +skulls and thigh-bones.... At last, in 1822, the vestiges were swept +together and resepulchred, and a simple obelisk of marble was erected, +to commemorate a victory well deserving of its fame as a military +exploit, but all unworthy to be ranked with earlier triumphs, won by +hands pure as well as strong, defending freedom and the +right."--_History of Charles the Bold_, by J. F. Kirk, 1868, iii. 404, +405. + +Mr. Murray still has in his possession the parcel of bones--the "quarter +of a hero"--which Byron sent home from the field of Morat.] + + 14. + + Levelled Aventicum, hath strewed her subject lands. + Stanza lxv. line 9. + +Aventicum, near Morat, was the Roman capital of Helvetia, where Avenches +now stands. + +[Avenches (Wiflisburg) lies due south of the Lake of Morat, and about +five miles east of the Lake of Neuchatel. As a Roman colony it bore the +name of _Pia Flavia Constans Emerita_, and circ. 70 A.D. contained a +population of sixty thousand inhabitants. It was destroyed first by the +Alemanni and, afterwards, by Attila. "The Emperor Vespasian--son of the +banker of the town," says Suetonius (lib. viii. i)--"surrounded the city +by massive walls, defended it by semicircular towers, adorned it with a +capitol, a theatre, a forum, and granted it jurisdiction over the +outlying dependencies.... + +"To-day plantations of tobacco cover the forgotten streets of Avenches, +and a single Corinthian column ['the lonelier column,' the so-called +_Cicognier_], with its crumbling arcade, remains to tell of former +grandeur."--_Historic Studies in Vaud, Berne, and Savoy_, by General +Meredith Read, 1897, i. 16.] + + 15. + + And held within their urn one mind--one heart--one dust. + Stanza lxvi. line 9. + +Julia Alpinula, a young Aventian priestess, died soon after a vain +endeavour to save her father, condemned to death as a traitor by Aulus +Caecina. Her epitaph was discovered many years ago;--it is thus:--"Julia +Alpinula: Hic jaceo. Infelicis patris, infelix proles. Deae Aventiae +Sacerdos. Exorare patris necem non potui: Male mori in fatis ille erat. +Vixi annos XXIII."--I know of no human composition so affecting as this, +nor a history of deeper interest. These are the names and actions which +ought not to perish, and to which we turn with a true and healthy +tenderness, from the wretched and glittering detail of a confused mass +of conquests and battles, with which the mind is roused for a time to a +false and feverish sympathy, from whence it recurs at length with all +the nausea consequent on such intoxication. + +[A mutinous outbreak among the Helvetii, which had been provoked by the +dishonest rapacity of the twenty-first legion, was speedily quelled by +the Roman general Aulus Caecina. Aventicum surrendered (A.D. 69), but +Julius Alpinus, a chieftain and supposed ring-leader, was singled out +for punishment and put to death. "The rest," says Tacitus, "were left to +the ruth or ruthlessness of Vitellius" (_Histor_., i. 67, 68). Julia +Alpinula and her epitaph were the happy inventions of a +sixteenth-century scholar. "It appears," writes Lord Stanhope, "that +this inscription was given by one Paul Wilhelm, a noted forger +(_falsarius_), to Lipsius, and by Lipsius handed over to Gruterus. +Nobody, either before or since Wilhelm, has even pretended to have seen +the stone ... as to any son or daughter of Julius Alpinus, history is +wholly silent" (_Quarterly Review_, June, 1846, vol. lviii. p. 61; +_Historical Essays_, by Lord Mahon, 1849, pp. 297, 298).] + + 16. + + In the sun's face, like yonder Alpine snow. + Stanza lxvii. line 8. + +This is written in the eye of Mont Blanc (June 3rd, 1816), which even at +this distance dazzles mine.--(July 20th.) I this day observed for some +time the distinct reflection of Mont Blanc and Mont Argentiere in the +calm of the lake, which I was crossing in my boat; the distance of these +mountains from their mirror is sixty miles. + +[The first lines of the note dated June 3, 1816, were written at +"Dejean's Hotel de l'Angleterre, at Secheron, a small suburb of Geneva, +on the northern side of the lake." On the 10th of June Byron removed to +the Campagne Diodati, about two miles from Geneva, on the south shore of +the lake (_Life of Shelley_, by Edward Dowden, 1896, pp. 307-309).] + + 17. + + By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone. + Stanza lxxi. line 3. + +The colour of the Rhone at Geneva is blue, to a depth of tint which I +have never seen equalled in water, salt or fresh, except in the +Mediterranean and Archipelago. + +[The blueness of the Rhone, which has been attributed to various causes, +is due to the comparative purity of the water. The yellow and muddy +stream, during its passage through the lake, is enabled to purge itself +to a very great extent of the solid matter held in suspension--the +glacial and other detritus---and so, on leaving its vast natural +filtering-bed, it flows out clear and blue: it has regained the proper +colour of pure water.] + + 18. + + This hallowed, too, the memorable kiss. + Stanza lxxix. line 3. + +This refers to the account, in his _Confessions_, of his passion for the +Comtesse d'Houdetot (the mistress of St. Lambert), and his long walk +every morning, for the sake of the single kiss which was the common +salutation of French acquaintance. Rousseau's description of his +feelings on this occasion may be considered as the most passionate, yet +not impure, description and expression of love that ever kindled into +words; which, after all, must be felt, from their very force, to be +inadequate to the delineation; a painting can give no sufficient idea of +the ocean. + +[Here is Rousseau's "passionate, yet not impure," description of his +sensations: "J'ai dit qu'il y avoit loin de l'Hermitage a Eaubonne; je +passois par les coteaux d'Andilly qui sont charmans. Je revois en +marchant a celle que j'allois voir, a l'accueil caressant qu'elle me +feroit, au baiser qui m'attendoit a mon arrivee. Ce seul baiser, ce +baiser funeste avant meme de le recevoir, m'embrasoit le sang a tel +point, que ma tete se troubloit, un eblouissement m'aveugloit, mes +genoux tremblants ne pouroient me soutenir; j'etois force de m'arreter, +de m'asseoir; toute ma machine etoit dans un desordre inconcevable; +j'etois pret a m'evanouir.... A l'instant que je la voyois, tout etoit +repare; je ne sentois plus aupres d'elle que l'importunite d'une vigueur +inepuisable et toujours inutile."--_Les Confessions_, Partie II. livre +ix.; _Oeuvres Completes de J.J. Rousseau_, 1837, i. 233. + +Byron's mother "would have it" that her son was like Rousseau, but he +disclaimed the honour antithetically and with needless particularity +(see his letter to Mrs. Byron, and a quotation from his _Detached +Thoughts, Letters_, 1898, i. 192, note). There was another point of +unlikeness, which he does not mention. Byron, on the passion of love, +does not "make for morality," but he eschews nastiness. The loves of Don +Juan and Haidee are chaste as snow compared with the unspeakable +philanderings of the elderly Jean Jacques and the "mistress of St. +Lambert." + +Nevertheless, his mother was right. There was a resemblance, and +consequently an affinity, between Childe Burun and the "visionary of +Geneva"--delineated by another seer or visionary as "the dreamer of +love-sick tales, and the spinner of speculative cobwebs; shy of light as +the mole, but as quick-eared too for every whisper of the public +opinion; the teacher of Stoic pride in his principles, yet the victim of +morbid vanity in his feelings and conduct."--_The Friend_; _Works_ of S. +T. Coleridge, 1853, ii. 124.] + + 19. + + Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take. + Stanza xci. line 3. + +It is to be recollected, that the most beautiful and impressive +doctrines of the divine Founder of Christianity were delivered, not in +the _Temple_, but on the _Mount_. To waive the question of devotion, and +turn to human eloquence,--the most effectual and splendid specimens were +not pronounced within walls. Demosthenes addressed the public and +popular assemblies. Cicero spoke in the forum. That this added to their +effect on the mind of both orator and hearers, may be conceived from the +difference between what we read of the emotions then and there produced, +and those we ourselves experience in the perusal in the closet. It is +one thing to read the _Iliad_ at Sigaeum and on the tumuli, or by the +springs with Mount Ida above, and the plain and rivers and Archipelago +around you; and another to trim your taper over it in a snug +library--_this_ I know. Were the early and rapid progress of what is +called Methodism to be attributed to any cause beyond the enthusiasm +excited by its vehement faith and doctrines (the truth or error of which +I presume neither to canvass nor to question), I should venture to +ascribe it to the practice of preaching in the _fields_, and the +unstudied and extemporaneous effusions of its teachers. The Mussulmans, +whose erroneous devotion (at least in the lower orders) is most sincere, +and therefore impressive, are accustomed to repeat their prescribed +orisons and prayers, wherever they may be, at the stated hours--of +course, frequently in the open air, kneeling upon a light mat (which +they carry for the purpose of a bed or cushion as required); the +ceremony lasts some minutes, during which they are totally absorbed, and +only living in their supplication: nothing can disturb them. On me the +simple and entire sincerity of these men, and the spirit which appeared +to be within and upon them, made a far greater impression than any +general rite which was ever performed in places of worship, of which I +have seen those of almost every persuasion under the sun; including most +of our own sectaries, and the Greek, the Catholic, the Armenian, the +Lutheran, the Jewish, and the Mahometan. Many of the negroes, of whom +there are numbers in the Turkish empire, are idolaters, and have free +exercise of their belief and its rites; some of these I had a distant +view of at Patras; and, from what I could make out of them, they +appeared to be of a truly Pagan description, and not very agreeable to a +spectator. + +[For this profession of "natural piety," compare Rousseau's +_Confessions_, Partie II. livre xii. (_Oeuvres Completes_, 1837, i. +341)-- + + "Je ne trouve pas de plus digne hommage a la Divinite que cette + admiration muette qu'excite la contemplation de ses oeuvres, et qui + ne s'exprime point par des actes developpes. Je comprends comment + les habitants des villes, qui ne voient que des murs, des rues et + des crimes, ont peu de foi; mais je ne puis comprendre comment des + campagnards, et surtout des solitaires, peuvent n'en point avoir. + Comment leur ame ne s'eleve-t-elle pas cent fois le jour avec + extase a l'Auteur des merveilles qui les frappent? ... Dans ma + chambre je prie plus rarement et plus sechement; mais a l'aspect + d'un beau paysage je me sens emu sans pourvoir dire de quoi." + +Compare, too, Coleridge's lines "To Nature"-- + + "So will I build my altar in the fields, + And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be, + And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields, + Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee, + Thee only, God! and Thou shalt not despise + Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice." + _Poetical Works_, 1893, p. 190.] + + 20. + + The sky is changed!--and such a change! Oh Night! + Stanza xcii. line 1. + +The thunder-storm to which these lines refer occurred on the 13th of +June, 1816, at midnight. I have seen, among the Acroceraunian mountains +of Chimari, several more terrible, but none more beautiful. + + 21. + + And Sun-set into rose-hues sees them wrought. + Stanza xcix. line 5. + +Rousseau's _Heloise_, Lettre 17, Part IV., note. "Ces montagnes sont si +hautes, qu'une demi-heure apres le soleil couche, leurs sommets sont +eclaires de ses rayons, dont le rouge forme sur ces cimes blanches _une +belle couleur de rose_, qu'on apercoit de fort loin."[356] This applies +more particularly to the heights over Meillerie.--"J'allai a Vevay loger +a la Clef;[357] et pendant deux jours que j'y restai sans voir personne, +je pris pour cette ville un amour qui m'a suivi dans tous mes voyages, +et qui m'y a fait etablir enfin les heros de mon roman. Je dirois +volontiers a ceux qui ont du gout et qui sont sensibles: Allez a +Vevay--visitez le pays, examinez les sites, promenez-vous sur le lac, et +dites si la Nature n'a pas fait ce beau pays pour une Julie, pour une +Claire,[358] et pour un St. Preux; mais ne les y cherchez pas."--_Les +Confessions_, [P. I. liv. 4, _Oeuvres, etc._, 1837, i. 78].--In July +[June 23-27], 1816, I made a voyage round the Lake of Geneva;[359] and, +as far as my own observations have led me in a not uninterested nor +inattentive survey of all the scenes most celebrated by Rousseau in his +_Heloise_, I can safely say, that in this there is no exaggeration. It +would be difficult to see Clarens (with the scenes around it, Vevay, +Chillon, Boveret, St. Gingo, Meillerie, Evian,[360] and the entrances of +the Rhone) without being forcibly struck with its peculiar adaptation to +the persons and events with which it has been peopled. But this is not +all; the feeling with which all around Clarens, and the opposite rocks +of Meillerie, is invested, is of a still higher and more comprehensive +order than the mere sympathy with individual passion; it is a sense of +the existence of love in its most extended and sublime capacity, and of +our own participation of its good and of its glory: it is the great +principle of the universe, which is there more condensed, but not less +manifested; and of which, though knowing ourselves a part, we lose our +individuality, and mingle in the beauty of the whole.--If Rousseau had +never written, nor lived, the same associations would not less have +belonged to such scenes. He has added to the interest of his works by +their adoption; he has shown his sense of their beauty by the selection; +but they have done that for him which no human being could do for +them.--I had the fortune (good or evil as it might be) to sail from +Meillerie[361] (where we landed for some time) to St. Gingo during a +lake storm, which added to the magnificence of all around, although +occasionally accompanied by danger to the boat, which was small and +overloaded. It was over this very part of the lake that Rousseau has +driven the boat of St. Preux and Madame Wolmar to Meillerie for shelter +during a tempest. On gaining the shore at St. Gingo, I found that the +wind had been sufficiently strong to blow down some fine old chestnut +trees on the lower part of the mountains. On the opposite height of +Clarens is a chateau[362] [Chateau des Cretes]. The hills are covered +with vineyards, and interspersed with some small but beautiful woods; +one of these was named the "Bosquet de Julie;" and it is remarkable +that, though long ago cut down by the brutal selfishness of the monks of +St. Bernard (to whom the land appertained), that the ground might be +enclosed into a vineyard for the miserable drones of an execrable +superstition, the inhabitants of Clarens still point out the spot where +its trees stood, calling it by the name which consecrated and survived +them. Rousseau has not been particularly fortunate in the preservation +of the "local habitations" he has given to "airy nothings." The Prior of +Great St. Bernard has cut down some of his woods for the sake of a few +casks of wine, and Buonaparte has levelled part of the rocks of +Meillerie in improving the road to the Simplon. The road is an excellent +one; but I cannot quite agree with a remark which I heard made, that "La +route vaut mieux que les souvenirs." + + 22. + + Of Names which unto you bequeathed a name. + Stanza cv. line 2. + +Voltaire and Gibbon. + +[Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) lived on his estate at +Fernex, five miles north of Geneva, from 1759 to 1777. "In the garden at +Fernex is a long _berceau_ walk, closely arched over with clipped +horn-beam--a verdant cloister, with gaps cut here and there, admitting a +glimpse of the prospect. Here Voltaire used to walk up and down, and +dictate to his secretary."--_Handbook for Switzerland_, p. 174. + +Previous to this he had lived for some time at Lausanne, at "Monrepos, a +country house at the end of a suburb," at Monrion, "a square building of +two storeys, and a high garret, with wings, each fashioned like the +letter L," and afterwards, in the spring of 1757, at No. 6, Rue du +Grand Chene.--_Historic Studies_, ii. 210, 218, 219. + +Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) finished (1788) _The Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire_ at "La Grotte, an ancient and spacious mansion behind the +church of St. Francis, at Lausanne," which was demolished by the Swiss +authorities in 1879. Not only has the mansion ceased to exist, but the +garden has been almost entirely changed. The wall of the Hotel Gibbon +occupies the site of the famous wooden pavilion, or summer-house, and of +the "berceau of plum trees, which formed a verdant gallery completely +arched overhead," and which "were called after Gibbon, La +Gibboniere."--_Historic Studies_, i. I; ii. 493. + +In 1816 the pavilion was "utterly decayed," and the garden neglected, +but Byron gathered "a sprig of _Gibbon's acacia_," and some rose leaves +from his garden and enclosed them in a letter to Murray (June 27, 1816). +Shelley, on the contrary, "refrained from doing so, fearing to outrage +the greater and more sacred name of Rousseau; the contemplation of whose +imperishable creations had left no vacancy in my heart for mortal +things. Gibbon had a cold and unimpassioned spirit."--_Essays, etc._, +1840, ii. 76.] + + 23. + + Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued. + Stanza cxiii. line 9. + + "----If't be so, + For Banquo's issue have I _filed_ my mind." + _Macbeth_, [act iii. sc. 1, line 64]. + + 24. + + O'er others' griefs that some sincerely grieve. + Stanza cxiv. line 7. + +It is said by Rochefoucault, that "there is _always_ something in the +misfortunes of men's best friends not displeasing to them." + +["Dans l'adversite de nos meilleurs amis, nous trouvons toujours quelque +chose qui ne nous deplait pas."--_Appendice aux Maximes de La +Rochefoucauld, Pantheon Litteraire_, Paris, 1836, p. 460.] + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[356] {303} [_Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloise_: _Oeuvres Completes de J. +J. Rousseau_, Paris, 1837, ii. 262.] + +[357] [The Clef, is now a cafe on the Grande Place, and still +distinguished by the sign of the Key. But Vevey had other associations +for Rousseau, more powerful and more persuasive than a solitary visit to +an inn. "Madame Warens," says General Read, "possessed a charming +country resort midway between Vevey and Chillon, just above the +beautiful village of Clarens. It was situated at the Bassets, amid +scenery whose exquisite features inspired some of the fine imagery of +Rousseau. It is now called the Bassets de Pury. ... The exterior of the +older parts has not been changed. ... The stairway leads to a large +_salon_, whose windows command a view of Meillerie, St. Gingolph, and +Bouveret, beyond the lake. Communicating with this _salon_ is a large +dining-room. + +"These two rooms open to the east, upon a broad terrace. At a corner of +the terrace is a large summer-house, and through the chestnut trees one +sees as far as Les Cretes, the hillocks and bosquets described by +Rousseau. Near by is a dove-cote filled with cooing doves.... In the +last century this site (Les Cretes) was covered with pleasure-gardens, +and some parts are even pointed out as associated with Rousseau and +Madame de Warens."--_Historic Sketches of Vaud, etc._, by General +Meredith Read, 1897, i. 433-437. There was, therefore, some excuse for +the guide (see Byron's _Diary_, September 18, 1816) "confounding +Rousseau with St. Preux, and mixing the man with the book."] + +[358] {304} [Claire, afterwards Madame Orbe, is Julie's cousin and +confidante. She is represented as whimsical and humorous. It is not +impossible that "Claire," in _La Nouvelle Heloise_, "bequeathed her +name" to Claire, otherwise Jane Clairmont.] + +[359] [Byron and Shelley sailed round the Lake of Geneva towards the end +of June, 1816. Writing to Murray, June 27, he says, "I have traversed +all Rousseau's ground with the _Heloise_ before me;" and in the same +letter announces the completion of a third canto of _Childe Harold_. He +revisited Clarens and Chillon in company with Hobhouse in the following +September (see extracts from a Journal, September 18, 1816, _Life_, pp. +311, 312).] + +[360] [Bouveret, St. Gingolph, Evian.] + +[361] {305} [Byron mentions the "squall off Meillerie" in a letter to +Murray, dated Ouchy, near Lausanne, June 27, 1816. Compare, too, +Shelley's version of the incident: "The wind gradually increased in +violence until it blew tremendously; and as it came from the remotest +extremity of the lake, produced waves of a frightful height, and covered +the whole surface with a chaos of foam.... I felt in this near prospect +of death a mixture of sensations, among which terror entered, though but +subordinately. My feelings would have been less painful had I been +alone; but I know that my companion would have attempted to save me, and +I was overcome with humiliation, when I thought that his life might have +been risked to preserve mine."--_Letters from Abroad_, etc.; _Essays_, +by Percy Bysshe Shelley, edited by Mrs. Shelley, 1840, ii. 68, 69.] + +[362] [Byron and Shelley slept at Clarens, June 26, 1816. The windows of +their inn commanded a view of the _Bosquet de Julie_. "In the evening we +walked thither. It is, indeed, Julia's wood ... the trees themselves +were aged but vigorous.... We went again (June 27) to the _Bosquet de +Julie_, and found that the precise spot was now utterly obliterated, and +a heap of stones marked the place where the little chapel had once +stood. Whilst we were execrating the author of this brutal folly, our +guide informed us that the land belonged to the Convent of St. Bernard, +and that this outrage had been committed by their orders. I knew before +that if avarice could harden the hearts of men, a system of prescriptive +religion has an influence far more inimical to natural sensibility. I +know that an isolated man is sometimes restrained by shame from +outraging the venerable feelings arising out of the memory of genius, +which once made nature even lovelier than itself; but associated man +holds it as the very sacrament of this union to forswear all delicacy, +all benevolence, all remorse; all that is true, or tender, or +sublime."--_Essays, etc._, 1840, ii. 75.] + + * * * * * + + CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + CANTO THE FOURTH. + + "Visto ho Toscana Lombardia Romagna, + Quel monte che divide, e quel che serra + Italia, e un mare e l'altro che la bagna." + + _Ariosto_, Satira iv. lines 58-60. + + * * * * * + + + + + INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTH CANTO. + +The first draft of the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_, which embodies +the original and normal conception of the poem, was the work of +twenty-six days. On the 17th of June, 1817, Byron wrote to Murray: "You +are out about the Third Canto: I have not done, nor designed, a line of +continuation to that poem. I was too short a time at Rome for it, and +have no thought of recommencing." But in spite of this assertion, "the +numbers came," and on June 26 he made a beginning. Thirty stanzas "were +roughened off" on the 1st of July, fifty-six were accomplished by the +9th, "ninety and eight" by the 13th, and on July 20 he announces "the +completion of the fourth and ultimate canto of _Childe Harold_. It +consists of 126 stanzas." One stanza (xl.) was appended to the fair +copy. It suggested a parallel between Ariosto "the Southern Scott," and +Scott "the Northern Ariosto," and excited some misgiving. + +In commending his new poem to Murray (July 20, August 7), Byron notes +three points in which it differed from its predecessors: it is "the +longest of the four;" "it treats more of works of art than of nature;" +"there are no metaphysics in it--at least, I think not." In other words, +"The Fourth Canto is not a continuation of the Third. I have parted +company with Shelley and Wordsworth. Subject-matter and treatment are +alike new." + +The poem as it stood was complete, and, as a poem, it lost as well as +gained by the insertion of additional stanzas and groups of stanzas, +"purple patch" on "purple patch," each by itself so attractive and so +splendid. The pilgrim finds himself at Venice, on the "Bridge of Sighs." +He beholds in a vision the departed glories of "a thousand years." The +"long array of shadows," the "beings of the mind," come to him "like +truth," and repeople the vacancy. But he is an exile, and turns homeward +in thought to "the inviolate island of the sage and free." He is an +exile and a sufferer. He can and will endure his fate, but "ever and +anon" he feels the prick of woe, and with the sympathy of despair would +stand "a ruin amidst ruins," a desolate soul in a land of desolation and +decay. He renews his pilgrimage. He passes Arqua, where "they keep the +dust of Laura's lover," lingers for a day at Ferrara, haunted by +memories of "Torquato's injured shade," and, as he approaches "the fair +white walls" of Florence, he re-echoes the "Italia! oh, Italia!" of +Filicaja's impassioned strains. At Florence he gazes, "dazzled and drunk +with beauty," at the "goddess in stone," the Medicean Venus, but +forbears to "describe the indescribable," to break the silence of Art by +naming its mysteries. Santa Croce and the other glories "in Arno's dome +of Art's most princely shrine," he passes by unsung, if not unseen; but +Thrasymene's "sheet of silver," the "living crystal" of Clitumnus' +"gentlest waters," and Terni's "matchless cataract," on whose verge "an +Iris sits," and "lone Soracte's ridge," not only call forth his spirit's +homage, but receive the homage of his Muse. + +And now the Pilgrim has reached his goal, "Rome the wonderful," the +sepulchre of empire, the shrine of art. + +Henceforth the works of man absorb his attention. Pompey's "dread +statue;" the Wolf of the Capitol; the Tomb of Cecilia Metella; the +Palatine; the "nameless column" of the Forum; Trajan's pillar; Egeria's +Grotto; the ruined Colosseum, "arches on arches," an "enormous +skeleton," the Colosseum of the poet's vision, a multitudinous ring of +spectators, a bloody Circus, and a dying Gladiator; the Pantheon; S. +Nicola in Carcere, the scene of the Romana Caritas; St. Peter's "vast +and wondrous dome,"--are all celebrated in due succession. Last of all, +he "turns to the Vatican," to view the Laocoon and the Apollo Belvidere, +the counterfeit presentments of ideal suffering and ideal beauty. His +"shrine is won;" but ere he bids us farewell he climbs the Alban Mount, +and as the Mediterranean once more bursts upon his sight, he sums the +moral of his argument. Man and all his works are as a drop of rain in +the Ocean, "the image of eternity, the throne of the Invisible"! + +Byron had no sooner completed "this fourth and ultimate canto," than he +began to throw off additional stanzas. His letters to Murray during the +autumn of 1817 announce these successive lengthenings; but it is +impossible to trace the exact order of their composition. On the 7th of +August the canto stood at 130 stanzas, on the 21st at 133; on the 4th of +September at 144, on the 17th at 150; and by November 15 it had reached +167 stanzas. Of nineteen stanzas which were still to be added, six--on +the death of the Princess Charlotte (died November 6, 1817)--were +written at the beginning of December, and two stanzas (clxxvii., +clxxviii.) were forwarded to Murray in the early spring of 1818. + +Of these additions the most notable are four stanzas on Venice +(including stanza xiii. on "The Horses of St. Mark"); "The sunset on the +Brenta" (stanzas xxvii.-xxix.); The tombs in Santa Croce,--the +apostrophe to "the all Etruscan three," Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio +(stanzas liv.-lx.); "Rome a chaos of ruins--antiquarian ignorance" +(stanzas lxxx.-lxxxii.); "The nothingness of Man--the hope of the +future--Freedom" (stanzas xciii.-xcviii.); "The Tarpeian Rock--the +Forum--Rienzi" (stanzas cxii.-cxiv.); "Love, Life, and Reason" (stanzas +cxx.-cxxvii.); "The Curse of Forgiveness" (stanzas cxxxv.-cxxxvii.); +"The Mole of Hadrian" (stanza clii.); "The death of the Princess +Charlotte" (stanzas clxvii.-clxxii.); "Nemi" (stanzas clxxiii., +clxxiv.); "The Desert and one fair Spirit" (stanzas clxxvii., +clxxviii.). + +Some time during the month of December, 1817, Byron wrote out a fair +copy of the entire canto, numbering 184 stanzas _(MS. D.)_; and on +January 7, 1818, Hobhouse left Venice for England, with the "whole of +the MSS.," viz. _Beppo_ (begun October, 1817), and the Fourth Canto of +_Childe Harold_, together with a work of his own, a volume of essays on +Italian literature, the antiquities of Rome, etc., which he had put +together during his residence in Venice (July--December, 1817), and +proposed to publish as an appendix to _Childe Harold_. In his preface to +_Historical Illustrations_, etc., 1818, Hobhouse explains that on his +return to England he considered that this "appendix to the Canto would +be swelled to a disproportioned bulk," and that, under this impression, +he determined to divide his material into two parts. The result was that +"such only of the notes as were more immediately connected with the +text" were printed as "Historical Notes to Canto the Fourth," and that +his longer dissertations were published in a separate volume, under his +own name, as _Historical Illustrations to the Fourth Canto of Childe +Harold_. To these "Historical Notes" an interest attaches apart from any +consideration of their own worth and importance; but to understand the +relation between the poem and the notes, it is necessary to retrace the +movements of the poet and his annotator. + +Byron and Hobhouse left the Villa Diodati, October 5, 1816, crossed the +Simplon, and made their way together, via Milan and Verona, to Venice. +Early in December the friends parted company. Byron remained at Venice, +and Hobhouse proceeded to Rome, and for the next four months devoted +himself to the study of Italian literature, in connection with +archaeology and art. Byron testifies (September 14, 1817) that his +researches were "indefatigable," that he had "more real knowledge of +Rome and its environs than any Englishman who has been there since +Gibbon." Hobhouse left Rome for Naples, May 21; returned to Rome, June +9; arrived at Terni, July 2; and early in July joined Byron on the +Brenta, at La Mira. The latter half of the year (July--December, 1817) +was occupied in consulting "the best authorities" in the Ducal Library +at Venice, with a view to perfecting his researches, and giving them to +the world as an illustrative appendix to _Childe Harold_. It is certain +that Byron had begun the fourth canto, and written some thirty or more +stanzas, before Hobhouse rejoined him at his villa of La Mira on the +banks of the Brenta, in July, 1817; and it would seem that, although he +had begun by saying "that he was too short a time in Rome for it," he +speedily overcame his misgivings, and accomplished, as he believed, the +last "fytte" of his pilgrimage. The first draft was Byron's unaided +composition, but the "additional stanzas" were largely due to Hobhouse's +suggestions in the course of conversation, if not to his written +"researches." Hobhouse himself made no secret of it. In his preface (p. +5) to _Historical Illustrations_ he affirms that both "illustrations" +and notes were "for the most part written while the noble author was yet +employed in the composition of the poem. They were put into the hands of +Lord Byron much in the state in which they now appear;" and, writing to +Murray, December 7, 1817, he says, "I must confess I feel an affection +for it [Canto IV.] more than ordinary, as part of it was begot as it +were under my own eyes; for although your poets are as shy as elephants +and camels ... yet I have, not unfrequently, witnessed his lordship's +coupleting, and some of the stanzas owe their birth to our morning walk +or evening ride at La Mira." Forty years later, in his revised and +enlarged "Illustrations" (_Italy: Remarks made in Several Visits from +the year 1816 to 1854_, by the Right Hon. Lord Broughton, G.C.B., 1859, +i. p. iv.), he reverts to this collaboration: "When I rejoined Lord +Byron at La Mira ... I found him employed upon the Fourth Canto of +_Childe Harold_, and, later in the autumn, he showed me the first sketch +of the poem. It was much shorter than it afterwards became, and it did +not remark on several objects which appeared to me peculiarly worthy of +notice. I made a list of these objects, and in conversation with him +gave him reasons for the selection. The result was the poem as it now +appears, and he then engaged me to write the notes." + +As the "delicate spirit" of Shelley suffused the third canto of _Childe +Harold_, so the fourth reveals the presence and co-operation of +Hobhouse. To his brother-poet he owed a fresh conception, perhaps a +fresh appreciation of nature; to his lifelong friend, a fresh enthusiasm +for art, and a host of details, "dry bones ... which he awakened into +the fulness of life." + +The Fourth Canto was published on Tuesday, April 28, 1818. It was +reviewed by [Sir] Walter Scott in the _Quarterly Review_, No. xxxvii., +April, 1818, and by John Wilson in the _Edinburgh Review_, No. 59, June, +1818. Both numbers were published on the same day, September 26, 1818. + + + + + CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO IV. ORIGINAL DRAFT. [MS. M.] + + [June 26--July 19. 1817.] + +Stanza i. "I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs,"-- + +Stanza iii.-xi. "In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more,"--"The spouseless +Adriatic mourns her Lord,"-- + +Stanza xv. "Statues of glass--all shivered--the long file,"-- + +Stanza xviii.-xxvi. "I loved her from my boyhood--she to me,"--"The +Commonwealth of Kings--the Men of Rome!"-- + +Stanza xxx.-xxxix. "There is a tomb in Arqua;--reared in air,"--"Peace +to Torquato's injured shade! 'twas his,"-- + +Stanza xlii.-xlvi. "Italia! oh, Italia! thou who hast,"--"That page is +now before me, and on mine,"-- + +Stanza xlviii.-l. "But Arno wins us to the fair white walls,"--"We gaze +and turn away, and know not where,"-- + +Stanza liii. "I leave to learned fingers, and wise hands,"-- + +Stanza lxi.-lxxix. "There be more things to greet the heart and +eyes,"--"The Niobe of nations! there she stands,"-- + +Stanza lxxxiii. "Oh, thou, whose chariot rolled on Fortune's wheel,"-- + +Stanza lxxxiv. "The dictatorial wreath--couldst thou divine,"-- + +Stanza lxxxvii.-xcii. "And thou, dread Statue! yet existent in,"--"And +would be all or nothing--nor could wait,"-- + +Stanza xcix.-cviii. "There is a stern round tower of other +days,"--"There is the moral of all human tales,"-- + +Stanza cx. "Tully was not so eloquent as thou,"-- + +Stanza cxi. "Buried in air, the deep blue sky of Rome,"-- + +Stanza cxv.-cxix. "Egeria! sweet creation of some heart,"--"And didst +thou not, thy breast to his replying,"-- + +Stanza cxxviii.-cxxxiv. "Arches on arches! as it were that Rome,"--"And +if my voice break forth, 'tis not that now,"-- + +Stanza cxxxviii.-cli. "The seal is set.--Now welcome, thou dread +Power!"--"The starry fable of the Milky Way,"-- + +Stanza cliii.-clxvi. "But lo! the Dome--the vast and wondrous +Dome,"--"And send us prying into the abyss,"-- + +Stanza clxxv. "But I forget.--My Pilgrim's shrine is won,"-- + +Stanza clxxvi. "Upon the blue Symplegades: long years,"-- + +Stanza clxxix. "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!"-- + +Stanza clxxx. "His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields,"-- + +Stanza clxxxiii.-clxxxvi. "Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's +form,"--"Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been,"-- + + + ADDITIONAL STANZA. + +Stanza xl. "Great as thou art, yet paralleled by those,"-- + + (127 stanzas.) + + + ADDITIONS BOUND UP WITH MS. M. + +Stanza ii. "She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from Ocean,"-- + +Stanza xii.-xiv. "The Suabian sued, and now the Austrian reigns," +--(November 10, 1817.)--"In youth She was all glory,--a new Tyre,"-- + +Stanza xvi. "When Athens' armies fell at Syracuse,"-- + +Stanza xvii. "Thus, Venice! if no stronger claim were thine,"-- + +Stanza xxvii.-xxix. "The Moon is up, and yet it is not night,"--"Filled +with the face of heaven, which, from afar,"-- + +Stanza xlvii. "Yet, Italy! through every other land,"-- + +Stanza li. "Appear'dst thou not to Paris in this guise?"-- + +Stanza lii. "Glowing, and circumfused in speechless love,"-- + +Stanza liv.-lx. "In Santa Croce's holy precincts lie,"--"What is her +Pyramid of precious stones?"-- + +Stanza lxxx.-lxxxii. "The Goth, the Christian--Time--War--Flood, and +Fire,"--"Alas! the lofty city! and alas!"-- + +Stanza lxxxv. "Sylla was first of victors; but our own,"-- + +Stanza lxxxvi. "The third of the same Moon whose former course,"-- + +Stanza xciii.-xcvi. "What from this barren being do we reap?"--"Can +tyrants but by tyrants conquered be,"-- + +Stanza cix. "Admire--exult--despise--laugh--weep,--for here,"-- + +Stanza cxii.-cxiv. "Where is the rock of Triumph, the high +place,"--"Then turn we to her latest Tribune's name,"-- + +Stanza cxxiii. "Who loves, raves--'tis youth's frenzy--but the cure,"-- + +Stanza cxxv.-cxxvii. "Few--none--find what they love or could have +loved,"--"Yet let us ponder boldly--'tis a base,"-- + +Stanza cxxxv.-cxxxvii. "That curse shall be Forgiveness,--Have I +not,"--"But I have lived, and have not lived in vain,"-- + +Stanza clii. "Turn to the Mole which Hadrian reared on high,"-- + +Stanza clxvii.-clxxii. "Hark! forth from the abyss a voice +proceeds,"--(On the death of the Princess Charlotte, November 6, +1817.)--"These might have been her destiny--but no,"-- + +Stanza clxxiii. "Lo, Nemi! navelled in the woody hills,"-- + +Stanza clxxiv. "And near, Albano's scarce divided waves,"-- + +Stanza clxxvii. "Oh! that the Desert were my dwelling-place,"--(1818.) + +Stanza clxxviii. "There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,"--(1818.) + +Stanza clxxxi. "The armaments which thunderstrike the walls,"-- + +Stanza clxxxii. "Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee,"-- + + (52 stanzas.) + + ADDITIONS INCLUDED IN MS. D.,[363] BUT NOT AMONG MSS. M. + +Stanza xli. "The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust,"-- + +Stanza xcvii. "But France got drunk with blood to vomit crime,"-- + +Stanza xcviii. "Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying,"-- + +Stanza cxx. "Alas! our young affections run to waste,"-- + +Stanza cxxi. "Oh, Love! no habitant of earth thou art,"-- + +Stanza cxxii. "Of its own beauty is the mind diseased,"-- + +Stanza cxxiv. "We wither from our youth, we gasp away,"-- + + (Seven stanzas.) + + * * * * * + + TO + + JOHN HOBHOUSE, ESQ., A.M., F.R.S., + + &c., &c., &c. + Venice, _January_ 2, 1818. + + * * * * * + +My dear Hobhouse, + +After an interval of eight years between the composition of the first +and last cantos of _Childe Harold_, the conclusion of the poem is about +to be submitted to the public. In parting with so old a friend,[364] it +is not extraordinary that I should recur to one still older and +better,--to one who has beheld the birth and death of the other, and to +whom I am far more indebted for the social advantages of an enlightened +friendship, than--though not ungrateful--I can, or could be, to _Childe +Harold_, for any public favour reflected through the poem on the +poet,--to one, whom I have known long, and accompanied far, whom I have +found wakeful over my sickness and kind in my sorrow, glad in my +prosperity and firm in my adversity, true in counsel and trusty in +peril,--to a friend often tried and never found wanting;--to yourself. + +In so doing, I recur from fiction to truth; and in dedicating to you in +its complete, or at least concluded state, a poetical work which is the +longest, the most thoughtful and comprehensive of my compositions, I +wish to do honour to myself by the record of many years' intimacy with a +man of learning, of talent, of steadiness, and of honour. It is not for +minds like ours to give or to receive flattery; yet the praises of +sincerity have ever been permitted to the voice of friendship; and it is +not for you, nor even for others, but to relieve a heart which has not +elsewhere, or lately, been so much accustomed to the encounter of +good-will as to withstand the shock firmly, that I thus attempt to +commemorate your good qualities, or rather the advantages which I have +derived from their exertion. Even the recurrence of the date of this +letter, the anniversary of the most unfortunate day of my past +existence,[365] but which cannot poison my future while I retain the +resource of your friendship, and of my own faculties, will henceforth +have a more agreeable recollection for both, inasmuch as it will remind +us of this my attempt to thank you for an indefatigable regard, such as +few men have experienced, and no one could experience without thinking +better of his species and of himself. + +It has been our fortune to traverse together, at various periods, the +countries of chivalry, history, and fable--Spain, Greece, Asia Minor, +and Italy; and what Athens and Constantinople were to us a few years +ago, Venice and Rome have been more recently. The poem also, or the +pilgrim, or both, have accompanied me from first to last; and perhaps it +may be a pardonable vanity which induces me to reflect with complacency +on a composition which in some degree connects me with the spot where it +was produced, and the objects it would fain describe; and however +unworthy it may be deemed of those magical and memorable abodes, however +short it may fall of our distant conceptions and immediate impressions, +yet as a mark of respect for what is venerable, and of feeling for what +is glorious, it has been to me a source of pleasure in the production, +and I part with it with a kind of regret, which I hardly suspected that +events could have left me for imaginary objects. + +With regard to the conduct of the last canto, there will be found less +of the pilgrim than in any of the preceding, and that little slightly, +if at all, separated from the author speaking in his own person. The +fact is, that I had become weary of drawing a line which every one +seemed determined not to perceive: like the Chinese in Goldsmith's +_Citizen of the World_,[366] whom nobody would believe to be a Chinese, +it was in vain that I asserted, and imagined that I had drawn, a +distinction between the author and the pilgrim; and the very anxiety to +preserve this difference, and disappointment at finding it unavailing, +so far crushed my efforts in the composition, that I determined to +abandon it altogether--and have done so. The opinions which have been, +or may be, formed on that subject are _now_ a matter of indifference: +the work is to depend on itself, and not on the writer; and the author, +who has no resources in his own mind beyond the reputation, transient or +permanent, which is to arise from his literary efforts, deserves the +fate of authors. + +In the course of the following canto it was my intention, either in the +text or in the notes, to have touched upon the present state of Italian +literature, and perhaps of manners. But the text, within the limits I +proposed, I soon found hardly sufficient for the labyrinth of external +objects, and the consequent reflections: and for the whole of the notes, +excepting a few of the shortest, I am indebted to yourself,[367] and +these were necessarily limited to the elucidation of the text. + +It is also a delicate, and no very grateful task, to dissert upon the +literature and manners of a nation so dissimilar; and requires an +attention and impartiality which would induce us,--though perhaps no +inattentive observers, nor ignorant of the language or customs of the +people amongst whom we have recently abode--to distrust, or at least +defer our judgment, and more narrowly examine our information. The state +of literary, as well as political party, appears to run, or to _have_ +run, so high, that for a stranger to steer impartially between them is +next to impossible. It may be enough, then, at least for my purpose, to +quote from their own beautiful language--"Mi pare che in un paese tutto +poetico, che vanta la lingua la piu nobile ed insieme la piu dolce, +tutte tutte le vie diverse si possono tentare, e che sinche la patria di +Alfieri e di Monti non ha perduto l'antico valore, in tutte essa +dovrebbe essere la prima." Italy has great names still--Canova,[368] +Monti, Ugo Foscolo, Pindemonte, Visconti, Morelli, Cicognara, Albrizzi, +Mezzofanti, Mai, Mustoxidi, Aglietti, and Vacca, will secure to the +present generation an honourable place in most of the departments of +Art, Science, and Belles Lettres; and in some the very +highest--Europe--the World--has but one Canova. + +It has been somewhere said by Alfieri, that "La pianta uomo nasce piu +robusta in Italia che in qualunque altra terra--e che gli stessi atroci +delitti che vi si commettono ne sono una prova." Without subscribing to +the latter part of his proposition, a dangerous doctrine, the truth of +which may be disputed on better grounds, namely, that the Italians are +in no respect more ferocious than their neighbours, that man must be +wilfully blind, or ignorantly heedless, who is not struck with the +extraordinary capacity of this people, or, if such a word be admissible, +their _capabilities_,[369] the facility of their acquisitions, the +rapidity of their conceptions, the fire of their genius, their sense of +beauty, and, amidst all the disadvantages of repeated revolutions, the +desolation of battles, and the despair of ages, their still unquenched +"longing after immortality,"[370]--the immortality of independence. And +when we ourselves, in riding round the walls of Rome, heard the simple +lament of the labourers' chorus, "Roma! Roma! Roma! Roma non e piu come +era prima!"[371] it was difficult not to contrast this melancholy dirge +with the bacchanal roar of the songs of exultation still yelled from the +London taverns, over the carnage of Mont St. Jean,[372] and the betrayal +of Genoa, of Italy, of France, and of the world, by men whose conduct +you yourself have exposed in a work worthy of the better days of our +history.[373] For me,-- + + "Non movero mai corda + Ove la turba di sue ciance assorda." + +What Italy has gained by the late transfer of nations, it were useless +for Englishmen to enquire, till it becomes ascertained that England has +acquired something more than a permanent army and a suspended Habeas +Corpus;[374] it is enough for them to look at home. For what they have +done abroad, and especially in the South, "Verily they _will have_ their +reward," and at no very distant period. + +Wishing you, my dear Hobhouse, a safe and agreeable return to that +country whose real welfare can be dearer to none than to yourself, I +dedicate to you this poem in its completed state; and repeat once more +how truly I am ever + + Your obliged + And affectionate friend, + BYRON. + + + + +CANTO THE FOURTH[375] + + I. + + I stood in Venice, on the "Bridge of Sighs;"[376][1.H.] + A Palace and a prison on each hand: + I saw from out the wave her structures rise + As from the stroke of the Enchanter's wand:[377] + A thousand Years their cloudy wings expand + Around me, and a dying Glory smiles + O'er the far times, when many a subject land + Looked to the winged Lion's marble piles, + Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles![lb] + + II. + + She looks a sea Cybele,[378] fresh from Ocean, + Rising with her tiara of proud towers + At airy distance, with majestic motion, + A Ruler of the waters and their powers: + And such she was;--her daughters had their dowers + From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East[lc] + Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.[379] + In purple was she robed,[380] and of her feast + Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increased.[ld] + + III. + + In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more,[2.H.] + And silent rows the songless Gondolier;[381] + Her palaces are crumbling to the shore, + And Music meets not always now the ear: + Those days are gone--but Beauty still is here. + States fall--Arts fade--but Nature doth not die, + Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear, + The pleasant place of all festivity,[le] + The Revel of the earth--the Masque of Italy! + + IV. + + But unto us she hath a spell beyond + Her name in story, and her long array + Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despond + Above the Dogeless city's vanished sway; + Ours is a trophy which will not decay + With the Rialto;[382] Shylock and the Moor, + And Pierre,[383] can not be swept or worn away-- + The keystones of the Arch! though all were o'er, + For us repeopled were the solitary shore. + + V. + + The Beings of the Mind are not of clay: + Essentially immortal, they create + And multiply in us a brighter ray + And more beloved existence:[384] that which Fate + Prohibits to dull life in this our state[lf] + Of mortal bondage, by these Spirits supplied, + First exiles, then replaces what we hate; + Watering the heart whose early flowers have died, + And with a fresher growth replenishing the void. + + VI. + + Such is the refuge of our youth and age-- + The first from Hope, the last from Vacancy;[385] + And this wan feeling peoples many a page--[lg] + And, may be, that which grows beneath mine eye:[lh] + Yet there are things whose strong reality + Outshines our fairy-land; in shape and hues[li] + More beautiful than our fantastic sky, + And the strange constellations which the Muse + O'er her wild universe is skilful to diffuse: + + VII. + + I saw or dreamed of such,--but let them go,-- + They came like Truth--and disappeared like dreams; + And whatsoe'er they were--are now but so: + I could replace them if I would; still teems + My mind with many a form which aptly seems + Such as I sought for, and at moments found; + Let these too go--for waking Reason deems + Such over-weening phantasies unsound, + And other voices speak, and other sights surround. + + VIII. + + I've taught me other tongues--and in strange eyes + Have made me not a stranger; to the mind + Which is itself, no changes bring surprise; + Nor is it harsh to make, nor hard to find + A country with--aye, or without mankind; + Yet was I born where men are proud to be,-- + Not without cause; and should I leave behind[lj] + The inviolate Island of the sage and free, + And seek me out a home by a remoter sea,[lk] + + IX. + + Perhaps I loved it well; and should I lay + My ashes in a soil which is not mine, + My Spirit shall resume it--if we may[ll] + Unbodied choose a sanctuary.[386] I twine + My hopes of being remembered in my line + With my land's language: if too fond and far + These aspirations in their scope incline,-- + If my Fame should be, as my fortunes are, + Of hasty growth and blight, and dull Oblivion bar + + X. + + My name from out the temple where the dead + Are honoured by the Nations--let it be-- + And light the Laurels on a loftier head! + And be the Spartan's epitaph on me-- + "Sparta hath many a worthier son than he."[387] + Meantime I seek no sympathies, nor need-- + The thorns which I have reaped are of the tree + I planted,--they have torn me,--and I bleed: + I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed. + + XI. + + The spouseless Adriatic mourns her Lord,[lm] + And annual marriage now no more renewed-- + The Bucentaur[388] lies rotting unrestored, + Neglected garment of her widowhood! + St. Mark yet sees his Lion[389] where he stood[3.H.] + Stand, but in mockery of his withered power, + Over the proud Place where an Emperor sued,[ln][390] + And monarchs gazed and envied in the hour + When Venice was a Queen with an unequalled dower. + + XII. + + The Suabian sued, and now the Austrian reigns--[4.H.] + An Emperor tramples where an Emperor knelt; + Kingdoms are shrunk to provinces, and chains + Clank over sceptred cities; Nations melt + From Power's high pinnacle, when they have felt + The sunshine for a while, and downward go + Like Lauwine loosened from the mountain's belt; + Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo![391][5.H.] + Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe.[lo][392] + + XIII. + + Before St. Mark still glow his Steeds of brass, + Their gilded collars glittering in the sun; + But is not Doria's menace[393] come to pass?[6.H.] + Are they not bridled?