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diff --git a/old/7bpt110.txt b/old/7bpt110.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43e34cd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7bpt110.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23312 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1, by Byron +#2 in our series by Byron + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 + +Author: Byron + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8861] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 15, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYRON'S POETICAL WORKS, VOL. 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +LORD BYRON. + + + + + + + +A NEW, REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION, +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + +POETRY, VOLUME 1. + + + +EDITED BY + +ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M.A. + + +1898 + + + + +PREFACE TO THE POEMS. + + +The text of the present issue of Lord Byron's Poetical Works is based on +that of 'The Works of Lord Byron', in six volumes, 12mo, which was +published by John Murray in 1831. That edition followed the text of the +successive issues of plays and poems which appeared in the author's +lifetime, and were subject to his own revision, or that of Gifford and +other accredited readers. A more or less thorough collation of the +printed volumes with the MSS. which were at Moore's disposal, yielded a +number of variorum readings which have appeared in subsequent editions +published by John Murray. Fresh collations of the text of individual +poems with the original MSS. have been made from time to time, with the +result that the text of the latest edition (one-vol. 8vo, 1891) includes +some emendations, and has been supplemented by additional variants. +Textual errors of more or less importance, which had crept into the +numerous editions which succeeded the seventeen-volume edition of 1832, +were in some instances corrected, but in others passed over. For the +purposes of the present edition the printed text has been collated with +all the MSS. which passed through Moore's hands, and, also, for the +first time, with MSS. of the following plays and poems, viz. 'English +Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'; 'Childe Harold', Canto IV.; 'Don Juan', +Cantos VI.-XVI.; 'Werner'; 'The Deformed Transformed'; 'Lara'; +'Parisina'; 'The Prophecy of Dante'; 'The Vision of Judgment'; 'The Age +of Bronze'; 'The Island'. The only works of any importance which have +been printed directly from the text of the first edition, without +reference to the MSS., are the following, which appeared in 'The +Liberal' (1822-23), viz.: 'Heaven and Earth', 'The Blues', and 'Morgante +Maggiore'. + +A new and, it is believed, an improved punctuation has been adopted. In +this respect Byron did not profess to prepare his MSS. for the press, +and the punctuation, for which Gifford is mainly responsible, has been +reconsidered with reference solely to the meaning and interpretation of +the sentences as they occur. + +In the 'Hours of Idleness and Other Early Poems', the typography of the +first four editions, as a rule, has been preserved. A uniform typography +in accordance with modern use has been adopted for all poems of later +date. Variants, being the readings of one or more MSS. or of successive +editions, are printed in italics [as footnotes. text Ed] immediately +below the text. They are marked by Roman numerals. Words and lines +through which the author has drawn his pen in the MSS. or Revises are +marked 'MS. erased'. + +Poems and plays are given, so far as possible, in chronological order. +'Childe Harold' and 'Don Juan', which were written and published in +parts, are printed continuously; and minor poems, including the first +four satires, have been arranged in groups according to the date of +composition. Epigrams and 'jeux d'esprit' have been placed together, in +chronological order, towards the end of the sixth volume. A Bibliography +of the poems will immediately precede the Index at the close of the +sixth volume. + +The edition contains at least thirty hitherto unpublished poems, +including fifteen stanzas of the unfinished seventeenth canto of 'Don +Juan', and a considerable fragment of the third part of 'The Deformed +Transformed'. The eleven unpublished poems from MSS. preserved at +Newstead, which appear in the first volume, are of slight if any +literary value, but they reflect with singular clearness and sincerity +the temper and aspirations of the tumultuous and moody stripling to whom +"the numbers came," but who wisely abstained from printing them himself. + +Byron's notes, of which many are published for the first time, and +editorial notes, enclosed in brackets, are printed immediately below the +variorum readings. The editorial notes are designed solely to supply the +reader with references to passages in other works illustrative of the +text, or to interpret expressions and allusions which lapse of time may +have rendered obscure. + +Much of the knowledge requisite for this purpose is to be found in the +articles of the 'Dictionary of National Biography', to which the fullest +acknowledgments are due; and much has been arrived at after long +research, involving a minute examination of the literature, the +magazines, and often the newspapers of the period. + +Inasmuch as the poems and plays have been before the public for more +than three quarters of a century, it has not been thought necessary to +burden the notes with the eulogies and apologies of the great poets and +critics who were Byron's contemporaries, and regarded his writings, both +for good and evil, for praise and blame, from a different standpoint +from ours. Perhaps, even yet, the time has not come for a definite and +positive appreciation of his genius. The tide of feeling and opinion +must ebb and flow many times before his rank and station among the poets +of all time will be finally adjudged. The splendour of his reputation, +which dazzled his own countrymen, and, for the first time, attracted the +attention of a contemporary European audience to an English writer, has +faded, and belongs to history; but the poet's work remains, inviting a +more intimate and a more extended scrutiny than it has hitherto received +in this country. The reader who cares to make himself acquainted with +the method of Byron's workmanship, to unravel his allusions, and to +follow the tenour of his verse, will, it is hoped, find some assistance +in these volumes. + +I beg to record my especial thanks to the Earl of Lovelace for the use +of MSS. of his grandfather's poems, including unpublished fragments; for +permission to reproduce portraits in his possession; and for valuable +information and direction in the construction of some of the notes. + +My grateful acknowledgments are due to Dr. Garnett, C.B., Dr. A. H. +Murray, Mr. R. E. Graves, and other officials of the British Museum, for +invaluable assistance in preparing the notes, and in compiling a +bibliography of the poems. + +I have also to thank Mr. Leslie Stephen and others for important hints +and suggestions with regard to the interpretation of some obscure +passages in 'Hints from Horace'. + +In correcting the proofs for the press, I have had the advantage of the +skill and knowledge of my friend Mr. Frank E. Taylor, of Chertsey, to +whom my thanks are due. + +On behalf of the Publisher, I beg to acknowledge with gratitude the +kindness of the Lady Dorchester, the Earl Stanhope, Lord Glenesk and Sir +Theodore Martin, K.C.B., for permission to examine MSS. in their +possession; and of Mrs. Chaworth Musters, for permission to reproduce +her miniature of Miss Chaworth, and for other favours. He desires also +to acknowledge the generous assistance of Mr. and Miss Webb, of Newstead +Abbey, in permitting the publication of MS. poems, and in making +transcripts for the press. + +I need hardly add that, throughout the progress of the work, the advice +and direct assistance of Mr. John Murray and Mr. R. E. Prothero have +been always within my reach. They have my cordial thanks. + +ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE. + + + +[facsimile of title page:] + + +POEMS ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS. + + + Virginibus Puerisque Canto. + + (Hor. Lib, 3. 'Ode 1'.) + + + +The only Apology necessary to be adduced, in extenuation of any errors +in the following collection, is, that the Author has not yet completed +his nineteenth year. + +December 23,1806. + + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE TO 'HOURS OF IDLENESS AND OTHER EARLY POEMS'. + +There were four distinct issues of Byron's Juvenilia. The first +collection, entitled 'Fugitive Pieces', was printed in quarto by S. and +J. Ridge of Newark. Two of the poems, "The Tear" and the "Reply to Some +Verses of J. M. B. Pigot, Esq.," were signed "BYRON;" but the volume +itself, which is without a title-page, was anonymous. It numbers +sixty-six pages, and consists of thirty-eight distinct pieces. The last +piece, "Imitated from Catullus. To Anna," is dated November 16, 1806. +The whole of this issue, with the exception of two or three copies, was +destroyed. An imperfect copy, lacking pp. 17-20 and pp. 58-66, is +preserved at Newstead. A perfect copy, which had been retained by the +Rev. J. T. Becher, at whose instance the issue was suppressed, was +preserved by his family (see 'Life', by Karl Elze, 1872, p. 450), and is +now in the possession of Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B. A facsimile reprint +of this unique volume, limited to one hundred copies, was issued, for +private circulation only, from the Chiswick Press in 1886. + +Of the thirty-eight 'Fugitive Pieces', two poems, viz. "To Caroline" and +"To Mary," together with the last six stanzas of the lines, "To Miss E. +P. [To Eliza]," have never been republished in any edition of Byron's +Poetical Works. + +A second edition, small octavo, of 'Fugitive Pieces', entitled 'Poems on +Various Occasions', was printed by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and +distributed in January, 1807. This volume was issued anonymously. It +numbers 144 pages, and consists of a reproduction of thirty-six +'Fugitive Pieces', and of twelve hitherto unprinted poems--forty-eight +in all. For references to the distribution of this issue--limited, says +Moore, to one hundred copies--see letters to Mr. Pigot and the Earl of +Clare, dated January 16, February 6, 1807, and undated letters of the +same period to Mr. William Bankes and Mr. Falkner ('Life', pp. 41, 42). +The annotated copy of 'Poems on Various Occasions', referred to in the +present edition, is in the British Museum. + +Early in the summer (June--July) of 1807, a volume, small octavo, named +'Hours of Idleness'--a title henceforth associated with Byron's early +poems--was printed and published by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and was +sold by the following London booksellers: Crosby and Co.; Longman, +Hurst, Rees, and Orme; F. and C. Rivington; and J, Mawman. The full +title is, 'Hours of Idleness; a Series of Poems Original and +Translated'. By George Gordon, Lord Byron, a Minor. It numbers 187 +pages, and consists of thirty-nine poems. Of these, nineteen belonged to +the original 'Fugitive Pieces', eight had first appeared in 'Poems on +Various Occasions', and twelve were published for the first time. The +"Fragment of a Translation from the 9th Book of Virgil's AEneid" +('sic'), numbering sixteen lines, reappears as "The Episode of Nisus and +Euryalus, A Paraphrase from the AEneid, Lib. 9," numbering 406 lines. + +The final collection, also in small octavo, bearing the title 'Poems +Original and Translated', by George Gordon, Lord Byron, second edition, +was printed and published in 1808 by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and sold +by the same London booksellers as 'Hours of Idleness'. It numbers 174 +pages, and consists of seventeen of the original 'Fugitive Pieces', four +of those first published in 'Poems on Various Occasions', a reprint of +the twelve poems first published in 'Hours of Idleness', and five poems +which now appeared for the first time--thirty-eight poems in all. +Neither the title nor the contents of this so-called second edition +corresponds exactly with the previous issue. + +Of the thirty-eight 'Fugitive Pieces' which constitute the suppressed +quarto, only seventeen appear in all three subsequent issues. Of the +twelve additions to 'Poems on Various Occasions', four were excluded +from 'Hours of Idleness', and four more from 'Poems Original and +Translated'. + +The collection of minor poems entitled 'Hours of Idleness', which has +been included in every edition of Byron's Poetical Works issued by John +Murray since 1831, consists of seventy pieces, being the aggregate of +the poems published in the three issues, 'Poems on Various Occasions', +'Hours of Idleness', and 'Poems Original and Translated', together with +five other poems of the same period derived from other sources. + +In the present issue a general heading, "Hours of Idleness, and other +Early Poems," has been applied to the entire collection of Early Poems, +1802-1809. The quarto has been reprinted (excepting the lines "To Mary," +which Byron himself deliberately suppressed) in its entirety, and in the +original order. The successive additions to the 'Poems on Various +Occasions', 'Hours of Idleness', and 'Poems Original and Translated', +follow in order of publication. The remainder of the series, viz. poems +first published in Moore's 'Life and Journals of Lord Byron' (1830); +poems hitherto unpublished; poems first published in the 'Works of Lord +Byron' (1832), and poems contributed to J. C. Hobhouse's 'Imitations and +Translations' (1809), have been arranged in chronological order. (For an +important contribution to the bibliography of the quarto of 1806, and of +the other issues of Byron's Juvenilia, see papers by Mr. R. Edgcumbe, +Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., and others, in the 'Athenaeum', 1885, vol. +ii. pp. 731-733, 769; and 1886, vol. i. p. 101, etc. For a collation of +the contents of the four first issues and of certain large-paper copies +of 'Hours of Idleness', etc., see 'The Bibliography of the Poetical +Works of Lord Byron', vol. vi. of the present edition.) + + +[text of facsimile pages of two different editions mentioned above:] + +HOURS OF IDLENESS, + +A SERIES OF POEMS, +ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED, + +BY GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, + +A MINOR. + + +[Greek: Maet ar me mal ainee maete ti neichei.] + + HOMER. Iliad, 10. + + +Virginibus puerisque Canto. + + HORACE. + + +He whistled as he went for want of thought. + + DRYDEN. + + + +NEMARK: + +Printed and sold by S. and J. RIDGE; + +SOLD ALSO BY B CROSBY AND CO. STATIONER'S COURT; +LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW; +F. AND C. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; +AND J. MAWMAN, IN THE POULTRY; +LONDON. +1807 + + + + + + + +POEMS +ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED +BY +GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, + + +[Greek: Maet ar me mal ainee maete ti neichei.] + +HOMER, Iliad, 10. + + +He whistled as he went for want of thought. + +DRYDEN. + + + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE TO ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. + + +The MS. ('MS. M.') of the first draft of Byron's "Satire" (see Letter to +Pigot, October 26, 1807) is now in Mr. Murray's possession. It is +written on folio sheets paged 6-25, 28-41, and numbers 360 lines. +Mutilations on pages 12, 13, 34, 35 account for the absence of ten +additional lines. + +After the publication of the January number of 'The Edinburgh Review' +for 1808 (containing the critique on 'Hours of Idleness'), which was +delayed till the end of February, Byron added a beginning and an ending +to the original draft. The MSS. of these additions, which number ninety +lines, are written on quarto sheets, and have been bound up with the +folios. (Lines 1-16 are missing.) The poem, which with these and other +additions had run up to 560 lines, was printed in book form (probably by +Ridge of Newark), under the title of 'British Bards, A Satire'. "This +Poem," writes Byron ['MSS. M.'], "was begun in October, 1807, in London, +and at different intervals composed from that period till September, +1808, when it was completed at Newstead Abbey.--B., 1808." A date, 1808, +is affixed to the last line. Only one copy is extant, that which was +purchased, in 1867, from the executors of R.C. Dallas, by the Trustees +of the British Museum. Even this copy has been mutilated. Pages 17, 18, +which must have contained the first version of the attack on Jeffrey +(see 'English Bards', p. 332, line 439, 'note' 2), have been torn out, +and quarto proof-sheets in smaller type of lines 438-527, "Hail to +immortal Jeffrey," etc., together with a quarto proof-sheet, in the same +type as 'British Bards', containing lines 540-559, "Illustrious +Holland," etc., have been inserted. Hobhouse's lines (first edition, +lines 247-262), which are not in the original draft, are included in +'British Bards'. The insertion of the proofs increased the printed +matter to 584 lines. After the completion of this revised version of +'British Bards', additions continued to be made. Marginal corrections +and MS. fragments, bound up with 'British Bards', together with +forty-four lines (lines 723-726, 819-858) which do not occur in MS. M., +make up with the printed matter the 696 lines which were published in +March, 1809, under the title of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. +The folio and quarto sheets in Mr. Murray's possession ('MS. M.') may be +regarded as the MS. of 'British Bards; British Bards' (there are a few +alterations, e.g. the substitution of lines 319-326, "Moravians, arise," +etc., for the eight lines on Pratt, which are to be found in the folio +MS., and are printed in 'British Bards'), with its accompanying MS. +fragments, as the foundation of the text of the first edition of +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. + +Between the first edition, published in March, and the second edition in +October, 1809, the difference is even greater than between the first +edition and 'British Bards'. The Preface was enlarged, and a postscript +affixed to the text of the poem. Hobhouse's lines (first edition, +247-262) were omitted, and the following additional passages inserted, +viz.: (i.) lines 1-96, "Still must I hear," etc.; (ii.) lines 129-142, +"Thus saith the Preacher," etc.; (iii.) lines 363-417, "But if some +new-born whim," etc.; (iv.) lines 638-706, "Or hail at once," etc.; (v.) +lines 765-798, "When some brisk youth," etc.; (vi.) lines 859-880, "And +here let Shee," etc.; (vii.) lines 949-960, "Yet what avails," etc.; +(viii.) lines 973-980, "There, Clarke," etc.; (ix.) lines 1011-1070, +"Then hapless Britain," etc. These additions number 370 lines, and, +together with the 680 lines of the first edition (reduced from 696 by +the omission of Hobhouse's contribution), make up the 1050 lines of the +second and third editions, and the doubtful fourth edition of 1810. Of +these additions, Nos. i., ii., iii., iv., vi., viii., ix. exist in MS., +and are bound up with the folio MS. now in Mr. Murray's possession. + +The third edition, which is, generally, dated 1810, is a replica of the +second edition. + +The first issue of the fourth edition, which appeared in 1810, is +identical with the second and third editions. A second issue of the +fourth edition, dated 1811, must have passed under Byron's own +supervision. Lines 723, 724 are added, and lines 725, 726 are materially +altered. The fourth edition of 1811 numbers 1052 lines. + +The suppressed fifth edition, numbering 1070 lines (the copy in the +British Museum has the title-page of the fourth edition; a second copy, +in Mr. Murray's possession, has no title-page), varies from the fourth +edition of 1811 by the addition of lines 97-102 and 528-539, and by some +twenty-nine emendations of the text. Eighteen of these emendations were +made by Byron in a copy of the fourth edition which belonged to Leigh +Hunt. On another copy, in Mr. Murray's possession, Byron made nine +emendations, of which six are identical with those in the Hunt copy, and +three appear for the first time. It was in the latter volume that he +inscribed his after-thoughts, which are dated "B. 1816." + +For a complete collation of the five editions of 'English Bards, and +Scotch Reviewers', and textual emendations in the two annotated volumes, +and for a note on genuine and spurious copies of the first and other +editions, see 'The Bibliography of the Poetical Works of Lord Byron', +vol. vi. + + +[Facsimile of title-page of first edition, including Byron's signature. +To view this and other facsimiles, and the other illustrations mentioned in +this text, see the html edition. text Ed.] + + + + + +ENGLISH BARDS, + +AND + +Scotch Reviewers. + + +A SATIRE. + + + + + I had rather be a kitten, and cry, mew! + Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + + Such shameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true, + There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too. + + POPE. + + + + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +HOURS OF IDLENESS, AND OTHER EARLY POEMS. + + + + FUGITIVE PIECES. + + Preface to the Poems + Bibliographical Note to "Hours of Idleness and Other Early Poems" + Bibliographical Note to "English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers" + On Leaving Newstead Abbey + To E---- + On the Death of a Young Lady, Cousin to the Author, and very dear to + Him + To D---- + To Caroline + To Caroline [second poem] + To Emma + Fragments of School Exercises: From the "Prometheus Vinctus" of + AEschylus + Lines written in "Letters of an Italian Nun and an English + Gentleman, by J.J. Rousseau: Founded on Facts" + Answer to the Foregoing, Addressed to Miss---- + On a Change of Masters at a Great Public School + Epitaph on a Beloved Friend + Adrian's Address to his Soul when Dying + A Fragment + To Caroline [third poem] + To Caroline [fourth poem] + On a Distant View of the Village and School of Harrow on the Hill, + 1806 + Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination + To Mary, on Receiving Her Picture + On the Death of Mr. Fox + To a Lady who Presented to the Author a Lock of Hair Braided with + his own, and appointed a Night in December to meet him in the + Garden + To a Beautiful Quaker + To Lesbia! + To Woman + An Occasional Prologue, Delivered by the Author Previous to the + Performance of "The Wheel of Fortune" at a Private Theatre + To Eliza + The Tear + Reply to some Verses of J.M.B. Pigot, Esq., on the Cruelty of his + Mistress + Granta. A Medley + To the Sighing Strephon + The Cornelian + To M---- + Lines Addressed to a Young Lady. [As the Author was discharging his + Pistols in a Garden, Two Ladies passing near the spot were alarmed + by the sound of a Bullet hissing near them, to one of whom the + following stanzas were addressed the next morning] + Translation from Catullus. 'Ad Lesbiam' + Translation of the Epitaph on Virgil and Tibullus, by Domitius Marsus + Imitation of Tibullus. 'Sulpicia ad Cerinthum' + Translation from Catullus. 'Lugete Veneres Cupidinesque' + Imitated from Catullus. To Ellen + + + POEMS ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS. + To M.S.G. + Stanzas to a Lady, with the Poems of Camoens + To M.S.G. [second poem] + Translation from Horace. 'Justum et tenacem', etc. + The First Kiss of Love + Childish Recollections + Answer to a Beautiful Poem, Written by Montgomery, Author of "The + Wanderer in Switzerland," etc., entitled "The Common Lot" + Love's Last Adieu + Lines Addressed to the Rev. J.T. Becher, on his advising the Author + to mix more with Society + Answer to some Elegant Verses sent by a Friend to the Author, + complaining that one of his descriptions was rather too warmly + drawn + Elegy on Newstead Abbey + + + HOURS OF IDLENESS. + To George, Earl Delawarr + Damaetas + To Marion + Oscar of Alva + Translation from Anacreon. Ode I + From Anacreon. Ode 3 + The Episode of Nisus and Euryalus. A Paraphrase from the 'AEneid', + Lib. 9 + Translation from the 'Medea' of Euripides [L. 627-660] + Lachin y Gair + To Romance + The Death of Calmar and Orla + To Edward Noel Long, Esq. + To a Lady + + + POEMS ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED. + When I Roved a Young Highlander + To the Duke of Dorset + To the Earl of Clare + I would I were a Careless Child + Lines Written beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow + + + EARLY POEMS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. + Fragment, Written Shortly after the Marriage of Miss Chaworth. First + published in Moore's 'Letters and Journals of Lord Byron', 1830, + i. 56 + Remembrance. First published in 'Works of Lord Byron', 1832, vii. + 152 + To a Lady Who Presented the Author with the Velvet Band which bound + her Tresses. 'Works', 1832, vii. 151 + To a Knot of Ungenerous Critics. 'MS. Newstead' + Soliloquy of a Bard in the Country. 'MS. Newstead' + L'Amitie est L'Amour sans Ailes. 'Works', 1832, vii. 161 + The Prayer of Nature. 'Letters and Journals', 1830, i. 106 + Translation from Anacreon. Ode 5. 'MS. Newstead' + [Ossian's Address to the Sun in "Carthon."] 'MS. Newstead' + [Pignus Amoris.] 'MS. Newstead' + [A Woman's Hair.] 'Works', 1832, vii. 151 + Stanzas to Jessy. 'Monthly Literary Recreations', July, 1807 + The Adieu. 'Works', 1832, vii. 195 + To----. 'MS. Newstead' + On the Eyes of Miss A----H----. 'MS. Newstead' + To a Vain Lady. 'Works', 1832, vii. 199 + To Anne. 'Works', 1832, vii. 201 + Egotism. A Letter to J.T. Becher. 'MS. Newstead' + To Anne. 'Works', 1832, vii. 202 + To the Author of a Sonnet Beginning, "'Sad is my verse,' you say, + 'and yet no tear.'" 'Works', 1832, vii. 202 + On Finding a Fan. 'Works', 1832, 203 + Farewell to the Muse. 'Works', 1832, vii. 203 + To an Oak at Newstead. 'Works', 1832, vii. 206 + On Revisiting Harrow. 'Letters and Journals', i. 102 + To my Son. 'Letters and Journals', i. 104 + Queries to Casuists. 'MS. Newstead' + Song. Breeze of the Night. 'MS. Lovelace' + To Harriet. 'MS. Newstead' + There was a Time, I need not name. 'Imitations and Translations', + 1809, p. 200 + And wilt Thou weep when I am low? 'Imitations and Translations', + 1809, p. 202 + Remind me not, Remind me not. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, + p. 197 + To a Youthful Friend. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, p. 185 + Lines Inscribed upon a Cup Formed from a Skull. First published, + 'Childe Harold', Cantos i., ii. (Seventh Edition), 1814 + Well! Thou art Happy. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, p. 192 + Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog. 'Imitations and + Translations', 1809, p. 190 + To a Lady, On Being asked my reason for quitting England in the + Spring. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, p. 195 + Fill the Goblet Again. A Song. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, + p. 204 + Stanzas to a Lady, on Leaving England. 'Imitations and + Translations', 1809, p. 227 + + + ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS + + HINTS FROM HORACE + + THE CURSE OF MINERVA + + THE WALTZ + + + + + + + + + +HOURS OF IDLENESS + +AND OTHER EARLY POEMS. + + + +ON LEAVING NEWSTEAD ABBEY. [i] + + Why dost thou build the hall, Son of the winged days? Thou lookest + from thy tower to-day: yet a few years, and the blast of the desart + comes: it howls in thy empty court.-OSSIAN. [1] + + +I. + + Through thy battlements, Newstead, [2] the hollow winds whistle: [ii] + Thou, the hall of my Fathers, art gone to decay; + In thy once smiling garden, the hemlock and thistle + Have choak'd up the rose, which late bloom'd in the way. + + +2. + + Of the mail-cover'd Barons, who, proudly, to battle, [iii] + Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain, [3] + The escutcheon and shield, which with ev'ry blast rattle, + Are the only sad vestiges now that remain. + + +3. + + No more doth old Robert, with harp-stringing numbers, + Raise a flame, in the breast, for the war-laurell'd wreath; + Near Askalon's towers, John of Horistan [4] slumbers, + Unnerv'd is the hand of his minstrel, by death. + + +4. + + Paul and Hubert too sleep in the valley of Cressy; + For the safety of Edward and England they fell: + My Fathers! the tears of your country redress ye: + How you fought! how you died! still her annals can tell. + + +5. + + On Marston, [5] with Rupert, [6] 'gainst traitors contending, + Four brothers enrich'd, with their blood, the bleak field; + For the rights of a monarch their country defending, [iv] + Till death their attachment to royalty seal'd. [7] + + +6. + + Shades of heroes, farewell! your descendant departing + From the seat of his ancestors, bids you adieu! [v] + Abroad, or at home, your remembrance imparting + New courage, he'll think upon glory and you. + + +7. + + Though a tear dim his eye at this sad separation, [vi] + 'Tis nature, not fear, that excites his regret; [vii] + Far distant he goes, with the same emulation, + The fame of his Fathers he ne'er can forget. [viii] + + +8. + + That fame, and that memory, still will he cherish; [ix] + He vows that he ne'er will disgrace your renown: + Like you will he live, or like you will he perish; + When decay'd, may he mingle his dust with your own! + + +1803. + + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in _Hours of Idleness_.] + +[Footnote 2: The priory of Newstead, or de Novo Loco, in Sherwood, was +founded about the year 1170, by Henry II. On the dissolution of the +monasteries it was granted (in 1540) by Henry VIII. to "Sir John Byron +the Little, with the great beard." His portrait is still preserved at +Newstead.] + +[Footnote 3: No record of any crusading ancestors in the Byron family +can be found. Moore conjectures that the legend was suggested by some +groups of heads on the old panel-work at Newstead, which appear to +represent Christian soldiers and Saracens, and were, most probably, put +up before the Abbey came into the possession of the family.] + +[Footnote 4: Horistan Castle, in _Derbyshire_, an ancient seat of the +B--R--N family [4to]. (Horiston.--4to.)] + +[Footnote 5: The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles +I. were defeated.] + +[Footnote 6: Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He +afterwards commanded the Fleet, in the reign of Charles II.] + +[Footnote 7: Sir Nicholas Byron, the great-grandson of Sir John Byron +the Little, distinguished himself in the Civil Wars. He is described by +Clarendon (_Hist, of the Rebellion_, 1807, i. 216) as "a person of great +affability and dexterity, as well as martial knowledge." He was Governor +of Carlisle, and afterwards Governor of Chester. His nephew and +heir-at-law, Sir John Byron, of Clayton, K.B. (1599-1652), was raised to +the peerage as Baron Byron of Rochdale, after the Battle of Newbury, +October 26, 1643. He held successively the posts of Lieutenant of the +Tower, Governor of Chester, and, after the expulsion of the Royal Family +from England, Governor to the Duke of York. He died childless, and was +succeeded by his brother Richard, the second lord, from whom the poet +was descended. Five younger brothers, as Richard's monument in the +chancel of Hucknall Torkard Church records, "faithfully served King +Charles the First in the Civil Wars, suffered much for their loyalty, +and lost all their present fortunes." (See _Life of Lord Byron_, by Karl +Elze: Appendix, Note (A), p. 436.)] + + +[Footnote i: 'On Leaving N ... ST ... D.'--[4to] 'On Leaving + Newstead.'--('P. on V. Occasions.')] + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Through the cracks in these battlements loud the winds whistle + For the hall of my fathers is gone to decay; + And in yon once gay garden the hemlock and thistle + Have choak'd up the rose, which late bloom'd in the way'. + + [4to]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Of the barons of old, who once proudly to battle'. + + [4to]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'For Charles the Martyr their country defending'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote v: 'Bids ye adieu!' [4to]] + +[Footnote vi: 'Though a tear dims.' [4to]] + +[Footnote vii: ''Tis nature, not fear, which commands his regret'. + [4to]] + +[Footnote viii: 'In the grave he alone can his fathers forget'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ix: 'Your fame, and your memory, still will he cherish'. + [4to]] + + + + + + + + +TO E---[1] + + + Let Folly smile, to view the names + Of thee and me, in Friendship twin'd; + Yet Virtue will have greater claims + To love, than rank with vice combin'd. + + And though unequal is _thy_ fate, + Since title deck'd my higher birth; + Yet envy not this gaudy state, + _Thine_ is the pride of modest worth. + + Our _souls_ at least congenial meet, + Nor can _thy_ lot _my_ rank disgrace; + Our intercourse is not less sweet, + Since worth of rank supplies the place. + + +_November_, 1802. + + + +[Footnote 1: E---was, according to Moore, a boy of Byron's own age, the + son of one of the tenants at Newstead.] + + + + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY, [1] + COUSIN TO THE AUTHOR, AND VERY DEAR TO HIM. + + +1. + + Hush'd are the winds, and still the evening gloom, + Not e'en a zephyr wanders through the grove, + Whilst I return to view my Margaret's tomb, + And scatter flowers on the dust I love. + + +2. + + Within this narrow cell reclines her clay, + That clay, where once such animation beam'd; + The King of Terrors seiz'd her as his prey; + Not worth, nor beauty, have her life redeem'd. + + +3. + + Oh! could that King of Terrors pity feel, + Or Heaven reverse the dread decree of fate, + Not here the mourner would his grief reveal, + Not here the Muse her virtues would relate. + + +4. + + But wherefore weep? Her matchless spirit soars + Beyond where splendid shines the orb of day; + And weeping angels lead her to those bowers, + Where endless pleasures virtuous deeds repay. + + +5. + + And shall presumptuous mortals Heaven arraign! + And, madly, Godlike Providence accuse! + Ah! no, far fly from me attempts so vain;-- + I'll ne'er submission to my God refuse. + + +6. + + Yet is remembrance of those virtues dear, + Yet fresh the memory of that beauteous face; + Still they call forth my warm affection's tear, + Still in my heart retain their wonted place. [i] + + + +1802. + + +[Footnote 1: The author claims the indulgence of the reader more for +this piece than, perhaps, any other in the collection; but as it was +written at an earlier period than the rest (being composed at the age of +fourteen), and his first essay, he preferred submitting it to the +indulgence of his friends in its present state, to making either +addition or alteration.--[4to] + + "My first dash into poetry was as early as 1800. It was the ebullition + of a passion for--my first cousin, Margaret Parker (daughter and + granddaughter of the two Admirals Parker), one of the most beautiful + of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the verse; but it would be + difficult for me to forget her--her dark eyes--her long + eye-lashes--her completely Greek cast of face and figure! I was then + about twelve--she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year + or two afterwards, in consequence of a fall, which injured her spine, + and induced consumption ... I knew nothing of her illness, being at + Harrow and in the country till she was gone. Some years after, I made + an attempt at an elegy--a very dull one."--_Byron Diary_, 1821; + _Life_, p. 17. + +[Margaret Parker was the sister of Sir Peter Parker, whose death at +Baltimore, in 1814, Byron celebrated in the "Elegiac Stanzas," which +were first published in the poems attached to the seventh edition of +_Childe Harold_.] + + +[Footnote i: _Such sorrow brings me honour, not disgrace_. [4to]] + + + + + +TO D---[1] + + +1. + + In thee, I fondly hop'd to clasp + A friend, whom death alone could sever; + Till envy, with malignant grasp, [i] + Detach'd thee from my breast for ever. + + +2. + + True, she has forc'd thee from my _breast_, + Yet, in my _heart_, thou keep'st thy seat; [ii] + There, there, thine image still must rest, + Until that heart shall cease to beat. + + +3. + + And, when the grave restores her dead, + When life again to dust is given, + On _thy dear_ breast I'll lay my head-- + Without _thee! where_ would be _my Heaven?_ + + +February, 1803. + + + +[Footnote 1: George John, 5th Earl Delawarr (1791-1869). (See _note_ 2, +p. 100; see also lines "To George, Earl Delawarr," pp. 126-128.)] + +[Footnote i: + + _But envy with malignant grasp, + Has torn thee from my breast for ever. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: _But in my heart_. [4to]] + + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [i] + + +1. + + Think'st thou I saw thy beauteous eyes, + Suffus'd in tears, implore to stay; + And heard _unmov'd_ thy plenteous sighs, + Which said far more than words can say? [ii] + + +2. + + Though keen the grief _thy_ tears exprest, [iii] + When love and hope lay _both_ o'erthrown; + Yet still, my girl, _this_ bleeding breast + Throbb'd, with deep sorrow, as _thine own_. + + +3. + + But, when our cheeks with anguish glow'd, + When _thy_ sweet lips were join'd to mine; + The tears that from _my_ eyelids flow'd + Were lost in those which fell from _thine_. + + +4. + + Thou could'st not feel my burning cheek, + _Thy_ gushing tears had quench'd its flame, + And, as thy tongue essay'd to speak, + In _sighs alone_ it breath'd my name. + + +5. + + And yet, my girl, we weep in vain, + In vain our fate in sighs deplore; + Remembrance only can remain, + But _that_, will make us weep the more. + + +6. + + Again, thou best belov'd, adieu! + Ah! if thou canst, o'ercome regret, + Nor let thy mind past joys review, + Our only _hope_ is, to _forget_! + + +1805. + + +[Footnote i: _To_----. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: _than words could say_. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _Though deep the grief_. [4to]] + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [1] + + +1. + + You say you love, and yet your eye + No symptom of that love conveys, + You say you love, yet know not why, + Your cheek no sign of love betrays. + + +2. + + Ah! did that breast with ardour glow, + With me alone it joy could know, + Or feel with me the listless woe, + Which racks my heart when far from thee. + + +3. + + Whene'er we meet my blushes rise, + And mantle through my purpled cheek, + But yet no blush to mine replies, + Nor e'en your eyes your love bespeak. + + +4. + + Your voice alone declares your flame, + And though so sweet it breathes my name, + Our passions still are not the same; + Alas! you cannot love like me. + + +5. + + For e'en your lip seems steep'd in snow, + And though so oft it meets my kiss, + It burns with no responsive glow, + Nor melts like mine in dewy bliss. + + +6. + + Ah! what are words to love like _mine_, + Though uttered by a voice like thine, + I still in murmurs must repine, + And think that love can ne'er be _true_, + + +7. + + Which meets me with no joyous sign, + Without a sigh which bids adieu; + How different is my love from thine, + How keen my grief when leaving you. + + +8. + + Your image fills my anxious breast, + Till day declines adown the West, + And when at night, I sink to rest, + In dreams your fancied form I view. + + +9. + + 'Tis then your breast, no longer cold, + With equal ardour seems to burn, + While close your arms around me fold, + Your lips my kiss with warmth return. + + +10. + + Ah! would these joyous moments last; + Vain HOPE! the gay delusion's past, + That voice!--ah! no, 'tis but the blast, + Which echoes through the neighbouring grove. + + +11. + + But when _awake_, your lips I seek, + And clasp enraptur'd all your charms, + So chill's the pressure of your cheek, + I fold a statue in my arms. + + +12. + + If thus, when to my heart embrac'd, + No pleasure in your eyes is trac'd, + You may be prudent, fair, and _chaste_, + But ah! my girl, you _do not love_. + + +[Footnote 1: These lines, which appear in the Quarto, were never +republished.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO EMMA. [1] + + + 1. + + Since now the hour is come at last, + When you must quit your anxious lover; + Since now, our dream of bliss is past, + One pang, my girl, and all is over. + + + 2. + + Alas! that pang will be severe, + Which bids us part to meet no more; + Which tears me far from _one_ so dear, + _Departing_ for a distant shore. + + + 3. + + Well! we have pass'd some happy hours, + And joy will mingle with our tears; + When thinking on these ancient towers, + The shelter of our infant years; + + + 4. + + Where from this Gothic casement's height, + We view'd the lake, the park, the dell, + And still, though tears obstruct our sight, + We lingering look a last farewell, + + + 5. + + O'er fields through which we us'd to run, + And spend the hours in childish play; + O'er shades where, when our race was done, + Reposing on my breast you lay; + + + 6. + + Whilst I, admiring, too remiss, + Forgot to scare the hovering flies, + Yet envied every fly the kiss, + It dar'd to give your slumbering eyes: + + + 7. + + See still the little painted _bark_, + In which I row'd you o'er the lake; + See there, high waving o'er the park, + The _elm_ I clamber'd for your sake. + + + 8. + + These times are past, our joys are gone, + You leave me, leave this happy vale; + These scenes, I must retrace alone; + Without thee, what will they avail? + + + 9. + + Who can conceive, who has not prov'd, + The anguish of a last embrace? + When, torn from all you fondly lov'd, + You bid a long adieu to peace. + + + 10. + + _This_ is the deepest of our woes, + For _this_ these tears our cheeks bedew; + This is of love the final close, + Oh, God! the fondest, _last_ adieu! + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: To Maria--[4to]] + + + + + + + + +FRAGMENTS OF SCHOOL EXERCISES: + FROM THE "PROMETHEUS VINCTUS" OF AESCHYLUS, + +[Greek: Maedam o panta nem_on, K.T.L_] [1] + + + Great Jove! to whose Almighty Throne + Both Gods and mortals homage pay, + Ne'er may my soul thy power disown, + Thy dread behests ne'er disobey. + Oft shall the sacred victim fall, + In sea-girt Ocean's mossy hall; + My voice shall raise no impious strain, + 'Gainst him who rules the sky and azure main. + + ... + + How different now thy joyless fate, + Since first Hesione thy bride, + When plac'd aloft in godlike state, + The blushing beauty by thy side, + Thou sat'st, while reverend Ocean smil'd, + And mirthful strains the hours beguil'd; + The Nymphs and Tritons danc'd around, + Nor yet thy doom was fix'd, nor Jove relentless frown'd, [2] + + +HARROW, December 1, 1804. + + +[Footnote 1: The Greek heading does not appear in the Quarto, nor in the +three first Editions.] + +[Footnote 2: "My first Harrow verses (that is, English, as exercises), a +translation of a chorus from the 'Prometheus' of AEschylus, were received +by Dr. Drury, my grand patron (our headmaster), but coolly. No one had, +at that time, the least notion that I should subside into +poetry."--'Life', p. 20. The lines are not a translation but a loose +adaptation or paraphrase of part of a chorus of the 'Prometheus +Vinctus', I, 528, 'sq.'] + + + + + +LINES + +WRITTEN IN "LETTERS OF AN ITALIAN NUN AND AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, +BY J. J. ROUSSEAU; [1] FOUNDED ON FACTS." + + + "Away, away,--your flattering arts + May now betray some simpler hearts; + And _you_ will _smile_ at their believing, + And _they_ shall _weep_ at your deceiving." + + +[Footnote 1: A second edition of this work, of which the title is, +_Letters, etc., translated from the French of Jean Jacques Rousseau_, +was published in London, in 1784. It is, probably, a literary forgery.] + + + + +ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING, [i] ADDRESSED TO MISS----. + + + Dear simple girl, those flattering arts, + (From which thou'dst guard frail female hearts,)[ii] + Exist but in imagination, + Mere phantoms of thine own creation; [iii] + For he who views that witching grace, + That perfect form, that lovely face, + With eyes admiring, oh! believe me, + He never wishes to deceive thee: + Once in thy polish'd mirror glance [iv] + Thou'lt there descry that elegance + Which from our sex demands such praises, + But envy in the other raises.