--Venice, lost and won, + Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done, + Sinks, like a sea-weed, unto whence she rose![lp][394] + Better be whelmed beneath the waves, and shun, + Even in Destruction's depth, her foreign foes,[lq] + From whom Submission wrings an infamous repose. + + XIV. + + In youth She was all glory,--a new Tyre,-- + Her very by-word sprung from Victory, + The "Planter of the Lion,"[395] which through fire + And blood she bore o'er subject Earth and Sea; + Though making many slaves, Herself still free, + And Europe's bulwark 'gainst the Ottomite;[396] + Witness Troy's rival, Candia![397] Vouch it, ye + Immortal waves that saw Lepanto's fight![398] + For ye are names no Time nor Tyranny can blight. + + XV. + + Statues of glass--all shivered--the long file + Of her dead Doges are declined to dust; + But where they dwelt, the vast and sumptuous pile + Bespeaks the pageant of their splendid trust; + Their sceptre broken, and their sword in rust, + Have yielded to the stranger: empty halls, + Thin streets, and foreign aspects, such as must + Too oft remind her who and what enthrals,[7.H.] + Have flung a desolate cloud o'er Venice' lovely walls. + + XVI. + + When Athens' armies fell at Syracuse, + And fettered thousands bore the yoke of war, + Redemption rose up in the Attic Muse,[399] + Her voice their only ransom from afar:[lr] + See! as they chant the tragic hymn, the car + Of the o'ermastered Victor stops--the reins + Fall from his hands--his idle scimitar + Starts from its belt--he rends his captive's chains, + And bids him thank the Bard for Freedom and his strains.[ls] + + XVII. + + Thus, Venice! if no stronger claim were thine, + Were all thy proud historic deeds forgot-- + Thy choral memory of the Bard divine, + Thy love of Tasso, should have cut the knot[lt] + Which ties thee to thy tyrants; and thy lot + Is shameful to the nations,--most of all, + Albion! to thee:[400] the Ocean queen should not + Abandon Ocean's children; in the fall + Of Venice think of thine, despite thy watery wall.[lu] + + XVIII. + + I loved her from my boyhood--she to me + Was as a fairy city of the heart, + Rising like water-columns from the sea-- + Of Joy the sojourn, and of Wealth the mart; + And Otway, Radcliffe, Schiller, Shakespeare's art,[lv][401] + Had stamped her image in me, and even so, + Although I found her thus, we did not part;[lw] + Perchance even dearer in her day of woe, + Than when she was a boast, a marvel, and a show. + + XIX. + + I can repeople with the past--and of + The present there is still for eye and thought, + And meditation chastened down, enough; + And more, it may be, than I hoped or sought; + And of the happiest moments which were wrought + Within the web of my existence, some + From thee, fair Venice![402] have their colours caught: + There are some feelings Time can not benumb,[lx] + Nor Torture shake, or mine would now be cold and dumb. + + XX. + + But from their nature will the Tannen[403] grow[ly] + Loftiest on loftiest and least sheltered rocks, + Rooted in barrenness, where nought below + Of soil supports them 'gainst the Alpine shocks + Of eddying storms; yet springs the trunk, and mocks + The howling tempest, till its height and frame + Are worthy of the mountains from whose blocks + Of bleak, gray granite into life it came,[lz] + And grew a giant tree;--the Mind may grow the same. + + XXI. + + Existence may be borne, and the deep root + Of life and sufferance make its firm abode + In bare and desolated bosoms: mute[ma] + The camel labours with the heaviest load, + And the wolf dies in silence--not bestowed + In vain should such example be; if they, + Things of ignoble or of savage mood, + Endure and shrink not, we of nobler clay + May temper it to bear,--it is but for a day. + + XXII. + + All suffering doth destroy, or is destroyed,[404] + Even by the sufferer--and, in each event, + Ends:--Some, with hope replenished and rebuoyed, + Return to whence they came--with like intent, + And weave their web again; some, bowed and bent, + Wax gray and ghastly, withering ere their time, + And perish with the reed on which they leant; + Some seek devotion--toil--war--good or crime, + According as their souls were formed to sink or climb. + + XXIII. + + But ever and anon of griefs subdued + There comes a token like a Scorpion's sting, + Scarce seen, but with fresh bitterness imbued; + And slight withal may be the things which bring + Back on the heart the weight which it would fling + Aside for ever: it may be a sound--[405] + A tone of music--summer's eve--or spring--[mb] + A flower--the wind--the Ocean--which shall wound, + Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound; + + XXIV. + + And how and why we know not, nor can trace + Home to its cloud this lightning of the mind, + But feel the shock renewed, nor can efface + The blight and blackening which it leaves behind, + Which out of things familiar, undesigned, + When least we deem of such, calls up to view + The Spectres whom no exorcism can bind,-- + The cold--the changed--perchance the dead, anew-- + The mourned--the loved--the lost--too many! yet how few![406] + + XXV. + + But my Soul wanders; I demand it back + To meditate amongst decay, and stand + A ruin amidst ruins; there to track + Fall'n states and buried greatness, o'er a land + Which _was_ the mightiest in its old command, + And _is_ the loveliest, and must ever be + The master-mould of Nature's heavenly hand; + Wherein were cast the heroic and the free,-- + The beautiful--the brave--the Lords of earth and sea, + + XXVI. + + The Commonwealth of Kings--the Men of Rome! + And even since, and now, fair Italy! + Thou art the Garden of the World, the Home + Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree; + Even in thy desert, what is like to thee? + Thy very weeds are beautiful--thy waste + More rich than other climes' fertility; + Thy wreck a glory--and thy ruin graced + With an immaculate charm which cannot be defaced. + + XXVII. + + The Moon is up, and yet it is not night-- + Sunset divides the sky with her--a sea + Of glory streams along the Alpine height + Of blue Friuli's mountains;[407] Heaven is free + From clouds, but of all colours seems to be,-- + Melted to one vast Iris of the West,-- + Where the Day joins the past Eternity; + While, on the other hand, meek Dian's crest + Floats through the azure air--an island of the blest![408] + + XXVIII. + + A single star is at her side, and reigns + With her o'er half the lovely heaven; but still + Yon sunny Sea heaves brightly, and remains + Rolled o'er the peak of the far Rhaetian hill, + As Day and Night contending were, until + Nature reclaimed her order:--gently flows + The deep-dyed Brenta,[409] where their hues instil + The odorous purple of a new-born rose, + Which streams upon her stream, and glassed within it glows, + + XXIX. + + Filled with the face of heaven, which, from afar, + Comes down upon the waters! all its hues, + From the rich sunset to the rising star, + Their magical variety diffuse: + And now they change--a paler Shadow strews + Its mantle o'er the mountains; parting Day + Dies like the Dolphin, whom each pang imbues + With a new colour as it gasps away-- + The last still loveliest, till--'tis gone--and all is gray. + + XXX. + + There is a tomb in Arqua;--reared in air, + Pillared in their sarcophagus, repose + The bones of Laura's lover: here repair + Many familiar with his well-sung woes, + The Pilgrims of his Genius. He arose + To raise a language, and his land reclaim + From the dull yoke of her barbaric foes: + Watering the tree which bears his Lady's name[410][8.H.] + With his melodious tears, he gave himself to Fame. + + XXXI. + + They keep his dust in Arqua,[411] where he died--[9.H.] + The mountain-village where his latter days + Went down the vale of years; and 'tis their pride-- + An honest pride--and let it be their praise, + To offer to the passing stranger's gaze + His mansion and his sepulchre--both plain[mc] + And venerably simple--such as raise + A feeling more accordant with his strain + Than if a Pyramid formed his monumental fane.[md] + + XXXII. + + And the soft quiet hamlet where he dwelt + Is one of that complexion which seems made + For those who their mortality[412] have felt, + And sought a refuge from their hopes decayed + In the deep umbrage of a green hill's shade, + Which shows a distant prospect far away + Of busy cities, now in vain displayed, + For they can lure no further; and the ray[413] + Of a bright Sun can make sufficient holiday, + + XXXIII. + + Developing the mountains, leaves, and flowers, + And shining in the brawling brook, where-by, + Clear as its current, glide the sauntering hours + With a calm languor, which, though to the eye + Idlesse it seem, hath its morality-- + If from society we learn to live,[me] + 'Tis Solitude should teach us how to die; + It hath no flatterers--Vanity can give + No hollow aid; alone--man with his God must strive:[mf] + + XXXIV. + + Or, it may be, with Demons,[414] who impair + The strength of better thoughts, and seek their prey + In melancholy bosoms--such as were + Of moody texture from their earliest day, + And loved to dwell in darkness and dismay + Deeming themselves predestined to a doom + Which is not of the pangs that pass away;[mg] + Making the Sun like blood, the Earth a tomb, + The tomb a hell--and Hell itself a murkier gloom.[mh] + + XXXV. + + Ferrara![415] in thy wide and grass-grown streets, + Whose symmetry was not for solitude, + There seems as 'twere a curse upon the Seats + Of former Sovereigns, and the antique brood + Of Este,[416] which for many an age made good + Its strength within thy walls, and was of yore + Patron or Tyrant, as the changing mood + Of petty power impelled, of those who wore + The wreath which Dante's brow alone had worn before. + + XXXVI. + + And Tasso is their glory and their shame-- + Hark to his strain! and then survey his cell![417] + And see how dearly earned Torquato's fame, + And where Alfonso bade his poet dwell: + The miserable Despot could not quell + The insulted mind he sought to quench, and blend + With the surrounding maniacs, in the hell + Where he had plunged it. Glory without end + Scattered the clouds away--and on that name attend + + XXXVII. + + The tears and praises of all time, while thine + Would rot in its oblivion--in the sink + Of worthless dust, which from thy boasted line + Is shaken into nothing--but the link + Thou formest in his fortunes bids us think + Of thy poor malice, naming thee with scorn: + Alfonso! how thy ducal pageants shrink + From thee! if in another station born,[mi] + Scarce fit to be the slave of him thou mad'st to mourn: + + XXXVIII. + + _Thou!_ formed to eat, and be despised, and die, + Even as the beasts that perish--save that thou + Hadst a more splendid trough and wider sty:-- + _He!_ with a glory round his furrowed brow, + Which emanated then, and dazzles now, + In face of all his foes, the Cruscan quire,[418][10.H.] + And Boileau, whose rash envy could allow[mj] + No strain which shamed his country's creaking lyre, + That whetstone of the teeth--Monotony in wire![mk][419] + + XXXIX. + + Peace to Torquato's injured shade! 'twas his + In life and death to be the mark where Wrong + Aimed with her poisoned arrows,--but to miss. + Oh, Victor unsurpassed in modern song! + Each year brings forth its millions--but how long + The tide of Generations shall roll on, + And not the whole combined and countless throng + Compose a mind like thine? though all in one[ml] + Condensed their scattered rays--they would not form a Sun.[mm] + + XL. + + Great as thou art, yet paralleled by those, + Thy countrymen, before thee born to shine, + The Bards of Hell and Chivalry: first rose + The Tuscan Father's Comedy Divine; + Then, not unequal to the Florentine, + The southern Scott, the minstrel who called forth + A new creation with his magic line, + And, like the Ariosto of the North,[420] + Sang Ladye-love and War, Romance and Knightly Worth. + + XLI. + + The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust[11.H.] + The iron crown of laurel's mimicked leaves; + Nor was the ominous element unjust, + For the true laurel-wreath which Glory weaves[12.H.] + Is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves, + And the false semblance but disgraced his brow; + Yet still, if fondly Superstition grieves, + Know, that the lightning sanctifies below[13.H.] + Whate'er it strikes;--yon head is doubly sacred now. + + XLII. + + Italia! oh, Italia! thou who hast[421] + The fatal gift of Beauty, which became + A funeral dower of present woes and past-- + On thy sweet brow is sorrow ploughed by shame,[mn] + And annals graved in characters of flame. + Oh, God! that thou wert in thy nakedness + Less lovely or more powerful, and couldst claim + Thy right, and awe the robbers back, who press + To shed thy blood, and drink the tears of thy distress; + + XLIII. + + Then might'st thou more appal--or, less desired, + Be homely and be peaceful, undeplored[mo] + For thy destructive charms; then, still untired, + Would not be seen the armed torrents poured + Down the deep Alps; nor would the hostile horde + Of many-nationed spoilers from the Po + Quaff blood and water; nor the stranger's sword + Be thy sad weapon of defence--and so, + Victor or vanquished, thou the slave of friend or foe. + + XLIV. + + Wandering in youth, I traced the path of him, + The Roman friend of Rome's least-mortal mind,[422] + The friend of Tully: as my bark did skim + The bright blue waters with a fanning wind, + Came Megara before me, and behind + AEgina lay--Piraeus on the right, + And Corinth on the left; I lay reclined + Along the prow, and saw all these unite + In ruin--even as he had seen the desolate sight; + + XLV. + + For Time hath not rebuilt them, but upreared + Barbaric dwellings on their shattered site, + Which only make more mourned and more endeared + The few last rays of their far-scattered light, + And the crashed relics of their vanished might. + The Roman saw these tombs in his own age, + These sepulchres of cities, which excite[mp] + Sad wonder, and his yet surviving page + The moral lesson bears, drawn from such pilgrimage. + + XLVI. + + That page is now before me, and on mine + _His_ Country's ruin added to the mass + Of perished states he mourned in their decline, + And I in desolation: all that _was_ + Of then destruction _is_; and now, alas! + Rome--Rome imperial, bows her to the storm,[423] + In the same dust and blackness, and we pass + The skeleton of her Titanic form,[424] + Wrecks of another world, whose ashes still are warm. + + XLVII. + + Yet, Italy! through every other land + Thy wrongs should ring--and shall--from side to side;[425] + Mother of Arts! as once of Arms! thy hand + Was then our Guardian, and is still our Guide; + Parent of our Religion! whom the wide + Nations have knelt to for the keys of Heaven! + Europe, repentant of her parricide, + Shall yet redeem thee, and, all backward driven, + Roll the barbarian tide, and sue to be forgiven. + + XLVIII. + + But Arno wins us to the fair white walls, + Where the Etrurian Athens claims and keeps + A softer feeling for her fairy halls: + Girt by her theatre of hills, she reaps + Her corn, and wine, and oil--and Plenty leaps + To laughing life, with her redundant Horn. + Along the banks where smiling Arno sweeps + Was modern Luxury of Commerce born,[mq][426] + And buried Learning rose, redeemed to a new Morn. + + XLIX. + + There, too, the Goddess loves in stone, and fills[mr][427][14.H.] + The air around with Beauty--we inhale[ms] + The ambrosial aspect, which, beheld, instils + Part of its immortality--the veil + Of heaven is half undrawn--within the pale + We stand, and in that form and face behold + What Mind can make, when Nature's self would fail; + And to the fond Idolaters of old + Envy the innate flash which such a Soul could mould: + + L. + + We gaze and turn away, and know not where, + Dazzled and drunk with Beauty,[428] till the heart + Reels with its fulness; there--for ever there-- + Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art, + We stand as captives, and would not depart. + Away!--there need no words, nor terms precise, + The paltry jargon of the marble mart, + Where Pedantry gulls Folly--we have eyes: + Blood--pulse--and breast confirm the Dardan Shepherd's prize. + + LI. + + Appear'dst thou not to Paris in this guise? + Or to more deeply blest Anchises? or, + In all thy perfect Goddess-ship, when lies + Before thee thy own vanquished Lord of War? + And gazing in thy face as toward a star, + Laid on thy lap, his eyes to thee upturn, + Feeding on thy sweet cheek![429] while thy lips are + With lava kisses melting while they burn, + Showered on his eyelids, brow, and mouth, as from an urn! + + LII. + + Glowing, and circumfused in speechless love--[mt][430] + Their full divinity inadequate + That feeling to express, or to improve-- + The Gods become as mortals--and man's fate[mu] + Has moments like their brightest; but the weight + Of earth recoils upon us;--let it go! + We can recall such visions, and create, + From what has been, or might be, things which grow + Into thy statue's form, and look like gods below. + + LIII. + + I leave to learned fingers, and wise hands, + The Artist and his Ape, to teach and tell + How well his Connoisseurship understands + The graceful bend, and the voluptuous swell: + Let these describe the undescribable: + I would not their vile breath should crisp the stream + Wherein that Image shall for ever dwell-- + The unruffled mirror of the loveliest dream + That ever left the sky on the deep soul to beam. + + LIV. + + In Santa Croce's[431] holy precincts lie[15.H.] + Ashes which make it holier, dust which is + Even in itself an immortality, + Though there were nothing save the past, and this, + The particle of those sublimities + Which have relapsed to chaos:--here repose + Angelo's--Alfieri's[432] bones--and his,[16.H.] + The starry Galileo, with his woes; + Here Machiavelli's earth returned to whence it rose.[17.H.] + + LV. + + These are four minds, which, like the elements, + Might furnish forth creation:--Italy![mv] + Time, which hath wronged thee with ten thousand rents + Of thine imperial garment, shall deny[mw] + And hath denied, to every other sky, + Spirits which soar from ruin:--thy Decay + Is still impregnate with divinity, + Which gilds it with revivifying ray; + Such as the great of yore, Canova[433] is to-day. + + LVI. + + But where repose the all Etruscan three-- + Dante, and Petrarch, and, scarce less than they, + The Bard of Prose, creative Spirit! he[mx] + Of the Hundred Tales of Love--where did they lay + Their bones, distinguished from our common clay + In death as life? Are they resolved to dust, + And have their Country's Marbles nought to say? + Could not her quarries furnish forth one bust? + Did they not to her breast their filial earth entrust? + + LVII. + + Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar,[434][18.H.] + Like Scipio buried by the upbraiding shore:[435][19.H.] + Thy factions, in their worse than civil war,[436] + Proscribed the Bard whose name for evermore + Their children's children would in vain adore + With the remorse of ages; and the crown[437][20.H.] + Which Petrarch's laureate brow supremely wore, + Upon a far and foreign soil had grown, + His Life, his Fame, his Grave, though rifled--not thine own.[438] + + LVIII. + + Boccaccio[439] to his parent earth bequeathed[my][21.H.] + His dust,--and lies it not her Great among, + With many a sweet and solemn requiem breathed + O'er him who formed the Tuscan's siren tongue?[440] + That music in itself, whose sounds are song, + The poetry of speech? No;--even his tomb + Uptorn, must bear the hyaena bigot's wrong, + No more amidst the meaner dead find room, + Nor claim a passing sigh, because it told for _whom!_ + + LIX. + + And Santa Croce wants their mighty dust; + Yet for this want more noted, as of yore + The Caesar's pageant,[441] shorn of Brutus' bust, + Did but of Rome's best Son remind her more: + Happier Ravenna! on thy hoary shore, + Fortress of falling Empire! honoured sleeps[mz] + The immortal Exile;--Arqua, too, her store + Of tuneful relics proudly claims and keeps, + While Florence vainly begs her banished dead and weeps.[442] + + LX. + + What is her Pyramid of precious stones?[22.H.] + Of porphyry, jasper, agate, and all hues + Of gem and marble, to encrust the bones + Of merchant-dukes?[443] the momentary dews + Which, sparkling to the twilight stars, infuse + Freshness in the green turf that wraps the dead, + Whose names are Mausoleums of the Muse, + Are gently prest with far more reverent tread + Than ever paced the slab which paves the princely head. + + LXI. + + There be more things to greet the heart and eyes + In Arno's dome of Art's most princely shrine, + Where Sculpture with her rainbow Sister vies;[444] + There be more marvels yet--but not for mine; + For I have been accustomed to entwine + My thoughts with Nature rather in the fields, + Than Art in galleries: though a work divine + Calls for my Spirit's homage, yet it yields + Less than it feels, because the weapon which it wields + + LXII. + + Is of another temper, and I roam + By Thrasimene's lake,[445] in the defiles + Fatal to Roman rashness, more at home; + For there the Carthaginian's warlike wiles + Come back before me, as his skill beguiles + The host between the mountains and the shore, + Where Courage falls in her despairing files,[na] + And torrents, swoll'n to rivers with their gore, + Reek through the sultry plain, with legions scattered o'er. + + LXIII. + + Like to a forest felled by mountain winds; + And such the storm of battle on this day, + And such the frenzy, whose convulsion blinds + To all save Carnage, that, beneath the fray, + An Earthquake[446] reeled unheededly away![23.H.] + None felt stern Nature rocking at his feet, + And yawning forth a grave for those who lay + Upon their bucklers for a winding sheet-- + Such is the absorbing hate when warring nations meet! + + LXIV. + + The Earth to them was as a rolling bark + Which bore them to Eternity--they saw + The Ocean round, but had no time to mark + The motions of their vessel; Nature's law, + In them suspended, recked not of the awe + Which reigns when mountains tremble, and the birds + Plunge in the clouds for refuge, and withdraw[nb] + From their down-toppling nests; and bellowing herds + Stumble o'er heaving plains--and Man's dread hath no words. + + LXV. + + Far other scene is Thrasimene now; + Her lake a sheet of silver, and her plain + Rent by no ravage save the gentle plough; + Her aged trees rise thick as once the slain + Lay where their roots are; but a brook hath ta'en-- + A little rill of scanty stream and bed-- + A name of blood from that day's sanguine rain; + And Sanguinetto tells ye where the dead + Made the earth wet, and turned the unwilling waters red.[nc] + + LXVI. + + But thou, Clitumnus[447]! in thy sweetest wave + Of the most living crystal that was e'er + The haunt of river-Nymph, to gaze and lave + Her limbs where nothing hid them, thou dost rear + Thy grassy banks whereon the milk-white steer[448] + Grazes--the purest God of gentle waters! + And most serene of aspect, and most clear; + Surely that stream was unprofaned by slaughters-- + A mirror and a bath for Beauty's youngest daughters! + + LXVII. + + And on thy happy shore a Temple[449] still, + Of small and delicate proportion, keeps + Upon a mild declivity of hill,[nd] + Its memory of thee; beneath it sweeps + Thy current's calmness; oft from out it leaps + The finny darter with the glittering scales,[450] + Who dwells and revels in thy glassy deeps; + While, chance, some scattered water-lily sails[ne] + Down where the shallower wave still tells its bubbling tales. + + LXVIII. + + Pass not unblest the Genius of the place! + If through the air a Zephyr more serene + Win to the brow, 'tis his; and if ye trace + Along his margin a more eloquent green, + If on the heart the freshness of the scene + Sprinkle its coolness, and from the dry dust + Of weary life a moment lave it clean + With Nature's baptism,--'tis to him ye must + Pay orisons for this suspension of disgust.[451] + + LXIX. + + The roar of waters!--from the headlong height + Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice; + The fall of waters! rapid as the light + The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss; + The Hell of Waters! where they howl and hiss, + And boil in endless torture; while the sweat + Of their great agony, wrung out from this + Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet + That gird the gulf around, in pitiless horror set, + + LXX. + + And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again + Returns in an unceasing shower, which round, + With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain, + Is an eternal April to the ground, + Making it all one emerald:--how profound[nf] + The gulf! and how the Giant Element + From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound,[ng] + Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent + With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent + + LXXI. + + To the broad column which rolls on, and shows + More like the fountain of an infant sea + Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes + Of a new world, than only thus to be + Parent of rivers, which flow gushingly, + With many windings, through the vale:--Look back! + Lo! where it comes like an Eternity, + As if to sweep down all things in its track, + Charming the eye with dread,--a matchless cataract,[452] + + LXXII. + + Horribly beautiful! but on the verge, + From side to side, beneath the glittering morn, + An Iris[453] sits, amidst the infernal surge, + Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworn + Its steady dyes, while all around is torn + By the distracted waters, bears serene + Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn: + Resembling, 'mid the torture of the scene, + Love watching Madness with unalterable mien. + + LXXIII. + + Once more upon the woody Apennine-- + The infant Alps, which--had I not before + Gazed on their mightier Parents, where the pine + Sits on more shaggy summits, and where roar[nh] + The thundering Lauwine[454]--might be worshipped more; + But I have seen the soaring Jungfrau rear[ni] + Her never-trodden snow, and seen the hoar + Glaciers of bleak Mont Blanc both far and near-- + And in Chimari heard the Thunder-Hills of fear, + + LXXIV. + + Th' Acroceraunian mountains of old name; + And on Parnassus seen the Eagles fly + Like Spirits of the spot, as 'twere for fame. + For still they soared unutterably high: + I've looked on Ida with a Trojan's eye; + Athos--Olympus--AEtna.--Atlas--made + These hills seem things of lesser dignity; + All, save the lone Soracte's height, displayed + Not _now_ in snow, which asks the lyric Roman's aid + + LXXV. + + For our remembrance, and from out the plain + Heaves like a long-swept wave about to break, + And on the curl hangs pausing: not in vain + May he, who will, his recollections rake, + And quote in classic raptures, and awake + The hills with Latian echoes--I abhorred + Too much, to conquer for the Poet's sake,[455] + The drilled dull lesson, forced down word by word + In my repugnant youth,[456] with pleasure to record + + LXXVI. + + Aught that recalls the daily drug which turned + My sickening memory; and, though Time hath taught + My mind to meditate what then it learned,[nj] + Yet such the fixed inveteracy wrought[nk] + By the impatience of my early thought, + That, with the freshness wearing out before + My mind could relish what it might have sought, + If free to choose, I cannot now restore + Its health--but what it then detested, still abhor.[nl] + + LXXVII. + + Then farewell, Horace--whom I hated so, + Not for thy faults, but mine: it is a curse + To understand, not feel thy lyric flow, + To comprehend, but never love thy verse; + Although no deeper Moralist rehearse + Our little life, nor Bard prescribe his art, + Nor livelier Satirist the conscience pierce, + Awakening without wounding the touched heart, + Yet fare thee well--upon Soracte's ridge we part. + + LXXVIII. + + Oh, Rome! my Country! City of the Soul! + The orphans of the heart must turn to thee, + Lone Mother of dead Empires! and control + In their shut breasts their petty misery. + What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see + The cypress--hear the owl--and plod your way + O'er steps of broken thrones and temples--Ye! + Whose agonies are evils of a day-- + A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay. + + LXXIX. + + The Niobe of nations! there she stands, + Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe;[nm] + empty urn within her withered hands, + Whose holy dust was scattered long ago; + The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now;[457] + The very sepulchres lie tenantless[458] + Of their heroic dwellers: dost thou flow, + Old Tiber! through a marble wilderness? + Rise, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress.[459] + + LXXX. + + The Goth, the Christian--Time--War--Flood, and Fire,[460] + Have dealt upon the seven-hilled City's pride; + She saw her glories star by star expire,[nn] + And up the steep barbarian Monarchs ride, + Where the car climbed the Capitol;[461] far and wide + Temple and tower went down, nor left a site: + Chaos of ruins! who shall trace the void, + O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light, + And say, "here was, or is," where all is doubly night? + + LXXXI. + + The double night of ages, and of her,[no] + Night's daughter, Ignorance,[462] hath wrapt and wrap + All round us; we but feel our way to err: + The Ocean hath his chart, the Stars their map, + And Knowledge spreads them on her ample lap; + But Rome is as the desert--where we steer + Stumbling o'er recollections; now we clap + Our hands, and cry "Eureka!" "it is clear"-- + When but some false Mirage of ruin rises near. + + LXXXII. + + Alas! the lofty city! and alas! + The trebly hundred triumphs![463] and the day + When Brutus made the dagger's edge surpass + The Conqueror's sword in bearing fame away! + Alas, for Tully's voice, and Virgil's lay,[np] + And Livy's pictured page!--but these shall be + Her resurrection; all beside--decay. + Alas, for Earth, for never shall we see + That brightness in her eye she bore when Rome was free! + + LXXXIII. + + Oh, thou, whose chariot rolled on Fortune's wheel, + Triumphant Sylla![464] Thou, who didst subdue + Thy country's foes ere thou wouldst pause to feel + The wrath of thy own wrongs, or reap the due + Of hoarded vengeance till thine Eagles flew + O'er prostrate Asia;--thou, who with thy frown + Annihilated senates;--Roman, too, + With all thy vices--for thou didst lay down + With an atoning smile a more than earthly crown, + + LXXXIV. + + Thy dictatorial wreath--couldst thou divine + To what would one day dwindle that which made + Thee more than mortal? and that so supine + By aught than Romans Rome should thus be laid?[nq] + She who was named Eternal, and arrayed + Her warriors but to conquer--she who veiled + Earth with her haughty shadow, and displayed,[nr] + Until the o'er-canopied horizon failed, + Her rushing wings--Oh! she who was Almighty hailed! + + LXXXV. + + Sylla was first of victors; but our own,[ns] + The sagest of usurpers, Cromwell!--he + Too swept off senates while he hewed the throne + Down to a block--immortal rebel! See + What crimes it costs to be a moment free, + And famous through all ages! but beneath + His fate the moral lurks of destiny; + His day of double victory and death + Beheld him win two realms, and, happier, yield his breath.[465] + + LXXXVI. + + The third of the same Moon whose former course + Had all but crowned him, on the selfsame day + Deposed him gently from his throne of force, + And laid him with the Earth's preceding clay. + And showed not Fortune thus how fame and sway, + And all we deem delightful, and consume + Our souls to compass through each arduous way, + Are in her eyes less happy than the tomb? + Were they but so in Man's, how different were his doom! + + LXXXVII. + + And thou, dread Statue![466] yet existent in[24.H.] + The austerest form of naked majesty-- + Thou who beheldest, 'mid the assassins' din, + At thy bathed base the bloody Caesar lie, + Folding his robe in dying dignity-- + An offering to thine altar from the Queen + Of gods and men, great Nemesis! did he die, + And thou, too, perish, Pompey? have ye been + Victors of countless kings, or puppets of a scene? + + LXXXVIII. + + And thou, the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome![467][25.H.] + She-wolf! whose brazen-imaged dugs impart + The milk of conquest yet within the dome + Where, as a monument of antique art, + Thou standest:--Mother of the mighty heart, + Which the great Founder sucked from thy wild teat, + Scorched by the Roman Jove's ethereal dart, + And thy limbs black with lightning--dost thou yet + Guard thine immortal cubs, nor thy fond charge forget? + + LXXXIX. + + Thou dost;--but all thy foster-babes are dead-- + The men of iron; and the World hath reared + Cities from out their sepulchres: men bled + In imitation of the things[468] they feared, + And fought and conquered, and the same course steered, + At apish distance; but as yet none have, + Nor could, the same supremacy have neared, + Save one vain Man, who is not in the grave-- + But, vanquished by himself, to his own slaves a slave--[469] + + XC. + + The fool of false dominion--and a kind + Of bastard Caesar, following him of old + With steps unequal; for the Roman's mind + Was modelled in a less terrestrial mould,[26.H.] + With passions fiercer, yet a judgment cold,[470] + And an immortal instinct which redeemed + The frailties of a heart so soft, yet bold-- + Alcides with the distaff now he seemed + At Cleopatra's feet,--and now himself he beamed, + + XCI. + + And came--and saw--and conquered![471] But the man + Who would have tamed his Eagles down to flee, + Like a trained falcon, in the Gallic van,[472] + Which he, in sooth, long led to Victory, + With a deaf heart which never seemed to be + A listener to itself, was strangely framed; + With but one weakest weakness--Vanity--[nt] + Coquettish in ambition--still he aimed-- + And what? can he avouch, or answer what he claimed?[nu] + + XCII. + + And would be all or nothing--nor could wait + For the sure grave to level him; few years + Had fixed him with the Caesars in his fate + On whom we tread: For _this_ the conqueror rears + The Arch of Triumph! and for this the tears + And blood of earth flow on as they have flowed, + An universal Deluge, which appears + Without an Ark for wretched Man's abode, + And ebbs but to reflow!--Renew thy rainbow, God![nv] + + XCIII. + + What from this barren being do we reap?[473] + Our senses narrow, and our reason frail, + Life short, and truth a gem which loves the deep, + And all things weighed in Custom's falsest scale;[474] + Opinion an Omnipotence,--whose veil + Mantles the earth with darkness, until right + And wrong are accidents, and Men grow pale + Lest their own judgments should become too bright, + And their free thoughts be crimes, and Earth have too much light. + + XCIV. + + And thus they plod in sluggish misery,[nw] + Rotting from sire to son, and age to age,[475] + Proud of their trampled nature, and so die,[nx] + Bequeathing their hereditary rage + To the new race of inborn slaves, who wage + War for their chains, and rather than be free, + Bleed gladiator-like, and still engage + Within the same Arena where they see + Their fellows fall before, like leaves of the same tree. + + XCV. + + I speak not of men's creeds--they rest between + Man and his Maker--but of things allowed, + Averred, and known, and daily, hourly seen-- + The yoke that is upon us doubly bowed, + And the intent of Tyranny avowed, + The edict of Earth's rulers, who are grown + The apes of him who humbled once the proud, + And shook them from their slumbers on the throne; + Too glorious, were this all his mighty arm had done. + + XCVI. + + Can tyrants but by tyrants conquered be, + And Freedom find no Champion and no Child[476] + Such as Columbia saw arise when she + Sprung forth a Pallas, armed and undefined? + Or must such minds be nourished in the wild, + Deep in the unpruned forest, 'midst the roar[ny] + Of cataracts, where nursing Nature smiled + On infant Washington? Has Earth no more + Such seeds within her breast, or Europe no such shore? + + XCVII. + + But France got drunk with blood to vomit crime;[nz] + And fatal have her Saturnalia been[oa] + To Freedom's cause, in every age and clime; + Because the deadly days which we have seen, + And vile Ambition, that built up between + Man and his hopes an adamantine wall, + And the base pageant[477] last upon the scene, + Are grown the pretext for the eternal thrall + Which nips Life's tree, and dooms Man's worst--his second fall.[478] + + XCVIII. + + Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, + Streams like the thunder-storm _against_ the wind;[479] + Thy trumpet voice, though broken now and dying, + The loudest still the Tempest leaves behind; + Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the rind, + Chopped by the axe, looks rough and little worth, + But the sap lasts,--and still the seed we find + Sown deep, even in the bosom of the North; + So shall a better spring less bitter fruit bring forth. + + XCIX. + + There is a stern round tower of other days[480] + Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone, + Such as an army's baffled strength delays, + Standing with half its battlements alone, + And with two thousand years of ivy grown, + The garland of Eternity, where wave + The green leaves over all by Time o'erthrown;-- + What was this tower of strength? within its cave + What treasure lay so locked, so hid?--A woman's grave.[ob] + + C. + + But who was she, the Lady of the dead, + Tombed in a palace? Was she chaste and fair? + Worthy a king's--or more--a Roman's bed? + What race of Chiefs and Heroes did she bear? + What daughter of her beauties was the heir? + How lived--how loved--how died she? Was she not + So honoured--and conspicuously there, + Where meaner relics must not dare to rot, + Placed to commemorate a more than mortal lot? + + CI. + + Was she as those who love their lords, or they + Who love the lords of others? such have been + Even in the olden time, Rome's annals say. + Was she a matron of Cornelia's mien, + Or the light air of Egypt's graceful Queen, + Profuse of joy--or 'gainst it did she war, + Inveterate in virtue? Did she lean + To the soft side of the heart, or wisely bar + Love from amongst her griefs?--for such the affections are.[oc] + + CII. + + Perchance she died in youth--it may be, bowed + With woes far heavier than the ponderous tomb + That weighed upon her gentle dust: a cloud + Might gather o'er her beauty, and a gloom + In her dark eye, prophetic of the doom + Heaven gives its favourites[481]--early death--yet shed + A sunset charm around her, and illume + With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead, + Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red. + + CIII. + + Perchance she died in age--surviving all, + Charms--kindred--children--with the silver gray + On her long tresses, which might yet recall, + It may be, still a something of the day + When they were braided, and her proud array + And lovely form were envied, praised, and eyed + By Rome--But whither would Conjecture stray?[482] + Thus much alone we know--Metella died, + The wealthiest Roman's wife: Behold his love or pride! + + CIV. + + I know not why--but standing thus by thee + It seems as if I had thine inmate known, + Thou Tomb! and other days come back on me + With recollected music, though the tone + Is changed and solemn, like the cloudy groan + Of dying thunder on the distant wind; + Yet could I seat me by this ivied stone + Till I had bodied forth the heated mind[od] + Forms from the floating wreck which Ruin leaves behind: + + CV. + + And from the planks, far shattered o'er the rocks, + Built me a little bark of hope, once more + To battle with the Ocean and the shocks + Of the loud breakers, and the ceaseless roar + Which rushes on the solitary shore + Where all lies foundered that was ever dear: + But could I gather from the wave-worn store + Enough for my rude boat, where should I steer? + There woos no home, nor hope, nor life, save what is here.[oe] + + CVI. + + Then let the Winds howl on! their harmony + Shall henceforth be my music, and the Night + The sound shall temper with the owlets' cry, + As I now hear them, in the fading light + Dim o'er the bird of darkness' native site, + Answering each other on the Palatine, + With their large eyes, all glistening gray and bright, + And sailing pinions.--Upon such a shrine + What are our petty griefs?--let me not number mine. + + CVII. + + Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower grown[483] + Matted and massed together--hillocks heaped + On what were chambers--arch crushed, column strown + In fragments--choked up vaults, and frescos steeped + In subterranean damps, where the owl peeped,[of] + Deeming it midnight:--Temples--Baths--or Halls? + Pronounce who can: for all that Learning reaped + From her research hath been, that these are walls-- + Behold the Imperial Mount! 'tis thus the Mighty falls.[484] + + CVIII. + + There is the moral of all human tales;[485] + 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, + First Freedom, and then Glory--when that fails, + Wealth--Vice--Corruption,--Barbarism at last. + And History, with all her volumes vast, + Hath but _one_ page,--'tis better written here, + Where gorgeous Tyranny hath thus amassed + All treasures, all delights, that Eye or Ear, + Heart, Soul could seek--Tongue ask--Away with words! draw near, + + CIX. + + Admire--exult--despise--laugh--weep,--for here + There is such matter for all feeling:--Man![og] + Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear, + Ages and Realms are crowded in this span, + This mountain, whose obliterated plan + The pyramid of Empires pinnacled, + Of Glory's gewgaws shining in the van[oh] + Till the Sun's rays with added flame were filled! + Where are its golden roofs?[486] where those who dared to build? + + CX. + + Tully was not so eloquent as thou, + Thou nameless column[487] with the buried base! + What are the laurels of the Caesar's brow? + Crown me with ivy from his dwelling-place. + Whose arch or pillar meets me in the face, + Titus or Trajan's? No--'tis that of Time: + Triumph, arch, pillar, all he doth displace[oi] + Scoffing; and apostolic statues[488] climb + To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime, + + CXI. + + Buried in air, the deep blue sky of Rome, + And looking to the stars: they had contained + A Spirit which with these would find a home, + The last of those who o'er the whole earth reigned, + The Roman Globe--for, after, none sustained, + But yielded back his conquests:--he was more + Than a mere Alexander, and, unstained + With household blood and wine, serenely wore + His sovereign virtues--still we Trajan's[489] name adore. + + CXII. + + Where is the rock of Triumph,[490] the high place + Where Rome embraced her heroes?--where the steep + Tarpeian?--fittest goal of Treason's race, + The Promontory whence the Traitor's Leap[oj] + Cured all ambition?[491] Did the conquerors heap + Their spoils here? Yes; and in yon field below, + A thousand years of silenced factions sleep-- + The Forum, where the immortal accents glow, + And still the eloquent air breathes-burns with Cicero![ok][492] + + CXIII. + + The field of Freedom--Faction--Fame--and Blood: + Here a proud people's passions were exhaled, + From the first hour of Empire in the bud + To that when further worlds to conquer failed; + But long before had Freedom's face been veiled, + And Anarchy assumed her attributes; + Till every lawless soldier who assailed + Trod on the trembling Senate's slavish mutes, + Or raised the venal voice of baser prostitutes. + + CXIV. + + Then turn we to her latest Tribune's name, + From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee, + Redeemer of dark centuries of shame-- + The friend of Petrarch--hope of Italy-- + Rienzi! last of Romans![493] While the tree + Of Freedom's withered trunk puts forth a leaf, + Even for thy tomb a garland let it be-- + The Forum's champion, and the people's chief-- + Her new-born Numa thou--with reign, alas! too brief. + + CXV. + + Egeria! sweet creation of some heart[27.H.] + Which found no mortal resting-place so fair + As thine ideal breast; whate'er thou art + Or wert,--a young Aurora of the air, + The nympholepsy[494] of some fond despair--[ol] + Or--it might be--a Beauty of the earth, + Who found a more than common Votary there + Too much adoring--whatsoe'er thy birth, + Thou wert a beautiful Thought, and softly bodied forth. + + CXVI. + + The mosses of thy Fountain[495] still are sprinkled + With thine Elysian water-drops; the face + Of thy cave-guarded Spring, with years unwrinkled, + Reflects the meek-eyed Genius of the place, + Whose green, wild margin now no more erase + Art's works; nor must the delicate waters sleep + Prisoned in marble--bubbling from the base + Of the cleft statue, with a gentle leap + The rill runs o'er--and round, fern, flowers, and ivy, creep + + CXVII. + + Fantastically tangled: the green hills + Are clothed with early blossoms--through the grass + The quick-eyed lizard rustles--and the bills + Of summer-birds sing welcome as ye pass; + Flowers fresh in hue, and many in their class, + Implore the pausing step, and with their dyes + Dance in the soft breeze in a fairy mass; + The sweetness of the Violet's deep blue eyes, + Kissed by the breath of heaven, seems coloured by its skies.[496] + + CXVIII. + + Here didst thou dwell, in this enchanted cover,[497] + Egeria! thy all heavenly bosom beating + For the far footsteps of thy mortal lover; + The purple Midnight veiled that mystic meeting + With her most starry canopy[498]--and seating + Thyself by thine adorer, what befel? + This cave was surely shaped out for the greeting + Of an enamoured Goddess, and the cell + Haunted by holy Love--the earliest Oracle! + + CXIX. + + And didst thou not, thy breast to his replying, + Blend a celestial with a human heart;[om] + And Love, which dies as it was born, in sighing, + Share with immortal transports? could thine art + Make them indeed immortal, and impart + The purity of Heaven to earthly joys, + Expel the venom and not blunt the dart-- + The dull satiety which all destroys-- + And root from out the soul the deadly weed which cloys? + + CXX. + + Alas! our young affections run to waste, + Or water but the desert! whence arise + But weeds of dark luxuriance, tares of haste, + Rank at the core, though tempting to the eyes + Flowers whose wild odours breathe but agonies, + And trees whose gums are poison; such the plants + Which spring beneath her steps as Passion flies + O'er the World's wilderness, and vainly pants + For some celestial fruit forbidden to our wants. + + CXXI. + + Oh, Love! no habitant of earth thou art--[on] + An unseen Seraph, we believe in thee,-- + A faith whose martyrs are the broken heart,-- + But never yet hath seen, nor e'er shall see + The naked eye, thy form, as it should be;[499] + The mind hath made thee, as it peopled Heaven, + Even with its own desiring phantasy, + And to a thought such shape and image given, + As haunts the unquenched soul--parched--wearied--wrung--and riven. + + CXXII. + + Of its own beauty is the mind diseased, + And fevers into false creation:--where, + Where are the forms the sculptor's soul hath seized? + In him alone. Can Nature show so fair? + Where are the charms and virtues which we dare + Conceive in boyhood and pursue as men, + The unreached Paradise of our despair, + Which o'er-informs[500] the pencil and the pen, + And overpowers the page where it would bloom again? + + CXXIII. + + Who loves, raves[501]--'tis youth's frenzy--but the cure + Is bitterer still, as charm by charm unwinds + Which robed our idols, and we see too sure + Nor Worth nor Beauty dwells from out the mind's + Ideal shape of such; yet still it binds + The fatal spell, and still it draws us on, + Reaping the whirlwind from the oft-sown winds; + The stubborn heart, its alchemy begun, + Seems ever near the prize--wealthiest when most undone. + + CXXIV. + + We wither from our youth, we gasp away-- + Sick--sick; unfound the boon--unslaked the thirst, + Though to the last, in verge of our decay, + Some phantom lures, such as we sought at first-- + But all too late,--so are we doubly curst. + Love, Fame, Ambition, Avarice--'tis the same, + Each idle--and all ill--and none the worst-- + For all are meteors with a different name,[oo] + And Death the sable smoke where vanishes the flame. + + CXXV. + + Few--none--find what they love or could have loved, + Though accident, blind contact, and the strong + Necessity of loving, have removed + Antipathies--but to recur, ere long, + Envenomed with irrevocable wrong; + And Circumstance, that unspiritual God + And Miscreator, makes and helps along + Our coming evils with a crutch-like rod,[502] + Whose touch turns Hope to dust,--the dust we all have trod. + + CXXVI. + + Our life is a false nature--'tis not in + The harmony of things,--this hard decree, + This uneradicable taint of Sin, + This boundless Upas, this all-blasting tree, + Whose root is Earth--whose leaves and branches be + The skies which rain their plagues on men like dew-- + Disease, death, bondage--all the woes we see, + And worse, the woes we see not--which throb through + The immedicable soul,[503] with heart-aches ever new. + + CXXVII. + + Yet let us ponder boldly--'tis a base + Abandonment of reason[504] to resign + Our right of thought--our last and only place + Of refuge; this, at least, shall still be mine: + Though from our birth the Faculty divine + Is chained and tortured--cabined, cribbed, confined, + And bred in darkness,[505] lest the Truth should shine + Too brightly on the unprepared mind, + The beam pours in--for Time and Skill will couch the blind. + + CXXVIII. + + Arches on arches![506] as it were that Rome, + Collecting the chief trophies of her line, + Would build up all her triumphs in one dome, + Her Coliseum stands;[507] the moonbeams shine + As 'twere its natural torches--for divine + Should be the light which streams here,--to illume + This long-explored but still exhaustless mine + Of Contemplation; and the azure gloom + Of an Italian night, where the deep skies assume + + CXXIX. + + Hues which have words, and speak to ye of Heaven, + Floats o'er this vast and wondrous monument, + And shadows forth its glory. There is given + Unto the things of earth, which Time hath bent, + A Spirit's feeling, and where he hath leant + His hand, but broke his scythe, there is a power + And magic in the ruined battlement, + For which the Palace of the present hour + Must yield its pomp, and wait till Ages are its dower. + + CXXX. + + Oh, Time! the Beautifier of the dead, + Adorner of the ruin[508]--Comforter + And only Healer when the heart hath bled; + Time! the Corrector where our judgments err, + The test of Truth, Love--sole philosopher, + For all beside are sophists--from thy thrift, + Which never loses though it doth defer-- + Time, the Avenger! unto thee I lift + My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift: + + CXXXI. + + Amidst this wreck, where thou hast made a shrine + And temple more divinely desolate-- + Among thy mightier offerings here are mine, + Ruins of years--though few, yet full of fate:-- + If thou hast ever seen me too elate, + Hear me not; but if calmly I have borne + Good, and reserved my pride against the hate + Which shall not whelm me, let me not have worn + This iron in my soul in vain--shall _they_ not mourn? + + CXXXII. + + And Thou, who never yet of human wrong + Left the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis![509][28.H.] + Here, where the ancient paid thee homage long-- + Thou, who didst call the Furies from the abyss, + And round Orestes bade them howl and hiss + For that unnatural retribution--just, + Had it but been from hands less near--in this + Thy former realm, I call thee from the dust! + Dost thou not hear my heart?--Awake! thou shalt, and must. + + CXXXIII. + + It is not that I may not have incurred, + For my ancestral faults or mine, the wound[op] + I bleed withal; and, had it been conferred + With a just weapon, it had flowed unbound; + But now my blood shall not sink in the ground-- + To thee I do devote it--_Thou_ shalt take + The vengeance, which shall yet be sought and found-- + Which if _I_ have not taken for the sake-- + But let that pass--I sleep--but Thou shalt yet awake. + + CXXXIV. + + And if my voice break forth, 'tis not that now[oq] + I shrink from what is suffered: let him speak + Who hath beheld decline upon my brow, + Or seen my mind's convulsion leave it weak; + But in this page a record will I seek. + Not in the air shall these my words disperse, + Though I be ashes; a far hour shall wreak + The deep prophetic fulness of this verse, + And pile on human heads the mountain of my curse! + + CXXXV. + + That curse shall be Forgiveness.--Have I not-- + Hear me, my mother Earth! behold it, Heaven!-- + Have I not had to wrestle with my lot? + Have I not suffered things to be forgiven? + Have I not had my brain seared, my heart riven, + Hopes sapped, name blighted, Life's life lied away? + And only not to desperation driven, + Because not altogether of such clay + As rots into the souls of those whom I survey. + + CXXXVI.[or] + + From mighty wrongs to petty perfidy + Have I not seen what human things could do? + From the loud roar of foaming calumny + To the small whisper of the as paltry few-- + And subtler venom of the reptile crew, + The Janus glance[510] of whose significant eye, + Learning to lie with silence, would _seem_ true-- + And without utterance, save the shrug or sigh, + Deal round to happy fools its speechless obloquy. + + CXXXVII. + + But I have lived, and have not lived in vain: + My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire, + And my frame perish even in conquering pain; + But there is that within me which shall tire + Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire; + Something unearthly, which they deem not of, + Like the remembered tone of a mute lyre, + Shall on their softened spirits sink, and move + In hearts all rocky now the late remorse of Love. + + CXXXVIII. + + The seal is set.--Now welcome, thou dread Power! + Nameless, yet thus omnipotent, which here + Walk'st in the shadow of the midnight hour + With a deep awe, yet all distinct from fear; + Thy haunts are ever where the dead walls rear + Their ivy mantles, and the solemn scene + Derives from thee a sense so deep and clear + That we become a part of what has been, + And grow upon the spot--all-seeing but unseen. + + CXXXIX. + + And here the buzz of eager nations ran, + In murmured pity, or loud-roared applause, + As man was slaughtered by his fellow man. + And wherefore slaughtered? wherefore, but because + Such were the bloody Circus' genial laws, + And the imperial pleasure.--Wherefore not? + What matters where we fall to fill the maws + Of worms--on battle-plains or listed spot? + Both are but theatres--where the chief actors rot. + + CXL. + + I see before me the Gladiator[511] lie: + He leans upon his hand--his manly brow[os] + Consents to death, but conquers agony, + And his drooped head sinks gradually low-- + And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow + From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,[ot] + Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now[ou] + The arena swims around him--he is gone,[ov] + Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won. + + CXLI. + + He heard it, but he heeded not--his eyes + Were with his heart--and that was far away; + He recked not of the life he lost nor prize, + But where his rude hut by the Danube lay-- + _There_ were his young barbarians all at play, + _There_ was their Dacian mother--he, their sire, + Butchered to make a Roman holiday--[ow][29.H.] + All this rushed with his blood--Shall he expire + And unavenged?--Arise! ye Goths, and glut your ire! + + CXLII. + + But here, where Murder breathed her bloody steam;-- + And here, where buzzing nations choked the ways, + And roared or murmured like a mountain stream + Dashing or winding as its torrent strays; + Here, where the Roman million's blame or praise + Was Death or Life--the playthings of a crowd--[ox][30.H.] + My voice sounds much--and fall the stars' faint rays[oy] + On the arena void--seats crushed--walls bowed-- + And galleries, where my steps seem echoes strangely loud. + + CXLIII. + + A Ruin--yet what Ruin! from its mass + Walls--palaces--half-cities, have been reared; + Yet oft the enormous skeleton ye pass,[oz] + And marvel where the spoil could have appeared. + Hath it indeed been plundered, or but cleared? + Alas! developed, opens the decay, + When the colossal fabric's form is neared: + It will not bear the brightness of the day, + Which streams too much on all--years--man--have reft away. + + CXLIV. + + But when the rising moon begins to climb + Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there-- + When the stars twinkle through the loops of Time, + And the low night-breeze waves along the air + The garland-forest, which the gray walls wear,[pa] + Like laurels on the bald first Caesar's head--[512] + When the light shines serene but doth not glare-- + Then in this magic circle raise the dead;-- + Heroes have trod this spot--'tis on their dust ye tread.[pb] + + CXLV. + + "While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand:[513] + When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; + And when Rome falls--the World." From our own land + Thus spake the pilgrims o'er this mighty wall + In Saxon times, which we are wont to call + Ancient; and these three mortal things are still + On their foundations, and unaltered all-- + Rome and her Ruin past Redemption's skill-- + The World--the same wide den--of thieves, or what ye will. + + CXLVI. + + Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime--[514] + Shrine of all saints and temple of all Gods, + From Jove to Jesus--spared and blest by Time-- + Looking tranquillity, while falls or nods + Arch--empire--each thing round thee--and Man plods + His way through thorns to ashes--glorious Dome! + Shalt thou not last? Time's scythe and Tyrants' rods + Shiver upon thee--sanctuary and home + Of Art and Piety--Pantheon!--pride of Rome![pc] + + CXLVII. + + Relic of nobler days, and noblest arts! + Despoiled yet perfect! with thy circle spreads + A holiness appealing to all hearts; + To Art a model--and to him who treads + Rome for the sake of ages, Glory sheds + Her light through thy sole aperture; to those + Who worship, here are altars for their beads-- + And they who feel for Genius may repose + Their eyes on honoured forms, whose busts around them close.[515] + + CXLVIII. + + There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear light[516] + What do I gaze on? Nothing--Look again! + Two forms are slowly shadowed on my sight-- + Two insulated phantoms of the brain:[pd] + It is not so--I see them full and plain-- + An old man, and a female young and fair, + Fresh as a nursing mother, in whose vein + The blood is nectar:--but what doth she there, + With her unmantled neck, and bosom white and bare?[pe] + + CXLIX. + + Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life, + Where _on_ the heart and _from_ the heart we took + Our first and sweetest nurture--when the wife, + Blest into mother, in the innocent look, + Or even the piping cry of lips that brook[pf] + No pain and small suspense, a joy perceives[pg] + Man knows not--when from out its cradled nook + She sees her little bud put forth its leaves-- + What may the fruit be yet?--I know not--Cain was Eve's. + + CL. + + But here Youth offers to Old Age the food, + The milk of his own gift: it is her Sire + To whom she renders back the debt of blood + Born with her birth:--No--he shall not expire + While in those warm and lovely veins the fire + Of health and holy feeling can provide + Great Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higher + Than Egypt's river:--from that gentle side + Drink--drink, and live--Old Man! Heaven's realm holds no such tide. + + CLI. + + The starry fable of the Milky Way[517] + Has not thy story's purity; it is + A constellation of a sweeter ray, + And sacred Nature triumphs more in this + Reverse of her decree, than in the abyss + Where sparkle distant worlds:--Oh, holiest Nurse! + No drop of that clear stream its way shall miss + To thy Sire's heart, replenishing its source[ph] + With life, as our freed souls rejoin the Universe. + + CLII. + + Turn to the Mole[518] which Hadrian reared on high, + Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles, + Colossal copyist of deformity-- + Whose travelled phantasy from the far Nile's + Enormous model, doomed the artist's toils + To build for Giants, and for his vain earth, + His shrunken ashes, raise this Dome: How smiles + The gazer's eye with philosophic mirth,[pi] + To view the huge design which sprung from such a birth! + + CLIII.[519] + + But lo! the Dome--the vast and wondrous Dome,[pj][520] + To which Diana's marvel was a cell-- + Christ's mighty shrine above His martyr's tomb![pk] + I have beheld the Ephesian's miracle--[521] + Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell + The hyaena and the jackal in their shade;[522] + I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell[pl] + Their glittering mass i' the Sun, and have surveyed[pm] + Its sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem prayed;[523] + + CLIV. + + But thou, of temples old, or altars new, + Standest alone--with nothing like to thee-- + Worthiest of God, the Holy and the True! + Since Zion's desolation, when that He + Forsook his former city, what could be, + Of earthly structures, in His honour piled, + Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty-- + Power--Glory--Strength--and Beauty all are aisled + In this eternal Ark of worship undefiled. + + CLV. + + Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not; + And why? it is not lessened--but thy mind, + Expanded by the Genius of the spot, + Has grown colossal, and can only find + A fit[524] abode wherein appear enshrined + Thy hopes of Immortality--and thou + Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined + See thy God face to face, as thou dost now + His Holy of Holies--nor be blasted by his brow.[pn] + + CLVI. + + Thou movest--but increasing with the advance,[525] + Like climbing some great Alp, which still doth rise, + Deceived by its gigantic elegance-- + Vastness which grows, but grows to harmonize--[po] + All musical in its immensities; + Rich marbles, richer painting--shrines where flame[pp] + The lamps of gold--and haughty dome which vies + In air with Earth's chief structures, though their frame + Sits on the firm-set ground--and this the clouds must claim. + + CLVII. + + Thou seest not all--but piecemeal thou must break, + To separate contemplation, the great whole; + And as the Ocean many bays will make + That ask the eye--so here condense thy soul + To more immediate objects, and control + Thy thoughts until thy mind hath got by heart + Its eloquent proportions, and unroll[pq] + In mighty graduations, part by part, + The Glory which at once upon thee did not dart, + + CLVIII. + + Not by its fault--but thine: Our outward sense[pr] + Is but of gradual grasp--and as it is + That what we have of feeling most intense + Outstrips our faint expression; even so this + Outshining and o'erwhelming edifice + Fools our fond gaze, and greatest of the great + Defies at first our Nature's littleness, + Till, growing with its growth, we thus dilate + Our Spirits to the size of that they contemplate. + + CLIX. + + Then pause, and be enlightened; there is more + In such a survey than the sating gaze + Of wonder pleased, or awe which would adore + The worship of the place, or the mere praise + Of Art and its great Masters, who could raise + What former time, nor skill, nor thought could plan:[ps] + The fountain of Sublimity displays + Its depth, and thence may draw the mind of Man[pt] + Its golden sands, and learn what great Conceptions can.[pu] + + CLX. + + Or, turning to the Vatican, go see + Laocooen's[526] torture dignifying pain-- + A Father's love and Mortal's agony + With an Immortal's patience blending:--Vain + The struggle--vain, against the coiling strain + And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp, + The Old Man's clench; the long envenomed chain[pv] + Rivets the living links,--the enormous Asp + Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp.[pw] + + CLXI. + + Or view the Lord of the unerring bow,[527] + The God of Life, and Poesy, and Light-- + The Sun in human limbs arrayed, and brow + All radiant from his triumph in the fight; + The shaft hath just been shot--the arrow bright + With an Immortal's vengeance--in his eye + And nostril beautiful Disdain, and Might + And Majesty, flash their full lightnings by, + Developing in that one glance the Deity. + + CLXII. + + But in his delicate form--a dream of Love,[528] + Shaped by some solitary Nymph, whose breast + Longed for a deathless lover from above, + And maddened in that vision[529]--are exprest + All that ideal Beauty ever blessed + The mind with in its most unearthly mood, + When each Conception was a heavenly Guest-- + A ray of Immortality--and stood, + Starlike, around, until they gathered to a God![px] + + CLXIII. + + And if it be Prometheus stole from Heaven + The fire which we endure[530]--it was repaid + By him to whom the energy was given + Which this poetic marble hath arrayed + With an eternal Glory--which, if made + By human hands, is not of human thought-- + And Time himself hath hallowed it, nor laid + One ringlet in the dust--nor hath it caught + A tinge of years, but breathes the flame with which 'twas wrought. + + CLXIV. + + But where is he, the Pilgrim of my Song, + The Being who upheld it through the past? + Methinks he cometh late and tarries long. + He is no more--these breathings are his last-- + His wanderings done--his visions ebbing fast, + And he himself as nothing:--if he was + Aught but a phantasy, and could be classed + With forms which live and suffer--let that pass-- + His shadow fades away into Destruction's mass,[py] + + CLXV. + + Which gathers shadow--substance--life, and all + That we inherit in its mortal shroud-- + And spreads the dim and universal pall + Through which all things grow phantoms; and the cloud + Between us sinks and all which ever glowed, + Till Glory's self is twilight, and displays + A melancholy halo scarce allowed + To hover on the verge of darkness--rays + Sadder than saddest night, for they distract the gaze, + + CLXVI. + + And send us prying into the abyss, + To gather what we shall be when the frame + Shall be resolved to something less than this-- + Its wretched essence; and to dream of fame, + And wipe the dust from off the idle name + We never more shall hear,--but never more, + Oh, happier thought! can we be made the same:-- + It is enough in sooth that _once_ we bore + These fardels[531] of the heart--the heart whose sweat was gore. + + CLXVII. + + Hark! forth from the abyss a voice proceeds,[532] + A long low distant murmur of dread sound, + Such as arises when a nation bleeds + With some deep and immedicable wound;-- + Through storm and darkness yawns the rending ground-- + The gulf is thick with phantoms, but the Chief + Seems royal still, though with her head discrowned, + And pale, but lovely, with maternal grief-- + She clasps a babe, to whom her breast yields no relief. + + CLXVIII. + + Scion of Chiefs and Monarchs, where art thou? + Fond Hope of many nations, art thou dead? + Could not the Grave forget thee, and lay low + Some less majestic, less beloved head? + In the sad midnight, while thy heart still bled, + The mother of a moment, o'er thy boy, + Death hushed that pang for ever: with thee fled + The present happiness and promised joy + Which filled the Imperial Isles so full it seemed to cloy. + + CLXIX. + + Peasants bring forth in safety.--Can it be, + Oh thou that wert so happy, so adored! + Those who weep not for Kings shall weep for thee, + And Freedom's heart, grown heavy, cease to hoard + Her many griefs for _One_; for she had poured + Her orisons for thee, and o'er thy head[pz] + Beheld her Iris.--Thou, too, lonely Lord, + And desolate Consort--vainly wert thou wed! + The husband of a year! the father of the dead! + + CLXX. + + Of sackcloth was thy wedding garment made; + Thy bridal's fruit is ashes[533]: in the dust + The fair-haired Daughter of the Isles is laid, + The love of millions! How we did entrust + Futurity to her! and, though it must + Darken above our bones, yet fondly deemed + Our children should obey her child, and blessed + Her and her hoped-for seed, whose promise seemed + Like stars to shepherd's eyes:--'twas but a meteor beamed.[534] + + CLXXI. + + Woe unto us--not her--for she sleeps well:[535] + The fickle reek of popular breath,[536] the tongue + Of hollow counsel, the false oracle, + Which from the birth of Monarchy hath rung + Its knell in princely ears, till the o'erstung + Nations have armed in madness--the strange fate + Which tumbles mightiest sovereigns,[537] and hath flung + Against their blind omnipotence a weight + Within the opposing scale, which crushes soon or late,--[qa] + + CLXXII. + + These might have been her destiny--but no-- + Our hearts deny it: and so young, so fair, + Good without effort, great without a foe; + But now a Bride and Mother--and now _there!_ + How many ties did that stern moment tear! + From thy Sire's to his humblest subject's breast + Is linked the electric chain of that despair, + Whose shock was as an Earthquake's,[538] and opprest + The land which loved thee so that none could love thee best. + + CLXXIII. + + Lo, Nemi![539] navelled in the woody hills + So far, that the uprooting Wind which tears + The oak from his foundation, and which spills + The Ocean o'er its boundary, and bears + Its foam against the skies, reluctant spares + The oval mirror of thy glassy lake; + And calm as cherished hate, its surface wears[qb] + A deep cold settled aspect nought can shake, + All coiled into itself and round, as sleeps the snake. + + CLXXIV. + + And near, Albano's scarce divided waves + Shine from a sister valley;--and afar[31.H.] + The Tiber winds, and the broad Ocean laves + The Latian coast where sprung the Epic war, + "Arms and the Man," whose re-ascending star + Rose o'er an empire:--but beneath thy right[540] + Tully reposed from Rome;--and where yon bar + Of girdling mountains intercepts the sight[qc] + The Sabine farm was tilled, the weary Bard's delight. + + CLXXV. + + But I forget.--My Pilgrim's shrine is won, + And he and I must part,--so let it be,-- + His task and mine alike are nearly done; + Yet once more let us look upon the Sea; + The Midland Ocean breaks on him and me, + And from the Alban Mount we now behold + Our friend of youth, that Ocean, which when we + Beheld it last by Calpe's rock[541] unfold + Those waves, we followed on till the dark Euxine rolled + + CLXXVI. + + Upon the blue Symplegades:[32.H.] long years-- + Long, though not very many--since have done + Their work on both; some suffering and some tears[qd] + Have left us nearly where we had begun: + Yet not in vain our mortal race hath run-- + We have had our reward--and it is here,-- + That we can yet feel gladdened by the Sun, + And reap from Earth--Sea--joy almost as dear + As if there were no Man to trouble what is clear.[542] + + CLXXVII. + + Oh! that the Desert were my dwelling-place,[543] + With one fair Spirit for my minister, + That I might all forget the human race, + And, hating no one, love but only her! + Ye elements!--in whose ennobling stir + I feel myself exalted--Can ye not + Accord me such a Being? Do I err + In deeming such inhabit many a spot? + Though with them to converse can rarely be our lot. + + CLXXVIII. + + There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, + There is a rapture on the lonely shore, + There is society, where none intrudes, + By the deep Sea, and Music in its roar: + I love not Man the less, but Nature more, + From these our interviews, in which I steal + From all I may be, or have been before, + To mingle with the Universe,[544] and feel + What I can ne'er express--yet can not all conceal. + + CLXXIX. + + Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll! + Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; + Man marks the earth with ruin--his control + Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain + The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain + A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, + When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, + He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan-- + Without a grave--unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.[qe] + + CLXXX. + + His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields + Are not a spoil for him,--thou dost arise + And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields + For Earth's destruction thou dost all despise, + Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies--[545] + And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray + And howling, to his Gods, where haply lies + His petty hope in some near port or bay, + And dashest him again to Earth:--there let him lay.[qf][546] + + CLXXXI. + + The armaments which thunderstrike the walls + Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, + And Monarchs tremble in their Capitals, + The oak Leviathans,[547] whose huge ribs make[qg] + Their clay creator the vain title take + Of Lord of thee, and Arbiter of War-- + These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake, + They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar + Alike the Armada's pride or spoils of Trafalgar.[548] + + CLXXXII. + + Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-- + Assyria--Greece--Rome--Carthage--what are they?[549] + Thy waters washed[550] them power while they were free,[qh] + And many a tyrant since; their shores obey + The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay + Has dried up realms to deserts:--not so thou, + Unchangeable save to thy wild waves' play,[qi] + Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow-- + Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now. + + CLXXXIII. + + Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form + Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, + Calm or convulsed--in breeze, or gale, or storm-- + Icing the Pole, or in the torrid clime + Dark-heaving--boundless, endless, and sublime-- + The image of Eternity-the throne[qj] + Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime[551] + The monsters of the deep are made--each Zone + Obeys thee--thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. + + CLXXXIV. + + And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy + Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be + Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy[552] + I wantoned with thy breakers--they to me + Were a delight; and if the freshening sea + Made them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear, + For I was as it were a Child of thee, + And trusted to thy billows far and near, + And laid my hand upon thy mane--as I do here.[553] + + CLXXXV. + + My task is done--my song hath ceased--my theme + Has died into an echo; it is fit[qk] + The spell should break of this protracted dream. + The torch shall be extinguished which hath lit + My midnight lamp--and what is writ, is writ,-- + Would it were worthier! but I am not now + That which I have been--and my visions flit + Less palpably before me--and the glow + Which in my Spirit dwelt is fluttering, faint, and low. + + CLXXXVI. + + Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been-- + A sound which makes us linger;--yet--farewell![ql] + Ye! who have traced the Pilgrim to the scene[qm] + Which is his last--if in your memories dwell + A thought which once was his--if on ye swell + A single recollection--not in vain + He wore his sandal-shoon, and scallop-shell; + Farewell! with _him_ alone may rest the pain, + If such there were--with _you_, the Moral of his Strain.[554] + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[363] {319} _MS. D._, Byron's final fair copy, is in the possession +of the Lady Dorchester. + +[364] {321} [Compare Canto IV. stanza clxiv.-- + + "But where is he, the Pilgrim of my Song.... + He is no more--these breathings are his last."] + +[365] {322} [His marriage. Compare the epigram, "On my Wedding-Day," +sent in a letter to Moore, January 2, 1820-- + + "Here's a happy new year!--but with reason + I beg you'll permit me to say-- + Wish me _many_ returns of the _season_, + But as _few_ as you please of the _day_."] + +[366] {323} [Some fancy me no Chinese, because I am formed more like a +man than a monster; and others wonder to find one born five thousand +miles from England, endued with common sense.... He must be some +Englishman in disguise."--_The Citizen of the World; or a Series of +Letters from a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his Friends in the +East_, 1762, Letter xxxiii.] + +[367] [_Vide ante_, Introduction to Canto IV., p. 315.] + +[368] {324} [Antonio Canova, sculptor, 1757-1822; Vincenzo Monti, +1754-1828; Ugo Foscolo, 1776-1827 (see _Life_, p. 456, etc.); Ippolito +Pindemonte, 1753-1828 (see Letter to Murray, June 4, 1817), poets; +Ennius Quirinus Visconti, 1751-1818, the valuer of the Elgin marbles, +archaeologist; Giacomo Morelli, 1745-1819, bibliographer and scholar (the +architect Cosimo Morelli, born 1732, died in 1812); Leopoldo Conte de +Cicognara, 1767-1834, archaeologist; the Contessa Albrizzi, 1769?-1836, +authoress of _Ritratti di Uomini Illustri_ (see _Life_, pp. 331, 413, +etc.); Giuseppe Mezzofanti, 1774-1849, linguist; Angelo Mai (cardinal), +1782-1854, philologist; Andreas Moustoxides, 1787-1860, a Greek +archaeologist, who wrote in Italian; Francesco Aglietti (see _Life_, p. +378, etc.), 1757-1836; Andrea Vacca Berlinghieri, 1772-1826 (see _Life_, +p. 339). + +For biographical essays on Monti, Foscolo, and Pindemonte, see "Essay on +the Present Literature of Italy" (Hobhouse's _Historical Illustrations +of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold_, 1818, pp. 347, _sq._). See, too, +_Italian Literature_, by R. Garnett, C.B., LL.D., 1898, pp. 333-337, +337-341, 341-342.] + +[369] {325} [Shelley (notes M. Darmesteter), in his preface to the +_Prometheus Unbound_, "emploie le mot sans demander pardon." "The mass +of capabilities remains at every period materially the same; the +circumstances which awaken it to action perpetually change." +"Capability" in the sense of "undeveloped faculty or property; a +condition physical or otherwise, capable of being converted or turned to +use" (_N. Eng. Dict._), appertains rather to material objects. To apply +the term figuratively to the forces inherent in national character +savoured of a literary indecorum. Hence the apology.] + +[370] [Addison, _Cato_, act v. sc. 1, line 3-- + + "It must be so--_Plato_, thou reason'st well!-- + Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, + This longing after immortality?"] + +[371] [Shelley chose this refrain as the motto to his unfinished lines +addressed to his infant son-- + + "My lost William, thou in whom + Some bright spirit lived----"] + +[372] [Scott commented severely on this opprobrious designation of "the +great and glorious victory of Waterloo," in his critique on the Fourth +Canto, _Q. R._, No. xxxvii., April, 1818.] + +[373] {326} [_The substance of some letters written by an Englishman +resident in Paris during the last Reign of the Emperor Napoleon_. 1816. +2 vols.] + +[374] [In 1817.] + +[375] {327} + + [Venice and La Mira on the Brenta. + Copied, August, 1817. + Begun, June 26. Finished, July 29th. MS. M.] + +[376] [Byron sent the first stanza to Murray, July 1, 1817, "the shaft +of the column as a specimen." Gifford, Frere, and many more to whom +Murray "ventured to show it," expressed their approval (_Memoir of John +Murray_, i. 385). + +"'The Bridge of Sighs,'" he explains (i.e. _Ponte de' Sospiri_), "is +that which divides, or rather joins, the palace of the Doge to the +prison of the state." Compare _The Two Foscari_, act iv. sc. 1-- + + "In Venice '_but_'s' a traitor. + But me no '_buts_,' unless you would pass o'er + The Bridge which few repass." + +This, however, is an anachronism. The Bridge of Sighs was built by +Antonio da Ponte, in 1597, more than a century after the death of +Francesco Foscari. "It is," says Mr. Ruskin, "a work of no merit and of +a late period, owing the interest it possesses chiefly to its pretty +name, and to the ignorant sentimentalism of Byron" (_Stones of Venice_, +1853, ii. 304; in. 359).] + +[377] [Compare _Mysteries of Udolpho_, by Mrs. Ann Radcliffe, 1794, ii. +35, 36-- + +"Its terraces crowned with airy yet majestic fabrics ... appeared as if +they had been called up from the Ocean by the wand of an enchanter."] + +[lb] {328} ----_throned on her Seventy Isles_.--[MS. M. altern. reading, +D.] + +[378] Sabellicus, describing the appearance of Venice, has made use of +the above image, which would not be poetical were it not true.--"Quo fit +ut qui superne [ex specula aliqua eminentiore] urbem contempletur, +turritam telluris imaginem medio Oceano figuratam se putet inspicere." +[_De Venetae Urbis situ Narratio_, lib. i. _Ital. Ill. Script._, 1600, p. +4. Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus (1436-1506) wrote, _inter alia_, a +_History of Venice_, published in folio in 1487, and _Rhapsodiae +Historiarum Enneades, a condito mundo, usque ad_ A.C. 1504. His +description of Venice (_vide supra_) was published after his death in +1527. Hofmann does not give him a good character: "Obiit A.C. 1506, +turpi morbo confectus, aetat. 70, relicto filio notho." But his [Greek: +Au)toepita/phion] implies that he was satisfied with himself. + + "Quem non res hominum, non omnis ceperat aetas, + Scribentem capit haec Coccion urna brevis." + + +Cybele (sometimes written Cybelle and Cyb[=e]le), the "mother of the +Goddesses," was represented as wearing a mural crown--"coronamque +turritam gestare dicitur" (Albricus Phil., _De Imag. Deor._, xii.). +Venice with her tiara of proud towers is the earth-goddess Cybele, +having "suffered a sea-change."] + +[lc] {329} _From spoils of many nations and the East_.--[MS. M., D. +erased.] + +[379] ["Gems wrought into drinking-vessels, among which the least +precious were framed of turquoise, jasper, or amethyst ... unnumbered +jacinths, emeralds, sapphires, chrysolites, and topazes, and, lastly, +those matchless carbuncles which, placed on the High Altar of St. +Mark's, blazed with intrinsic light, and scattered darkness by their own +beams;--these are but a sample of the treasures which accrued to Venice" +(Villehardouin, lib. in. p. 129). (See _Sketches from Venetian History_, +1831, i. 161.)] + +[380] [After the fall of Constantinople, in 1204, "the illustrious +Dandolo ... was permitted to tinge his buskins in the purple hue +distinctive of the Imperial Family, to claim exemption from all feudal +service to the Emperor, and to annex to the title of Doge of Venice the +proud style of Despot of Romania, and Lord of One-fourth and One-eighth +of the Roman Empire" (_ibid._, 1831, i. 167).] + +[ld] _Monarchs sate down_----.--[D. erased.] + +[381] [The gondoliers (see Hobhouse's note ii.) used to sing alternate +stanzas of the _Gerusalemme Liberata_, capping each other like the +shepherds in the _Bucolics_. The rival reciters were sometimes attached +to the same gondola; but often the response came from a passing +gondolier, a stranger to the singer who challenged the contest. Rogers, +in his _Italy_, laments the silence which greeted the swan-song of his +own gondolier-- + + "He sung, + As in the time when Venice was Herself, + Of Tancred and Erminia. On our oars + We rested; and the verse was verse divine! + We could not err--Perhaps he was the last-- + For none took up the strain, none answer'd him; + And, when he ceased, he left upon my ear + A something like the dying voice of Venice!" + _The Gondola_ (_Poems_, 1852, ii. 79). + +Compare, too, Goethe's "Letters from Italy," October 6, 1786: "This +evening I bespoke the celebrated _song_ of the mariners, who chaunt +Tasso and Ariosto to melodies of their own. This must actually be +ordered, as it is not to be heard as a thing of course, but rather +belongs to the half-forgotten traditions of former times. I entered a +gondola by moonlight, with one _singer_ before and the other behind me. +They _sing_ their _song_, taking up the verses alternately.... + +"Sitting on the shore of an island, on the bank of a canal, or on the +side of a boat, a gondolier will sing away with a loud penetrating +voice--the multitude admire force above everything--anxious only to be +heard as far as possible. Over the silent mirror it travels +far."--_Travels in Italy_, 1883, p. 73.] + +[le] {330} _The pleasure-place of all festivity_.--[MS. M.] + +[382] {331} [The Rialto, or Rivo alto, "the middle group of islands +between the shore and the mainland," on the left of the Grand Canal, was +the site of the original city, and till the sixteenth century its formal +and legal designation. The Exchange, or Banco Giro, was held in the +piazza, opposite the church of San Giacomo, which stands at the head of +the canal to the north of the Ponto di Rialto. It was on the Rialto that +Antonio rated Shylock about his "usances." "What news on the Rialto?" +asks Solanio (_Merchant of Venice_, act i. sc. 3, line 102; act iii. sc. +1, line 1). Byron uses the word symbolically for Venetian commerce.] + +[383] [Pierre is the hero of Otway's _Venice Preserved_. Shylock and the +Moor stand where they did, but what of Pierre? If the name of +Otway--"master of the tragic art"--and the title of his +masterpiece--_Venice Preserved, or The Plot Discovered_ (first played +1682)--are not wholly forgotten, Pierre and Monimia and Belvidera have +"decayed," and are memorable chiefly as favourite characters of great +actors and actresses. Genest notes twenty revivals of the _Venice +Preserved_, which was played as late as October 27, 1837, when Macready +played "Pierre," and Phelps "Jaffier." "No play that I know," says +Hartley Coleridge (Essays, 1851, ii. 56), "gains so much by acting as +_Venice Preserved_.... Miss O'Neill, I well remember, made me weep with +Belvidera; but she would have done the same had she spoken in an unknown +tongue." Byron, who professed to be a "great admirer of Otway," in a +letter to Hodgson, August 22, 1811 (_Letters_, 1898, i. 339, note 1), +alludes to some lines from _Venice Preserved_ (act ii. sc. 3), which +seem to have taken his fancy. Two lines spoken by Belvidera (act ii.), +if less humorous, are more poetical-- + + "Oh, the day + Too soon will break, and wake us to our sorrow; + Come, come to bed, and bid thy cares Good night!"] + +[384] {332} [Compare _The Dream_, i.-- + + "The mind can make + Substance, and people planets of its own + With beings brighter than have been, and give + A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh." + +The ideal personages of the poet's creations have the promise of +immortality. The ideal forms which people his imagination transfigure +and supplant the dull and grievous realities of his mortal being and +circumstance; but there are "things" more radiant, more enchanting +still, the "strong realities" of the heart and soul--hope, love, joy. +But they pass! We wake, and lo! it was a dream.] + +[lf] _Denies to the dull trick of life_----.--[MS. erased.] + +[385] + + ["In youth I wrote because my mind was full, + And now because I feel it growing dull." + _Don Juan_, Canto XIV. stanza x. + +In youth the poet takes refuge, in the ideal world, from the crowd and +pressure of blissful possibilities; and in age, when hope is beyond +hope, he peoples the solitude with beings of the mind.] + +[lg] {333} _And this worn feeling_----.--[Editions 1816-1891.] + +[lh] + / _springs_ \ +_And, may be, that which_ { } ----.--[MS. M.] + \ _spreads_ / + +[li] _Outshines our Fairies--things in shape and hue_.--[MS. M.] + +[lj] {334} ----_and though I leave behind_.--[MS. M.] + +[lk] _And make myself a home beside a softer sea_.--[MS. erased.] + +[ll] + ----_to pine_ + _Albeit is not my nature, and I twine_.--[MS. M. erased] + +[386] [In another mood he wrote to Murray (June 7, 1819), "I trust they +won't think of 'pickling, and bringing me home to Clod or Blunderbuss +Hall' [see _The Rivals_, act v. sc. 3]. I am sure my bones would not +rest in an English grave, or my clay mix with the earth of that +country." In this half-humorous outburst he deprecates, or pretends to +deprecate, the fate which actually awaited his remains--burial in the +family vault at Hucknall Torkard. There is, of course, no reference to a +public funeral and a grave in Westminster Abbey. In the next stanza (x. +line 1) he assumes the possibility of his being excluded from the Temple +of Fame; but there is, perhaps, a tacit reference to burial in the +Abbey. If the thought, as is probable, occurred to him, he veils it in a +metaphor.] + +[387] {335} The answer of the mother of Brasidas, the Lacedaemonian +general, to the strangers who praised the memory of her son. + +[[Greek: Brasi/das ga\r e~)n me\n a)ne\r a)gatho\s], polloi\ d' +e)kei/nou krei/ssones e)n te~| Spa/rte|]. Plutarchi _Moralia, +Apophthegmata Laconica_ (Tauchnitz, 1820), ii. 127.] + +[lm] _The widowed Adriatic mourns her Doge_.--[MS. M erased.] + +[388] [The Bucentaur, "the state barge in which, on Ascension Day, the +Doge of Venice used to wed the Adriatic by dropping a ring into it," was +broken up and rifled by the French in 1797 (note, by Rev. E. C. Owen, +_Childe Harold_, 1897, p. 197). + +Compare Goethe's "Letters from Italy," October 5, 1786: "To give a +notion of the Bucentaur in one word, I should say that it is a +state-galley. The older one, of which we still have drawings, justified +this appellation still more than the present one, which, by its +splendour, makes us forget the original.... + +"The vessel is all ornament; we ought to say, it is overladen with +ornament; it is altogether one piece of gilt carving, for no other +use.... This state-galley is a good index to show what the Venetians +were, and what they considered themselves."--_Travels in Italy_, 1883, +p. 68. + +Compare, too, Wordsworth's sonnet "On the Extinction of the Venetian +Republic"-- + + "She was a maiden City, bright and free; + No guile seduced, no force could violate; + And when she took unto herself a Mate, + She must espouse the everlasting Sea." + _Works_, 1888, p. 180.] + +[389] {336} [For "Lion," see Hobhouse's note iii. The "Horses of St. +Mark" (_vide post_, stanza xiii. line 1), which, according to history or +legend, Augustus "conveyed" from Alexandria to Rome, Constantine from +Rome to Constantinople, Dandolo, in 1204, from Constantinople to Venice, +Napoleon, in 1797, from Venice to Paris, and which were restored to the +Venetians by the Austrians in 1815, were at one time supposed to belong +to the school of Lysippus. Haydon, who published, in 1817, a curious +etching of "The Elgin Horse's Head," placed side by side with the "Head +of one of the Horses ... now at Venice," subscribes the following +critical note: "It is astonishing that the great principles of nature +should have been so nearly lost in the time between Phidias and +Lysippus. Compare these two heads. The Elgin head is all truth, the +other all manner." Hobhouse pronounces the "Horses" to be "irrevocably +Chian," but modern archaeologists regard both "school" and exact period +as uncertain.] + +[ln] _Even on the pillar_----.--[MS. M., D. erased.] + +[390] [According to Milman (_Hist. of Lat. Christianity_, v. 144), the +humiliation of Barbarossa at the Church of St. Mark took place on +Tuesday, July 24, 1177. _A propos_ of the return of the Pope and Emperor +to the ducal palace, he quotes "a curious passage from a newly recovered +poem, by Godfrey of Viterbo, an attendant on the Emperor. So great was +the press in the market that the aged Pope was thrown down-- + + "Jam Papa perisset in arto, + Caesar ibi vetulum ni relevasset eum." + +"This," he remarks, "is an odd contrast of real life with romance."] + +[391] {337} ["Oh, for one hour of Dundee!" was the exclamation of a +Highland chieftain at the battle of Sheriff-muir, November 13, 1715 +(Scott's _Tales of a Grandfather_, III. Series, chap. x.; _Prose Works_, +Paris, 1830, vii. 768). Wordsworth makes the words his own in the +sonnet, "In the Pass of Killicranky (an Invasion being expected, +October, 1803)" (_Works_, 1888, p. 201)-- + + "O for a single hour of that Dundee, + Who on that day the word of onset gave!" + +And Coleridge, in a letter to Wordsworth (February 8, 1804), thinking, +perhaps, less of the chieftain than the sonnet, exclaims, "'Oh for one +hour of Dundee!' How often shall I sigh, 'Oh for one hour of _The +Recluse!_'"--an aspiration which Byron would have worded differently.] + +[lo] + ----_who quelled the imperial foe_.--[MS. M. erased.] + ----_empire's all-conquering foe_.--[MS. M.] + +[392] [Compare _Marino Faliero_, act iv. sc. 2, lines 157, 158-- + + "Doge Dandolo survived to ninety summers, + To vanquish empires, and refuse their crown." + +"The vessels that bore the bishops of Soissons and Troyes, the +_Paradise_ and the _Pilgrim_, were the first which grappled with the +Towers of Constantinople [April, 1204].... The bishops of Soissons and +of Troyes would have placed the blind old Doge Dandolo on the imperial +throne; his election was opposed by the Venetians.... But probably the +wise patriotism of Dandolo himself, and his knowledge of the Venetian +mind, would make him acquiesce in the loss of an honour so dangerous to +his country.... Venice might have sunk to an outpost, as it were, of the +Eastern Empire."--Milman's _Hist. of Lat. Christianity_, v. 350, 353, +354.] + +[393] {338} [Hobhouse's version (see _Hist. Notes_, No. vi.) of the war +of Chioggia is not borne out by modern research. For example, the long +speech which Chinazzo attributes to the Genoese admiral, Pietro Doria, +is probably mythical. The actual menace of the "bitting and bridling the +horses of St. Mark" is assigned by other historians to Francesco +Carrara. Doria was not killed by a stone bullet from the cannon named +The Trevisara, but by the fall of the Campanile in Chioggia, which had +been struck by the bullet. (_Venice, an Historical Sketch of the +Republic_, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, pp. 225-234.)] + +[lp] ----_into whence she rose_.--[Editions 1818-1891.] + +[394] [Compare the opening lines of Byron's _Ode on Venice_-- + + "Oh Venice! Venice! when thy marble walls + Are level with the waters, there shall be + A cry of nations o'er thy sunken halls, + A loud lament along the sweeping sea!" + +Shelley, too, in his _Lines written among the Euganean Hills_, bewailed +the approaching doom of the "sea-girt city." But threatened cities, like +threatened men, live long, and since its annexation to Italy, in 1866, a +revival of trade and the re-establishment of the arsenal have brought +back a certain measure of prosperity.] + +[lq] {339} _Even in Destruction's heart_----.--[MS. M.] + +[395] That is, the Lion of St. Mark, the standard of the republic, which +is the origin of the word Pantaloon--Piantaleone, Pantaleon, Pantaloon. + +[The Venetians were nicknamed Pantaloni. Byron, who seems to have relied +on the authority of a Venetian glossary, assumes that the "by-word" may +be traced to the patriotism of merchant-princes "who were reputed to +hoist flags with the Venetian lion waving to the breeze on every rock +and barren headland of Levantine waters" (_Memoirs of Count Carlo +Gozzi_, translated by J. Addington Symonds, 1890, Introd. part ii. p. +44), and that in consequence of this spread-eagleism the Venetians were +held up to scorn by their neighbours as "planters of the lion"--a +reproach which conveyed a tribute to their prowess. A more probable +explanation is that the "by-word," with its cognates "Pantaleone," the +typical masque of Italian comedy--progenitor of our "Pantaloon;" and +"pantaloni," "pantaloons," the typical Venetian costume--derive their +origin from the baptismal name "Pantaleone," frequently given to +Venetian children, in honour of St. Pantaleon of Nicomedia, physician +and martyr, whose cult was much in vogue in Northern Italy, and +especially in Venice, where his relics, which "coruscated with +miracles," were the object of peculiar veneration. + +St. Pantaleon was known to the Greek Church as [Greek: Pantelee/mon], +that is, the "all-pitiful;" and in Latin his name is spelled +_Pantaleymon_ and _Pantaleemon_. Hagiologists seem to have been puzzled, +but the compiler of the _Acta Sanctorum_, for July 27, St. Pantaleon's +Day in the Roman calendar (xxxiii. 397-426), gives the preference to +Pantaleon, and explains that he was hailed as Pantaleemon by a divine +voice at the hour of his martyrdom, which proclaimed "eum non amplius +esse vocandum Pantaleonem, sed Pantaleemonem." + +The accompanying woodcut is the reproduction of the frontispiece of a +black-letter tract, composed by Augustinus de Crema, in honour of the +"translation" of one of the sainted martyr's arms to Crema, in Lombardy. +It was printed at Cremona, in 1493.] + +[396] {340} Shakespeare is my authority for the word "Ottomite" for +Ottoman. "Which Heaven hath forbid the Ottomites" (see _Othello_, act +ii. sc. 3, line 161).--[MS. D.] + +[397] ["On 29th September (1669) Candia, and the island of Candia, +passed away from Venice, after a defence which had lasted twenty-five +years, and was unmatched for bravery in the annals of the +Republic."--_Venice, an Historical Sketch_, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, +p. 378.] + +[398] ["The battle of Lepanto [October 7, 1571] lasted five hours.... +The losses are estimated at 8000 Christians and 30,000 Turks.... The +chief glory of the victory rests with Sebastian Veniero and the +Venetians."--_Venice, etc._, 1893, p. 368.] + +[399] {341} [The story is told in Plutarch's _Life of Nicias_, cap. +xxix. (_Plut. Vit_., Lipsiae, 1813, v. 154). "The dramas of Euripides +were so popular throughout all Sicily, that those Athenian prisoners who +knew ... portions of them, won the affections of their masters.... I +cannot refrain from mentioning this story, though I fear its +trustworthiness ... is much inferior to its pathos and +interest."--Grote's _History of Greece_, 1869, vii. 186.] + +[lr] _And won her hopeless children from afar_.--[MS. M., D. erased.] + +[ls] + _And sends him ransomeless to bless his poet's strains_.--[MS. M.] + or, _And sends him home to bless the poet for his strains_.-- + [MS. D. erased.] + +[lt] {342} _Thy love of Tassa's verse should cut the knot_.--[MS. M.] + +[400] [By the Treaty of Paris, May 3, 1814, Lombardy and Venice, which +since the battle of Austerlitz had formed part of the French kingdom of +Naples, were once more handed over to Austria. Great Britain was +represented by "a bungler even in its disgusting trade" (_Don Juan_, +Dedication, stanza xiv.), Lord Castlereagh.] + +[lu] ----_for come it will and shall_.--[MS. M., D. erased.] + +[lv] _And Otway's--Radcliffe's--Schiller's--Shakspeare's art_.--[MS. M., +D.] + +[401] Venice Preserved; Mysteries of Udolpho; The Ghost-Seer, or +Armenian; The Merchant of Venice; Othello. + +[For _Venice Preserved, vide ante_, stanza iv. line 7, note. To the +_Mysteries of Udolpho_ Byron was indebted for more than one suggestion, +_vide ante_, stanza i. line 4, note, and _Mysteries, etc._, London, +1794, 2. 39: "The air bore no sounds, but those of sweetness echoing +along each margin of the canal and from gondolas on its surface, while +groups of masks were seen dancing on the moonlit terraces, and seemed +almost to realize the romance of fairy-land." The scene of Schiller's +_Der Geisterseher_ (_Werke_, 1819, x. 97, _sq._) is laid at Venice. +"This [the Doge's palace] was the thing that most struck my imagination +in Venice--more than the Rialto, which I visited for the sake of +Shylock; and more, too, than Schiller's _Armenian_, a novel which took a +great hold of me when a boy. It is also called the _Ghost Seer_, and I +never walked down St. Mark's by moonlight without thinking of it, and +'at nine o'clock he died!' [For allusion to the same incident, see +Rogers's _Italy_ (_Poems_, 1852, ii. 73).] But I hate things _all +fiction_; and therefore the _Merchant_ and _Othello_ have no great +associations for me: but _Pierre_ has."--Letter to Murray, Venice, April +2, 1817. (For an earlier reference to the _Ghost-seer_, see _Oscar of +Alva: Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 131, note.)] + +[lw] {344} _Though I have found her thus we will not part_.--[MS. M.] + +[402] [Shelley, in his _Lines written among the Euganean Hills_, allows +to Venice one lingering glory "one remembrance more sublime"-- + + "That a tempest-cleaving swan + Of the songs of Albion, + Driven from his ancestral streams + By the might of evil dreams, + Found a nest in thee; and Ocean + Welcomed him with such emotion, + That its joy grew his, and sprung + From his lips like music flung + O'er a mighty thunder-fit, + Chastening terror."] + +[lx] + _The Past at least is mine--whate'er may come_. + _But when the heart is full the lips must needs lie dumb_.-- + [MS. M. erased.] + ----_or else mine now were cold and dumb_.--[MS. M.] + +[403] {344} _Tannen_ is the plural of _tanne_, a species of fir peculiar +to the Alps, which only thrives in very rocky parts, where scarcely soil +sufficient for its nourishment can be found. On these spots it grows to +a greater height than any other mountain tree. + +[Byron did not "know German" (Letter to Murray, June 7, 1820), and he +may, as Mr. Tozer suggests, have supposed that the word "tannen" denoted +not "fir trees" generally, but a particular kind of fir tree. He refers, +no doubt, to the Ebeltanne (_Abies pectinata_), which is not a native of +this country, but grows at a great height on the Swiss Alps and +throughout the mountainous region of Central Europe.] + +[ly] _But there are minds which as the Tannen grow_.--[MS. erased.] + +[lz] _Of shrubless granite_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[ma] {345} _In rocks and unsupporting places_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[404] [Cicero, _De Finibus_, II. xxix., controverts the maxim of +Epicurus, that a great sorrow is necessarily of short duration, a +prolonged sorrow necessarily light: "Quod autem magnum dolorem brevem +longinquum levem esse dicitis, id non intelligo quale sit, video enim et +magnos et eosdem bene longinquos dolores." But the sentiment is adopted +by Montaigne (1. xiv.), ed. 1580, p. 66: "Tu ne la sentiras guiere long +temps, si tu la sens trop; elle mettra fin a soy ou a toy; l'un et +l'autre revient a un." ("Si tu ne la portes; elle t'emportera," note.) +And again by Sir Thomas Brown, "Sense endureth no extremities, and +sorrows destroy us or themselves" (see Darmesteter, _Childe Harold_, +1882, p. 193). Byron is not refining upon these conceits, but is drawing +upon his own experience. Suffering which does not kill is subject to +change, and "continueth not in one stay;" but it remains within call, +and returns in an hour when we are not aware.] + +[405] {346} [Compare Bishop Blougram's lament on the instability of +unfaith-- + + "Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch, + A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, + A chorus-ending from Euripides,-- + And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears. + + * * * * * + + To rap and knock and enter in our soul, + Take hands and dance there." + Browning's _Poetical Works_, 1869, v. 268.] + +[mb] + _A tone of music--eventide in spring_. + or, ----_twilight--eve in spring_.