-- + Then he who tells thee of thy beauty, [v] + Believe me, only does his duty: + Ah! fly not from the candid youth; + It is not flattery,--'tis truth. [vi] + +July, 1804. + + +[Footnote i: _Answer to the above._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote ii: _From which you'd._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote iii: + + _Mere phantoms of your own creation; + For he who sees_. [4to]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + _Once let you at your mirror glance + You'll there descry that elegance,_ [4to]] + + +[Footnote v: + + _Then he who tells you of your beauty._ [4to]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + _It is not flattery, but truth_. [4to]] + + + + + + + + +ON A CHANGE OF MASTERS AT A GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOL. [1] + + + Where are those honours, IDA! once your own, + When Probus fill'd your magisterial throne? + As ancient Rome, fast falling to disgrace, + Hail'd a Barbarian in her Caesar's place, + So you, degenerate, share as hard a fate, + And seat _Pomposus_ where your _Probus_ sate. + Of narrow brain, yet of a narrower soul, [i] + Pomposus holds you in his harsh controul; + Pomposus, by no social virtue sway'd, + With florid jargon, and with vain parade; + With noisy nonsense, and new-fangled rules, + (Such as were ne'er before enforc'd in schools.) [ii] + Mistaking _pedantry_ for _learning's_ laws, + He governs, sanction'd but by self-applause; + With him the same dire fate, attending Rome, + Ill-fated Ida! soon must stamp your doom: + Like her o'erthrown, for ever lost to fame, + No trace of science left you, but the name, + +HARROW, July, 1805. + + +[Footnote 1: In March, 1805, Dr. Drury, the Probus of the piece, +retired from the Head-mastership of Harrow School, and was succeeded by +Dr. Butler, the Pomposus. "Dr. Drury," said Byron, in one of his +note-books, "was the best, the kindest (and yet strict, too) friend I +ever had; and I look upon him still as a father." Out of affection to +his late preceptor, Byron advocated the election of Mark Drury to the +vacant post, and hence his dislike of the successful candidate. He was +reconciled to Dr. Butler before departing for Greece, in 1809, and in +his diary he says, "I treated him rebelliously, and have been sorry ever +since." (See allusions in and notes to "Childish Recollections," pp. +84-106, and especially note I, p. 88, notes I and 2, p. 89, and note I, +p. 91.)] ] + + +[Footnote i: + +----_but of a narrower soul_.--[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Such as were ne'er before beheld in schools._--[4to]] + + + + + + + +EPITAPH ON A BELOVED FRIEND.[1] + +[Greek: Astaer prin men elampes eni tsuoisin hepsos.] + +[Plato's Epitaph (Epig. Graec., Jacobs, 1826, p. 309), +quoted by Diog. Laertins.] + + + Oh, Friend! for ever lov'd, for ever dear! [i] + What fruitless tears have bathed thy honour'd bier! + What sighs re-echo'd to thy parting breath, + Whilst thou wast struggling in the pangs of death! + Could tears retard the tyrant in his course; + Could sighs avert his dart's relentless force; + Could youth and virtue claim a short delay, + Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey; + Thou still hadst liv'd to bless my aching sight, + Thy comrade's honour and thy friend's delight. + If yet thy gentle spirit hover nigh + The spot where now thy mouldering ashes lie, + Here wilt thou read, recorded on my heart, + A grief too deep to trust the sculptor's art. + No marble marks thy couch of lowly sleep, + But living statues there are seen to weep; + Affliction's semblance bends not o'er thy tomb, + Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom. + What though thy sire lament his failing line, + A father's sorrows cannot equal mine! + Though none, like thee, his dying hour will cheer, + Yet other offspring soothe his anguish here: + But, who with me shall hold thy former place? + Thine image, what new friendship can efface? + Ah, none!--a father's tears will cease to flow, + Time will assuage an infant brother's woe; + To all, save one, is consolation known, + While solitary Friendship sighs alone. + +HARROW, 1803. [2] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Oh Boy! for ever loved, for ever dear! + What fruitless tears have wash'd thy honour'd bier; + What sighs re-echoed to thy parting breath, + Whilst thou wert struggling in the pangs of death. + Could tears have turn'd the tyrant in his course, + Could sighs have checked his dart's relentless force; [iii] + Could youth and virtue claim a short delay, + Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey, + Thou still had'st liv'd to bless my aching sight, + Thy comrade's honour, and thy friend's delight: + Though low thy lot since in a cottage born, + No titles did thy humble name adorn, + To me, far dearer, was thy artless love, + Than all the joys, wealth, fame, and friends could prove. + For thee alone I liv'd, or wish'd to live, + (Oh God! if impious, this rash word forgive,) + Heart-broken now, I wait an equal doom, + Content to join thee in thy turf-clad tomb; + Where this frail form compos'd in endless rest, + I'll make my last, cold, pillow on thy breast; + That breast where oft in life, I've laid my head, + Will yet receive me mouldering with the dead; + This life resign'd, without one parting sigh, + Together in one bed of earth we'll lie! + Together share the fate to mortals given, + Together mix our dust, and hope for Heaven._ + +HARROW, 1803.--[4to. _P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote 1: The heading which appears in the Quarto and _P. on V. +Occasions_ was subsequently changed to "Epitaph on a Friend." The motto +was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'. The epigram which Bergk leaves +under Plato's name was translated by Shelley ('Poems', 1895, iii. +361)-- + + + "Thou wert the morning star + Among the living, + Ere thy fair light had fled; + Now having died, thou art as + Hesperus, giving + New splendour to the dead." + +There is an echo of the Greek distich in Byron's exquisite line, "The +Morning-Star of Memory." + +The words, "Southwell, March 17," are added, in a lady's hand, on p. 9 +of the annotated copy of P. 'on' V. 'Occasions' in the British Museum. +The conjecture that the "'beloved' friend," who is of humble origin, is +identical with "E----" of the verses on p. 4, remains uncertain.] + + +[Footnote ii: + _have bath'd thy honoured bier._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + _Could tears retard,_ [_P. on V. Occasions._] + _Could sighs avert._ [_P. on V. Occasions._] ] + + + + + + + +ADRIAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL WHEN DYING. + + + Animula! vagula, Blandula, + Hospes, comesque corporis, + Quae nunc abibis in Loca-- + Pallidula, rigida, nudula, + Nec, ut soles, dabis Jocos? + + +TRANSLATION. + + + Ah! gentle, fleeting, wav'ring Sprite, + Friend and associate of this clay! + To what unknown region borne, + Wilt thou, now, wing thy distant flight? + No more with wonted humour gay, + But pallid, cheerless, and forlorn. + +1806. + + + + + + + +A FRAGMENT. [1] + + When, to their airy hall, my Fathers' voice + Shall call my spirit, joyful in their choice; + When, pois'd upon the gale, my form shall ride, + Or, dark in mist, descend the mountain's side; + Oh! may my shade behold no sculptur'd urns, + To mark the spot where earth to earth returns! + No lengthen'd scroll, no praise-encumber'd stone; [i] + My _epitaph_ shall be my name alone: [2] + If _that_ with honour fail to crown my clay, [ii] + Oh! may no other fame my deeds repay! + _That_, only _that_, shall single out the spot; + By that remember'd, or with that forgot. [iii] + +1803. + + +[Footnote 1: There is no heading in the Quarto.] + +[Footnote 2: In his will, drawn up in 1811, Byron gave directions that +"no inscription, save his name and age, should be written on his tomb." +June, 1819, he wrote to Murray: "Some of the epitaphs at the Certosa +cemetery, at Ferrara, pleased me more than the more splendid monuments +at Bologna; for instance, 'Martini Luigi Implora pace.' Can anything be +more full of pathos? I hope whoever may survive me will see those two +words, and no more, put over me."--'Life', pp. 131, 398.] + + +[Footnote: i. + + 'No lengthen'd scroll of virtue and renown.' + +[4to. P. on V. Occ.]] + + +[Footnote: ii. + + 'If that with honour fails,' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote: iii. + + 'But that remember'd, or fore'er forgot'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [1] + + +1. + + Oh! when shall the grave hide for ever my sorrow? + Oh! when shall my soul wing her flight from this clay? + The present is hell! and the coming to-morrow + But brings, with new torture, the curse of to-day. + + +2. + + From my eye flows no tear, from my lips flow no curses, [i] + I blast not the fiends who have hurl'd me from bliss; + For poor is the soul which, bewailing, rehearses + Its querulous grief, when in anguish like this-- + + +3. + + Was my eye, 'stead of tears, with red fury flakes bright'ning, + Would my lips breathe a flame which no stream could assuage, + On our foes should my glance launch in vengeance its lightning, + With transport my tongue give a loose to its rage. + + +4. + + But now tears and curses, alike unavailing, + Would add to the souls of our tyrants delight; + Could they view us our sad separation bewailing, + Their merciless hearts would rejoice at the sight. + + +5. + + Yet, still, though we bend with a feign'd resignation, + Life beams not for us with one ray that can cheer; + Love and Hope upon earth bring no more consolation, + In the grave is our hope, for in life is our fear. + + +6. + + Oh! when, my ador'd, in the tomb will they place me, + Since, in life, love and friendship for ever are fled? + If again in the mansion of death I embrace thee, + Perhaps they will leave unmolested--the dead. + + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: [To------.--[4to].]] + +[Footnote i: 'fall no curses'.--[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [1] + + +1. + + When I hear you express an affection so warm, + Ne'er think, my belov'd, that I do not believe; + For your lip would the soul of suspicion disarm, + And your eye beams a ray which can never deceive. + + +2. + + Yet still, this fond bosom regrets, while adoring, + That love, like the leaf, must fall into the sear, + That Age will come on, when Remembrance, deploring, + Contemplates the scenes of her youth, with a tear; + + +3. + + That the time must arrive, when, no longer retaining + Their auburn, those locks must wave thin to the breeze, + When a few silver hairs of those tresses remaining, + Prove nature a prey to decay and disease. + + +4. + + Tis this, my belov'd, which spreads gloom o'er my features, + Though I ne'er shall presume to arraign the decree + Which God has proclaim'd as the fate of his creatures, + In the death which one day will deprive you of me. [i] + + +5. + + Mistake not, sweet sceptic, the cause of emotion, [ii] + No doubt can the mind of your lover invade; + He worships each look with such faithful devotion, + A smile can enchant, or a tear can dissuade. + + +6. + + But as death, my belov'd, soon or late shall o'ertake us, + And our breasts, which alive with such sympathy glow, + Will sleep in the grave, till the blast shall awake us, + When calling the dead, in Earth's bosom laid low. + + +7. + + Oh! then let us drain, while we may, draughts of pleasure, + Which from passion, like ours, must unceasingly flow; [iii] + Let us pass round the cup of Love's bliss in full measure, + And quaff the contents as our nectar below. + + + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: [There is no heading in the Quarto.]] + +[Footnote i: _will deprive me of thee_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote ii: + + _No jargon of priests o'er our union was mutter'd, + To rivet the fetters of husband and wife; + By our lips, by our hearts, were our vows alone utter'd, + To perform them, in full, would ask more than a life_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _will unceasingly flow_.--[4to]] + + + + + + + + +ON A DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLAGE AND SCHOOL OF HARROW ON THE HILL, 1806. + + + Oh! mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos.[1] + + VIRGIL. + + +1. + + Ye scenes of my childhood, whose lov'd recollection + Embitters the present, compar'd with the past; + Where science first dawn'd on the powers of reflection, + And friendships were form'd, too romantic to last; [2] + +2. + + Where fancy, yet, joys to retrace the resemblance + Of comrades, in friendship and mischief allied; [3] + How welcome to me your ne'er fading remembrance, [i] + Which rests in the bosom, though hope is deny'd! + + +3. + + Again I revisit the hills where we sported, + The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought; [4] + The school where, loud warn'd by the bell, we resorted, + To pore o'er the precepts by Pedagogues taught. + + +4. + + Again I behold where for hours I have ponder'd, + As reclining, at eve, on yon tombstone [5] I lay; + Or round the steep brow of the churchyard I wander'd, + To catch the last gleam of the sun's setting ray. + + +5. + + I once more view the room, with spectators surrounded, + Where, as Zanga, [6] I trod on Alonzo o'erthrown; + While, to swell my young pride, such applauses resounded, + I fancied that Mossop [7] himself was outshone. + + +6. + + Or, as Lear, I pour'd forth the deep imprecation, + By my daughters, of kingdom and reason depriv'd; + Till, fir'd by loud plaudits and self-adulation, + I regarded myself as a _Garrick_ reviv'd. [ii] + + +7. + + Ye dreams of my boyhood, how much I regret you! + Unfaded your memory dwells in my breast; [iii] + Though sad and deserted, I ne'er can forget you: + Your pleasures may still be in fancy possest. + + +8. + + To Ida full oft may remembrance restore me, [iv] + While Fate shall the shades of the future unroll! + Since Darkness o'ershadows the prospect before me, + More dear is the beam of the past to my soul! + + +9. + + But if, through the course of the years which await me, + Some new scene of pleasure should open to view, + I will say, while with rapture the thought shall elate me, + "Oh! such were the days which my infancy knew." [8] + + +1806. + + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote 2: + + "My school-friendships were with me _passions_ (for I was always + violent), but I do not know that there is one which has endured (to be + sure, some have been cut short by death) till now." + +'Diary', 1821; 'Life', p. 21.] + + +[Footnote 3: Byron was at first placed in the house of Mr. Henry +Drury, but in 1803 was removed to that of Mr. Evans. + + "The reason why Lord Byron wishes for the change, arises from the + repeated complaints of Mr. Henry Drury respecting his inattention to + business, and his propensity to make others laugh and disregard their + employment as much as himself." + +Dr. Joseph Drury to Mr. John Hanson.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "At Harrow I fought my way very fairly. I think I lost but one battle + out of seven." + +'Diary', 1821; 'Life', p. 21.] + + + +[Footnote 5: A tomb in the churchyard at Harrow was so well known to be +his favourite resting-place, that the boys called it "Byron's Tomb:" and +here, they say, he used to sit for hours, wrapt up in thought.--'Life', +p. 26.] + +[Footnote 6: For the display of his declamatory powers, on the +speech-days, he selected always the most vehement passages; such as the +speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, and Lear's address to the +storm.--'Life', p. 20, 'note'; and 'post', p. 103, 'var'. i.] + +[Footnote 7: Henry Mossop (1729-1773), a contemporary of Garrick, famous +for his performance of "Zanga" in Young's tragedy of 'The Revenge'.] + +[Footnote 8: Stanzas 8 and 9 first appeared in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote i: + 'How welcome once more'. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'I consider'd myself'. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'As your memory beams through this agonized breast; + Thus sad and deserted, I n'er can forget you, + Though this heart throbs to bursting by anguish possest. + + [4to] + + Your memory beams through this agonized breast.-- + +[P. on V. Occasions.'] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'I thought this poor brain, fever'd even to madness, + Of tears as of reason for ever was drain'd; + But the drops which now flow down _this_ bosom of sadness, + Convince me the springs have some moisture retain'd'. + + 'Sweet scenes of my childhood! your blest recollection, + Has wrung from these eyelids, to weeping long dead, + In torrents, the tears of my warmest affection, + The last and the fondest, I ever shall shed'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.] + + + + + + + + + +THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY A COLLEGE EXAMINATION. + + + High in the midst, surrounded by his peers, + Magnus [1] his ample front sublime uprears: [i] + Plac'd on his chair of state, he seems a God, + While Sophs [2] and Freshmen tremble at his nod; + As all around sit wrapt in speechless gloom, [ii] + _His_ voice, in thunder, shakes the sounding dome; + Denouncing dire reproach to luckless fools, + Unskill'd to plod in mathematic rules. + + Happy the youth! in Euclid's axioms tried, + Though little vers'd in any art beside; 10 + Who, scarcely skill'd an English line to pen, [iii] + Scans Attic metres with a critic's ken. + + What! though he knows not how his fathers bled, + When civil discord pil'd the fields with dead, + When Edward bade his conquering bands advance, + Or Henry trampled on the crest of France: + Though marvelling at the name of _Magna Charta_, + Yet well he recollects the _laws_ of _Sparta_; + Can tell, what edicts sage _Lycurgus_ made, + While _Blackstone's_ on the _shelf_, _neglected_ laid; 20 + Of _Grecian dramas_ vaunts the deathless fame, + Of _Avon's bard_, rememb'ring scarce the name. + + Such is the youth whose scientific pate + Class-honours, medals, fellowships, await; + Or even, perhaps, the _declamation_ prize, + If to such glorious height, he lifts his eyes. + But lo! no _common_ orator can hope + The envied silver cup within his scope: + Not that our _heads_ much eloquence require, + Th' ATHENIAN'S [3] glowing style, or TULLY'S fire. 30 + A _manner_ clear or warm is useless, since [iv] + We do not try by _speaking_ to _convince_; + Be other _orators_ of pleasing _proud_,-- + We speak to _please_ ourselves, not _move_ the crowd: + Our gravity prefers the _muttering_ tone, + A proper mixture of the _squeak_ and _groan_: + No borrow'd _grace_ of _action_ must be seen, + The slightest motion would displease the _Dean_; + Whilst every staring Graduate would prate, + Against what--_he_ could never imitate. 40 + + The man, who hopes t' obtain the promis'd cup, + Must in one _posture_ stand, and _ne'er look up_; + Nor _stop_, but rattle over _every_ word-- + No matter _what_, so it can _not_ be heard: + Thus let him hurry on, nor think to rest: + Who speaks the _fastest's_ sure to speak the _best_; + Who utters most within the shortest space, + May, safely, hope to win the _wordy race_. + + The Sons of _Science_ these, who, thus repaid, + Linger in ease in Granta's sluggish shade; 50 + Where on Cam's sedgy banks, supine, they lie, + Unknown, unhonour'd live--unwept for die: + Dull as the pictures, which adorn their halls, + They think all learning fix'd within their walls: + In manners rude, in foolish forms precise, + All modern arts affecting to despise; + Yet prizing _Bentley's, Brunck's_, or _Porson's_ [4] note, [v] + More than the _verse on which the critic wrote_: + Vain as their honours, heavy as their Ale, [5] + Sad as their wit, and tedious as their tale; 60 + To friendship dead, though not untaught to feel, + When Self and Church demand a Bigot zeal. + With eager haste they court the lord of power, [vi] + (Whether 'tis PITT or PETTY [6] rules the hour;) + To _him_, with suppliant smiles, they bend the head, + While distant mitres to their eyes are spread; [vii] + But should a storm o'erwhelm him with disgrace, + They'd fly to seek the next, who fill'd his place. + _Such_ are the men who learning's treasures guard! + _Such_ is their _practice_, such is their _reward_! 70 + This _much_, at least, we may presume to say-- + The premium can't exceed the _price_ they _pay_. [viii] + + 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: + + No reflection is here intended against the person mentioned under the + name of Magnus. He is merely represented as performing an unavoidable + function of his office. Indeed, such an attempt could only recoil upon + myself; as that gentleman is now as much distinguished by his + eloquence, and the dignified propriety with which he fills his + situation, as he was in his younger days for wit and conviviality. + +[Dr. William Lort Mansel (1753-1820) was, in 1798, appointed Master of +Trinity College, by Pitt. He obtained the bishopric of Bristol, through +the influence of his pupil, Spencer Perceval, in 1808. He died in 1820.] + + +[Footnote 2: Undergraduates of the second and third year.] + +[Footnote 3: Demosthenes.] + +[Footnote 4: The present Greek professor at Trinity College, Cambridge; +a man whose powers of mind and writings may, perhaps, justify their +preference. [Richard Porson (1759-1808). For Byron's description of him, +see letter to Murray, of February 20, 1818. Byron says ('Diary', +December 17, 18, 1813) that he wrote the 'Devil's Drive' in imitation of +Porson's 'Devil's Walk'. This was a common misapprehension at the time. +The 'Devil's Thoughts' was the joint composition of Coleridge and +Southey, but it was generally attributed to Porson, who took no trouble +to disclaim it. It was originally published in the 'Morning Post', Sept. +6, 1799, and Stuart, the editor, said that it raised the circulation of +the paper for several days after. (See Coleridge's Poems (1893), pp. +147, 621.)] + +[Footnote 5: Lines 59-62 are not in the Quarto. They first appeared in +'Poems Original and Translated'] + +[Footnote 6: Since this was written, Lord Henry Petty has lost his +place, and subsequently (I had almost said consequently) the honour of +representing the University. A fact so glaring requires no comment. +(Lord Henry Petty, M.P. for the University of Cambridge, was Chancellor +of the Exchequer in 1805; but in 1807 he lost his seat. In 1809 he +succeeded his brother as Marquis of Lansdowne. He died in 1863.)] + + +[Footnote i: 'M--us--l.--'[4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'Whilst all around.'--[4to]] + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Who with scarse sense to pen an English letter, + Yet with precision scans an Attis metre.' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'The manner of the speech is nothing, since', + +[4to. 'P, on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'Celebrated critics'. + +[4to. 'Three first Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'They court the tool of power'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'While mitres, prebends'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + The 'reward's' scarce equal to the 'price' they pay. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO MARY, + +ON RECEIVING HER PICTURE. [1] + + +1. + + This faint resemblance of thy charms, + (Though strong as mortal art could give,) + My constant heart of fear disarms, + Revives my hopes, and bids me live. + + +2. + + Here, I can trace the locks of gold + Which round thy snowy forehead wave; + The cheeks which sprung from Beauty's mould, + The lips, which made me 'Beauty's' slave. + + +3. + + Here I can trace--ah, no! that eye, + Whose azure floats in liquid fire, + Must all the painter's art defy, + And bid him from the task retire. + + +4. + + Here, I behold its beauteous hue; + But where's the beam so sweetly straying, [i.] + Which gave a lustre to its blue, + Like Luna o'er the ocean playing? + + +5. + + Sweet copy! far more dear to me, + Lifeless, unfeeling as thou art, + Than all the living forms could be, + Save her who plac'd thee next my heart. + + +6. + + She plac'd it, sad, with needless fear, + Lest time might shake my wavering soul, + Unconscious that her image there + Held every sense in fast controul. + + +7. + + Thro' hours, thro' years, thro' time,'twill cheer-- + My hope, in gloomy moments, raise; + In life's last conflict 'twill appear, + And meet my fond, expiring gaze. + + +[Footnote 1: This "Mary" is not to be confounded with the heiress of +Annesley, or "Mary" of Aberdeen. She was of humble station in life. +Byron used to show a lock of her light golden hair, as well as her +picture, among his friends. (See 'Life', p. 41, 'note'.)] + +[Footnote i.: + + 'But Where's the beam of soft desire? + Which gave a lustre to its blue, + Love, only love, could e'er inspire.--' + +[4to. 'P. on V, Occasions]] + + + + + + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF MR. FOX,[1] + +THE FOLLOWING ILLIBERAL IMPROMPTU APPEARED IN THE "MORNING POST." + + + "Our Nation's foes lament on _Fox's_ death, + But bless the hour, when PITT resign'd his breath: + These feelings wide, let Sense and Truth unclue, + We give the palm, where Justice points its due." + + + + +TO WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THESE PIECES SENT THE FOLLOWING REPLY [i] +FOR INSERTION IN THE "MORNING CHRONICLE." + + + Oh, factious viper! whose envenom'd tooth + Would mangle, still, the dead, perverting truth; [ii] + What, though our "nation's foes" lament the fate, + With generous feeling, of the good and great; + Shall dastard tongues essay to blast the name [iii] + Of him, whose meed exists in endless fame? + When PITT expir'd in plenitude of power, + Though ill success obscur'd his dying hour, + Pity her dewy wings before him spread, + For noble spirits "war not with the dead:" + His friends in tears, a last sad requiem gave, + As all his errors slumber'd in the grave; [iv] + He sunk, an Atlas bending "'neath the weight" [v] + Of cares o'erwhelming our conflicting state. + When, lo! a Hercules, in Fox, appear'd, + Who for a time the ruin'd fabric rear'd: + He, too, is fall'n, who Britain's loss supplied, [vi] + With him, our fast reviving hopes have died; + Not one great people, only, raise his urn, + All Europe's far-extended regions mourn. + "These feelings wide, let Sense and Truth undue, + To give the palm where Justice points its due;" [vii] + Yet, let not canker'd Calumny assail, [viii] + Or round her statesman wind her gloomy veil. + FOX! o'er whose corse a mourning world must weep, + Whose dear remains in honour'd marble sleep; + For whom, at last, e'en hostile nations groan, + While friends and foes, alike, his talents own.--[ix] + Fox! shall, in Britain's future annals, shine, + Nor e'en to PITT, the patriot's 'palm' resign; + Which Envy, wearing Candour's sacred mask, + For PITT, and PITT alone, has dar'd to ask. [x] + +(Southwell, Oct., 1806. [1]) + + +[Footnote 1: The stanza on the death of Fox appeared in the _Morning +Post_, September 26, 1806.] + +[Footnote 2: This MS. is preserved at Newstead.] + +[Footnote i: + + _The subjoined Reply._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Would mangle, still, the dead, in spite of truth._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _Shall, therefore, dastard tongues assail the name + Of him, whose virtues claim eternal fame?_ + +[4to] ] + +[Footnote iv: _And all his errors._--[4to] ] + +[Footnote v: +_He died, an Atlas bending 'neath the weight +Of cares oppressing our unhappy state. +But lo! another Hercules appeared._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote vi: + +_He too is dead who still our England propp'd +With him our fast reviving hopes have dropp'd._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote vii: _And give the palm._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote viii: + + _But let not canker'd Calumny assail + And round.-- + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote ix: _And friends and foes._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote x: '--would dare to ask.' [410]] + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY WHO PRESENTED TO THE AUTHOR A LOCK OF HAIR BRAIDED WITH HIS +OWN, AND APPOINTED A NIGHT IN DECEMBER TO MEET HIM IN THE GARDEN. [1] + + These locks, which fondly thus entwine, + In firmer chains our hearts confine, + Than all th' unmeaning protestations + Which swell with nonsense, love orations. + Our love is fix'd, I think we've prov'd it; + Nor time, nor place, nor art have mov'd it; + Then wherefore should we sigh and whine, + With groundless jealousy repine; + With silly whims, and fancies frantic, + Merely to make our love romantic? + Why should you weep, like _Lydia Languish_, + And fret with self-created anguish? + Or doom the lover you have chosen, + On winter nights to sigh half frozen; + In leafless shades, to sue for pardon, + Only because the scene's a garden? + For gardens seem, by one consent, + (Since Shakespeare set the precedent; + Since Juliet first declar'd her passion) + To form the place of assignation. + Oh! would some modern muse inspire, + And seat her by a _sea-coal_ fire; + Or had the bard at Christmas written, + And laid the scene of love in Britain; + He surely, in commiseration, + Had chang'd the place of declaration. + In Italy, I've no objection, + Warm nights are proper for reflection; + But here our climate is so rigid, + That love itself, is rather frigid: + Think on our chilly situation, + And curb this rage for imitation. + Then let us meet, as oft we've done, + Beneath the influence of the sun; + Or, if at midnight I must meet you, + Within your mansion let me greet you: [i.] + 'There', we can love for hours together, + Much better, in such snowy weather, + Than plac'd in all th' Arcadian groves, + That ever witness'd rural loves; + 'Then', if my passion fail to please, [ii.] + Next night I'll be content to freeze; + No more I'll give a loose to laughter, + But curse my fate, for ever after. [2] + + +[Footnote 1: These lines are addressed to the same Mary referred to in +the lines beginning, "This faint resemblance of thy charms." ('Vide +ante', p. 32.)] + +[Footnote 2: In the above little piece the author has been accused by +some 'candid readers' of introducing the name of a lady [Julia +Leacroft] from whom he was some hundred miles distant at the time this +was written; and poor Juliet, who has slept so long in "the tomb of all +the Capulets," has been converted, with a trifling alteration of her +name, into an English damsel, walking in a garden of their own creation, +during the month of 'December', in a village where the author never +passed a winter. Such has been the candour of some ingenious critics. We +would advise these 'liberal' commentators on taste and arbiters of +decorum to read 'Shakespeare'. + +Having heard that a very severe and indelicate censure has been passed +on the above poem, I beg leave to reply in a quotation from an admired +work, 'Carr's Stranger in France'.--"As we were contemplating a +painting on a large scale, in which, among other figures, is the +uncovered whole length of a warrior, a prudish-looking lady, who seemed +to have touched the age of desperation, after having attentively +surveyed it through her glass, observed to her party that there was a +great deal of indecorum in that picture. Madame S. shrewdly whispered in +my ear 'that the indecorum was in the remark.'"--[Ed. 1803, cap. xvi, p. +171. Compare the note on verses addressed "To a Knot of Ungenerous +Critics," p. 213.]] + +[Footnote i: + + 'Oh! let me in your chamber greet you.' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'There if my passion' + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions]] + + + + + + + + + +TO A BEAUTIFUL QUAKER. [1] + + + Sweet girl! though only once we met, + That meeting I shall ne'er forget; + And though we ne'er may meet again, + Remembrance will thy form retain; + I would not say, "I love," but still, + My senses struggle with my will: + In vain to drive thee from my breast, + My thoughts are more and more represt; + In vain I check the rising sighs, + Another to the last replies: + Perhaps, this is not love, but yet, + Our meeting I can ne'er forget. + + What, though we never silence broke, + Our eyes a sweeter language spoke; + The tongue in flattering falsehood deals, + And tells a tale it never feels: + Deceit, the guilty lips impart, + And hush the mandates of the heart; + But soul's interpreters, the eyes, + Spurn such restraint, and scorn disguise. + As thus our glances oft convers'd, + And all our bosoms felt rehears'd, + No _spirit_, from within, reprov'd us, + Say rather, "'twas the _spirit mov'd_ us." + Though, what they utter'd, I repress, + Yet I conceive thou'lt partly guess; + For as on thee, my memory ponders, + Perchance to me, thine also wanders. + This, for myself, at least, I'll say, + Thy form appears through night, through day; + Awake, with it my fancy teems, + In sleep, it smiles in fleeting dreams; + The vision charms the hours away, + And bids me curse Aurora's ray + For breaking slumbers of delight, + Which make me wish for endless night. + Since, oh! whate'er my future fate, + Shall joy or woe my steps await; + Tempted by love, by storms beset, + Thine image, I can ne'er forget. + + Alas! again no more we meet, + No more our former looks repeat; + Then, let me breathe this parting prayer, + The dictate of my bosom's care: + "May Heaven so guard my lovely quaker, + That anguish never can o'ertake her; + That peace and virtue ne'er forsake her, + But bliss be aye her heart's partaker! + Oh! may the happy mortal, fated [i] + To be, by dearest ties, related, + For _her_, each hour, _new joys_ discover, [ii] + And lose the husband in the lover! + May that fair bosom never know + What 'tis to feel the restless woe, + Which stings the soul, with vain regret, + Of him, who never can forget!" + + 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: + + _Whom the author saw at Harrowgate_. + +Annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 64 (British Museum).] + + +[Footnote i: +The Quarto inserts the following lines:-- + + _"No jealous passion shall invade, + No envy that pure heart pervade;" + For he that revels in such charms, + Can never seek another's arms._] + + +[Footnote ii: + + new joy _discover_. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + +TO LESBIA! [i] [1] + + + +1. + + LESBIA! since far from you I've rang'd, [ii] + Our souls with fond affection glow not; + You say, 'tis I, not you, have chang'd, + I'd tell you why,--but yet I know not. + + +2. + + Your polish'd brow no cares have crost; + And Lesbia! we are not much older, [iii] + Since, trembling, first my heart I lost, + Or told my love, with hope grown bolder. + + +3. + + Sixteen was then our utmost age, + Two years have lingering pass'd away, love! + And now new thoughts our minds engage, + At least, I feel disposed to stray, love! + + +4. + + "Tis _I_ that am alone to blame, + _I_, that am guilty of love's treason; + Since your sweet breast is still the same, + Caprice must be my only reason. + + +5. + + I do not, love! suspect your truth, + With jealous doubt my bosom heaves not; + Warm was the passion of my youth, + One trace of dark deceit it leaves not. + + +6. + + No, no, my flame was not pretended; + For, oh! I lov'd you most sincerely; + And though our dream at last is ended + My bosom still esteems you dearly. + + +7. + + No more we meet in yonder bowers; + Absence has made me prone to roving; [iv] + But older, firmer _hearts_ than ours + Have found monotony in loving. + + +8. + + Your cheek's soft bloom is unimpair'd, + New beauties, still, are daily bright'ning, + Your eye, for conquest beams prepar'd, [v] + The forge of love's resistless lightning. + + +9. + + Arm'd thus, to make their bosoms bleed, + Many will throng, to sigh like me, love! + More constant they may prove, indeed; + Fonder, alas! they ne'er can be, love! + + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: "The lady's name was Julia Leacroft" ('Note by Miss E. +Pigot'). The word "Julia" (?) is added, in a lady's hand, in the +annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 52 (British Museum)] + +[Footnote i: 'To Julia'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'Julia since'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: 'And Julia'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: + + _Perhaps my soul's too pure for roving_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote v: + + _Your eye for conquest comes prepar'd_. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + +TO WOMAN. + + + Woman! experience might have told me [i] + That all must love thee, who behold thee: + Surely experience might have taught + Thy firmest promises are nought; [ii] + But, plac'd in all thy charms before me, + All I forget, but to _adore_ thee. + Oh memory! thou choicest blessing, + When join'd with hope, when still possessing; [iii] + But how much curst by every lover + When hope is fled, and passion's over. + Woman, that fair and fond deceiver, + How prompt are striplings to believe her! + How throbs the pulse, when first we view + The eye that rolls in glossy blue, + Or sparkles black, or mildly throws + A beam from under hazel brows! + How quick we credit every oath, + And hear her plight the willing troth! + Fondly we hope 'twill last for ay, + When, lo! she changes in a day. + This record will for ever stand,' + "Woman, thy vows are trac'd in sand." [1] [iv] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Surely, experience_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _A woman's promises are naught_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote iii: Here follows, in the Quarto, an additional couplet:-- + + _Thou whisperest, as our hearts are beating, + "What oft we've done, we're still repeating_,"] + + +[Footnote iv: + + _This Record will for ever stand + That Woman's vows are writ in sand_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote 1: The last line is almost a literal translation from a +Spanish proverb. + +(The last line is not "almost a literal translation from a Spanish +proverb," but an adaptation of part of a stanza from the 'Diana' of +Jorge de Montemajor-- + + "Mira, el Amor, lo que ordena; + Que os viene a hazer creer + Cosas dichas por muger, + Y escriptas en el arena." + +Southey, in his 'Letters from Spain', 1797, pp. 87-91, gives a specimen +of the 'Diana', and renders the lines in question thus-- + + "And Love beheld us from his secret stand, + And mark'd his triumph, laughing, to behold me, + To see me trust a writing traced in sand, + To see me credit what a woman told me." + +Byron, who at this time had little or no knowledge of Spanish +literature, seems to have been struck with Southey's paraphrase, and +compressed the quatrain into an epigram.] + + + + + + + + + +AN OCCASIONAL PROLOGUE, + +DELIVERED BY THE AUTHOR PREVIOUS TO THE PERFORMANCE OF "THE WHEEL OF +FORTUNE" AT A PRIVATE THEATRE. [1] + + + Since the refinement of this polish'd age + Has swept immoral raillery from the stage; + Since taste has now expung'd licentious wit, + Which stamp'd disgrace on all an author writ; + Since, now, to please with purer scenes we seek, + Nor dare to call the blush from Beauty's cheek; + Oh! let the modest Muse some pity claim, + And meet indulgence--though she find not fame. + Still, not for _her_ alone, we wish respect, [i] + _Others_ appear more conscious of defect: + To-night no _vet'ran Roscii_ you behold, + In all the arts of scenic action old; + No COOKE, no KEMBLE, can salute you here, + No SIDDONS draw the sympathetic tear; + To-night you throng to witness the _debut_ + Of embryo Actors, to the Drama new: + Here, then, our almost unfledg'd wings we try; + Clip not our _pinions_, ere the _birds can fly_: + Failing in this our first attempt to soar, + Drooping, alas! we fall to rise no more. + Not one poor trembler, only, fear betrays, + Who hopes, yet almost dreads to meet your praise; + But all our Dramatis Personae wait, + In fond suspense this crisis of their fate. + No venal views our progress can retard, + Your generous plaudits are our sole reward; + For these, each _Hero_ all his power displays, [ii] + Each timid _Heroine_ shrinks before your gaze: + Surely the last will some protection find? [iii] + None, to the softer sex, can prove unkind: + While Youth and Beauty form the female shield, [iv] + The sternest Censor to the fair must yield. [v] + Yet, should our feeble efforts nought avail, + Should, _after all_, our best endeavours fail; + Still, let some mercy in your bosoms live, + And, if you can't applaud, at least _forgive_. + + + +[Footnote 1. "I enacted Penruddock, in 'The Wheel of Fortune', and +Tristram Fickle, in the farce of 'The Weathercock', for three nights, in +some private theatricals at Southwell, in 1806, with great applause. The +occasional prologue for our volunteer play was also of my +composition."--'Diary; Life', p. 38. The prologue was written by him, +between stages, on his way from Harrogate. On getting into the carriage +at Chesterfield, he said to his companion, "Now, Pigot, I'll spin a +prologue for our play;" and before they reached Mansfield he had +completed his task,--interrupting only once his rhyming reverie, to ask +the proper pronunciation of the French word 'debut'; and, on being told +it, exclaiming, "Aye, that will do for rhyme to ''new'.'"--'Life', p. +39. "The Prologue was spoken by G. Wylde, Esq."--Note by Miss E. PIGOT.] + +[Footnote i. _But not for her alone_.--[4to] + +[Footnote ii: _For them each Hero_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _Surely these last_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote iv: _Whilst Youth_.--[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + +[Footnote v: _The sternest critic_.--[4to]] + + + + + + + + + + +TO ELIZA. [i] + + +1. + + Eliza! [1] what fools are the Mussulman sect, + Who, to woman, deny the soul's future existence; + Could they see thee, Eliza! they'd own their defect, + And this doctrine would meet with a general resistance. [ii] + + +2. + + Had their Prophet possess'd half an atom of sense, [iii] + He ne'er would have _woman_ from Paradise driven; + Instead of his _Houris_, a flimsy pretence, [iv] + With _woman alone_ he had peopled his Heaven. + + +3. + + Yet, still, to increase your calamities more, [v] + Not content with depriving your bodies of spirit, + He allots one poor husband to share amongst four! [vi]-- + With _souls_ you'd dispense; but, this last, who could bear it? + + +4. + + His religion to please neither party is made; + On _husbands_ 'tis _hard_, to the wives most uncivil; + Still I can't contradict, [vii] what so oft has been said, + "Though women are angels, yet wedlock's the devil." + + +5. + + This terrible truth, even Scripture has told, [2] + Ye Benedicks! hear me, and listen with rapture; + If a glimpse of redemption you wish to behold, + Of ST. MATT.--read the second and twentieth chapter. + + +6. + + 'Tis surely enough upon earth to be vex'd, + With wives who eternal confusion are spreading; + "But in Heaven" (so runs the Evangelists' Text) + "We neither have giving in marriage, or wedding." + + +7. + + From this we suppose, (as indeed well we may,) + That should Saints after death, with their spouses put up more, + And wives, as in life, aim at absolute sway, + All Heaven would ring with the conjugal uproar. + + +8. + + Distraction and Discord would follow in course, + Nor MATTHEW, nor MARK, nor ST. PAUL, can deny it, + The only expedient is general divorce, + To prevent universal disturbance and riot. + + +9. + + But though husband and wife, shall at length be disjoin'd, + Yet woman and man ne'er were meant to dissever, + Our chains once dissolv'd, and our hearts unconfin'd, + We'll love without bonds, but we'll love you for ever. + + +10. + + Though souls are denied you by fools and by rakes, + Should you own it yourselves, I would even then doubt you, + Your nature so much of _celestial_ partakes, + The Garden of Eden would wither without you. + + +Southwell, _October_ 9, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The letters "E. B. P." are added, in a lady's hand, in the +annotated copy of _P. on V. Occasions_, p. 26 (_British Museum_). The +initials stand for Miss Elizabeth Pigot.] + +[Footnote 2: Stanzas 5-10, which appear in the Quarto, were never +reprinted.] + +[Footnote i: + + _To Miss E. P._ [4to] + _To Miss_---. [_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Did they know but yourself they would bend with respect, + And this doctrine must meet_---. + +[_MS. Newstead_.]] + + +[Footnote iii: _But an atom of sense_. [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: _But instead of his_ Houris. [4to]] + +[Footnote v: _But still to increase_. [4to]] + +[Footnote vi: _He allots but one husband. [4to]] + +[Footnote vii: _But I can't---._ [4to]] + + + + + + + + + + + +THE TEAR. + + + + O lachrymarum fons, tenero sacros + Ducentium ortus ex animo; quater + Felix! in imo qui scatentem + Pectore te, pia Nympha, sensit. [1] + + GRAY, 'Alcaic Fragment'. + + + +1. + + When Friendship or Love + Our sympathies move; + When Truth, in a glance, should appear, + The lips may beguile, + With a dimple or smile, + But the test of affection's a _Tear_. + + +2. + + Too oft is a smile + But the hypocrite's wile, + To mask detestation, or fear; + Give me the soft sigh, + Whilst the soul-telling eye + Is dimm'd, for a time, with a _Tear_. + + +3. + + Mild Charity's glow, + To us mortals below, + Shows the soul from barbarity clear; + Compassion will melt, + Where this virtue is felt, + And its dew is diffused in a _Tear_. + + +4. + + The man, doom'd to sail + With the blast of the gale, + Through billows Atlantic to steer, + As he bends o'er the wave + Which may soon be his grave, + The green sparkles bright with a _Tear_. + + +5. + + The Soldier braves death + For a fanciful wreath + In Glory's romantic career; + But he raises the foe + When in battle laid low, + And bathes every wound with a _Tear_. + + +6. + + If, with high-bounding pride,[i] + He return to his bride! + Renouncing the gore-crimson'd spear; + All his toils are repaid + When, embracing the maid, + From her eyelid he kisses the _Tear_. + + +7. + + Sweet scene of my youth! [2] + Seat of Friendship and Truth, + Where Love chas'd each fast-fleeting year; + Loth to leave thee, I mourn'd, + For a last look I turn'd, + But thy spire was scarce seen through a _Tear_. + + +8. + + Though my vows I can pour, + To my Mary no more, [3] + My Mary, to Love once so dear, + In the shade of her bow'r, + I remember the hour, + She rewarded those vows with a _Tear_. + + +9. + + By another possest, + May she live ever blest! + Her name still my heart must revere: + With a sigh I resign, + What I once thought was mine, + And forgive her deceit with a _Tear_. + + +10. + + Ye friends of my heart, + Ere from you I depart, + This hope to my breast is most near: + If again we shall meet, + In this rural retreat, + May we _meet_, as we _part_, with a _Tear_. + + +11. + + When my soul wings her flight + To the regions of night, + And my corse shall recline on its bier; [ii] + As ye pass by the tomb, + Where my ashes consume, + Oh! moisten their dust with a _Tear_. + + +12. + + May no marble bestow + The splendour of woe, + Which the children of Vanity rear; + No fiction of fame + Shall blazon my name, + All I ask, all I wish, is a _Tear_. + + +October 26, 1806. [iii] + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote 2: Harrow.] + +[Footnote 3: Miss Chaworth was married in 1805.] + +[Footnote i: + + _When with high-bounding pride, + He returns_----. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _And my body shall sleep on its bier_. + +[4to. _P. on V. Occasions_.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + BYRON, October 26, 1806. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + +REPLY TO SOME VERSES OF J. M. B. PIGOT, ESQ., +ON THE CRUELTY OF HIS MISTRESS. [1] + + +1. + + Why, Pigot, complain + Of this damsel's disdain, + Why thus in despair do you fret? + For months you may try, + Yet, believe me, a _sigh_ [i] + Will never obtain a _coquette_. + + +2. + + Would you teach her to love? + For a time seem to rove; + At first she may _frown_ in a _pet;_ + But leave her awhile, + She shortly will smile, + And then you may _kiss_ your _coquette_. + + +3. + + For such are the airs + Of these fanciful fairs, + They think all our _homage_ a _debt_: + Yet a partial neglect [ii] + Soon takes an effect, + And humbles the proudest _coquette_. + + +4. + + Dissemble your pain, + And lengthen your chain, + And seem her _hauteur_ to _regret;_ [iii] + If again you shall sigh, + She no more will deny, + That _yours_ is the rosy _coquette_. + + +5. + + If still, from false pride, [iv] + Your pangs she deride, + This whimsical virgin forget; + Some _other_ admire, + Who will _melt_ with your _fire_, + And laugh at the _little coquette_. + + +6. + + For _me_, I adore + Some _twenty_ or more, + And love them most dearly; but yet, + Though my heart they enthral, + I'd abandon them all, + Did they act like your blooming _coquette_. + + +7. + + No longer repine, + Adopt this design, [v] + And break through her slight-woven net! + Away with despair, + No longer forbear + To fly from the captious _coquette_. + + +8. + + Then quit her, my friend! + Your bosom defend, + Ere quite with her snares you're beset: + Lest your deep-wounded heart, + When incens'd by the smart, + Should lead you to _curse_ the _coquette_. + + +October 27, 1806. [vi] + + +[Footnote 1: The letters "C. B. F. J. B. M." are added, in a lady's +hand, in the annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 14 (British +Museum).] + +[Footnote i: _But believe me_. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: _But a partial_. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _Nor seem_. [4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + +[Footnote iv: _But if from false pride._ [4to]] + +[Footnote v: _But form this design._ [4to]] + +[Footnote vi: BYRON, October 27, 1806. [4to] + + + + + + + + + + + + +GRANTA. A MEDLEY. + +[Greek: Argureais logchaisi machou kai panta krataese_o.] [1] + +(Reply of the Pythian Oracle to Philip of Macedon.) + + +1. + + Oh! could LE SAGE'S [2] demon's gift + Be realis'd at my desire, + This night my trembling form he'd lift + To place it on St. Mary's spire. [i] + + +2. + + Then would, unroof'd, old Granta's halls, + Pedantic inmates full display; + _Fellows_ who dream on _lawn_ or _stalls_, + The price of venal votes to pay. [ii] + + +3. + + Then would I view each rival wight, + PETTY and PALMERSTON survey; + Who canvass there, with all their might, [iii] + Against the next elective day. [3] + + +4. + + Lo! candidates and voters lie [iv] + All lull'd in sleep, a goodly number! + A race renown'd for piety, + Whose conscience won't disturb their slumber. + + +5. + + Lord H---[4] indeed, may not demur; + Fellows are sage, reflecting men: + They know preferment can occur, + But very seldom,--_now_ and _then_. + + +6. + + They know the Chancellor has got + Some pretty livings in disposal: + Each hopes that _one_ may be his _lot_, + And, therefore, smiles on his proposal. [v] + + +7. + + Now from the soporific scene [vi] + I'll turn mine eye, as night grows later, + To view, unheeded and unseen, [vii] + The studious sons of Alma Mater. + + +8. + + There, in apartments small and damp, + The candidate for college prizes, + Sits poring by the midnight lamp; + Goes late to bed, yet early rises. [viii] + +9. + + He surely well deserves to gain them, + With all the honours of his college, [ix] + Who, striving hardly to obtain them, + Thus seeks unprofitable knowledge: + + +10. + + Who sacrifices hours of rest, + To scan precisely metres Attic; + Or agitates his anxious breast, [x] + In solving problems mathematic: + + +11. + + Who reads false quantities in Seale, [5] + Or puzzles o'er the deep triangle; + Depriv'd of many a wholesome meal; [xi] + In _barbarous Latin_ [6] doom'd to wrangle: + + +12. + + Renouncing every pleasing page, + From authors of historic use; + Preferring to the letter'd sage, + The square of the hypothenuse. [7] + + +13. + + Still, harmless are these occupations, [xii] + That hurt none but the hapless student, + Compar'd with other recreations, + Which bring together the imprudent; + + +14. + + Whose daring revels shock the sight, + When vice and infamy combine, + When Drunkenness and dice invite, [xiii] + As every sense is steep'd in wine. + + +15. + + Not so the methodistic crew, + Who plans of reformation lay: + In humble attitude they sue, + And for the sins of others pray: + + +16. + + Forgetting that their pride of spirit, + Their exultation in their trial, [xiv] + Detracts most largely from the merit + Of all their boasted self-denial. + + +17. + + 'Tis morn:--from these I turn my sight: + What scene is this which meets the eye? + A numerous crowd array'd in white, [8] + Across the green in numbers fly. + + +18. + + Loud rings in air the chapel bell; + 'Tis hush'd:--what sounds are these I hear? + The organ's soft celestial swell + Rolls deeply on the listening ear. + + +19. + + To this is join'd the sacred song, + The royal minstrel's hallow'd strain; + Though _he_ who hears the _music_ long, [xv] + Will _never_ wish to _hear again_. + + +20. + + Our choir would scarcely be excus'd, + E'en as a band of raw beginners; + All mercy, now, must be refus'd [xvi] + To such a set of croaking sinners. + + +21. + + If David, when his toils were ended, + Had heard these blockheads sing before him, + To us his psalms had ne'er descended,-- + In furious mood he would have tore 'em. + + +22. + + The luckless Israelites, when taken + By some inhuman tyrant's order, + Were ask'd to sing, by joy forsaken, + On Babylonian river's border. + + +23. + + Oh! had they sung in notes like these [xvii] + Inspir'd by stratagem or fear, + They might have set their hearts at ease, + The devil a soul had stay'd to hear. + + +24. + + But if I scribble longer now, [xviii] + The deuce a soul will _stay to read_; + My pen is blunt, my ink is low; + 'Tis almost time to _stop_, _indeed_. + + +25. + + Therefore, farewell, old _Granta's_ spires! + No more, like _Cleofas_, I fly; + No more thy theme my Muse inspires: + The reader's tir'd, and so am I. + + +October 28, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'. + + "Fight with silver spears" ('i.e'. with bribes), "and them shall + prevail in all things."] + + +[Footnote 2: The 'Diable Boiteux' of Le Sage, where Asmodeus, the demon, +places Don Cleofas on an elevated situation, and unroofs the houses for +inspection. [Don Cleofas, clinging to the cloak of Asmodeus, is carried +through the air to the summit of S. Salvador.] + +[Footnote 3: On the death of Pitt, in January, 1806, Lord Henry Petty +beat Lord Palmerston in the contest for the representation of the +University of Cambridge in Parliament.] + +[Footnote 4: Probably Lord Henry Petty. See variant iii.] + +[Footnote 5: Scale's publication on Greek Metres displays considerable +talent and ingenuity, but, as might be expected in so difficult a work, +is not remarkable for accuracy. ('An Analysis of the Greek Metres; for +the use of students at the University of Cambridge'. By John Barlow +Seale (1764), 8vo. A fifth edition was issued in 1807.)] + +[Footnote 6. The Latin of the schools is of the 'canine species', and +not very intelligible.] + +[Footnote 7: The discovery of Pythagoras, that the square of the +hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides of a +right-angled triangle.] + +[Footnote 8: On a saint's day the students wear surplices in chapel.] + + + + + +[Footnote i: 'And place it'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'The price of hireling'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: 'Who canvass now'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: + + + 'One on his power and place depends, + The other on--the Lord knows what! + Each to some eloquence pretends, + But neither will convince by that. + + The first, indeed, may not demur; + Fellows are sage reflecting men, + And know'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + +[Footnote v: + + 'And therefore smiles at his'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Now from Corruption's shameless scene'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote vii: 'And view unseen'. [4to]] + +[Footnote viii: 'and early rises'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ix: 'And all the' [4to]] + +[Footnote x: 'And agitates'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xi: 'And robs himself of many a meal'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xii: + + 'But harmless are these occupations + Which'. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'When Drunkenness and dice unite. + And every sense'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: 'And exultation'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xv: 'But he'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xvi: 'But mercy'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xvii: 'But had they sung'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'But if I write much longer now'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE SIGHING STREPHON. [1] + + +1. + + Your pardon, my friend, + If my rhymes did offend, + Your pardon, a thousand times o'er; + From friendship I strove, + Your pangs to remove, + But, I swear, I will do so no more. + + +2. + + Since your _beautiful_ maid, + Your flame has repaid, + No more I your folly regret; + She's now most divine, + And I bow at the shrine, + Of this quickly reformed coquette. + + +3. + + Yet still, I must own, [i] + I should never have known, + From _your verses_, what else she deserv'd; + Your pain seem'd so great, + I pitied your fate, + As your fair was so dev'lish reserv'd. + + +4. + + Since the balm-breathing kiss [ii] + Of this magical Miss, + Can such wonderful transports produce; [iii] + Since the _"world you forget, + When your lips once have met,"_ + My counsel will get but abuse. + + +5. + + You say, "When I rove," + "I know nothing of love;" + Tis true, I am given to range; + If I rightly remember, + _I've lov'd_ a good number; [iv] + Yet there's pleasure, at least, in a change. + + +6. + + I will not advance, [v] + By the rules of romance, + To humour a whimsical fair; + Though a smile may delight, + Yet a _frown_ will _affright,_ [vi] + Or drive me to dreadful despair. + + +7. + + While my blood is thus warm, + I ne'er shall reform, + To mix in the Platonists' school; + Of this I am sure, + Was my Passion so pure, + Thy _Mistress_ would think me a fool. [vii] + + +8 [viii] + + And if I should shun, + Every _woman_ for _one,_ + Whose _image_ must fill my whole breast; + Whom I must _prefer,_ + And _sigh_ but for _her,_ + What an _insult_ 'twould be to the _rest!_ + + +9. + + Now Strephon, good-bye; + I cannot deny, + Your _passion_ appears most _absurd;_ + Such _love_ as you plead, + Is _pure_ love, indeed, + For it _only_ consists in the _word_. + + +[Footnote 1: The letters "J. M. B. P." are added, in a lady's hand, in +the annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 17 (British Museum).] + + +[Footnote i: 'But still'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'But since the chaste kiss.' [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: 'Such wonderful.' [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: + + 'I've kiss'd a good number. + But-----' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'I ne'er will advance.' + +[4to]] + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Yet a frown won't affright.' + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'My mistress must think me.' + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'Though the kisses are sweet, + Which voluptuously meet, + Of kissing I ne'er was so fond, + As to make me forget, + Though our lips oft have met, + That still there was something beyond.' + +[4to] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CORNELIAN. [1] + + +1. + + No specious splendour of this stone + Endears it to my memory ever; + With lustre _only once_ it shone, + And blushes modest as the giver. [i] + + +2. + + Some, who can sneer at friendship's ties, + Have, for my weakness, oft reprov'd me; + Yet still the simple gift I prize, + For I am sure, the giver lov'd me. + + +3. + + He offer'd it with downcast look, + As _fearful_ that I might refuse it; + I told him, when the gift I took, + My _only fear_ should be, to lose it. + + +4. + + This pledge attentively I view'd, + And _sparkling_ as I held it near, + Methought one drop the stone bedew'd, + And, ever since, _I've lov'd a tear._ + + +5. + + Still, to adorn his humble youth, + Nor wealth nor birth their treasures yield; + But he, who seeks the flowers of truth, + Must quit the garden, for the field. + + +6. + + 'Tis not the plant uprear'd in sloth, + Which beauty shews, and sheds perfume; + The flowers, which yield the most of both, + In Nature's wild luxuriance bloom. + + +7. + + Had Fortune aided Nature's care, + For once forgetting to be blind, + _His_ would have been an ample share, + If well proportioned to his mind. + + +8. + + But had the Goddess clearly seen, + His form had fix'd her fickle breast; + _Her_ countless hoards would _his_ have been, + And none remain'd to give the rest. + + + +[Footnote 1: The cornelian was a present from his friend Edleston, a +Cambridge chorister, afterwards a clerk in a mercantile house in London. +Edleston died of consumption, May 11, 1811. (See letter from Byron to +Miss Pigot, October 28, 1811.) Their acquaintance began by Byron saving +him from drowning. (MS. note by the Rev. W. Harness.)] + +[Footnote i: 'But blushes modest'. [4to]] + + + + + + +TO M----[i] + + +1. + + Oh! did those eyes, instead of fire, + With bright, but mild affection shine: + Though they might kindle less desire, + Love, more than mortal, would be thine. + + +2. + + For thou art form'd so heavenly fair, + _Howe'er_ those orbs _may_ wildly beam, + We must _admire,_ but still despair; + That fatal glance forbids esteem. + + +3. + + When Nature stamp'd thy beauteous birth, + So much perfection in thee shone, + She fear'd that, too divine for earth, + The skies might claim thee for their own. + + +4. + + Therefore, to guard her dearest work, + Lest angels might dispute the prize, + She bade a secret lightning lurk, + Within those once celestial eyes. + + +5. + + These might the boldest Sylph appall, + When gleaming with meridian blaze; + Thy beauty must enrapture all; + But who can dare thine ardent gaze? + + +6. + + 'Tis said that Berenice's hair, + In stars adorns the vault of heaven; + But they would ne'er permit _thee_ there, + _Thou_ wouldst so far outshine the seven. + + +7. + + For did those eyes as planets roll, + Thy sister-lights would scarce appear: + E'en suns, which systems now controul, + Would twinkle dimly through their sphere. [1] + + +Friday, November 7, 1806 + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, + Having some business, do intreat her eyes + To twinkle in their spheres till they return." + +Shakespeare.] + + +[Footnote i: 'To A----'. [4to] ] + + + + + + + + + + + +LINES ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY.[1] + + +[As the author was discharging his Pistols in a Garden, Two Ladies +passing near the spot were alarmed by the sound of a Bullet hissing near +them, to one of whom the following stanzas were addressed the next +morning.] [2] + + +1. + + Doubtless, sweet girl! the hissing lead, + Wafting destruction o'er thy charms [i] + And hurtling o'er [3] thy lovely head, + Has fill'd that breast with fond alarms. + + +2. + + Surely some envious Demon's force, + Vex'd to behold such beauty here, + Impell'd the bullet's viewless course, + Diverted from its first career. + + +3. + + Yes! in that nearly fatal hour, + The ball obey'd some hell-born guide; + But Heaven, with interposing power, + In pity turn'd the death aside. + + +4. + + Yet, as perchance one trembling tear + Upon that thrilling bosom fell; + Which _I_, th' unconscious cause of fear, + Extracted from its glistening cell;-- + + +5. + + Say, what dire penance can atone + For such an outrage, done to thee? + Arraign'd before thy beauty's throne, + What punishment wilt thou decree? + + +6. + + Might I perform the Judge's part, + The sentence I should scarce deplore; + It only would restore a heart, + Which but belong'd to _thee_ before. + + +7. + + The least atonement I can make + Is to become no longer free; + Henceforth, I breathe but for thy sake, + Thou shalt be _all in all_ to me. + + +8. + + But thou, perhaps, may'st now reject + Such expiation of my guilt; + Come then--some other mode elect? + Let it be death--or what thou wilt. + + +9. + + Choose, then, relentless! and I swear + Nought shall thy dread decree prevent; + Yet hold--one little word forbear! + Let it be aught but banishment. + + + +[Footnote 1: This title first appeared in "Contents" to 'P. on V. +Occasions'.] + +[Footnote 2: The occurrence took place at Southwell, and the beautiful +lady to whom the lines were addressed was Miss Houson, who is also +commemorated in the verses "To a Vain Lady" and "To Anne." She was the +daughter of the Rev. Henry Houson of Southwell, and married the Rev. +Luke Jackson. She died on Christmas Day, 1821, and her monument may be +seen in Hucknall Torkard Church.] + +[Footnote 3: This word is used by Gray in his poem to the Fatal +Sisters:-- + + "Iron-sleet of arrowy shower + Hurtles in the darken'd air."] + + +[Footnote i: 'near thy charms'. [4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +TRANSLATION FROM CATULLUS. + +AD LESBIAM. + + + Equal to Jove that youth must be-- + _Greater_ than Jove he seems to me-- + Who, free from Jealousy's alarms, + Securely views thy matchless charms; + That cheek, which ever dimpling glows, + That mouth, from whence such music flows, + To him, alike, are always known, + Reserv'd for him, and him alone. + Ah! Lesbia! though 'tis death to me, + I cannot choose but look on thee; + But, at the sight, my senses fly, + I needs must gaze, but, gazing, die; + Whilst trembling with a thousand fears, + Parch'd to the throat my tongue adheres, + My pulse beats quick, my breath heaves short, + My limbs deny their slight support; + Cold dews my pallid face o'erspread, + With deadly languor droops my head, + My ears with tingling echoes ring, + And Life itself is on the wing; + My eyes refuse the cheering light, + Their orbs are veil'd in starless night: + Such pangs my nature sinks beneath, + And feels a temporary death. + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION OF THE EPITAPH ON VIRGIL +AND TIBULLUS, BY DOMITIUS MARSUS. + + + He who, sublime, in epic numbers roll'd, + And he who struck the softer lyre of Love, + By Death's _unequal_[1] hand alike controul'd, + Fit comrades in Elysian regions move! + + +[Footnote: 1. The hand of Death is said to be unjust or unequal, as +Virgil was considerably older than Tibullus at his decease.] + + + + + + + + + +IMITATION OF TIBULLUS. + +SULPICIA AD CERINTHUM (LIB. QUART.). + + + Cruel Cerinthus! does the fell disease [i] + Which racks my breast your fickle bosom please? + Alas! I wish'd but to o'ercome the pain, + That I might live for Love and you again; + But, now, I scarcely shall bewail my fate: + By Death alone I can avoid your hate. + + +[Footnote i: + + 'does this fell disease'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.] + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM CATULLUS. + +LUGETE VENERES CUPIDINESQUE (CARM. III.) [i] + + + Ye Cupids, droop each little head, + Nor let your wings with joy be spread, + My Lesbia's favourite bird is dead, + Whom dearer than her eyes she lov'd: [ii] + For he was gentle, and so true, + Obedient to her call he flew, + No fear, no wild alarm he knew, + But lightly o'er her bosom mov'd: + + And softly fluttering here and there, + He never sought to cleave the air, + He chirrup'd oft, and, free from care, [iii] + Tun'd to her ear his grateful strain. + Now having pass'd the gloomy bourn, [iv] + From whence he never can return, + His death, and Lesbia's grief I mourn, + Who sighs, alas! but sighs in vain. + + Oh! curst be thou, devouring grave! + Whose jaws eternal victims crave, + From whom no earthly power can save, + For thou hast ta'en the bird away: + From thee my Lesbia's eyes o'erflow, + Her swollen cheeks with weeping glow; + Thou art the cause of all her woe, + Receptacle of life's decay. + + +[Footnote i: + + _Luctus De Morte Passeris_. + +[4to. _P. on V. Occasions_.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: _Which dearer_. [4to] ] + +[Footnote iii: _But chirrup'd_. [4to] ] + +[Footnote iv: _But now he's pass'd_. [4to] ] + + + + + + +IMITATED FROM CATULLUS. [1] + +TO ELLEN. [i] + + + Oh! might I kiss those eyes of fire, + A million scarce would quench desire; + Still would I steep my lips in bliss, + And dwell an age on every kiss; + Nor then my soul should sated be, + Still would I kiss and cling to thee: + Nought should my kiss from thine dissever, + Still would we kiss and kiss for ever; + E'en though the numbers did exceed [ii] + The yellow harvest's countless seed; + To part would be a vain endeavour: + Could I desist?--ah! never--never. + +November 16, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: From a note in Byron's copy of Catullus (now in the +possession of Mr. Murray), it is evident that these lines are based on +Carm. xlviii., 'Mellitos oculos tuos, Juventi'.] + + +[Footnote i: 'To Anna'. [4to] ] + +[Footnote ii: 'E'en though the number'. [4to. 'Three first Editions'.]] + + + + + * * * * * * * * + + +POEMS ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS + + + + +TO M. S. G. + + +1. + + Whene'er I view those lips of thine, + Their hue invites my fervent kiss; + Yet, I forego that bliss divine, + Alas! it were--unhallow'd bliss. + + +2. + + Whene'er I dream of that pure breast, + How could I dwell upon its snows! + Yet, is the daring wish represt, + For that,--would banish its repose. + + +3. + + A glance from thy soul-searching eye + Can raise with hope, depress with fear; + Yet, I conceal my love,--and why? + I would not force a painful tear. + + +4. + + I ne'er have told my love, yet thou + Hast seen my ardent flame too well; + And shall I plead my passion now, + To make thy bosom's heaven a hell? + + +5. + + No! for thou never canst be mine, + United by the priest's decree: + By any ties but those divine, + Mine, my belov'd, thou ne'er shalt be. + + +6. + + Then let the secret fire consume, + Let it consume, thou shalt not know: + With joy I court a certain doom, + Rather than spread its guilty glow. + + +7. + + I will not ease my tortur'd heart, + By driving dove-ey'd peace from thine; + Rather than such a sting impart, + Each thought presumptuous I resign. + + +8. + + Yes! yield those lips, for which I'd brave + More than I here shall dare to tell; + Thy innocence and mine to save,-- + I bid thee now a last farewell. + + +9. + + Yes! yield that breast, to seek despair + And hope no more thy soft embrace; + Which to obtain, my soul would dare, + All, all reproach, but thy disgrace. + + +10. + + At least from guilt shall thou be free, + No matron shall thy shame reprove; + Though cureless pangs may prey on me, + No martyr shall thou be to love. + + + + + + + +STANZAS TO A LADY, WITH THE POEMS OF CAMOENS. [1] + + +1. + + This votive pledge of fond esteem, + Perhaps, dear girl! for me thou'lt prize; + It sings of Love's enchanting dream, + A theme we never can despise. + + +2. + + Who blames it but the envious fool, + The old and disappointed maid? + Or pupil of the prudish school, + In single sorrow doom'd to fade? + + +3. + + Then read, dear Girl! with feeling read, + For thou wilt ne'er be one of those; + To thee, in vain, I shall not plead + In pity for the Poet's woes. + + +4. + + He was, in sooth, a genuine Bard; + His was no faint, fictitious flame: + Like his, may Love be thy reward, + But not thy hapless fate the same. + + +[Footnote: 1. Lord Strangford's 'Poems from the Portuguese by Luis de +Camoens' and "Little's" Poems are mentioned by Moore as having been +Byron's favourite study at this time ('Life', P--39).] + + + + + + + + + +TO M. S. G. [1] + + +1. + + When I dream that you love me, you'll surely forgive; + Extend not your anger to sleep; + For in visions alone your affection can live,-- + I rise, and it leaves me to weep. + + +2. + + Then, Morpheus! envelop my faculties fast, + Shed o'er me your languor benign; + Should the dream of to-night but resemble the last, + What rapture celestial is mine! + + +3. + + They tell us that slumber, the sister of death, + Mortality's emblem is given; + To fate how I long to resign my frail breath, + If this be a foretaste of Heaven! + + +4. + + Ah! frown not, sweet Lady, unbend your soft brow, + Nor deem me too happy in this; + If I sin in my dream, I atone for it now, + Thus doom'd, but to gaze upon bliss. + + +5. + + Though in visions, sweet Lady, perhaps you may smile, + Oh! think not my penance deficient! + When dreams of your presence my slumbers beguile, + To awake, will be torture sufficient. + + + +[Footnote 1: "C. G. B. to E. P." 'MS. Newstead'.] + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM HORACE. + + + Justum et tenacem propositi virum. + + HOR. 'Odes', iii. 3. I. + + +1. + + The man of firm and noble soul + No factious clamours can controul; + No threat'ning tyrant's darkling brow + Can swerve him from his just intent: + Gales the warring waves which plough, + By Auster on the billows spent, + To curb the Adriatic main, +Would awe his fix'd determined mind in vain. + + +2. + + Aye, and the red right arm of Jove, + Hurtling his lightnings from above, + With all his terrors there unfurl'd, + He would, unmov'd, unaw'd, behold; + The flames of an expiring world, + Again in crashing chaos roll'd, + In vast promiscuous ruin hurl'd, + Might light his glorious funeral pile: +Still dauntless 'midst the wreck of earth he'd smile. + + + + + + + + + +THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE. + + +[Greek: + + Ha barbitos de chordais + Er_ota mounon aechei. [1] + +ANACREON ['Ode' 1]. + + +1. + + Away with your fictions of flimsy romance, + Those tissues of falsehood which Folly has wove; [i] + Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance, + Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love. + + +2. + + Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with fantasy glow, [ii] + Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove; + From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow, [iii] + Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love. + + +3. + + If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse, + Or the Nine be dispos'd from your service to rove, + Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the Muse, + And try the effect, of the first kiss of love. + + +4. + + I hate you, ye cold compositions of art, + Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove; + I court the effusions that spring from the heart, + Which throbs, with delight, to the first kiss of love. [iv] + + +5. + + Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes, [v] + Perhaps may amuse, yet they never can move: + Arcadia displays but a region of dreams; [vi] + What are visions like these, to the first kiss of love? + + +6. + + Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth, [vii] + From Adam, till now, has with wretchedness strove; + Some portion of Paradise still is on earth, + And Eden revives, in the first kiss of love. + + +7. + + When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past-- + For years fleet away with the wings of the dove-- + The dearest remembrance will still be the last, + Our sweetest memorial, the first kiss of love. + + +December 23, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Moriah [A] those air dreams and types has o'er wove, + ['MS. Newstead'.] + 'Those tissues of fancy Moriah has wove, + +'['P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + + [Sub-Footnote A: Moriah is the "Goddess of Folly."] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Ye rhymers, who sing as if seated on snow.--' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'With what blest inspiration.--' + +['MS. P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Which glows with delight at'. + +['MS'.]] + +[Footnote v: + + 'Your shepherds, your pipes'. + +['MS. P. on V. Occasions'.]] + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Arcadia yields but a legion of dreams'. + +['MS'.] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'that man from his birth'. + +['MS. P. on V. Occasions'.] + + + + + + + + + +CHILDISH RECOLLECTIONS. [1] + + + "I cannot but remember such things were, + And were most dear to me." + + 'Macbeth' [2] + + ["That were most precious to me." + + 'Macbeth', act iv, sc. 3.] + + + + When slow Disease, with all her host of Pains, [i] + Chills the warm tide, which flows along the veins; + When Health, affrighted, spreads her rosy wing, + And flies with every changing gale of spring; + Not to the aching frame alone confin'd, + Unyielding pangs assail the drooping mind: + What grisly forms, the spectre-train of woe, + Bid shuddering Nature shrink beneath the blow, + With Resignation wage relentless strife, + While Hope retires appall'd, and clings to life. 10 + Yet less the pang when, through the tedious hour, + Remembrance sheds around her genial power, + Calls back the vanish'd days to rapture given, + When Love was bliss, and Beauty form'd our heaven; + Or, dear to youth, pourtrays each childish scene, + Those fairy bowers, where all in turn have been. + As when, through clouds that pour the summer storm, + The orb of day unveils his distant form, + Gilds with faint beams the crystal dews of rain + And dimly twinkles o'er the watery plain; 20 + Thus, while the future dark and cheerless gleams, + The Sun of Memory, glowing through my dreams, + Though sunk the radiance of his former blaze, + To scenes far distant points his paler rays, + Still rules my senses with unbounded sway, + The past confounding with the present day. + + Oft does my heart indulge the rising thought, + Which still recurs, unlook'd for and unsought; + My soul to Fancy's fond suggestion yields, + And roams romantic o'er her airy fields. 30 + Scenes of my youth, develop'd, crowd to view, + To which I long have bade a last adieu! + Seats of delight, inspiring youthful themes; + Friends lost to me, for aye, except in dreams; + Some, who in marble prematurely sleep, + Whose forms I now remember, but to weep; + Some, who yet urge the same scholastic course + Of early science, future fame the source; + Who, still contending in the studious race, + In quick rotation, fill the senior place! 40 + These, with a thousand visions, now unite, + To dazzle, though they please, my aching sight. [3] + + IDA! blest spot, where Science holds her reign, + How joyous, once, I join'd thy youthful train! + Bright, in idea, gleams thy lofty spire, + Again, I mingle with thy playful quire; + Our tricks of mischief, [4] every childish game, + Unchang'd by time or distance, seem the same; + Through winding paths, along the glade I trace + The social smile of every welcome face; 50 + My wonted haunts, my scenes of joy or woe, + Each early boyish friend, or youthful foe, + Our feuds dissolv'd, but not my friendship past,-- + I bless the former, and forgive the last. + Hours of my youth! when, nurtur'd in my breast, + To Love a stranger, Friendship made me blest,-- + Friendship, the dear peculiar bond of youth, + When every artless bosom throbs with truth; + Untaught by worldly wisdom how to feign, + And check each impulse with prudential rein; 60 + When, all we feel, our honest souls disclose, + In love to friends, in open hate to foes; + No varnish'd tales the lips of youth repeat, + No dear-bought knowledge purchased by deceit; + Hypocrisy, the gift of lengthen'd years, + Matured by age, the garb of Prudence wears: [ii] + When, now, the Boy is ripen'd into Man, + His careful Sire chalks forth some wary plan; + Instructs his Son from Candour's path to shrink, + Smoothly to speak, and cautiously to think; 70 + Still to assent, and never to deny-- + A patron's praise can well reward the lie: + And who, when Fortune's warning voice is heard, + Would lose his opening prospects for a word? + Although, against that word, his heart rebel, + And Truth, indignant, all his bosom swell. + + Away with themes like this! not mine the task, + From flattering friends to tear the hateful mask; + Let keener bards delight in Satire's sting, + My Fancy soars not on Detraction's wing: 80 + Once, and but once, she aim'd a deadly blow, + To hurl Defiance on a secret Foe; + But when that foe, from feeling or from shame, + The cause unknown, yet still to me the same, + Warn'd by some friendly hint, perchance, retir'd, + With this submission all her rage expired. + From dreaded pangs that feeble Foe to save, + She hush'd her young resentment, and forgave. + Or, if my Muse a Pedant's portrait drew, + POMPOSUS' [5] virtues are but known to few: 90 + I never fear'd the young usurper's nod, + And he who wields must, sometimes, feel the rod. + If since on Granta's failings, known to all + Who share the converse of a college hall, + She sometimes trifled in a lighter strain, + 'Tis past, and thus she will not sin again: + Soon must her early song for ever cease, + And, all may rail, when I shall rest in peace. + + Here, first remember'd be the joyous band, + Who hail'd me chief, [6] obedient to command; 100 + Who join'd with me, in every boyish sport, + Their first adviser, and their last resort; + Nor shrunk beneath the upstart pedant's frown, [iii] + Or all the sable glories of his gown; [iv] + Who, thus, transplanted from his father's school, + Unfit to govern, ignorant of rule-- + Succeeded him, whom all unite to praise, + The dear preceptor of my early days, + PROBUS, [7] the pride of science, and the boast-- + To IDA now, alas! for ever lost! 110 + With him, for years, we search'd the classic page, [v] + And fear'd the Master, though we lov'd the Sage: + Retir'd at last, his small yet peaceful seat + From learning's labour is the blest retreat. + POMPOSUS fills his magisterial chair; + POMPOSUS governs,--but, my Muse, forbear: + Contempt, in silence, be the pedant's lot, [vi] + His name and precepts be alike forgot; + No more his mention shall my verse degrade,-- + To him my tribute is already paid. [8] 120 + + High, through those elms with hoary branches crown'd [9] + Fair IDA'S bower adorns the landscape round; + There Science, from her favour'd seat, surveys + The vale where rural Nature claims her praise; + To her awhile resigns her youthful train, + Who move in joy, and dance along the plain; + In scatter'd groups, each favour'd haunt pursue, + Repeat old pastimes, and discover new; + Flush'd with his rays, beneath the noontide Sun, + In rival bands, between the wickets run, 130 + Drive o'er the sward the ball with active force, + Or chase with nimble feet its rapid course. + But these with slower steps direct their way, + Where Brent's cool waves in limpid currents stray, + While yonder few search out some green retreat, + And arbours shade them from the summer heat: + Others, again, a pert and lively crew, + Some rough and thoughtless stranger plac'd in view, + With frolic quaint their antic jests expose, + And tease the grumbling rustic as he goes; 140 + Nor rest with this, but many a passing fray + Tradition treasures for a future day: + "'Twas here the gather'd swains for vengeance fought, + And here we earn'd the conquest dearly bought: + Here have we fled before superior might, + And here renew'd the wild tumultuous fight." + While thus our souls with early passions swell, + In lingering tones resounds the distant bell; + Th' allotted hour of daily sport is o'er, + And Learning beckons from her temple's door. 150 + No splendid tablets grace her simple hall, + But ruder records fill the dusky wall: + There, deeply carv'd, behold! each Tyro's name + Secures its owner's academic fame; + Here mingling view the names of Sire and Son, + The one long grav'd, the other just begun: + These shall survive alike when Son and Sire, + Beneath one common stroke of fate expire; [10] + Perhaps, their last memorial these alone, + Denied, in death, a monumental stone, 160 + Whilst to the gale in mournful cadence wave + The sighing weeds, that hide their nameless grave. + And, here, my name, and many an early friend's, + Along the wall in lengthen'd line extends. + Though, still, our deeds amuse the youthful race, + Who tread our steps, and fill our former place, + Who young obeyed their lords in silent awe, + Whose nod commanded, and whose voice was law; + And now, in turn, possess the reins of power, + To rule, the little Tyrants of an hour; 170 + Though sometimes, with the Tales of ancient day, + They pass the dreary Winter's eve away; + "And, thus, our former rulers stemm'd the tide, + And, thus, they dealt the combat, side by side; + Just in this place, the mouldering walls they scaled, + Nor bolts, nor bars, against their strength avail'd; + Here PROBUS came, the rising fray to quell, + And, here, he falter'd forth his last farewell; + And, here, one night abroad they dared to roam, + While bold POMPOSUS bravely staid at home;" 180 + While thus they speak, the hour must soon arrive, + When names of these, like ours, alone survive: + Yet a few years, one general wreck will whelm + The faint remembrance of our fairy realm. + + Dear honest race! though now we meet no more, + One last long look on what we were before-- + Our first kind greetings, and our last adieu-- + Drew tears from eyes unus'd to weep with you. + Through splendid circles, Fashion's gaudy world, + Where Folly's glaring standard waves unfurl'd, 190 + I plung'd to drown in noise my fond regret, + And all I sought or hop'd was to forget: + Vain wish! if, chance, some well-remember'd face, + Some old companion of my early race, + Advanc'd to claim his friend with honest joy, + My eyes, my heart, proclaim'd me still a boy; + The glittering scene, the fluttering groups around, + Were quite forgotten when my friend was found; + The smiles of Beauty, (for, alas! I've known + What 'tis to bend before Love's mighty throne;) 200 + The smiles of Beauty, though those smiles were dear, + Could hardly charm me, when that friend was near: + My thoughts bewilder'd in the fond surprise, + The woods of IDA danc'd before my eyes; + I saw the sprightly wand'rers pour along, + I saw, and join'd again the joyous throng; + Panting, again I trac'd her lofty grove, + And Friendship's feelings triumph'd over Love. + + Yet, why should I alone with such delight + Retrace the circuit of my former flight? 210 + Is there no cause beyond the common claim, + Endear'd to all in childhood's very name? + Ah! sure some stronger impulse vibrates here, + Which whispers friendship will be doubly dear + To one, who thus for kindred hearts must roam, + And seek abroad, the love denied at home. + Those hearts, dear IDA, have I found in thee, + A home, a world, a paradise to me. + Stern Death forbade my orphan youth to share + The tender guidance of a Father's care; 220 + Can Rank, or e'en a Guardian's name supply + The love, which glistens in a Father's eye? + For this, can Wealth, or Title's sound atone, + Made, by a Parent's early loss, my own? + What Brother springs a Brother's love to seek? + What Sister's gentle kiss has prest my cheek? + For me, how dull the vacant moments rise, + To no fond bosom link'd by kindred ties! + Oft, in the progress of some fleeting dream, + Fraternal smiles, collected round me seem; 230 + While still the visions to my heart are prest, + The voice of Love will murmur in my rest: + I hear--I wake--and in the sound rejoice! + I hear again,--but, ah! no Brother's voice. + A Hermit, 'midst of crowds, I fain must stray + Alone, though thousand pilgrims fill the way; + While these a thousand kindred wreaths entwine, + I cannot call one single blossom mine: + What then remains? in solitude to groan, + To mix in friendship, or to sigh alone? 240 + Thus, must I cling to some endearing hand, + And none more dear, than IDA'S social band. + + Alonzo! [11] best and dearest of my friends, [vii] + Thy name ennobles him, who thus commends: + From this fond tribute thou canst gain no praise; + The praise is his, who now that tribute pays. + Oh! in the promise of thy early youth, + If Hope anticipate the words of Truth! + Some loftier bard shall sing thy glorious name, + To build his own, upon thy deathless fame: [viii] 250 + Friend of my heart, and foremost of the list + Of those with whom I lived supremely blest; + Oft have we drain'd the font of ancient lore, + Though drinking deeply, thirsting still the more; + Yet, when Confinement's lingering hour was done, + Our sports, our studies, and our souls were one: + Together we impell'd the flying ball, + Together waited in our tutor's hall; + Together join'd in cricket's manly toil, + Or shar'd the produce of the river's spoil; 260 + Or plunging from the green declining shore, + Our pliant limbs the buoyant billows bore: [ix] + In every element, unchang'd, the same, + All, all that brothers should be, but the name. + + Nor, yet, are you forgot, my jocund Boy! + DAVUS, [12] the harbinger of childish joy; + For ever foremost in the ranks of fun, + The laughing herald of the harmless pun; + Yet, with a breast of such materials made, + Anxious to please, of pleasing half afraid; 270 + Candid and liberal, with a heart of steel + In Danger's path, though not untaught to feel. + Still, I remember, in the factious strife, + The rustic's musket aim'd against my life: [13] + High pois'd in air the massy weapon hung, + A cry of horror burst from every tongue: + Whilst I, in combat with another foe, + Fought on, unconscious of th' impending blow; + Your arm, brave Boy, arrested his career-- + Forward you sprung, insensible to fear; 280 + Disarm'd, and baffled by your conquering hand, + The grovelling Savage roll'd upon the sand: + An act like this, can simple thanks repay? [x] + Or all the labours of a grateful lay? + Oh no! whene'er my breast forgets the deed, + That instant, DAVUS, it deserves to bleed. + + LYCUS! [14] on me thy claims are justly great: + Thy milder virtues could my Muse relate, + To thee, alone, unrivall'd, would belong + The feeble efforts of my lengthen'd song. [xi] 290 + Well canst thou boast, to lead in senates fit, + A Spartan firmness, with Athenian wit: + Though yet, in embryo, these perfections shine, + LYCUS! thy father's fame [15] will soon be thine. + Where Learning nurtures the superior mind, + What may we hope, from genius thus refin'd; + When Time, at length, matures thy growing years, + How wilt thou tower, above thy fellow peers! + Prudence and sense, a spirit bold and free, + With Honour's soul, united beam in thee. 300 + + Shall fair EURYALUS,[16] pass by unsung? + From ancient lineage, not unworthy, sprung: + What, though one sad dissension bade us part, + That name is yet embalm'd within my heart, + Yet, at the mention, does that heart rebound, + And palpitate, responsive to the sound; + Envy dissolved our ties, and not our will: + We once were friends,--I'll think, we are so still. + A form unmatch'd in Nature's partial mould, + A heart untainted, we, in thee, behold: 310 + Yet, not the Senate's thunder thou shall wield, + Nor seek for glory, in the tented field: + To minds of ruder texture, these be given-- + Thy soul shall nearer soar its native heaven. + Haply, in polish'd courts might be thy seat, + But, that thy tongue could never forge deceit: + The courtier's supple bow, and sneering smile, + The flow of compliment, the slippery wile, + Would make that breast, with indignation, burn, + And, all the glittering snares, to tempt thee, spurn. 