--[MS. M, erased.] + +[406] {347} +[Compare Scott's _Lady of the Lake_, I. xxxiii. lines 21, 22-- + + "They come, in dim procession led, + The cold, the faithless, and the dead."] + +[407] {348} ["Friuli's mountains" are the Julian Alps, which lie to the +north of Trieste and north-east of Venice, "the hoar and aery Alps +towards the north," which Julian and Count Maddalo (_vide post_, p. 349) +saw from the Lido. But the Alpine height along which "a sea of glory" +streamed--"the peak of the far Rhaetian hill" (stanza xxviii. line +4)--must lie to the westward of Venice, in the track of the setting +sun.] + +[408] The above description may seem fantastical or exaggerated to those +who have never seen an Oriental or an Italian sky; yet it is but a +literal and hardly sufficient delineation of an August evening (the +eighteenth), as contemplated in one of many rides along the banks of the +Brenta, near La Mira. + +[Compare Shelley's _Julian and Maddalo_ +(_Poetical Works_, 1895, i. 343)-- + + "How beautiful is sunset, when the glow + Of Heaven descends upon a land like thee, + Thou Paradise of exiles, Italy! + * * * * * + ... We stood + Looking upon the evening, and the flood, + Which lay between the city and the shore, + Paved with the image of the sky ... the hoar + And aery Alps towards the north appeared, + Thro' mist, an heaven-sustaining bulwark reared + Between the East and West; and half the sky + Was roofed with clouds of rich emblazonry, + Dark purple at the zenith, which still grew + Down the steep West into a wondrous hue, + Brighter than burning gold."] + +[409] {349} [The Brenta rises in Tyrol, and flowing past Padua falls +into the Lagoon at Fusina. Mira, or La Mira, where Byron "colonized" in +the summer of 1817, and again in 1819, is on the Brenta, some six or +seven miles inland from the Lagoon.] + +[410] {350} [The Abbe de Sade, in his _Memoires pour la vie de +Petrarque_ (1767), affirmed, on the strength of documentary evidence, +that the Laura of the sonnets, born de Noves, was the wife of his +ancestor, Hugo de Sade, and the mother of a large family. "Gibbon," says +Hobhouse (note viii.), "called the abbe's memoirs a 'labour of love' +(see _Decline and Fall_, chap. lxx. note 1), and followed him with +confidence and delight;" but the poet James Beattie (in a letter to the +Duchess of Gordon, August 17, 1782) disregarded them as a "romance," +and, more recently, "an ingenious Scotchman" [Alexander Fraser Tytler +(Lord Woodhouselee)], in an _Historical and Critical Essay on the Life +and Character of Petrarch_ (1810), had re-established "the ancient +prejudice" in favour of Laura's virginity. Hobhouse appears, but his +note is somewhat ambiguous, to adopt the view of "the ingenious +Scotchman." To pass to contemporary criticism, Dr. Garnett, in his +_History of Italian Literature_, 1898 (pp. 66-71), without attempting to +settle "the everlasting controversy," regards the abbe's documentary +evidence as for the most part worthless, and, relying on the internal +evidence of the sonnets and the dialogue, and on the facts of Petrarch's +life as established by his correspondence (a complete series of +Petrarch's letters was published by Giuseppe Fracassetti, in 1859), +inclines to the belief that it was the poet's status as a cleric, and +not a husband and family, which proved a bar to his union with Laura. +With regard, however, to "one piece of documentary evidence," namely, +Laura de Sade's will, Dr. Garnett admits that, if this were producible, +and, on being produced, proved genuine, the coincidence of the date of +the will, April 3, 1348, with a note in Petrarch's handwriting, dated +April 6, 1348, which records the death of Laura, would almost establish +the truth of the abbe's theory "in the teeth of all objections."] + +[411] {351} ["He who would seek, as I have done, the last memorials of +the life and death of Petrarch in that sequestered Euganean village +[Arqua is about twelve miles south-west of Padua], will still find them +there. A modest house, apparently of great antiquity, passes for his +last habitation. A chair in which he is said to have died is shown +there. And if these details are uncertain, there is no doubt that the +sarcophagus of red marble, supported on pillars, in the churchyard of +Arqua, contains, or once contained, his mortal remains. Lord Byron and +Mr. Hobhouse visited the spot more than sixty years ago in a sceptical +frame of mind; for doubts had at that time been thrown on the very +existence of Laura; and the varied details of the poet's life, which are +preserved with so much fidelity in his correspondence, were almost +forgotten."--_Petrarch_, by H. Reeve, 1879, p. 14. In a letter to +Hoppner, September 12, 1817, Byron says that he was moved "to turn aside +in a second visit to Arqua." Two years later, October, 1819, he in vain +persuaded Moore "to spare a day or two to go with me to Arqua. I should +like," he said, "to visit that tomb with you--a pair of poetical +pilgrims--eh, Tom, what say you?" But "Tom" was for Rome and Lord John +Russell, and ever afterwards bewailed the lost opportunity "with wonder +and self-reproach" (_Life_, p. 423; _Life_, by Karl Elze, 1872, p. +235).] + +[mc] {352} _His mansion and his monument_----.--[MS. M., D. erased.] + +[md] ----_formed his sepulchral fane_.--[MS. M.] + +[412] +[Compare Wordsworth's _Ode_, "Intimations of," etc., xi. lines 9-11-- + + "The clouds that gather round the setting sun + Do take a sober colouring from an eye + That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality."] + +[413] ["Euganeis istis in collibus ... domum parvam sed delectabilem et +honestam struxi ... hic quanquam aeger corpore, tranquillus animo frater +dego, sine tumultibus, sine erroribus, sine curis, legens semper et +scribens, Deum laudans."--Petrarca, _Epistolae Seniles_, xiv. 6 (_Opera_, +Basileae, 1581, p. 938). + +See, too, the notes to _Arqua_ (Rogers's _Italy: Poems_, 1852, ii. +105-109), which record the pilgrimage of other poets, Boccaccio and +Alfieri, to the great laureate's tomb; and compare with Byron's stanzas +the whole of that exquisite cameo, delicate and yet durable as if graved +on chalcedony.] + +[me] {353} _Society's the school where taught to live._--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[mf] ----_the soul with God must strive_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[414] The struggle is to the full as likely to be with demons as with +our better thoughts. Satan chose the wilderness for the temptation of +our Saviour. And our unsullied John Locke preferred the presence of a +child to complete solitude. + +["He always chose to have company with him, if it were only a child; for +he loved children, and took pleasure in talking with those that had been +well trained" (_Life of John Locke_, by H. R. Fox-Bourne, ii. 537). Lady +Masham's daughter Esther, and "his wife" Betty Clarke, aged eleven +years, were among his child-friends.] + +[mg] {354} _Which dies not nor can ever pass away_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[mh] _The tomb a hell--and life one universal gloom_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[415] [Byron passed a single day at Ferrara in April, 1817; went over +the castle, cell, etc., and a few days after wrote _The Lament of +Tasso_, the manuscript of which is dated April 20, 1817. The Fourth +Canto of _Childe Harold_ was not begun till the end of June in the same +year.] + +[416] [Of the ancient family of Este, Marquesses of Tuscany, Azzo V. was +the first who obtained power in Ferrara in the twelfth century. A remote +descendant, Nicolo III. (b. 1384, d. 1441), founded the University of +Parma. He married for his second wife Parisina Malatesta (the heroine of +Byron's _Parisina_, published February, 1816), who was beheaded for +adultery in 1425. His three sons, Lionel (d. 1450), the friend of Poggio +Bracciolini; Borso (d. 1471), who established printing in his states; +and Ercolo (d. 1505), the friend of Boiardo,--were all patrons of +letters and fosterers of the Renaissance. Their successor, Alphonso I. +(1486-1534), who married Lucrezia Borgia, 1502, honoured himself by +attaching Ariosto to his court, and it was his grandson, Alphonso II. +(d. 1597), who first befriended and afterwards, on the score of lunacy, +imprisoned Tasso in the Hospital of Sant' Anna (1579-86).] + +[417] {355} [It is a fact that Tasso was an involuntary inmate of the +Hospital of Sant' Anna at Ferrara for seven years and four months--from +March, 1579, to July, 1586--but the causes, the character, and the place +of his imprisonment have been subjects of legend and misrepresentation. +It has long been known and acknowledged (see Hobhouse's _Historical +Illustrations_, 1818, pp. 5-31) that a real or feigned passion for Duke +Alphonso's sister, Leonora d'Este, was not the cause or occasion of his +detention, and that the famous cell or dungeon ("nine paces by six, and +about seven high") was not "the original place of the poet's +confinement." It was, as Shelley says (see his letter to Peacock, +November 7, 1818), "a very decent dungeon;" but it was not Tasso's. The +setting of the story was admitted to be legendary, but the story itself, +that a poet was shut up in a madhouse because a vindictive magnate +resented his love of independence and impatience of courtly servitude, +was questioned, only to be reasserted as historical. The publication of +Tasso's letters by Guasti, in 1853, a review of Tasso's character and +career in Symonds's _Renaissance in Italy_, and, more recently, Signor +Angelo Solerti's monumental work, _Vita di Torquato Tasso_ (1895), which +draws largely upon the letters of contemporaries, the accounts of the +ducal court, and other documentary evidence, have in a great measure +exonerated the duke at the expense of the unhappy poet himself. Briefly, +Tasso's intrigues with rival powers--the Medici at Florence, the papal +court, and the Holy Office at Bologna--aroused the alarm and suspicion +of the duke, whilst his general demeanour and his outbursts of violence +and temper compelled, rather than afforded, a pretext for his +confinement. Before his final and fatal return to Ferrara, he had been +duly warned that he must submit to be treated as a person of disordered +intellect, and that if he continued to throw out hints of designs upon +his life and of persecution in high places, he would be banished from +the ducal court and dominions. But return he would, and at an +inauspicious moment, when the duke was preoccupied with the ceremonies +and festivities of a third marriage. No one attended to him or took heed +of his arrival; and, to quote his own words, "in a fit of madness" he +broke out into execrations of the ducal court and family, and of the +people of Ferrara. For the offence he was shut up in the Hospital of +Sant' Anna, and for many months treated as an ordinary lunatic. Of the +particulars of his treatment during these first eight months of his +confinement, apart from Tasso's own letters, there is no evidence. The +accounts of the hospital are lost, and the _Libri di spesa_ (_R. Arch. +di Stato in Modena_; _Camer. Ducale: Casa_; _Amministrazione_, Solerti, +iii. _Docu_. 47) do not commence till November 20, 1579. Two years +later, the _Libri di spenderia_ (Solerti, in. _Docu_. 51), from January, +1582, onward, show that he was put on a more generous diet; and it is +known that a certain measure of liberty and other indulgences were +gradually accorded. There can, however, be little doubt that for many +months his food was neglected and medical attendance withheld. His +statement, that he was denied the rites of the Church, cannot be +gainsaid. He was regarded as a lunatic, and, as such, he would not be +permitted either to make his confession or to communicate. Worse than +all, there was the terrible solitude. "E sovra tutto," he writes (May, +1580), "m'affligge la solitudine, mia crudele e natural nimica." No +wonder the attacks of delirium, the "unwonted lights," the conference +with a familiar spirit, followed in due course. Byron and Shelley were +ignorant of the facts; and we know that their scorn and indignation were +exaggerated and misplaced. But the "pity of it" remains, that the grace +and glory of his age was sacrificed to ignorance and fear, if not to +animosity and revenge. (See _Tasso_, by E. J. Hasell; _History of the +Italian Renaissance_, by J. A. Symonds; _Quart. Rev._, October, 1895, +No. 364, art. x.; _Vita di Torquato Tasso_, 1895, i. 312-314, 410-412, +etc.)] + +[mi] {357} _And thou for no one useful purpose born_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[418] [Solerti (_Vita_, i. 418) combats the theory advanced by Hobhouse +(see _note_ x.), that Lionardo Salviati, in order to curry favour with +Alphonso, was responsible for "the opposition which the Jerusalem +encountered from the Cruscan Academy." He assigns their unfavourable +criticism to literary sentiment or prejudice, and not to personal +animosity or intrigue. The _Gerusalemme Liberata_ was dedicated to the +glory of the house of Este; and, though the poet was in disgrace, the +duke was not to be propitiated by an attack upon the poem. Moreover, +Salviati did not publish his theses in his own name, but under a _nom de +guerre_, "L'Infarinato."] + +[mj] {358} _And baffled Gaul whose rancour could allow_.--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[mk] _Which grates upon the teeth_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[419] [Hobhouse, in his note x., quotes Boileau, but not in full. The +passage runs thus-- + + "Tous les jours, a la cour, un sot de qualite + Peut juger de travers avec impunite, + A Malherbe, a Racan, prefere Theophile, + Et le clinquant du Tasse a tout l'or de Virgile." + +Perhaps he divined that the phrase, "un sot de qualite," might glance +back on a "noble author," who was about to admit that he could not +savour Horace, and who turned aside from Mantua and memories of Virgil +to visit Ferrara and the "cell" where Tasso was "encaged." (See +Darmesteter's _Notes to Childe Harold_, pp. 201, 217.) + +If "the Youth with brow serene," as Hugo calls him, had lived to read +_Dedain. A Lord Byron, en_ 1811, he would have passed a somewhat +different criticism on French poetry in general-- + + "En vain vos legions l'environnent sans nombre, + Il n'a qu'a se lever pour couvrir de son ombre + A la fois tous vos fronts; + Il n'a qu'a dire un mot pour couvrir vos voix greles, + Comme un char en passant couvre le bruit des ailes + De mille moucherons!" + _Les Feuilles d'Automne_, par Victor Hugo, + Bruxelles, 1833, pp. 59, 63.] + +[ml] {359} _Could mount into a mind like thine_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[mm] ----_they would not form the Sun_.--[MS. M.] + +[420] [In a letter to Murray (August 7, 1817) Byron throws out a hint +that Scott might not like being called "the Ariosto of the North," and +Murray seems to have caught at the suggestion. "With regard to 'the +Ariosto of the North,'" rejoins Byron (September 17, 1817), "surely +their themes, Chivalry, war, and love, were as like as can be; and as to +the compliment, if you knew what the Italians think of Ariosto, you +would not hesitate about that.... If you think Scott will dislike it, +say so, and I will expunge." Byron did not know that when Scott was at +college at Edinburgh he had "had the audacity to produce a composition +in which he weighed Homer against Ariosto, and pronounced him wanting in +the balance," or that he "made a practice of reading through ... the +_Orlando_ of Ariosto once every year" (see _Memoirs of the Life, etc._, +1871, pp. 12, 747); but the parallel had suggested itself. The key-note +of "the harpings of the north," the chivalrous strain of "shield, lance, +and brand, and plume and scarf," of "gentle courtesy," of "valour, +lion-mettled lord," which the "Introduction to _Marmion_" preludes, had +been already struck in the opening lines of the _Orlando Furioso_-- + + "Le Donne, i Cavalier', l'arme, gli amori, + Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto." + +Scott, we may be assured, was neither disconcerted nor uplifted by the +parallel. Many years before (July 6, 1812), Byron had been at pains to +inform him that so august a critic as the Prince Regent "preferred you +to every bard past and present," and "spoke alternately of Homer and +yourself." Of the "placing" and unplacing of poets there is no end. +Byron had already been sharply rebuked by the _Edinburgh Review_ for +describing _Christabel_ as a "wild and singularly original and beautiful +poem," and his appreciation of Scott provoked the expostulation of a +friendlier critic. "Walter Scott," wrote Francis Hodgson, in his +anonymous _Monitor of Childe Harold_ (1818), "(_credite posteri_, or +rather _praeposteri_), is designated in the Fourth Canto of _Childe +Harold_ as 'the Northern Ariosto,' and (droller still) Ariosto is +denominated 'the Southern Scott.' This comes of mistaking +horse-chestnuts for chestnut horses."] + +[421] {361} The two stanzas xlii. and xliii. are, with the exception of +a line or two, a translation of the famous sonnet of Filicaja:--"Italia, +Italia, O tu, cui feo la sorte!"--_Poesie Toscane_ 1823, p. 149. + + ["Italia, Italia, o tu cui feo la sorte + Dono infelice di bellezza, ond'hai + Funesta dote d'infiniti guai + Che in fronte scritti per gran doglia porte: + Deh fossi tu men bella, o almen piu forte, + Onde assai piu ti paventasse, o assai + T'amasse men, chi del tuo bello ai rai + Par che si strugga, e pur ti sfida a morte, + Che or giu dall' Alpi non vedrei torrenti + Scender d'armati, ne di sangue tinta + Bever l'onda del Po gallici armenti; + Ne te vedrei, del non tuo ferro cinta, + Pugnar col braccio di straniere genti, + Per servir sempre, o vincitrice, o vinta."] + +[mn] + _And on thy brow in characters of flame_ + _To write the words of sorrow and of shame_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[mo] + ----_unbetrayed_ + _To death by thy vain charms_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[422] {362} The celebrated letter of Servius Sulpicius to Cicero, on the +death of his daughter, describes as it then was, and now is, a path +which I often traced in Greece, both by sea and land, in different +journeys and voyages. "On my return from Asia, as I was sailing from +AEgina towards Megara, I began to contemplate the prospect of the +countries around me: AEgina was behind, Megara before me; Piraeus on the +right, Corinth on the left: all which towns, once famous and +flourishing, now lie overturned and buried in their ruins. Upon this +sight, I could not but think presently within myself, Alas! how do we +poor mortals fret and vex ourselves if any of our friends happen to die +or be killed, whose life is yet so short, when the carcasses of so many +noble cities lie here exposed before me in one view."--See Middleton's +_Cicero_, 1823, ii. 144. + +[The letter is to be found in Cicero's _Epist. ad Familiares_, iv. 5. +Byron, on his return from Constantinople on July 14, 1810, left Hobhouse +at the Island of Zea, and made his own way to Athens. As the vessel +sailed up the Saronic Gulf, he would observe the "prospect" which +Sulpicius describes.] + +[mp] {363} _These carcases of cities_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[423] ["By the events of the years 1813 and 1814, the house of Austria +gained possession of all that belonged to her in Italy, either before or +in consequence of the Peace of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797). A small +portion of Ferrara, to the north of the Po (which had formed part of the +Papal dominions), was ceded to her, as were the Valteline, Bormio, +Chiavenna, and the ancient republic of Ragusa. The emperor constituted +all these possessions into a separate and particular state, under the +title of the kingdom of Venetian Lombardy."--Koch's _History of Europe_, +p. 234.] + +[424] {364} It is Poggio, who, looking from the Capitoline hill upon +ruined Rome, breaks forth into the exclamation, "Ut nunc omni decore +nudata, prostrata jaceat, instar Gigantei cadaveris corrupti atque +undique exesi." + +[See _De Fortunae Varietate_, ap. _Nov. Thes. Ant. Rom._, ap. Sallengre, +i. 502.] + +[425] [Compare Milton, _Sonnet_ xxii.-- + + " ... my noble task, + Of which all Europe talks from side to side."] + +[mq] {365} + _Where Luxury might willingly be born_. + _And buried Learning looks forth into fresher morn_,-- + [MS. M. erased.] + +[426] [The wealth which permitted the Florentine nobility to indulge +their taste for modern, that is, refined luxury was derived from success +in trade. For example, Giovanni de' Medici (1360-1428), the father of +Cosmo and great-grand-father of Lorenzo de' Medici, was a banker and +Levantine merchant. As for the Renaissance, to say nothing of Petrarch +of Florentine parentage, two of the greatest Italian scholars and +humanists--Ficino, born A.D. 1430, and Poliziano, born 1454--were +Florentines; and Poggio was born A.D. 1380, at Terra Nuova on Florentine +soil.] + +[mr] _There, too, the Goddess breathes in stone and fills_.--[MS. M.] + +[427] [The statue of Venus de' Medici, which stands in the Tribune of +the Uffizzi Gallery at Florence, is said to be a late Greek (first or +second century B.C.) copy of an early reproduction, of the Cnidian +Aphrodite, the work, perhaps, of one of his sons, Kephisodotos or +Timarchos. (See _Histoire de la Sculpture Grecque_, par Maxime +Collignon, Paris, 1897, ii. 641.) In a Catalogue Raissonne of _La +Galerie de Florence_, 1804, in the editor's possession, which opens with +an eloquent tribute to the enlightenment of the Medici, _la fameuse +Venus_ is conspicuous by her absence. She had been deported to Paris by +Napoleon, but when Lord Byron spent a day in Florence in April, 1817, +and returned "drunk with Beauty" from the two galleries, the lovely +lady, thanks to the much-abused "Powers," was once more in her proper +shrine.] + +[ms] + ----_and we draw_ + _As from a fountain of immortal hills_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[428] {366} [Byron's contempt for connoisseurs and dilettanti finds +expression in _English Bards, etc._, lines 1027-1032, and, again, in +_The Curse of Minerva_, lines 183, 184. The "stolen copy" of _The Curse_ +was published in the _New Monthly Magazine_ (_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. +453) under the title of _The Malediction of Minerva; or, The Athenian +Marble-Market_, a title (see line 7) which must have been invented by +and not for Byron. He returns to the charge in _Don Juan_, Canto 11. +stanza cxviii. lines 5-9-- + + " ... a statuary, + (A race of mere impostors, when all's done-- + I've seen much finer women ripe and real, + Than all the nonsense of their stone ideal)." + +Even while confessing the presence and power of "triumphal Art" in +sculpture, one of "the two most artificial of the Arts" (see his letter +to Murray, April 26, 1817), then first revealed to him at Florence, he +took care that his enthusiasm should not be misunderstood. He had made +bitter fun of the art-talk of collectors, and he was unrepentant, and, +moreover, he was "not careful" to incur a charge of indifference to the +fine arts in general. Among the "crowd" which found their place in his +complex personality, there was "the barbarian," and there was "the +philistine," and there was, too, the humourist who took a subtle +pleasure in proclaiming himself "a plain man," puzzled by subtleties, +and unable to catch the drift of spirits finer than his own.] + +[429] {367} + + [Greek: O)phthalmou\s e(stia~n] + "Atque oculos pascat uterque suos." + Ovid., _Amor_., lib. ii. [Eleg. 2, line 6]. + +[Compare, too, Lucretius, lib. i. lines 36-38-- + + "Atque ita, suspiciens tereti cervice reposta, + Pascit amore avidos, inhians in te, Dea, visus; + Eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore;" + +and _Measure for Measure_, act ii. sc. 2, line 179-- + + "And feast upon her eyes."] + +[mt] {368} _Glowing and all-diffused_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[430] [As the immortals, for love's sake, divest themselves of their +godhead, so do mortals, in the ecstasy of passion, recognize in the +object of their love the incarnate presence of deity. Love, like music, +can raise a "mortal to the skies" and "bring an angel down." In this +stanza there is, perhaps, an intentional obscurity in the confusion of +ideas, which are "thrown out" for the reader to shape for himself as he +will or can.] + +[mu] ----_and our Fate_----[MS. M.] + +[431] {369} ["The church of Santa Croce contains much illustrious +nothing. The tombs of Macchiavelli, Michael Angelo, Galileo Galilei, and +Alfieri make it the Westminster Abbey of Italy" (Letter to Murray, April +26, 1817). Michael Angelo, Alfieri, and Macchiavelli are buried in the +south aisle of the church; Galileo, who was first buried within the +convent, now rests with his favourite pupil, Vincenzo Viviani, in a +vault in the south aisle. Canova's monument to Alfieri was erected at +the expense of his so-called widow, Louise, born von Stolberg, and +(1772-78) consort of Prince Charles Edward.] + +[432] [Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803) is one of numerous real and ideal +personages with whom, as he tells us (_Life_, p. 644), Byron was wont to +be compared. Moore perceives and dwells on the resemblance. A passage in +Alfieri's autobiography (_La Vie de V. A. ecrite par Lui-meme_, Paris, +1809, p. 17) may have suggested the parallel-- + + "Voici une esquisse du caractere que je manifestais dans les + premieres annees de ma raison naissante. Taciturne et tranquille + pour l'ordinaire, mais quelquefois extremement petulant et + babillard, presque toujours dans les extremes, obstine et rebelle a + la force, fort soumis aux avis qu'on me donnait avec amitie, + contenu plutot par la crainte d'etre gronde que par toute autre + chose, d'une timidite excessive, et inflexible quand on voulait me + prendre a rebours." + +The resemblance, as Byron admits, "related merely to our apparent +personal dispositions." Both were noble, both were poets, both were +"patrician republicans," and both were lovers of pleasure as well as +lovers and students of literature; but their works do not provoke +comparison. "The quality of 'a narrow elevation' which [Matthew] Arnold +finds in Alfieri," is not characteristic of the author of _Childe +Harold_ and _Don Juan_. + +Of this stanza, however, Alfieri's fine sonnet to Florence may have been +the inspiration. I have Dr. Garnett's permission to cite the following +lines of his admirable translation (_Italian Literature_, 1898, p. +321):-- + + "Was Angelo born here? and he who wove + Love's charm with sorcery of Tuscan tongue, + Indissolubly blent? and he whose song + Laid bare the world below to world above? + And he who from the lonely valley clove + The azure height and trod the stars among? + And he whose searching mind the monarch's wrong, + Fount of the people's misery did prove?"] + +[mv] {370} _Might furnish forth a Universe_----.--[MS. M.] + +[mw] + _And ruin of thy beauty, shall deny_ + _And hath denied, to every other sky_ + _Spirits that soar like thine; from thy decay_ + {_Still springs some son of the Divinity_} + {_Still springs some work of the Divinity_}--[D.] + _And gilds thy ruins with reviving ray_-- + _And what these were of yore--Canova is to-day_.--[MS. M.] + +[433] [Compare "Lines on the Bust of Helen by Canova," which were sent +in a letter to Murray, November 25, 1816-- + + "In this beloved marble view, + Above the works and thoughts of man, + What nature _could_, but _would not_, do, + And Beauty and Canova can." + +In _Beppo_ (stanza xlvi.), which was written in October, 1817, there is +a further allusion to the genius of Canova.] + +[mx] {371} _Their great Contemporary_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[434] [Dante died at Ravenna, September 14, 1321, and was buried in the +Church of S. Francesco. His remains were afterwards transferred to a +mausoleum in the friars' cemetery, on the north side of the church, +which was raised to his memory by his friend and patron, Guido da +Polenta. The mausoleum was restored more than once, and rebuilt in its +present form in 1780, at the cost of Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzaga. On +the occasion of Dante's sexcentenary, in 1865, it was discovered that at +some unknown period the skeleton, with the exception of a few small +bones which remained in an urn which formed part of Gonzaga's structure, +had been placed for safety in a wooden box, and enclosed in a wall of +the old Braccioforte Chapel, which lies outside the church towards the +Piazza. "The bones found in the wooden box were placed in the mausoleum +with great pomp and exultation, the poet being now considered the symbol +of a united Italy. The wooden box itself has been removed to the public +library."--_Handbook far Northern Italy_, p. 539, note. + +The house which Byron occupied during his first visit to Ravenna--June 8 +to August 9, 1819--is close to the Cappella Braccioforte. In January, +1820, when he wrote the Fourth Canto of _Don Juan_ ("I pass each day +where Dante's bones are laid," stanza civ.), he was occupying a suite of +apartments in the Palazzo Guiccioli, No. 328 in the Via di Porta +Adriana. Compare Rogers's _Italy_, "Bologna," _Poems_, ii. 118-- + + "Ravenna! where from Dante's sacred tomb + He had so oft, as many a verse declares, + Drawn inspiration."] + +[435] [The story is told in Livy, lib. xxxviii. cap. 53. "Thenceforth no +more was heard of Africanus. He passed his days at Liternum [on the +shore of Campania], without thought or regret of Rome. Folk say that +when he came to die he gave orders that he should be buried on the spot, +and that there, and not at Rome, a monument should be raised over his +sepulchre. His country had been ungrateful--no Roman funeral for him." +It is said that his sepulchre bore the inscription: "Ingrata patria, +cineres meos non habebis." According to another tradition, he was buried +with his family at the Porta Capena, by the Caelian Hill.] + +[436] [Compare Lucan, _Pharsalia_, i. I--"Bella per Emathios plusquam +civilia campos."] + +[437] [Petrarch's _Africa_ brought him on the same day (August 23, 1340) +offers of the laurel wreath of poetry from the University of Paris and +from the Senate of Rome. He chose in favour of Rome, and was crowned on +the Capitol, Easter Day, April 8, 1341. "The poet appeared in a royal +mantle ... preceded by twelve noble Roman youths clad in scarlet, and +the heralds and trumpeters of the Roman Senate."--_Petrarch_, by Henry +Reeve, p. 92.] + +[438] {372} [Tomasini, in the _Petrarca Redivivus_ (pp. 168-172, ed. +1650), assigns the outrage to a party of Venetians who "broke open +Petrarch's tomb, in 1630, and took away some of his bones, probably with +the object of selling them." Hobhouse, in _note_ ix., says, "that one of +the arms was stolen by a Florentine," but does not quote his authority. +(See the notes to H. F. Tozer's _Childe Harold_, p. 302.)] + +[439] [Giovanni Boccaccio was born at Paris (or Certaldo) in 1313, +passed the greater part of his life at Florence, died and was buried at +Certaldo, whence his family are said to have sprung, in 1375. His +sepulchre, which stood in the centre of the Church of St. Michael and +St. James, known as the Canonica, was removed in 1783, on the plea that +a recent edict forbidding burial in churches applied to ancient +interments. "The stone that covered the tomb was broken, and thrown +aside as useless into the adjoining cloisters" (_Handbook for Central +Italy_, p. 171). "Ignorance," pleads Hobhouse, "may share the crime with +bigotry." But it is improbable that the "hyaena bigots," that is, the +ecclesiastical authorities, were ignorant that Boccaccio was a bitter +satirist of Churchmen, or that "he transferred the functions and +histories of Hebrew prophets and prophetesses, and of Christian saints +and apostles, nay, the highest mysteries and most awful objects of +Christian Faith, to the names and drapery of Greek and Roman +mythology."--(Unpublished MS. note of S. T. Coleridge, written in his +copy of Boccaccio's _Opere_, 4 vols. 1723.) They had their revenge on +Boccaccio, and Byron has had his revenge on them.] + +[my] + _Boccaccio to his parent earth, bequeathed_ + _The dust derived from thence--doth it not lie_ + _With many a sweet and solemn requiem breathed_ + _O'er him who formed the tongue of Italy_ + _That music in itself whose harmony_ + _Asks for no tune to make it song; No--torn_ + _From earth--and scattered while the silent sky_ + _Hushed its indignant Winds--with quiet scorn_ + _The Hyaena bigots thus forbade a World to mourn_.-- + [D. erased.] + +[440] {374} [Compare _Beppo_, stanza xliv.-- + + "I love the language, that soft bastard Latin, + Which melts like kisses from a female mouth, + And sounds as if it should be writ on satin, + With syllables which breathe of the sweet South." + +Compare, too, the first sentence of a letter which Byron wrote "on a +blank leaf of the volume of 'Corinne,'" which Teresa [Guiccioli] left in +forgetfulness in a garden in Bologna: "Amor Mio,--How sweet is this word +in your Italian language!" (_Life of Lord Byron_, by Emilio Castelar, P. +145).] + +[441] [By "Caesar's pageant" Byron means the pageant decreed by Tiberius +Caesar. Compare _Don Juan_, Canto XV. stanza xlix.-- + + "And this omission, like that of the bust + Of Brutus at the pageant of Tiberius." + +At the public funeral of Junia, wife of Cassius and sister of Brutus, +A.D. 22, the busts of her husband and brother were not allowed to be +carried in the procession, because they had taken part in the +assassination of Julius Caesar. But none the less, "Praefulgebant Brutus +et Cassius eo ipso quod effigies eorum non videbantur" (Tacitus, _Ann._, +iii. 76). Their glory was conspicuous in men's minds, because their +images were withheld from men's eyes. As Tacitus says elsewhere (iv. +26), "Negatus honor gloriam intendit."] + +[mz] {375} _Shelter of exiled Empire_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[442] [The inscription on Ricci's monument to Dante, in the Church of +Santa Croce--"A majoribus ter frustra decretum" --refers to the vain +attempts which Florence had made to recover the remains of her exiled +and once-neglected poet.] + +[443] ["I also went to the Medici chapel--fine frippery in great slabs +of various expensive stones, to commemorate fifty rotten and forgotten +carcasses. It is unfinished, and will remain so" (Letter to Murray, +April 26, 1817). The bodies of the grand-dukes lie in the crypt of the +Cappella dei Principi, or Medicean Chapel, which forms part of the +Church of San Lorenzo. The walls of the chapel are encrusted with rich +marbles and "stones of price, to garniture the edifice." The monuments +to Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici, son and grandson of Lorenzo the +Magnificent, with Michael Angelo's allegorical figures of Night and +Morning, Aurora and Twilight, are in the adjoining Cappella dei +Depositi, or Sagrestia Nuova.] + +[444] {376} [The Duomo, crowned with Brunelleschi's cupola, and rich in +sculpture and stained glass, is, as it were, a symbol of Florence, the +shrine of art. Browning, in his inspired vision of St. Peter's at Rome +in _Christmas Eve_, catches Byron's note to sound a loftier strain-- + + "Is it really on the earth + This miraculous dome of God?" + +"It is somewhere mentioned that Michael Angelo, when he set out from +Florence to build the dome of St. Peter's, turned his horse round in the +road to contemplate that of the cathedral, as it rose in the grey of the +morning from among the pines and cypresses of the city, and that he +said, after a pause, 'Come te non voglio! Meglio di te non posso.' He +never, indeed, spoke of it but with admiration; and, if we may believe +tradition, his tomb, by his own desire, was to be so placed in the Santa +Croce as that from it might be seen, when the doors of the church stood +open, that noble work of Brunelleschi."--Rogers's _Italy: Poems_, ii. +315, note to p. 133, line 5--"Beautiful Florence."] + +[445] {377} [Byron, contrary to traditional use (see Wordsworth's +sonnet, "Near the Lake of Thrasymene;" and Rogers's _Italy_, see note, +p. 378), sounds the final vowel in Thrasym[=e]ne. The Greek, Latin, and +Italian equivalents bear him out; but, most probably, he gave Thrasymene +and himself an extra syllable "vel metri vel euphoniae causa."] + +[na] _Where Courage perished in unyielding files_.--[MS. M.] + +[446] ["Tantusque fuit ardor armorum, adeo intentus pugnae animus, ut eum +motum terrae, qui multarum urbium Italiae magnas partes, prostravit, +avertitque cursu rapidos amnes, marce fluminibus invexit, montes lapsu +ingenti proruit, nemo pugnantium senserit" (Livy, xxii. 5). Polybius +says nothing about an earthquake; and Ihne (_Hist, of Rome_, ii. +207-210) is also silent; but Pliny (_Hist. Nat._, ii. 84) and Coelius +Antipater (ap. Cic., _De Div._, i. 35), who wrote his _Annales_ about a +century after the battle of Lake Thrasymenus (B.C. 217), synchronize the +earthquake and the battle. Compare, too, Rogers's _Italy_, "The +Pilgrim:" _Poems_, 1852, ii. 152-- + + "From the Thrasymene, that now + Slept in the sun, a lake of molten gold, + And from the shore that once, when armies met, + Rocked to and fro unfelt, so terrible + The rage, the slaughter, I had turned away." + +Compare, too, Wordsworth's sonnet (No. xii.), "Near the Lake of +Thrasymene" (_Works_, 1888, p. 756)-- + + "When here with Carthage Rome to conflict came, + An earthquake, mingling with the battle's shock, + Checked not its rage; unfelt the ground did rock, + Sword dropped not, javelin kept its deadly aim,-- + Now all is sun-bright peace."] + +[nb] + _Fly to the clouds for refuge and withdraw_ + _From their unsteady nests_----.--[MS. M.] + +[nc] {379} _Made fat the earth_----.--[MS. M. erased] + +[447] No book of travels has omitted to expatiate on the temple of the +Clitumnus, between Foligno and Spoleto; and no site, or scenery, even in +Italy, is more worthy a description. For an account of the dilapidation +of this temple, the reader is referred to _Historical Illustrations of +the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold_, p. 35. + +[448] [Compare Virgil, _Georg_., ii. 146-- + + "Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges et maxuma taurus + Victima, saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro." + +The waters of certain rivers were supposed to possess the quality of +making the cattle which drank from them white. (See Pliny, _Hist. Nat._, +ii. 103; and compare Silius Italicus, _Pun._, iv. 545, 546-- + + " ...et patulis Clitumnus in arvis + Candentes gelido perfundit flumine tauros.") + +For a charming description of Clitumnus, see Pliny's letter "Romano +Suo," _Epist._, viii. 8: "At the foot of a little hill covered with old +and shady cypress trees, gushes out a spring, which bursts out into a +number of streamlets, all of different sizes. Having struggled, so to +speak, out of its confinement, it opens out into a broad basin, so clear +and transparent, that you may count the pebbles and little pieces of +money which are thrown into it.... The banks are clothed with an +abundance of ash and poplar, which are so distinctly reflected in the +clear water that they seem to be growing at the bottom of the river, and +can easily be counted.... Near it stands an ancient and venerable +temple, in which is a statue of the river-god Clitumnus."--_Pliny's +Letters_, by the Rev. A. Church and the Rev. W. J. Brodribb, 1872, p. +127.] + +[449] {380} [The existing temple, now used as a chapel (St. Salvatore), +can hardly be Pliny's _templum priscum_. Hobhouse, in his _Historical +Illustrations_, pp. 37-41, defends the antiquity of the "facade, which +consists of a pediment supported by four columns and two Corinthian +piers, two of the columns with spiral fluting, the others covered with +fish-scaled carvings" (_Handbook for Central Italy_, p. 289); but in the +opinion of modern archaeologists the whole of the structure belongs to +the fourth or fifth century of the Christian era. It is, of course, +possible, indeed probable, that ancient materials were used when the +building was reconstructed. Pliny says the "numerous chapels" dedicated +to other deities were scattered round the shrine of Clitumnus.] + +[nd] _Upon a green declivity_----.--[MS. M.] + +[450] {381} ["On my way back [from Rome], close to the temple by its +banks, I got some famous trout out of the river Clitumnus, the prettiest +little stream in all poesy."--Letter to Murray, June 4, 1817.] + +[ne] _There is a course where Lovers' evening tales_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[451] [By "disgust," a prosaic word which seems to mar a fine stanza, +Byron does not mean "distaste," aversion from the nauseous, but +"tastelessness," the inability to enjoy taste. Compare the French "Avoir +du degout pour la vie," "To be out of conceit with life." Byron was "a +lover of Nature," but it was seldom that he felt her "healing power," or +was able to lose himself in his surroundings. But now, for the moment, +he experiences that sudden uplifting of the spirit in the presence of +natural beauty which brings back "the splendour in the grass, the glory +in the flower!"] + +[nf] {382} _Making it as an emerald_----.--[D.] + +[ng] _Leaps on from rock to rock--with mighty bound_.--[MS. M.] + +[452] {383} I saw the Cascata del Marmore of Terni twice, at different +periods--once from the summit of the precipice, and again from the +valley below. The lower view is far to be preferred, if the traveller +has time for one only; but in any point of view, either from above or +below, it is worth all the cascades and torrents of Switzerland put +together: the Staubach, Reichenbach, Pisse Vache, fall of Arpenaz, etc., +are rills in comparative appearance. Of the fall of Schaffhausen I +cannot speak, not yet having seen it. + +[The Falls of Reichenbach are at Rosenlaui, between Grindelwald and +Meiringen; the Salanfe or Pisse-Vache descends into the valley of the +Rhone near Martigny; the Nant d'Arpenaz falls into the Arve near +Magland, on the road between Cluses and Sallanches.] + +[453] Of the time, place, and qualities of this kind of iris, the reader +will see a short account, in a note to _Manfred_.[Sec.1] The fall looks so +much like "the Hell of waters," that Addison thought the descent alluded +to by the gulf in which Alecto[Sec.2] plunged into the infernal regions. It +is singular enough, that two of the finest cascades in Europe should be +artificial--this of the Velino, and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is +strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as high as the little +lake called _Pie' di Lup_. The Reatine territory was the Italian Tempe +(Cicer., _Epist. ad Attic._, lib. iv. 15), and the ancient naturalists +["In lacu Velino nullo non die apparere arcus"] (Plin., _Hist. Nat._, +lib. ii. cap. lxii.), amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked the +daily rainbows of the lake Velinus. A scholar of great name has devoted +a treatise to this district alone. See Ald. Manut., _De Reatina Urb +Agroque_, ap. Sallengre, _Nov. Thes. Ant. Rom._, 1735, tom. i. p.773, +_sq._ + +[The "Falls of the Anio," which passed over a wall built by Sixtus V., +and plunged into the Grotto of Neptune, were greatly diminished in +volume after an inundation which took place in 1826. The New Falls were +formed in 1834.] + +[[Sec.1] _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 1, note. This Iris is formed by the rays of +the sun on the lower part of the Alpine torrents; it is exactly like a +rainbow come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into +it: this effect lasts till noon.] + +[[Sec.2] "This is the gulf through which Virgil's Alecto shoots herself +into hell; for the very place, the great reputation of it, the fall of +waters, the woods that encompass it, with the smoke and noise that arise +from it, are all pointed at in the description ... + + "'Est locus Italiae ... + ... densis hunc frondibus atrum + Urguet utrimque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus + Dat sonitum saxis et torto vertice torrens. + Hic specus horrendum et saevi spiracula Ditis + Monstrantur, ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago + Pestiferas aperit fauces.' + _AEneid_, vii. 563-570. + +It was indeed the most proper place in the world for a Fury to make her +exit ... and I believe every reader's imagination is pleased when he +sees the angry Goddess thus sinking, as it were, in a tempest, and +plunging herself into Hell, amidst such a scene of horror and +confusion."--_Remarks on several Parts of Italy_, by Joseph Addison, +Esq., 1761, pp. 100. 101. + +[nh] {385} + + _Dares not ascend the summit_---- + or, _Clothes a more rocky summit_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[454] In the greater part of Switzerland, the avalanches are known by +the name of lauwine. + +[Byron is again at fault with his German. "Lawine" (see Schiller, +_Wilhelm Tell_, act iii. sc. 3) signifies an avalanche, not avalanches. +In stanza xii. line 7 a similar mistake occurs. It may seem strange +that, for the sake of local colouring, or for metrical purposes, he +should substitute a foreign equivalent which required a note, for a fine +word already in vogue. But in 1817 "avalanche" itself had not long been +naturalized. Fifty years before, the Italian _valanca_ and _valanche_ +had found their way into books of travel, but "avalanche" appears first +(see _N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Avalanche") in 1789, in Coxe's _Trav. +Switz._, xxxviii. ii. 3, and in poetry, perhaps, in Wordsworth's +_Descriptive Sketches_, which were written in 1791-2. Like "canon" and +"veldt" in our own day, it might be regarded as on probation. But the +fittest has survived, and Byron's unlovely and misbegotten "lauwine" has +died a natural death.] + +[ni] _But I have seen the virgin Jungfrau rear_.--[D.] + +[455] {386} These stanzas may probably remind the reader of Ensign +Northerton's remarks, "D--n Homo," etc.;[Sec.] but the reasons for our +dislike are not exactly the same. I wish to express, that we become +tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by +rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and +the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed, by the +didactic anticipation, at an age when we can neither feel nor understand +the power of compositions which it requires an acquaintance with life, +as well as Latin and Greek, to relish, or to reason upon. For the same +reason, we never can be aware of the fulness of some of the finest +passages of Shakspeare ("To be or not to be," for instance), from the +habit of having them hammered into us at eight years old, as an +exercise, not of mind, but of memory: so that when we are old enough to +enjoy them, the taste is gone, and the appetite palled. In some parts of +the continent, young persons are taught from more common authors, and do +not read the best classics till their maturity. I certainly do not speak +on this point from any pique or aversion towards the place of my +education. I was not a slow, though an idle boy; and I believe no one +could, or can be, more attached to Harrow than I have always been, and +with reason;--a part of the time passed there was the happiest of my +life; and my preceptor, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Drury, was the best and +worthiest friend I ever possessed, whose warnings I have remembered but +too well, though too late when I have erred,--and whose counsels I have +but followed when I have done well or wisely. If ever this imperfect +record of my feelings towards him should reach his eyes, let it remind +him of one who never thinks of him but with gratitude and veneration--of +one who would more gladly boast of having been his pupil, if, by more +closely following his injunctions, he could reflect any honour upon his +instructor. + +[[Sec.] "'Don't pretend to more ignorance than you have, Mr. Northerton; I +suppose you have heard of the Greeks and Trojans, though, perhaps, you +have never read Pope's Homer.'--'D--n Homer with all my heart,' says +Northerton: 'I have the marks of him ... yet. There's Thomas of our +regiment always carries a Homo in his pocket.'"--_The History of Tom +Jones_, by H. Fielding, vii. 12.] + +[456] [The construction is somewhat involved, but the meaning is +obvious. As a schoolboy, the Horatian Muse could not tempt him to take +the trouble to construe Horace; and, even now, Soracte brings back +unwelcome memories of "confinement's lingering hour," say, "3 quarters +of an hour past 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 3rd school" (see _Life_, p. +28). Moore says that the "interlined translations" on Byron's +school-books are "a proof of the narrow extent of his classical +attainments." He must soon have made up for lost time, and "conquered +for the poet's sake," as numerous poetical translations from the +classics, including the episode of Nisus and Euryalus, evidently a +labour of love, testify. Nor, too, does the trouble he took and the +pride he felt in _Hints from Horace_ correspond with this profession of +invincible distaste.] + +[nj] {388} _My mind to analyse_----.--[MS. M.] + +[nk] _Yet such the inveterate impression_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[nl] ----_but what it then abhorred must still abhor_.--[MS. M.] + +[nm] {389} ----_in her tearless woe_.--[MS. M.] + +[457] [The tomb of the Scipios, by the Porta Latina, was discovered by +the brothers Sassi, in May, 1780. It consists of "several chambers +excavated in the tufa." One of the larger chambers contained the famous +sarcophagus of L. Scipio Barbatus, the great-grandfather of Scipio +Africanus, which is now in the Vatican in the Atrio Quadrate. When the +sarcophagus was opened, in 1780, the skeleton was found to be entire. +The bones were collected and removed by Angelo Quirini to his villa at +Padua. The chambers contained numerous inscriptions, which were detached +and removed to the Vatican. Hobhouse (_Hist. Illust_., pp. 169-171) is +at pains to point out that the discovery of 1780 confirmed the +authenticity of an inscription to Lucius, son of Barbatus Scipio, which +had been brought to light in 1615, and rejected by the Roman antiquaries +as a forgery. He prints two of the inscriptions (_Handbook for Rome_, +pp. 278, 350, 351, ed. 1899).] + +[458] [The sepulchres were rifled, says Hobhouse (_ibid_., p. 173), +"either to procure the necessary relics for churches dedicated to +Christian saints or martyrs, or" (a likelier hypothesis) "with the +expectation of finding the ornaments ... buried with the dead. The +sarcophagi were sometimes transported from their site and emptied for +the reception of purer ashes." He instances those of Innocent II. and +Clement XII., "which were certainly constructed for heathen tenants."] + +[459] {390} [The reference is to the historical inundations of the +Tiber, of which a hundred and thirty-two have been recorded from the +foundation of the city down to December, 1870, when the river rose to +fifty-six feet--thirty feet above its normal level.] + +[460] [The Goths besieged and sacked Rome under Alaric, A.D. 410, and +Totila, 546. Other barbarian invaders--Genseric, a Vandal, 455; Ricimer, +a Sueve, 472; Vitiges, a Dalmatian, 537; Arnulph, a Lombard, 756--may +come under the head of "Goth." "The Christian," "from motives of +fanaticism"--Theodosius, for instance, in 426; and Stilicho, who burned +the Sibylline books--despoiled, mutilated, and pulled down temples. +Subsequently, popes, too numerous to mention, laid violent hands on the +temples for purposes of repair, construction, and ornamentation of +Christian churches. More than once ancient structures were converted +into cannon-balls. There were, too, Christian invaders and sackers of +Rome: Robert Guiscard (Hofmann calls him Wiscardus), in 1004; Frederic +Barbarossa, in 1167; the Connetable de Bourbon, in 1527, may be +instanced. "Time and War" speak for themselves. For "Flood," _vide +supra_. As for "Fire," during the years 1082-84 the Emperor Henry IV. +burnt "a great part of the Leonine city;" and Guiscard "burnt the town +from the Flaminian gate to the Antonine column, and laid waste the +Esquiline to the Lateran; thence he set fire to the region from that +church to the Coliseum and the Capitol." Of earthquakes Byron says +nothing; but there were earthquakes, e.g. in 422 and 1349. Another foe, +a destroying angel who "wasteth at noonday," modern improvement, had not +yet opened a seventh seal. (See _Historical Illustrations_, pp. +91-168.)] + +[nn] {391} _She saw her glories one by one expire_.--[MS. M.] + +[461] [Compare Macaulay's _Lays of Ancient Rome_, "Prophecy of Capys," +stanza xxx.-- + + "Blest and thrice blest the Roman + Who sees Rome's brightest day, + Who sees that long victorious pomp + Wind down the Sacred Way, + And through the bellowing Forum, + And round the Suppliant's Grove, + Up to the everlasting gates + Of Capitolian Jove."] + +[no] _The double night of Ruin_----.--[MS. M.] + +[462] [The construction is harsh and puzzling. Apparently the subject of +"hath wrapt" is the "double night of ages;" the subjects of "wrap," the +"night of ages" and the "night of Ignorance;" but, even so, the sentence +is ambiguous. Not less amazing is the confusion of metaphors. Rome is a +"desert," through which we steer, mounted, presumably, on a camel--the +"ship of the desert." Mistaken associations are, as it were, +stumbling-blocks; and no sooner have we verified an association, +discovered a ruined temple in the exact site which Livy's "pictured +page" has assigned to it--a discovery as welcome to the antiquarian as +water to the thirsty traveller--than our theory is upset, and we +perceive that we have been deluded by a mirage.] + +[463] {392} Orosius gives 320 for the number of triumphs [i.e. from +Romulus to the double triumph of Vespasian and Titus (_Hist._, vii. 9)]. +He is followed by Panvinius; and Panvinius by Mr. Gibbon and the modern +writers. + +[np] + _Alas, for Tully's voice, and Titus' sway_ + _And Virgil's verse; the first and last must be_ + _Her Resurrection_----.--[MS. M.] + +[464] Certainly, were it not for these two traits in the life of Sylla, +alluded to in this stanza, we should regard him as a monster unredeemed +by any admirable quality. The _atonement_ of his voluntary resignation +of empire may perhaps be accepted by us, as it seems to have satisfied +the Romans, who if they had not respected must have destroyed him. There +could be no mean, no division of opinion; they must have all thought, +like Eucrates, that what had appeared ambition was a love of glory, and +that what had been mistaken for pride was a real grandeur of +soul.--("Seigneur, vous changez toutes mes idees, de la facon dont je +vous vois agir. Je croyois que vous aviez de l'ambition, mais aucun +amour pour la gloire; je voyois bien que votre ame etoit haute; mais je +ne soupconnois pas qu'elle fut grande."--_Dialogue de Sylla et +d'Eucrate_.) _Considerations ... de la Grandeur des Romains, etc._, +Paris, 1795, ii. 219. By Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu. + +[Stanza lxxxiii. indicates the following events in the life of Sulla. In +B.C. 81 he assumed the name of Felix (or, according to Plutarch, +Epaphroditus, Plut, _Vitae_, 1812, iv. 287), (line 1). Five years before +this, B.C. 86, during the consulship of Marius and Cinna, his party had +been overthrown, and his regulations annulled; but he declined to return +to Italy until he had brought the war against Mithridates to a +successful conclusion, B.C. 83 (lines 3-6). In B.C. 81 he was appointed +dictator (line 7), and B.C. 79 he resigned his dictatorship and retired +into private life (line 9).] + +[nq] {394} + ----_how supine_ + _Into such dust deserted Rome should fade,_ +or, _In self-woven sackcloth Rome should thus be laid_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[nr] + _The Earth beneath her shadow and displayed_ + _Her wings as with the horizon and was hailed,_ +or, _The rushings of his wings and was Almighty hailed_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[ns] + _Sylla supreme of Victors--save our own_ + _The ablest of Usurpers--Cromwell--he_ + _Who swept off Senates--while he hewed the Throne_ + _Down to a block--immortal Villain! See_ + _What crimes, etc_.--[MS. M.] + +[465] On the 3rd of September Cromwell gained the victory of Dunbar +[1650]; a year afterwards he obtained "his crowning mercy" of Worcester +[1651]; and a few years after [1658], on the same day, which he had ever +esteemed the most fortunate for him, died. + +[466] {395} [The statue of Pompey in the Sala dell' Udinanza of the +Palazzo Spada is no doubt a portrait, and belongs to the close of the +Republican period. It cannot, however, with any certainty be identified +with the statue in the Curia, at whose base "great Caesar fell." (See +_Antike Bildwerke in Rom._, F. Matz, F. von Duhn, i. 309.)] + +[467] {396} [The bronze "Wolf of the Capitol" in the Palace of the +Conservators is unquestionably ancient, belonging to the end of the +sixth or beginning of the fifth century B.C., and probably of +Graeco-Italian workmanship. The twins, as Winckelmann pointed out (see +Hobhouse's _note_), are modern, and were added under the impression that +this was the actual bronze described by Cicero, _Cat._, iii. 8, and +Virgil, _AEn._, viii. 631. (See _Monuments de l'Art Antique_, par Olivier +Rayet, Paris, 1884, Livraison II, Planche 7.)] + +[468] [The Roman "things" whom the world feared, set the fashion of +shedding their blood in the pursuit of glory. The nations, of modern +Europe, "bastard" Romans, have followed their example.] + +[469] {397} [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, v.--"The king of kings, and +yet of slaves the slave."] + +[470] [In _Comparison of the Present State of France with that of Rome_, +etc., published in the _Morning Post_, September 21, 1802, Coleridge +speaks of Buonaparte as the "new Caesar," but qualifies the expression in +a note: "But if reserve, if darkness, if the employment of spies and +informers, if an indifference to all religions, except as instruments of +state policy, with a certain strange and dark superstition respecting +fate, a blind confidence in his destinies,--if these be any part of the +Chief Consul's character, they would force upon us, even against our +will, the name and history of Tiberius."--_Essays on His Own Times_, ii. +481.] + +[471] [According to Suetonius, i. 37, the famous words, _Veni Vidi, +Vici_, were blazoned on litters in the triumphal procession which +celebrated Caesar's victory over Pharnaces II., after the battle of Zela +(B.C. 47).] + +[472] {398} [By "flee" in the "Gallic van," Byron means "fly towards, +not away from, the foe." He was, perhaps, thinking of the Biblical +phrases, "flee like a bird" (_Ps_. xi. 1), and "flee upon horses" +(_Isa_. xxx. 16); but he was not careful to "tame down" words to his own +use and purpose.] + +[nt] _Of pettier passions which raged angrily_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[nu] _At what? can he reply? his lusting is unnamed_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[nv] ----_How oft--how long, oh God!_--[MS. M. erased.] + +[473] {399} ----"Omnes poene veteres; qui nihil cognosci, nihil percipi, +nihil sciri posse dixerunt; augustos sensus, imbecillos animos, brevia +curricula vitar, et (ut Democritus) in profundo veritatem esse demersam; +opinionibus et institutis omnia teneri; nihil veritati relinqui: +deinceps omnia tenebris circumfusa esse dixerunt."--_Academ._, lib. I. +cap. 12. The eighteen hundred years which have elapsed since Cicero +wrote this, have not removed any of the imperfections of humanity: and +the complaints of the ancient philosophers may, without injustice or +affectation, be transcribed in a poem written yesterday. + +[474] [Compare Gray's _Elegy_, stanza xv.-- + + "Full many a gem of purest ray serene + The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear."] + +[nw] _And thus they sleep in some dull certainty_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[475] [Compare _As You Like It_, act ii. sc. 7, lines 26-28-- + + "And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, + And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot; + And thereby hangs a tale."] + +[nx] {400} + _For such existence is as much to die_.--[MS. M. erased.] +or, _Bequeathing their trampled natures till they die_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[476] [In his speech _On the Continuance of the War with France_, which +Pitt delivered in the House of Commons, February 17, 1800, he described +Napoleon as "the child and champion of Jacobinism." At least the phrase +occurs in the report which Coleridge prepared for the _Morning Post_ of +February 18, 1800, and it appears in the later edition in the Collection +of Pitt's speeches. "It does not occur in the speech as reported by the +_Times_." It is curious that in the jottings which Coleridge, +Parliamentary reporter _pro hac vice_, scrawled in pencil in his +note-book, the phrase appears as "the nursling and champion of +Jacobinism;" and it is possible that the alternative of the more +rhetorical but less forcible "child" was the poet's handiwork. It became +a current phrase, and Coleridge more than once reverts to it in the +articles which he contributed to the _Morning Post_ in 1802. (See +_Essays on His Own Times_, ii. 293, and iii. 1009-1019; and _Letters of +Samuel Taylor Coleridge_, 1895, i. 327, note.)] + +[ny] {401} _Deep in the lone Savannah_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[nz] _Too long hath Earth been drunk with blood and crime_.--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[oa] + _Her span of freedom hath but fatal been_ + _To that of any coming age or clime_.--[MS. M.] + +[477] {402} [By the "base pageant" Byron refers to the Congress of +Vienna (September, 1815); the "Holy Alliance" (September 26), into which +the Duke of Wellington would not enter; and the Second Treaty of Paris, +November 20, 1815.] + +[478] [Compare Shelley's _Hellas: Poems_, 1895, ii. 358-- + + "O Slavery! thou frost of the world's prime, + Killing its flowers, and leaving its thorns bare!"] + +[479] [Shelley chose the first two lines of this stanza as the motto for +his _Ode to Liberty_.] + +[480] Alluding to the tomb of Cecilia Metella, called Capo di Bove. +[Four words, and two initials, compose the whole of the transcription +which, whatever was its ancient position, is now placed in front of this +towering sepulchre: "CAECILIAE. Q. CRETICI. F. METELLAE. CRASSI." + +"The Savelli family were in possession of the fortress in 1312, and the +German army of Henry VII. marched from Rome, attacked, took, and burnt +it, but were unable to make themselves, by force, masters of the +citadel--that is, the tomb." The "fence of stone" refers to the +quadrangular basement of concrete, on which the circular tower rests. +The tower was originally coated with marble, which was stripped off for +the purpose of making lime. The work of destruction is said to have been +carried out during the interval between Poggio's (see his _De Fort. +Var._, ap. Sall., _Nov. Thes. Ant. Rom._, 1735, i. 501, _sq._) first and +second visits to Rome. (See Hobhouse's _Hist. Illust._, pp. 202, 203; +_Handbook for Rome_, p. 360.)] + +[ob] {403} _So massily begirt--what lay?_----.--[MS. M.] + +[oc] {404} _Love from her duties--still a conqueress in the war_.--[MS. +M. erased.] + +[481] + [Greek: On oi(theoi\ philou~sin a)pothne/skei ne/os] + [Greek: To\ ga\r thanei~n ou)ch ai)schro\n, a)ll' ai)schro~s thanei~n]. + _Gnomici Poetae Graeci_, R. F. P. Brunck, 1784, p. 231. + +[482] {405} ["It is more likely to have been the pride than the love of +Crassus which raised so superb a memorial to a wife whose name is not +mentioned in history, unless she be supposed to be that lady whose +intimacy with Dolabella was so offensive to Tullia, the daughter of +Cicero, or she who was divorced by Lentulus Spinther, or she, perhaps +the same person, from whose ear the son of AEsopus transferred a precious +jewel to enrich his daughter (_vide_ Hor., _Sat._, ii. 3. 239)" (_Hist. +Illust._, p. 200). The wealth of Crassus was proverbial, as his +_agnomen_, Dives, testifies (Plut., _Crassus_, ii., iii., Lipsiae, 1813, +v. 156, _sq._).] + +[od] {406} + + _Till I had called forth even from the mind_.--[MS. M. erased.] + ----_with heated mind_.--[MS. M.] + +[oe] _I have no home_----.--[MS. M.] + +[483] {407} [Compare Rogers's _Italy:_ "Rome" (_Poems_, 1852), ii. 169-- + + "Or climb the Palatine, + * * * * * + Long while the seat of Rome, hereafter found + Less than enough (so monstrous was the brood + Engendered there, so Titan-like) to lodge + One in his madness; and inscribe my name-- + My name and date, on some broad aloe-leaf + That shoots and spreads within those very walls + Where Virgil read aloud his tale divine, + When his voice faltered and a mother wept + Tears of delight!"[Sec.] + +And compare Shelley's _Poetical Works_, 1895, iii. 276-- + + "Rome has fallen; ye see it lying + Heaped in undistinguished ruin: + Nature is alone undying."] + +[Sec.] [At the words _Tu Marcellus eris, etc_. (_vide_ Tib. Cl. Donatus, +_Life of Virgil_ (Virg., _Opera_), Leeuwarden, 1627, vol. i.).] + +[of] + ----_wherein have creeped_ + _The Reptiles which_.---- + or, _Scorpion and blindworm_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[484] The Palatine is one mass of ruins, particularly on the side +towards the Circus Maximus. The very soil is formed of crumbled +brickwork. Nothing has been told--nothing can be told--to satisfy the +belief of any but the Roman antiquary. [The Palatine was the site of the +successive "Domus" of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula, and of the +_Domus Transitoria_ of Nero, which perished when Rome was burnt. Later +emperors--Vespasian, Domitian, Septimius Severus--added to the splendour +of the name-giving Palatine. "The troops of Genseric," says Hobhouse +(_Hist. Illust._, p. 206), "occupied the Palatine, and despoiled it of +all its riches... and when it again rises, it rises in ruins." +Systematic excavations during the last fifty years have laid bare much +that was hidden, and "learning and research" have in parts revealed the +"obliterated plan;" but, in 1817, the "shapeless mass of ruins" defied +the guesses of antiquarians. "Your walks in the Palatine ruins ... will +be undisturbed, unless you startle a fox in breaking through the +brambles in the corridors, or burst unawares through the hole of some +shivered fragments into one of the half-buried chambers, which the +peasants have blocked up to serve as stalls for their jackasses, or as +huts for those who watch the gardens" (_Hist. Illust._, p. 212).] + +[485] {408} The author of the _Life of Cicero_, speaking of the opinion +entertained of Britain by that orator and his contemporary Romans, has +the following eloquent passage:--"From their railleries of this kind, on +the barbarity and misery of our island, one cannot help reflecting on +the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms; how Rome, once the +mistress of the world, the seat of arts, empire, and glory, now lies +sunk in sloth, ignorance, and poverty; enslaved to the most cruel as +well as to the most contemptible of tyrants, superstition and religious +imposture; while this remote country, anciently the jest and contempt of +the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, plenty, and +letters; flourishing in all the arts and refinements of civil life; yet +running, perhaps, the same course which Rome itself had run before it, +from virtuous industry to wealth; from wealth to luxury; from luxury to +an impatience of discipline and corruption of morals: till, by a total +degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it fall +a prey at last to some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty, +losing everything that is valuable, sinks gradually again into its +original barbarism." (See _Life of M. Tullius Cicero_, by Conyers +Middleton, D.D., 1823, sect. vi. vol. i. pp. 399, 400.) + +[og] {409} _Oh, ho, ho, ho--thou creature of a Man_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[oh] + _And show of Glory's gewgaws in the van_ + _And the Sun's rays with flames more dazzling filled_.--[MS. M.] + +[486] [The "golden roofs" were those of Nero's _Domus Aurea_, which +extended from the north-west corner of the Palatine to the Gardens of +Maecenas, on the Esquiline, spreading over the sites of the Temple of +Vesta and Rome on the platform of the Velia, the Colosseum, and the +Thermae of Titus, as far as the Sette Sale. "In the fore court was the +colossal statue of Nero. The pillars of the colonnade, which measured a +thousand feet in length, stood three deep. All that was not lake, or +wood, or vineyard, or pasture, was overlaid with plates of gold, picked +out with gems and mother-of-pearl" (Suetonius, vi. 31; Tacitus, _Ann._, +xv. 42). Substructions of the _Domus Aurea_ have been discovered on the +site of the Baths of Titus and elsewhere, but not on the Palatine +itself. Martial, _Epig._ 695 (_Lib. Spect._, ii.), celebrates +Vespasian's restitution of the _Domus Aurea_ and its "policies" to the +people of Rome. + + "Hic ubi sidereus propius videt astra colossus + Et crescunt media pegmata celsa via, + Invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis + Unaque jam tola stabat in urbe domus." + + "Here where the Sun-god greets the Morning Star, + And tow'ring scaffolds block the public way, + Fell Nero's loathed pavilion flashed afar, + Erect and splendid 'mid the town's decay."] + +[487] {410} [By the "nameless" column Byron means the column of Phocas, +in the Forum. But, as he may have known, it had ceased to be nameless +when he visited Rome in 1817. During some excavations which were carried +out under the auspices of the Duchess of Devonshire, in 1813, the soil +which concealed the base was removed, and an inscription, which +attributes the erection of the column to the Exarch Smaragdus, in honour +of the Emperor Phocas, A.D. 608, was brought to light. The column was +originally surmounted by a gilded statue, but it is probable that both +column and statue were stolen from earlier structures and rededicated to +Phocas. Hobhouse (_Hist. Illust._, pp. 240-242) records the discovery, +and prints the inscription _in extenso._] + +[oi] ----_all he doth deface_.--[MS. M.] + +[488] The column of Trajan is surmounted by St. Peter; that of Aurelius +by St. Paul. (See _Hist. Illust._, p. 214.) + +[The column was excavated by Paul III. in the sixteenth century. In 1588 +Sixtus V. replaced the bronze statue of Trajan holding a gilded globe, +which had originally surmounted the column, by a statue of St. Peter, in +gilt bronze. The legend was that Trajan's ashes were contained in the +globe. They are said to have been deposited by Hadrian in a golden urn +in a vault under the column. It is certain that when Sixtus V. opened +the chamber he found it empty. A medal was cast in honour of the +erection of the new statue, inscribed with the words of the Magnificat, +"_Exaltavit humiles_."] + +[489] {411} Trajan was _proverbially_ the best of the Roman princes; and +it would be easier to find a sovereign uniting exactly the opposite +characteristics, than one possessed of all the happy qualities ascribed +to this emperor. "When he mounted the throne," says the historian Dion, +"he was strong in body, he was vigorous in mind; age had impaired none +of his faculties; he was altogether free from envy and from detraction; +he honoured all the good, and he advanced them: and on this account they +could not be the objects of his fear, or of his hate; he never listened +to informers; he gave not way to his anger; he abstained equally from +unfair exactions and unjust punishments; he had rather be loved as a man +than honoured as a sovereign; he was affable with his people, respectful +to the senate, and universally beloved by both; he inspired none with +dread but the enemies of his country." (See Eutrop., _Hist. Rom. Brev._ +lib. viii. cap. v.; Dion, _Hist. Rom._, lib. lxiii. caps, vi., vii.) + +[M. Ulpius Trajanus (A.D. 52-117) celebrated a triumph over the Dacians +in 103 and 106. It is supposed that the column which stands at the north +end of the Forum Trajanum commemorated the Dacian victories. In 115-16 +he conquered the Parthians, and added the province of Armenia Minor to +the empire. It was not, however, an absolute or a final victory. The +little desert stronghold of Atrae, or Hatra, in Mesopotamia, remained +uncaptured; and, instead of incorporating the Parthians in the empire, +he thought it wiser to leave them to be governed by a native prince +under the suzerainty of Rome. His conquests were surrendered by Hadrian, +and henceforth the tide of victory began to ebb. He died on his way back +to Rome, at Selinus, in Cilicia, in August, 117. + +Trajan's "moderation was known unto all men." Pliny, in his +_Panegyricus_ (xxii.), describes his first entry into Rome. He might +have assumed the state of a monarch or popular hero, but he walked +afoot, conspicuous, pre-eminent, a head and shoulders above the crowd--a +triumphal entry; but it was imperial arrogance, not civil liberty, over +which he triumphed. "You were our king," he says, "and we your subjects; +but we obeyed you as the embodiment of our laws." Martial (_Epig._, x. +72) hails him not as a tyrant, but an emperor--yea, more than an +emperor--as the most righteous of lawgivers and senators, who had +brought back plain Truth to the light of day; and Claudian (viii. 318) +maintains that his glory will live, not because the Parthians had been +annexed, but because he was "mitis patriae." The divine honours which he +caused to be paid to his adopted father, Nerva, he refused for himself. +"For just reasons," says Pliny, "did the Senate and people of Rome +assign thee the name and title of Optimus." Another honour awaited him: +"Il est seul Empereur," writes M. De La Berge, "dont les restes aient +repose dans l'enceinte de la ville Eternelle." (See Pliny's +_Panegyricus, passim;_ and _Essai sur le regne de Trajan_, Bibliotheque +de L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1877.)] + +[490] {412} [The archaeologists of Byron's day were unable to fix the +exact site of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline. +"On which side," asks Hobhouse (_Hist. Illust._, p. 224), "stood the +citadel, on what the great temple of the Capitol; and did the temple +stand in the citadel?" Excavations which were carried on in 1876-7 by +Professors Jordan and Lanciani enabled them to identify with "tolerable +certainty" the site of the central temple and its adjacent wings, with +the site of the Palazzo Caffarelli and its dependencies which occupy the +south-east section of the Mons Capitolinus. There are still, however, +rival Tarpeian Rocks--one (in the Vicolo della Rupe Tarpea) on the +western edge of the hill facing the Tiber, and the other (near the Casa +Tarpea) on the south-east towards the Palatine. But if Dionysius, who +describes the "Traitor's Leap" as being in sight of the Forum, is to be +credited, the "actual precipice" from which traitors (and other +criminals, e.g. "bearers of false witness") were thrown must have been +somewhere on the southern and now less precipitous escarpment of the +mount.] + +[oj] {413} _The State Leucadia_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[491] [M. Manlius, who saved the Capitol from the Gauls in B.C. 390, was +afterwards (B.C. 384) arraigned on a charge of high treason by the +patricians, condemned, and by order of the tribunes thrown down the +Tarpeian Rock. Livy (vi. 20) credits him with a "foeda cupiditas +regni"--a "depraved ambition for assuming the kingly power."] + +[ok] + _There first did Tully's burning accents glow?_ + _Yes--eloquently still--the echoes tell me so_.--[D.] + +[492] [Compare Gray's _Odes_, "The Progress of Poesy," iii. 3, line +4--"Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."] + +[493] {414} [Nicolas Gabrino di' Rienzo, or Rienzi, commonly called Cola +di' Rienzi, was born in 1313. The son of a Roman innkeeper, he owed his +name and fame to his own talents and natural gifts. His mission, or, +perhaps, ambition, was to free Rome from the tyranny and oppression of +the great nobles, and to establish once more "the good estate," that is, +a republic. This for a brief period Rienzi accomplished. On May 20, +1347, he was proclaimed tribune and liberator of the Holy Roman Republic +"by the authority of the most merciful Lord Jesus Christ." Of great +parts, and inspired by lofty aims, he was a poor creature at heart--a +"bastard" Napoleon--and success seems to have turned his head. After +eight months of royal splendour, purchased by more than royal exactions, +the tide of popular feeling turned against him, and he was forced to +take refuge in the Castle of St. Angelo (December 15, 1347). Years of +wandering and captivity followed his first tribunate; but at length, in +1354, he was permitted to return to Rome, and, once again, after a rapid +and successful reduction of the neighbouring states, he became the chief +power in the state. But an act of violence, accompanied by treachery, +and, above all, the necessity of imposing heavier taxes than the city +could bear, roused popular discontent; and during a revolt (October 8, +1354), after a dastardly attempt to escape and conceal himself, he was +recognized by the crowd and stabbed to death. + +Petrarch first made his acquaintance in 1340, when he was summoned to +Rome to be crowned as poet laureate. Afterwards, when Rienzi was +imprisoned at Avignon, Petrarch interceded on his behalf with the pope, +but, for a time, in vain. He believed in and shared his enthusiasms; and +it is probable that the famous Canzone, "Spirto gentil, che quelle +membra reggi," was addressed to the Last of the Tribunes. + +Rienzi's story forms the subject of a tragedy by Gustave Drouineau, +which was played at the Odeon, January 28, 1826; of Bulwer Lytton's +novel _The Last of the Tribunes_, which was published in 1835; and of an +opera (1842) by Richard Wagner. + +(See _Encyc. Met._, art. "Rome," by Professor Villari; La Rousse, _G. +Dict. Univ._, art. "Rienzi;" and a curious pamphlet by G. W. Meadley, +London, 1821, entitled _Two Pairs of Historical Portraits_, in which an +attempt is made to trace a minute resemblance between the characters and +careers of Rienzi and the First Napoleon.)] + +[494] {415} [The word "nympholepsy" may be paraphrased as "ecstatic +vision." The Greeks feigned that one who had seen a nymph was henceforth +possessed by her image, and beside himself with longing for an +impossible ideal. Compare stanza cxxii. line 7--"The unreached Paradise +of our despair." Compare, too, _Kubla Khan_, lines 52, 53-- + + "For he on honey-dew hath fed, + And drunk the milk of Paradise."] + +[ol] _The lovely madness of some fond despair_.--[MS. M.] + +[495] {416} [Byron is describing the so-called Grotto of Egeria, which +is situated a little to the left of the Via Appia, about two miles to +the south-east of the Porta di Sebastiano: "Here, beside the Almo +rivulet [now the Maranna d. Caffarella], is a ruined nymphaeum ... which +was called the 'Grotto of Egeria,' till ... the discovery of the true +site of the Porta Capena fixed that of the grotto within the walls.... +It is now known that this nymphaeum ... belonged to the suburban villa +called Triopio of Herodes Atticus." The actual site of Egeria's fountain +is in the grounds of the Villa Mattei, to the south-east of the Caelian, +and near the Porta Metronia. "It was buried, in 1867, by the military +engineers, while building their new hospital near S. Stefano Rotondo" +(Prof. Lanciani). + +In lines 5-9 Byron is recalling Juvenal's description of the valley of +Egeria, under the mistaken impression that here, and not by "dripping +Capena," was the trysting-place of Numa and the goddess. Juvenal has +accompanied the seer Umbritius, who was leaving Rome for Capua, as far +as the Porta Capena; and while the one waggon, with its slender store of +goods, is being loaded, the friends take a stroll-- + + "In vallem Egeriae; descendimus et speluncas + Dissimiles veris. Quanto praestantius esset + Numen aquae, viridi si margine clauderet undas + Herba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum?" + _Sat._ I. iii. 17-20. + +The grove and shrine of the sacred fountain, which had been let to the +Jews (lines 13-16), are not to be confounded with the "artificial +caverns" near Herod's Nymphaeum, which Juvenal thought were in bad taste, +and Byron rejoiced to find reclaimed and reclothed by Nature.] + +[496] {417} [Compare Shelley's _Prometheus Unbound_, act iv. (_Poetical +Works_, 1893, ii. 97)-- + + "As a violet's gentle eye + Gazes on the azure sky + Until its hue grows like what it beholds."] + +[497] {418} [Compare _Kubla Khan_, lines 12, 13-- + + "But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted + Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!"] + +[498] [Compare _Hamlet_, act ii. sc. 1, line 292--"This most excellent +canopy the Air."] + +[om] + _Feel the quick throbbing of a human heart_ + _And the sweet sorrows of its deathless dying_.--[MS. M. erased.] + or, _And the sweet sorrow which exults in dying_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[on] {419} + _Oh Love! thou art no habitant of Earth_ + _An unseen Seraph we believe in thee_ + _And can point out thy time and place of birth_.--[D. erased.] + +[499] [M. Darmesteter traces the sentiment to a maxim (No. 76) of La +Rochefoucauld: "Il est du veritable amour comme de l'apparition des +esprits: tout le monde en parle, mais pen de gens en out vu."] + +[500] {420} [Compare Dryden on Shaftesbury (_Absalom and Achitophel_, +pt. i. lines 156-158)-- + + "A fiery soul which, working out its way, + Fretted the pigmy-body to decay, + And o'er-informed the tenement of clay."] + +[501] [The Romans had more than one proverb to this effect; e.g. +"Amantes Amentes sunt" (_Adagia Veterum_, 1643, p. 52); "Amare et sapere +vix Deo conceditur" (Syri _Sententiae_. 1818, p. 5).] + +[oo] {421} _For all are visions with a separate name_.--[D. erased.] + +[502] [Circumstance is personified as halting Nemesis--"Pede poena +claudo." Hor., _Odes_, III. ii. 32. + +Perhaps, too, there is the underlying thought of his own lameness, of +Mary Chaworth, and of all that might have been, if the "unspiritual God" +had willed otherwise.] + +[503] {422} [Compare Milton's _Samson Agonistes_, lines 617-621-- + + "My griefs not only pain me + As a lingering disease, + But, finding no redress, ferment and rage; + Nor less than wounds immedicable + Rankle."] + +[504] "At all events," says the author of the _Academical Questions_ +[Sir William Drummond], "I trust, whatever may be the fate of my own +speculations, that philosophy will regain that estimation which it ought +to possess. The free and philosophic spirit of our nation has been the +theme of admiration to the world. This was the proud distinction of +Englishmen, and the luminous source of all their glory. Shall we then +forget the manly and dignified sentiments of our ancestors, to prate in +the language of the mother or the nurse about our good old prejudices? +This is not the way to defend the cause of truth. It was not thus that +our fathers maintained it in the brilliant periods of our history. +Prejudice may be trusted to guard the outworks for a short space of +time, while reason slumbers in the citadel; but if the latter sink into +a lethargy, the former will quickly erect a standard for herself. +Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty support each other: he, who will not +reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and he, who dares not, is +a slave."--Vol. i. pp. xiv., xv. + +[For Sir William Drummond (1770-1828), see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 79, note +3. Byron advised Lady Blessington to read _Academical Questions_ (1805), +and instanced the last sentence of this passage "as one of the best in +our language" (_Conversations_, pp. 238, 239).] + +[505] {423} [Compare _Macbeth_, act iii. sc. 4, lines 24, 25-- + + "But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in + To saucy doubts and fears."] + +[506] [Compare _The Deformed Transformed_, act i. sc. 2, lines 49, 50-- + + "Those scarce mortal arches, + Pile above pile of everlasting wall." + +The first, second, and third stories of the Flavian amphitheatre or +Colosseum were built upon arches. Between the arches, eighty to each +story or tier, stood three-quarter columns. "Each tier is of a different +order of architecture, the lowest being a plain Roman Doric, or perhaps, +rather, Tuscan, the next Ionic, and the third Corinthian." The fourth +story, which was built by the Emperor Gordianus III., A.D. 244, to take +the place of the original wooden gallery (_manianum summum in ligneis_), +which was destroyed by lightning, A.D. 217, was a solid wall faced with +Corinthian pilasters, and pierced by forty square windows or openings. +It has been conjectured that the alternate spaces between the pilasters +were decorated with ornamental metal shields. The openings of the outer +arches of the second and third stories were probably decorated with +statues. The reverse of an _aureus_ of the reign of Titus represents the +Colosseum with these statues and a quadriga in the centre. About +one-third of the original structure remains _in situ_. The prime agent +of destruction was probably the earthquake ("Petrarch's earthquake") of +September, 1349, when the whole of the western side fell towards the +Caelian, and gave rise to a hill or rather to a chain of hills of loose +blocks of travertine and tufa, which supplied Rome with building +materials for subsequent centuries. As an instance of wholesale +spoliation or appropriation, Professor Lanciani refers to "a document +published by Muentz, in the _Revue Arch._, September, 1876," which +"certifies that one contractor alone, in the space of only nine months, +in 1452, could carry off 2522 cartloads" of travertine (Smith's _Dict. +of Gr. and Rom. Ant._, art. "Amphitheatrum;" _Ruins and Excavations of +Ancient Rome_, by R. Lanciani, 1897, p. 375).] + +[507] {424} [For a description of the Colosseum by moonlight, see +Goethe's letter from Rome, February 2, 1787 (_Travels in Italy_, 1883, +p. 159): "Of the beauty of a walk through Rome by moonlight, it is +impossible to form a conception ... Peculiarly beautiful at such a time +is the Coliseum." See, too, _Corinne, ou L'Italie_, xv. 4, 1819, iii. +32-- + +"Ce n'est pas connaitre l'impression du Colisee que de ne l'avoir vu que +de jour ... la lune est l'astre des ruines. Quelque fois, a travers les +ouvertures de l'amphitheatre, qui semble s'elever jusqu'aux nues, une +partie de la voute du ciel parait comme un rideau d'un bleu sombre place +derriere l'edifice." + +For a fine description of the Colosseum by starlight, see _Manfred_, act +iii. sc. 4, lines 8-13.] + +[508] {425} [When Byron visited Rome, and for long afterwards, the ruins +of the Colosseum were clad with a multitude of shrubs and wild flowers. +Books were written on the "Flora of the Coliseum," which were said to +number 420 species. But, says Professor Lanciani, "These materials for a +_hortus siccus_, so dear to the visitors of our ruins, were destroyed by +Rosa in 1871, and the ruins scraped and shaven clean, it being feared by +him that the action of roots would accelerate the disintegration of the +great structure." If Byron had lived to witness these activities, he +might have devoted a stanza to the "tender mercies" of this zealous +archaeologist.] + +[509] {426} [The whole of this appeal to Nemesis (stanzas +cxxx.-cxxxviii.) must be compared with the "Domestic Poems" of 1816, the +Third Canto of _Childe Harold_ (especially stanzas lxix.-lxxv., and +cxi.-cxviii.), and with the "Invocation" in the first act of _Manfred_. +It has been argued that Byron inserted these stanzas with the deliberate +purpose of diverting sympathy from his wife to himself. The appeal, no +doubt, is deliberate, and the plea is followed by an indictment, but the +sincerity of the appeal is attested by its inconsistency. Unlike +Orestes, who slew his mother to avenge his father, he will not so deal +with the "moral Clytemnestra of her lord," requiting murder by murder, +but is resolved to leave the balancing of the scale to the omnipotent +Time-spirit who rights every wrong and will redress his injuries. But in +making answer to his accusers he outruns Nemesis, and himself enacts the +part of a "moral" Orestes. It was true that his hopes were "sapped" and +"his name blighted," and it was natural, if not heroic, first to +persuade himself that his suffering exceeded his fault, that he was more +sinned against than sinning, and, so persuaded, to take care that he +should not suffer alone. The general purport of plea and indictment is +plain enough, but the exact interpretation of his phrases, the +appropriation of his dark sayings, belong rather to the biography of the +poet than to a commentary on his poems. (For Lady Byron's comment on the +"allusions" to herself in _Childe Harold, vide ante_, p. 288, note 1.)] + +[op] {427} _Or for my fathers' faults_-----.-[MS. M.] + +[oq] {428} + 'tis not that now + And if my voice break forth--{-it is not that-} + I shrink from what is suffered--let him speak + decline upon my + Who {-humbler in-} + {-What-} hath beheld {-me quiver on my-} brow + seen my mind's convulsion leave it {-blenched or-} weak? + Or {-my internal spirit changed or weak-} + {-found my mind convulsed-} + a + But in this page {-the-} record {-which-} I seek + will + {-from out of the deep-} + {-stands and-} {-of that remorse-} + {-Shall stand and when that hour shall come and come-} + {-Shall come--though I be ashes--and shall pile heap-} + {-It will-} {-come and wreak-} + {-In fire the measure-} + {-The fiery prophecy-} + {-The fullness of my-} + {-The fullness of my prophecy or heap-} + {-The mountain of my curse-} + Not in the air shall these my words disperse + {-'Tis written that an hour of deep remorse-} + Though I be ashes {-a deep-} far hour shall wreak + {-The fullness Thee-} this + The deep prophetic fullness of {-my-} verse + And pile on human heads the mountain of my curse.--[MS. M.] + +[or] {429} + If to forgive be "heaping coals of Fire" + As God hath spoken--on the heads of foes + Mine should lie a Volcano-and rise higher + Than o'er the Titans crushed Olympus rose + Than Athos soars, or blazing AEtna glows: + True--they who stung were petty things--but what + Than serpent's sting produce more deadly throes. + The Lion may be tortured by the Gnat-- + Who sucks the slumberer's blood--the Eagle? no, the Bat.[Sec.]-- + [MS. M.] + +[Sec.] [The "Bat" was "a sobriquet by which Lady Caroline Lamb was well +known in London society." An Italian translation of her novel, +_Glenarvon_, was at this time in the press at Venice (see letter to +Murray, August 7, 1817), and it is probable that Byron, who declined to +interdict its publication, took his revenge in a petulant stanza, which, +on second thoughts, he decided to omit. (See note by Mr. Richard +Edgcumbe, _Notes and Queries_ eighth series, 1895, viii. 101.)] + +[510] [Compare "Lines on hearing that Lady Byron was ill," lines 53-55.] + +[511] {431} Whether the wonderful statue which suggested this image be a +laquearian gladiator, which, in spite of Winckelmann's criticism, has +been stoutly maintained; or whether it be a Greek herald, as that great +antiquary positively asserted;[Sec.] or whether it is to be thought a +Spartan or barbarian shieldbearer, according to the opinion of his +Italian editor; it must assuredly seem _a copy_ of that masterpiece of +Ctesilaus which represented "a wounded man dying, who perfectly +expressed what there remained of life in him." Montfaucon and Maffei +thought it the identical statue; but that statue was of bronze. The +Gladiator was once in the Villa Ludovisi, and was bought by Clement XII. +The right arm is an entire restoration of Michael Angelo. + +[There is no doubt that the statue of the "Dying Gladiator" represents a +dying Gaul. It is to be compared with the once-named "Arria and Paetus" +of the Villa Ludovisi, and with other sculptures in the museums of +Venice, Naples, and Rome, representing "Gauls and Amazons lying fatally +wounded, or still in the attitude of defending life to the last," which +belong to the Pergamene school of the second century B.C. M. Collignon +hazards a suggestion that the "Dying Gaul" is the trumpet-sounder of +Epigonos, in which, says Pliny (_Hist. Nat._, xxxiv. 88), the sculptor +surpassed all his previous works ("omnia fere praedicta imitatus +praecessit in tubicine"); while Dr. H. S. Urlichs (see _The Elder Pliny's +Chapters on the History of Art_, translated by K. Jex-Blake, with +Commentary and Historical Illustrations, by E. Sellers, 1896, p. 74, +note) falls back on Winckelmann's theory that the "statue ... may have +been simply the votive-portrait of the winner in the contest of heralds, +such as that of Archias of Hybla in Delphoi." (See, too, Helbig's _Guide +to the Collection of Public Antiquities in Rome_, Engl. transl., 1895. +i. 399; _History of Greek Sculpture_, by A. S. Murray, L.L.D., F.S.A., +1890, ii. 381-383.)] + +[Sec.] Either Polyphontes, herald of Laius, killed by Oedipus; or Kopreas, +herald of Eurystheus, killed by the Athenians when he endeavoured to +drag the Heraclidae from the altar of mercy, and in whose honour they +instituted annual games, continued to the time of Hadrian; or +Anthemocritus, the Athenian herald, killed by the Megarenses, who never +recovered the impiety. [See _Hist, of Ancient Art_, translated by G. H. +Lodge, 1881, ii. 207.] + +[os] Leaning upon his hand, his mut[e] brow Yielding to death but +conquering agony.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[ot] {432} _From the red gash fall bigly_----.--[MS. M.] + +[ou] _Like the last of a thunder-shower_----.--[MS. M.] + +[ov] _The earth swims round him_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[ow] {433} _Slaughtered to make a Roman holiday_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[ox] _Was death and life_----.--[MS. M.] + +[oy] _My voice is much_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[oz] _Yet the colossal skeleton ye pass_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pa] {434} _The ivy-forest, which its walls doth wear_.--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[512] Suetonius [Lib. i. cap. xlv.] informs us that Julius Caesar was +particularly gratified by that decree of the senate which enabled him to +wear a wreath of laurel on all occasions. He was anxious not to show +that he was the conqueror of the world, but to hide that he was bald. A +stranger at Rome would hardly have guessed at the motive, nor should we +without the help of the historian. + +[pb] _The Hero race who trod--the imperial dust ye tread_.--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[513] This is quoted in the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, as a +proof that the Coliseum was entire, when seen by the Anglo-Saxon +pilgrims at the end of the seventh, or the beginning of the eighth, +century. A notice on the Coliseum may be seen in the _Historical +Illustrations_, p. 263. + +["'Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colyseus, cadet +Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus.' (Beda in 'Excerptis seu +Collectaneis,' apud Ducange, _Glossarium ad Scriptores Med., et Infimae +Latinitatis_, tom. ii. p. 407, edit. Basil.) This saying must be +ascribed to the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who visited Rome before the year +735, the aera of Bede's death; for I do not believe that our venerable +monk ever passed the sea."--Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire_, 1855, viii. 281, note.] + +[514] {435} "Though plundered of all its brass, except the ring which +was necessary to preserve the aperture above; though exposed to repeated +fires; though sometimes flooded by the river, and always open to the +rain, no monument of equal antiquity is so well preserved as this +rotundo. It passed with little alteration from the Pagan into the +present worship; and so convenient were its niches for the Christian +altar, that Michael Angelo, ever studious of ancient beauty, introduced +their design as a model in the Catholic church."--Forsyth's _Italy_, +1816, p. 137. + +[The Pantheon consists of two parts, a porch or _pronaos_ supported by +sixteen Corinthian columns, and behind it, but "obviously disjointed +from it," a rotunda or round temple, 143 feet high, and 142 feet in +diameter. The inscription on the portico (M. AGRIPPA, L. F. Cos. +tertium. Fecit.) affirms that the temple was built by Agrippa (M. +Vipsanius), B.C. 27. + +It has long been suspected that with regard to the existing building the +inscription was "historically and artistically misleading;" but it is +only since 1892 that it has been known for certain (from the stamp on +the bricks in various parts of the building) that the rotunda was built +by Hadrian. Difficulties with regard to the relations between the two +parts of the Pantheon remain unsolved, but on the following points +Professor Lanciani claims to speak with certainty:-- + +(1) "The present Pantheon, portico included, is not the work of Agrippa, +but of Hadrian, and dates from A.D. 120-124. + +(2) "The columns, capital, and entablature of the portico, inscribed +with Agrippa's name, may be original, and may date from 27-25 B.C., but +they were first removed and then put together by Hadrian. + +(3) "The original structure of Agrippa was rectangular instead of round, +and faced the south instead of the north."--_Ruins and Excavations, +etc._, by R. Lanciani, 1897, p. 483.] + +[pc] {436} ----_the pride of proudest Rome_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[515] {437} The Pantheon has been made a receptacle for the busts of +modern great, or, at least, distinguished men. The flood of light which +once fell through the large orb above on the whole circle of divinities, +now shines on a numerous assemblage of mortals, some one or two of whom +have been almost deified by the veneration of their countrymen. + +["The busts of Raphael, Hannibal Caracci, Pierrin del Vaga, Zuccari, and +others ... are ill assorted with the many modern contemporary heads of +ancient worthies which now glare in all the niches of the +Rotunda."--_Historical Illustrations_, p. 293.] + +[516] This and the three next stanzas allude to the story of the Roman +daughter, which is recalled to the traveller by the site, or pretended +site, of that adventure, now shown at the Church of St. Nicholas _in +Carcere_. The difficulties attending the full belief of the tale are +stated in _Historical Illustrations_, p. 295. + +[The traditional scene of the "Caritas Romana" is a cell forming part of +the substructions of the Church of S. Nicola in Carcere, near the Piazza +Montanara. Festus (_De Verb. Signif._, lib. xiv., A. J. Valpy, 1826, ii. +594), by way of illustrating Pietas, tells the story in a few words: "It +is said that AElius dedicated a temple to Pietas on the very spot where a +woman dwelt of yore. Her father was shut up in prison, and she kept him +alive by giving him the breast by stealth, and, as a reward for her +deed, obtained his forgiveness and freedom." In Pliny (Hist. Nat., vii. +36) and in Valerius Maximus (V. 4) it is not a father, but a mother, +whose life is saved by a daughter's piety.] + +[pd] {438} _Two isolated phantoms_----.--[MS. M.] + +[pe] _With her unkerchiefed neck_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pf] + _Or even the shrill impatient_ [_cries that brook_]. + or, _Or even the shrill small cry_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pg] _No waiting silence or suspense_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[517] {439} [It was fabled of the Milky Way that when Mercury held up +the infant Hercules to Juno's breast, that he might drink in divinity, +the goddess pushed him away, and that drops of milk fell into the void, +and became a multitude of tiny stars. The story is told by Eratosthenes +of Cyrene (B.C. 276), in his _Catasterismi_ (Treatise on Star Legends), +No. 44: _Opusc. Mythol._, Amsterdam, 1688, p. 136.] + +[ph] + _To its original fountain but repierce_ + _Thy sire's heart_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[518] The castle of St. Angelo. (See _Historical Illustrations._) + +[Hadrian's mole or mausoleum, now the Castle of St. Angelo, is situated +on the banks of the Tiber, on the site of the "Horti Neronis." "It is +composed of a square basement, each side of which measures 247 feet.... +A grand circular mole, nearly 1000 feet in circumference, stands on the +square basement," and, originally, "supported in its turn a cone of +earth covered with evergreens, like the mausoleum of Augustus." A spiral +way led to a central chamber in the interior of the mole, which +contained, presumably, the porphyry sarcophagus in which Antoninus Pius +deposited the ashes of Hadrian, and the tomb of the Antonines. Honorius +(A.D. 428) was probably the first to convert the mausoleum into a +fortress. The bronze statue of the Destroying Angel, which is placed on +the summit, dates from 1740, and is the successor to five earlier +statues, of which the first was erected in 1453. The conception and +execution of the Moles Hadriana are entirely Roman, and, except in size +and solidity, it is in no sense a mimic pyramid.--_Ruins and +Excavations, etc._, by R. Lanciani, 1897, p. 554, _sq._] + +[pi] {440} + _The now spectator with a sanctioned mirth_ + _To view the vast design_----.--[MS. M.] + +[519] This and the next six stanzas have a reference to the Church of +St. Peter's. (For a measurement of the comparative length of this +basilica and the other great churches of Europe, see the pavement of St. +Peter's, and the _Classical Tour through Italy_, ii. 125, _et seq._, +chap, iv.) + +[pj] _Look to the dome_----.--[MS. M.] + +[520] [Compare _The Prophecy of Dante_, iv. 49-53-- + + "While still stands + The austere Pantheon, into heaven shall soar + A dome, its image, while the base expands + Into a fane surpassing all before, + Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in--" + +Compare, too, Browning's _Christmas Eve_, sect, x.-- + + "Is it really on the earth, + This miraculous dome of God? + Has the angel's measuring-rod + Which numbered cubits, gem from gem, + 'Twixt the gates of the new Jerusalem, + Meted it out,--and what he meted, + Have the sons of men completed? + --Binding ever as he bade, + Columns in the colonnade, + With arms wide open to embrace + The entry of the human race?"] + +[pk] {441} _Lo Christ's great dome_----.--[MS.M.] + +[521] [The ruins which Byron and Hobhouse explored, March 25, 1810 +(_Travels in Albania_, ii. 68-71), were not the ruins of the second +Temple of Artemis, the sixth wonder of the world (_vide_ Philo +Byzantius, _De Septem Orbis Miraculis_), but, probably, those of "the +great gymnasium near the port of the city." In 1810, and for long +afterwards, the remains of the temple were buried under twenty feet of +earth, and it was not till 1870 that the late Mr. J. T. Wood, the agent +of the Trustees of the British Museum, had so far completed his +excavations as to discover the foundations of the building on the exact +spot which had been pointed out by Guhl in 1843. Fragments of the famous +sculptured columns, thirty-six in number, says Pliny (_Hist. Nat._, +xxxvi. 95), were also brought to light, and are now in the British +Museum. (See _Modern Discoveries on the Site of Ancient Ephesus_, by J. +T. Wood, 1890; _Hist. of Greek Sculpture_, by A. S. Murray, ii. 304.)] + +[522] [Compare _Don Juan_, Canto IX. stanza xxvii. line 2--"I have heard +them in the Ephesian ruins howl."] + +[pl] {442} ----_round roofs swell_.--[MS. M., D.] + +[pm] _Their glittering breastplate in the sun_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[523] [Compare Canto II. stanza lxxix. lines 2, 3-- + + "Oh Stamboul! once the Empress of their reign, + Though turbans now pollute Sophia's shrine."] + +[524] [The emphasis is on the word "fit." The measure of "fitness" is +the entirety of the enshrinement or embodiment of the mortal aspiration +to put on immortality. The vastness and the sacredness of St. Peter's +make for and effect this embodiment. So, too, the living temple "so +defined," great with the greatness of holiness, may become the +enshrinement and the embodiment of the Spirit of God.] + +[pn] {443} _His earthly palace_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[525] [This stanza may be paraphrased, but not construed. Apparently, +the meaning is that as the eye becomes accustomed to the details and +proportions of the building, the sense of its vastness increases. Your +first impression was at fault, you had not begun to realize the almost +inconceivable vastness of the structure. You had begun to climb the +mountain, and the dazzling peak seemed to be close at your head, but as +you ascend, it recedes. "Thou movest," but the building expands; "thou +climbest," but the Alp increases in height. In both cases the eye has +been deceived by gigantic elegance, by the proportion of parts to the +whole.] + +[po] And fair proportions which beguile the eyes.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pp] + _Painting and marble of so many dyes_-- + _And glorious high altar where for ever burn_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pq] + _Its Giant's limbs and by degrees_---- + or, _The Giant eloquence and thus unroll_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pr] + ----_our narrow sense_ + _Cannot keep pace with mind_----[MS. M. erased.] + +[ps] {445} _What Earth nor Time--nor former Thought could frame_.--[MS. +M. erased.] + +[pt] _Before your eye--and ye return not as ye came_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pu] _In that which Genius did, what great Conceptions can_.--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[526] [Pliny tells us (_Hist. Nat._, xxxvi. 