320 + Domestic happiness will stamp thy fate; + Sacred to love, unclouded e'er by hate; + The world admire thee, and thy friends adore;-- + Ambition's slave, alone, would toil for more. [xii] + + Now last, but nearest, of the social band, + See honest, open, generous CLEON [17] stand; + With scarce one speck, to cloud the pleasing scene, + No vice degrades that purest soul serene. + On the same day, our studious race begun, + On the same day, our studious race was run; 330 + Thus, side by side, we pass'd our first career, + Thus, side by side, we strove for many a year: + At last, concluded our scholastic life, + We neither conquer'd in the classic strife: + As Speakers, [18] each supports an equal name, [xiii] + And crowds allow to both a partial fame: + To soothe a youthful Rival's early pride, + Though Cleon's candour would the palm divide, + Yet Candour's self compels me now to own, + Justice awards it to my Friend alone. 340 + + Oh! Friends regretted, Scenes for ever dear, + Remembrance hails you with her warmest tear! + Drooping, she bends o'er pensive Fancy's urn, + To trace the hours, which never can return; + Yet, with the retrospection loves to dwell, [xiv] + And soothe the sorrows of her last farewell! + Yet greets the triumph of my boyish mind, + As infant laurels round my head were twin'd; + When PROBUS' praise repaid my lyric song, + Or plac'd me higher in the studious throng; 350 + Or when my first harangue receiv'd applause, [19] + His sage instruction the primeval cause, + What gratitude, to him, my soul possest, + While hope of dawning honours fill'd my breast! [xv] + For all my humble fame, to him alone, + The praise is due, who made that fame my own. + Oh! could I soar above these feeble lays, + These young effusions of my early days, + To him my Muse her noblest strain would give, + The song might perish, but the theme might live. [xvi] 360 + Yet, why for him the needless verse essay? + His honour'd name requires no vain display: + By every son of grateful IDA blest, + It finds an echo in each youthful breast; + A fame beyond the glories of the proud, + Or all the plaudits of the venal crowd. + + IDA! not yet exhausted is the theme, + Nor clos'd the progress of my youthful dream. + How many a friend deserves the grateful strain! + What scenes of childhood still unsung remain! 370 + Yet let me hush this echo of the past, + This parting song, the dearest and the last; + And brood in secret o'er those hours of joy, + To me a silent and a sweet employ, + While, future hope and fear alike unknown, + I think with pleasure on the past alone; + Yes, to the past alone, my heart confine, + And chase the phantom of what once was mine. + + IDA! still o'er thy hills in joy preside, + And proudly steer through Time's eventful tide: 380 + Still may thy blooming Sons thy name revere, + Smile in thy bower, but quit thee with a tear;-- + That tear, perhaps, the fondest which will flow, + O'er their last scene of happiness below: + Tell me, ye hoary few, who glide along, + The feeble Veterans of some former throng, + Whose friends, like Autumn leaves by tempests whirl'd, + Are swept for ever from this busy world; + Revolve the fleeting moments of your youth, + While Care has yet withheld her venom'd tooth; [xvii] 390 + Say, if Remembrance days like these endears, + Beyond the rapture of succeeding years? + Say, can Ambition's fever'd dream bestow + So sweet a balm to soothe your hours of woe? + Can Treasures hoarded for some thankless Son, + Can Royal Smiles, or Wreaths by slaughter won, + Can Stars or Ermine, Man's maturer Toys, + (For glittering baubles are not left to Boys,) + Recall one scene so much belov'd to view, + As those where Youth her garland twin'd for you? 400 + Ah, no! amid the gloomy calm of age + You turn with faltering hand life's varied page, + Peruse the record of your days on earth, + Unsullied only where it marks your birth; + Still, lingering, pause above each chequer'd leaf, + And blot with Tears the sable lines of Grief; + Where Passion o'er the theme her mantle threw, + Or weeping Virtue sigh'd a faint adieu; + But bless the scroll which fairer words adorn, + Trac'd by the rosy finger of the Morn; 410 + When Friendship bow'd before the shrine of truth, + And Love, without his pinion, [20] smil'd on Youth. + + +[Footnote 1: The words, "that schoolboy thing," etc. (see letter to H. +Drury, Jan. 8, 1808), evidently apply, not as Moore intimates, +to this period, but to the lines "On a Change of Masters," +etc., July, 1805 (see letter to W. Bankes, March 6, 1807).] + +[Footnote 2: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote 3: Lines 43-98 were added in 'Hours of Idleness'] + +[Footnote 4: Newton Hanson relates that on one occasion he accompanied +his father to Harrow on Speech Day to see his brother Hargreaves Hanson +and Byron. + + "On our arrival at Harrow, we set out in search of Hargreaves and + Byron, but the latter was not at his tutor's. Three or four lads, + hearing my father's inquiries, set off at full speed to find him. They + soon discovered him, and, laughing most heartily, called out, 'Hallo, + Byron! here's a gentleman wants you.' And what do you think? He had + got on Drury's hat. I can still remember the arch cock of Byron's eye + at the hat and then at my father, and the fun and merriment it caused + him and all of us whilst, during the day, he was perambulating the + highways and byeways of Ida with the hat on. 'Harrow Speech Day and + the Governor's Hat' was one of the standing rallying-points for Lord + Byron ever after." + + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Butler, then Head-master of Harrow. Had Byron +published another edition of these poems, it was his intention +to replace these four lines by the four which follow:-- + + "'If once my muse a harsher portrait drew, + Warm with her wrongs, and deemed the likeness true, + By cooler judgment taught, her fault she owns,-- + With noble minds a fault confess'd, atones'." + +['MS. M.'] + +See also allusion in letter to Mr. Henry Drury, June 25, 1809. +--Moore's 'Note'.] + + +[Footnote 6: On the retirement of Dr. Drury, three candidates for the +vacant chair presented themselves--Messrs. Drury, Evans, and Butler. On +the first movement to which this contest gave rise in the school, young +Wildman was at the head of the party for Mark Drury, while Byron held +himself aloof from any. Anxious, however, to have him as an ally, one of +the Drury faction said to Wildman, "Byron, I know, will not join, +because he does not choose to act second to any one, but, by giving up +the leadership to him, you may at once secure him." This Wildman did, +and Byron took the command.--'Life', p. 29.] + + +[Footnote 7: Dr. Drury. This most able and excellent man retired from +his situation in March, 1805, after having resided thirty-five years at +Harrow; the last twenty as head-master; an office he held with equal +honour to himself and advantage to the very extensive school over which +he presided. Panegyric would here be superfluous: it would be useless to +enumerate qualifications which were never doubted. A considerable +contest took place between three rival candidates for his vacant chair: +of this I can only say-- + + 'Si mea cum vestris valuissent vota, Pelasgi! + Non foret ambiguus tanti certaminis hares.' + +[Byron's letters from Harrow contain the same high praise of Dr. Drury. +In one, of November 2, 1804, he says, + + "There is so much of the gentleman, so much mildness, and nothing of + pedantry in his character, that I cannot help liking him, and will + remember his instructions with gratitude as long as I live." + +A week after, he adds, + + "I revere Dr. Drury. I dread offending him; not, however, through + fear, but the respect I bear him makes me unhappy when I am under his + displeasure." + +Dr. Drury has related the secret of the influence he obtained: the +glance which told him that the lad was "a wild mountain colt," told him +also that he could be "led with a silken string."]] + + +[Footnote 8: This alludes to a character printed in a former private +edition ['P. on V. Occasions'] for the perusal of some friends, which, +with many other pieces, is withheld from the present volume. To draw the +attention of the public to insignificance would be deservedly +reprobated; and another reason, though not of equal consequence, may be +given in the following couplet:-- + + "Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel? + Who breaks a Butterfly upon a wheel?" + +'Prologue to the Satires': POPE. + +['Hours of Idleness', p. 154, 'note'] +[(See the lines "On a Change of Masters at a Great Public School," +'ante', p. 16.) + +The following lines, attached to the Newstead MS. draft of +"Childish Recollections," are aimed at Pomposus:-- + + "Just half a Pedagogue, and half a Fop, + Not formed to grace the pulpit, but the Shop; + The 'Counter', not the 'Desk', should be his place, + Who deals out precepts, as if dealing Lace; + Servile in mind, from Elevation proud, + In argument, less sensible than loud, + Through half the continent, the Coxcomb's been, + And stuns you with the Wonders he has seen: + ''How' in Pompeii's vault he found the page, + Of some long lost, and long lamented Sage, + And doubtless he the Letters would have trac'd, + Had they not been by age and dust effac'd: + This single specimen will serve to shew, + The weighty lessons of this reverend Beau, + Bombast in vain would want of Genius cloke, + For feeble fires evaporate in smoke; + A Boy, o'er Boys he holds a trembling reign, + More fit than they to seek some School again."]] + + +[Footnote 9: Lines 121-243 were added in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + + +[Footnote 10: During a rebellion at Harrow, the poet prevented the +school-room from being burnt down, by pointing out to the boys the names +of their fathers and grandfathers on the walls.--(Medwin's +'Conversations' (1824), p. 85.) + +Byron elsewhere thus describes his usual course of life +while at Harrow: "always cricketing, rebelling, 'rowing', and in all +manner of mischiefs." One day he tore down the gratings from the window +of the hall; and when asked by Dr. Butler his reason for the outrage, +coolly answered, "because they darkened the room."--'Life', p. 29.] + + +[Footnote 11: "Lord Clare." (Annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions' +in the British Museum.) + +[Lines 243-264, as the note in Byron's handwriting explains, were +originally intended to apply to Lord Clare. In 'Hours of Idleness' +"Joannes" became "Alonzo," and the same lines were employed to celebrate +the memory of his friend the Hon. John Wingfield, of the Coldstream +Guards, brother to Richard, fourth Viscount Powerscourt. He died at +Coimbra in 1811, in his twentieth year. Byron at one time gave him the +preference over all other friends.]] + +[Footnote 12: The Rev. John Cecil Tattersall, B.A., of Christ Church, +Oxford, who died December 8, 1812, at Hall's Place, Kent, aged +twenty-three.] + +[Footnote 13: The "factious strife" was brought on by the breaking up of +school, and the dismissal of some volunteers from drill, both happening +at the same hour. The butt-end of a musket was aimed at Byron's head, +and would have felled him to the ground, but for the interposition of +Tattersall.--'Life', p. 25.] + +[Footnote 14: John Fitzgibbon, second Earl of Clare (1792-1851), +afterwards Governor of Bombay, of whom Byron said, in 1822, + + "I have always loved him better than any 'male' thing in the world." + "I never," was his language in 1821, "hear the word ''Clare'' without + a beating of the heart even 'now'; and I write it with the feelings of + 1803-4-5, ad infinitum."] + + +[Footnote 15: John Fitzgibbon, first Earl of Clare (1749-1802), became +Attorney-General and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In the latter years of +the independent Irish Parliament, he took an active part in politics in +opposition to Grattan and the national party, and was distinguished as a +powerful, if bitter, speaker. He was made Earl of Clare in 1795.] + +[Footnote 16: George John, fifth Earl of Delawarr.-- + + "I am happy enough, and comfortable here," says Byron, in a letter + from Harrow of Oct. 25, 1804. "My friends are not numerous, but + select. Among the principal, I rank Lord Delawarr, who is very + amiable, and my particular friend."-- + "Nov. 2, 1804. Lord Delawarr is considerably younger than me, but the + most good-tempered, amiable, clever fellow in the universe. To all + which he adds the quality (a good one in the eyes of women) of being + remarkably handsome. Delawarr and myself are, in a manner, connected; + for one of my forefathers, in Charles I's time, married into their + family." + +The allusion in the text to their subsequent quarrel, receives further +light from a letter which the poet addressed to Lord Clare under date, +February 6, 1807. (See, too, lines "To George, Earl Delawarr," p. 126.) +The first Lord Byron was twice married. His first wife was Cecilie, +widow of Sir Francis Bindlose, and daughter of Thomas, third Lord +Delawarr. He died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard, +the poet's ancestor. His younger brother, Sir Robert Byron, married +Lucy, another daughter of the third Lord Delawarr.] + + +[Footnote 17: Edward Noel Long, who was drowned by the foundering of a +transport on the voyage to Lisbon with his regiment, in 1809. (See lines +"To Edward Noel Long, Esq.," 'post', p. 184.)] + +[Footnote 18: This alludes to the public speeches delivered at the +school where the author was educated.] + +[Footnote 19: + + "My qualities were much more oratorical than poetical, and Dr. Drury, + my grand patron, had a great notion that I should turn out an orator + from my fluency, my turbulence, my voice, my copiousness of + declamation, and my action. I remember that my first declamation + astonished Dr. Drury into some unwonted (for he was economical of + such) and sudden compliments, before the declaimers at our first + rehearsal." + + 'Byron Diary'. + + "I certainly was much pleased with Lord Byron's attitude, gesture, and + delivery, as well as with his composition. To my surprise, he suddenly + diverged from the written composition, with a boldness and rapidity + sufficient to alarm me, lest he should fail in memory as to the + conclusion. I questioned him, why he had altered his declamation? He + declared he had made no alteration, and did not know, in speaking, + that he had deviated from it one letter. I believed him, and from a + knowledge of his temperament, am convinced that he was hurried on to + expressions and colourings more striking than what his pen had + expressed." + + DR. DRURY, 'Life', p. 20.] + + +[Footnote 20: "L'Amitie est l'Amour sans ailes," is a French proverb. +(See the lines so entitled, p. 220.)] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Hence! thou unvarying song, of varied loves, + Which youth commends, maturer age reproves; + Which every rhyming bard repeats by rote, + By thousands echo'd to the self-same note! + Tir'd of the dull, unceasing, copious strain, + My soul is panting to be free again. + Farewell! ye nymphs, propitious to my verse, + Some other Damon, will your charms rehearse; + Some other paint his pangs, in hope of bliss, + Or dwell in rapture on your nectar'd kiss. + Those beauties, grateful to my ardent sight, + No more entrance my senses in delight; + Those bosoms, form'd of animated snow, + Alike are tasteless and unfeeling now. + These to some happier lover, I resign; + The memory of those joys alone is mine. + Censure no more shall brand my humble name, + The child of passion and the fool of fame. + Weary of love, of life, devoured with spleen, + I rest a perfect Timon, not nineteen; + World! I renounce thee! all my hope's o'ercast! + One sigh I give thee, but that sigh's the last. + Friends, foes, and females, now alike, adieu! + Would I could add remembrance of you, too! + Yet though the future, dark and cheerless gleams, + The curse of memory, hovering in my dreams, + Depicts with glowing pencil all those years, + Ere yet, my cup, empoison'd, flow'd with tears, + Still rules my senses with tyrannic sway, + The past confounding with the present day. + + Alas! in vain I check the maddening thought; + It still recurs, unlook'd for and unsought: + My soul to Fancy's', etc., etc., as at line 29.--] + + +[Footnote ii: 'Cunning with age.' ['MS. Newstead'.]] + +[Footnote iii: 'Nor shrunk before.' ['Hours of Idleness'.]] + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Careless to soothe the pedant's furious frown, + Scarcely respecting his majestic gown; + By which, in vain, he gain'd a borrow'd grace, + Adding new terror to his sneering face,' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'With him for years I search'd the classic page, + Culling the treasures of the letter'd sage,' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Contempt, in silence, be the pedant's lot, + Soon shall his shallow precepts be forgot; + No more his mention shall my pen degrade-- + My tribute to his name's already paid.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] + +Another variant for a new edition ran-- + + 'Another fills his magisterial chair; + Reluctant Ida owns a stranger's care; + Oh! may like honours crown his future name: + If such his virtues, such shall be his fame.' + +['MS. M.'] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Joannes! best and dearest of my friends.' + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'Could aught inspire me with poetic fire, + For thee, alone, I'd strike the hallow'd lyre; + But, to some abler hand, the task I wave, + Whose strains immortal may outlive the grave'.-- + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'Our lusty limbs.' + +['P. on V. Occasions.'] + + '--the buoyant waters bore.' + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'Thus did you save that life I scarcely prize-- + A life unworthy such a sacrifice. + Oh! when my breast forgets the generous deed.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'For ever to possess a friend in thee, + Was bliss unhop'd, though not unsought by me; + Thy softer soul was form'd for love alone, + To ruder passions and to hate unknown; + Thy mind, in union with thy beauteous form, + Was gentle, but unfit to stem the storm; + That face, an index of celestial worth, + Proclaim'd a heart abstracted from the earth. + Oft, when depress'd with sad, foreboding gloom, + I sat reclin'd upon our favourite tomb, + I've seen those sympathetic eyes o'erflow + With kind compassion for thy comrade's woe; + Or, when less mournful subjects form'd our themes, + We tried a thousand fond romantic schemes, + Oft hast thou sworn, in friendship's soothing tone. + Whatever wish was mine, must be thine own. + The next can boast to lead in senates fit, + A Spartan firmness,--with Athenian wit; + Tho' yet, in embryo, these perfections shine, + Clarus! thy father's fame will soon be thine.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] + +A remonstrance which Lord Clare addressed to him at +school; was found among his papers (as were most of the +notes of his early favourites), and on the back of it was an +endorsement which is a fresh testimony of his affection:-- + + "This and another letter were written at Harrow, by my 'then' and, I + hope, 'ever' beloved friend, Lord Clare, when we were both schoolboys; + and sent to my study in consequence of some 'childish' + misunderstanding,--the only one which ever arose between us. It was of + short duration, and I retain this note solely for the purpose of + submitting it to his perusal, that we may smile over the recollection + of the insignificance of our first and last quarrel." + +See, also, Byron's account of his accidental meeting with Lord Clare in +Italy in 1821, as recorded in 'Detached Thoughts', Nov. 5, 1821; in +letters to Moore, March 1 and June 8, 1822; and Mme. Guiccioli's +description of his emotion on seeing Clare ('My Recollections of Lord +Byron', ed. 1869, p. 156).] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'Where is the restless fool, would wish for more?' + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'As speakers, each supports a rival name, + Though neither seeks to damn the other's fame, + Pomposus sits, unequal to decide, + With youthful candour, we the palm divide.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'Yet in the retrospection finds relief, + And revels in the luxury of grief.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'When, yet a novice in the mimic art, + I feign'd the transports of a vengeful heart; + When, as the Royal Slave, I trod the stage, + To vent in Zanga, more than mortal rage; + The praise of Probus, made me feel more proud, + Than all the plaudits of the list'ning crowd. + + Ah! vain endeavour in this childish strain + To soothe the woes of which I thus complain! + What can avail this fruitless loss of time, + To measure sorrow, in a jingling rhyme! + No social solace from a friend, is near, + And heartless strangers drop no feeling tear. + I seek not joy in Woman's sparkling eye, + The smiles of Beauty cannot check the sigh. + Adieu, thou world! thy pleasure's still a dream, + Thy virtue, but a visionary theme; + Thy years of vice, on years of folly roll, + Till grinning death assigns the destin'd goal,' + 'Where all are hastening to the dread abode, + To meet the judgment of a righteous God; + Mix'd in the concourse of a thoughtless throng, + A mourner, midst of mirth, I glide along; + A wretched, isolated, gloomy thing, + Curst by reflection's deep corroding sting; + But not that mental sting, which stabs within, + The dark avenger of unpunish'd sin; + The silent shaft, which goads the guilty wretch + Extended on a rack's untiring stretch: + Conscience that sting, that shaft to him supplies-- + His mind the rack, from which he ne'er can rise, + For me, whatever my folly, or my fear, + One cheerful comfort still is cherish'd here. + No dread internal, haunts my hours of rest, + No dreams of injured innocence infest; + Of hope, of peace, of almost all bereft, + Conscience, my last but welcome guest, is left. + Slander's empoison'd breath, may blast my name, + Envy delights to blight the buds of fame: + Deceit may chill the current of my blood, + And freeze affection's warm impassion'd flood; + Presaging horror, darken every sense, + Even here will conscience be my best defence; + My bosom feeds no "worm which ne'er can die:" + Not crimes I mourn, but happiness gone by. + Thus crawling on with many a reptile vile, + My heart is bitter, though my cheek may smile; + No more with former bliss, my heart is glad; + Hope yields to anguish and my soul is sad; + From fond regret, no future joy can save; + Remembrance slumbers only in the grave.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + 'The song might perish, but the theme must live.' + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + '----his venom'd tooth.' + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + +ANSWER TO A BEAUTIFUL POEM, WRITTEN BY MONTGOMERY, + AUTHOR OF "THE WANDERER OF SWITZERLAND," ETC., + ENTITLED "THE COMMON LOT." [1] + + +1. + + Montgomery! true, the common lot + Of mortals lies in Lethe's wave; + Yet some shall never be forgot, + Some shall exist beyond the grave. + + +2. + + "Unknown the region of his birth," + The hero [2] rolls the tide of war; + Yet not unknown his martial worth, + Which glares a meteor from afar. + + +3. + + His joy or grief, his weal or woe, + Perchance may 'scape the page of fame; + Yet nations, now unborn, will know + The record of his deathless name. + + +4. + + The Patriot's and the Poet's frame + Must share the common tomb of all: + Their glory will not sleep the same; + 'That' will arise, though Empires fall. + + +5. + + The lustre of a Beauty's eye + Assumes the ghastly stare of death; + The fair, the brave, the good must die, + And sink the yawning grave beneath. + + +6. + + Once more, the speaking eye revives, + Still beaming through the lover's strain; + For Petrarch's Laura still survives: + She died, but ne'er will die again. + + +7. + + The rolling seasons pass away, + And Time, untiring, waves his wing; + Whilst honour's laurels ne'er decay, + But bloom in fresh, unfading spring. + + +8. + + All, all must sleep in grim repose, + Collected in the silent tomb; + The old, the young, with friends and foes, + Fest'ring alike in shrouds, consume. + + +9. + + The mouldering marble lasts its day, + Yet falls at length an useless fane; + To Ruin's ruthless fangs a prey, + The wrecks of pillar'd Pride remain. + + +10. + + What, though the sculpture be destroy'd, + From dark Oblivion meant to guard; + A bright renown shall be enjoy'd, + By those, whose virtues claim reward. + + +11. + + Then do not say the common lot + Of all lies deep in Lethe's wave; + Some few who ne'er will be forgot + Shall burst the bondage of the grave. + + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: Montgomery (James), 1771-1854, poet and hymn-writer, +published: +'Prison Amusements' (1797), +'The Ocean; a Poem' (1805), +'The Wanderer of Switzerland, and other Poems' (1806), +'The West Indies, and other Poems' (1810), +'Songs of Sion' (1822), +'The Christian Psalmist' (1825), +'The Pelican Island, and other Poems' (1827), +'etc.' ('vide post'), 'English Bards', +'etc.', line 418, and 'note'.] + +[Footnote 2: No particular hero is here alluded to. The exploits of +Bayard, Nemours, Edward the Black Prince, and, in more modern times, the +fame of Marlborough, Frederick the Great, Count Saxe, Charles of Sweden, +etc., are familiar to every historical reader, but the exact places of +their birth are known to a very small proportion of their admirers.] + + + + + + + + + +LOVE'S LAST ADIEU. + +[Greek: Aei d' aei me pheugei.]--[Pseud.] ANACREON, [Greek: Eis chruson]. + + +1. + + The roses of Love glad the garden of life, + Though nurtur'd 'mid weeds dropping pestilent dew, + Till Time crops the leaves with unmerciful knife, + Or prunes them for ever, in Love's last adieu! + + +2. + + In vain, with endearments, we soothe the sad heart, + In vain do we vow for an age to be true; + The chance of an hour may command us to part, + Or Death disunite us, in Love's last adieu! + + +3. + + Still Hope, breathing peace, through the grief-swollen breast, [i] + Will whisper, "Our meeting we yet may renew:" + With this dream of deceit, half our sorrow's represt, + Nor taste we the poison, of Love's last adieu! + + +4. + + Oh! mark you yon pair, in the sunshine of youth, + Love twin'd round their childhood his flow'rs as they grew; + They flourish awhile, in the season of truth, + Till chill'd by the winter of Love's last adieu! + + +5. + + Sweet lady! why thus doth a tear steal its way, + Down a cheek which outrivals thy bosom in hue? + Yet why do I ask?--to distraction a prey, + Thy reason has perish'd, with Love's last adieu! + + +6. + + Oh! who is yon Misanthrope, shunning mankind? + From cities to caves of the forest he flew: + There, raving, he howls his complaint to the wind; + The mountains reverberate Love's last adieu! + + +7. + + Now Hate rules a heart which in Love's easy chains, + Once Passion's tumultuous blandishments knew; + Despair now inflames the dark tide of his veins, + He ponders, in frenzy, on Love's last adieu! + + +8. + + How he envies the wretch, with a soul wrapt in steel! + His pleasures are scarce, yet his troubles are few, + Who laughs at the pang that he never can feel, + And dreads not the anguish of Love's last adieu! + + +9. + + Youth flies, life decays, even hope is o'ercast; + No more, with Love's former devotion, we sue: + He spreads his young wing, he retires with the blast; + The shroud of affection is Love's last adieu! + + +10. + + In this life of probation, for rapture divine, + Astrea[1] declares that some penance is due; + From him, who has worshipp'd at Love's gentle shrine, + The atonement is ample, in Love's last adieu! + + +11. + + Who kneels to the God, on his altar of light + Must myrtle and cypress alternately strew: + His myrtle, an emblem of purest delight, + His cypress, the garland of Love's last adieu! + + + +[Footnote 1: The Goddess of Justice.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Still, hope-beaming peace._ + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + + + + + + + + +LINES. [i] + ADDRESSED TO THE REV. J. T. BECHER, [1] + ON HIS ADVISING THE AUTHOR TO MIX MORE WITH SOCIETY. + +1. + + Dear BECHER, you tell me to mix with mankind; + I cannot deny such a precept is wise; + But retirement accords with the tone of my mind: + I will not descend to a world I despise. + + +2. + + Did the Senate or Camp my exertions require, + Ambition might prompt me, at once, to go forth; + When Infancy's years of probation expire, + Perchance, I may strive to distinguish my birth. + + +3. + + The fire, in the cavern of Etna, conceal'd, + Still mantles unseen in its secret recess; + At length, in a volume terrific, reveal'd, + No torrent can quench it, no bounds can repress. + + +4. + + Oh! thus, the desire, in my bosom, for fame [i] + Bids me live, but to hope for Posterity's praise. + Could I soar with the Phoenix on pinions of flame, + With him I would wish to expire in the blaze. + + +5. + + For the life of a Fox, of a Chatham the death, + What censure, what danger, what woe would I brave! + Their lives did not end, when they yielded their breath, + Their glory illumines the gloom of their grave.[ii] + + + +6. + + Yet why should I mingle in Fashion's full herd? + Why crouch to her leaders, or cringe to her rules? + Why bend to the proud, or applaud the absurd? + Why search for delight, in the friendship of fools? + + +7. + + I have tasted the sweets, and the bitters, of love, + In friendship I early was taught to believe; + My passion the matrons of prudence reprove, + I have found that a friend may profess, yet deceive. + + +8. + + To me what is wealth?--it may pass in an hour, + If Tyrants prevail, or if Fortune should frown: + To me what is title?--the phantom of power; + To me what is fashion?--I seek but renown. + + +9. + + Deceit is a stranger, as yet, to my soul; + I, still, am unpractised to varnish the truth: + Then, why should I live in a hateful controul? + Why waste, upon folly, the days of my youth? + + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The Rev. John Thomas Becher (1770-1848) was Vicar of +Rumpton and Midsomer Norton, Notts., and made the acquaintance of Byron +when he was living at Southwell. To him was submitted an early copy of +the 'Quarto', and on his remonstrance at the tone of some of the +verses, the whole edition (save one or two copies) was burnt. Becher +assisted in the revision of 'P. on V. Occasions', published in +1807. He was in 1818 appointed Prebendary of Southwell, and, all his +life, took an active interest and prominent part in the administration +of the poor laws and the welfare of the poor. (See Byron's letters to +him of February 26 and March 28, 1808.)] + +[Footnote i: + + 'To the Rev. J. T. Becher.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Oh! such the desire.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + '--the gloom of the grave.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + + + +ANSWER TO SOME ELEGANT VERSES SENT BY A FRIEND TO THE AUTHOR, + COMPLAINING THAT ONE OF HIS DESCRIPTIONS + WAS RATHER TOO WARMLY DRAWN. + + + "But if any old Lady, Knight, Priest, or Physician, + Should condemn me for printing a second edition; + If good Madam Squintum my work should abuse, + May I venture to give her a smack of my muse?" + + Anstey's 'New Bath Guide', p. 169. + + + Candour compels me, BECHER! to commend + The verse, which blends the censor with the friend; + Your strong yet just reproof extorts applause + From me, the heedless and imprudent cause; [i] + For this wild error, which pervades my strain, [ii] + I sue for pardon,--must I sue in vain? + The wise sometimes from Wisdom's ways depart; + Can youth then hush the dictates of the heart? + Precepts of prudence curb, but can't controul, + The fierce emotions of the flowing soul. + When Love's delirium haunts the glowing mind, + Limping Decorum lingers far behind; + Vainly the dotard mends her prudish pace, + Outstript and vanquish'd in the mental chase. + The young, the old, have worn the chains of love; + Let those, they ne'er confined, my lay reprove; + Let those, whose souls contemn the pleasing power, + Their censures on the hapless victim shower. + Oh! how I hate the nerveless, frigid song, + The ceaseless echo of the rhyming throng, + Whose labour'd lines, in chilling numbers flow, + To paint a pang the author ne'er can know! + The artless Helicon, I boast, is youth;-- + My Lyre, the Heart--my Muse, the simple Truth. + Far be't from me the "virgin's mind" to "taint:" + Seduction's dread is here no slight restraint: + The maid whose virgin breast is void of guile, + Whose wishes dimple in a modest smile, + Whose downcast eye disdains the wanton leer, + Firm in her virtue's strength, yet not severe; + She, whom a conscious grace shall thus refine, + Will ne'er be "tainted" by a strain of mine. + But, for the nymph whose premature desires + Torment her bosom with unholy fires, + No net to snare her willing heart is spread; + She would have fallen, though she ne'er had read. + For me, I fain would please the chosen few, + Whose souls, to feeling and to nature true, + Will spare the childish verse, and not destroy + The light effusions of a heedless boy. [iii] + I seek not glory from the senseless crowd; + Of fancied laurels, I shall ne'er be proud; + Their warmest plaudits I would scarcely prize, + Their sneers or censures, I alike despise. + +November 26, 1806. + + +[Footnote i: + + _the heedless and unworthy cause._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _For this sole error._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _The light effusions of an amorous boy._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +ELEGY ON NEWSTEAD ABBEY. [1] + + + "It is the voice of years, that are gone! they roll before me, with + all their deeds." + + Ossian. [i] + + + +1. + + NEWSTEAD! fast-falling, once-resplendent dome! + Religion's shrine! repentant HENRY'S [2] pride! + Of Warriors, Monks, and Dames the cloister'd tomb, + Whose pensive shades around thy ruins glide, + + +2. + + Hail to thy pile! more honour'd in thy fall, + Than modern mansions, in their pillar'd state; + Proudly majestic frowns thy vaulted hall, + Scowling defiance on the blasts of fate. + + +3. + + No mail-clad Serfs, [3] obedient to their Lord, + In grim array, the crimson cross [4] demand; + Or gay assemble round the festive board, + Their chief's retainers, an immortal band. + + +4. + + Else might inspiring Fancy's magic eye + Retrace their progress, through the lapse of time; + Marking each ardent youth, ordain'd to die, + A votive pilgrim, in Judea's clime. + + +5. + + But not from thee, dark pile! departs the Chief; + His feudal realm in other regions lay: + In thee the wounded conscience courts relief, + Retiring from the garish blaze of day. + + +6. + + Yes! in thy gloomy cells and shades profound, + The monk abjur'd a world, he ne'er could view; + Or blood-stain'd Guilt repenting, solace found, + Or Innocence, from stern Oppression, flew. + + +7. + + A Monarch bade thee from that wild arise, + Where Sherwood's outlaws, once, were wont to prowl; + And Superstition's crimes, of various dyes, + Sought shelter in the Priest's protecting cowl. + + +8. + + Where, now, the grass exhales a murky dew, + The humid pall of life-extinguish'd clay, + In sainted fame, the sacred Fathers grew, + Nor raised their pious voices, but to pray. + + +9. + + Where, now, the bats their wavering wings extend, + Soon as the gloaming [5] spreads her waning shade;[ii] + The choir did, oft, their mingling vespers blend, + Or matin orisons to Mary [6] paid. + + +10. + + Years roll on years; to ages, ages yield; + Abbots to Abbots, in a line, succeed: + Religion's charter, their protecting shield, + Till royal sacrilege their doom decreed. + + +11. + + One holy HENRY rear'd the Gothic walls, + And bade the pious inmates rest in peace; + Another HENRY [7] the kind gift recalls, + And bids devotion's hallow'd echoes cease. + + +12. + + Vain is each threat, or supplicating prayer; + He drives them exiles from their blest abode, + To roam a dreary world, in deep despair-- + No friend, no home, no refuge, but their God. [8] + + +13. + + Hark! how the hall, resounding to the strain, + Shakes with the martial music's novel din! + The heralds of a warrior's haughty reign, + High crested banners wave thy walls within. + + +14. + + Of changing sentinels the distant hum, + The mirth of feasts, the clang of burnish'd arms, + The braying trumpet, and the hoarser drum, + Unite in concert with increas'd alarms. + + +15. + + An abbey once, a regal fortress [9] now, + Encircled by insulting rebel powers; + War's dread machines o'erhang thy threat'ning brow, + And dart destruction, in sulphureous showers. + + +16. + + Ah! vain defence! the hostile traitor's siege, + Though oft repuls'd, by guile o'ercomes the brave; + His thronging foes oppress the faithful Liege, + Rebellion's reeking standards o'er him wave. + + +17. + + Not unaveng'd the raging Baron yields; + The blood of traitors smears the purple plain; + Unconquer'd still, his falchion there he wields, + And days of glory, yet, for him remain. + + +18. + + Still, in that hour, the warrior wish'd to strew + Self-gather'd laurels on a self-sought grave; + But Charles' protecting genius hither flew, + The monarch's friend, the monarch's hope, to save. + + +19. + + Trembling, she snatch'd him [10] from th' unequal strife, + In other fields the torrent to repel; + For nobler combats, here, reserv'd his life, + To lead the band, where godlike FALKLAND [11] fell. + + +20. + + From thee, poor pile! to lawless plunder given, + While dying groans their painful requiem sound, + Far different incense, now, ascends to Heaven, + Such victims wallow on the gory ground. + + +21. + + There many a pale and ruthless Robber's corse, + Noisome and ghast, defiles thy sacred sod; + O'er mingling man, and horse commix'd with horse, + Corruption's heap, the savage spoilers trod. + + +22. + + Graves, long with rank and sighing weeds o'erspread, + Ransack'd resign, perforce, their mortal mould: + From ruffian fangs, escape not e'en the dead, + Racked from repose, in search for buried gold. + + +23. + + Hush'd is the harp, unstrung the warlike lyre, + The minstrel's palsied hand reclines in death; + No more he strikes the quivering chords with fire, + Or sings the glories of the martial wreath. [iii] + + +24. + + At length the sated murderers, gorged with prey, + Retire: the clamour of the fight is o'er; + Silence again resumes her awful sway, + And sable Horror guards the massy door. + + +25. + + Here, Desolation holds her dreary court: + What satellites declare her dismal reign! + Shrieking their dirge, ill-omen'd birds resort, + To flit their vigils, in the hoary fane. + + +26. + + Soon a new Morn's restoring beams dispel + The clouds of Anarchy from Britain's skies; + The fierce Usurper seeks his native hell, + And Nature triumphs, as the Tyrant dies. + + +27. + + With storms she welcomes his expiring groans; + Whirlwinds, responsive, greet his labouring breath; + Earth shudders, as her caves receive his bones, + Loathing [12] the offering of so dark a death. + + +28. + + The legal Ruler [13] now resumes the helm, + He guides through gentle seas, the prow of state; + Hope cheers, with wonted smiles, the peaceful realm, + And heals the bleeding wounds of wearied Hate. + + +29. + + The gloomy tenants, Newstead! of thy cells, + Howling, resign their violated nest; [iv] + Again, the Master on his tenure dwells, + Enjoy'd, from absence, with enraptured zest. + + +30. + + Vassals, within thy hospitable pale, + Loudly carousing, bless their Lord's return; + Culture, again, adorns the gladdening vale, + And matrons, once lamenting, cease to mourn. + + +31. + + A thousand songs, on tuneful echo, float, + Unwonted foliage mantles o'er the trees; + And, hark! the horns proclaim a mellow note, + The hunters' cry hangs lengthening on the breeze. + + +32. + + Beneath their coursers' hoofs the valleys shake; + What fears! what anxious hopes! attend the chase! + The dying stag seeks refuge in the lake; + Exulting shouts announce the finish'd race. + + +33. + + Ah happy days! too happy to endure! + Such simple sports our plain forefathers knew: + No splendid vices glitter'd to allure; + Their joys were many, as their cares were few. + + +34. + + From these descending, Sons to Sires succeed; + Time steals along, and Death uprears his dart; + Another Chief impels the foaming steed, + Another Crowd pursue the panting hart. + + +35. + + Newstead! what saddening change of scene is thine! + Thy yawning arch betokens slow decay; + The last and youngest of a noble line, + Now holds thy mouldering turrets in his sway. + + +36. + + Deserted now, he scans thy gray worn towers; + Thy vaults, where dead of feudal ages sleep; + Thy cloisters, pervious to the wintry showers; + These, these he views, and views them but to weep. + + +37. + + Yet are his tears no emblem of regret: + Cherish'd Affection only bids them flow; + Pride, Hope, and Love, forbid him to forget, + But warm his bosom, with impassion'd glow. + + +38. + + Yet he prefers thee, to the gilded domes, [14] + Or gewgaw grottos, of the vainly great; + Yet lingers 'mid thy damp and mossy tombs, + Nor breathes a murmur 'gainst the will of Fate. + + +39. + + Haply thy sun, emerging, yet, may shine, + Thee to irradiate with meridian ray; + Hours, splendid as the past, may still be thine, + And bless thy future, as thy former day. [v] + + + +[Footnote 1: As one poem on this subject is already printed, the author +had, originally, no intention of inserting the following. It is now +added at the particular request of some friends.] + +[Footnote 2: Henry II. founded Newstead soon after the murder of Thomas +a Becket.] + +[Footnote 3: This word is used by Walter Scott, in his poem, 'The Wild +Huntsman', as synonymous with "vassal."] + +[Footnote 4: The red cross was the badge of the Crusaders.] + +[Footnote 5: As "gloaming," the Scottish word for twilight, is far more +poetical, and has been recommended by many eminent literary men, +particularly by Dr. Moore in his Letters to Burns, I have ventured to +use it on account of its harmony.] + +[Footnote 6: The priory was dedicated to the Virgin.--['Hours of +Idleness'.]] + +[Footnote 7: At the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII. bestowed +Newstead Abbey on Sir John Byron.] + +[Footnote 8: During the lifetime of Lord Byron's predecessor in the +title there was found in the lake a large brass eagle, in the body of +which were concealed a number of ancient deeds and documents. This eagle +is supposed to have been thrown into the lake by the retreating +monks.--'Life', p. 2, note. It is now a lectern in Southwell +Minster.] + +[Footnote 9: Newstead sustained a considerable siege in the war between +Charles I. and his parliament.] + +[Footnote 10: Lord Byron and his brother Sir William held high commands +in the royal army. The former was general-in-chief in Ireland, +lieutenant of the Tower, and governor to James, Duke of York, afterwards +the unhappy James II; the latter had a principal share in many actions. +['Vide ante', p. 3, 'note' 1.]] + +[Footnote 11: Lucius Cary, Lord Viscount Falkland, the most accomplished +man of his age, was killed at the Battle of Newbury, charging in the +ranks of Lord Byron's regiment of cavalry.] + +[Footnote 12: This is an historical fact. A violent tempest occurred +immediately subsequent to the death or interment of Cromwell, which +occasioned many disputes between his partisans and the cavaliers: both +interpreted the circumstance into divine interposition; but whether as +approbation or condemnation, we leave to the casuists of that age to +decide. I have made such use of the occurrence as suited the subject of +my poem.] + +[Footnote 13: Charles II.] + +[Footnote 14: An indication of Byron's feelings towards Newstead in his +younger days will be found in his letter to his mother of March 6, +1809.] + + +[Footnote i: 'Hours of Idleness.'] + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Soon as the twilight winds a waning shade.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + '--of the laurel'd wreath.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Howling, forsake--.