5) that the Laocoon which +stood in the palace of Titus was the work of three sculptors, natives of +Rhodes; and it is now universally admitted that the statue which was +found (January 14, 1516) in the vineyard of Felice de' Freddi, not far +from the ruins of the palace, and is now in the Vatican, is the statue +which Pliny describes. M. Collignon, in his _Histoire de la Sculpture +Grecque_, gives reasons for assigning the date of the Laocoon to the +first years of the first century B.C. It follows that the work is a +century later than the frieze of the great altar of Pergamos, which +contains the figure of a young giant caught in the toils of Athena's +serpent--a theme which served as a model for later sculptors of the same +school. In 1817 the Laocoon was in the heyday of its fame, and was +regarded as the supreme achievement of ancient art. Since then it has +been decried and dethroned. M. Collignon protests against this excessive +depreciation, and makes himself the mouthpiece of a second and more +temperate reaction: "On peut ... gouter mediocrement le melodrame, sans +meconnaitre pour cela les reelles qualites du groupe. La composition est +d'une structure irreprochable, d'une harmonie de lignes qui defie toute +critique. Le torse du Laocoon trahit une science du nu pen commune" +(_Hist. de la Sculp. Grecque_, 1897, ii. 550, 551).] + +[pv] {446} ----_the writhing boys_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[pw] _Shackles its living rings, and_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[527] [In his description of the Apollo Belvidere, Byron follows the +traditional theory of Montorsoli, the pupil of Michael Angelo, who +restored the left hand and right forearm of the statue. The god, after +his struggle with the python, stands forth proud and disdainful, the +left hand holding a bow, and the right hand falling as of one who had +just shot an arrow. The discovery, in 1860, of a bronze statuette in the +Stroganoff Collection at St. Petersburg, which holds something like an +aegis and a mantle in the left hand, suggested to Stephani a second +theory, that the Belvidere Apollo was a copy of a statue of Apollo +Boedromios, an _ex-voto_ offering on the rout of the Gauls when they +attacked Delphi (B.C. 278). To this theory Furtwaengler at one time +assented, but subsequently came to the conclusion that the Stroganoff +bronze was a forgery. His present contention is that the left hand held +a bow, as Montorsoli imagined, whilst the right grasped "a branch of +laurel, of which the leaves are still visible on the trunk which the +copyist added to the bronze original." The Apollo Belvidere is, he +concludes, a copy of the Apollo Alexicacos of Leochares (fourth century +B.C.), which stood in the Cerameicos at Athens. M. Maxime Collignon, who +utters a word of warning as to the undue depreciation of the statue by +modern critics, adopts Furtwaengler's later theory (_Masterpieces of +Ancient Greek Sculpture_, by A. Furtwaengler, 1895, ii. 405, _sq._).] + +[528] {447} [The "delicate" beauty of the statue recalled the features +of a lady whom he had once thought of making his wife. "The Apollo +Belvidere," he wrote to Moore (May 12, 1817), "is the image of Lady +Adelaide Forbes. I think I never saw such a likeness."] + +[529] [It is probable that lines 1-4 of this stanza contain an allusion +to a fact related by M. Pinel, in his work, _Sur l'Insanite_, which +Milman turned to account in his _Belvidere Apollo_, a Newdigate Prize +Poem of 1812-- + + "Beauteous as vision seen in dreamy sleep + By holy maid on Delphi's haunted steep, + 'Mid the dim twilight of the laurel grove, + Too fair to worship, too divine to love. + Yet on that form in wild delirious trance + With more than rev'rence gazed the Maid of France, + Day after day the love-sick dreamer stood + With him alone, nor thought it solitude! + To cherish grief, her last, her dearest care, + Her one fond hope--to perish of despair." + Milman's _Poetical Works_, Paris, 1829, p. 180. + +Compare, too, Coleridge's _Kubla Khan_, lines 14-16-- + + "A savage place, as holy and enchanted, + As e'er beneath a wailing moon was haunted + By woman wailing for her demon-lover." + _Poetical Works_, 1893, p. 94.] + +[px] {448} _Before its eyes unveiled to image forth a God!_--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[530] [The fire which Prometheus stole from heaven was the living soul, +"the source of all our woe." (Compare Horace, _Odes_, i. 3. 29-31-- + + "Post ignem aetheria domo + Subductum, Macies et nova Febrium + Terris incubuit cohors.")] + +[py] {449} _The phantom fades away into the general mass_.--[MS. M. +erased.] + +[531] {450} [Compare _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 1, line 76--"Who would these +fardels bear?"] + +[532] [Charlotte Augusta (b. January 7, 1796), only daughter of the +Prince Regent, was married to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, May 2, 1816, and +died in childbirth, November 6, 1817. + +Other poets produced their dirges; but it was left to Byron to deal +finely, and as a poet should, with a present grief, which was felt to be +a national calamity. + +Southey's "Funeral Song for the Princess Charlotte of Wales" was only +surpassed in feebleness by Coleridge's "Israel's Lament." Campbell +composed a laboured elegy, which was "spoken by Mr ... at Drury Lane +Theatre, on the First Opening of the House after the Death of the +Princess Charlotte, 1817;" and Montgomery wrote a hymn on "The Royal +Infant, Still-born, November 5, 1817." + +Not a line of these lamentable effusions has survived; but the poor, +pitiful story of common misfortune, with its tragic irony, uncommon +circumstance, and far-reaching consequence, found its _vates sacer_ in +the author of _Childe Harold_.] + +[pz] {451} + _Her prayers for thee and in thy coming power_ + _Beheld her Iris--Thou too lonely Lord_ + _And desolate Consort! fatal is thy dower_, + _The Husband of a year--the Father of an_----[? _hour_].-- + [D. erased.] + +[533] {452} [Compare Canto III. stanza xxxiv. lines 6, 7-- + + "Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore, + All ashes to the taste."] + +[534] [Mr. Tozer traces the star simile to Homer (_Iliad_, viii. +559)--[Greek: Pa/nta de/ t' ei)/detai a)/stra, ge/gethe de/ te phre/na +poime/n]] + +[535] [Compare _Macbeth_, act iii. sc. 2, lines 22, 23-- + + "Duncan is in his grave; + After life's fitful fever he sleeps well."] + +[536] [Compare _Coriolanus_, act iii. sc. 3, lines 121, 122-- + + "You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate + As reek o' the rotten fens."] + +[537] {453} Mary died on the scaffold; Elizabeth, of a broken heart; +Charles V., a hermit; Louis XIV., a bankrupt in means and glory; +Cromwell, of anxiety; and, "the greatest is behind," Napoleon lives a +prisoner. To these sovereigns a long but superfluous list might be added +of names equally illustrious and unhappy. + +[qa] _Which sinks_----.--[MS. M.] + +[538] [The simile of the "earthquake" was repeated in a letter to +Murray, dated December 3, 1817: "The death of the Princess Charlotte has +been a shock even here, and must have been an earthquake at home.... The +death of this poor Girl is melancholy in every respect, dying at twenty +or so, in childbed--of a _boy_ too, a present princess and future queen, +and just as she began to be happy, and to enjoy herself, and the hopes +which she inspired."] + +[539] {454} The village of Nemi was near the Arician retreat of Egeria, +and, from the shades which embosomed the temple of Diana, has preserved +to this day its distinctive appellation of _The Grove_. Nemi is but an +evening's ride from the comfortable inn of Albano. + +[The basin of the Lago di Nemi is the crater of an extinct volcano. +Hence the comparison to a coiled snake. Its steel-blue waters are +unruffled by the wind which lashes the neighbouring ocean into fury. +Hence its likeness to "cherished hate," as contrasted with "generous and +active wrath."] + +[qb] _And calm as speechless hate_----.--[MS. M.] + +[540] [The spectator is supposed to be looking towards the Mediterranean +from the summit of Monte Cavo. Tusculum, where "Tully reposed," lies to +the north of the Alban Hills, on the right; but, as Byron points to a +spot "beneath thy right," he probably refers to the traditional site of +the Villa Ciceronis at Grotta Ferrata, and not to an alternative site at +the Villa Ruffinella, between Frascati and the ruins of Tusculum. +Horace's Sabine farm, on the bank of Digentia's "ice-cold rivulet," is +more than twenty miles to the north-east of the Alban Hills. The +mountains to the south and east of Tusculum intercept the view of the +valley of the Licenza (Digentia), where the "farm was tilled." Childe +Harold had bidden farewell to Horace, once for all, "upon Soracte's +ridge," but recalls him to keep company with Virgil and Cicero.] + +[qc] {455} + _Of girdling mountains circle on the sight_ + _The Sabine farm was tilled, the wearied Bard's delight_.-- + [MS. M.] + +[541] ["Calpe's rock" is Gibraltar (compare _Childe Harold_, Canto II. +stanza xxii. line i). "Last" may be the last time that Byron and Childe +Harold saw the Mediterranean together. Byron had last seen it--"the +Midland Ocean"--by "Calpe's rock," on his return journey to England in +1811. Or by "last" he may mean the last time that it burst upon his +view. He had not seen the Mediterranean on his way from Geneva to +Venice, in October-November, 1816, or from Venice to Rome, April--May, +1817; but now from the Alban Mount the "ocean" was full in view.] + +[qd] {456} ----_much suffering and some tears_.--[MS. M.] + +[542] ["After the stanza (near the conclusion of Canto 4th) which ends +with the line-- + +"'As if there was no man to trouble what is clear,' + +insert the two following stanzas (clxxvii., clxxviii.). Then go on to +the stanza beginning, 'Roll on thou,' etc., etc. You will find the place +of insertion near the conclusion--just before the address to the Ocean. + +"These _two stanzas_ will just make up the number of 500 stanzas to the +whole poem. + +"Answer when you receive this. I sent back the packets yesterday, and +hope they will arrive in safety."--D.] + +[543] [His desire is towards no light o' love, but for the support and +fellowship of his sister. Compare the opening lines of the _Epistle to +Augusta_-- + + "My sister! my sweet sister! if a name + Dearer and purer were, it should be thine; + Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim + No tears, but tenderness to answer mine: + Go where I will, to me thou art the same-- + A loved regret which I would not resign. + There yet are two things in my destiny,-- + A world to roam through and a home with thee. + + "The first were nothing--had I still the last, + It were the haven of my happiness."] + +[544] {457} [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxxii. lines 8, +9; and _Epistle to Augusta_, stanza xi.] + +[qe] {458} ----_unearthed, uncoffined, and unknown_.--[MS. M.] + +[545] [Compare _Ps_. cvii. 26, "They mount up to the heaven, they go +down again to the depths."] + +[qf] _And dashest him to earth again: there let him lay!_--[D.] + +[546] ["Lay" is followed by a plainly marked period in both the MSS. (M. +and D.) of the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_. For instances of the +same error, compare "The Adieu," stanza 10, line 4, and ["Pignus +Amoris"], stanza 3, line 3 (_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 232, note, and p. +241). It is to be remarked that Hobhouse, who pencilled a few +corrections on the margin of his own MS. copy, makes no comment on this +famous solecism. The fact is that Byron wrote as he spoke, with the +"careless and negligent ease of a man of quality," and either did not +know that "lay" was not an intransitive verb or regarded himself as +"super grammaticam."] + +[547] {459} +[Compare Campbell's _Battle of the Baltic_ (stanza ii. lines 1, 2)-- + + "Like leviathans afloat, + Lay their bulwarks on the brine."] + +[qg] _These oaken citadels which made and make_.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[548] The Gale of wind which succeeded the battle of Trafalgar destroyed +the greater part (if not all) of the prizes--nineteen sail of the +line--taken on that memorable day. I should be ashamed to specify +particulars which should be known to all--did we not know that in France +the people were kept in ignorance of the event of this most glorious +victory in modern times, and that in England it is the present fashion +to talk of Waterloo as though it were entirely an English triumph--and a +thing to be named with Blenheim and Agincourt--Trafalgar and Aboukir. +Posterity will decide; but if it be remembered as a skilful or as a +wonderful action, it will be like the battle of Zama, where we think of +Hannibal more than of Scipio. For assuredly we dwell on this action, not +because it was gained by Blucher or Wellington, but because it was lost +by Buonaparte--a man who, with all his vices and his faults, never yet +found an adversary with a tithe of his talents (as far as the expression +can apply to a conqueror) or his good intentions, his clemency or his +fortitude. + +Look at his successors throughout Europe, whose imitation of the worst +parts of his policy is only limited by their comparative impotence, and +their positive imbecility.--[MS. M.] + +[549] {460} ["When Lord Byron wrote this stanza, he had, no doubt, the +following passage in Boswell's _Johnson_ floating in his mind.... 'The +grand object of all travelling is to see the shores of the +Mediterranean. On those shores were the four great empires of the +world--the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman' (_Life of +Johnson_, 1876, p. 505)."--Note to _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza +clxxxii. ed. 1891.] + +[550] [See letter to Murray, September 24, 1818: "What does 'thy waters +_wasted_ them' mean (in the Canto)? _That is not me_. Consult the MS. +_always_." Nevertheless, the misreading appeared in several editions. +(For a correspondence on the subject, see _Notes and Queries_, first +series, vol. i. pp. 182, 278, 324, 508; vol. ix. p. 481; vol. x. pp. +314, 434.)] + +[qh] _Thy waters wasted them while they were free_.--[Editions 1818, +1819, 1823, and Galignani, 1825.] + +[qi] _Unchangeable save calm thy tempests ply_.--[MS. M., D.] + +[qj] {461} + _The image of Eternity and Space_ + _For who hath fixed thy limits_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[551] [Compare Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, lv. stanza 6-- + + "Dragons of the prime, + That tare each other in their slime, + Were mellow music match'd with him."] + +[552] ["While at Aberdeen, he used often to steal from home unperceived; +sometimes he would find his way to the seaside" (_Life_, p. 9). For an +account of his feats in swimming, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 263, note 1; +and letter to Murray, February 21, 1821. See, too, for a "more perilous, +but less celebrated passage" (from Old Lisbon to Belem Castle), _Travels +in Albania_, ii. 195.] + +[553] ["It was a thought worthy of the great spirit of Byron, after +exhibiting to us his Pilgrim amidst all the most striking scenes of +earthly grandeur and earthly decay ... to conduct him and us at last to +the borders of 'the Great Deep.' ... The image of the wanderer may well +be associated, for a time, with the rock of Calpe, the shattered temples +of Athens, or the gigantic fragments of Rome; but when we wish to think +of this dark personification as of a thing which is, where can we so +well imagine him to have his daily haunt as by the roaring of the waves? +It was thus that Homer represented Achilles in his moments of +ungovernable and inconsolable grief for the loss of Patroclus. It was +thus he chose to depict the paternal despair of Chryseus-- + + "[Greek: Be/ d' a)ke/on para\ thi~na polyphloi/sboio thala/sses]" + +Note by Professor Wilson, ed. 1837.] + +[qk] {462} + _Is dying in the echo--it is time_ + _To break the spell of this protracted dream_ + _And what will be the fate of this my rhyme_ + _May not be of my augury_----.--[MS. M. erased.] + +[ql] _Fatal--and yet it shakes me not--farewell._--[MS. M.] + +[qm] _Ye! who have traced my Pilgrim to the scene._--[MS. M.] + +[554] {463} At end-- + + Laus Deo! + Byron. + July 19th, 1817. + La Mira, near Venice. + + Laus Deo! + Byron. + La Mira, near Venice, + Sept. 3, 1817. + + * * * * * + + + + + NOTES TO CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. + + CANTO IV. + + 1. + + I stood in Venice, on the "Bridge of Sighs;" + A Palace and a prison on each hand. + Stanza i. lines 1 and 2. + +The communication between the ducal palace and the prisons of Venice is +by a gloomy bridge, or covered gallery, high above the water, and +divided by a stone wall into a passage and a cell. The state dungeons +called _pozzi_, or wells, were sunk in the thick walls of the palace: +and the prisoner, when taken out to die, was conducted across the +gallery to the other side, and being then led back into the other +compartment, or cell, upon the bridge, was there strangled. The low +portal through which the criminal was taken into this cell is now walled +up; but the passage is still open, and is still known by the name of the +"Bridge of Sighs." The _pozzi_ are under the flooring of the chamber at +the foot of the bridge. They were formerly twelve; but on the first +arrival of the French, the Venetians hastily blocked or broke up the +deeper of these dungeons. You may still, however descend by a trap-door, +and crawl down through holes, half choked by rubbish, to the depth of +two stories below the first range. If you are in want of consolation for +the extinction of patrician power, perhaps you may find it there; +scarcely a ray of light glimmers into the narrow gallery which leads to +the cells, and the places of confinement themselves are totally dark. A +small hole in the wall admitted the damp air of the passages, and +served for the introduction of the prisoner's food. A wooden pallet, +raised a foot from the ground, was the only furniture. The conductors +tell you that a light was not allowed. The cells are about five paces in +length, two and a half in width, and seven feet in height. They are +directly beneath one another, and respiration is somewhat difficult in +the lower holes. Only one prisoner was found when the republicans +descended into these hideous recesses, and he is said to have been +confined sixteen years. But the inmates of the dungeons beneath had left +traces of their repentance, or of their despair, which are still +visible, and may, perhaps, owe something to recent ingenuity. Some of +the detained appear to have offended against, and others to have +belonged to, the sacred body, not only from their signatures, but from +the churches and belfries which they have scratched upon the walls. The +reader may not object to see a specimen of the records prompted by so +terrific a solitude. As nearly as they could be copied by more than one +pencil, three of them are as follows:-- + + 1. NON TI FIDAR AD ALCUNO PENSA e TACI + SE FUGIR VUOI DE SPIONI INSIDIE e LACCI + IL PENTIRTI PENTIRTI NULLA GIOVA + MA BEN DI VALOR TUO LA VERA PROVA + + 1607. ADI 2. GENARO. FUI RETENTO + P' LA BESTIEMMA P' AVER DATO + DA MANZAR A UN MORTO + IACOMO. GRITTI. SCRISSE. + + 2. UN PARLAR POCHO et + NEGARE PRONTO et + UN PENSAR AL FINE PUO DARE LA VITA + A NOI ALTRI MESCHINI + + 1605. + EGO IOHN BAPTISTA AD + ECCLESIAM CORTELLARIUS. + + 3. DE CHI MI FIDO GUARDAMI DIO + DE CHI NON MI FIDO MI GUARDARO IO + A TA H A NA + V. LA S. C. K. R. + +The copyist has followed, not corrected, the solecisms; some of which +are, however, not quite so decided since the letters were evidently +scratched in the dark. It only need be observed, that _bestemmia_ and +_mangiar_ may be read in the first inscription, which was probably +written by a prisoner confined for some act of impiety committed at a +funeral; that _Cortellarius_ is the name of a parish on terra firma, +near the sea; and that the last initials evidently are put for _Viva la +santa Chiesa Kattolica Romana_. + + 2. + + In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more. + Stanza iii. line 1. + +["I cannot forbear mentioning a custom in Venice, which they tell me is +particular to the common people of this country, of singing stanzas out +of Tasso. They are set to a pretty solemn tune, and when one begins in +any part of the poet, it is odds but he will be answered by somebody +else that overhears him; so that sometimes you have ten or a dozen in +the neighbourhood of one another, taking verse after verse, and running +on with the poem as far as their memories will carry them."--Addison, +A.D. 1700.] + +The well-known song of the gondoliers, of alternate stanzas from Tasso's +_Jerusalem_, has died with the independence of Venice. Editions of the +poem, with the original in one column, and the Venetian variations on +the other, as sung by the boatmen, were once common, and are still to be +found. The following extract will serve to show the difference between +the Tuscan epic and the _Canta alia Barcariola:_-- + + ORIGINAL. + + Canto l'arme pietose, e 'l capitano + Che 'l gran Sepolcro libero di Cristo + Molto egli opro col senno, e con la mano + Molto soffri nel glorioso acquisto; + E in van l' Inferno a lui s' oppose, e in vano + S' armo d' Asia, e di Libia il popol misto, + Che il Ciel gli die favore, e sotto a i Santi + Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti. + + VENETIAN. + + L' arme pietose de cantar gho vogia, + E de Goffredo la immortal braura + Che al fin l' ha libera co strassia, e dogia + Del nostro buon Gesu la Sepoltura + De mezo mondo unite, e de quel Bogia + Missier Pluton non l' ha bu mai paura: + Dio l' ha agiuta, e i compagni sparpagni + Tutti 'l gh' i ha messi insieme i di del Dai. + +Some of the elder gondoliers will, however, take up and continue a +stanza of their once familiar bard. + +On the 7th of last January, the author of _Childe Harold_, and another +Englishman, the writer of this notice, rowed to the Lido with two +singers, one of whom was a carpenter, and the other a gondolier. The +former placed himself at the prow, the latter at the stern of the boat. +A little after leaving the quay of the Piazzetta, they began to sing, +and continued their exercise until we arrived at the island. They gave +us, amongst other essays, the death of Clorinda, and the palace of +Armida; and did not sing the Venetian but the Tuscan verses. The +carpenter, however, who was the cleverer of the two, and was frequently +obliged to prompt his companion, told us that he could _translate_ the +original. He added, that he could sing almost three hundred stanzas, but +had not spirits (_morbin_ was the word he used) to learn any more, or to +sing what he already knew: a man must have idle time on his hands to +acquire, or to repeat, and, said the poor fellow, "look at my clothes +and at me; I am starving." This speech was more affecting than his +performance, which habit alone can make attractive. The recitative was +shrill, screaming, and monotonous; and the gondolier behind assisted his +voice by holding his hand to one side of his mouth. The carpenter used a +quiet action, which he evidently endeavoured to restrain; but was too +much interested in his subject altogether to repress. From these men we +learnt that singing is not confined to the gondoliers, and that, +although the chant is seldom, if ever, voluntary, there are still +several amongst the lower classes who are acquainted with a few stanzas. + +It does not appear that it is usual for the performers to row and sing +at the same time. Although the verses of the _Jerusalem_ are no longer +casually heard, there is yet much music upon the Venetian canals; and +upon holydays, those strangers who are not near or informed enough to +distinguish the words, may fancy that many of the gondolas still resound +with the strains of Tasso. The writer of some remarks which appeared in +the _Curiosities of Literature_ must excuse his being twice quoted; for, +with the exception of some phrases a little too ambitious and +extravagant, he has furnished a very exact, as well as agreeable +description:-- + +"In Venice the gondoliers know by heart long passages from Ariosto and +Tasso, and often chant them with a peculiar melody. But this talent +seems at present on the decline:--at least, after taking some pains, I +could find no more than two persons who delivered to me in this way a +passage from Tasso. I must add, that the late Mr. Berry once chanted to +me a passage in Tasso in the manner, as he assured me, of the +gondoliers. + +"There are always two concerned, who alternately sing the strophes. We +know the melody eventually by Rousseau, to whose songs it is printed; it +has properly no melodious movement, and is a sort of medium between the +canto fermo and the canto figurato; it approaches to the former by +recitativical declamation, and to the latter by passages and course, by +which one syllable is detained and embellished. + +"I entered a gondola by moonlight; one singer placed himself forwards +and the other aft, and thus proceeded to St. Georgio. One began the +song: when he had ended his strophe, the other took up the lay, and so +continued the song alternately. Throughout the whole of it, the same +notes invariably returned; but, according to the subject-matter of the +strophe, they laid a greater or a smaller stress, sometimes on one, and +sometimes on another note, and indeed changed the enunciation of the +whole strophe as the object of the poem altered. + +"On the whole, however, the sounds were hoarse and screaming: they +seemed, in the manner of all rude uncivilised men, to make the +excellency of their singing in the force of their voice. One seemed +desirous of conquering the other by the strength of his lungs; and so +far from receiving delight from this scene (shut up as I was in the box +of the gondola), I found myself in a very unpleasant situation. + +"My companion, to whom I communicated this circumstance, being very +desirous to keep up the credit of his countrymen, assured me that the +singing was very delightful when heard at a distance. Accordingly we got +out upon the shore, leaving one of the singers in the gondola, while the +other went to the distance of some hundred paces. They now began to sing +against one another, and I kept walking up and down between them both, +so as always to leave him who was to begin his part. I frequently stood +still and hearkened to the one and to the other. + +"Here the scene was properly introduced. The strong declamatory, and, as +it were, shrieking sound, met the ear from far, and called forth the +attention; the quickly succeeding transitions, which necessarily +required to be sung in a lower tone, seemed like plaintive strains +succeeding the vociferations of emotion or of pain. The other, who +listened attentively, immediately began where the former left off, +answering him in milder or more vehement notes, according as the purport +of the strophe required. The sleepy canals, the lofty buildings, the +splendour of the moon, the deep shadows of the few gondolas that moved +like spirits hither and thither, increased the striking peculiarity of +the scene; and, amidst all these circumstances, it was easy to confess +the character of this wonderful harmony. + +"It suits perfectly well with an idle, solitary mariner, lying at length +in his vessel at rest on one of these canals, waiting for his company, +or for a fare, the tiresomeness of which situation is somewhat +alleviated by the songs and poetical stories he has in memory. He often +raises his voice as loud as he can, which extends itself to a vast +distance over the tranquil mirror; and as all is still around, he is, as +it were, in a solitude in the midst of a large and populous town. Here +is no rattling of carriages, no noise of foot passengers; a silent +gondola glides now and then by him, of which the splashings of the oars +are scarcely to be heard. + +"At a distance he hears another, perhaps utterly unknown to him. Melody +and verse immediately attach the two strangers; he becomes the +responsive echo to the former, and exerts himself to be heard as he had +heard the other. By a tacit convention they alternate verse for verse; +though the song should last the whole night through, they entertain +themselves without fatigue: the hearers who are passing between the two +take part in the amusement. + +"This vocal performance sounds best at a great distance, and is then +inexpressibly charming, as it only fulfills its design in the sentiment +of remoteness. It is plaintive, but not dismal in its sound, and at +times it is scarcely possible to refrain from tears. My companion, who +otherwise was not a very delicately organised person, said quite +unexpectedly: E singolare come quel canto intenerisce, e molto piu +quando lo cantano meglio. + +"I was told that the women of Libo, the long row of islands that divides +the Adriatic from the Lagoons,[555] particularly the women of the +extreme districts of Malamocca and Palestrina, sing in like manner the +works of Tasso to these and similar tunes. + +"They have the custom, when their husbands are fishing out at sea, to +sit along the shore in the evenings and vociferate these songs, and +continue to do so with great violence, till each of them can distinguish +the responses of her own husband at a distance."[556] + +The love of music and of poetry distinguishes all classes of Venetians, +even amongst the tuneful sons of Italy. The city itself can occasionally +furnish respectable audiences for two and even three opera-houses at a +time; and there are few events in private life that do not call forth a +printed and circulated sonnet. Does a physician or a lawyer take his +degree, or a clergyman preach his maiden sermon, has a surgeon performed +an operation, would a harlequin announce his departure or his benefit, +are you to be congratulated on a marriage, or a birth, or a lawsuit, the +Muses are invoked to furnish the same number of syllables, and the +individual triumphs blaze abroad in virgin white or party-coloured +placards on half the corners of the capital. The last curtsy of a +favourite "prima donna" brings down a shower of these poetical tributes +from those upper regions, from which, in our theatres, nothing but +cupids and snowstorms are accustomed to descend. There is a poetry in +the very life of a Venetian, which, in its common course, is varied with +those surprises and changes so recommendable in fiction, but so +different from the sober monotony of northern existence; amusements are +raised into duties, duties are softened into amusements, and every +object being considered as equally making a part of the business of +life, is announced and performed with the same earnest indifference and +gay assiduity. The Venetian gazette constantly closes its columns with +the following triple advertisement:-- + + _Charade._ + + Exposition of the most Holy Sacrament in the church of St.---- + + _Theatres_. + + St. Moses, opera. + St. Benedict, a comedy of characters. + St. Luke, repose. + +When it is recollected what the Catholics believe their consecrated +wafer to be, we may perhaps think it worthy of a more respectable niche +than between poetry and the playhouse. + + 3. + + St. Mark yet sees his Lion where he stood + Stand. + Stanza xi. line 5. + +The Lion has lost nothing by his journey to the Invalides, but the +gospel which supported the paw that is now on a level with the other +foot. The horses also are returned [A.D. 1815] to the ill-chosen spot +whence they set out, and are, as before, half hidden under the porch +window of St. Mark's Church. Their history, after a desperate struggle, +has been satisfactorily explored. The decisions and doubts of Erizzo and +Zanetti, and lastly, of the Count Leopold Cicognara, would have given +them a Roman extraction, and a pedigree not more ancient than the reign +of Nero. But M. de Schlegel stepped in to teach the Venetians the value +of their own treasures; and a Greek vindicated, at last and for ever, +the pretension of his countrymen to this noble production[557]. M. +Mustoxidi has not been left without a reply; but, as yet, he has +received no answer. It should seem that the horses are irrevocably +Chian, and were transferred to Constantinople by Theodosius. Lapidary +writing is a favourite play of the Italians, and has conferred +reputation on more than one of their literary characters. One of the +best specimens of Bodoni's typography is a respectable volume of +inscriptions, all written by his friend Pacciaudi. Several were prepared +for the recovered horses. It is to be hoped the best was not selected, +when the following words were ranged in gold letters above the cathedral +porch:-- + + QUATUOR. EQUORUM. SIGNA. A. VENETIS. BYZANTIO. + CAPTA. AD. TEMP. D. MAR. A. R. S. MCCIV. POSITA. + QUAE. HOSTILIS. CUPIDITAS. A. MDCCIIIC. ABSTULERAT. + FRANC. I. IMP. PACIS. ORBI. DATAE. TROPHAEUM. A. + MDCCCXV. VICTOR. REDUXIT. + +Nothing shall be said of the Latin, but it may be permitted to observe, +that the injustice of the Venetians in transporting the horses from +Constantinople [A.D. 1204] was at least equal to that of the French in +carrying them to Paris [A.D. 1797], and that it would have been more +prudent to have avoided all allusions to either robbery. An apostolic +prince should, perhaps, have objected to affixing over the principal +entrance of a metropolitan church an inscription having a reference to +any other triumphs than those of religion. Nothing less than the +pacification of the world can excuse such a solecism. + + 4. + + The Suabian sued, and now the Austrian reigns-- + An Emperor tramples where an Emperor knelt. + Stanza xii. lines 1 and 2. + +After many vain efforts on the part of the Italians entirely to throw +off the yoke of Frederic Barbarossa, and as fruitless attempts of the +Emperor to make himself absolute master throughout the whole of his +Cisalpine dominions, the bloody struggles of four-and-twenty years were +happily brought to a close in the city of Venice. The articles of a +treaty had been previously agreed upon between Pope Alexander III. and +Barbarossa; and the former having received a safe-conduct, had already +arrived at Venice from Ferrara, in company with the ambassadors of the +King of Sicily and the consuls of the Lombard League. There still +remained, however, many points to adjust, and for several days the peace +was believed to be impracticable. At this juncture, it was suddenly +reported that the Emperor had arrived at Chioza, a town fifteen miles +from the capital. The Venetians rose tumultuously, and insisted upon +immediately conducting him to the city. The Lombards took the alarm, and +departed towards Treviso. The Pope himself was apprehensive of some +disaster if Frederic should suddenly advance upon him, but was reassured +by the prudence and address of Sebastian Ziani, the Doge. Several +embassies passed between Chioza and the capital, until, at last, the +Emperor, relaxing somewhat of his pretensions, "laid aside his leonine +ferocity, and put on the mildness of the lamb."[558] + +On Saturday, the 23rd of July, in the year 1177, six Venetian galleys +transferred Frederic, in great pomp, from Chioza to the island of Lido, +a mile from Venice. Early the next morning, the Pope, accompanied by the +Sicilian ambassadors, and by the envoys of Lombardy, whom he had +recalled from the main land, together with a great concourse of people, +repaired from the patriarchal palace to St. Mark's Church, and solemnly +absolved the Emperor and his partisans from the excommunication +pronounced against him. The Chancellor of the Empire, on the part of his +master, renounced the anti-popes and their schismatic adherents. +Immediately the Doge, with a great suite both of the clergy and laity, +got on board the galleys, and waiting on Frederic, rowed him in mighty +state from the Lido to the capital. The Emperor descended from the +galley at the quay of the Piazzetta. The Doge, the patriarch, his +bishops and clergy, and the people of Venice with their crosses and +their standards, marched in solemn procession before him to the church +of St. Mark. Alexander was seated before the vestibule of the basilica, +attended by his bishops and cardinals, by the patriarch of Aquileja, by +the archbishops and bishops of Lombardy, all of them in state, and +clothed in their church robes. Frederic approached--"moved by the Holy +Spirit, venerating the Almighty in the person of Alexander, laying aside +his imperial dignity, and throwing off his mantle, he prostrated himself +at full length at the feet of the Pope. Alexander, with tears in his +eyes, raised him benignantly from the ground, kissed him, blessed him; +and immediately the Germans of the train sang with a loud voice, 'We +praise thee, O Lord.' The Emperor then taking the Pope by the right +hand, led him to the church, and having received his benediction, +returned to the ducal palace."[559] The ceremony of humiliation was +repeated the next day. The Pope himself, at the request of Frederic, +said mass at St. Mark's. The Emperor again laid aside his imperial +mantle, and taking a wand in his hand, officiated as _verger_, driving +the laity from the choir, and preceding the pontiff to the altar. +Alexander, after reciting the gospel, preached to the people. The +Emperor put himself close to the pulpit in the attitude of listening; +and the pontiff, touched by this mark of his attention (for he knew that +Frederic did not understand a word he said), commanded the patriarch of +Aquileja to translate the Latin discourse into the German tongue. The +creed was then chanted. Frederic made his oblation, and kissed the +Pope's feet, and, mass being over, led him by the hand to his white +horse. He held the stirrup, and would have led the horse's rein to the +water side, had not the Pope accepted of the inclination for the +performance, and affectionately dismissed him with his benediction. Such +is the substance of the account left by the archbishop of Salerno, who +was present at the ceremony, and whose story is confirmed by every +subsequent narration. It would be not worth so minute a record, were it +not the triumph of liberty as well as of superstition. The states of +Lombardy owed to it the confirmation of their privileges; and Alexander +had reason to thank the Almighty, who had enabled an infirm, unarmed +old man to subdue a terrible and potent sovereign.[560] + + 5. + + Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo! + Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe. + Stanza xii. lines 8 and 9. + +The reader will recollect the exclamation of the Highlander, "_Oh, for +one hour of Dundee_!" Henry Dandolo, when elected Doge, in 1192, was +eighty-five years of age. When he commanded the Venetians at the taking +of Constantinople, he was consequently ninety-seven years old. At this +age he annexed the fourth and a half of the whole empire of +Romania,[561] for so the Roman empire was then called, to the title and +to the territories of the Venetian Doge. The three-eighths of this +empire were preserved in the diplomas until the Dukedom of Giovanni +Dolfino, who made use of the above designation in the year 1357.[562] + +Dandolo led the attack on Constantinople in person. Two ships, the +Paradise and the Pilgrim, were tied together, and a drawbridge or ladder +let down from their higher yards to the walls. The Doge was one of the +first to rush into the city. Then was completed, said the Venetians, the +prophecy of the Erythraean sibyl:--"A gathering together of the powerful +shall be made amidst the waves of the Adriatic, under a blind leader; +they shall beset the goat--they shall profane Byzantium--they shall +blacken her buildings--her spoils shall be dispersed; a new goat shall +bleat until they have measured out and run over fifty-four feet nine +inches and a half."[563] Dandolo died on the first day of June, 1205, +having reigned thirteen years six months and five days, and was buried +in the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople. Strangely enough it must +sound, that the name of the rebel apothecary who received the Doge's +sword, and annihilated the ancient government, in 1796-7, was Dandolo. + + 6. + + But is not Doria's menace come to pass? + Are they not _bridled?_ + Stanza xiii. lines 3 and 4. + +After the loss of the battle of Pola, and the taking of Chioza on the +16th of August, 1379, by the united armament of the Genoese and +Francesco da Carrara, Signor of Padua, the Venetians were reduced to the +utmost despair. An embassy was sent to the conquerors with a blank sheet +of paper, praying them to prescribe what terms they pleased, and leave +to Venice only her independence. The Prince of Padua was inclined to +listen to these proposals; but the Genoese, who, after the victory at +Pola, had shouted, "To Venice! to Venice! and long live St. George!" +determined to annihilate their rival; and Peter Doria, their +commander-in-chief, returned this answer to the suppliants: "On God's +faith, gentlemen of Venice, ye shall have no peace from the Signer of +Padua, nor from our commune of Genoa, until we have first put a rein +upon those unbridled horses of yours, that are upon the porch of your +evangelist St. Mark. When we have bridled them we shall keep you quiet. +And this is the pleasure of us and of our commune. As for these, my +brothers of Genoa, that you have brought with you to give up to us, I +will not have them: take them back; for in a few days hence, I shall +come and let them out of prison myself, both these and all the others" +[p. 727, E. _vide infra_]. In fact, the Genoese did advance as far as +Malamocco, within five miles of the capital; but their own danger, and +the pride of their enemies, gave courage to the Venetians, who made +prodigious efforts, and many individual sacrifices, all of them +carefully recorded by their historians. Vettor Pisani was put at the +head of thirty-four galleys. The Genoese broke up from Malamocco, and +retired to Chioza in October; but they again threatened Venice, which +was reduced to extremities. At this time, the 1st of January, 1380, +arrived Carlo Zeno, who had been cruising on the Genoese coast with +fourteen galleys. The Venetians were now strong enough to besiege the +Genoese. Doria was killed on the 22nd of January, by a stone bullet, one +hundred and ninety-five pounds' weight, discharged from a bombard called +the Trevisan. Chioza was then closely invested; five thousand +auxiliaries, among whom were some English condottieri, commanded by one +Captain Ceccho, joined the Venetians. The Genoese, in their turn, prayed +for conditions, but none were granted, until, at last, they surrendered +at discretion; and, on the 24th of June, 1380, the Doge Contarini made +his triumphal entry into Chioza. Four thousand prisoners, nineteen +galleys, many smaller vessels and barks, with all the ammunition and +arms, and outfit of the expedition, fell into the hands of the +conquerors, who, had it not been for the inexorable answer of Doria, +would have gladly reduced their dominion to the city of Venice. An +account of these transactions is found in a work called _The War of +Chioza_,[564] written by Daniel Chinazzo, who was in Venice at the time. + + 7. + + Thin streets, and foreign aspects, such as must + Too oft remind her who and what enthrals. + Stanza xv. lines 7 and 8. + +The population of Venice, at the end of the seventeenth century, +amounted to nearly two hundred thousand souls. At the last census, taken +two years ago [1816], it was no more than about one hundred and three +thousand; and it diminishes daily. The commerce and the official +employments, which were to be the unexhausted source of Venetian +grandeur, have both expired.[565] Most of the patrician mansions are +deserted, and would gradually disappear, had not the Government, alarmed +by the demolition of seventy-two during the last two years, expressly +forbidden this sad resource of poverty. Many remnants of the Venetian +nobility are now scattered, and confounded with the wealthier Jews upon +the banks of the Brenta, whose Palladian palaces have sunk, or are +sinking, in the general decay. Of the "gentiluomo Veneto," the name is +still known, and that is all. He is but the shadow of his former self, +but he is polite and kind. It surely may be pardoned to him if he is +querulous. Whatever may have been the vices of the republic, and +although the natural term of its existence may be thought by foreigners +to have arrived in the due course of mortality, only one sentiment can +be expected from the Venetians themselves. At no time were the subjects +of the republic so unanimous in their resolution to rally round the +standard of St. Mark, as when it was for the last time unfurled; and the +cowardice and the treachery of the few patricians who recommended the +fatal neutrality, were confined to the persons of the traitors +themselves. The present race cannot be thought to regret the loss of +their aristocratical forms, and too despotic government; they think only +on their vanished independence. They pine away at the remembrance, and +on this subject suspend for a moment their gay good humour. Venice may +be said, in the words of the Scripture, "to die daily;" and so general +and so apparent is the decline, as to become painful to a stranger, not +reconciled to the sight of a whole nation expiring, as it were, before +his eyes. So artificial a creation, having lost that principle which +called it into life and supported its existence, must fall to pieces at +once, and sink more rapidly than it rose. The abhorrence of slavery, +which drove the Venetians to the sea, has, since their disaster, forced +them to the land, where they may be at least overlooked amongst the +crowd of dependents, and not present the humiliating spectacle of a +whole nation loaded with recent chains. Their liveliness, their +affability, and that happy indifference which constitution alone can +give (for philosophy aspires to it in vain), have not sunk under +circumstances; but many peculiarities of costume and manner have by +degrees been lost; and the nobles, with a pride common to all Italians +who have been masters, have not been persuaded to parade their +insignificance. That splendour which was a proof and a portion of their +power, they would not degrade into the trappings of their subjection. +They retired from the space which they had occupied in the eyes of their +fellow citizens; their continuance in which would have been a symptom of +acquiescence, and an insult to those who suffered by the common +misfortune. Those who remained in the degraded capital, might be said +rather to haunt the scenes of their departed power, than to live in +them. The reflection, "who and what enthrals," will hardly bear a +comment from one who is, nationally, the friend and the ally of the +conqueror. It may, however, be allowed to say thus much, that to those +who wish to recover their independence, any masters must be an object of +detestation; and it may be safely foretold that this unprofitable +aversion will not have been corrected before Venice shall have sunk into +the slime of her choked canals. + + 8. + + Watering the tree which bears his Lady's name + With his melodious tears, he gave himself to Fame. + Stanza xxx. lines 8 and 9. + +Thanks to the critical acumen of a Scotchman, we now know as little of +Laura as ever.[566] The discoveries of the Abbe de Sade, his triumphs, +his sneers, can no longer instruct or amuse. We must not, however, think +that these memoirs[567] are as much a romance as Belisarius or the +Incas, although we are told so by Dr. Beattie, a great name, but a +little authority.[568] His "labour" has not been in vain, +notwithstanding his "love" has, like most other passions, made him +ridiculous.[569] The hypothesis which overpowered the struggling +Italians, and carried along less interested critics in its current, is +run out. We have another proof that we can never be sure that the +paradox, the most singular, and therefore having the most agreeable and +authentic air, will not give place to the re-established ancient +prejudice. + +It seems, then, first, that Laura was born, lived, died, and was buried, +not in Avignon, but in the country. The fountains of the Sorga, the +thickets of Cabrieres, may resume their pretensions, and the exploded +_de la Bastie_ again be heard with complacency. The hypothesis of the +Abbe had no stronger props than the parchment sonnet and medal found on +the skeleton of the wife of Hugo de Sade, and the manuscript note to the +_Virgil_ of Petrarch, now in the Ambrosian library. If these proofs were +both incontestable, the poetry was written, the medal composed, cast, +and deposited within the space of twelve hours: and these deliberate +duties were performed round the carcass of one who died of the plague, +and was hurried to the grave on the day of her death. These documents, +therefore, are too decisive: they prove not the fact, but the forgery. +Either the sonnet or the Virgilian note must be a falsification. The +Abbe cites both as incontestably true; the consequent deduction is +inevitable--they are both evidently false.[570] + +Secondly, Laura was never married, and was a haughty virgin rather than +that _tender and prudent_ wife who honoured Avignon, by making that town +the theatre of an honest French passion, and played off for one and +twenty years her _little machinery_ of alternate favours and +refusals[571] upon the first poet of the age. It was, indeed, rather too +unfair that a female should be made responsible for eleven children upon +the faith of a misinterpreted abbreviation, and the decision of a +librarian.[572] It is, however, satisfactory to think that the love of +Petrarch was not platonic. The happiness which he prayed to possess but +once and for a moment was surely not of the mind,[573] and something so +very real as a marriage project, with one who has been idly called a +shadowy nymph, may be, perhaps, detected in at least six places of his +own sonnets. The love of Petrarch was neither platonic nor poetical; and +if in one passage of his works he calls it "amore veementeissimo ma +unico ed onesto," he confesses, in a letter to a friend, that it was +guilty and perverse, that it absorbed him quite, and mastered his heart. + +In this case, however, he was perhaps alarmed for the culpability of his +wishes; for the Abbe de Sade himself, who certainly would not have been +scrupulously delicate if he could have proved his descent from Petrarch +as well as Laura, is forced into a stout defence of his virtuous +grandmother. As far as relates to the poet, we have no security for the +innocence, except perhaps in the constancy of his pursuit. He assures us +in his epistle to posterity, that, when arrived at his fortieth year, he +not only had in horror, but had lost all recollection and image of any +"irregularity." But the birth of his natural daughter cannot be assigned +earlier than his thirty-ninth year; and either the memory or the +morality of the poet must have failed him, when he forgot or was guilty +of this _slip_.[574] The weakest argument for the purity of this love +has been drawn from the permanence of its effects, which survived the +object of his passion. The reflection of M. de la Bastie, that virtue +alone is capable of making impressions which death cannot efface, is +one of those which everybody applauds, and everybody finds not to be +true, the moment he examines his own breast or the records of human +feeling.[575] Such apophthegms can do nothing for Petrarch or for the +cause of morality, except with the very weak and the very young. He that +has made even a little progress beyond ignorance and pupilage cannot be +edified with anything but truth. What is called vindicating the honour +of an individual or a nation, is the most futile, tedious, and +uninstructive of all writing; although it will always meet with more +applause than that sober criticism, which is attributed to the malicious +desire of reducing a great man to the common standard of humanity. It +is, after all, not unlikely that our historian was right in retaining +his favourite hypothetic salvo, which secures the author, although it +scarcely saves the honour of the still unknown mistress of +Petrarch.[576] + + 9. + + They keep his dust in Arqua, where he died. + Stanza xxxi. line 1. + +Petrarch retired to Arqua immediately on his return from the +unsuccessful attempt to visit Urban V. at Rome, in the year 1370, and +with the exception of his celebrated visit to Venice in company with +Francesco Novello da Carrara, he appears to have passed the four last +years of his life between that charming solitude and Padua. For four +months previous to his death he was in a state of continual languor, and +in the morning of July the 19th, in the year 1374, was found dead in his +library chair with his head resting upon a book. The chair is still +shown amongst the precious relics of Arqua, which, from the +uninterrupted veneration that has been attached to everything relative +to this great man from the moment of his death to the present hour, +have, it may be hoped, a better chance of authenticity than the +Shaksperian memorials of Stratford-upon-Avon. + +Arqua (for the last syllable is accented in pronunciation, although the +analogy of the English language has been observed in the verse) is +twelve miles from Padua, and about three miles on the right of the high +road to Rovigo, in the bosom of the Euganean hills. After a walk of +twenty minutes across a flat well-wooded meadow, you come to a little +blue lake, clear but fathomless, and to the foot of a succession of +acclivities and hills, clothed with vineyards and orchards, rich with +fir and pomegranate trees, and every sunny fruit shrub. From the banks +of the lake the road winds into the hills, and the church of Arqua is +soon seen between a cleft where two ridges slope towards each other, and +nearly enclose the village. The houses are scattered at intervals on the +steep sides of these summits; and that of the poet is on the edge of a +little knoll overlooking two descents, and commanding a view, not only +of the glowing gardens in the dales immediately beneath, but of the wide +plains, above whose low woods of mulberry and willow, thickened into a +dark mass by festoons of vines, tall, single cypresses, and the spires +of towns, are seen in the distance, which stretches to the mouths of the +Po and the shores of the Adriatic. The climate of these volcanic hills +is warmer, and the vintage begins a week sooner than in the plains of +Padua. Petrarch is laid, for he cannot be said to be buried, in a +sarcophagus of red marble, raised on four pilasters on an elevated base, +and preserved from an association with meaner tombs. It stands +conspicuously alone, but will be soon overshadowed by four lately +planted laurels. Petrarch's Fountain, for here everything is Petrarch's, +springs and expands itself beneath an artificial arch, a little below +the church, and abounds plentifully, in the driest season, with that +soft water which was the ancient wealth of the Euganean hills. It would +be more attractive, were it not, in some seasons, beset with hornets and +wasps. No other coincidence could assimilate the tombs of Petrarch and +Archilochus. The revolutions of centuries have spared these sequestered +valleys, and the only violence which has been offered to the ashes of +Petrarch was prompted, not by hate, but veneration. An attempt was made +to rob the sarcophagus of its treasure, and one of the arms was stolen +by a Florentine through a rent which is still visible. The injury is not +forgotten, but has served to identify the poet with the country where he +was born, but where he would not live. A peasant boy of Arqua being +asked who Petrarch was, replied, "that the people of the parsonage knew +all about him, but that he only knew that he was a Florentine." + +Mr. Forsyth[577] was not quite correct in saying that Petrarch never +returned to Tuscany after he had once quitted it when a boy. It appears +he did pass through Florence on his way from Parma to Rome, and on his +return in the year 1350, and remained there long enough to form some +acquaintance with its most distinguished inhabitants. A Florentine +gentleman, ashamed of the aversion of the poet for his native country, +was eager to point out this trivial error in our accomplished traveller, +whom he knew and respected for an extraordinary capacity, extensive +erudition, and refined taste, joined to that engaging simplicity of +manners which has been so frequently recognised as the surest, though it +is certainly not an indispensable, trait of superior genius. + +Every footstep of Laura's lover has been anxiously traced and recorded. +The house in which he lodged is shown in Venice. The inhabitants of +Arezzo, in order to decide the ancient controversy between their city +and the neighbouring Ancisa, where Petrarch was carried when seven +months old, and remained until his seventh year, have designated by a +long inscription the spot where their great fellow citizen was born. A +tablet has been raised to him at Parma, in the chapel of St. Agatha, at +the cathedral, because he was arch-deacon of that society, and was only +snatched from his intended sepulture in their church by a _foreign_ +death. Another tablet, with a bust, has been erected to him at Pavia, on +account of his having passed the autumn of 1368 in that city, with his +son-in-law Brossano. The political condition which has for ages +precluded the Italians from the criticism of the living, has +concentrated their attention to the illustration of the dead. + + 10. + + In face of all his foes, the Cruscan quire, + And Boileau, whose rash envy, etc. + Stanza xxxviii. lines 6 and 7. + +Perhaps the couplet in which Boileau depreciates Tasso may serve as well +as any other specimen to justify the opinion given of the harmony of +French verse-- + + "A Malherbe, a Racan, prefere Theophile, + Et le clinquant du Tasse a tout l'or de Virgile." + _Sat_. ix. v. 176. + +The biographer Serassi,[578] out of tenderness to the reputation either +of the Italian or the French poet, is eager to observe that the satirist +recanted or explained away this censure, and subsequently allowed the +author of the _Jerusalem_ to be "a genius sublime, vast, and happily +born for the higher flights of poetry." To this we will add, that the +recantation is far from satisfactory, when we examine the whole anecdote +as reported by Olivet.[579] The sentence pronounced against him by +Bouhours[580] is recorded only to the confusion of the critic, whose +_palinodia_ the Italian makes no effort to discover, and would not, +perhaps, accept. As to the opposition which the _Jerusalem_ encountered +from the Cruscan academy, who degraded Tasso from all competition with +Ariosto, below Bojardo and Pulci, the disgrace of such opposition must +also in some measure be laid to the charge of Alfonso, and the court of +Ferrara. For Leonard Salviati, the principal and nearly the sole origin +of this attack, was, there can be no doubt,[581] influenced by a hope to +acquire the favour of the House of Este: an object which he thought +attainable by exalting the reputation of a native poet at the expense of +a rival, then a _prisoner of state_. The hopes and efforts of Salviati +must serve to show the contemporary opinion as to the nature of the +poet's imprisonment; and will fill up the measure of our indignation at +the tyrant jailer.[582] In fact, the antagonist of Tasso was not +disappointed in the reception given to his criticism; he was called to +the court of Ferrara, where, having endeavoured to heighten his claims +to favour, by panegyrics on the family of his sovereign,[583] he was in +turn abandoned, and expired in neglected poverty. The opposition of the +Cruscans was brought to a close in six years after the commencement of +the controversy; and if the Academy owed its first renown to having +almost opened with such a paradox,[584] it is probable that, on the +other hand, the care of his reputation alleviated rather than aggravated +the imprisonment of the injured poet. The defence of his father and of +himself, for both were involved in the censure of Salviati, found +employment for many of his solitary hours, and the captive could have +been but little embarrassed to reply to accusations, where, among other +delinquencies, he was charged with invidiously omitting, in his +comparison between France and Italy, to make any mention of the cupola +of St. Maria del Fiore at Florence.[585] The late biographer of Ariosto +seems as if willing to renew the controversy by doubting the +interpretation of Tasso's self-estimation[586] related in Serassi's life +of the poet. But Tiraboschi had before laid that rivalry at rest,[587] +by showing that between Ariosto and Tasso it is not a question of +comparison, but of preference. + + 11. + + The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust + The iron crown of laurel's mimicked leaves. + Stanza xli. lines 1 and 2. + +Before the remains of Ariosto were removed from the Benedictine church +to the library of Ferrara, his bust, which surmounted the tomb, was +struck by lightning, and a crown of iron laurels melted away. The event +has been recorded by a writer of the last century.[588] The transfer of +these sacred ashes, on the 6th of June, 1801, was one of the most +brilliant spectacles of the short-lived Italian Republic; and to +consecrate the memory of the ceremony, the once famous fallen +_Intrepidi_ were revived and reformed into the Ariostean academy. The +large public place through which the procession paraded was then for the +first time called Ariosto Square. The author of the _Orlando_ is +jealously claimed as the Homer, not of Italy but Ferrara.[589] The +mother of Ariosto was of Reggio, and the house in which he was born is +carefully distinguished by a tablet with these words: "Qui nacque +Ludovico Ariosto il giorno 8. di Settembre dell' anno 1474." But the +Ferrarese make light of the accident by which their poet was born +abroad, and claim him exclusively for their own. They possess his bones, +they show his arm-chair, and his inkstand, and his autographs. + + "......Hic illius anna, + Hic currus fuit......" + +The house where he lived, the room where he died, are designated by his +own replaced memorial,[590] and by a recent inscription. The Ferrarese +are more jealous of their claims since the animosity of Denina, arising +from a cause which their apologists mysteriously hint is not unknown to +them, ventured to degrade their soil and climate to a Boeotian in +capacity for all spiritual productions. A quarto volume has been called +forth by the detraction, and this supplement to Barotti's Memoirs of the +illustrious Ferarrese, has been considered a triumphant reply to the +"Quadro Storico Statistico dell' Alta Italia." + + 12. + + For the true laurel-wreath which Glory weaves + Is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves. + Stanza xli. lines 4 and 5. + +The eagle, the sea calf, the laurel, and the white vine,[591] were +amongst the most approved preservatives against lightning: Jupiter chose +the first, Augustus Caesar the second, and Tiberius never failed to wear +a wreath of the third when the sky threatened a thunder-storm.[592] +These superstitions may be received without a sneer in a country where +the magical properties of the hazel twig have not lost all their credit; +and perhaps the reader may not be much surprised that a commentator on +Suetonius has taken upon himself gravely to disprove the imputed virtues +of the crown of Tiberius, by mentioning that a few years before he wrote +a laurel was actually struck by lightning at Rome.[593] + + 13. + + Know, that the lightning sanctifies below. + Stanza xli. line 8. + +The Curtian lake and the Ruminal fig-tree in the Forum, having been +touched by lightning, were held sacred, and the memory of the accident +was preserved by a _pateal_, or altar resembling the mouth of a well, +with a little chapel covering the cavity supposed to be made by the +thunder-bolt. Bodies scathed and persons struck dead were thought to be +incorruptible;[594] and a stroke not fatal conferred perpetual dignity +upon the man so distinguished by heaven.[595] + +Those killed by lightning were wrapped in a white garment, and buried +where they fell. The superstition was not confined to the worshippers of +Jupiter: the Lombards believed in the omens furnished by lightning; and +a Christian priest confesses that, by a diabolical skill in interpreting +thunder, a seer foretold to Agilulf, duke of Turin, an event which came +to pass, and gave him a queen and a crown.[596] There was, however, +something equivocal in this sign, which the ancient inhabitants of Rome +did not always consider propitious; and as the fears are likely to last +longer than the consolations of superstition, it is not strange that the +Romans of the age of Leo X. should have been so much terrified at some +misinterpreted storms as to require the exhortations of a scholar, who +arrayed all the learning on thunder and lightning to prove the omen +favourable; beginning with the flash which struck the walls of Velitrae;, +and including that which played upon a gate at Florence, and foretold +the pontificate of one of its citizens.[597] + + 14. + + There, too, the Goddess loves in stone. + Stanza xlix. line 1. + +The view of the Venus of Medicis instantly suggests the lines in the +_Seasons_; and the comparison of the object with the description proves, +not only the correctness of the portrait, but the peculiar turn of +thought, and, if the term may be used, the sexual imagination of the +descriptive poet. The same conclusion may be deduced from another hint +in the same episode of Musidora; for Thomson's notion of the privileges +of favoured love must have been either very primitive, or rather +deficient in delicacy, when he made his grateful nymph inform her +discreet Damon that in some happier moment he might perhaps be the +companion of her bath:-- + + "The time may come you need not fly." + +The reader will recollect the anecdote told in the _Life of Dr. +Johnson_. We will not leave the Florentine gallery without a word on the +_Whetter_. It seems strange that the character of that disputed statue +should not be entirely decided, at least in the mind of any one who has +seen a sarcophagus in the vestibule of the Basilica of St. Paul without +the walls, at Rome, where the whole group of the fable of Marsyas is +seen in tolerable preservation; and the Scythian slave whetting the +knife, is represented exactly in the same position as this celebrated +masterpiece. The slave is not naked; but it is easier to get rid of this +difficulty than to suppose the knife in the hand of the Florentine +statue an instrument for shaving, which it must be, if, as Lanzi +supposes, the man is no other than the barber of Julius Caesar. +Winckelmann, illustrating a bas-relief of the same subject, follows the +opinion of Leonard Agostini, and his authority might have been thought +conclusive, even if the resemblance did not strike the most careless +observer.[598] Amongst the bronzes of the same princely collection, is +still to be seen the inscribed tablet copied and commented upon by Mr. +Gibbon.[599] Our historian found some difficulties, but did not desist +from his illustration. He might be vexed to hear that his criticism has +been thrown away on an inscription now generally recognised to be a +forgery. + + 15. + + In Santa Croce's holy precincts lie. + Stanza liv. line 1. + +This name will recall the memory, not only of those whose tombs have +raised the Santa Croce into the centre of pilgrimage--the Mecca of +Italy--but of her whose eloquence was poured over the illustrious ashes, +and whose voice is now as mute as those she sung. Corinna is no more; +and with her should expire the fear, the flattery, and the envy, which +threw too dazzling or too dark a cloud round the march of genius, and +forbad the steady gaze of disinterested criticism. We have her picture +embellished or distorted, as friendship or detraction has held the +pencil: the impartial portrait was hardly to be expected from a +contemporary. The immediate voice of her survivors will, it is probable, +be far from affording a just estimate of her singular capacity. The +gallantry, the love of wonder, and the hope of associated fame, which +blunted the edge of censure, must cease to exist.--The dead have no sex; +they can surprise by no new miracles; they can confer no privilege: +Corinna has ceased to be a woman--she is only an author; and it may be +foreseen that many will repay themselves for former complaisance, by a +severity to which the extravagance of previous praises may perhaps give +the colour of truth. The latest posterity--for to the latest posterity +they will assuredly descend--will have to pronounce upon her various +productions; and the longer the vista through which they are seen, the +more accurately minute will be the object, the more certain the justice, +of the decision. She will enter into that existence in which the great +writers of all ages and nations are, as it were, associated in a world +of their own, and, from that superior sphere, shed their eternal +influence for the control and consolation of mankind. But the individual +will gradually disappear as the author is more distinctly seen; some +one, therefore, of all those whom the charms of involuntary wit, and of +easy hospitality, attracted within the friendly circles of Coppet, +should rescue from oblivion those virtues which, although they are said +to love the shade, are, in fact, more frequently chilled than excited by +the domestic cares of private life. Some one should be found to portray +the unaffected graces with which she adorned those dearer relationships, +the performance of whose duties is rather discovered amongst the +interior secrets, than seen in the outward management, of family +intercourse; and which, indeed, it requires the delicacy of genuine +affection to qualify for the eye of an indifferent spectator. Some one +should be found, not to celebrate, but to describe, the amiable mistress +of an open mansion, the centre of a society, ever varied, and always +pleased, the creator of which, divested of the ambition and the arts of +public rivalry, shone forth only to give fresh animation to those around +her. The mother tenderly affectionate and tenderly beloved, the friend +unboundedly generous, but still esteemed, the charitable patroness of +all distress, cannot be forgotten by those whom she cherished, and +protected, and fed. Her loss will be mourned the most where she was +known the best; and, to the sorrows of very many friends, and more +dependants, may be offered the disinterested regret of a stranger, who, +amidst the sublimer scenes of the Leman lake, received his chief +satisfaction from contemplating the engaging qualities of the +incomparable Corinna. + + 16. + + Here repose + Angelo's--Alfieri's bones. + Stanza liv. lines 6 and 7. + +Alfieri is the great name of this age. The Italians, without waiting for +the hundred years, consider him as "a poet good in law."--His memory is +the more dear to them because he is the bard of freedom; and because, as +such, his tragedies can receive no countenance from any of their +sovereigns. They are but very seldom, and but very few of them, allowed +to be acted. It was observed by Cicero, that nowhere were the true +opinions and feelings of the Romans so clearly shown as at the +theatre.[600] In the autumn of 1816, a celebrated improvisatore +exhibited his talents at the Opera-house of Milan. The reading of the +theses handed in for the subjects of his poetry was received by a very +numerous audience, for the most part in silence, or with laughter; but +when the assistant, unfolding one of the papers, exclaimed _The +apotheosis of Victor Alfieri_, the whole theatre burst into a shout, and +the applause was continued for some moments. The lot did not fall on +Alfieri; and the Signor Sgricci had to pour forth his extemporary +common-places on the bombardment of Algiers. The choice, indeed, is not +left to accident quite so much as might be thought from a first view of +the ceremony; and the police not only takes care to look at the papers +beforehand, but, in case of any prudential afterthought, steps in to +correct the blindness of chance. The proposal for deifying Alfieri was +received with immediate enthusiasm, the rather because it was +conjectured there would be no opportunity of carrying it into effect. + + 17. + + Here Machiavelli's earth returned to whence it rose. + Stanza liv. line 9. + +The affectation of simplicity in sepulchral inscriptions, which so often +leaves us uncertain whether the structure before us is an actual +depository, or a cenotaph, or a simple memorial not of death but life, +has given to the tomb of Machiavelli no information as to the place or +time of the birth or death, the age or parentage, of the historian. + + TANTO NOMINI NVLLVM PAR ELOGIVM + NICCOLAVS MACHIAVELLI. + +There seems at least no reason why the name should not have been put +above the sentence which alludes to it. + +It will readily be imagined that the prejudices which have passed the +name of Machiavelli into an epithet proverbial of iniquity exist no +longer at Florence. His memory was persecuted, as his life had been, for +an attachment to liberty incompatible with the new system of despotism, +which succeeded the fall of the free governments of Italy. He was put to +the torture for being a "libertine," that is, for wishing to restore the +republic of Florence; and such are the undying efforts of those who are +interested in the perversion, not only of the nature of actions, but the +meaning of words, that what was once _patriotism_, has by degrees come +to signify _debauch_. We have ourselves outlived the old meaning of +"liberality," which is now another word for treason in one country and +for infatuation in all. It seems to have been a strange mistake to +accuse the author of _The Prince_, as being a pander to tyranny; and to +think that the Inquisition would condemn his work for such a +delinquency. The fact is, that Machiavelli, as is usual with those +against whom no crime can be proved, was suspected of and charged with +atheism; and the first and last most violent opposers of _The Prince_ +were both Jesuits, one of whom persuaded the Inquisition "benche fosse +tardo," to prohibit the treatise, and the other qualified the secretary +of the Florentine republic as no better than a fool. The father Possevin +was proved never to have read the book, and the father Lucchesini not to +have understood it. It is clear, however, that such critics must have +objected not to the slavery of the doctrines, but to the supposed +tendency of a lesson which shows how distinct are the interests of a +monarch from the happiness of mankind. The Jesuits are re-established in +Italy, and the last chapter of _The Prince_ may again call forth a +particular refutation from those who are employed once more in moulding +the minds of the rising generation, so as to receive the impressions of +despotism. The chapter [xxvi.] bears for title, "Esortazione a liberare +l'Italia da' Barbari," and concludes with a _libertine_ excitement to +the future redemption of Italy. "Non si deve adunque lasciar passare +questa occasione, acciocche la Italia vegga dopo tanto tempo apparire un +suo redentore. Ne posso esprimere con quale amore ei fusse ricevuto in +tutte quelle provincie, che hanno patito per queste illuvioni esterne, +con qual sete di vendetta, con che ostinata fede, con que pieta, con che +lacrime. Quali porte se gli serrerebbero? Quali popoli gli negherebbero +l'ubbidienza? Quale Italiano gli negherebbe l'ossequio? AD OGNUNO PUZZA +QUESTO BARBARO DOMINIO."[601] + + 18. + + Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar. + Stanza lvii. line 1. + +Dante was born in Florence, in the year 1261. He fought in two battles, +was fourteen times ambassador, and once prior of the republic. When the +party of Charles of Anjou triumphed over the Bianchi, he was absent on +an embassy to Pope Boniface VIII., and was condemned to two years' +banishment, and to a fine of 8000 lire; on the non-payment of which he +was further punished by the sequestration of all his property. The +republic, however, was not content with this satisfaction, for in 1772 +was discovered in the archives at Florence a sentence in which Dante is +the eleventh of a list of fifteen condemned in 1302 to be burnt alive; +_Talis perveniens igne comburatur sic quod moriatur_. The pretext for +this judgment was a proof of unfair barter, extortions, and illicit +gains. _Baracteriarum iniquarum extorsionum et illicitorum +lucrorum_,[602] and with such an accusation it is not strange that Dante +should have always protested his innocence, and the injustice of his +fellow-citizens. His appeal to Florence was accompanied by another to +the Emperor Henry; and the death of that Sovereign in 1313 was the +signal for a sentence of irrevocable banishment. He had before lingered +near Tuscany with hopes of recall; then travelled into the north of +Italy, where Verona had to boast of his longest residence; and he +finally settled at Ravenna, which was his ordinary but not constant +abode until his death. The refusal of the Venetians to grant him a +public audience, on the part of Guido Novello da Polenta, his protector, +is said to have been the principal cause of this event, which happened +in 1321. He was buried ("in sacra minorum aede") at Ravenna, in a +handsome tomb, which was erected by Guido, restored by Bernardo Bembo in +1483, praetor for that republic which had refused to hear him, again +restored by Cardinal Corsi, in 1692, and replaced by a more magnificent +sepulchre, constructed in 1780 at the expense of the Cardinal Luigi +Valenti Gonzaga. The offence or misfortune of Dante was an attachment to +a defeated party, and, as his least favourable biographers allege +against him, too great a freedom of speech and haughtiness of manner. +But the next age paid honours almost divine to the exile. The +Florentines, having in vain and frequently attempted to recover his +body, crowned his image in a church,[603] and his picture is still one +of the idols of their cathedral. They struck medals, they raised statues +to him. The cities of Italy, not being able to dispute about his own +birth, contended for that of his great poem, and the Florentines thought +it for their honour to prove that he had finished the seventh Canto +before they drove him from his native city. Fifty-one years after his +death, they endowed a professorial chair for the expounding of his +verses, and Boccaccio was appointed to this patriotic employment. The +example was imitated by Bologna and Pisa, and the commentators, if they +performed but little service to literature, augmented the veneration +which beheld a sacred or moral allegory in all the images of his mystic +muse. His birth and his infancy were discovered to have been +distinguished above those of ordinary men: the author of the +_Decameron_, his earliest biographer, relates that his mother was warned +in a dream of the importance of her pregnancy: and it was found, by +others, that at ten years of age he had manifested his precocious +passion for that wisdom or theology, which, under the name of Beatrice, +had been mistaken for a substantial mistress. When the _Divine Comedy_ +had been recognised as a mere mortal production, and at the distance of +two centuries, when criticism and competition had sobered the judgment +of the Italians, Dante was seriously declared superior to Homer;[604] +and though the preference appeared to some casuists "an heretical +blasphemy worthy of the flames," the contest was vigorously maintained +for nearly fifty years. In later times it was made a question which of +the Lords of Verona could boast of having patronised him,[605] and the +jealous scepticism of one writer would not allow Ravenna the undoubted +possession of his bones. Even the critical Tiraboschi was inclined to +believe that the poet had foreseen and foretold one of the discoveries +of Galileo.--Like the great originals of other nations, his popularity +has not always maintained the same level. The last age seemed inclined +to undervalue him as a model and a study: and Bettinelli one day rebuked +his pupil Monti, for poring over the harsh and obsolete extravagances of +the _Commedia_. The present generation having recovered from the Gallic +idolatries of Cesarotti, has returned to the ancient worship, and the +_Danteggiare_ of the northern Italians is thought even indiscreet by the +more moderate Tuscans. + +There is still much curious information relative to the life and +writings of this great poet, which has not as yet been collected even by +the Italians; but the celebrated Ugo Foscolo meditates to supply this +defect, and it is not to be regretted that this national work has been +reserved for one so devoted to his country and the cause of truth. + + 19. + + Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore: + Thy factions, in their worse than civil war, + Proscribed, etc. + Stanza lvii. lines 2, 3, and 4. + +The elder Scipio Africanus had a tomb if he was not buried at Liternum, +whither he had retired to voluntary banishment. This tomb was near the +sea-shore, and the story of an inscription upon it, _Ingrata Patria_, +having given a name to a modern tower, is, if not true, an agreeable +fiction. If he was not buried, he certainly lived there.[606] + + "In cosi angusta & solitaria uilla + Era grand' huom che d' Aphrica s' appella, + Perche prima col ferro al uiuo aprilla."[607] + +Ingratitude is generally supposed the vice peculiar to republics; and +it seems to be forgotten that for one instance of popular inconstancy, +we have a hundred examples of the fall of courtly favourites. Besides, a +people have often repented--a monarch seldom or never. Leaving apart +many familiar proofs of this fact, a short story may show the difference +between even an aristocracy and the multitude. + +Vettor Pisani, having been defeated in 1354 at Portolongo, and many +years afterwards in the more decisive action of Pola, by the Genoese, +was recalled by the Venetian government, and thrown into chains. The +Avvogadori proposed to behead him, but the supreme tribunal was content +with the sentence of imprisonment. Whilst Pisani was suffering this +unmerited disgrace, Chioza, in the vicinity of the capital,[608] was, by +the assistance of the _Signor of Padua_, delivered into the hands of +Pietro Doria. At the intelligence of that disaster, the great bell of +St. Mark's tower tolled to arms, and the people and the soldiery of the +galleys were summoned to the repulse of the approaching enemy; but they +protested they would not move a step, unless Pisani were liberated and +placed at their head. The great council was instantly assembled: the +prisoner was called before them, and the Doge, Andrea Contarini, +informed him of the demands of the people, and the necessities of the +state, whose only hope of safety was reposed in his efforts, and who +implored him to forget the indignities he had endured in her service. "I +have submitted," replied the magnanimous republican, "I have submitted +to your deliberations without complaint; I have supported patiently the +pains of imprisonment, for they were inflicted at your command: this is +no time to inquire whether I deserved them--the good of the republic may +have seemed to require it, and that which the republic resolves is +always resolved wisely. Behold me ready to lay down my life for the +preservation of my country." Pisani was appointed generalissimo, and, by +his exertions, in conjunction with those of Carlo Zeno, the Venetians +soon recovered the ascendancy over their maritime rivals. + +The Italian communities were no less unjust to their citizens than the +Greek republics. Liberty, both with the one and the other, seems to have +been a national, not an individual object: and, notwithstanding the +boasted _equality before the laws_, which an ancient Greek writer[609] +considered the great distinctive mark between his countrymen and the +barbarians, the mutual rights of fellow citizens seem never to have been +the principal scope of the old democracies. The world may have not yet +seen an essay by the author of _The Italian Republics_, in which the +distinction between the liberty of former states, and the signification +attached to that word by the happier constitution of England, is +ingeniously developed. The Italians, however, when they had ceased to be +free, still looked back with a sigh upon those times of turbulence, when +every citizen might rise to a share of sovereign power, and have never +been taught fully to appreciate the repose of a monarchy. Sperone +Speroni, when Francis Maria II. Duke of Rovere proposed the question, +"which was preferable, the republic or the principality--the perfect and +not durable, or the less perfect and not so liable to change," replied, +"that our happiness is to be measured by its quality, not by its +duration; and that he preferred to live for one day like a man, than for +a hundred years like a brute, a stock, or a stone." This was thought, +and called a _magnificent_ answer down to the last days of Italian +servitude.[610] + + 20. + + And the crown + Which Petrarch's laureate brow supremely wore, + Upon a far and foreign soil had grown. + Stanza lvii. lines 6, 7, and 8. + +The Florentines did not take the opportunity of Petrarch's short visit +to their city in 1350 to revoke the decree which confiscated the +property of his father, who had been banished shortly after the exile of +Dante. His crown did not dazzle them; but when in the next year they +were in want of his assistance in the formation of their university, +they repented of their injustice, and Boccaccio was sent to Padua to +entreat the laureate to conclude his wanderings in the bosom of his +native country, where he might finish his _immortal Africa_, and enjoy, +with his recovered possessions, the esteem of all classes of his fellow +citizens. They gave him the option of the book and the science he might +condescend to expound: they called him the glory of his country, who was +dear, and who would be dearer to them; and they added, that if there was +anything unpleasing in their letter, he ought to return amongst them, +were it only to correct their style.[611] Petrarch seemed at first to +listen to the flattery and to the entreaties of his friend, but he did +not return to Florence, and preferred a pilgrimage to the tomb of Laura +and the shades of Vaucluse. + + 21. + + Boccaccio to his parent earth bequeathed + His dust. + Stanza lviii. lines 1 and 2. + +Boccaccio was buried in the church of St. Michael and St. James, at +Certaldo, a small town in the Valdelsa, which was by some supposed the +place of his birth. There he passed the latter part of his life in a +course of laborious study, which shortened his existence; and there +might his ashes have been secure, if not of honour, at least of repose. +But the "hyena bigots" of Certaldo tore up the tombstone of Boccaccio +and ejected it from the holy precincts of St. Michael and St. James. The +occasion, and, it may be hoped, the excuse, of this ejectment was the +making of a new floor for the church; but the fact is, that the +tombstone was taken up and thrown aside at the bottom of the building. +Ignorance may share the sin with bigotry. It would be painful to relate +such an exception to the devotion of the Italians for their great names, +could it not be accompanied by a trait more honourably conformable to +the general character of the nation. The principal person of the +district, the last branch of the house of Medicis, afforded that +protection to the memory of the insulted dead which her best ancestors +had dispensed upon all contemporary merit. The Marchioness Lenzoni +rescued the tombstone of Boccaccio from the neglect in which it had some +time lain, and found for it an honourable elevation in her own mansion. +She has done more: the house in which the poet lived has been as little +respected as his tomb, and is falling to ruin over the head of one +indifferent to the name of its former tenant. It consists of two or +three little chambers, and a low tower, on which Cosmo II. affixed an +inscription. This house she has taken measures to purchase, and +proposes to devote to it that care and consideration which are attached +to the cradle and to the roof of genius. + +This is not the place to undertake the defence of Boccaccio; but the man +who exhausted his little patrimony in the acquirement of learning, who +was amongst the first, if not the first, to allure the science and the +poetry of Greece to the bosom of Italy;--who not only invented a new +style, but founded, or certainly fixed, a new language; who, besides the +esteem of every polite court of Europe, was thought worthy of employment +by the predominant republic of his own country, and, what is more, of +the friendship of Petrarch, who lived the life of a philosopher and a +freeman, and who died in the pursuit of knowledge,--such a man might +have found more consideration than he has met with from the priest of +Certaldo, and from a late English traveller, who strikes off his +portrait as an odious, contemptible, licentious writer, whose impure +remains should be suffered to rot without a record.[612] That English +traveller, unfortunately for those who have to deplore the loss of a +very amiable person, is beyond all criticism; but the mortality which +did not protect Boccaccio from Mr. Eustace, must not defend Mr. Eustace +from the impartial judgment of his successors. Death may canonise his +virtues, not his errors; and it may be modestly pronounced that he +transgressed, not only as an author, but as a man, when he evoked the +shade of Boccaccio in company with that of Aretine, amidst the +sepulchres of Santa Croce, merely to dismiss it with indignity. As far +as respects + + "Il flagello de' Principi, + Il divin Pietro Aretino," + +it is of little import what censure is passed upon a coxcomb who owes +his present existence to the above burlesque character given to him by +the poet, whose amber has preserved many other grubs and worms: but to +classify Boccaccio with such a person, and to excommunicate his very +ashes, must of itself make us doubt of the qualification of the +classical tourist for writing upon Italian, or, indeed, upon any other +literature; for ignorance on one point may incapacitate an author merely +for that particular topic, but subjection to a professional prejudice +must render him an unsafe director on all occasions. Any perversion and +injustice may be made what is vulgarly called a "case of conscience," +and this poor excuse is all that can be offered for the priest of +Certaldo, or the author of the _Classical Tour_. It would have answered +the purpose to confine the censure to the novels of Boccaccio; and +gratitude to that source which supplied the muse of Dryden with her last +and most harmonious numbers might, perhaps, have restricted that censure +to the objectionable qualities of the hundred tales. At any rate the +repentance of Boccaccio might have arrested his exhumation, and it +should have been recollected and told, that in his old age he wrote a +letter entreating his friend to discourage the reading of the +_Decameron_, for the sake of modesty, and for the sake of the author, +who would not have an apologist always at hand to state in his excuse +that he wrote it when young, and at the command of his superiors.[613] +It is neither the licentiousness of the writer, nor the evil +propensities of the reader, which have given to the _Decameron_ alone, +of all the works of Boccaccio, a perpetual popularity. The establishment +of a new and delightful dialect conferred an immortality on the works in +which it was first fixed. The sonnets of Petrarch were, for the same +reason, fated to survive his self-admired _Africa_, "the favourite of +kings." The invariable traits of nature and feeling with which the +novels, as well as the verses, abound, have doubtless been the chief +source of the foreign celebrity of both authors; but Boccaccio, as a +man, is no more to be estimated by that work, than Petrarch is to be +regarded in no other light than as the lover of Laura. Even, however, +had the father of the Tuscan prose been known only as the author of the +_Decameron_, a considerate writer would have been cautious to pronounce +a sentence irreconcilable with the unerring voice of many ages and +nations. An irrevocable value has never been stamped upon any work +solely recommended by impurity. + +The true source of the outcry against Boccaccio, which began at a very +early period, was the choice of his scandalous personages in the +cloisters as well as the courts; but the princes only laughed at the +gallant adventures so unjustly charged upon queen Theodelinda, whilst +the priesthood cried shame upon the debauches drawn from the convent and +the hermitage; and most probably for the opposite reason, namely, that +the picture was faithful to the life. Two of the novels are allowed to +be facts usefully turned into tales to deride the canonisation of rogues +and laymen. Ser Ciappelletto and Marcellinus are cited with applause +even by the decent Muratori.[614] The great Arnaud, as he is quoted in +Bayle, states, that a new edition of the novels was proposed, of which +the expurgation consisted in omitting the words "monk" and "nun," and +tacking the immoralities to other names. The literary history of Italy +particularises no such edition; but it was not long before the whole of +Europe had but one opinion of the _Decameron_; and the absolution of the +author seems to have been a point settled at least a hundred years ago: +"On se feroit siffler si l' on pretendoit convaincre Boccace de n'avoir +pas ete honnete homme, puis qu'il a fait le Decameron." So said one of +the best men, and perhaps the best critic that ever lived--the very +martyr to impartiality.[615] But as this information, that in the +beginning of the last century one would have been hooted at for +pretending that Boccaccio was not a good man, may seem to come from one +of those enemies who are to be suspected, even when they make us a +present of truth, a more acceptable contrast with the proscription of +the body, soul, and muse of Boccaccio may be found in a few words from +the virtuous, the patriotic contemporary, who thought one of the tales +of this impure writer worthy a Latin version from his own pen. "I have +remarked elsewhere," says Petrarch, writing to Boccaccio, "that the book +itself has been worried by certain dogs, but stoutly defended by your +staff and voice. Nor was I astonished, for I have had proof of the +vigour of your mind, and I know you have fallen on that unaccommodating +incapable race of mortals, who, whatever they either like not, or know +not, or cannot do, are sure to reprehend in others; and on those +occasions only put on a show of learning and eloquence, but otherwise +are entirely dumb."[616] + +It is satisfactory to find that all the priesthood do not resemble those +of Certaldo, and that one of them who did not possess the bones of +Boccaccio would not lose the opportunity of raising a cenotaph to his +memory. Bevius, canon of Padua, at the beginning of the sixteenth +century, erected at Arqua, opposite to the tomb of the Laureate, a +tablet, in which he associated Boccaccio to the equal honours of Dante +and of Petrarch. + + 22. + + What is her Pyramid of precious stones? + Stanza lx. line 1. + +Our veneration for the Medici begins with Cosmo and expires with his +grandson; that stream is pure only at the source; and it is in search of +some memorial of the virtuous republicans of the family that we visit +the church of St. Lorenzo at Florence. The tawdry, glaring, unfinished +chapel in that church, designed for the mausoleum of the Dukes of +Tuscany, set round with crowns and coffins, gives birth to no emotions +but those of contempt for the lavish vanity of a race of despots, whilst +the pavement slab, simply inscribed to the Father of his Country, +reconciles us to the name of Medici.[617] It was very natural for +Corinna[618] to suppose that the statue raised to the Duke of Urbino in +the _capella de' depositi_, was intended for his great namesake; but the +magnificent Lorenzo is only the sharer of a coffin half hidden in a +niche of the sacristy. The decay of Tuscany dates from the sovereignty +of the Medici. Of the sepulchral peace which succeeded to the +establishment of the reigning families in Italy, our own Sidney has +given us a glowing, but a faithful picture. "Notwithstanding all the +seditions of Florence, and other cities of Tuscany, the horrid factions +of Guelphs and Ghibelins, Neri and Bianchi, nobles and commons, they +continued populous, strong, and exceeding rich; but in the space of less +than a hundred and fifty years, the peaceable reign of the Medices is +thought to have destroyed nine parts in ten of the people of that +province. Amongst other things it is remarkable, that when Philip II. of +Spain gave Sienna to the Duke of Florence, his ambassador then at Rome +sent him word, that he had given away more than 650,000 subjects; and it +is not believed there are now 20,000 souls inhabiting that city and +territory. Pisa, Pistoia, Arezzo, Cortona, and other towns, that were +then good and populous, are in the like proportion diminished, and +Florence more than any. When that city had been long troubled with +seditions, tumults, and wars, for the most part unprosperous, they still +retained such strength, that when Charles VIII. of France, being +admitted as a friend with his whole army, which soon after conquered the +kingdom of Naples, thought to master them, the people, taking arms, +struck such a terror into him, that he was glad to depart upon such +conditions as they thought fit to impose. Machiavel reports, that in +that time Florence alone, with the Val d'Arno, a small territory +belonging to that city, could, in a few hours, by the sound of a bell, +bring together 135,000 well-armed men; whereas now that city, with all +the others in that province, are brought to such despicable weakness, +emptiness, poverty, and baseness, that they can neither resist the +oppressions of their own prince, nor defend him or themselves if they +were assaulted by a foreign enemy. The people are dispersed or +destroyed, and the best families sent to seek habitations in Venice, +Genoa, Rome, Naples, and Lucca. This is not the effect of war or +pestilence; they enjoy a perfect peace, and suffer no other plague than +the government they are under."[619] From the usurper Cosmo down to the +imbecile Gaston, we look in vain for any of those unmixed qualities +which should raise a patriot to the command of his fellow-citizens. The +Grand Dukes, and particularly the third Cosmo, had operated so entire a +change in the Tuscan character, that the candid Florentines, in excuse +for some imperfections in the philanthropic system of Leopold, are +obliged to confess that the sovereign was the only liberal man in his +dominions. Yet that excellent prince himself had no other notion of a +national assembly, than of a body to represent the wants and wishes, not +the will of the people. + + 23. + + An Earthquake reeled unheededly away! + Stanza lxiii. line 5. + +"And such was their mutual animosity, so intent were they upon the +battle, that the earthquake, which overthrew in great part many of the +cities of Italy, which turned the course of rapid streams, poured back +the sea upon the rivers, and tore down the very mountains, was not felt +by one of the combatants."[620] Such is the description of Livy. It may +be doubted whether modern tactics would admit of such an abstraction. + +The site of the battle of Thrasimene is not to be mistaken. The +traveller from the village under Cortona to Casa di Piano, the next +stage on the way to Rome, has for the first two or three miles, around +him, but more particularly to the right, that flat land which Hannibal +laid waste in order to induce the Consul Flaminius to move from Arezzo. +On his left, and in front of him, is a ridge of hills bending down +towards the lake of Thrasimene, called by Livy "montes Cortonenses," and +now named the Gualandra. These hills he approaches at Ossaja, a village +which the itineraries pretend to have been so denominated from the bones +found there: but there have been no bones found there, and the battle +was fought on the other side of the hill. From Ossaja the road begins to +rise a little, but does not pass into the roots of the mountains until +the sixty-seventh milestone from Florence. The ascent thence is not +steep but perpetual, and continues for twenty minutes. The lake is soon +seen below on the right, with Borghetto, a round tower, close upon the +water; and the undulating hills partially covered with wood, amongst +which the road winds, sink by degrees into the marshes near to this +tower. Lower than the road, down to the right amidst these woody +hillocks, Hannibal placed his horse,[621] in the jaws of, or rather +above the pass, which was between the lake and the present road, and +most probably close to Borghetto, just under the lowest of the +"tumuli."[622] On a summit to the left, above the road, is an old +circular ruin, which the peasants call "the tower of Hannibal the +Carthaginian." Arrived at the highest point of the road, the traveller +has a partial view of the fatal plain, which opens fully upon him as he +descends the Gualandra. He soon finds himself in a vale enclosed to the +left, and in front and behind him by the Gualandra hills, bending round +in a segment larger than a semicircle, and running down at each end to +the lake, which obliques to the right and forms the chord of this +mountain arc. The position cannot be guessed at from the plains of +Cortona, nor appears to be so completely enclosed unless to one who is +fairly within the hills. It then, indeed, appears "a place made as it +were on purpose for a snare," _locus insidiis natus_. "Borghetto is then +found to stand in a narrow marshy pass close to the hill, and to the +lake, whilst there is no other outlet at the opposite turn of the +mountains than through the little town of Passignano, which is pushed +into the water by the foot of a high rocky acclivity." There is a woody +eminence branching down from the mountains into the upper end of the +plain nearer to the side of Passignano, and on this stands a white +village called Torre. Polybius seems to allude to this eminence as the +one on which Hannibal encamped, and drew out his heavy-armed Africans +and Spaniards in a conspicuous position.[623] From this spot he +despatched his Balearic and light-armed troops round through the +Gualandra heights to the right, so as to arrive unseen and form an +ambush amongst the broken acclivities which the road now passes, and to +be ready to act upon the left flank and above the enemy, whilst the +horse shut up the pass behind. Flaminius came to the lake near Borghetto +at sunset; and, without sending any spies before him, marched through +the pass the next morning before the day had quite broken, so that he +perceived nothing of the horse and light troops above and about him, and +saw only the heavy-armed Carthaginians in front on the hill of Torre. +The consul began to draw out his army in the flat, and in the mean time +the horse in ambush occupied the pass behind him at Borghetto. Thus the +Romans were completely enclosed, having the lake on the right, the main +army on the hill of Torre in front, the Gualandra hills filled with the +light-armed on their left flank, and being prevented from receding by +the cavalry, who, the further they advanced, stopped up all the outlets +in the rear. A fog rising from the lake now spread itself over the army +of the consul, but the high lands were in the sunshine, and all the +different corps in ambush looked towards the hill of Torre for the order +of attack. Hannibal gave the signal, and moved down from his post on the +height. At the same moment all his troops on the eminences behind and in +the flank of Flaminius rushed forwards as it were with one accord into +the plain. The Romans, who were forming their array in the mist, +suddenly heard the shouts of the enemy amongst them on every side, and +before they could fall into their ranks, or draw their swords, or see by +whom they were attacked, felt at once that they were surrounded and +lost. There are two little rivulets which run from the Gualandra into +the lake. The traveller crosses the first of these at about a mile after +he comes into the plain, and this divides the Tuscan from the Papal +territories. The second, about a quarter of a mile further on, is called +"the bloody rivulet;" and the peasants point out an open spot to the +left between the "Sanguinetto" and the hills, which, they say, was the +principal scene of slaughter. The other part of the plain is covered +with thick-set olive-trees in corn grounds, and is nowhere quite level, +except near the edge of the lake. It is, indeed, most probable that the +battle was fought near this end of the valley, for the six thousand +Romans, who, at the beginning of the action, broke through the enemy, +escaped to the summit of an eminence which must have been in this +quarter, otherwise they would have had to traverse the whole plain, and +to pierce through the main army of Hannibal. + +The Romans fought desperately for three hours; but the death of +Flaminius was the signal for a general dispersion. The Carthaginian +horse then burst in upon the fugitives, and the lake, the marsh about +Borghetto, but chiefly the plain of the Sanguinetto and the passes of +the Gualandra, were strewed with dead. Near some old walls on a bleak +ridge to the left above the rivulet, many human bones have been +repeatedly found, and this has confirmed the pretensions and the name of +the "stream of blood." + +Every district of Italy has its hero. In the north some painter is the +usual genius of the place, and the foreign Julio Romano more than +divides Mantua with her native Virgil.[624] To the south we hear of +Roman names. Near Thrasimene tradition is still faithful to the fame of +an enemy, and Hannibal the Carthaginian is the only ancient name +remembered on the banks of the Perugian lake. Flaminius is unknown; but +the postilions on that road have been taught to show the very spot where +_Il Console Romano_ was slain. Of all who fought and fell in the battle +of Thrasimene, the historian himself has, besides the generals and +Maharbal, preserved indeed only a single name. You overtake the +Carthaginian again on the same road to Rome. The antiquary, that is, the +hostler of the posthouse at Spoleto, tells you that his town repulsed +the victorious enemy, and shows you the gate still called _Porta di +Annibale_. It is hardly worth while to remark that a French travel +writer, well known by the name of the President Dupaty, saw Thrasimene +in the lake of Bolsena, which lay conveniently on his way from Sienna to +Rome. + + 24. + + And thou, dread Statue! still existent in + The austerest form of naked majesty. + Stanza lxxxvii. lines 1 and 2. + +The projected division of the Spada Pompey has already been recorded by +the historian of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_. Mr. Gibbon +found it in the memorials of Flaminius Vacca; and it may be added to his +mention of it, that Pope Julius III. gave the contending owners five +hundred crowns for the statue, and presented it to Cardinal Capo di +Ferro, who had prevented the judgment of Solomon from being executed +upon the image. In a more civilised age this statue was exposed to an +actual operation: for the French, who acted the Brutus of Voltaire in +the Coliseum, resolved that their Caesar should fall at the base of that +Pompey, which was supposed to have been sprinkled with the blood of the +original dictator. The nine-foot hero was therefore removed to the arena +of the amphitheatre, and, to facilitate its transport, suffered the +temporary amputation of its right arm. The republican tragedians had to +plead that the arm was a restoration: but their accusers do not believe +that the integrity of the statue would have protected it. The love of +finding every coincidence, has discovered the true Caesarian ichor in a +stain near the right knee; but colder criticism has rejected not only +the blood, but the portrait, and assigned the globe of power rather to +the first of the emperors than to the last of the republican masters of +Rome. Winckelmann[625] is loth to allow an heroic statue of a Roman +citizen, but the Grimani Agrippa, a contemporary almost, is heroic; and +naked Roman figures were only very rare, not absolutely forbidden. The +face accords much better with the "hominem integrum et castum et +gravem,"[626] than with any of the busts of Augustus, and is too stern +for him who was beautiful, says Suetonius, at all periods of his life. +The pretended likeness to Alexander the Great cannot be discerned, but +the traits resemble the medal of Pompey.