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'Fortune may smile upon a future line, + And heaven restore an ever-cloudless day,' + +['P. on V. Occasions.', 'Hours of Idleness.']] + + + + + +* * * * * * * * * + + +HOURS OF IDLENESS + + + + + +TO GEORGE, EARL DELAWARR. [i] + + +1. + + Oh! yes, I will own we were dear to each other; + The friendships of childhood, though fleeting, are true; + The love which you felt was the love of a brother, + Nor less the affection I cherish'd for you. + + +2. + + But Friendship can vary her gentle dominion; + The attachment of years, in a moment expires: + Like Love, too, she moves on a swift-waving pinion, + But glows not, like Love, with unquenchable fires. + + +3. + + Full oft have we wander'd through Ida together, + And blest were the scenes of our youth, I allow: + In the spring of our life, how serene is the weather! + But Winter's rude tempests are gathering now. + + +4. + + No more with Affection shall Memory blending, + The wonted delights of our childhood retrace: + When Pride steels the bosom, the heart is unbending, + And what would be Justice appears a disgrace. + + +5. + + However, dear George, for I still must esteem you--[ii] + The few, whom I love, I can never upbraid; + The chance, which has lost, may in future redeem you, + Repentance will cancel the vow you have made. + + +6. + + I will not complain, and though chill'd is affection, + With me no corroding resentment shall live: + My bosom is calm'd by the simple reflection, + That both may be wrong, and that both should forgive. + + +7. + + You knew, that my soul, that my heart, my existence, + If danger demanded, were wholly your own; + You knew me unalter'd, by years or by distance, + Devoted to love and to friendship alone. + + +8. + + You knew,--but away with the vain retrospection! + The bond of affection no longer endures; + Too late you may droop o'er the fond recollection, + And sigh for the friend, who was formerly yours. + + +9. + + For the present, we part,--I will hope not for ever; [1] + For time and regret will restore you at last: + To forget our dissension we both should endeavour, + I ask no atonement, but days like the past. + + + +[Footnote 1: See Byron's Letter to Lord Clare of February 6, 1807, +referred to in 'note' 2, p. 100.] + +[Footnote i: + + 'To----'. + +['Hours of Idleness, Poems O. and Translated]] + + +[Footnote ii. + + 'However, dear S----'. + +['Hours of Idleness, Poems O. and Translated'.]] + + + + + + + + + +DAMAETAS. [1] + + + In law an infant, [2] and in years a boy, + In mind a slave to every vicious joy; + From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd, + In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend; + Vers'd in hypocrisy, while yet a child; + Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild; + Woman his dupe, his heedless friend a tool; + Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school; + Damaetas ran through all the maze of sin, + And found the goal, when others just begin: + Ev'n still conflicting passions shake his soul, + And bid him drain the dregs of Pleasure's bowl; + But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain, + And what was once his bliss appears his bane. + + +[Footnote 1: Moore appears to have regarded these lines as applying to +Byron himself. It is, however, very unlikely that, with all his passion +for painting himself in the darkest colours, he would have written +himself down "a hypocrite." Damaetas is, probably, a satirical sketch of +a friend or acquaintance. (Compare the solemn denunciation of Lord +Falkland in 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', lines +668-686.)]] + +[Footnote 2: In law, every person is an infant who has not attained the +age of twenty-one.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO MARION. [1] + + + MARION! why that pensive brow? [i] + What disgust to life hast thou? + Change that discontented air; + Frowns become not one so fair. + 'Tis not Love disturbs thy rest, + Love's a stranger to thy breast: + _He_, in dimpling smiles, appears, + Or mourns in sweetly timid tears; + Or bends the languid eyelid down, + But _shuns_ the cold forbidding 'frown'. + Then resume thy former fire, + Some will _love_, and all admire! + While that icy aspect chills us, + Nought but cool Indiff'rence thrills us. + Would'st thou wand'ring hearts beguile, + Smile, at least, or _seem_ to _smile_; + Eyes like _thine_ were never meant + To hide their orbs in dark restraint; + Spite of all thou fain wouldst say, + Still in _truant_ beams they play. + Thy lips--but here my _modest_ Muse + Her impulse _chaste_ must needs refuse: + She _blushes, curtsies, frowns,_--in short She + Dreads lest the _Subject_ should transport me; + And flying off, in search of _Reason_, + Brings Prudence back in proper season. + _All_ I shall, therefore, say (whate'er [ii] + I think, is neither here nor there,) + Is, that such _lips_, of looks endearing, + Were form'd for _better things_ than _sneering_. + Of soothing compliments divested, + Advice at least's disinterested; + Such is my artless song to thee, + From all the flow of Flatt'ry free; + Counsel like _mine_ is as a brother's, + _My_ heart is given to some others; + That is to say, unskill'd to cozen, + It shares itself among a dozen. + + Marion, adieu! oh, pr'ythee slight not + This warning, though it may delight not; + And, lest my precepts be displeasing, [iii] + To those who think remonstrance teazing, + At once I'll tell thee our opinion, + Concerning Woman's soft Dominion: + Howe'er we gaze, with admiration, + On eyes of blue or lips carnation; + Howe'er the flowing locks attract us, + Howe'er those beauties may distract us; + Still fickle, we are prone to rove, + _These_ cannot fix our souls to love; + It is not too _severe_ a stricture, + To say they form a _pretty picture_; + But would'st thou see the secret chain, + Which binds us in your humble train, + To hail you Queens of all Creation, + Know, in a _word, 'tis Animation_. + + +BYRON, _January_ 10, 1807. + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. of this Poem is preserved at Newstead. "This was to +Harriet Maltby, afterwards Mrs. Nichols, written upon her meeting Byron, +and, 'being 'cold, silent', and 'reserved' to him,' by the advice of a +Lady with whom she was staying; quite foreign to her 'usual' manner, +which was gay, lively, and full of flirtation."--Note by Miss E. Pigot. +(See p. 130, var. ii.)] + +[Footnote a: + + 'Harriet'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote b: + + 'All I shall therefore say of these', + ('Thy pardon if my words displease'). + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote c: + + 'And lest my precepts be found fault, by + Those who approved the frown of M--lt-by'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + +OSCAR OF ALVA. [1] + + +1. + + How sweetly shines, through azure skies, + The lamp of Heaven on Lora's shore; + Where Alva's hoary turrets rise, + And hear the din of arms no more! + + +2. + + But often has yon rolling moon, + On Alva's casques of silver play'd; + And view'd, at midnight's silent noon, + Her chiefs in gleaming mail array'd: + + +3. + + And, on the crimson'd rocks beneath, + Which scowl o'er ocean's sullen flow, + Pale in the scatter'd ranks of death, + She saw the gasping warrior low; [i] + + +4. + + While many an eye, which ne'er again [ii] + Could mark the rising orb of day, + Turn'd feebly from the gory plain, + Beheld in death her fading ray. + + +5. + + Once, to those eyes the lamp of Love, + They blest her dear propitious light; + But, now, she glimmer'd from above, + A sad, funereal torch of night. + + +6. + + Faded is Alva's noble race, + And grey her towers are seen afar; + No more her heroes urge the chase, + Or roll the crimson tide of war. + + +7. + + But, who was last of Alva's clan? + Why grows the moss on Alva's stone? + Her towers resound no steps of man, + They echo to the gale alone. + + +8. + + And, when that gale is fierce and high, + A sound is heard in yonder hall; + It rises hoarsely through the sky, + And vibrates o'er the mould'ring wall. + + +9. + + Yes, when the eddying tempest sighs, + It shakes the shield of Oscar brave; + But, there, no more his banners rise, + No more his plumes of sable wave. + + +10. + + Fair shone the sun on Oscar's birth, + When Angus hail'd his eldest born; + The vassals round their chieftain's hearth + Crowd to applaud the happy morn. + + +11. + + They feast upon the mountain deer, + The Pibroch rais'd its piercing note, [2] + To gladden more their Highland cheer, + The strains in martial numbers float. + + +12. + + And they who heard the war-notes wild, + Hop'd that, one day, the Pibroch's strain + Should play before the Hero's child, + While he should lead the Tartan train. + + +13. + + Another year is quickly past, + And Angus hails another son; + His natal day is like the last, + Nor soon the jocund feast was done. + + +14. + + Taught by their sire to bend the bow, + On Alva's dusky hills of wind, + The boys in childhood chas'd the roe, + And left their hounds in speed behind. + + +15. + + But ere their years of youth are o'er, + They mingle in the ranks of war; + They lightly wheel the bright claymore, + And send the whistling arrow far. + + +16. + + Dark was the flow of Oscar's hair, + Wildly it stream'd along the gale; + But Allan's locks were bright and fair, + And pensive seem'd his cheek, and pale. + + +17. + + But Oscar own'd a hero's soul, + His dark eye shone through beams of truth; + Allan had early learn'd controul, + And smooth his words had been from youth. + + +18. + + Both, both were brave; the Saxon spear + Was shiver'd oft beneath their steel; + And Oscar's bosom scorn'd to fear, + But Oscar's bosom knew to feel; + + +19. + + While Allan's soul belied his form, + Unworthy with such charms to dwell: + Keen as the lightning of the storm, + On foes his deadly vengeance fell. + + +20. + + From high Southannon's distant tower + Arrived a young and noble dame; + With Kenneth's lands to form her dower, + Glenalvon's blue-eyed daughter came; + + +21. + + And Oscar claim'd the beauteous bride, + And Angus on his Oscar smil'd: + It soothed the father's feudal pride + Thus to obtain Glenalvon's child. + + +22. + + Hark! to the Pibroch's pleasing note, + Hark! to the swelling nuptial song, + In joyous strains the voices float, + And, still, the choral peal prolong. + + +23. + + See how the Heroes' blood-red plumes + Assembled wave in Alva's hall; + Each youth his varied plaid assumes, + Attending on their chieftain's call. + + +24. + + It is not war their aid demands, + The Pibroch plays the song of peace; + To Oscar's nuptials throng the bands + Nor yet the sounds of pleasure cease. + + +25. + + But where is Oscar? sure 'tis late: + Is this a bridegroom's ardent flame? + While thronging guests and ladies wait, + Nor Oscar nor his brother came. + + +26. + + At length young Allan join'd the bride; + "Why comes not Oscar?" Angus said: + "Is he not here?" the Youth replied; + "With me he rov'd not o'er the glade: + + +27. + + "Perchance, forgetful of the day, + 'Tis his to chase the bounding roe; + Or Ocean's waves prolong his stay: + Yet, Oscar's bark is seldom slow." + + +28. + + "Oh, no!" the anguish'd Sire rejoin'd, + "Nor chase, nor wave, my Boy delay; + Would he to Mora seem unkind? + Would aught to her impede his way? + + +29. + + "Oh, search, ye Chiefs! oh, search around! + Allan, with these, through Alva fly; + Till Oscar, till my son is found, + Haste, haste, nor dare attempt reply." + + +30. + + All is confusion--through the vale, + The name of Oscar hoarsely rings, + It rises on the murm'ring gale, + Till night expands her dusky wings. + + +31. + + It breaks the stillness of the night, + But echoes through her shades in vain; + It sounds through morning's misty light, + But Oscar comes not o'er the plain. + + +32. + + Three days, three sleepless nights, the Chief + For Oscar search'd each mountain cave; + Then hope is lost; in boundless grief, + His locks in grey-torn ringlets wave. + + +33. + + "Oscar! my son!--thou God of Heav'n, + Restore the prop of sinking age! + Or, if that hope no more is given, + Yield his assassin to my rage. + + +34. + + "Yes, on some desert rocky shore + My Oscar's whiten'd bones must lie; + Then grant, thou God! I ask no more, + With him his frantic Sire may die! + + +35. + + "Yet, he may live,--away, despair! + Be calm, my soul! he yet may live; + T' arraign my fate, my voice forbear! + O God! my impious prayer forgive. + + +36. + + "What, if he live for me no more, + I sink forgotten in the dust, + The hope of Alva's age is o'er: + Alas! can pangs like these be just?" + + +37. + + Thus did the hapless Parent mourn, + Till Time, who soothes severest woe, + Had bade serenity return, + And made the tear-drop cease to flow. + + +38. + + For, still, some latent hope surviv'd + That Oscar might once more appear; + His hope now droop'd and now revived, + Till Time had told a tedious year. + + +39. + + Days roll'd along, the orb of light + Again had run his destined race; + No Oscar bless'd his father's sight, + And sorrow left a fainter trace. + + +40. + + For youthful Allan still remain'd, + And, now, his father's only joy: + And Mora's heart was quickly gain'd, + For beauty crown'd the fair-hair'd boy. + + +41. + + She thought that Oscar low was laid, + And Allan's face was wondrous fair; + If Oscar liv'd, some other maid + Had claim'd his faithless bosom's care. + + +42. + + And Angus said, if one year more + In fruitless hope was pass'd away, + His fondest scruples should be o'er, + And he would name their nuptial day. + + +43. + + Slow roll'd the moons, but blest at last + Arriv'd the dearly destin'd morn: + The year of anxious trembling past, + What smiles the lovers' cheeks adorn! + + +44. + + Hark to the Pibroch's pleasing note! + Hark to the swelling nuptial song! + In joyous strains the voices float, + And, still, the choral peal prolong. + + +45. + + Again the clan, in festive crowd, + Throng through the gate of Alva's hall; + The sounds of mirth re-echo loud, + And all their former joy recall. + + +46. + + But who is he, whose darken'd brow + Glooms in the midst of general mirth? + Before his eyes' far fiercer glow + The blue flames curdle o'er the hearth. + + +47. + + Dark is the robe which wraps his form, + And tall his plume of gory red; + His voice is like the rising storm, + But light and trackless is his tread. + + +48. + + 'Tis noon of night, the pledge goes round, + The bridegroom's health is deeply quaff'd; + With shouts the vaulted roofs resound, + And all combine to hail the draught. + + +49. + + Sudden the stranger-chief arose, + And all the clamorous crowd are hush'd; + And Angus' cheek with wonder glows, + And Mora's tender bosom blush'd. + + +50. + + "Old man!" he cried, "this pledge is done, + Thou saw'st 'twas truly drunk by me; + It hail'd the nuptials of thy son: + Now will I claim a pledge from thee. + + +51. + + "While all around is mirth and joy, + To bless thy Allan's happy lot, + Say, hadst thou ne'er another boy? + Say, why should Oscar be forgot?" + + +52. + + "Alas!" the hapless Sire replied, + The big tear starting as he spoke, + "When Oscar left my hall, or died, + This aged heart was almost broke. + + +53. + + "Thrice has the earth revolv'd her course + Since Oscar's form has bless'd my sight; + And Allan is my last resource, + Since martial Oscar's death, or flight." + + +54. + + "'Tis well," replied the stranger stern, + And fiercely flash'd his rolling eye; + "Thy Oscar's fate, I fain would learn; + Perhaps the Hero did not die. + + +55. + + "Perchance, if those, whom most he lov'd, + Would call, thy Oscar might return; + Perchance, the chief has only rov'd; + For him thy Beltane, yet, may burn. [3] + + +56. + + "Fill high the bowl the table round, + We will not claim the pledge by stealth; + With wine let every cup be crown'd; + Pledge me departed Oscar's health." + + +57. + + "With all my soul," old Angus said, + And fill'd his goblet to the brim: + "Here's to my boy! alive or dead, + I ne'er shall find a son like him." + + +58. + + "Bravely, old man, this health has sped; + But why does Allan trembling stand? + Come, drink remembrance of the dead, + And raise thy cup with firmer hand." + + +59. + + The crimson glow of Allan's face + Was turn'd at once to ghastly hue; + The drops of death each other chace, + Adown in agonizing dew. + + +60. + + Thrice did he raise the goblet high, + And thrice his lips refused to taste; + For thrice he caught the stranger's eye + On his with deadly fury plac'd. + + +61. + + "And is it thus a brother hails + A brother's fond remembrance here? + If thus affection's strength prevails, + What might we not expect from fear?" + + +62. + + Roused by the sneer, he rais'd the bowl, + "Would Oscar now could share our mirth!" + Internal fear appall'd his soul; [i] + He said, and dash'd the cup to earth. + + +63. + + "'Tis he! I hear my murderer's voice!" + Loud shrieks a darkly gleaming Form. + "A murderer's voice!" the roof replies, + And deeply swells the bursting storm. + + +64. + + The tapers wink, the chieftains shrink, + The stranger's gone,--amidst the crew, + A Form was seen, in tartan green, + And tall the shade terrific grew. + + +65. + + His waist was bound with a broad belt round, + His plume of sable stream'd on high; + But his breast was bare, with the red wounds there, + And fix'd was the glare of his glassy eye. + + +66. + + And thrice he smil'd, with his eye so wild + On Angus bending low the knee; + And thrice he frown'd, on a Chief on the ground, + Whom shivering crowds with horror see. + + +67. + + The bolts loud roll from pole to pole, + And thunders through the welkin ring, + And the gleaming form, through the mist of the storm, + Was borne on high by the whirlwind's wing. + + +68. + + Cold was the feast, the revel ceas'd. + Who lies upon the stony floor? + Oblivion press'd old Angus' breast, [iv] + At length his life-pulse throbs once more. + + +69. + + "Away, away! let the leech essay + To pour the light on Allan's eyes:" + His sand is done,--his race is run; + Oh! never more shall Allan rise! + + +70. + + But Oscar's breast is cold as clay, + His locks are lifted by the gale; + And Allan's barbed arrow lay + With him in dark Glentanar's vale. + + +71. + + And whence the dreadful stranger came, + Or who, no mortal wight can tell; + But no one doubts the form of flame, + For Alva's sons knew Oscar well. + + +72. + + Ambition nerv'd young Allan's hand, + Exulting demons wing'd his dart; + While Envy wav'd her burning brand, + And pour'd her venom round his heart. + + +73. + + Swift is the shaft from Allan's bow; + Whose streaming life-blood stains his side? + Dark Oscar's sable crest is low, + The dart has drunk his vital tide. + + +74. + + And Mora's eye could Allan move, + She bade his wounded pride rebel: + Alas! that eyes, which beam'd with love, + Should urge the soul to deeds of Hell. + + +75. + + Lo! see'st thou not a lonely tomb, + Which rises o'er a warrior dead? + It glimmers through the twilight gloom; + Oh! that is Allan's nuptial bed. + + +76. + + Far, distant far, the noble grave + Which held his clan's great ashes stood; + And o'er his corse no banners wave, + For they were stain'd with kindred blood. + + +77. + + What minstrel grey, what hoary bard, + Shall Allan's deeds on harp-strings raise? + The song is glory's chief reward, + But who can strike a murd'rer's praise? + + +78. + + Unstrung, untouch'd, the harp must stand, + No minstrel dare the theme awake; + Guilt would benumb his palsied hand, + His harp in shuddering chords would break. + + +79. + + No lyre of fame, no hallow'd verse, + Shall sound his glories high in air: + A dying father's bitter curse, + A brother's death-groan echoes there. + + + +[Footnote 1: The catastrophe of this tale was suggested by the story of +"Jeronymo and Lorenzo," in the first volume of Schiller's 'Armenian, or +the Ghost-Seer'. It also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third +act of 'Macbeth'.--['Der Geisterseher', Schiller's 'Werke' (1819), x. +97, 'sq'.] + +[Footnote 2: It is evident that Byron here confused the 'pibroch', the +air, with the 'bagpipe', the instrument.] + +[Footnote 3: Beltane Tree, a Highland festival on the first of May, +held near fires lighted for the occasion.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'She view'd the gasping'----. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'When many an eye which ne'er again + Could view'----. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Internal fears'----. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Old Angus prest, the earth with his breast'. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON. + + +[Greek: Thel_o legein Atpeidas, k.t.l.] [1] + + + +ODE 1. + +TO HIS LYRE. + + + + I wish to tune my quivering lyre, [i] + To deeds of fame, and notes of fire; + To echo, from its rising swell, + How heroes fought and nations fell, + When Atreus' sons advanc'd to war, + Or Tyrian Cadmus rov'd afar; + But still, to martial strains unknown, + My lyre recurs to Love alone. + Fir'd with the hope of future fame, [ii] + I seek some nobler Hero's name; + The dying chords are strung anew, + To war, to war, my harp is due: + With glowing strings, the Epic strain + To Jove's great son I raise again; + Alcides and his glorious deeds, + Beneath whose arm the Hydra bleeds; + All, all in vain; my wayward lyre + Wakes silver notes of soft Desire. + Adieu, ye Chiefs renown'd in arms! + Adieu the clang of War's alarms! [iii] + To other deeds my soul is strung, + And sweeter notes shall now be sung; + My harp shall all its powers reveal, + To tell the tale my heart must feel; + Love, Love alone, my lyre shall claim, + In songs of bliss and sighs of flame. + + +[Footnote 1: The motto does not appear in 'Hours of Idleness' or +'Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote i: 'I sought to tune'----.--['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'The chords resumed a second strain, + To Jove's great son I strike again. + Alcides and his glorious deeds, + Beneath whose arm the Hydra bleeds'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'The Trumpet's blast with these accords + To sound the clash of hostile swords-- + Be mine the softer, sweeter care + To soothe the young and virgin Fair'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +FROM ANACREON. + +[Greek: Mesonuktiois poth h_opais, k.t.l.] [1] + + +ODE 3. + + + 'Twas now the hour when Night had driven + Her car half round yon sable heaven; + Booetes, only, seem'd to roll [i] + His Arctic charge around the Pole; + While mortals, lost in gentle sleep, + Forgot to smile, or ceas'd to weep: + At this lone hour the Paphian boy, + Descending from the realms of joy, + Quick to my gate directs his course, + And knocks with all his little force; + My visions fled, alarm'd I rose,-- + "What stranger breaks my blest repose?" + "Alas!" replies the wily child + In faltering accents sweetly mild; + "A hapless Infant here I roam, + Far from my dear maternal home. + Oh! shield me from the wintry blast! + The nightly storm is pouring fast. + No prowling robber lingers here; + A wandering baby who can fear?" + I heard his seeming artless tale, [ii] + I heard his sighs upon the gale: + My breast was never pity's foe, + But felt for all the baby's woe. + I drew the bar, and by the light + Young Love, the infant, met my sight; + His bow across his shoulders flung, + And thence his fatal quiver hung + (Ah! little did I think the dart + Would rankle soon within my heart). + With care I tend my weary guest, + His little fingers chill my breast; + His glossy curls, his azure wing, + Which droop with nightly showers, I wring; + His shivering limbs the embers warm; + And now reviving from the storm, + Scarce had he felt his wonted glow, + Than swift he seized his slender bow:-- + "I fain would know, my gentle host," + He cried, "if this its strength has lost; + I fear, relax'd with midnight dews, + The strings their former aid refuse." + With poison tipt, his arrow flies, + Deep in my tortur'd heart it lies: + Then loud the joyous Urchin laugh'd:-- + "My bow can still impel the shaft: + 'Tis firmly fix'd, thy sighs reveal it; + Say, courteous host, canst thou not feel it?" + + +[Footnote 1: The motto does not appear in 'Hours of Idleness' or +'Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote i: The Newstead MS. inserts-- + + 'No Moon in silver robe was seen + Nor e'en a trembling star between'.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Touched with the seeming artless tale + Compassion's tears o'er doubt prevail; + Methought I viewed him, cold and damp, + I trimmed anew my dying lamp, + Drew back the bar--and by the light + A pinioned Infant met my sight; + His bow across his shoulders slung, + And hence a gilded quiver hung; + With care I tend my weary guest, + His shivering hands by mine are pressed: + My hearth I load with embers warm + To dry the dew drops of the storm: + Drenched by the rain of yonder sky + The strings are weak--but let us try.' + +--['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + +THE EPISODE OF NISUS AND EURYALUS. [1] + +A PARAPHRASE FROM THE "AENEID," LIB. 9. + + + Nisus, the guardian of the portal, stood, + Eager to gild his arms with hostile blood; + Well skill'd, in fight, the quivering lance to wield, + Or pour his arrows thro' th' embattled field: + From Ida torn, he left his sylvan cave, [i] + And sought a foreign home, a distant grave. + To watch the movements of the Daunian host, + With him Euryalus sustains the post; + No lovelier mien adorn'd the ranks of Troy, + And beardless bloom yet grac'd the gallant boy; 10 + Though few the seasons of his youthful life, + As yet a novice in the martial strife, + 'Twas his, with beauty, Valour's gifts to share-- + A soul heroic, as his form was fair: + These burn with one pure flame of generous love; + In peace, in war, united still they move; + Friendship and Glory form their joint reward; + And, now, combin'd they hold their nightly guard. [ii] + + "What God," exclaim'd the first, "instils this fire? + Or, in itself a God, what great desire? 20 + My lab'ring soul, with anxious thought oppress'd, + Abhors this station of inglorious rest; + The love of fame with this can ill accord, + Be't mine to seek for glory with my sword. + See'st thou yon camp, with torches twinkling dim, + Where drunken slumbers wrap each lazy limb? + Where confidence and ease the watch disdain, + And drowsy Silence holds her sable reign? + Then hear my thought:--In deep and sullen grief + Our troops and leaders mourn their absent chief: 30 + Now could the gifts and promised prize be thine, + (The deed, the danger, and the fame be mine,) + Were this decreed, beneath yon rising mound, + Methinks, an easy path, perchance, were found; + Which past, I speed my way to Pallas' walls, + And lead AEneas from Evander's halls." + + With equal ardour fir'd, and warlike joy, + His glowing friend address'd the Dardan boy:-- + "These deeds, my Nisus, shalt thou dare alone? + Must all the fame, the peril, be thine own? 40 + Am I by thee despis'd, and left afar, + As one unfit to share the toils of war? + Not thus his son the great Opheltes taught: + Not thus my sire in Argive combats fought; + Not thus, when Ilion fell by heavenly hate, + I track'd AEneas through the walks of fate: + Thou know'st my deeds, my breast devoid of fear, + And hostile life-drops dim my gory spear. + Here is a soul with hope immortal burns, + And _life_, ignoble _life_, for _Glory_ spurns. [iii] 50 + Fame, fame is cheaply earn'd by fleeting breath: + The price of honour, is the sleep of death." + + Then Nisus:--"Calm thy bosom's fond alarms: [iv] + Thy heart beats fiercely to the din of arms. + More dear thy worth, and valour than my own, + I swear by him, who fills Olympus' throne! + So may I triumph, as I speak the truth, + And clasp again the comrade of my youth! + But should I fall,--and he, who dares advance + Through hostile legions, must abide by chance,-- 60 + If some Rutulian arm, with adverse blow, + Should lay the friend, who ever lov'd thee, low, + Live thou--such beauties I would fain preserve-- + Thy budding years a lengthen'd term deserve; + When humbled in the dust, let some one be, + Whose gentle eyes will shed one tear for me; + Whose manly arm may snatch me back by force, + Or wealth redeem, from foes, my captive corse; + Or, if my destiny these last deny, + If, in the spoiler's power, my ashes lie; 70 + Thy pious care may raise a simple tomb, + To mark thy love, and signalise my doom. + Why should thy doating wretched mother weep + Her only boy, reclin'd in endless sleep? + Who, for thy sake, the tempest's fury dar'd, + Who, for thy sake, war's deadly peril shar'd; + Who brav'd what woman never brav'd before, + And left her native, for the Latian shore." + + "In vain you damp the ardour of my soul," + Replied Euryalus; "it scorns controul; 80 + Hence, let us haste!"--their brother guards arose, + Rous'd by their call, nor court again repose; + The pair, buoy'd up on Hope's exulting wing, + Their stations leave, and speed to seek the king. + + Now, o'er the earth a solemn stillness ran, + And lull'd alike the cares of brute and man; + Save where the Dardan leaders, nightly, hold + Alternate converse, and their plans unfold. + On one great point the council are agreed, + An instant message to their prince decreed; 90 + Each lean'd upon the lance he well could wield, + And pois'd with easy arm his ancient shield; + When Nisus and his friend their leave request, + To offer something to their high behest. + With anxious tremors, yet unaw'd by fear, [v] + The faithful pair before the throne appear; + Iulus greets them; at his kind command, + The elder, first, address'd the hoary band. + + "With patience" (thus Hyrtacides began) + "Attend, nor judge, from youth, our humble plan. 100 + Where yonder beacons half-expiring beam, + Our slumbering foes of future conquest dream, [vi] + Nor heed that we a secret path have trac'd, + Between the ocean and the portal plac'd; + Beneath the covert of the blackening smoke, + Whose shade, securely, our design will cloak! + If you, ye Chiefs, and Fortune will allow, + We'll bend our course to yonder mountain's brow, + Where Pallas' walls, at distance, meet the sight, + Seen o'er the glade, when not obscur'd by night: 110 + Then shall AEneas in his pride return, + While hostile matrons raise their offspring's urn; + And Latian spoils, and purpled heaps of dead + Shall mark the havoc of our Hero's tread; + Such is our purpose, not unknown the way, + Where yonder torrent's devious waters stray; + Oft have we seen, when hunting by the stream, + The distant spires above the valleys gleam." + + Mature in years, for sober wisdom fam'd, + Mov'd by the speech, Alethes here exclaim'd,-- 120 + "Ye parent gods! who rule the fate of Troy, + Still dwells the Dardan spirit in the boy; + When minds, like these, in striplings thus ye raise, + Yours is the godlike act, be yours the praise; + In gallant youth, my fainting hopes revive, + And Ilion's wonted glories still survive." + Then in his warm embrace the boys he press'd, + And, quivering, strain'd them to his aged breast; + With tears the burning cheek of each bedew'd, + And, sobbing, thus his first discourse renew'd:-- 130 + "What gift, my countrymen, what martial prize, + Can we bestow, which you may not despise? + Our Deities the first best boon have given-- + Internal virtues are the gift of Heaven. + What poor rewards can bless your deeds on earth, + Doubtless await such young, exalted worth; + AEneas and Ascanius shall combine + To yield applause far, far surpassing mine." + + Iulus then:--"By all the powers above! + By those Penates, who my country love! 140 + By hoary Vesta's sacred Fane, I swear, + My hopes are all in you, ye generous pair! + Restore my father, to my grateful sight, + And all my sorrows, yield to one delight. + Nisus! two silver goblets are thine own, + Sav'd from Arisba's stately domes o'erthrown; + My sire secured them on that fatal day, + Nor left such bowls an Argive robber's prey. + Two massy tripods, also, shall be thine, + Two talents polish'd from the glittering mine; 150 + An ancient cup, which Tyrian Dido gave, + While yet our vessels press'd the Punic wave: + But when the hostile chiefs at length bow down, + When great AEneas wears Hesperia's crown, + The casque, the buckler, and the fiery steed + Which Turnus guides with more than mortal speed, + Are thine; no envious lot shall then be cast, + I pledge my word, irrevocably past: + Nay more, twelve slaves, and twice six captive dames, + To soothe thy softer hours with amorous flames, 160 + And all the realms, which now the Latins sway, + The labours of to-night shall well repay. + But thou, my generous youth, whose tender years + Are near my own, whose worth my heart reveres, + Henceforth, affection, sweetly thus begun, + Shall join our bosoms and our souls in one; + Without thy aid, no glory shall be mine, + Without thy dear advice, no great design; + Alike, through life, esteem'd, thou godlike boy, + In war my bulwark, and in peace my joy." 170 + + To him Euryalus:--"No day shall shame + The rising glories which from this I claim. + Fortune may favour, or the skies may frown, + But valour, spite of fate, obtains renown. + Yet, ere from hence our eager steps depart, + One boon I beg, the nearest to my heart: + My mother, sprung from Priam's royal line, + Like thine ennobled, hardly less divine, + Nor Troy nor king Acestes' realms restrain + Her feeble age from dangers of the main; 180 + Alone she came, all selfish fears above, [vii] + A bright example of maternal love. + Unknown, the secret enterprise I brave, + Lest grief should bend my parent to the grave; + From this alone no fond adieus I seek, + No fainting mother's lips have press'd my cheek; + By gloomy Night and thy right hand I vow, + Her parting tears would shake my purpose now: [viii] + Do thou, my prince, her failing age sustain, + In thee her much-lov'd child may live again; 190 + Her dying hours with pious conduct bless, + Assist her wants, relieve her fond distress: + So dear a hope must all my soul enflame, [ix] + To rise in glory, or to fall in fame." + Struck with a filial care so deeply felt, + In tears at once the Trojan warriors melt; + Faster than all, Iulus' eyes o'erflow! + Such love was his, and such had been his woe. + "All thou hast ask'd, receive," the Prince replied; + "Nor this alone, but many a gift beside. 200 + To cheer thy mother's years shall be my aim, + Creusa's [2] style but wanting to the dame; + Fortune an adverse wayward course may run, + But bless'd thy mother in so dear a son. + Now, by my life!--my Sire's most sacred oath-- + To thee I pledge my full, my firmest troth, + All the rewards which once to thee were vow'd, [x] + If thou should'st fall, on her shall be bestow'd." + Thus spoke the weeping Prince, then forth to view + A gleaming falchion from the sheath he drew; 210 + Lycaon's utmost skill had grac'd the steel, + For friends to envy and for foes to feel: + A tawny hide, the Moorish lion's spoil, [xi] + Slain 'midst the forest in the hunter's toil, + Mnestheus to guard the elder youth bestows, [xii] + And old Alethes' casque defends his brows; + Arm'd, thence they go, while all th' assembl'd train, + To aid their cause, implore the gods in vain. [xiii] + More than a boy, in wisdom and in grace, + Iulus holds amidst the chiefs his place: 220 + His prayer he sends; but what can prayers avail, + Lost in the murmurs of the sighing gale? [xiv] + + The trench is pass'd, and favour'd by the night, + Through sleeping foes, they wheel their wary flight. + When shall the sleep of many a foe be o'er? + Alas! some slumber, who shall wake no more! + Chariots and bridles, mix'd with arms, are seen, + And flowing flasks, and scatter'd troops between: + Bacchus and Mars, to rule the camp, combine; + A mingled Chaos this of war and wine. 230 + "Now," cries the first, "for deeds of blood prepare, + With me the conquest and the labour share: + Here lies our path; lest any hand arise, + Watch thou, while many a dreaming chieftain dies; + I'll carve our passage, through the heedless foe, + And clear thy road, with many a deadly blow." + His whispering accents then the youth repress'd, + And pierced proud Rhamnes through his panting breast: + Stretch'd at his ease, th' incautious king repos'd; + Debauch, and not fatigue, his eyes had clos'd; 240 + To Turnus dear, a prophet and a prince, + His omens more than augur's skill evince; + But he, who thus foretold the fate of all, + Could not avert his own untimely fall. + Next Remus' armour-bearer, hapless, fell, + And three unhappy slaves the carnage swell; + The charioteer along his courser's sides + Expires, the steel his sever'd neck divides; + And, last, his Lord is number'd with the dead: + Bounding convulsive, flies the gasping head; 250 + From the swol'n veins the blackening torrents pour; + Stain'd is the couch and earth with clotting gore. + Young Lamyrus and Lamus next expire, + And gay Serranus, fill'd with youthful fire; + Half the long night in childish games was pass'd; [xv] + Lull'd by the potent grape, he slept at last: + Ah! happier far, had he the morn survey'd, + And, till Aurora's dawn, his skill display'd. [xvi] + In slaughter'd folds, the keepers lost in sleep, [xvii] + His hungry fangs a lion thus may steep; 260 + 'Mid the sad flock, at dead of night he prowls, + With murder glutted, and in carnage rolls + Insatiate still, through teeming herds he roams; [xviii] + In seas of gore, the lordly tyrant foams. + + Nor less the other's deadly vengeance came, + But falls on feeble crowds without a name; + His wound unconscious Fadus scarce can feel, + Yet wakeful Rhaesus sees the threatening steel; + His coward breast behind a jar he hides, + And, vainly, in the weak defence confides; 270 + Full in his heart, the falchion search'd his veins, + The reeking weapon bears alternate stains; + Through wine and blood, commingling as they flow, + One feeble spirit seeks the shades below. + Now where Messapus dwelt they bend their way, + Whose fires emit a faint and trembling ray; + There, unconfin'd, behold each grazing steed, + Unwatch'd, unheeded, on the herbage feed: [xix] + Brave Nisus here arrests his comrade's arm, + Too flush'd with carnage, and with conquest warm: 280 + "Hence let us haste, the dangerous path is pass'd; + Full foes enough, to-night, have breath'd their last: + Soon will the Day those Eastern clouds adorn; + Now let us speed, nor tempt the rising morn." + + What silver arms, with various art emboss'd, + What bowls and mantles, in confusion toss'd, + They leave regardless! yet one glittering prize + Attracts the younger Hero's wandering eyes; + The gilded harness Rhamnes' coursers felt, + The gems which stud the monarch's golden belt: 290 + This from the pallid corse was quickly torn, + Once by a line of former chieftains worn. + Th' exulting boy the studded girdle wears, + Messapus' helm his head, in triumph, bears; + Then from the tents their cautious steps they bend, + To seek the vale, where safer paths extend. + + Just at this hour, a band of Latian horse + To Turnus' camp pursue their destin'd course: + While the slow foot their tardy march delay, + The knights, impatient, spur along the way: 300 + Three hundred mail-clad men, by Volscens led, + To Turnus with their master's promise sped: + Now they approach the trench, and view the walls, + When, on the left, a light reflection falls; + The plunder'd helmet, through the waning night, + Sheds forth a silver radiance, glancing bright; + Volscens, with question loud, the pair alarms:-- + "Stand, Stragglers! stand! why early thus in arms? + From whence? to whom?"--He meets with no reply; + Trusting the covert of the night, they fly: 310 + The thicket's depth, with hurried pace, they tread, + While round the wood the hostile squadron spread. + + With brakes entangled, scarce a path between, + Dreary and dark appears the sylvan scene: + Euryalus his heavy spoils impede, + The boughs and winding turns his steps mislead; + But Nisus scours along the forest's maze, + To where Latinus' steeds in safety graze, + Then backward o'er the plain his eyes extend, + On every side they seek his absent friend. 320 + "O God! my boy," he cries, "of me bereft, [xx] + In what impending perils art thou left!" + Listening he runs--above the waving trees, + Tumultuous voices swell the passing breeze; + The war-cry rises, thundering hoofs around + Wake the dark echoes of the trembling ground. + Again he turns--of footsteps hears the noise-- + The sound elates--the sight his hope destroys: + The hapless boy a ruffian train surround, [xxi] + While lengthening shades his weary way confound; 330 + Him, with loud shouts, the furious knights pursue, + Struggling in vain, a captive to the crew. [xxii] + What can his friend 'gainst thronging numbers dare? + Ah! must he rush, his comrade's fate to share? + What force, what aid, what stratagem essay, + Back to redeem the Latian spoiler's prey? + His life a votive ransom nobly give, + Or die with him, for whom he wish'd to live? + Poising with strength his lifted lance on high, + On Luna's orb he cast his frenzied eye:-- 340 + + "Goddess serene, transcending every star! [xxiii] + Queen of the sky, whose beams are seen afar! + By night Heaven owns thy sway, by day the grove, + When, as chaste Dian, here thou deign'st to rove; + If e'er myself, or Sire, have sought to grace + Thine altars, with the produce of the chase, + Speed, speed my dart to pierce yon vaunting crowd, + To free my friend, and scatter far the proud." + Thus having said, the hissing dart he flung; + Through parted shades the hurtling weapon sung; 350 + The thirsty point in Sulmo's entrails lay, + Transfix'd his heart, and stretch'd him on the clay: + He sobs, he dies,--the troop in wild amaze, + Unconscious whence the death, with horror gaze; + While pale they stare, thro' Tagus' temples riven, + A second shaft, with equal force is driven: + Fierce Volscens rolls around his lowering eyes; + Veil'd by the night, secure the Trojan lies. [xxiv] + Burning with wrath, he view'd his soldiers fall. + "Thou youth accurst, thy life shall pay for all!" 360 + Quick from the sheath his flaming glaive he drew, + And, raging, on the boy defenceless flew. + Nisus, no more the blackening shade conceals, + Forth, forth he starts, and all his love reveals; + Aghast, confus'd, his fears to madness rise, + And pour these accents, shrieking as he flies; + "Me, me,--your vengeance hurl on me alone; + Here sheathe the steel, my blood is all your own; + Ye starry Spheres! thou conscious Heaven! attest! + He could not--durst not--lo! the guile confest! 370 + All, all was mine,--his early fate suspend; + He only lov'd, too well, his hapless friend: + Spare, spare, ye Chiefs! from him your rage remove; + His fault was friendship, all his crime was love." + He pray'd in vain; the dark assassin's sword + Pierced the fair side, the snowy bosom gor'd; + Lowly to earth inclines his plume-clad crest, + And sanguine torrents mantle o'er his breast: + As some young rose whose blossom scents the air, + Languid in death, expires beneath the share; 380 + Or crimson poppy, sinking with the shower, + Declining gently, falls a fading flower; + Thus, sweetly drooping, bends his lovely head, + And lingering Beauty hovers round the dead. + + But fiery Nisus stems the battle's tide, + Revenge his leader, and Despair his guide; [xxv] + Volscens he seeks amidst the gathering host, + Volscens must soon appease his comrade's ghost; + Steel, flashing, pours on steel, foe crowds on foe; + Rage nerves his arm, Fate gleams in every blow; 390 + In vain beneath unnumber'd wounds he bleeds, + Nor wounds, nor death, distracted Nisus heeds; + In viewless circles wheel'd his falchion flies, + Nor quits the hero's grasp till Volscens dies; + Deep in his throat its end the weapon found, + The tyrant's soul fled groaning through the wound. [xxvi] + Thus Nisus all his fond affection prov'd-- + Dying, revenged the fate of him he lov'd; + Then on his bosom sought his wonted place, [xxvii] + And death was heavenly, in his friend's embrace! 400 + + Celestial pair! if aught my verse can claim, + Wafted on Time's broad pinion, yours is fame! [xxviii] + Ages on ages shall your fate admire, + No future day shall see your names expire, + While stands the Capitol, immortal dome! + And vanquished millions hail their Empress, Rome! + + +[Footnote 1: Lines 1-18 were first published in 'P. on V. Occasions', +under the title of "Fragment of a Translation from the 9th Book of +Virgil's 'AEneid'."] + +[Footnote 2: The mother of Iulus, lost on the night when Troy was +taken.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Him Ida sent, a hunter, now no more, + To combat foes, upon a foreign shore; + Near him, the loveliest of the Trojan band, + Did fair Euryalus, his comrade, stand; + Few are the seasons of his youthful life, + As yet a novice in the martial strife: + The Gods to him unwonted gifts impart, + A female's beatify, with a hero's heart. + +['P. on V. Occasions.'] + + From Ida torn he left his native grove, + Through distant climes, and trackless seas to rove.' + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'And now combin'd, the massy gate they guard'. + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] + + --they hold the nightly guard'. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + And Love, and Life alike the glory spurned. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + Then Nisus, "Ah, my friend--why thus suspect + Thy youthful breast admits of no defect." + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + Trembling with diffidence not awed by fear. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + The vain Rutulians lost in slumber dream. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Hither she came------. + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'Her falling tears------. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'With this assurance Fate's attempts are vain; + Fearless I dare the foes of yonder plain. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'That all the gifts which once to thee were vowed. + +['MS. Newstead'.] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'A tawny skin the furious lion's spoil. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'Mnestheus presented, and the Warrior's mask + Alethes gave a doubly temper'd casque. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'To glad their journey, follow them in vain. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'Dispersed and scattered on the sighing gale. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'By Bacchus' potent draught weigh'd down at last + Half the long night in childish games was past. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + '--disportive play'd. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + By hunger prest, the keeper lull'd to sleep + In slaughter thus a Lyon's fangs may steep. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + Through teeming herds unchecked, unawed, he roams. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xix: + + Heedless of danger on the herbage feed. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + ----'of thee bereft + In what dire perils is my brother left.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxi: + + Then his lov'd boy the ruffian band surround + Entangled in the tufted Forest ground. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxii: + + 'At length a captive to the hostile crew'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxiii: + + 'The Goddess bright transcending every star'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxiv: + + 'No object meets them but the earth and skies. + He burns for vengeance, rising in his wrath-- + Then you, accursed, thy life shall pay for both; + Then from the sheath his flaming brand he drew, + And on the raging boy defenceless flew. + Nisus no more the blackening shade conceals, + Forth forth he rushed and all his love reveals; + Pale and confused his fear to madness grows, + And thus in accents mild he greets his Foes. + "On me, on me, direct your impious steel, + Let me and me alone your vengeance feel-- + Let not a stripling's blood by Chiefs be spilt, + Be mine the Death, as mine was all the guilt. + By Heaven and Hell, the powers of Earth and Air. + Yon guiltless stripling neither could nor dare: + Spare him, oh! spare by all the Gods above, + A hapless boy whose only crime was Love." + He prayed in vain; the fierce assassin's sword + Pierced the fair side, the snowy bosom gored; + Drooping to earth inclines his lovely head, + O'er his fair curls, the purpling stream is spread. + As some sweet lily, by the ploughshare broke + Languid in Death, sinks down beneath the stroke; + Or, as some poppy, bending with the shower, + Gently declining falls a waning flower'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxv: + + 'Revenge his object'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvi: + + 'The assassin's soul'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvii: + + 'Then on his breast he sought his wonted place, + And Death was lovely in his Friend's embrace'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxviii: + + 'Yours are the fairest wreaths of endless Fame.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM THE "MEDEA" OF EURIPIDES [Ll. 627-660]. + +[Greek: Erotes hyper men agan, K.T.L.[1]] + + +1. + + When fierce conflicting passions urge + The breast, where love is wont to glow, + What mind can stem the stormy surge + Which rolls the tide of human woe? + The hope of praise, the dread of shame, + Can rouse the tortur'd breast no more; + The wild desire, the guilty flame, + Absorbs each wish it felt before. + + +2. + + But if affection gently thrills + The soul, by purer dreams possest, + The pleasing balm of mortal ills + In love can soothe the aching breast: + If thus thou comest in disguise, [i] + Fair Venus! from thy native heaven, + What heart, unfeeling, would despise + The sweetest boon the Gods have given? + + +3. + + But, never from thy golden bow, + May I beneath the shaft expire! + Whose creeping venom, sure and slow, + Awakes an all-consuming fire: + Ye racking doubts! ye jealous fears! + With others wage internal war; + Repentance! source of future tears, + From me be ever distant far! + + +4. + + May no distracting thoughts destroy + The holy calm of sacred love! + May all the hours be winged with joy, + Which hover faithful hearts above! + Fair Venus! on thy myrtle shrine + May I with some fond lover sigh! + Whose heart may mingle pure with mine, + With me to live, with me to die! + + +5. + + My native soil! belov'd before, + Now dearer, as my peaceful home, + Ne'er may I quit thy rocky shore, + A hapless banish'd wretch to roam! + This very day, this very hour, + May I resign this fleeting breath! + Nor quit my silent humble bower; + A doom, to me, far worse than death. + + +6. + + Have I not heard the exile's sigh, + And seen the exile's silent tear, + Through distant climes condemn'd to fly, + A pensive, weary wanderer here? + Ah! hapless dame! [2] no sire bewails, + No friend thy wretched fate deplores, + No kindred voice with rapture hails + Thy steps within a stranger's doors. + + +7. + + Perish the fiend! whose iron heart + To fair affection's truth unknown, + Bids her he fondly lov'd depart, + Unpitied, helpless, and alone; + Who ne'er unlocks with silver key, [3] + The milder treasures of his soul; + May such a friend be far from me, + And Ocean's storms between us roll! + + +[Footnote 1: The Greek heading does not appear in 'Hours of Idleness' or +'Poems O. and T'.] + +[Footnote 2: Medea, who accompanied Jason to Corinth, was deserted by +him for the daughter of Creon, king of that city. The chorus, from which +this is taken, here addresses Medea; though a considerable liberty is +taken with the original, by expanding the idea, as also in some other +parts of the translation.] + +[Footnote 3: The original is [Greek: katharan anoixanta klaeda +phren_on,] literally "disclosing the bright key of the mind."] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'If thus thou com'st in gentle guise'. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +LACHIN Y GAIR. [1] + + +1. + + Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses! + In you let the minions of luxury rove: + Restore me the rocks, where the snow-flake reposes, + Though still they are sacred to freedom and love: + Yet, Caledonia, belov'd are thy mountains, + Round their white summits though elements war: + Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth-flowing fountains, + I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Garr. + + +2. + + Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy, wander'd: + My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid; [2] + On chieftains, long perish'd, my memory ponder'd, + As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade; + I sought not my home, till the day's dying glory + Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star; + For fancy was cheer'd, by traditional story, + Disclos'd by the natives of dark Loch na Garr. + + +3. + + "Shades of the dead! have I not heard your voices + Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?" + Surely, the soul of the hero rejoices, + And rides on the wind, o'er his own Highland vale! + Round Loch na Garr, while the stormy mist gathers, + Winter presides in his cold icy car: + Clouds, there, encircle the forms of my Fathers; + They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch na Garr. + + +4. + + "Ill starr'd, [3] though brave, did no visions foreboding + Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause?" + Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden, [4] + Victory crown'd not your fall with applause: + Still were you happy, in death's earthy slumber, + You rest with your clan, in the caves of Braemar; [5] + The Pibroch [6] resounds, to the piper's loud number, + Your deeds, on the echoes of dark Loch na Garr. + + +5. + + Years have roll'd on, Loch na Garr, since I left you, + Years must elapse, ere I tread you again: + Nature of verdure and flowers has bereft you, + Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain: + England! thy beauties are tame and domestic, + To one who has rov'd on the mountains afar: + Oh! for the crags that are wild and majestic, + The steep, frowning glories of dark Loch na Garr. [7] + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Lachin y Gair', or, as it is pronounced in the Erse, 'Loch +na Garr', towers proudly pre-eminent in the Northern Highlands, near +Invercauld. One of our modern tourists mentions it as the highest +mountain, perhaps, in Great Britain. Be this as it may, it is certainly +one of the most sublime and picturesque amongst our "Caledonian Alps." +Its appearance is of a dusky hue, but the summit is the seat of eternal +snows. Near Lachin y Gair I spent some of the early part of my life, the +recollection of which has given birth to the following stanzas. +[Prefixed to the poem in 'Hours of Idleness' and 'Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote 2: This word is erroneously pronounced 'plad'; the proper +pronunciation (according to the Scotch) is shown by the orthography.] + +[Footnote 3: I allude here to my maternal ancestors, "the Gordons," many +of whom fought for the unfortunate Prince Charles, better known by the +name of the Pretender. This branch was nearly allied by blood, as well +as attachment, to the Stuarts. George, the second Earl of Huntley, +married the Princess Annabella Stuart, daughter of James I. of Scotland. +By her he left four sons: the third, Sir William Gordon, I have the +honour to claim as one of my progenitors.] + +[Footnote 4: Whether any perished in the Battle of Culloden, I am not +certain; but, as many fell in the insurrection, I have used the name of +the principal action, "pars pro toto."] + +[Footnote 5: A tract of the Highlands so called. There is also a Castle +of Braemar.] + +[Footnote 6: The Bagpipe.--'Hours of Idleness'. (See note, p. 133.)] + +[Footnote 7: The love of mountains to the last made Byron + + "Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face, + And Loch na Garr with Ida looked o'er Troy." + +'The Island' (1823), Canto II. stanza xii.] + + + + + + +TO ROMANCE. + + +1. + + Parent of golden dreams, Romance! + Auspicious Queen of childish joys, + Who lead'st along, in airy dance, + Thy votive train of girls and boys; + At length, in spells no longer bound, + I break the fetters of my youth; + No more I tread thy mystic round, + But leave thy realms for those of Truth. + + +2. + + And yet 'tis hard to quit the dreams + Which haunt the unsuspicious soul, + Where every nymph a goddess seems, [i] + Whose eyes through rays immortal roll; + While Fancy holds her boundless reign, + And all assume a varied hue; + When Virgins seem no longer vain, + And even Woman's smiles are true. + + +3. + + And must we own thee, but a name, + And from thy hall of clouds descend? + Nor find a Sylph in every dame, + A Pylades [1] in every friend? + But leave, at once, thy realms of air [ii] + To mingling bands of fairy elves; + Confess that woman's false as fair, + And friends have feeling for--themselves? + + +4. + + With shame, I own, I've felt thy sway; + Repentant, now thy reign is o'er; + No more thy precepts I obey, + No more on fancied pinions soar; + Fond fool! to love a sparkling eye, + And think that eye to truth was dear; + To trust a passing wanton's sigh, + And melt beneath a wanton's tear! + + +5. + + Romance! disgusted with deceit, + Far from thy motley court I fly, + Where Affectation holds her seat, + And sickly Sensibility; + Whose silly tears can never flow + For any pangs excepting thine; + Who turns aside from real woe, + To steep in dew thy gaudy shrine. + + +6. + + Now join with sable Sympathy, + With cypress crown'd, array'd in weeds, + Who heaves with thee her simple sigh, + Whose breast for every bosom bleeds; + And call thy sylvan female choir, + To mourn a Swain for ever gone, + Who once could glow with equal fire, + But bends not now before thy throne. + + +7. + + Ye genial Nymphs, whose ready tears [iii] + On all occasions swiftly flow; + Whose bosoms heave with fancied fears, + With fancied flames and phrenzy glow + Say, will you mourn my absent name, + Apostate from your gentle train? + An infant Bard, at least, may claim + From you a sympathetic strain. + + +8. + + Adieu, fond race! a long adieu! + The hour of fate is hovering nigh; + E'en now the gulf appears in view, + Where unlamented you must lie: [iv] + Oblivion's blackening lake is seen, + Convuls'd by gales you cannot weather, + Where you, and eke your gentle queen, + Alas! must perish altogether. + + +[Footnote 1: It is hardly necessary to add, that Pylades was the +companion of Orestes, and a partner in one of those friendships which, +with those of Achilles and Patroclus, Nisus and Euryalus, Damon and +Pythias, have been handed down to posterity as remarkable instances of +attachments, which in all probability never existed beyond the +imagination of the poet, or the page of an historian, or modern +novelist.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Where every girl--.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'But quit at once thy realms of air + Thy mingling--.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Auspicious bards--.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Where you are doomed in death to lie.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + +THE DEATH OF CALMAR AND ORLA. [1] + +AN IMITATION OF MACPHERSON'S "OSSIAN". [2] + + +Dear are the days of youth! Age dwells on their remembrance through the +mist of time. In the twilight he recalls the sunny hours of morn. He +lifts his spear with trembling hand. "Not thus feebly did I raise the +steel before my fathers!" Past is the race of heroes! But their fame +rises on the harp; their souls ride on the wings of the wind; they hear +the sound through the sighs of the storm, and rejoice in their hall of +clouds. Such is Calmar. The grey stone marks his narrow house. He looks +down from eddying tempests: he rolls his form in the whirlwind, and +hovers on the blast of the mountain. + +In Morven dwelt the Chief; a beam of war to Fingal. His steps in the +field were marked in blood. Lochlin's sons had fled before his angry +spear; [i] but mild was the eye of Calmar; soft was the flow of his +yellow locks: they streamed like the meteor of the night. No maid was +the sigh of his soul: his thoughts were given to friendship,--to +dark-haired Orla, destroyer of heroes! Equal were their swords in +battle; but fierce was the pride of Orla:--gentle alone to Calmar. +Together they dwelt in the cave of Oithona. + +From Lochlin, Swaran bounded o'er the blue waves. Erin's sons fell +beneath his might. Fingal roused his chiefs to combat. [ii] Their ships +cover the ocean! Their hosts throng on the green hills. They come to the +aid of Erin. + +Night rose in clouds. Darkness veils the armies. But the blazing oaks +gleam through the valley. [iii] The sons of Lochlin slept: their dreams +were of blood. They lift the spear in thought, and Fingal flies. Not so +the Host of Morven. To watch was the post of Orla. Calmar stood by his +side. Their spears were in their hands. Fingal called his chiefs: they +stood around. The king was in the midst. Grey were his locks, but strong +was the arm of the king. Age withered not his powers. "Sons of Morven," +said the hero, "to-morrow we meet the foe. But where is Cuthullin, the +shield of Erin? He rests in the halls of Tura; he knows not of our +coming. Who will speed through Lochlin, to the hero, and call the chief +to arms? The path is by the swords of foes; but many are my heroes. They +are thunderbolts of war. Speak, ye chiefs! Who will arise?" + +"Son of Trenmor! mine be the deed," said dark-haired Orla, "and mine +alone. What is death to me? I love the sleep of the mighty, but little +is the danger. The sons of Lochlin dream. I will seek car-borne +Cuthullin. If I fall, raise the song of bards; and lay me by the stream +of Lubar."--"And shalt thou fall alone?" said fair-haired Calmar. "Wilt +thou leave thy friend afar? Chief of Oithona! not feeble is my arm in +fight. Could I see thee die, and not lift the spear? No, Orla! ours has +been the chase of the roebuck, and the feast of shells; ours be the path +of danger: ours has been the cave of Oithona; ours be the narrow +dwelling on the banks of Lubar."--"Calmar," said the chief of Oithona, +"why should thy yellow locks be darkened in the dust of Erin? Let me +fall alone. My father dwells in his hall of air: he will rejoice in his +boy; but the blue-eyed Mora spreads the feast for her Son in Morven. She +listens to the steps of the hunter on the heath, and thinks it is the +tread of Calmar. Let her not say, 'Calmar has fallen by the steel of +Lochlin: he died with gloomy Orla, the chief of the dark brow.' Why +should tears dim the azure eye of Mora? Why should her voice curse Orla, +the destroyer of Calmar? Live Calmar! Live to raise my stone of moss; +live to revenge me in the blood of Lochlin. Join the song of bards above +my grave. Sweet will be the song of Death to Orla, from the voice of +Calmar. My ghost shall smile on the notes of Praise." "Orla," said the +son of Mora, "could I raise the song of Death to my friend? Could I give +his fame to the winds? No, my heart would speak in sighs: faint and +broken are the sounds of sorrow. Orla! our souls shall hear the song +together. One cloud shall be ours on high: the bards will mingle the +names of Orla and Calmar." + +They quit the circle of the Chiefs. Their steps are to the Host of +Lochlin. The dying blaze of oak dim-twinkles through the night. The +northern star points the path to Tura. Swaran, the King, rests on his +lonely hill. Here the troops are mixed: they frown in sleep; their +shields beneath their heads. Their swords gleam, at distance in heaps. +The fires are faint; their embers fail in smoke. All is hushed; but the +gale sighs on the rocks above. Lightly wheel the Heroes through the +slumbering band. Half the journey is past, when Mathon, resting on his +shield, meets the eye of Orla. It rolls in flame, and glistens through +the shade. His spear is raised on high. "Why dost thou bend thy brow, +chief of Oithona?" said fair-haired Calmar: "we are in the midst of +foes. Is this a time for delay?" "It is a time for vengeance," said Orla +of the gloomy brow. "Mathon of Lochlin sleeps: seest thou his spear? Its +point is dim with the gore of my father. The blood of Mathon shall reek +on mine: but shall I slay him sleeping, Son of Mora? No! he shall feel +his wound: my fame shall not soar on the blood of slumber. Rise, Mathon, +rise! The Son of Conna calls; thy life is his; rise to combat." Mathon +starts from sleep: but did he rise alone? No: the gathering Chiefs bound +on the plain. "Fly! Calmar, fly!" said dark-haired Orla. "Mathon is +mine. I shall die in joy: but Lochlin crowds around. Fly through the +shade of night." Orla turns. The helm of Mathon is cleft; his shield +falls from his arm: he shudders in his blood. [i] He rolls by the side +of the blazing oak. Strumon sees him fall: his wrath rises: his weapon +glitters on the head of Orla: but a spear pierced his eye. His brain +gushes through the wound, and foams on the spear of Calmar. As roll the +waves of the Ocean on two mighty barks of the North, so pour the men of +Lochlin on the Chiefs. As, breaking the surge in foam, proudly steer the +barks of the North, so rise the Chiefs of Morven on the scattered crests +of Lochlin. The din of arms came to the ear of Fingal. He strikes his +shield; his sons throng around; the people pour along the heath. Ryno +bounds in joy. Ossian stalks in his arms. Oscar shakes the spear. The +eagle wing of Fillan floats on the wind. Dreadful is the clang of death! +many are the Widows of Lochlin. Morven prevails in its strength. + +Morn glimmers on the hills: no living foe is seen; but the sleepers are +many; grim they lie on Erin. The breeze of Ocean lifts their locks; yet +they do not awake. The hawks scream above their prey. + +Whose yellow locks wave o'er the breast of a chief? Bright as the gold +of the stranger, they mingle with the dark hair of his friend. 'Tis +Calmar: he lies on the bosom of Orla. Theirs is one stream of blood. +Fierce is the look of the gloomy Orla. He breathes not; but his eye is +still a flame. It glares in death unclosed. His hand is grasped in +Calmar's; but Calmar lives! he lives, though low. "Rise," said the king, +"rise, son of Mora: 'tis mine to heal the wounds of Heroes. Calmar may +yet bound on the hills of Morven." [v] + +"Never more shall Calmar chase the deer of Morven with Orla," said the +Hero. "What were the chase to me alone? Who would share the spoils of +battle with Calmar? Orla is at rest! Rough was thy soul, Orla! yet soft +to me as the dew of morn. It glared on others in lightning: to me a +silver beam of night. Bear my sword to blue-eyed Mora; let it hang in my +empty hall. It is not pure from blood: but it could not save Orla. Lay +me with my friend: raise the song when I am dark!" + +They are laid by the stream of Lubar. Four grey stones mark the dwelling +of Orla and Calmar. When Swaran was bound, our sails rose on the blue +waves. The winds gave our barks to Morven:--the bards raised the song. + +"What Form rises on the roar of clouds? Whose dark Ghost gleams on the +red streams of tempests? His voice rolls on the thunder. 'Tis Orla, the +brown Chief of Oithona. He was unmatched in war. Peace to thy soul, +Orla! thy fame will not perish. Nor thine, Calmar! Lovely wast thou, son +of blue-eyed Mora; but not harmless was thy sword. It hangs in thy cave. +The Ghosts of Lochlin shriek around its steel. Hear thy praise, Calmar! +It dwells on the voice of the mighty. Thy name shakes on the echoes of +Morven. Then raise thy fair locks, son of Mora. Spread them on the arch +of the rainbow, and smile through the tears of the storm. [3] + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. is preserved at Newstead.] + +[Footnote 2: It may be necessary to observe, that the story, though +considerably varied in the catastrophe, is taken from "Nisus and +Euryalus," of which episode a translation is already given in the +present volume [see pp. 151-168].] + +[Footnote 3: I fear Laing's late edition has completely overthrown every +hope that Macpherson's 'Ossian' might prove the translation of a series +of poems complete in themselves; but, while the imposture is discovered, +the merit of the work remains undisputed, though not without +faults--particularly, in some parts, turgid and bombastic diction.--The +present humble imitation will be pardoned by the admirers of the +original as an attempt, however inferior, which evinces an attachment to +their favourite author. [Malcolm Laing (1762-1818) published, in 1802, a +'History of Scotland, etc.', with a dissertation "on the supposed +authenticity of Ossian's Poems," and, in 1805, a work entitled 'The +Poems of Ossian, etc., containing the Poetical Works of James +Macpherson, Esq., in Prose and Rhyme, with Notes and Illustrations'.] + +[Footnote i: + + 'Erin's sons--'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'The horn of Fingal--'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + '--the fires gleam--'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'He trembles in his blood. He rolls convulsive.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + '--the mountain of Morven.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + +TO EDWARD NOEL LONG, ESQ. [i] [1] + + "Nil ego contulerim jucundo sanus amico."--HORACE. + + + Dear LONG, in this sequester'd scene, [ii] + While all around in slumber lie, + The joyous days, which ours have been + Come rolling fresh on Fancy's eye; + Thus, if, amidst the gathering storm, + While clouds the darken'd noon deform, + Yon heaven assumes a varied glow, + I hail the sky's celestial bow, + Which spreads the sign of future peace, + And bids the war of tempests cease. + Ah! though the present brings but pain, + I think those days may come again; + Or if, in melancholy mood, + Some lurking envious fear intrude, [iii] + To check my bosom's fondest thought, + And interrupt the golden dream, + I crush the fiend with malice fraught, + And, still, indulge my wonted theme. + Although we ne'er again can trace, + In Granta's vale, the pedant's lore, + Nor through the groves of Ida chase + Our raptured visions, as before; + Though Youth has flown on rosy pinion, + And Manhood claims his stern dominion, + Age will not every hope destroy, + But yield some hours of sober joy. + + Yes, I will hope that Time's broad wing + Will shed around some dews of spring: + But, if his scythe must sweep the flowers + Which bloom among the fairy bowers, + Where smiling Youth delights to dwell, + And hearts with early rapture swell; + If frowning Age, with cold controul, + Confines the current of the soul, + Congeals the tear of Pity's eye, + Or checks the sympathetic sigh, + Or hears, unmov'd, Misfortune's groan + And bids me feel for self alone; + Oh! may my bosom never learn + To soothe its wonted heedless flow; [iv] + Still, still, despise the censor stern, + But ne'er forget another's woe. + Yes, as you knew me in the days, + O'er which Remembrance yet delays, [v] + Still may I rove untutor'd, wild, + And even in age, at heart a child. [vi] + + Though, now, on airy visions borne, + To you my soul is still the same. + Oft has it been my fate to mourn, [vii] + And all my former joys are tame: + But, hence! ye hours of sable hue! + Your frowns are gone, my sorrows o'er: + By every bliss my childhood knew, + I'll think upon your shade no more. + Thus, when the whirlwind's rage is past, + And caves their sullen roar enclose [viii] + We heed no more the wintry blast, + When lull'd by zephyr to repose. + Full often has my infant Muse, + Attun'd to love her languid lyre; + But, now, without a theme to choose, + The strains in stolen sighs expire. + My youthful nymphs, alas! are flown; [ix] + E----is a wife, and C----a mother, + And Carolina sighs alone, + And Mary's given to another; + And Cora's eye, which roll'd on me, + Can now no more my love recall-- + In truth, dear LONG, 'twas time to flee--[x] + For Cora's eye will shine on all. + And though the Sun, with genial rays, + His beams alike to all displays, + And every lady's eye's a _sun_, + These last should be confin'd to one. + The soul's meridian don't become her, [xi] + Whose Sun displays a general _summer_! + Thus faint is every former flame, + And Passion's self is now a name; [xii] [xiii] + As, when the ebbing flames are low, + The aid which once improv'd their light, + And bade them burn with fiercer glow, + Now quenches all their sparks in night; + Thus has it been with Passion's fires, + As many a boy and girl remembers, + While all the force of love expires, + Extinguish'd with the dying embers. + + But now, dear LONG, 'tis midnight's noon, + And clouds obscure the watery moon, + Whose beauties I shall not rehearse, + Describ'd in every stripling's verse; + For why should I the path go o'er + Which every bard has trod before? [xiv] + Yet ere yon silver lamp of night + Has thrice perform'd her stated round, + Has thrice retrac'd her path of light, + And chas'd away the gloom profound, + I trust, that we, my gentle Friend, + Shall see her rolling orbit wend, + Above the dear-lov'd peaceful seat, + Which once contain'd our youth's retreat; + And, then, with those our childhood knew, + We'll mingle in the festive crew; + While many a tale of former day + Shall wing the laughing hours away; + And all the flow of souls shall pour + The sacred intellectual shower, + Nor cease, till Luna's waning horn, + Scarce glimmers through the mist of Morn. + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. of these verses is at Newstead. Long was with Byron +at Harrow, and was the only one of his intimate friends who went up at +the same time as he did to Cambridge, where both were noted for feats of +swimming and diving. Long entered the Guards, and served in the +expedition to Copenhagen. He was drowned early in 1809, when on his way +to join the army in the Peninsula; the transport in which he sailed +being run down in the night by another of the convoy. "Long's father," +says Byron, "wrote to me to write his son's epitaph. I promised--but I +had not the heart to complete it. He was such a good, amiable being as +rarely remains long in this world; with talent and accomplishments, too, +to make him the more regretted."--'Diary', 1821; 'Life', p. 32. See also +memorandum ('Life', p. 31, col. ii.).] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To E. N. L. Esq.' + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.'] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Dear L----.' + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.'] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Some daring envious.' + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'its young romantic flow.' + + ['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'O'er which my fancy'--. + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Still may my breast to boyhood cleave, + With every early passion heave; + Still may I rove untutored, wild, + But never cease to seem a child.'-- + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Since we have met, I learnt to mourn.' + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'And caves their sullen war'--. + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote ix: + + '--thank Heaven are flown'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'In truth dear L----'. + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'The glances really don't become her'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'No more I linger on its name'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'And passion's self is but a name'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'And what's much worse than this I find + Have left their deepen'd tracks behind + Yet as yon'------. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY. [i] + + +1. + + Oh! had my Fate been join'd with thine, [1] + As once this pledge appear'd a token, + These follies had not, then, been mine, + For, then, my peace had not been broken. + + +2. + + To thee, these early faults I owe, + To thee, the wise and old reproving: + They know my sins, but do not know + 'Twas thine to break the bonds of loving. + + +3. + + For once my soul, like thine, was pure, + And all its rising fires could smother; + But, now, thy vows no more endure, + Bestow'd by thee upon another. [1] + + +4. + + Perhaps, his peace I could destroy, + And spoil the blisses that await him; + Yet let my Rival smile in joy, + For thy dear sake, I cannot hate him. + + +5. + + Ah! since thy angel form is gone, + My heart no more can rest with any; + But what it sought in thee alone, + Attempts, alas! to find in many. + + +6. + + Then, fare thee well, deceitful Maid! + 'Twere vain and fruitless to regret thee; + Nor Hope, nor Memory yield their aid, + But Pride may teach me to forget thee. + + +7. + + Yet all this giddy waste of years, + This tiresome round of palling pleasures; + These varied loves, these matrons' fears, + These thoughtless strains to Passion's measures-- + + +8. + + If thou wert mine, had all been hush'd:-- + This cheek, now pale from early riot, + With Passion's hectic ne'er had flush'd, + But bloom'd in calm domestic quiet. + + +9. + + Yes, once the rural Scene was sweet, + For Nature seem'd to smile before thee; + And once my Breast abhorr'd deceit,-- + For then it beat but to adore thee. + + +10. + + But, now, I seek for other joys-- + To think, would drive my soul to madness; + In thoughtless throngs, and empty noise, + I conquer half my Bosom's sadness. + + +11. + + Yet, even in these, a thought will steal, + In spite of every vain endeavour; + And fiends might pity what I feel-- + To know that thou art lost for ever. + + +[Footnote 1: These verses were addressed to Mrs. Chaworth Musters. +Byron wrote in 1822, + + "Our meetings were stolen ones. ... A gate leading from Mr. Chaworth's + grounds to those of my mother was the place of our interviews. The + ardour was all on my side. I was serious; she was volatile: she liked + me as a younger brother, and treated and laughed at me as a boy; she, + however, gave me her picture, and that was something to make verses + upon. Had I married her, perhaps, the whole tenour of my life would + have been different." + +Medwin's 'Conversations', 1824, p. 81.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _To------._ + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + +* * * * * * * * * + + + +POEMS ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED + + + + + +WHEN I ROVED A YOUNG HIGHLANDER. [i] + + +1. + + When I rov'd a young Highlander o'er the dark heath, + And climb'd thy steep summit, oh Morven of snow! [1] + To gaze on the torrent that thunder'd beneath, + Or the mist of the tempest that gather'd below; [2] + Untutor'd by science, a stranger to fear, + And rude as the rocks, where my infancy grew, + No feeling, save one, to my bosom was dear; + Need I say, my sweet Mary, [3] 'twas centred in you? + + +2. + + Yet it could not be Love, for I knew not the name,-- + What passion can dwell in the heart of a child? + But, still, I perceive an emotion the same + As I felt, when a boy, on the crag-cover'd wild: + One image, alone, on my bosom impress'd, + I lov'd my bleak regions, nor panted for new; + And few were my wants, for my wishes were bless'd, + And pure were my thoughts, for my soul was with you. + + +3. + + I arose with the dawn, with my dog as my guide, + From mountain to mountain I bounded along; + I breasted [4] the billows of Dee's [5] rushing tide, + And heard at a distance the Highlander's song: + At eve, on my heath-cover'd couch of repose. + No dreams, save of Mary, were spread to my view; + And warm to the skies my devotions arose, + For the first of my prayers was a blessing on you. + + +4. + + I left my bleak home, and my visions are gone; + The mountains are vanish'd, my youth is no more; + As the last of my race, I must wither alone, + And delight but in days, I have witness'd before: + Ah! splendour has rais'd, but embitter'd my lot; + More dear were the scenes which my infancy knew: + Though my hopes may have fail'd, yet they are not + forgot, + Though cold is my heart, still it lingers with you. + + +5. + + When I see some dark hill point its crest to the sky, + I think of the rocks that o'ershadow Colbleen; [6] + When I see the soft blue of a love-speaking eye, + I think of those eyes that endear'd the rude scene; + When, haply, some light-waving locks I behold, + That faintly resemble my Mary's in hue, + I think on the long flowing ringlets of gold, + The locks that were sacred to beauty, and you. + + +6. + + Yet the day may arrive, when the mountains once more + Shall rise to my sight, in their mantles of snow; + But while these soar above me, unchang'd as before, + Will Mary be there to receive me?--ah, no! + Adieu, then, ye hills, where my childhood was bred! + Thou sweet flowing Dee, to thy waters adieu! + No home in the forest shall shelter my head,-- + Ah! Mary, what home could be mine, but with you? + + +[Footnote 1: Morven, a lofty mountain in Aberdeenshire. "Gormal of snow" +is an expression frequently to be found in Ossian.] + +[Footnote 2: This will not appear extraordinary to those who have been +accustomed to the mountains. It is by no means uncommon, on attaining +the top of Ben-e-vis, Ben-y-bourd, etc., to perceive, between the summit +and the valley, clouds pouring down rain, and occasionally accompanied +by lightning, while the spectator literally looks down upon the storm, +perfectly secure from its effects.] + +[Footnote 3: Byron, in early youth, was "unco' wastefu'" of Marys. +There was his distant cousin, Mary Duff (afterwards Mrs. Robert +Cockburn), who lived not far from the "Plain-Stanes" at Aberdeen. Her +"brown, dark hair, and hazel eyes--her very dress," were long years +after "a perfect image" in his memory (_Life_, p. 9). Secondly, there +was the Mary of these stanzas, "with long-flowing ringlets of gold," the +"Highland Mary" of local tradition. She was (writes the Rev. J. Michie, +of The Manse, Dinnet) the daughter of James Robertson, of the farmhouse +of Ballatrich on Deeside, where Byron used to spend his summer holidays +(1796-98). She was of gentle birth, and through her mother, the daughter +of Captain Macdonald of Rineton, traced her descent to the Lord of the +Isles. "She died at Aberdeen, March 2, 1867, aged eighty-five years." A +third Mary (see "Lines to Mary," etc., p. 32) flits through the early +poems, evanescent but unspiritual. Last of all, there was Mary Anne +Chaworth, of Annesley (see "A Fragment," etc., p. 210; "The Adieu," st. +6, p. 239, etc.), whose marriage, in 1805, "threw him out again--alone +on a wide, wide sea" (Life, p. 85).] + +[Footnote 4: "Breasting the lofty surge" (Shakespeare).] + +[Footnote 5: The Dee is a beautiful river, which rises near Mar Lodge, +and falls into the sea at New Aberdeen.] + +[Footnote 6: Colbleen is a mountain near the verge of the Highlands, not +far from the ruins of Dee Castle.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Song_. + +[_Poems O. and T._]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE DUKE OF DORSET. [i] [1] + + + Dorset! whose early steps with mine have stray'd, [ii] + Exploring every path of Ida's glade; + Whom, still, affection taught me to defend, + And made me less a tyrant than a friend, + Though the harsh custom of our youthful band + Bade _thee_ obey, and gave _me_ to command; [2] + Thee, on whose head a few short years will shower + The gift of riches, and the pride of power; + E'en now a name illustrious is thine own, + Renown'd in rank, not far beneath the throne. 10 + Yet, Dorset, let not this seduce thy soul [iii] + To shun fair science, or evade controul; + Though passive tutors, [3] fearful to dispraise + The titled child, whose future breath may raise, + View ducal errors with indulgent eyes, + And wink at faults they tremble to chastise. + When youthful parasites, who bend the knee + To wealth, their golden idol, not to thee,-- + And even in simple boyhood's opening dawn + Some slaves are found to flatter and to fawn,-- 20 + When these declare, "that pomp alone should wait + On one by birth predestin'd to be great; + That books were only meant for drudging fools, + That gallant spirits scorn the common rules;" + Believe them not,--they point the path to shame, + And seek to blast the honours of thy name: + Turn to the few in Ida's early throng, + Whose souls disdain not to condemn the wrong; + Or if, amidst the comrades of thy youth, + None dare to raise the sterner voice of truth, 30 + Ask thine own heart--'twill bid thee, boy, forbear! + For _well_ I know that virtue lingers there. + + Yes! I have mark'd thee many a passing day, + But now new scenes invite me far away; + Yes! I have mark'd within that generous mind + A soul, if well matur'd, to bless mankind; + Ah! though myself, by nature haughty, wild, + Whom Indiscretion hail'd her favourite child; + Though every error stamps me for her own, + And dooms my fall, I fain would fall alone; 40 + Though my proud heart no precept, now, can tame, + I love the virtues which I cannot claim. + + 'Tis not enough, with other sons of power, + To gleam the lambent meteor of an hour; + To swell some peerage page in feeble pride, + With long-drawn names that grace no page beside; + Then share with titled crowds the common lot-- + In life just gaz'd at, in the grave forgot; + While nought divides thee from the vulgar dead, + Except the dull cold stone that hides thy head, 50 + The mouldering 'scutcheon, or the Herald's roll, + That well-emblazon'd but neglected scroll, + Where Lords, unhonour'd, in the tomb may find + One spot, to leave a worthless name behind. + There sleep, unnotic'd as the gloomy vaults + That veil their dust, their follies, and their faults, + A race, with old armorial lists o'erspread, + In records destin'd never to be read. + Fain would I view thee, with prophetic eyes, + Exalted more among the good and wise; 60 + A glorious and a long career pursue, + As first in Rank, the first in Talent too: + Spurn every vice, each little meanness shun; + Not Fortune's minion, but her noblest son. + Turn to the annals of a former day; + Bright are the deeds thine earlier Sires display; + One, though a courtier, lived a man of worth, + And call'd, proud boast! the British drama forth. [4] + Another view! not less renown'd for Wit; + Alike for courts, and camps, or senates fit; 70 + Bold in the field, and favour'd by the Nine; + In every splendid part ordain'd to shine; + Far, far distinguished from the glittering throng, + The pride of Princes, and the boast of Song. [5] + Such were thy Fathers; thus preserve their name, + Not heir to titles only, but to Fame. + The hour draws nigh, a few brief days will close, + To me, this little scene of joys and woes; + Each knell of Time now warns me to resign + Shades where Hope, Peace, and Friendship all were mine: 80 + Hope, that could vary like the rainbow's hue, + And gild their pinions, as the moments flew; + Peace, that reflection never frown'd away, + By dreams of ill to cloud some future day; + Friendship, whose truth let Childhood only tell; + Alas! they love not long, who love so well. + + To these adieu! nor let me linger o'er + Scenes hail'd, as exiles hail their native shore, + Receding slowly, through the dark-blue deep, + Beheld by eyes that mourn, yet cannot weep. 90 + + Dorset, farewell! I will not ask one part [iv] + Of sad remembrance in so young a heart; + The coming morrow from thy youthful mind + Will sweep my name, nor leave a trace behind. + And, yet, perhaps, in some maturer year, + Since chance has thrown us in the self-same sphere, + Since the same senate, nay, the same debate, + May one day claim our suffrage for the state, + We hence may meet, and pass each other by + With faint regard, or cold and distant eye. 100 + For me, in future, neither friend nor foe, + A stranger to thyself, thy weal or woe-- + With thee no more again I hope to trace + The recollection of our early race; + No more, as once, in social hours rejoice, + Or hear, unless in crowds, thy well-known voice; + Still, if the wishes of a heart untaught + To veil those feelings, which, perchance, it ought, + If these,--but let me cease the lengthen'd strain,-- + Oh! if these wishes are not breath'd in vain, 110 + The Guardian Seraph who directs thy fate + Will leave thee glorious, as he found thee great. + + 1805. + + +[Footnote 1: In looking over my papers to select a few additional poems +for this second edition, I found the above lines, which I had totally +forgotten, composed in the summer of 1805, a short time previous to my +departure from H[arrow]. They were addressed to a young schoolfellow of +high rank, who had been my frequent companion in some rambles through +the neighbouring country: however, he never saw the lines, and most +probably never will. As, on a re-perusal, I found them not worse than +some other pieces in the collection, I have now published them, for the +first time, after a slight revision. [The foregoing note was prefixed to +the poem in 'Poems O. and T'. George John Frederick, 4th Duke of Dorset, +born 1793, was killed by a fall from his horse when hunting, in 1815, +while on a visit to his step-father the Earl of Whitworth, +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. (See Byron's letter to Moore, Feb. 22, +1815).]] + +[Footnote 2: At every public school the junior boys are completely +subservient to the upper forms till they attain a seat in the higher +classes. From this state of probation, very properly, no rank is exempt; +but after a certain period, they command in turn those who succeed.] + +[Footnote 3: Allow me to disclaim any personal allusions, even the most +distant. I merely mention generally what is too often the weakness of +preceptors.] + +[Footnote 4: "Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, was born in 1527. While +a student of the Inner Temple, he wrote his tragedy of 'Gorboduc', which +was played before Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall, in 1561. This tragedy, +and his contribution of the Induction and legend of the Duke of +Buckingham to the 'Mirrour for Magistraytes', compose the poetical +history of Sackville. The rest of it was political. In 1604, he was +created Earl of Dorset by James I. He died suddenly at the +council-table, in consequence of a dropsy on the brain."--'Specimens of +the British Poets', by Thomas Campbell, London, 1819, ii. 134, 'sq'.] + +[Footnote 5: Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset [1637-1706], esteemed the +most accomplished man of his day, was alike distinguished in the +voluptuous court of Charles II. and the gloomy one of William III. He +behaved with great gallantry in the sea-fight with the Dutch in 1665; on +the day previous to which he composed his celebrated song ["'To all you +Ladies now at Land'"]. His character has been drawn in the highest +colours by Dryden, Pope, Prior, and Congreve. 'Vide' Anderson's 'British +Poets', 1793, vi. 107, 108.] + + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To the Duke of D-----'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'D-r-t'-----. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + Yet D-r-t-----. + +['Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote iv: + + 'D--r--t farewell.' + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE EARL OF CLARE. [i] + + Tu semper amoris + Sis memor, et cari comitis ne abscedat imago. + + VAL. FLAC. 