[627] The objectionable globe +may not have been an ill-applied flattery to him who found Asia Minor +the boundary, and left it the centre of the Roman empire. It seems that +Winckelmann has made a mistake in thinking that no proof of the identity +of this statue with that which received the bloody sacrifice can be +derived from the spot where it was discovered.[628] Flaminius Vacca says +_sotto una cantina_, and this cantina is known to have been in the +Vicolo de' Leutari, near the Cancellaria; a position corresponding +exactly to that of the Janus before the basilica of Pompey's theatre, to +which Augustus transferred the statue after the _curia_ was either burnt +or taken down.[629] Part of the "Pompeian shade,"[630] the portico, +existed in the beginning of the XVth century, and the _atrium_ was still +called _Satrum_. So says Blondus.[631] At all events, so imposing is the +stern majesty of the statue, and so memorable is the story, that the +play of the imagination leaves no room for the exercise of the judgment, +and the fiction, if a fiction it is, operates on the spectator with an +effect not less powerful than truth. + + 25. + + And thou, the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome! + Stanza lxxxviii. line 1. + +Ancient Rome, like modern Sienna, abounded most probably with images of +the foster-mother of her founder; but there were two she-wolves of whom +history makes particular mention. One of these, _of brass in ancient +work_, was seen by Dionysius[632] at the temple of Romulus, under the +Palatine, and is universally believed to be that mentioned by the Latin +historian, as having been made from the money collected by a fine on +usurers, and as standing under the Ruminal fig-tree.[633] The other was +that which Cicero[634] has celebrated both in prose and verse, and which +the historian Dion also records as having suffered the same accident as +is alluded to by the orator.[635] The question agitated by the +antiquaries is, whether the wolf now in the Conservator's Palace is that +of Livy and Dionysius, or that of Cicero, or whether it is neither one +nor the other. The earlier writers differ as much as the moderns: Lucius +Faunus[636] says, that it is the one alluded to by both, which is +impossible, and also by Virgil, which may be. Fulvius Ursinus[637] calls +it the wolf of Dionysius, and Marlianus[638] talks of it as the one +mentioned by Cicero. To him Rycquius _tremblingly_ assents.[639] +Nardini is inclined to suppose it may be one of the many wolves +preserved in ancient Rome; but of the two rather bends to the Ciceronian +statue.[640] Montfaucon[641] mentions it as a point without doubt. Of +the latter writers the decisive Winckelmann[642] proclaims it as having +been found at the church of Saint Theodore, where, or near where, was +the temple of Romulus, and consequently makes it the wolf of Dionysius. +His authority is Lucius Faunus, who, however, only says that it _was +placed_, not _found_, at the Ficus Ruminalis, by the Comitium, by which +he does not seem to allude to the church of Saint Theodore. Rycquius was +the first to make the mistake, and Winckelmann followed Rycquius. + +Flaminius Vacca tells quite a different story, and says he had heard the +wolf with the twins was found[643] near the arch of Septimius Severus. +The commentator on Winckelmann is of the same opinion with that learned +person, and is incensed at Nardini for not having remarked that Cicero, +in speaking of the wolf struck with lightning in the Capitol, makes use +of the past tense. But, with the Abate's leave, Nardini does not +positively assert the statue to be that mentioned by Cicero, and if he +had, the assumption would not perhaps have been so exceedingly +indiscreet. The Abate himself is obliged to own that there are marks +very like the scathing of lightning in the hinder legs of the present +wolf; and, to get rid of this, adds, that the wolf seen by Dionysius +might have been also struck by lightning, or otherwise injured. + +Let us examine the subject by a reference to the words of Cicero. The +orator in two places seems to particularise the Romulus and the Remus, +especially the first, which his audience remembered to _have been_ in +the Capitol, as being struck with lightning. In his verses he records +that the twins and wolf both fell, and that the latter left behind the +marks of her feet. Cicero does not say that the wolf was consumed: and +Dion only mentions that it fell down, without alluding, as the Abate has +made him, to the force of the blow, or the firmness with which it had +been fixed. The whole strength, therefore, of the Abate's argument hangs +upon the past tense; which, however, may be somewhat diminished by +remarking that the phrase only shows that the statue was not then +standing in its former position. Winckelmann has observed that the +present twins are modern; and it is equally clear that there are marks +of gilding on the wolf, which might therefore be supposed to make part +of the ancient group. It is known that the sacred images of the Capitol +were not destroyed when injured by time or accident, but were put into +certain underground depositories, called _favissae_.[644] It may be +thought possible that the wolf had been so deposited, and had been +replaced in some conspicuous situation when the Capitol was rebuilt by +Vespasian. Rycquius, without mentioning his authority, tells that it was +transferred from the Comitium to the Lateran, and thence brought to the +Capitol. If it was found near the arch of Severus, it may have been one +of the images which Orosius[645] says was thrown down in the Forum by +lightning when Alaric took the city. That it is of very high antiquity +the workmanship is a decisive proof; and that circumstance induced +Winckelmann to believe it the wolf of Dionysius. The Capitoline wolf, +however, may have been of the same early date as that at the temple of +Romulus. Lactantius[646] asserts that in his time the Romans worshipped +a wolf; and it is known that the Lupercalia held out to a very late +period[647] after every other observance of the ancient superstition +had totally expired. This may account for the preservation of the +ancient image longer than the other early symbols of Paganism. + +It may be permitted, however, to remark, that the wolf was a Roman +symbol, but that the worship of that symbol is an inference drawn by the +zeal of Lactantius. The early Christian writers are not to be trusted in +the charges which they make against the Pagans. Eusebius accused the +Romans to their faces of worshipping Simon Magus, and raising a statue +to him in the island of the Tyber. The Romans had probably never heard +of such a person before, who came, however, to play a considerable, +though scandalous part in the church history, and has left several +tokens of his aerial combat with St. Peter at Rome; notwithstanding that +an inscription found in this very island of the Tyber showed the Simon +Magus of Eusebius to be a certain indigenal god called Semo Sangus or +Fidius.[648] + +Even when the worship of the founder of Rome had been abandoned it was +thought expedient to humour the habits of the good matrons of the city, +by sending them with their sick infants to the church of Saint Theodore, +as they had before carried them to the temple of Romulus.[649] The +practice is continued to this day; and the site of the above church +seems to be thereby identified with that of the temple; so that if the +wolf had been really found there, as Winckelmann says, there would be no +doubt of the present statue being that seen by Dionysius.[650] But +Faunus, in saying that it was at the Ficus Ruminalis by the Comitium, is +only talking of its ancient position as recorded by Pliny; and, even if +he had been remarking where it was found, would not have alluded to the +church of Saint Theodore, but to a very different place, near which it +was then thought the Ficus Ruminalis had been, and also the Comitium; +that is, the three columns by the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice, at +the corner of the Palatine looking on the Forum. + +It is, in fact, a mere conjecture where the image was actually dug up; +and perhaps, on the whole, the marks of the gilding, and of the +lightning, are a better argument in favour of its being the Ciceronian +wolf than any that can be adduced for the contrary opinion. At any rate, +it is reasonably selected in the text of the poem as one of the most +interesting relics of the ancient city,[651] and is certainly the +figure, if not the very animal to which Virgil alludes in his beautiful +verses:-- + + "Geminos huic ubera circum + Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem + Impavidos; illam, tereti cervice reflexam, + Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua."[652] + + 26. + + For the Roman's mind + Was modelled in a less terrestrial mould. + Stanza xc. lines 3 and 4. + +It is possible to be a very great man and to be still very inferior to +Julius Caesar, the most complete character, so Lord Bacon thought, of all +antiquity. Nature seems incapable of such extraordinary combinations as +composed his versatile capacity, which was the wonder even of the Romans +themselves. The first general--the only triumphant politician--inferior +to none in eloquence--comparable to any in the attainments of wisdom, in +an age made up of the greatest commanders, statesmen, orators, and +philosophers that ever appeared in the world--an author who composed a +perfect specimen of military annals in his travelling carriage--at one +time in a controversy with Cato, at another writing a treatise on +punning, and collecting a set of good sayings--fighting and making love +at the same moment, and willing to abandon both his empire and his +mistress for a sight of the Fountains of the Nile. Such did Julius Caesar +appear to his contemporaries, and to those of the subsequent ages who +were the most inclined to deplore and execrate his fatal genius. + +But we must not be so much dazzled with his surpassing glory, or with +his magnanimous, his amiable qualities, as to forget the decision of his +impartial countrymen:-- + + HE WAS JUSTLY SLAIN.[653] + + 27. + + Egeria! sweet creation of some heart + Which found no mortal resting-place so fair + As thine ideal breast. + Stanza cxv. lines 1, 2, and 3. + +The respectable authority of Flaminius Vacca would incline us to believe +in the claims of the Egerian grotto.[654] He assures us that he saw an +inscription in the pavement, stating that the fountain was that of +Egeria, dedicated to the nymphs. The inscription is not there at this +day, but Montfaucon quotes two lines[655] of Ovid [_Fast._, iii. 275, +276] from a stone in the Villa Giustiniani, which he seems to think had +been brought from the same grotto. + +This grotto and valley were formerly frequented in summer, and +particularly the first Sunday in May, by the modern Romans, who attached +a salubrious quality to the fountain which trickles from an orifice at +the bottom of the vault, and, overflowing the little pools, creeps down +the matted grass into the brook below. The brook is the Ovidian Almo, +whose name and qualities are lost in the modern Aquataccio. The valley +itself is called Valle di Caffarelli, from the dukes of that name who +made over their fountain to the Pallavicini, with sixty _rubbia_ of +adjoining land. + +There can be little doubt that this long dell is the Egerian valley of +Juvenal, and the pausing place of Umbritius, notwithstanding the +generality of his commentators have supposed the descent of the satirist +and his friend to have been into the Arician grove, where the nymph met +Hippolitus, and where she was more peculiarly worshipped. + +The step from the Porta Capena to the Alban hill, fifteen miles distant, +would be too considerable, unless we were to believe in the wild +conjecture of Vossius, who makes that gate travel from its present +station, where he pretends it was during the reign of the Kings, as far +as the Arician grove, and then makes it recede to its old site with the +shrinking city.[656] The tufo, or pumice, which the poet prefers to +marble, is the substance composing the bank in which the grotto is sunk. + +The modern topographers[657] find in the grotto the statue of the nymph, +and nine niches for the Muses; and a late traveller[658] has discovered +that the cave is restored to that simplicity which the poet regretted +had been exchanged for injudicious ornament. But the headless statue is +palpably rather a male than a nymph, and has none of the attributes +ascribed to it at present visible. The nine Muses could hardly have +stood in six niches; and Juvenal certainly does not allude to any +individual cave.[659] Nothing can be collected from the satirist but +that somewhere near the Porta Capena was a spot in which it was supposed +Numa held nightly consultations with his nymph, and where there was a +grove and a sacred fountain, and fanes once consecrated to the Muses; +and that from this spot there was a descent into the valley of Egeria, +where were several artificial caves. It is clear that the statues of the +Muses made no part of the decoration which the satirist thought +misplaced in these caves; for he expressly assigns other fanes +(_delubra_) to these divinities above the valley, and moreover tells us +that they had been ejected to make room for the Jews. In fact, the +little temple now called that of Bacchus, was formerly thought to belong +to the Muses, and Nardini[660] places them in a poplar grove, which was +in his time above the valley. + +It is probable from the inscription and position, that the cave now +shown may be one of the "artificial caverns," of which, indeed, there is +another a little way higher up the valley, under a tuft of alder bushes; +but a _single_ grotto of Egeria is a mere modern invention, grafted upon +the application of the epithet Egerian to these nymphea in general, and +which might send us to look for the haunts of Numa upon the banks of the +Thames. + +Our English Juvenal was not seduced into mistranslation by his +acquaintance with Pope: he carefully preserves the correct plural-- + + "Thence slowly winding down the vale we view + The Egerian _grots_: oh, how unlike the true!" + +The valley abounds with springs,[661] and over these springs, which the +Muses might haunt from their neighbouring groves, Egeria presided: hence +she was said to supply them with water; and she was the nymph of the +grottos through which the fountains were taught to flow. + +The whole of the monuments in the vicinity of the Egerian valley have +received names at will, which have been changed at will. Venuti[662] +owns he can see no traces of the temples of Jove, Saturn, Juno, Venus, +and Diana, which Nardini found, or hoped to find. The mutatorium of +Caracalla's circus, the temple of Honour and Virtue, the temple of +Bacchus, and, above all, the temple of the god Rediculus, are the +antiquaries' despair. + +The circus of Caracalla depends on a medal of that emperor cited by +Fulvius Ursinus, of which the reverse shows a circus, supposed, +however, by some to represent the Circus Maximus. It gives a very good +idea of that place of exercise. The soil has been but little raised, if +we may judge from the small cellular structure at the end of the Spina, +which was probably the chapel of the god Consus. This cell is half +beneath the soil, as it must have been in the circus itself; for +Dionysius[663] could not be persuaded to believe that this divinity was +the Roman Neptune, because his altar was underground. + + 28. + + Great Nemesis! + Here, where the ancient paid thee homage long. + Stanza cxxxii. lines 2 and 3. + +We read in Suetonius, that Augustus, from a warning received in a +dream,[664] counterfeited, once a year, the beggar, sitting before the +gate of his palace with his hand hollowed and stretched out for charity. +A statue formerly in the villa Borghese, and which should be now at +Paris, represents the Emperor in that posture of supplication. The +object of that self-degradation was the appeasement of Nemesis, the +perpetual attendant on good fortune, of whose power the Roman conquerors +were also reminded by certain symbols attached to their cars of triumph. +The symbols were the whip and the _crotalo_, which were discovered in +the Nemesis of the Vatican. The attitude of beggary made the above +statue pass for that of Belisarius: and until the criticism of +Winckelmann[665] had rectified the mistake, one fiction was called in to +support another. It was the same fear of the sudden termination of +prosperity, that made Amasis king of Egypt warn his friend Polycrates of +Samos, that the gods loved those whose lives were chequered with good +and evil fortunes. Nemesis was supposed to lie in wait particularly for +the prudent; that is, for those whose caution rendered them accessible +only to mere accidents; and her first altar was raised on the banks of +the Phrygian AEsepus by Adrastus, probably the prince of that name who +killed the son of Croesus by mistake. Hence the goddess was called +Adrastea.[666] + +The Roman Nemesis was _sacred_ and _august_: there was a temple to her +in the Palatine under the name of Rhamnusia;[667] so great, indeed, was +the propensity of the ancients to trust to the revolution of events, and +to believe in the divinity of Fortune, that in the same Palatine there +was a temple to the Fortune of the day.[668] This is the last +superstition which retains its hold over the human heart; and, from +concentrating in one object the credulity so natural to man, has always +appeared strongest in those unembarrassed by other articles of belief. +The antiquaries have supposed this goddess to be synonymous with Fortune +and with Fate;[669] but it was in her vindictive quality that she was +worshipped under the name of Nemesis. + + 29. + + He, their sire, + Butchered to make a Roman holiday. + Stanza cxli. lines 6 and 7. + +Gladiators were of two kinds, compelled and voluntary; and were supplied +from several conditions;--from slaves sold for that purpose; from +culprits; from barbarian captives either taken in war, and, after being +led in triumph, set apart for the games, or those seized and condemned +as rebels; also from free citizens, some fighting for hire +(_auctorati_), others from a depraved ambition; at last even knights and +senators were exhibited,--a disgrace of which the first tyrant was +naturally the first inventor.[670] In the end, dwarfs, and even women, +fought; an enormity prohibited by Severus. Of these the most to be +pitied undoubtedly were the barbarian captives; and, to this species a +Christian writer[671] justly applies the epithet "innocent," to +distinguish them from the professional gladiators. Aurelian and Claudius +supplied great numbers of these unfortunate victims; the one after his +triumph, and the other on the pretext of a rebellion.[672] No war, says +Lipsius,[673] was ever so destructive to the human race as these sports. +In spite of the laws of Constantine and Constans, gladiatorial shows +survived the old established religion more than seventy years; but they +owed their final extinction to the courage of a Christian. In the year +404, on the kalends of January, they were exhibiting the shows in the +Flavian amphitheatre before the usual immense concourse of people. +Almachius, or Telemachus, an Eastern monk, who had travelled to Rome +intent on his holy purpose, rushed into the midst of the arena, and +endeavoured to separate the combatants. The Praetor Alypius, a person +incredibly attached to these games,[674] gave instant orders to the +gladiators to slay him; and Telemachus gained the crown of martyrdom, +and the title of saint, which surely has never either before or since +been awarded for a more noble exploit. Honorius immediately abolished +the shows, which were never afterwards revived. The story is told by +Theodoret[675] and Cassiodorus,[676] and seems worthy of credit +notwithstanding its place in the Roman martyrology.[677] Besides the +torrents of blood which flowed at the funerals, in the amphitheatres, +the circus, the forums, and other public places, gladiators were +introduced at feasts, and tore each other to pieces amidst the supper +tables, to the great delight and applause of the guests. Yet Lipsius +permits himself to suppose the loss of courage, and the evident +degeneracy of mankind, to be nearly connected with the abolition of +these bloody spectacles. + + 30. + + Here, where the Roman million's blame or praise + Was Death or Life--the playthings of a crowd. + Stanza cxlii. lines 5 and 6. + +When one gladiator wounded another, he shouted, "He has it," "Hoc +habet," or "Habet." The wounded combatant dropped his weapon, and +advancing to the edge of the arena, supplicated the spectators. If he +had fought well, the people saved him; if otherwise, or as they happened +to be inclined, they turned down their thumbs, and he was slain. They +were occasionally so savage that they were impatient if a combat lasted +longer than ordinary without wounds or death. The emperor's presence +generally saved the vanquished; and it is recorded, as an instance of +Caracalla's ferocity, that he sent those who supplicated him for life, +in a spectacle, at Nicomedia, to ask the people; in other words, handed +them over to be slain. A similar ceremony is observed at the Spanish +bull-fights. The magistrate presides; and after the horseman and +piccadores have fought the bull, the matadore steps forward and bows to +him for permission to kill the animal. If the bull has done his duty by +killing two or three horses, or a man, which last is rare, the people +interfere with shouts, the ladies wave their handkerchiefs, and the +animal is saved. The wounds and death of the horses are accompanied with +the loudest acclamations, and many gestures of delight, especially from +the female portion of the audience, including those of the gentlest +blood. Every thing depends on habit. The author of _Childe Harold_, the +writer of this note, and one or two other Englishmen, who have certainly +in other days borne the sight of a pitched battle, were, during the +summer of 1809, in the governor's box at the great amphitheatre of Santa +Maria, opposite to Cadiz. The death of one or two horses completely +satisfied their curiosity. A gentleman present, observing them shudder +and look pale, noticed that unusual reception of so delightful a sport +to some young ladies, who stared and smiled, and continued their +applause as another horse fell bleeding to the ground. One bull killed +three horses, _off his own horns_. He was saved by acclamations, which +were redoubled when it was known he belonged to a priest. + +An Englishman who can be much pleased with seeing two men beat +themselves to pieces, cannot bear to look at a horse galloping round an +arena with his bowels trailing on the ground, and turns from the +spectacle and the spectators with horror and disgust. + + 31. + + And afar + The Tiber winds, and the broad Ocean laves + The Latian coast, etc., etc. + Stanza clxxiv. lines 3 and 4. + +The whole declivity of the Alban hill is of unrivalled beauty, and from +the convent on the highest point, which has succeeded to the temple of +the Latian Jupiter, the prospect embraces all the objects alluded to in +the cited stanza; the Mediterranean; the whole scene of the latter half +of the _AEneid_, and the coast from beyond the mouth of the Tiber to the +headland of Circaeum and the Cape of Terracina. + +The site of Cicero's villa may be supposed either at the Grotta Ferrata, +or at the Tusculum of Prince Lucien Buonaparte. + +The former was thought some years ago the actual site, as may be seen +from Myddleton's _Life of Cicero_. At present it has lost something of +its credit, except for the Domenichinos. Nine monks of the Greek order +live there, and the adjoining villa is a cardinal's summer-house. The +other villa, called Rufinella, is on the summit of the hill above +Frascati, and many rich remains of Tusculum have been found there, +besides seventy-two statues of different merit and preservation, and +seven busts. + +From the same eminence are seen the Sabine hills, embosomed in which +lies the long valley of Rustica. There are several circumstances which +tend to establish the identity of this valley with the "_Ustica_" of +Horace; and it seems possible that the mosaic pavement which the +peasants uncover by throwing up the earth of a vineyard may belong to +his villa. Rustica is pronounced short, not according to our stress +upon--"_Usticae cubantis_." It is more rational to think that we are +wrong, than that the inhabitants of this secluded valley have changed +their tone in this word. The addition of the consonant prefixed is +nothing; yet it is necessary to be aware that Rustica may be a modern +name which the peasants may have caught from the antiquaries. + +The villa, or the mosaic, is in a vineyard on a knoll covered with +chestnut trees. A stream runs down the valley; and although it is not +true, as said in the guide books, that this stream is called Licenza, +yet there is a village on a rock at the head of the valley, which is so +denominated, and which may have taken its name from the Digentia. +Licenza contains seven hundred inhabitants. On a peak a little way +beyond is Civitella, containing three hundred. On the banks of the Anio, +a little before you turn up into Valle Rustica, to the left, about an +hour from the _villa_, is a town called Vicovaro, another favourable +coincidence with the _Varia_ of the poet. At the end of the valley, +towards the Anio, there is a bare hill, crowned with a little town +called Bardela. At the foot of this hill the rivulet of Licenza flows, +and is almost absorbed in a wide sandy bed before it reaches the Anio. +Nothing can be more fortunate for the lines of the poet, whether in a +metaphorical or direct sense:-- + + "Me quotiens reficit gelidus Digentia rivus, + Quem Mandela bibit rugosus frigore pagus." + +The stream is clear high up the valley, but before it reaches the hill +of Bardela looks green and yellow like a sulphur rivulet. + +Rocca Giovane, a ruined village in the hills, half an hour's walk from +the vineyard where the pavement is shown, does seem to be the site of +the fane of Vacuna, and an inscription found there tells that this +temple of the Sabine Victory was repaired by Vespasian. With these +helps, and a position corresponding exactly to every thing which the +poet has told us of his retreat, we may feel tolerably secure of our +site. + +The hill which should be Lucretilis is called Campanile, and by +following up the rivulet to the pretended Bandusia, you come to the +roots of the higher mountain Gennaro. Singularly enough, the only spot +of ploughed land in the whole valley is on the knoll where this Bandusia +rises. + + " ... tu frigus amabile + Fessis vomere tauris + Praebes, et pecori vago." + +The peasants show another spring near the mosaic pavement, which they +call "Oradina," and which flows down the hills into a tank, or mill-dam, +and thence trickles over into the Digentia. + +But we must not hope + + "To trace the Muses upwards to their spring," + +by exploring the windings of the romantic valley in search of the +Bandusian fountain. It seems strange that any one should have thought +Bandusia a fountain of the Digentia--Horace has not let drop a word of +it; and this immortal spring has in fact been discovered in possession +of the holders of many good things in Italy, the monks. It was attached +to the church of St. Gervais and Protais near Venusia, where it was most +likely to be found.[678] We shall not be so lucky as a late traveller in +finding the "occasional pine" still pendent on the poetic villa. There +is not a pine in the whole valley, but there are two cypresses, which he +evidently took, or mistook, for the tree in the ode.[679] The truth is, +that the pine is now, as it was in the days of Virgil, a garden tree, +and it was not at all likely to be found in the craggy acclivities of +the valley of Rustica. Horace probably had one of them in the orchard +close above his farm, immediately overshadowing his villa, not on the +rocky heights at some distance from his abode. The tourist may have +easily supposed himself to have seen this pine figured in the above +cypresses; for the orange and lemon trees which throw such a bloom over +his description of the royal gardens at Naples, unless they have been +since displaced, were assuredly only acacias and other common garden +shrubs.[680] + + 32. + + Upon the blue Symplegades. + Stanza clxxvi. line 1. + +[Lord Byron embarked from "Calpe's rock" (Gibraltar) August 19, 1809, +and after travelling through Greece, he reached Constantinople in the +_Salsette_ frigate May 14, 1810. The two island rocks--the Cyanean +Symplegades--stand one on the European, the other on the Asiatic side of +the Strait, where the Bosphorus joins the Euxine or Black Sea. Both +these rocks were visited by Lord Byron in June, 1810.--Note, Ed. 1879.] + + + END OF VOL. II. + + LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, + STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[555] {470} The writer meant _Lido_, which is not a long row of islands, +but a long island: _littus_, the shore. + +[556] _Curiosities of Literature_, ii. 156, edit. 1807, edit. 1881, i. +390; and Appendix xxix. to Black's _Life of Tasso_, 1810, ii. 455. + +[557] {472} _Su i Quattro Cavalli della Basilica di S. Marco in +Venezia_. Lettera di Andrea Mustoxidi Corcirese. Padova, 1816. + +[558] {473} "Quibus auditis, imperator, operante eo, qui corda Principum +sicut vult, & quando vult, humiliter inclinat, leonina feritate +deposita, ovinam mansuetudinem induit."--_Romualdi Salernitani +Chronican, apud Script. Rer. Ital._, 1725, vii. 230. + +[559] {474} _Rer. Ital._, vii. 231. + +[560] {475} See the above-cited Romuald of Salerno. In a second sermon +which Alexander preached, on the first day of August, before the +Emperor, he compared Frederic to the prodigal son, and himself to the +forgiving father. + +[561] Mr. Gibbon has omitted the important _ae_, and has written Romani +instead of Romaniae.--_Decline and Fall_, chap. lxi. note 9 (1882, ii. +777, note i). But the title acquired by Dandolo runs thus in the +chronicle of his namesake, the Doge Andrew Dandolo: "Ducali titulo +addidit, 'Quartae partis, & dimidiae totius Imperii Romaniae; Dominator.'" +And. Dand. _Chronicon_, cap. iii. pars xxxvii. ap. _Script. Rer. Ital._, +1728, xii. 331. And the Romaniae is observed in the subsequent acts of +the Doges. Indeed, the continental possessions of the Greek Empire in +Europe were then generally known by the name of Romania, and that +appellation is still seen in the maps of Turkey as applied to Thrace. + +[562] See the continuation of Dandolo's _Chronicle_, ibid., p. 498. Mr. +Gibbon appears not to include Dolfino, following Sanudo, who says, "Il +qual titolo si uso fin al Doge Giovanni Dolfino." See _Vite de' Duchi di +Venezia_ [_Vitae Ducum Venetorum Italiae scriptae_, Auctore Martino +Sanuto], ap. _Script. Rer. Ital._, xxii. 530, 641. + +[563] {476} "Fiet potentium in aquis Adriaticis congregatio, caeco +praeduce, Hircum ambigent, Byzantium prophanabunt, aedificia denigrabunt, +spolia dispergentur; Hircus novus balabit, usque dum liv. pedes, & ix. +pollices, & semis, praemensurati discurrant."--_Chronicon, ibid_., xii. +329. + +[564] {477} _Cronaca della Guerra di Chioza, etc._, scritta da Daniello +Chinazzo. _Script. Rer. Ital._, xv. 699-804. + +[565] {478} "Nonnullorum e nobilitate immensae sunt opes, adeo ut vix +aestimari possint; id quod tribus e rebus oritur, parsimonia, commercio, +atque iis emolumentis, quae e Repub. percipiunt, quae hanc ob caussam +diuturna fore creditur."--See _De Principatibus Italia Tractatus Varii_, +1628, pp. 18, 19. + +[566] {479} See _An Historical and Critical Essay on the Life and +Character of Petrarch_; and _A Dissertation on an Historical Hypothesis +of the Abbe de Sade_. 1810. [An Italian version, entitled _Riflessioni +intorno a Madonna Laura_, was published in 1811.] + +[567] _Memoires pour la Vie de Francois Petrarque_, Amsterdam, 1764, 3 +vols. 4to. + +[568] Letter to the Duchess of Gordon, August 17, 1782. _Life of +Beattie_, by Sir W. Forbes, ii. 102-106. + +[569] Mr. Gibbon called his _Memoirs_ "a labour of love" (see _Decline +and Fall_, chap. lxx. note 2), and followed him with confidence and +delight. The compiler of a very voluminous work must take much criticism +upon trust; Mr. Gibbon has done so, though not as readily as some other +authors. + +[570] {480} The sonnet had before awakened the suspicions of Mr. Horace +Walpole. See his letter to Dr. Joseph Warton, March 16, 1765. + +[571] "Par ce petit manege, cette alternative de faveurs et de rigueurs +bien menagee, une femme tendre & sage amuse pendant vingt et un ans le +plus grand Poete de son siecle, sans faire la moindre breche a son +honneur." _Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarque_, Preface aux Francais, i. +p. cxiii. + +[572] In a dialogue with St. Augustin, Petrarch has described Laura as +having a body exhausted with repeated _ptubs_. The old editors read and +printed _perturbationibus_; but M. Capperonier, librarian to the French +king in 1762, who saw the MS. in the Paris library, made an attestation +that "on lit et qu'on doit lire, partubus exhaustum." De Sade joined the +names of Messrs. Boudot and Bejot with M. Capperonier, and, in the whole +discussion on this _ptubs_, showed himself a downright literary rogue. +(See _Riflessioni_, p. lxxiv. _sq._; _Le Rime del Petrarca_, Firenze, +1832, ii. _s.f._) Thomas Aquinas is called in to settle whether +Petrarch's mistress was a _chaste_ maid or a _continent_ wife. + +[573] {481} + + "Pigmalion, quanto lodar ti dei + Dell' immagine tua, se mille volte + N' avesti quel, ch' i' sol una vorrei!" + + Sonetto 50, _Quando giunse a Simon l'alto concetto_. + _Le Rime_, etc., i. 118, edit. Florence, 1832. + +[574] "A questa confessione cosi sincera diede forse occasione una nuova +caduta, ch' ei fece."--Tiraboschi, _Storia_, lib. iii., _della +Letteratura Italiana_, Rome, 1783, v. 460. + +[575] {482} "Il n'y a que la vertu seule qui soit capable de faire des +impressions que la mort n'efface pas."--M. de Bimard, Baron de la +Bastie, in the _Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions de Belles +Lettres_ for 1740 (_Memoires de Litterature_ [1738-1740], 1751, xvii. +424). (See also _Riflessioni, etc._, p. xcvi.; _Le Rime_, etc., 1832, +ii. _s.f._) + +[576] "And if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable, he +enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry."--_Decline +and Fall_, 1818, chap. lxx. p. 321, vol. xii. 8vo. Perhaps the _if_ is +here meant for _although_. + +[577] {484} _Remarks on Antiquities, etc., in Italy_, by Joseph Forsyth, +p. 107, note. + +[578] {485} _La Vita di Tasso_, lib. iii. p. 284 (tom. ii. edit. +Bergamo, 1790). + +[579] _Histoire de l'Academie Francaise depuis_ 1652 _jusqu'a_ 1700, par +M. l' Abbe [Thoulier] d'Olivet, Amsterdam, 1730. "Mais, ensuite, venant +a l'usage qu'il a fait de ses talens, j'aurois montre que le bon sens +n'est pas toujours ce qui domine chez lui," p. 182. Boileau said he had +not changed his opinion. "J'en ai si peu change, dit-il," etc., p. 181. + +[580] _La Maniere de bien Penser dans les Ouvrages de l'esprit_, sec. +Dial., p. 89, edit. 1692. Philanthes is for Tasso, and says in the +outset, "De tous les beaux esprits que l'Italie a portez, le Tasse est +peut-estre celuy qui pense le plus noblement." But Bohours seems to +speak in Eudoxus, who closes with the absurd comparison: "Faites valoir +le Tasse tant qu'il vous plaira, je m'en tiens pour moy a Virgile," etc. +(_ibid_., p. 102). + +[581] _La Vita, etc_., lib. iii. p. 90, tom. ii. The English reader may +see an account of the opposition of the Crusca to Tasso, in Black's +_Life_, 1810, _etc_., chap. xvii. vol. ii. + +[582] For further, and it is hoped, decisive proof, that Tasso was +neither more nor less than a _prisoner of state_, the reader is referred +to _Historical Illustrations of the IVth Canto of Childe Harold_, p. 5, +and following. + +[583] {486} Orazioni funebri ... delle lodi di Don Luigi Cardinal d'Este +... delle lodi di Donno Alfonso d'Este. See _La Vita_, lib. in. p. 117. + +[584] It was founded in 1582, and the Cruscan answer to Pellegrino's +_Caraffa_, or _Epica poesia_, was published in 1584. + +[585] "Cotanto, pote sempre in lui il veleno della sua pessima volonta +contro alia Nazion Fiorentina." _La Vita_, lib. iii. pp. 96, 98, tom. +ii. + +[586] _La Vita di M. L. Ariosto_, scritta dall' Abate Girolamo +Baruffaldi Giuniore, etc. Ferrara, 1807, lib. in. p. 262. (See +_Historical Illustrations, etc._, p. 26.) + +[587] _Storia della Lett._, Roma, 1785, tom. vii. pt. in. p. 130. + +[588] {486} _Op_. di Bianconi, vol. iii. p. 176, ed. Milano, 1802: +Lettera al Signor Guido Savini Arcifisiocritico, sull' indole di un +fulmine caduto in Dresda, Panno 1759. + +[589] "Appassionato ammiratore ed invitto apologista dell' _Omero +Ferrarese_." The title was first given by Tasso, and is quoted to the +confusion of the _Tassisti_, lib. iii. pp. 262, 265. _La Vita di M. L. +Ariosto, etc_. + +[590] + + "Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non + Sordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus." + +[591] {488} Plin., _Hist. Nat_., lib. ii. cap. 55. + +[592] _Columella_, De Re Rustica, x. 532, lib. x.; Sueton., in _Vit. +August_., cap. xc., et in _Vit. Tiberii_, cap. lxix. + +[593] Note 2, p. 409, edit. Lugd. Bat. 1667. + +[594] _Vid_. J. C. Boulenger, _De Terrae Motu et Fulminib_., lib. v. cap. +xi., _apud_ J. G. Graev., _Thes. Antiq. Rom_., 1696, v. 532. + +[595] [Greek: Ou)dei\s keraunothei\s a)/timo/s e)sti o(/then kai\ o(s +theo\s tima~tai]. Artemidori _Oneirocritica_, Paris, 1603, ii. 8, p. 91. + +[596] {489} Pauli Warnefridi Diaconi _De Gestis Langobard_., lib. iii. +cap. xxxi., _apud_ La Bigne, _Max. Bibl. Patr_., 1677, xiii. 177. + +[597] I. P. Valeriani _De fulminum significationibus declamatio_, _apud_ +J. G. Graev., _Thes. Antiq. Rom_., 1696, v. 604. The declamation is +addressed to Julian of Medicis. + +[598] {490} See _Menum. Ant. Ined_., 1767, ii. par. i. cap. xvii. sect. +iii p. 50; and _Storia delle Arti, etc_., lib. xi. cap. i. tom ii. p. +314, note B. + +[599] _Nomina gentesque Antiquae Italiae_ (Gibbon, _Miscell. Works_, +1814). p. 204, edit. oct. + +[600] {492} The free expression of their honest sentiments survived +their liberties. Titius, the friend of Antony, presented them with games +in the theatre of Pompey. They did not suffer the brilliancy of the +spectacle to efface from their memory that the man who furnished them +with the entertainment had murdered the son of Pompey: they drove him +from the theatre with curses. The moral sense of a populace, +spontaneously expressed, is never wrong. Even the soldiers of the +triumvirs joined in the execration of the citizens, by shouting round +the chariots of Lepidus and Plancus, who had proscribed their brothers, +_De Germanis, non de Gallis, duo triumphant consules_; a saying worth a +record, were it nothing but a good pun. [C. Vell. Paterculi, _Hist_., +lib. ii. cap. lxxix. p. 78, edit. Elzevir, 1639. _Ibid_., lib. ii. cap. +lxvii.] + +[601] {494} _Il Principe di Niccolo Machiavelli_, Paris, 1825, pp. 184, +185. + +[602] _Storia della Lett. Ital._, edit. Venice, 1795, tom. v. lib. iii. +par. 2, p. 448, note. Tiraboschi is incorrect; the dates of the three +decrees against Dante are A.D. 1302, 1314, and 1316. + +[603] {495} So relates Ficino, but some think his coronation only an +allegory. See _Storia, etc., ut sup._, p. 453. + +[604] By Varchi, in his _Ercolano_. The controversy continued from 1570 +to 1616. See _Storia, etc._, edit. Rome, 1785, tom, vii. lib. iii. par. +iii. p. 187. + +[605] {496} Gio Jacopo Dionisi _Canonico di Verona_. Serie di Aneddoti, +n. 2. See _Storia, etc._, edit. Venice, 1795, tom. v. lib. i. par. i. p. +24, note. + +[606] "Vitam Literni egit sine desiderio urbis." See T. Liv., _Hist._, +lib. xxxviii. cap. liii. Livy reports that some said he was buried at +Liternum, others at Rome. _Ibid._, cap. lv. + +[607] _Trionfo della Castita_, _Opera_ Petrarchae, Basil, 1554, i. _s.f._ + +[608] {497} See Note 6, p. 476. + +[609] The Greek boasted that he was [Greek: i)so/nomos]. See the last +chapter of the first book of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. + +[610] {498} "E intorno _alla magnifica risposta_," etc. Serassi, _Vita +del Tasso_, lib. iii. p. 149, tom. ii. edit. 2. Bergamo. + +[611] {499} "Accingiti innoltre, se ci e lecito ancor l'esortarti, a +compire l'immortal tua Africa ... Se ti avviene d'incontrare nel nostro +stile cosa che ti dispiaccia, cio debb' essere un altro motive ad +esaudire i desiderj della tua patria." _Storia della Lett. Ital._, edit. +Venice, 1795, tom. v. par. i. lib. i. p. 75. + +[612] {500} _Classical Tour_, chap. ix. vol. iii. p. 355, edit. 3rd. "Of +Boccaccio, the modern Petronius, we say nothing; the abuse of genius is +more odious and more contemptible than its absence, and it imports +little where the impure remains of a licentious author are consigned to +their kindred dust. For the same reason the traveller may pass unnoticed +the tomb of the malignant _Aretino_." This dubious phrase is hardly +enough to save the tourist from the suspicion of another blunder +respecting the burial-place of Aretine, whose tomb was in the church of +St. Luke at Venice, and gave rise to the famous controversy of which +some notice is taken in Bayle. Now the words of Mr. Eustace would lead +us to think the tomb was at Florence, or at least was to be somewhere +recognised. Whether the inscription so much disputed was ever written on +the tomb cannot now be decided, for all memorial of this author has +disappeared from the church of St. Luke. + +[613] {501} "Non enim ubique est, qui in excusationem meam consurgens +dicat: juvenis scripsit, & majoris coactus imperio." The letter was +addressed to Maghinard of Cavalcanti, marshal of the kingdom of Sicily. +See Tiraboschi, _Storia, etc._, edit. Venice, 1795, tom. v. par. ii. +lib. iii. p. 525, note. + +[614] {502} _Dissertazioni sopra le Antichita Italiane_, Diss. lviii. p. +253, tom. iii. edit. Milan, 1751. + +[615] _Eclaircissement, etc., etc._, p. 648, edit. Amsterdam, 1740, in +the Supplement to Bayle's _Dictionary_. + +[616] {503} _Opera_, i. 540, edit. Basil, 1581. + +[617] Cosmus Medices, Decreto Publico, Pater Patriae. + +[618] Corinne, 1819, liv. xviii. chap. iii. vol. iii. p. 218. + +[619] {504} _Discourses concerning Government_, by A. Sidney, chap. ii. +sect. xxvi. p. 208, edit. 1751. Sidney is, together with Locke and +Hoadley, one of Mr. Hume's "despicable" writers. + +[620] {505} Tit. Liv., lib. xxii. cap. v. + +[621] _Ibid._, cap. iv. + +[622] _Ibid._ + +[623] {506} _Hist._, lib. iii. cap. 83. The account in Polybius is not +so easily reconcilable with present appearances as that in Livy; he +talks of hills to the right and left of the pass and valley; but when +Flaminius entered he had the lake at the right of both. + +[624] {507} About the middle of the twelfth century the coins of Mantua +bore on one side the image and figure of Virgil. _Zecca d'Italia_, iii. +pl. xvii. i. 6. _Voyage dans le Milanais, etc._, par A. L. Millin, ii. +294. Paris, 1817. + +[625] {509} _Storia delle Arti, etc._, lib. xi. cap. i. pp. 321, 322, +tom. ii. + +[626] Cicer., _Epist. ad Atticum_, xi. 6. + +[627] Published by Causeus, in his _Museum Romanum_. + +[628] _Storia delle Arti, etc._, lib. xi. cap. i. + +[629] Sueton., in _Vit. August._, cap. xxxi., and in _Vit. C. J. Caesar_, +cap. lxxxviii. Appian says it was burnt down. See a note of Pitiscus to +Suetonius, p. 224. + +[630] "Tu modo Pompeia lentus spatiare sub umbra" (Ovid, _Art. Am._, i. +67). + +[631] Flavii Blondi _De Roma Instaurata_, Venice, 1511, lib. iii. p. 25. + +[632] {510} _Antiq. Rom._, lib. i., [Greek: Cha/lkea poie/mata palai~as +e)rgasi/as]. + +[633] Liv., _Hist._, lib. x. cap. xxiii. + +[634] "Tum statua Nattae, tum simulacra Deorum, Romulusque et Remus cum +altrice belua vi fulminis icti conciderunt."--Cic., _De Divinat._, ii. +20. "Tactus est etiam ille qui hanc urbem condidit Romulus: quem +inauratum in Capitolio parvum atque lactentem uberibus lupinis inhiantem +fuisse meministis."--_In Catilin._, iii. 8. + + "Hic silvestris erat Romani nominis altrix + Martia, quae parvos Mavortis semine natos + Uberibus gravidis vitali rore rigabat: + Quae tum cum pueris flammato fulminis ictu + Concidit, atque avulsa pedum vestigia liquit." + _De Suo Consulatu_, lib. ii. lines 42-46. + +[635] Dion., _Hist._, lib. xxxvii. p. 37, edit. Rob. Steph., 1548. + +[636] Luc. Fauni _De Antiq. Urb. Rom._, lib. ii. cap. vii., _ap._ +Sallengre, 1745, i. 217, + +[637] Ap. Nardini _Roma Vetus_, lib. v. cap. iv., _ap._ J. G. Graev., +_Thes. Antiq. Rom._, iv. 1146. + +[638] Marliani _Urb. Rom. Topograph._, Venice, 1588, p. 23. + +[639] {511} Just. Rycquii _De Capit. Roman. Comm._, cap. xxiv. p. 250, +edit. Lugd. Bat. 1696. + +[640] Nardini, _Roma Vetus_, lib. v. cap. iv. + +[641] Montfaucon, _Diarium Italic._, Paris, 1702, i. 174. + +[642] _Storia delle Arti, etc._, Milan, 1779, lib. iii. cap. iii. s. ii. +note * (i. 144). Winckelmann has made a strange blunder in the note, by +saying the Ciceronian wolf was _not_ in the Capitol, and that Dion was +wrong in saying so. + +[643] Flam. Vacca, _Memorie_, num. iii. _ap_. _Roma Antica di Famiano_, +Nardini, Roma, 1771, iv. _s.f._ p. iii. + +[644] {512} Luc. Fauni _De Antiq. Urb. Rom._, lib. ii. cap. vi., _ap._ +Sallengre, tom. i. p. 216. + +[645] See note to stanza lxxx. in _Historical Illustrations_. + +[646] "Romuli nutrix Lupa honoribus est affecta divinis. Et ferrem, si +animal ipsum fuisset, cujus figuram gerit." Lactant., _De Falsa +Religione_, lib. i. cap. xx., Biponti, 1786, i. 66; that is to say, he +would rather adore a wolf than a prostitute. His commentator has +observed that the opinion of Livy concerning Laurentia being figured in +this wolf was not universal. Strabo thought so. Rycquius is wrong in +saying that Lactantius mentions the wolf was in the Capitol. + +[647] To A.D. 496. "Quis credere possit," says Baronius [_Ann. Eccles._, +Lucae, 1741, viii. 602, in an. 496], "viguisse adhuc Romae ad Gelasii +tempora, quae fuere ante exordium Urbis allata in Italiam Lupercalia?" +Gelasius wrote a letter, which occupies four folio pages, to Andromachus +the senator, and others, to show that the rites should be given up. + +[648] {513} _Eccles. Hist._ (Lipsiae, 1827, p. 130), lib. ii. cap. xiii. +p. 40. Justin Martyr had told the story before; but Baronius himself was +obliged to detect this fable. See Nardini, _Roma Vet._, lib. vii. cap. +xii. + +[649] _Accurata e succincta Descrizione, etc., di Roma moderna_, dell' +Ab. Ridolfino Venuti, Rome, 1766, ii. 397. + +[650] Nardini, lib. v. cap. 3, ap. J. G. Graev., iv. 1143, convicts +Pomponius Laetus _Crassi erroris_, in putting the Ruminal fig-tree at the +church of Saint Theodore; but, as Livy says the wolf was at the Ficus +Ruminalis, and Dionysius at the temple of Romulus, he is obliged to own +that the two were close together, as well as the Luperal cave, shaded, +as it were, by the fig-tree. + +[651] {514} Donatus, lib. xi. cap. xviii., gives a medal representing on +one side the wolf in the same position as that in the Capitol; and on +the reverse the wolf with the head not reverted. It is of the time of +Antoninus Pius. + +[652] _AEn_., viii. 631-634. (See Dr. Middleton, in his letter from Rome, +who inclines to the Ciceronian wolf, but without examining the subject.) + +[653] {515} "Jure caesus existimetur," says Suetonius, i. 76, after a +fair estimation of his character, and making use of a phrase which was a +formula in Livy's time. "Maelium jure caesum pronuntiavit, etiam si regni +crimine insons fuerit:" [lib. iv. cap. xv.] and which was continued in +the legal judgments pronounced in justifiable homicides, such as killing +house-breakers. + +[654] _Rom. Ant._, F. Nardini, 1771, iv. _Memorie_, note 3, p. xii. He +does not give the inscription. + +[655] "In villa Justiniana exstat ingens lapis quadras solidus, in quo +sculpta haec duo Ovidii carmina sunt:-- + + "'AEgeria est quae praebet aquas dea grata Camoenis, + Illa Numae conjunx consiliumque fuit.' + +Qui lapis videtur eodem Egeriae fonte, aut ejus vicinia, istuc +comportatus."--_Diarium Italic._, Paris, 1702, p. 153. + +[656] {516} _De Magnit. Vet. Rom_., ap. Graev., _Ant. Rom_., iv. 1507 [1. +Vossius, _De Ant. Urb. Rom. Mag_., cap. iv.] + +[657] Eschinard, _Descrizione di Roma e dell' Agro Romano_, Roma, 1750. +They believe in the grotto and nymph. "Simulacro di questo Fonte, +essendovi scolpite le acque a pie di esso" (p. 297). + +[658] _Classical Tour_, vol. ii. chap. vi. p. 217. + +[659] Lib. 1. _Sat_. iii. lines 11-20. + +[660] {517} Lib. iii. cap. iii. + +[661] "Quamvis undique e solo aquae; scaturiant." Nardini, lib. iii. cap. +iii. _Thes. Ant. Rom_., ap. J. G. Graev., 1697, iv. 978. + +[662] Eschinard, etc. _Sic cit_., pp. 297, 298. + +[663] {517} _Antiq. Rom_., Oxf., 1704, lib. ii. cap. xxxi. vol. i. p. +97. + +[664] Sueton., in _Vit. Augusti_, cap. xci. Casaubon, in the note, +refers to Plutarch's Lives of Camillus and AEmilius Paulus, and also to +his apophthegms, for the character of this deity. The hollowed hand was +reckoned the last degree of degradation; and when the dead body of the +praefect Rufinus was borne about in triumph by the people, the indignity +was increased by putting his hand in that position. + +[665] _Storia delle Arti, etc_., Rome, 1783, lib. xii. cap. iii. tom. +ii. p. 422. Visconti calls the statue, however, a Cybele. It is given in +the _Museo Pio-Clement_., tom. i. par. xl. The Abate Fea (_Spiegazione +dei Rami. Storia, etc_., iii. 513) calls it a Crisippo. + +[666] {519} _Dict. de Bayle_, art. "Adrastea." + +[667] It is enumerated by the regionary Victor. + +[668] "Fortunae; hujusce diei." Cicero mentions her, _De Legib._, lib. +ii. + +[669] + + DEAE. NEMESI + SIVE. FORTV + NAE + PISTORIVS + RVGIANVS + V.C. LEGAT. + LEG. XIII. G. + GORD. + +(See _Questiones Romanae, etc._, ap. Graev., _Antiq. Roman._, v. 942. See +also Muratori, _Nov. Thesaur. Inscrip. Vet._, Milan, 1739, i. 88, 89, +where there are three Latin and one Greek inscription to Nemesis, and +others to Fate.) + +[670] {520} Julius Caesar, who rose by the fall of the aristocracy, +brought Furius Leptinus and A. Calenus upon the arena. + +[671] "Ad captiuos pertinere Tertulliani querelam puto: _Certe quidem & +innocentes gladiatores inludum veniunt, & voluptatis publicae hostiae +fiant_." Justus, Lipsius, 1588, _Saturn. Sermon._, lib. ii. cap. iii. p. +84. + +[672] Vopiscus, in _Vit. Aurel._, and in _Vit. Claud._, _ibid._ + +[673] Just. Lips., _ibid._, lib. i. cap. xii. p. 45. + +[674] Augustinus (_Confess._, lib. vi. cap. viii.): "Alypium suum +gladiatorii spectaculi inhiatu incredibiliter abreptum," scribit. ib., +lib. i. cap. xii. + +[675] {521} _Hist. Eccles._, ap. _Ant. Hist. Eccl._, Basle, 1535, lib. +v. cap. xxvi. + +[676] Cassiod., _Tripartita_, ap. _Ant. Hist. Eccl._, Basle, 1535, lib. +x. cap. ii. p. 543. + +[677] Baronius, _De Ann. et in Notis ad Martyrol. Rom. I. Jan._ (See +Marangoni, _Delle memorie sacre, e profane dell' Anfiteatro Flavio_, p. +25, edit. 1746.) + +[678] {524} See _Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto_, p. 43. + +[679] See _Classical Tour, etc._, chap. vii. p. 250, vol. ii. + +[680] {525} "Under our windows and bordering on the beach is the royal +garden, laid out in parterres, and walks shaded by rows of orange +trees."--_Classical Tour, etc._, chap. xi. vol. ii., 365. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2, by +George Gordon Byron + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON, VOLUME 2 *** + +***** This file should be named 25340.txt or 25340.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/3/4/25340/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Cortesi, and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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