'Argonaut', iv. 36. + + +1. + + Friend of my youth! when young we rov'd, + Like striplings, mutually belov'd, + With Friendship's purest glow; + The bliss, which wing'd those rosy hours, + Was such as Pleasure seldom showers + On mortals here below. + + +2. + + The recollection seems, alone, + Dearer than all the joys I've known, + When distant far from you: + Though pain, 'tis still a pleasing pain, + To trace those days and hours again, + And sigh again, adieu! + + +3. + + My pensive mem'ry lingers o'er, + Those scenes to be enjoy'd no more, + Those scenes regretted ever; + The measure of our youth is full, + Life's evening dream is dark and dull, + And we may meet--ah! never! + + +4. + + As when one parent spring supplies + Two streams, which from one fountain rise, + Together join'd in vain; + How soon, diverging from their source, + Each, murmuring, seeks another course, + Till mingled in the Main! + + +5. + + Our vital streams of weal or woe, + Though near, alas! distinctly flow, + Nor mingle as before: + Now swift or slow, now black or clear, + Till Death's unfathom'd gulph appear, + And both shall quit the shore. + + +6. + + Our souls, my Friend! which once supplied + One wish, nor breathed a thought beside, + Now flow in different channels: + Disdaining humbler rural sports, + 'Tis yours to mix in polish'd courts, + And shine in Fashion's annals; + + +7. + + 'Tis mine to waste on love my time, + Or vent my reveries in rhyme, + Without the aid of Reason; + For Sense and Reason (critics know it) + Have quitted every amorous Poet, + Nor left a thought to seize on. + + +8. + + Poor LITTLE! sweet, melodious bard! + Of late esteem'd it monstrous hard + That he, who sang before all; + He who the lore of love expanded, + By dire Reviewers should be branded, + As void of wit and moral. [1] + + +9. + + And yet, while Beauty's praise is thine, + Harmonious favourite of the Nine! + Repine not at thy lot. + Thy soothing lays may still be read, + When Persecution's arm is dead, + And critics are forgot. + + +10. + + Still I must yield those worthies merit + Who chasten, with unsparing spirit, + Bad rhymes, and those who write them: + And though myself may be the next + By critic sarcasm to be vext, + I really will not fight them. [2] + + +11. + + Perhaps they would do quite as well + To break the rudely sounding shell + Of such a young beginner: + He who offends at pert nineteen, + Ere thirty may become, I ween, + A very harden'd sinner. + + +12. + + Now, Clare, I must return to you; [ii] + And, sure, apologies are due: + Accept, then, my concession. + In truth, dear Clare, in Fancy's flight [iii] + I soar along from left to right; + My Muse admires digression. + + +13. + + I think I said 'twould be your fate + To add one star to royal state;-- + May regal smiles attend you! + And should a noble Monarch reign, + You will not seek his smiles in vain, + If worth can recommend you. + + +14. + + Yet since in danger courts abound, + Where specious rivals glitter round, + From snares may Saints preserve you; + And grant your love or friendship ne'er + From any claim a kindred care, + But those who best deserve you! + + +15. + + Not for a moment may you stray + From Truth's secure, unerring way! + May no delights decoy! + O'er roses may your footsteps move, + Your smiles be ever smiles of love, + Your tears be tears of joy! + + +16. + + Oh! if you wish that happiness + Your coming days and years may bless, + And virtues crown your brow; + Be still as you were wont to be, + Spotless as you've been known to me,-- + Be still as you are now. [3] + + +17. + + And though some trifling share of praise, + To cheer my last declining days, + To me were doubly dear; + Whilst blessing your beloved name, + I'd _waive_ at once a _Poet's_ fame, + To _prove_ a _Prophet_ here. + + +1807. + + +[Footnote 1: These stanzas were written soon after the appearance of a +severe critique in a northern review, on a new publication of the +British Anacreon. (Byron refers to the article in the 'Edinburgh +Review', of July, 1807, on "'Epistles, Odes, and other Poems', by Thomas +Little, Esq.")] + +[Footnote 2: A bard [Moore] ('Horresco referens') defied his reviewer +[Jeffrey] to mortal combat. If this example becomes prevalent, our +Periodical Censors must be dipped in the river Styx: for what else can +secure them from the numerous host of their enraged assailants? [Cf. +'English Bards', l. 466, 'note'.]] + +[Footnote 3: + + "Of all I have ever known, Clare has always been the least altered in + everything from the excellent qualities and kind affections which + attached me to him so strongly at school. I should hardly have thought + it possible for society (or the world, as it is called) to leave a + being with so little of the leaven of bad passions. I do not speak + from personal experience only, but from all I have ever heard of him + from others, during absence and distance." + +'Detached Thoughts', Nov. 5, 1821; 'Life', p. 540.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To the Earl of-----'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Now----I must'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'In truth dear----in fancy's flight'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +I WOULD I WERE A CARELESS CHILD. [i] + + +1 + + I would I were a careless child, + Still dwelling in my Highland cave, + Or roaming through the dusky wild, + Or bounding o'er the dark blue wave; + The cumbrous pomp of Saxon [1] pride, + Accords not with the freeborn soul, + Which loves the mountain's craggy side, + And seeks the rocks where billows roll. + + +2. + + Fortune! take back these cultur'd lands, + Take back this name of splendid sound! + I hate the touch of servile hands, + I hate the slaves that cringe around: + Place me among the rocks I love, + Which sound to Ocean's wildest roar; + I ask but this--again to rove + Through scenes my youth hath known before. + + +3. + + Few are my years, and yet I feel + The World was ne'er design'd for me: + Ah! why do dark'ning shades conceal + The hour when man must cease to be? + Once I beheld a splendid dream, + A visionary scene of bliss: + Truth!--wherefore did thy hated beam + Awake me to a world like this? + + +4. + + I lov'd--but those I lov'd are gone; + Had friends--my early friends are fled: + How cheerless feels the heart alone, + When all its former hopes are dead! + Though gay companions, o'er the bowl + Dispel awhile the sense of ill; + Though Pleasure stirs the maddening soul, + The heart--the heart--is lonely still. + + +5. + + How dull! to hear the voice of those + Whom Rank or Chance, whom Wealth or Power, + Have made, though neither friends nor foes, + Associates of the festive hour. + Give me again a faithful few, + In years and feelings still the same, + And I will fly the midnight crew, + Where boist'rous Joy is but a name. + + +6. + + And Woman, lovely Woman! thou, + My hope, my comforter, my all! + How cold must be my bosom now, + When e'en thy smiles begin to pall! + Without a sigh would I resign, + This busy scene of splendid Woe, + To make that calm contentment mine, + Which Virtue knows, or seems to know. + + +7. + + Fain would I fly the haunts of men [2]-- + I seek to shun, not hate mankind; + My breast requires the sullen glen, + Whose gloom may suit a darken'd mind. + Oh! that to me the wings were given, + Which bear the turtle to her nest! + Then would I cleave the vault of Heaven, + To flee away, and be at rest. [3] + + + +[Footnote 1: Sassenach, or Saxon, a Gaelic word, signifying either +Lowland or English.] + +[Footnote 2: Shyness was a family characteristic of the Byrons. +The poet continued in later years to have a horror of being +observed by unaccustomed eyes, and in the country would, +if possible, avoid meeting strangers on the road.] + +[Footnote 3: + + "And I said, O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly + away, and be at rest." + +(Psalm iv. 6.) This verse also constitutes a part of the most beautiful +anthem in our language.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Stanzas'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + +LINES WRITTEN BENEATH AN ELM IN THE +CHURCHYARD OF HARROW. [1] [i] + + + Spot of my youth! whose hoary branches sigh, + Swept by the breeze that fans thy cloudless sky; + Where now alone I muse, who oft have trod, + With those I loved, thy soft and verdant sod; + With those who, scatter'd far, perchance deplore, + Like me, the happy scenes they knew before: + Oh! as I trace again thy winding hill, + Mine eyes admire, my heart adores thee still, + Thou drooping Elm! beneath whose boughs I lay, + And frequent mus'd the twilight hours away; + Where, as they once were wont, my limbs recline, + But, ah! without the thoughts which then were mine: + How do thy branches, moaning to the blast, + Invite the bosom to recall the past, + And seem to whisper, as they gently swell, + "Take, while thou canst, a lingering, last farewell!" + + When Fate shall chill, at length, this fever'd breast, + And calm its cares and passions into rest, + Oft have I thought, 'twould soothe my dying hour,-- + If aught may soothe, when Life resigns her power,-- + To know some humbler grave, some narrow cell, + Would hide my bosom where it lov'd to dwell; + With this fond dream, methinks 'twere sweet to die-- + And here it linger'd, here my heart might lie; + Here might I sleep where all my hopes arose, + Scene of my youth, and couch of my repose; + For ever stretch'd beneath this mantling shade, + Press'd by the turf where once my childhood play'd; + Wrapt by the soil that veils the spot I lov'd, + Mix'd with the earth o'er which my footsteps mov'd; + Blest by the tongues that charm'd my youthful ear, + Mourn'd by the few my soul acknowledged here; + Deplor'd by those in early days allied, + And unremember'd by the world beside. + +September 2, 1807. + + + +[Footnote 1: On the death of his daughter, Allegra, in April, 1822, +Byron sent her remains to be buried at Harrow, "where," he says, in a +letter to Murray, "I once hoped to have laid my own." "There is," he +wrote, May 26, "a spot in the church'yard', near the footpath, on the +brow of the hill looking towards Windsor, and a tomb under a large tree +(bearing the name of Peachie, or Peachey), where I used to sit for hours +and hours when a boy. This was my favourite spot; but as I wish to erect +a tablet to her memory, the body had better be deposited in the +'church'." No tablet was, however, erected, and Allegra sleeps in her +unmarked grave inside the church, a few feet to the right of the +entrance.] + +[Footnote i: + + 'Lines written beneath an Elm + In the Churchyard of Harrow on the Hill + September 2, 1807'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +FRAGMENT. + +WRITTEN SHORTLY AFTER THE MARRIAGE OF MISS CHAWORTH. [1] + +First published in +Moore's 'Letters and Journals of Lord Byron', 1830, i. 56 + + +1. + + Hills of Annesley, Bleak and Barren, + Where my thoughtless Childhood stray'd, + How the northern Tempests, warring, + Howl above thy tufted Shade! + +2. + + Now no more, the Hours beguiling, + Former favourite Haunts I see; + Now no more my Mary smiling, + Makes ye seem a Heaven to Me. + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: Miss Chaworth was married to John Musters, Esq., in August, +1805. The stanzas were first published in Moore's _Letters and Journals +of Lord Byron_, 1830, i. 56. (See, too, _The Dream_, st. ii. 1. 9.) The +original MS. (which is in the possession of Mrs. Chaworth Musters) +formerly belonged to Miss E. B. Pigot, according to whom they "were +written by Lord Byron in 1804." "We were reading Burns' _Farewell to +Ayrshire_-- + + Scenes of woe and Scenes of pleasure + Scenes that former thoughts renew + Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure + Now a sad and last adieu, etc. + +when he said, 'I like that metre; let me try it,' and taking up a +pencil, wrote those on the other side in an instant. I read them to +Moore, and at his particular request I copied them for him."-E. B. +Pigot, 1859. + +On the fly-leaf of the same volume (_Poetry of Robert Burns_, vol. iv. +Third Edition, 1802), containing the _Farewell to Ayrshire_, Byron wrote +in pencil the two stanzas "Oh! little lock of golden hue," in 1806 +(_vide post_, p. 233). + +It may be noted that the verses quoted, though included until recently +among his poems, were not written by Burns, but by Richard Gall, who +died in 1801, aged 25.] + + + + + + + + + + + +REMEMBRANCE. + + 'Tis done!--I saw it in my dreams: + No more with Hope the future beams; + My days of happiness are few: + Chill'd by Misfortune's wintry blast, + My dawn of Life is overcast; + Love, Hope, and Joy, alike adieu! + Would I could add Remembrance too! + +1806. [First published, 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY + +WHO PRESENTED THE AUTHOR WITH THE VELVET BAND WHICH BOUND HER TRESSES. + + +1. + + This Band, which bound thy yellow hair + Is mine, sweet girl! thy pledge of love; + It claims my warmest, dearest care, + Like relics left of saints above. + + +2. + + Oh! I will wear it next my heart; + 'Twill bind my soul in bonds to thee: + From me again 'twill ne'er depart, + But mingle in the grave with me. + + +3. + + The dew I gather from thy lip + Is not so dear to me as this; + _That_ I but for a moment sip, + And banquet on a transient bliss: [i] + + +4. + + _This_ will recall each youthful scene, + E'en when our lives are on the wane; + The leaves of Love will still be green + When Memory bids them bud again. + + +1806. [First published, 1832.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _on a transient kiss._ + +['MS. Newstead'.] + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A KNOT OF UNGENEROUS CRITICS. [1] + + + Rail on, Rail on, ye heartless crew! + My strains were never meant for you; + Remorseless Rancour still reveal, + And damn the verse you cannot feel. + Invoke those kindred passions' aid, + Whose baleful stings your breasts pervade; + Crush, if you can, the hopes of youth, + Trampling regardless on the Truth: + Truth's Records you consult in vain, + She will not blast her native strain; + She will assist her votary's cause, + His will at least be her applause, + Your prayer the gentle Power will spurn; + To Fiction's motley altar turn, + Who joyful in the fond address + Her favoured worshippers will bless: + And lo! she holds a magic glass, + Where Images reflected pass, + Bent on your knees the Boon receive-- + This will assist you to deceive-- + The glittering gift was made for you, + Now hold it up to public view; + Lest evil unforeseen betide, + A Mask each canker'd brow shall hide, + (Whilst Truth my sole desire is nigh, + Prepared the danger to defy,) + "There is the Maid's perverted name, + And there the Poet's guilty Flame, + Gloaming a deep phosphoric fire, + Threatening--but ere it spreads, retire. + Says Truth Up Virgins, do not fear! + The Comet rolls its Influence here; + 'Tis Scandal's Mirror you perceive, + These dazzling Meteors but deceive-- + Approach and touch--Nay do not turn + It blazes there, but will not burn."-- + At once the shivering Mirror flies, + Teeming no more with varnished Lies; + The baffled friends of Fiction start, + Too late desiring to depart-- + Truth poising high Ithuriel's spear + Bids every Fiend unmask'd appear, + The vizard tears from every face, + And dooms them to a dire disgrace. + For e'er they compass their escape, + Each takes perforce a native shape-- + The Leader of the wrathful Band, + Behold a portly Female stand! + She raves, impelled by private pique, + This mean unjust revenge to seek; + From vice to save this virtuous Age, + Thus does she vent indecent rage! + What child has she of promise fair, + Who claims a fostering Mother's care? + Whose Innocence requires defence, + Or forms at least a smooth pretence, + Thus to disturb a harmless Boy, + His humble hope, and peace annoy? + She need not fear the amorous rhyme, + Love will not tempt her future time, + For her his wings have ceased to spread, + No more he flutters round her head; + Her day's Meridian now is past, + The clouds of Age her Sun o'ercast; + To her the strain was never sent, + For feeling Souls alone 'twas meant-- + The verse she seized, unask'd, unbade, + And damn'd, ere yet the whole was read! + Yes! for one single erring verse, + Pronounced an unrelenting Curse; + Yes! at a first and transient view, + Condemned a heart she never knew.-- + Can such a verdict then decide, + Which springs from disappointed pride? + Without a wondrous share of Wit, + To judge is such a Matron fit? + The rest of the censorious throng + Who to this zealous Band belong, + To her a general homage pay, + And right or wrong her wish obey: + Why should I point my pen of steel + To break "such flies upon the wheel?" + With minds to Truth and Sense unknown, + Who dare not call their words their own. + Rail on, Rail on, ye heartless Crew! + Your Leader's grand design pursue: + Secure behind her ample shield, + Yours is the harvest of the field.-- + My path with thorns you cannot strew, + Nay more, my warmest thanks are due; + When such as you revile my Name, + Bright beams the rising Sun of Fame, + Chasing the shades of envious night, + Outshining every critic Light.-- + Such, such as you will serve to show + Each radiant tint with higher glow. + Vain is the feeble cheerless toil, + Your efforts on yourselves recoil; + Then Glory still for me you raise, + Yours is the Censure, mine the Praise. + + +BYRON, + +December 1, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed. + +There can be little doubt that these verses were called forth by the +criticisms passed on the "Fugitive Pieces" by certain ladies of +Southwell, concerning whom, Byron wrote to Mr. Pigot (Jan. 13, 1807), on +sending him an early copy of the 'Poems', + + "That 'unlucky' poem to my poor Mary has been the cause of some + animadversion from 'ladies in years'. I have not printed it in this + collection in consequence of my being pronounced a most 'profligate + sinner', in short a ''young Moore''" + +'Life', p. 41.] + + + + + + + + + + + +SOLILOQUY OF A BARD IN THE COUNTRY. [1] + + + 'Twas now the noon of night, and all was still, + Except a hapless Rhymer and his quill. + In vain he calls each Muse in order down, + Like other females, these will sometimes frown; + He frets, be fumes, and ceasing to invoke + The Nine, in anguish'd accents thus he spoke: + Ah what avails it thus to waste my time, + To roll in Epic, or to rave in Rhyme? + What worth is some few partial readers' praise. + If ancient Virgins croaking 'censures' raise? + Where few attend, 'tis useless to indite; + Where few can read, 'tis folly sure to write; + Where none but girls and striplings dare admire, + And Critics rise in every country Squire-- + But yet this last my candid Muse admits, + When Peers are Poets, Squires may well be Wits; + When schoolboys vent their amorous flames in verse, + Matrons may sure their characters asperse; + And if a little parson joins the train, + And echos back his Patron's voice again-- + Though not delighted, yet I must forgive, + Parsons as well as other folks must live:-- + From rage he rails not, rather say from dread, + He does not speak for Virtue, but for bread; + And this we know is in his Patron's giving, + For Parsons cannot eat without a 'Living'. + The Matron knows I love the Sex too well, + Even unprovoked aggression to repel. + What though from private pique her anger grew, + And bade her blast a heart she never knew? + What though, she said, for one light heedless line, + That Wilmot's [2] verse was far more pure than mine! + In wars like these, I neither fight nor fly, + When 'dames' accuse 'tis bootless to deny; + Her's be the harvest of the martial field, + I can't attack, where Beauty forms the shield. + But when a pert Physician loudly cries, + Who hunts for scandal, and who lives by lies, + A walking register of daily news, + Train'd to invent, and skilful to abuse-- + For arts like these at bounteous tables fed, + When S----condemns a book he never read. + Declaring with a coxcomb's native air, + The 'moral's' shocking, though the 'rhymes' are fair. + Ah! must he rise unpunish'd from the feast, + Nor lash'd by vengeance into truth at least? + Such lenity were more than Man's indeed! + Those who condemn, should surely deign to read. + Yet must I spare--nor thus my pen degrade, + I quite forgot that scandal was his trade. + For food and raiment thus the coxcomb rails, + For those who fear his physic, like his _tales_. + Why should his harmless censure seem offence? + Still let him eat, although at my expense, + And join the herd to Sense and Truth unknown, + Who dare not call their very thoughts their own, + And share with these applause, a godlike bribe, + In short, do anything, except _prescribe_:-- + For though in garb of Galen he appears, + His practice is not equal to his years. + Without improvement since he first began, + A young Physician, though an ancient Man-- + Now let me cease--Physician, Parson, Dame, + Still urge your task, and if you can, defame. + The humble offerings of my Muse destroy, + And crush, oh! noble conquest! crush a Boy. + What though some silly girls have lov'd the strain, + And kindly bade me tune my Lyre again; + What though some feeling, or some partial few, + Nay, Men of Taste and Reputation too, + Have deign'd to praise the firstlings of my Muse-- + If _you_ your sanction to the theme refuse, + If _you_ your great protection still withdraw, + Whose Praise is Glory, and whose Voice is law! + Soon must I fall an unresisting foe, + A hapless victim yielding to the blow.-- + Thus Pope by Curl and Dennis was destroyed, + Thus Gray and Mason yield to furious Lloyd; [3] + From Dryden, Milbourne [4] tears the palm away, + And thus I fall, though meaner far than they. + As in the field of combat, side by side, + A Fabius and some noble Roman died. + +Dec. 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed.] + +[Footnote 2: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680). His 'Poems' +were published in the year of his death.] + +[Footnote 3: Robert Lloyd (1733-1764). The following lines occur in the +first of two odes to 'Obscurity and Oblivion'--parodies of the odes of +Gray and Mason:-- + + "Heard ye the din of modern rhymers bray? + It was cool M----n and warm G----y, + Involv'd in tenfold smoke."] + + +[Footnote 4: The Rev. Luke Milbourne (died 1720) published, in 1698, his +'Notes on Dryden's Virgil', containing a venomous attack on Dryden. They +are alluded to in 'The Dunciad', and also by Dr. Johnson, who wrote +('Life of Dryden'), + + "His outrages seem to be the ebullitions of a mind agitated by + stronger resentment than bad poetry can excite."] + + + + + + + +L'AMITIE, EST L'AMOUR SANS AILES. [1] + + + +1. + + Why should my anxious breast repine, + Because my youth is fled? + Days of delight may still be mine; + Affection is not dead. + In tracing back the years of youth, + One firm record, one lasting truth + Celestial consolation brings; + Bear it, ye breezes, to the seat, + Where first my heart responsive beat,-- + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +2 + + Through few, but deeply chequer'd years, + What moments have been mine! + Now half obscured by clouds of tears, + Now bright in rays divine; + Howe'er my future doom be cast, + My soul, enraptured with the past, + To one idea fondly clings; + Friendship! that thought is all thine own, + Worth worlds of bliss, that thought alone-- + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +3 + + Where yonder yew-trees lightly wave + Their branches on the gale, + Unheeded heaves a simple grave, + Which tells the common tale; + Round this unconscious schoolboys stray, + Till the dull knell of childish play + From yonder studious mansion rings; + But here, whene'er my footsteps move, + My silent tears too plainly prove, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +4 + + Oh, Love! before thy glowing shrine, + My early vows were paid; + My hopes, my dreams, my heart was thine, + But these are now decay'd; + For thine are pinions like the wind, + No trace of thee remains behind, + Except, alas! thy jealous stings. + Away, away! delusive power, + Thou shall not haunt my coming hour; + Unless, indeed, without thy wings. + + +5 + + Seat of my youth! [2] thy distant spire + Recalls each scene of joy; + My bosom glows with former fire,-- + In mind again a boy. + Thy grove of elms, thy verdant hill, + Thy every path delights me still, + Each flower a double fragrance flings; + Again, as once, in converse gay, + Each dear associate seems to say, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!' + + +6. + + My Lycus! [3] wherefore dost thou weep? + Thy falling tears restrain; + Affection for a time may sleep, + But, oh, 'twill wake again. + Think, think, my friend, when next we meet, + Our long-wished interview, how sweet! + From this my hope of rapture springs; + While youthful hearts thus fondly swell, + Absence my friend, can only tell, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + + +7. + + In one, and one alone deceiv'd, + Did I my error mourn? + No--from oppressive bonds reliev'd, + I left the wretch to scorn. + I turn'd to those my childhood knew, + With feelings warm, with bosoms true, + Twin'd with my heart's according strings; + And till those vital chords shall break, + For none but these my breast shall wake + Friendship, the power deprived of wings! + + +8 + + Ye few! my soul, my life is yours, + My memory and my hope; + Your worth a lasting love insures, + Unfetter'd in its scope; + From smooth deceit and terror sprung, + With aspect fair and honey'd tongue, + Let Adulation wait on kings; + With joy elate, by snares beset, + We, we, my friends, can ne'er forget, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +9 + + Fictions and dreams inspire the bard, + Who rolls the epic song; + Friendship and truth be my reward-- + To me no bays belong; + If laurell'd Fame but dwells with lies, + Me the enchantress ever flies, + Whose heart and not whose fancy sings; + Simple and young, I dare not feign; + Mine be the rude yet heartfelt strain, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +December 29, 1806. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. is preserved at Newstead.] + +[Footnote 2: Harrow.] + +[Footnote 3: Lord Clare had written to Byron, + + "I think by your last letter that you are very much piqued with most + of your friends, and, if I am not much mistaken, a little so with me. + In one part you say, + + 'There is little or no doubt a few years or months will render us as + politely indifferent to each other, as if we had never passed a + portion of our time together.' + + Indeed, Byron, you wrong me; and I have no doubt, at least I hope, you + are wrong yourself." + +'Life', p. 25.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE PRAYER OF NATURE. [1] + + +1 + + Father of Light! great God of Heaven! + Hear'st thou the accents of despair? + Can guilt like man's be e'er forgiven? + Can vice atone for crimes by prayer? + + +2 + + Father of Light, on thee I call! + Thou see'st my soul is dark within; + Thou, who canst mark the sparrow's fall, + Avert from me the death of sin. + + +3 + + No shrine I seek, to sects unknown; + Oh, point to me the path of truth! + Thy dread Omnipotence I own; + Spare, yet amend, the faults of youth. + + +4 + + Let bigots rear a gloomy fane, + Let Superstition hail the pile, + Let priests, to spread their sable reign, + With tales of mystic rites beguile. + + +5 + + Shall man confine his Maker's sway + To Gothic domes of mouldering stone? + Thy temple is the face of day; + Earth, Ocean, Heaven thy boundless throne. + + +6 + + Shall man condemn his race to Hell, + Unless they bend in pompous form? + Tell us that all, for one who fell, + Must perish in the mingling storm? + + +7 + + Shall each pretend to reach the skies, + Yet doom his brother to expire, + Whose soul a different hope supplies, + Or doctrines less severe inspire? + + +8 + + Shall these, by creeds they can't expound, + Prepare a fancied bliss or woe? + Shall reptiles, groveling on the ground, + Their great Creator's purpose know? + + +9 + + Shall those, who live for self alone, [i] + Whose years float on in daily crime-- + Shall they, by Faith, for guilt atone, + And live beyond the bounds of Time? + + +10 + + Father! no prophet's laws I seek,-- + _Thy_ laws in Nature's works appear;-- + I own myself corrupt and weak, + Yet will I _pray_, for thou wilt hear! + + +11 + + Thou, who canst guide the wandering star, + Through trackless realms of aether's space; + Who calm'st the elemental war, + Whose hand from pole to pole I trace: + + +12 + + Thou, who in wisdom plac'd me here, + Who, when thou wilt, canst take me hence, + Ah! whilst I tread this earthly sphere, + Extend to me thy wide defence. + + +13 + + To Thee, my God, to thee I call! + Whatever weal or woe betide, + By thy command I rise or fall, + In thy protection I confide. + + +14. + + If, when this dust to dust's restor'd, + My soul shall float on airy wing, + How shall thy glorious Name ador'd + Inspire her feeble voice to sing! + + +15 + + But, if this fleeting spirit share + With clay the Grave's eternal bed, + While Life yet throbs I raise my prayer, + Though doom'd no more to quit the dead. + + +16 + + To Thee I breathe my humble strain, + Grateful for all thy mercies past, + And hope, my God, to thee again [ii] + This erring life may fly at last. + + +December 29, 1806. + + + +[Footnote 1: These stanzas were first published in Moore's 'Letters and +Journals of Lord Byron', 1830, i. 106.] + +[Footnote i: + + Shalt these who live for self alone, + Whose years fleet on in daily crime-- + Shall these by Faith for guilt atone, + Exist beyond the bounds of Time? + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + My hope, my God, in thee again + This erring life will fly at last. + +['MS. Newstead']] + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON. [1] + + +[Greek: Eis rodon.] + + +ODE 5 + + + + Mingle with the genial bowl + The Rose, the 'flow'ret' of the Soul, + The Rose and Grape together quaff'd, + How doubly sweet will be the draught! + With Roses crown our jovial brows, + While every cheek with Laughter glows; + While Smiles and Songs, with Wine incite, + To wing our moments with Delight. + Rose by far the fairest birth, + Which Spring and Nature cull from Earth-- + Rose whose sweetest perfume given, + Breathes our thoughts from Earth to Heaven. + Rose whom the Deities above, + From Jove to Hebe, dearly love, + When Cytherea's blooming Boy, + Flies lightly through the dance of Joy, + With him the Graces then combine, + And rosy wreaths their locks entwine. + Then will I sing divinely crown'd, + With dusky leaves my temples bound-- + Lyaeus! in thy bowers of pleasure, + I'll wake a wildly thrilling measure. + There will my gentle Girl and I, + Along the mazes sportive fly, + Will bend before thy potent throne-- + Rose, Wine, and Beauty, all my own. + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed,] + + + + + + + + + + +OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN IN "CARTHON." [1] + + Oh! thou that roll'st above thy glorious Fire, + Round as the shield which grac'd my godlike Sire, + Whence are the beams, O Sun! thy endless blaze, + Which far eclipse each minor Glory's rays? + Forth in thy Beauty here thou deign'st to shine! + Night quits her car, the twinkling stars decline; + Pallid and cold the Moon descends to cave + Her sinking beams beneath the Western wave; + But thou still mov'st alone, of light the Source-- + Who can o'ertake thee in thy fiery course? + Oaks of the mountains fall, the rocks decay, + Weighed down with years the hills dissolve away. + A certain space to yonder Moon is given, + She rises, smiles, and then is lost in Heaven. + Ocean in sullen murmurs ebbs and flows, + But thy bright beam unchanged for ever glows! + When Earth is darkened with tempestuous skies, + When Thunder shakes the sphere and Lightning flies, + Thy face, O Sun, no rolling blasts deform, + Thou look'st from clouds and laughest at the Storm. + To Ossian, Orb of Light! thou look'st in vain, + Nor cans't thou glad his aged eyes again, + Whether thy locks in Orient Beauty stream, + Or glimmer through the West with fainter gleam-- + But thou, perhaps, like me with age must bend; + Thy season o'er, thy days will find their end, + No more yon azure vault with rays adorn, + Lull'd in the clouds, nor hear the voice of Morn. + Exult, O Sun, in all thy youthful strength! + Age, dark unlovely Age, appears at length, + As gleams the moonbeam through the broken cloud + While mountain vapours spread their misty shroud-- + The Northern tempest howls along at last, + And wayworn strangers shrink amid the blast. + Thou rolling Sun who gild'st those rising towers, + Fair didst thou shine upon my earlier hours! + I hail'd with smiles the cheering rays of Morn, + My breast by no tumultuous Passion torn-- + Now hateful are thy beams which wake no more + The sense of joy which thrill'd my breast before; + Welcome thou cloudy veil of nightly skies, + To thy bright canopy the mourner flies: + Once bright, thy Silence lull'd my frame to rest, + And Sleep my soul with gentle visions blest; + Now wakeful Grief disdains her mild controul, + Dark is the night, but darker is my Soul. + Ye warring Winds of Heav'n your fury urge, + To me congenial sounds your wintry Dirge: + Swift as your wings my happier days have past, + Keen as your storms is Sorrow's chilling blast; + To Tempests thus expos'd my Fate has been, + Piercing like yours, like yours, alas! unseen. + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed. (See 'Ossian's Poems', London, 1819, pp. xvii. 119.)] + + + + + + + + + + +PIGNUS AMORIS. [1] + + +1 + + As by the fix'd decrees of Heaven, + 'Tis vain to hope that Joy can last; + The dearest boon that Life has given, + To me is--visions of the past. + + +2. + + For these this toy of blushing hue + I prize with zeal before unknown, + It tells me of a Friend I knew, + Who loved me for myself alone. + + +3. + + It tells me what how few can say + Though all the social tie commend; + Recorded in my heart 'twill lay, [2] + It tells me mine was once a Friend. + + +4. + + Through many a weary day gone by, + With time the gift is dearer grown; + And still I view in Memory's eye + That teardrop sparkle through my own. + + +5. + + And heartless Age perhaps will smile, + Or wonder whence those feelings sprung; + Yet let not sterner souls revile, + For Both were open, Both were young. + + +6. + + And Youth is sure the only time, + When Pleasure blends no base alloy; + When Life is blest without a crime, + And Innocence resides with Joy. + + +7 + + Let those reprove my feeble Soul, + Who laugh to scorn Affection's name; + While these impose a harsh controul, + All will forgive who feel the same. + + +8 + + Then still I wear my simple toy, + With pious care from wreck I'll save it; + And this will form a dear employ + For dear I was to him who gave it. + + +? 1806. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed.] + +[Footnote 2: For the irregular use of "lay" for "lie," compare "The +Adieu" (st. 10, 1. 4, p. 241), and the much-disputed line, "And dashest +him to earth--there let him lay" ('Childe Harold', canto iv. st. 180).] + + + + + + + +A WOMAN'S HAIR. [1] + + + Oh! little lock of golden hue + In gently waving ringlet curl'd, + By the dear head on which you grew, + I would not lose you for _a world_. + + Not though a thousand more adorn + The polished brow where once you shone, + Like rays which guild a cloudless sky [i] + Beneath Columbia's fervid zone. + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: These lines are preserved in MS. at Newstead, with the +following memorandum in Miss Pigot's handwriting: "Copied from the +fly-leaf in a vol. of my Burns' books, which is written in pencil by +himself." They have hitherto been printed as stanzas 5 and 6 of the +lines "To a Lady," etc., p. 212.] + +[Footnote i: + + _a cloudless morn_. + +['Ed'. 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + +STANZAS TO JESSY. [1] + + +1 + + There is a mystic thread of life + So dearly wreath'd with mine alone, + That Destiny's relentless knife + At once must sever both, or none. + + +2 + + There is a Form on which these eyes + Have fondly gazed with such delight-- + By day, that Form their joy supplies, + And Dreams restore it, through the night. + + +3 + + There is a Voice whose tones inspire + Such softened feelings in my breast, [i]-- + I would not hear a Seraph Choir, + Unless that voice could join the rest. + + +4 + + There is a Face whose Blushes tell + Affection's tale upon the cheek, + But pallid at our fond farewell, + Proclaims more love than words can speak. + + +5 + + There is a Lip, which mine has prest, + But none had ever prest before; + It vowed to make me sweetly blest, + That mine alone should press it more. [ii] + + +6 + + There is a Bosom all my own, + Has pillow'd oft this aching head, + A Mouth which smiles on me alone, + An Eye, whose tears with mine are shed. + + +7 + + There are two Hearts whose movements thrill, + In unison so closely sweet, + That Pulse to Pulse responsive still + They Both must heave, or cease to beat. + + +8 + + There are two Souls, whose equal flow + In gentle stream so calmly run, + That when they part--they part?--ah no! + They cannot part--those Souls are One. + + +[GEORGE GORDON, LORD] BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: "Stanzas to Jessy" have often been printed, but were never +acknowledged by Byron, or included in any authorized edition of his +works. They are, however, unquestionably genuine. They appeared first in +'Monthly Literary Recreations' (July, 1807), a magazine published by B. +Crosby & Co., Stationers' Court. Crosby was London agent for Ridge, the +Newark bookseller, and, with Longman and others, "sold" the recently +issued 'Hours of Idleness'. The same number of 'Monthly Literary +Recreations' (for July, 1807) contains Byron's review of Wordsworth's +'Poems' (2 vols., 1807), and a highly laudatory notice of 'Hours of +Idleness'. The lines are headed "Stanzas to Jessy," and are signed +"George Gordon, Lord Byron." They were republished in 1824, by Knight +and Lacy, in vol. v. of the three supplementary volumes of the 'Works', +and again in the same year by John Bumpus and A. Griffin, in their +'Miscellaneous Poems', etc. A note which is prefixed to these issues, +"The following stanzas were addressed by Lord Byron to his Lady, a few +months before their separation," and three variants in the text, make it +unlikely that the pirating editors were acquainted with the text of the +magazine. The MS. ('British Museum', Eg. MSS. No. 2332) is signed +"George Gordon, Lord Byron," but the words "George Gordon, Lord" are in +another hand, and were probably added by Crosby. The following letter +(together with a wrapper addressed, "Mr. Crosby, Stationers' Court," and +sealed in red wax with Byron's arms and coronet) is attached to the +poem:-- + + July 21, 1807. + + SIR, + + I have sent according to my promise some Stanzas + for Literary Recreations. The insertion I leave to the option + of the Editors. They have never appeared before. I should + wish to know whether they are admitted or not, and when + the work will appear, as I am desirous of a copy. + + Etc., etc., BYRON. + + P.S.--Send your answer when convenient."] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Such thrills of Rapture'. + +[Knight and Lacy, 1824, v. 56.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'And mine, mine only'. + +[Knight and Lacy, v. 56.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ADIEU. + +WRITTEN UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THE AUTHOR WOULD SOON DIE. + + +1. + + Adieu, thou Hill! [1] where early joy + Spread roses o'er my brow; + Where Science seeks each loitering boy + With knowledge to endow. + Adieu, my youthful friends or foes, + Partners of former bliss or woes; + No more through Ida's paths we stray; + Soon must I share the gloomy cell, + Whose ever-slumbering inmates dwell + Unconscious of the day. + +2. + + Adieu, ye hoary Regal Fanes, [i] + Ye spires of Granta's vale, + Where Learning robed in sable reigns. + And Melancholy pale. + Ye comrades of the jovial hour, + Ye tenants of the classic bower, + On Cama's verdant margin plac'd, + Adieu! while memory still is mine, + For offerings on Oblivion's shrine, + These scenes must be effac'd. + + +3 + + Adieu, ye mountains of the clime + Where grew my youthful years; + Where Loch na Garr in snows sublime + His giant summit rears. + Why did my childhood wander forth + From you, ye regions of the North, + With sons of Pride to roam? + Why did I quit my Highland cave, + Marr's dusky heath, and Dee's clear wave, + To seek a Sotheron home? + + +4 + + Hall of my Sires! a long farewell-- + Yet why to thee adieu? + Thy vaults will echo back my knell, + Thy towers my tomb will view: + The faltering tongue which sung thy fall, + And former glories of thy Hall, + Forgets its wonted simple note-- + But yet the Lyre retains the strings, + And sometimes, on AEolian wings, + In dying strains may float. + + +5. + + Fields, which surround yon rustic cot, [2] + While yet I linger here, + Adieu! you are not now forgot, + To retrospection dear. + Streamlet! [3] along whose rippling surge + My youthful limbs were wont to urge, + At noontide heat, their pliant course; + Plunging with ardour from the shore, + Thy springs will lave these limbs no more, + Deprived of active force. + + +6. + + And shall I here forget the scene, + Still nearest to my breast? + Rocks rise and rivers roll between + The spot which passion blest; + Yet Mary, [4] all thy beauties seem + Fresh as in Love's bewitching dream, + To me in smiles display'd; + Till slow disease resigns his prey + To Death, the parent of decay, + Thine image cannot fade. + + +7. + + And thou, my Friend! whose gentle love + Yet thrills my bosom's chords, + How much thy friendship was above + Description's power of words! + Still near my breast thy gift [5] I wear [ii] + Which sparkled once with Feeling's tear, + Of Love the pure, the sacred gem: + Our souls were equal, and our lot + In that dear moment quite forgot; + Let Pride alone condemn! + + +8. + + All, all is dark and cheerless now! + No smile of Love's deceit + Can warm my veins with wonted glow, + Can bid Life's pulses beat: + Not e'en the hope of future fame + Can wake my faint, exhausted frame, + Or crown with fancied wreaths my head. + Mine is a short inglorious race,-- + To humble in the dust my face, + And mingle with the dead. + + +9. + + Oh Fame! thou goddess of my heart; + On him who gains thy praise, + Pointless must fall the Spectre's dart, + Consumed in Glory's blaze; + But me she beckons from the earth, + My name obscure, unmark'd my birth, + My life a short and vulgar dream: + Lost in the dull, ignoble crowd, + My hopes recline within a shroud, + My fate is Lethe's stream. + + +10. + + When I repose beneath the sod, + Unheeded in the clay, + Where once my playful footsteps trod, + Where now my head must lay, [6] + The meed of Pity will be shed + In dew-drops o'er my narrow bed, + By nightly skies, and storms alone; + No mortal eye will deign to steep + With tears the dark sepulchral deep + Which hides a name unknown. + + +11. + + Forget this world, my restless sprite, + Turn, turn thy thoughts to Heaven: + There must thou soon direct thy flight, + If errors are forgiven. + To bigots and to sects unknown, + Bow down beneath the Almighty's Throne; + To Him address thy trembling prayer: + He, who is merciful and just, + Will not reject a child of dust, + Although His meanest care. + + +12. + + Father of Light! to Thee I call; + My soul is dark within: + Thou who canst mark the sparrow's fall, + Avert the death of sin. + Thou, who canst guide the wandering star + Who calm'st the elemental war, + Whose mantle is yon boundless sky, + My thoughts, my words, my crimes forgive; + And, since I soon must cease to live, + Instruct me how to die. [iii] + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Harrow. ] + +[Footnote 2: Mrs. Pigot's Cottage.] + +[Footnote 3: The river Grete, at Southwell.] + +[Footnote 4: Mary Chaworth.] + +[Footnote 5: Compare the verses on "The Cornelian," p. 66, and +"Pignus Amoris," p. 231.] + +[Footnote 6: See note to "Pignus Amoris," st. 3, l. 3, p. 232.] + + +[Footnote i: + + '--ye regal Towers'. + +['MS. Newstead'.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'The gift I wear'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'And since I must forbear to live, + Instruct me how to die.' + +['MS. Newstead'] + + + + + + + +TO----[1] + + +1. + + Oh! well I know your subtle Sex, + Frail daughters of the wanton Eve,-- + While jealous pangs our Souls perplex, + No passion prompts you to relieve. + + +2 + + From Love, or Pity ne'er you fall, + By _you_, no mutual Flame is felt, + "Tis Vanity, which rules you all, + Desire alone which makes you melt. + + +3 + + I will not say no _souls_ are yours, + Aye, ye have Souls, and dark ones too, + Souls to contrive those smiling lures, + To snare our simple hearts for you. + + +4 + + Yet shall you never bind me fast, + Long to adore such brittle toys, + I'll rove along, from first to last, + And change whene'er my fancy cloys. + + +5 + + Oh! I should be a _baby_ fool, + To sigh the dupe of female art-- + Woman! perhaps thou hast a _Soul_, + But where have _Demons_ hid thy _Heart_? + + +January, 1807. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed.] + + + + + + + + + + + +ON THE EYES OF MISS A----H----[1] + + + Anne's Eye is liken'd to the _Sun_, + From it such Beams of Beauty fall; + And _this_ can be denied by none, + For like the _Sun_, it shines on _All_. + + Then do not admiration smother, + Or say these glances don't become her; + To _you_, or _I_, or _any other_ + Her _Sun_, displays perpetual Summer. [2] + + +January 14, 1807. + + + +[Footnote 1: Miss Anne Houson. From an autograph MS. at Newstead, +now for the first time printed.] + +[Footnote 2: Compare, for the same simile, the lines "To Edward +Noel Long, Esq.," p. 187, 'ante'.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO A VAIN LADY. [1] + + +1 + + Ah, heedless girl! why thus disclose + What ne'er was meant for other ears; + Why thus destroy thine own repose, + And dig the source of future tears? + + +2 + + Oh, thou wilt weep, imprudent maid, + While lurking envious foes will smile, + For all the follies thou hast said + Of those who spoke but to beguile. + + +3 + + Vain girl! thy lingering woes are nigh, + If thou believ'st what striplings say: + Oh, from the deep temptation fly, + Nor fall the specious spoiler's prey. + + +4 + + Dost thou repeat, in childish boast, + The words man utters to deceive? + Thy peace, thy hope, thy all is lost, + If thou canst venture to believe. + + +5 + + While now amongst thy female peers + Thou tell'st again the soothing tale, + Canst thou not mark the rising sneers + Duplicity in vain would veil? + + +6 + + These tales in secret silence hush, + Nor make thyself the public gaze: + What modest maid without a blush + Recounts a flattering coxcomb's praise? + + +7. + + Will not the laughing boy despise + Her who relates each fond conceit-- + Who, thinking Heaven is in her eyes, + Yet cannot see the slight deceit? + + +8. + + For she who takes a soft delight + These amorous nothings in revealing, + Must credit all we say or write, + While vanity prevents concealing. + + +9. + + Cease, if you prize your Beauty's reign! + No jealousy bids me reprove: + One, who is thus from nature vain, + I pity, but I cannot love. + + +January 15, 1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: To A Young Lady (Miss Anne Houson) whose vanity induced her +to repeat the compliments paid her by some young men of her +acquaintance.--'MS. Newstead_'.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO ANNE. [1] + + +1. + + Oh, Anne, your offences to me have been grievous: + I thought from my wrath no atonement could save you; + But Woman is made to command and deceive us-- + I look'd in your face, and I almost forgave you. + + +2. + + I vow'd I could ne'er for a moment respect you, + Yet thought that a day's separation was long; + When we met, I determined again to suspect you-- + Your smile soon convinced me _suspicion_ was wrong. + + +3. + + I swore, in a transport of young indignation, + With fervent contempt evermore to disdain you: + I saw you--my _anger_ became _admiration_; + And now, all my wish, all my hope's to regain you. + + +4. + + With beauty like yours, oh, how vain the contention! + Thus lowly I sue for forgiveness before you;-- + At once to conclude such a fruitless dissension, + Be false, my sweet Anne, when I cease to adore you! + + +January 16, 1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Miss Anne Houson.] + + + + + + + + + + +EGOTISM. A LETTER TO J. T. BECHER. [1] + + +[Greek: Heauton bur_on aeidei.] + + + +1. + + If Fate should seal my Death to-morrow, + (Though much _I_ hope she will _postpone_ it,) + I've held a share _Joy_ and _Sorrow_, + Enough for _Ten_; and _here_ I _own_ it. + + +2. + + I've lived, as many others live, + And yet, I think, with more enjoyment; + For could I through my days again live, + I'd pass them in the 'same' employment. + + +3. + + That 'is' to say, with 'some exception', + For though I will not make confession, + I've seen too much of man's deception + Ever again to trust profession. + + +4. + + Some sage 'Mammas' with gesture haughty, + Pronounce me quite a youthful Sinner-- + But 'Daughters' say, "although he's naughty, + You must not check a 'Young Beginner'!" + + +5. + + I've loved, and many damsels know it-- + But whom I don't intend to mention, + As 'certain stanzas' also show it, + 'Some' say 'deserving Reprehension'. + + +6. + + Some ancient Dames, of virtue fiery, + (Unless Report does much belie them,) + Have lately made a sharp Enquiry, + And much it 'grieves' me to 'deny' them. + + +7. + + Two whom I lov'd had 'eyes' of 'Blue', + To which I hope you've no objection; + The 'Rest' had eyes of 'darker Hue'-- + Each Nymph, of course, was 'all perfection'. + + +8. + + But here I'll close my 'chaste' Description, + Nor say the deeds of animosity; + For 'silence' is the best prescription, + To 'physic' idle curiosity. + + +9. + + Of 'Friends' I've known a 'goodly Hundred'-- + For finding 'one' in each acquaintance, + By 'some deceived', by others plunder'd, + 'Friendship', to me, was not 'Repentance'. + + +10. + + At 'School' I thought like other 'Children'; + Instead of 'Brains', a fine Ingredient, + 'Romance', my 'youthful Head bewildering', + To 'Sense' had made me disobedient. + + +11. + + A victim, 'nearly' from affection, + To certain 'very precious scheming', + The still remaining recollection + Has 'cured' my 'boyish soul' of 'Dreaming'. + + +12. + + By Heaven! I rather would forswear + The Earth, and all the joys reserved me, + Than dare again the 'specious Snare', + From which 'my Fate' and 'Heaven preserved' me. + + +13. + + Still I possess some Friends who love me-- + In each a much esteemed and true one; + The Wealth of Worlds shall never move me + To quit their Friendship, for a new one. + + +14. + + But Becher! you're a 'reverend pastor', + Now take it in consideration, + Whether for penance I should fast, or + Pray for my 'sins' in expiation. + + +15. + + I own myself the child of 'Folly', + But not so wicked as they make me-- + I soon must die of melancholy, + If 'Female' smiles should e'er forsake me. + + +16. + + 'Philosophers' have 'never doubted', + That 'Ladies' Lips' were made for 'kisses!' + For 'Love!' I could not live without it, + For such a 'cursed' place as 'This is'. + + +17. + + Say, Becher, I shall be forgiven! + If you don't warrant my salvation, + I must resign all 'Hopes' of 'Heaven'! + For, 'Faith', I can't withstand Temptation. + + +P.S.--These were written between one and two, after 'midnight'. I + have not 'corrected', or 'revised'. Yours, BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first +time printed.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO ANNE. [1] + + + +1 + + Oh say not, sweet Anne, that the Fates have decreed + The heart which adores you should wish to dissever; + Such Fates were to me most unkind ones indeed,-- + To bear me from Love and from Beauty for ever. + + +2. + + Your frowns, lovely girl, are the Fates which alone + Could bid me from fond admiration refrain; + By these, every hope, every wish were o'erthrown, + Till smiles should restore me to rapture again. + + +3. + + As the ivy and oak, in the forest entwin'd, + The rage of the tempest united must weather; + My love and my life were by nature design'd + To flourish alike, or to perish together. + + +4. + + Then say not, sweet Anne, that the Fates have decreed + Your lover should bid you a lasting adieu: + Till Fate can ordain that his bosom shall bleed, + His Soul, his Existence, are centred in you. + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE AUTHOR OF A SONNET + +BEGINNING "'SAD IS MY VERSE,' YOU SAY, 'AND YET NO TEAR.'" + + +1. + + Thy verse is "sad" enough, no doubt: + A devilish deal more sad than witty! + Why we should weep I can't find out, + Unless for _thee_ we weep in pity. + + +2. + + Yet there is one I pity more; + And much, alas! I think he needs it: + For he, I'm sure, will suffer sore, + Who, to his own misfortune, reads it. + + +3. + + Thy rhymes, without the aid of magic, + May _once_ be read--but never after: + Yet their effect's by no means tragic, + Although by far too dull for laughter. + + +4. + + But would you make our bosoms bleed, + And of no common pang complain-- + If you would make us weep indeed, + Tell us, you'll read them o'er again. + + +March 8, 1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + + + +ON FINDING A FAN. [1] + + +1. + + In one who felt as once he felt, + This might, perhaps, have fann'd the flame; + But now his heart no more will melt, + Because that heart is not the same. + + +2. + + As when the ebbing flames are low, + The aid which once improved their light, + And bade them burn with fiercer glow, + Now quenches all their blaze in night. + + +3. + + Thus has it been with Passion's fires-- + As many a boy and girl remembers-- + While every hope of love expires, + Extinguish'd with the dying embers. + + +4. + + The _first_, though not a spark survive, + Some careful hand may teach to burn; + The _last_, alas! can ne'er survive; + No touch can bid its warmth return. + + +5. + + Or, if it chance to wake again, + Not always doom'd its heat to smother, + It sheds (so wayward fates ordain) + Its former warmth around another. + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Of Miss A. H. (MS. Newstead).] + + + + + + + + + + + +FAREWELL TO THE MUSE. [i.] + + +1. + + Thou Power! who hast ruled me through Infancy's days, + Young offspring of Fancy, 'tis time we should part; + Then rise on the gale this the last of my lays, + The coldest effusion which springs from my heart. + + +2. + + This bosom, responsive to rapture no more, + Shall hush thy wild notes, nor implore thee to sing; + The feelings of childhood, which taught thee to soar, + Are wafted far distant on Apathy's wing. + + +3. + + Though simple the themes of my rude flowing Lyre, + Yet even these themes are departed for ever; + No more beam the eyes which my dream could inspire, + My visions are flown, to return,--alas, never! + + +4. + + When drain'd is the nectar which gladdens the bowl, + How vain is the effort delight to prolong! + When cold is the beauty which dwelt in my soul, [ii] + What magic of Fancy can lengthen my song? + + +5. + + Can the lips sing of Love in the desert alone, + Of kisses and smiles which they now must resign? + Or dwell with delight on the hours that are flown? + Ah, no! for those hours can no longer be mine. + + +6. + + Can they speak of the friends that I lived but to love? [iii] + Ah, surely Affection ennobles the strain! + But how can my numbers in sympathy move, + When I scarcely can hope to behold them again? + + +7. + + Can I sing of the deeds which my Fathers have done, + And raise my loud harp to the fame of my Sires? + For glories like theirs, oh, how faint is my tone! + For Heroes' exploits how unequal my fires! + + +8. + + Untouch'd, then, my Lyre shall reply to the blast-- + 'Tis hush'd; and my feeble endeavours are o'er; + And those who have heard it will pardon the past, + When they know that its murmurs shall vibrate no more. + + +9. + + And soon shall its wild erring notes be forgot, + Since early affection and love is o'ercast: + Oh! blest had my Fate been, and happy my lot, + Had the first strain of love been the dearest, the last. + + +10. + + Farewell, my young Muse! since we now can ne'er meet; [iv] + If our songs have been languid, they surely are few: + Let us hope that the present at least will be sweet-- + The present--which seals our eternal Adieu. + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: + + 'Adieu to the Muse'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'When cold is the form'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + --'whom I lived but to love'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Since we never can meet'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO AN OAK AT NEWSTEAD. [1] + + +1. + + Young Oak! when I planted thee deep in the ground, + I hoped that thy days would be longer than mine; + That thy dark-waving branches would flourish around, + And ivy thy trunk with its mantle entwine. + + +2. + + Such, such was my hope, when in Infancy's years, + On the land of my Fathers I rear'd thee with pride; + They are past, and I water thy stem with my tears,-- + Thy decay, not the _weeds_ that surround thee can hide. + + +3. + + I left thee, my Oak, and, since that fatal hour, + A stranger has dwelt in the hall of my Sire; + Till Manhood shall crown me, not mine is the power, + But his, whose neglect may have bade thee expire. + + +4. + + Oh! hardy thou wert--even now little care + Might revive thy young head, and thy wounds gently + heal: + But thou wert not fated affection to share-- + For who could suppose that a Stranger would feel? + + +5. + + Ah, droop not, my Oak! lift thy head for a while; + Ere twice round yon Glory this planet shall run, + The hand of thy Master will teach thee to smile, + When Infancy's years of probation are done. + + +6. + + Oh, live then, my Oak! tow'r aloft from the weeds, + That clog thy young growth, and assist thy decay, + For still in thy bosom are Life's early seeds, + And still may thy branches their beauty display. + + +7. + + Oh! yet, if Maturity's years may be thine, + Though _I_ shall lie low in the cavern of Death, + On thy leaves yet the day-beam of ages may shine, [i] + Uninjured by Time, or the rude Winter's breath. + + +8. + + For centuries still may thy boughs lightly wave + O'er the corse of thy Lord in thy canopy laid; + While the branches thus gratefully shelter his grave, + The Chief who survives may recline in thy shade. + + +9. + + And as he, with his boys, shall revisit this spot, + He will tell them in whispers more softly to tread. + Oh! surely, by these I shall ne'er be forgot; + Remembrance still hallows the dust of the dead. + + +10. + + And here, will they say, when in Life's glowing prime, + Perhaps he has pour'd forth his young simple lay, + And here must he sleep, till the moments of Time + Are lost in the hours of Eternity's day. + + +1807. [First published 1832.] + +["Copied for Mr. Moore, Jan. 24, 1828."--Note by Miss Pigot.] + + + +[Footnote 1: There is no heading to the original MS., but on the blank +leaf at the end of the poem is written, + + "To an oak in the garden of Newstead Abbey, planted by the author in + the 9th year of [his] age; this tree at his last visit was in a state + of decay, though perhaps not irrecoverable." + +On arriving at Newstead, in 1798, Byron, then in his +eleventh year, planted an oak, and cherished the fancy, that as the tree +flourished so should he. On revisiting the abbey, he found the oak +choked up by weeds and almost destroyed;--hence these lines. Shortly +after Colonel Wildman took possession, he said to a servant, + + "Here is a fine young oak; but it must be cut down, as it grows in an + improper place." + + "I hope not, sir, "replied the man, "for it's the one that my lord was + so fond of, because he set it himself." + +_Life_, p. 50, note.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _For ages may shine_. + +[_MS. Newstead_]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ON REVISITING HARROW. [1] + + +1. + + Here once engaged the stranger's view + Young Friendship's record simply trac'd; + Few were her words,--but yet, though few, + Resentment's hand the line defac'd. + + +2. + + Deeply she cut--but not eras'd-- + The characters were still so plain, + That Friendship once return'd, and gaz'd,-- + Till Memory hail'd the words again. + + +3. + + Repentance plac'd them as before; + Forgiveness join'd her gentle name; + So fair the inscription seem'd once more, + That Friendship thought it still the same. + + +4. + + Thus might the Record now have been; + But, ah, in spite of Hope's endeavour, + Or Friendship's tears, Pride rush'd between, + And blotted out the line for ever. + + +September, 1807. + +[First published in Moore's 'Life and Letters, etc.', 1830, i. 102.] + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Some years ago, when at Harrow, a friend of the author engraved on a + particular spot the names of both, with a few additional words, as a + memorial. Afterwards, on receiving some real or imaginary injury, the + author destroyed the frail record before he left Harrow. On revisiting + the place in 1807, he wrote under it these stanzas." + +Moore's 'Life, etc.', i. 102.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO MY SON. [1] + + +1. + + Those flaxen locks, those eyes of blue + Bright as thy mother's in their hue; + Those rosy lips, whose dimples play + And smile to steal the heart away, + Recall a scene of former joy, + And touch thy father's heart, my Boy! + + +2. + + And thou canst lisp a father's name-- + Ah, William, were thine own the same,-- + No self-reproach--but, let me cease-- + My care for thee shall purchase peace; + Thy mother's shade shall smile in joy, + And pardon all the past, my Boy! + + +3. + + Her lowly grave the turf has prest, + And thou hast known a stranger's breast; + Derision sneers upon thy birth, + And yields thee scarce a name on earth; + Yet shall not these one hope destroy,-- + A Father's heart is thine, my Boy! + + +4. + + Why, let the world unfeeling frown, + Must I fond Nature's claims disown? + Ah, no--though moralists reprove, + I hail thee, dearest child of Love, + Fair cherub, pledge of youth and joy-- + A Father guards thy birth, my Boy! + + +5. + + Oh,'twill be sweet in thee to trace, + Ere Age has wrinkled o'er my face, + Ere half my glass of life is run, + At once a brother and a son; + And all my wane of years employ + In justice done to thee, my Boy! + + +6. + + Although so young thy heedless sire, + Youth will not damp parental fire; + And, wert thou still less dear to me, + While Helen's form revives in thee, + The breast, which beat to former joy, + Will ne'er desert its pledge, my Boy! + + +1807. + +[First published in Moore's 'Life and Letters, etc.', 1830, i. 104.] + + +[Footnote 1: For a reminiscence of what was, possibly, an actual event, +see 'Don Juan', canto xvi. st. 61. He told Lady Byron that he had two +natural children, whom he should provide for.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +QUERIES TO CASUISTS. [1] + + + The Moralists tell us that Loving is Sinning, + And always are prating about and about it, + But as Love of Existence itself's the beginning, + Say, what would Existence itself be without it? + + They argue the point with much furious Invective, + Though perhaps 'twere no difficult task to confute it; + But if Venus and Hymen should once prove defective, + Pray who would there be to defend or dispute it? + + +BYRON. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. (watermark 1805) at Newstead, now for +the first time printed.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +SONG.[1] + + +1. + + Breeze of the night in gentler sighs + More softly murmur o'er the pillow; + For Slumber seals my Fanny's eyes, + And Peace must never shun her pillow. + + +2. + + Or breathe those sweet AEolian strains + Stolen from celestial spheres above, + To charm her ear while some remains, + And soothe her soul to dreams of love. + + +3. + + But Breeze of night again forbear, + In softest murmurs only sigh: + Let not a Zephyr's pinion dare + To lift those auburn locks on high. + + +4. + + Chill is thy Breath, thou breeze of night! + Oh! ruffle not those lids of Snow; + For only Morning's cheering light + May wake the beam that lurks below. + + +5. + + Blest be that lip and azure eye! + Sweet Fanny, hallowed be thy Sleep! + Those lips shall never vent a sigh, + Those eyes may never wake to weep. + +February 23rd, 1808. + + +[Footnote 1: From the MS. in the possession of the Earl of Lovelace.] + + + +TO HARRIET. [1] + + +1. + + Harriet! to see such Circumspection, [2] + In Ladies I have no objection + Concerning what they read; + An ancient Maid's a sage adviser, + Like _her_, you will be much the wiser, + In word, as well as Deed. + + +2. + + But Harriet, I don't wish to flatter, + And really think 't would make the matter + More perfect if not quite, + If other Ladies when they preach, + Would certain Damsels also teach + More cautiously to write. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first +time printed.] + +[Footnote 2: See the poem "To Marion," and 'note', p. 129. It would seem +that J. T. Becher addressed some flattering lines to Byron with +reference to a poem concerning Harriet Maltby, possibly the lines "To +Marion." The following note was attached by Miss Pigot to these stanzas, +which must have been written on another occasion:-- + + "I saw Lord B. was _flattered_ by John Becher's lines, as he read + 'Apollo', etc., with a peculiar smile and emphasis; so out of _fun_, + to vex him a little, I said, + + '_Apollo!_ He _should_ have said _Apollyon_.' + + 'Elizabeth! for Heaven's sake don't say so again! I don't + mind _you_ telling me so; but if any one _else_ got hold _of the + word_, I should never hear the end of it.' + + So I laughed at him, and dropt it, for he was _red_ with agitation."] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THERE WAS A TIME, I NEED NOT NAME. [i] [1] + + +1. + + There was a time, I need not name, + Since it will ne'er forgotten be, + When all our feelings were the same + As still my soul hath been to thee. + + +2. + + And from that hour when first thy tongue + Confess'd a love which equall'd mine, + Though many a grief my heart hath wrung, + Unknown, and thus unfelt, by thine, + + +3. + + None, none hath sunk so deep as this-- + To think how all that love hath flown; + Transient as every faithless kiss, + But transient in thy breast alone. + + +4. + + And yet my heart some solace knew, + When late I heard thy lips declare, + In accents once imagined true, + Remembrance of the days that were. + + +5. + + Yes! my adored, yet most unkind! + Though thou wilt never love again, + To me 'tis doubly sweet to find + Remembrance of that love remain. [ii] + + +6. + + Yes! 'tis a glorious thought to me, + Nor longer shall my soul repine, + Whate'er thou art or e'er shall be, + Thou hast been dearly, solely mine. + + +June 10, 1808. [First published, 1809] + + + +[Footnote 1: This copy of verses, with eight others, originally appeared +in a volume published in 1809 by J. C. Hobhouse, under the title of +_Imitations and Translations, From the Ancient and Modern Classics, +Together with Original Poems never before published_. The MS. is in the +possession of the Earl of Lovelace.] + +[Footnote i: + + _Stanzas to the Same_. + +[_Imit. and Transl._, p. 200.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _The memory of that love again._ + +[MS. L.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +AND WILT THOU WEEP WHEN I AM LOW? [i] + + +1. + + And wilt thou weep when I am low? + Sweet lady! speak those words again: + Yet if they grieve thee, say not so-- + I would not give that bosom pain. + + +2. + + My heart is sad, my hopes are gone, + My blood runs coldly through my breast; + And when I perish, thou alone + Wilt sigh above my place of rest. + + +3. + + And yet, methinks, a gleam of peace + Doth through my cloud of anguish shine: + And for a while my sorrows cease, + To know thy heart hath felt for mine. + + +4. + + Oh lady! blessed be that tear-- + It falls for one who cannot weep; + Such precious drops are doubly dear [ii] + To those whose eyes no tear may steep. + + +5. + + Sweet lady! once my heart was warm + With every feeling soft as thine; + But Beauty's self hath ceased to charm + A wretch created to repine. + + +6. [iii] + + Yet wilt thou weep when I am low? + Sweet lady! speak those words again: + Yet if they grieve thee, say not so-- + I would not give that bosom pain. [1] + + +Aug. 12, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: It was in one of Byron's fits of melancholy that the +following verses were addressed to him by his friend John +Cam Hobhouse:-- + +EPISTLE TO A YOUNG NOBLEMAN IN LOVE. + + Hail! generous youth, whom glory's sacred flame +Inspires, and animates to deeds of fame; +Who feel the noble wish before you die +To raise the finger of each passer-by: +Hail! may a future age admiring view +A Falkland or a Clarendon in you. + But as your blood with dangerous passion boils, +Beware! and fly from Venus' silken toils: +Ah! let the head protect the weaker heart, +And Wisdom's AEgis turn on Beauty's dart. + + * * * * * + + But if 'tis fix'd that every lord must pair, +And you and Newstead must not want an heir, +Lose not your pains, and scour the country round, +To find a treasure that can ne'er be found! +No! take the first the town or court affords, +Trick'd out to stock a market for the lords; +By chance perhaps your luckier choice may fall +On one, though wicked, not the worst of all: + + * * * * * + +One though perhaps as any Maxwell free, +Yet scarce a copy, Claribel, of thee; +Not very ugly, and not very old, +A little pert indeed, but not a scold; +One that, in short, may help to lead a life +Not farther much from comfort than from strife; +And when she dies, and disappoints your fears, +Shall leave some joys for your declining years. + + But, as your early youth some time allows, +Nor custom yet demands you for a spouse, +Some hours of freedom may remain as yet, +For one who laughs alike at love and debt: +Then, why in haste? put off the evil day, +And snatch at youthful comforts while you may! +Pause! nor so soon the various bliss forego +That single souls, and such alone, can know: +Ah! why too early careless life resign, +Your morning slumber, and your evening wine; +Your loved companion, and his easy talk; +Your Muse, invoked in every peaceful walk? +What! can no more your scenes paternal please, +Scenes sacred long to wise, unmated ease? +The prospect lengthen'd o'er the distant down, +Lakes, meadows, rising woods, and all your own? +What! shall your Newstead, shall your cloister'd bowers, +The high o'erhanging arch and trembling towers! +Shall these, profaned with folly or with strife, +An ever fond, or ever angry wife! +Shall these no more confess a manly sway, +But changeful woman's changing whims obey? +Who may, perhaps, as varying humour calls, +Contract your cloisters and o'erthrow your walls; +Let Repton loose o'er all the ancient ground, +Change round to square, and square convert to round; +Root up the elms' and yews' too solemn gloom, +And fill with shrubberies gay and green their room; +Roll down the terrace to a gay parterre, +Where gravel'd walks and flowers alternate glare; +And quite transform, in every point complete, +Your Gothic abbey to a country seat. + + Forget the fair one, and your fate delay; +If not avert, at least defer the day, +When you beneath the female yoke shall bend, +And lose your _wit_, your _temper_, and your _friend_. [A] + + Trin. Coll. Camb., 1808.] + + +[Sub-Footnote A: In his mother's copy of Hobhouse's volume, Byron has +written with a pencil, + + "_I have lost them all, and shall WED accordingly_. 1811. B."] + + + +[Footnote i: + + Stanzas. + +[MS. L.] + + To the Same. + +[Imit. and Transl., p 202.]] + + + +[Footnote ii: + + For one whose life is torment here, + And only in the dust may sleep. + +[MS. L.]] + + +[Footnote iii: The MS. inserts-- + + Lady I will not tell my tale + For it would rend thy melting heart; + 'Twere pity sorrow should prevail + O'er one so gentle as thou art. + +[MS. L.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +REMIND ME NOT, REMIND ME NOT. [i] + + +1. + + Remind me not, remind me not, + Of those beloved, those vanish'd hours, + When all my soul was given to thee; + Hours that may never be forgot, + Till Time unnerves our vital powers, + And thou and I shall cease to be. + + +2. + + Can I forget--canst thou forget, + When playing with thy golden hair, + How quick thy fluttering heart did move? + Oh! by my soul, I see thee yet, + With eyes so languid, breast so fair, + And lips, though silent, breathing love. + + +3. + + When thus reclining on my breast, + Those eyes threw back a glance so sweet, + As half reproach'd yet rais'd desire, + And still we near and nearer prest, + And still our glowing lips would meet, + As if in kisses to expire. + + +4. + + And then those pensive eyes would close, + And bid their lids each other seek, + Veiling the azure orbs below; + While their long lashes' darken'd gloss + Seem'd stealing o'er thy brilliant cheek, + Like raven's plumage smooth'd on snow. + + +5. + + I dreamt last night our love return'd, + And, sooth to say, that very dream + Was sweeter in its phantasy, + Than if for other hearts I burn'd, + For eyes that ne'er like thine could beam + In Rapture's wild reality. + + +6. + + Then tell me not, remind me not, [ii] + Of hours which, though for ever gone, + Can still a pleasing dream restore, [iii] + Till thou and I shall be forgot, + And senseless, as the mouldering stone + Which tells that we shall be no more. + + +Aug. 13, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + _A Love Song. To----. + +[Imit. and Transl., p. 197.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Remind me not, remind me not_. + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _Must still_. + +[MS. L.] ] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A YOUTHFUL FRIEND. [i] + + +1. + + Few years have pass'd since thou and I + Were firmest friends, at least in name, + And Childhood's gay sincerity + Preserved our feelings long the same. [ii] + + +2. + + But now, like me, too well thou know'st [iii] + What trifles oft the heart recall; + And those who once have loved the most + Too soon forget they lov'd at all. [iv] + + +3. + + And such the change the heart displays, + So frail is early friendship's reign, [v] + A month's brief lapse, perhaps a day's, + Will view thy mind estrang'd again. [vi] + + +4. + + If so, it never shall be mine + To mourn the loss of such a heart; + The fault was Nature's fault, not thine, + Which made thee fickle as thou art. + + +5. + + As rolls the Ocean's changing tide, + So human feelings ebb and flow; + And who would in a breast confide + Where stormy passions ever glow? + + +6. + + It boots not that, together bred, + Our childish days were days of joy: + My spring of life has quickly fled; + Thou, too, hast ceas'd to be a boy. + + +7. + + And when we bid adieu to youth, + Slaves to the specious World's controul, + We sigh a long farewell to truth; + That World corrupts the noblest soul. + + +8. + + Ah, joyous season! when the mind [1] + Dares all things boldly but to lie; + When Thought ere spoke is unconfin'd, + And sparkles in the placid eye. + + +9. + + Not so in Man's maturer years, + When Man himself is but a tool; + When Interest sways our hopes and fears, + And all must love and hate by rule. + + +10. + + With fools in kindred vice the same, [vii] + We learn at length our faults to blend; + And those, and those alone, may claim + The prostituted name of friend. + + +11. + + Such is the common lot of man: + Can we then 'scape from folly free? + Can we reverse the general plan, + Nor be what all in turn must be? + + +12. + + No; for myself, so dark my fate + Through every turn of life hath been; + Man and the World so much I hate, + I care not when I quit the scene. + + +13. + + But thou, with spirit frail and light, + Wilt shine awhile, and pass away; + As glow-worms sparkle through the night, + But dare not stand the test of day. + + +14. + + Alas! whenever Folly calls + Where parasites and princes meet, + (For cherish'd first in royal halls, + The welcome vices kindly greet,) + + +15. + + Ev'n now thou'rt nightly seen to add + One insect to the fluttering crowd; + And still thy trifling heart is glad + To join the vain and court the proud. + + +16. + + There dost thou glide from fair to fair, + Still simpering on with eager haste, + As flies along the gay parterre, + That taint the flowers they scarcely taste. + + +17. + + But say, what nymph will prize the flame + Which seems, as marshy vapours move, + To flit along from dame to dame, + An ignis-fatuus gleam of love? + + +18. + + What friend for thee, howe'er inclin'd, + Will deign to own a kindred care? + Who will debase his manly mind, + For friendship every fool may share? + + +19. + + In time forbear; amidst the throng + No more so base a thing be seen; + No more so idly pass along; + Be something, any thing, but--mean. + + +August 20th, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Stanzas 8-9 are not in the _MS_.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To Sir W. D., on his using the expression, "Soyes constant en + amitie."' + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Twere well my friend if still with thee + Through every scene of joy and woe, + That thought could ever cherish'd be + As warm as it was wont to glow. + +[MS. L] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _And yet like me._ + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote iv: + + _Forget they ever._ + +[MS. L. _Imit. and Transl_., p. 185.] ] + + +[Footnote v: + + _So short._ + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote vi: + + _...a day + Will send my friendship back again._ + +[MS. L.] + + +[Footnote vii: + + _Each fool whose vices are the same + Whose faults with ours may blend._ + +[_MS. L._]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +LINES INSCRIBED UPON A CUP FORMED FROM A SKULL. [1] + + + +1. + + Start not--nor deem my spirit fled: + In me behold the only skull, + From which, unlike a living head, + Whatever flows is never dull. + + +2. + + I lived, I loved, I quaff'd, like thee: + I died: let earth my bones resign; + Fill up--thou canst not injure me; + The worm hath fouler lips than thine. + + +3. + + Better to hold the sparkling grape, + Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy brood; + And circle in the goblet's shape + The drink of Gods, than reptile's food. + +4. + + Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, + In aid of others' let me shine; + And when, alas! our brains are gone, + What nobler substitute than wine? + + +5. + + Quaff while thou canst: another race, + When thou and thine, like me, are sped, + May rescue thee from earth's embrace, + And rhyme and revel with the dead. + + +6. + + Why not? since through life's little day + Our heads such sad effects produce; + Redeem'd from worms and wasting clay, + This chance is theirs, to be of use. + + +Newstead Abbey, 1808. + +[First published in the seventh edition of 'Childe Harold'.] + + +[Footnote 1: Byron gave Medwin the following account of this cup:--"The +gardener in digging [discovered] a skull that had probably belonged to +some jolly friar or monk of the abbey, about the time it was +dis-monasteried. Observing it to be of giant size, and in a perfect +state of preservation, a strange fancy seized me of having it set and +mounted as a drinking cup. I accordingly sent it to town, and it +returned with a very high polish, and of a mottled colour like +tortoiseshell."--Medwin's 'Conversations', 1824, p. 87.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +WELL! THOU ART HAPPY. [i] [1] + + +1. + + Well! thou art happy, and I feel + That I should thus be happy too; + For still my heart regards thy weal + Warmly, as it was wont to do. + + +2. + + Thy husband's blest--and 'twill impart + Some pangs to view his happier lot: [ii] + But let them pass--Oh! how my heart + Would hate him if he loved thee not! + + +3. + + When late I saw thy favourite child, + I thought my jealous heart would break; + But when the unconscious infant smil'd, + I kiss'd it for its mother's sake. + + +4. + + I kiss'd it,--and repress'd my sighs + Its father in its face to see; + But then it had its mother's eyes, + And they were all to love and me. + + +5. [iii] + + Mary, adieu! I must away: + While thou art blest I'll not repine; + But near thee I can never stay; + My heart would soon again be thine. + + +6. + + I deem'd that Time, I deem'd that Pride, + Had quench'd at length my boyish flame; + Nor knew, till seated by thy side, + My heart in all,--save hope,--the same. + + +7. + + Yet was I calm: I knew the time + My breast would thrill before thy look; + But now to tremble were a crime-- + We met,--and not a nerve was shook. + + +8. + + I saw thee gaze upon my face, + Yet meet with no confusion there: + One only feeling couldst thou trace; + The sullen calmness of despair. + + +9. + + Away! away! my early dream + Remembrance never must awake: + Oh! where is Lethe's fabled stream? + My foolish heart be still, or break. + + +November, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: These lines were written after dining at Annesley with Mr. +and Mrs. Chaworth Musters. Their daughter, born 1806, and now Mrs. +Hamond, of Westacre, Norfolk, is still (January, 1898) living.] + + +[Footnote i: + +_To Mrs.----_[erased]. + +[_MS. L._] + + _To-----_. + +[_Imit. and Transl_. Hobhouse, 1809.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Some pang to see my rival's lot._ + +[_MS. L._] ] + + +[Footnote iii: MS. L. inserts-- + + _Poor little pledge of mutual love, + I would not hurt a hair of thee, + Although thy birth should chance to prove + Thy parents' bliss--my misery._] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +INSCRIPTION ON THE MONUMENT OF A NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. [1] + + + When some proud son of man returns to earth, + Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth, + The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe + And storied urns record who rest below: + When all is done, upon the tomb is seen, + Not what he was, but what he should have been: + But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend, + The first to welcome, foremost to defend, + Whose honest heart is still his master's own, + Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone, + Unhonour'd falls, unnoticed all his worth-- + Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth: + While Man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven, + And claims himself a sole exclusive Heaven. + Oh Man! thou feeble tenant of an hour, + Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power, + Who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust, + Degraded mass of animated dust! + Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat, + Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit! + By nature vile, ennobled but by name, + Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame. + Ye! who perchance behold this simple urn, + Pass on--it honours none you wish to mourn: + To mark a Friend's remains these stones arise; + I never knew but one,--and here he lies. [i] + + +Newstead Abbey, October 30, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + +[Footnote 1: This monument is placed in the garden of Newstead. +A prose inscription precedes the verses:-- + + "Near this spot + Are deposited the Remains of one + Who possessed Beauty without Vanity, + Strength without Insolence, + Courage without Ferocity, + And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices. +This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery + If inscribed over human ashes, + Is but a just tribute to the Memory of + BOATSWAIN, a Dog, + Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803, + And died at Newstead Abbey, Nov. 18, 1808." + + +Byron thus announced the death of his favourite to his friend +Hodgson:--"Boatswain is dead!--he expired in a state of madness on the +18th after suffering much, yet retaining all the gentleness of his +nature to the last; never attempting to do the least injury to any one +near him. I have now lost everything except old Murray." In the will +which the poet executed in 1811, he desired to be buried in the vault +with his dog, and Joe Murray was to have the honour of making one of the +party. When the poet was on his travels, a gentleman, to whom Murray +showed the tomb, said, "Well, old boy, you will take your place here +some twenty years hence." "I don't know that, sir," replied Joe; "if I +was sure his lordship would come here I should like it well enough, but +I should not like to lie alone with the dog."--'Life', pp. 73, 131.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _I knew but one unchang'd--and here he lies.-- + +[_Imit. and Transl_., p. 191.] ] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY, [1] + +ON BEING ASKED MY REASON FOR QUITTING ENGLAND IN THE SPRING. [i] + + + +1. + + When Man, expell'd from Eden's bowers, + A moment linger'd near the gate, + Each scene recall'd the vanish'd hours, + And bade him curse his future fate. + + +2. + + But, wandering on through distant climes, + He learnt to bear his load of grief; + Just gave a sigh to other times, + And found in busier scenes relief. + + +3. + + Thus, Lady! will it be with me, [ii] + And I must view thy charms no more; + For, while I linger near to thee, + I sigh for all I knew before. + + +4. + + In flight I shall be surely wise, + Escaping from temptation's snare: + I cannot view my Paradise + Without the wish of dwelling there. [iii] [2] + + +December 2, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Byron had written to his mother on November 2, 1808, +announcing his intention of sailing for India in the following March. +See 'Childe Harold', canto i. st. 3. See also Letter to Hodgson, Nov. +27, 1808.] + +[Footnote 2: In an unpublished letter of Byron to----, dated within +a few days of his final departure from Italy to Greece, in +1823, he writes: + + "Miss Chaworth was two years older than myself. She married a man of + an ancient and respectable family, but her marriage was not a happier + one than my own. Her conduct, however, was irreproachable; but there + was not sympathy between their characters. I had not seen her for many + years when an occasion offered to me, January, 1814. I was upon the + point, with her consent, of paying her a visit, when my sister, who + has always had more influence over me than any one else, persuaded me + not to do it. 'For,' said she, 'if you go you will fall in love again, + and then there will be a scene; one step will lead to another, 'et + cela fera un eclat''."] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'The Farewell To a Lady.' + +['Imit. and Transl.'] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Thus Mary!' (Mrs. Musters). + +['MS'.] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Without a wish to enter there.' + +['Imit. and Transl'., p. 196.] ] + + + + + + + + +FILL THE GOBLET AGAIN. [i] + +A SONG. + + +1. + + Fill the goblet again! for I never before + Felt the glow which now gladdens my heart to its core; + Let us drink!--who would not?--since, through life's varied round, + In the goblet alone no deception is found. + + +2. + + I have tried in its turn all that life can supply; + I have bask'd in the beam of a dark rolling eye; + I have lov'd!--who has not?--but what heart can declare + That Pleasure existed while Passion was there? + + +3. + + In the days of my youth, when the heart's in its spring, + And dreams that Affection can never take wing, + I had friends!--who has not?--but what tongue will avow, + That friends, rosy wine! are so faithful as thou? + + +4. + + The heart of a mistress some boy may estrange, + Friendship shifts with the sunbeam--thou never canst change; + Thou grow'st old--who does not?--but on earth what appears, + Whose virtues, like thine, still increase with its years? + + +5. + + Yet if blest to the utmost that Love can bestow, + Should a rival bow down to our idol below, + We are jealous!--who's not?--thou hast no such alloy; + For the more that enjoy thee, the more we enjoy. + + +6. + + Then the season of youth and its vanities past, + For refuge we fly to the goblet at last; + There we find--do we not?--in the flow of the soul, + That truth, as of yore, is confined to the bowl. + + +7. + + When the box of Pandora was open'd on earth, + And Misery's triumph commenc'd over Mirth, + Hope was left,--was she not?--but the goblet we kiss, + And care not for Hope, who are certain of bliss. + + +8. + + Long life to the grape! for when summer is flown, + The age of our nectar shall gladden our own: + We must die--who shall not?--May our sins be forgiven, + And Hebe shall never be idle in Heaven. + + +[First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Song'. + +['Imit. and Transl'., p. 204.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +STANZAS TO A LADY, ON LEAVING ENGLAND. [i] + + +1. + + Tis done--and shivering in the gale + The bark unfurls her snowy sail; + And whistling o'er the bending mast, + Loud sings on high the fresh'ning blast; + And I must from this land be gone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + +2. + + But could I be what I have been, + And could I see what I have seen-- + Could I repose upon the breast + Which once my warmest wishes blest-- + I should not seek another zone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + +3. + + 'Tis long since I beheld that eye + Which gave me bliss or misery; + And I have striven, but in vain, + Never to think of it again: + For though I fly from Albion, + I still can only love but one. + + +4. + + As some lone bird, without a mate, + My weary heart is desolate; + I look around, and cannot trace + One friendly smile or welcome face, + And ev'n in crowds am still alone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + +5. + + And I will cross the whitening foam, + And I will seek a foreign home; + Till I forget a false fair face, + I ne'er shall find a resting-place; + My own dark thoughts I cannot shun, + But ever love, and love but one. + + +6. + + The poorest, veriest wretch on earth + Still finds some hospitable hearth, + Where Friendship's or Love's softer glow + May smile in joy or soothe in woe; + But friend or leman I have none, [ii] + Because I cannot love but one. + + +7. + + I go--but wheresoe'er I flee + There's not an eye will weep for me; + There's not a kind congenial heart, + Where I can claim the meanest part; + Nor thou, who hast my hopes undone, + Wilt sigh, although I love but one. + + +8. + + To think of every early scene, + Of what we are, and what we've been, + Would whelm some softer hearts with woe-- + But mine, alas! has stood the blow; + Yet still beats on as it begun, + And never truly loves but one. + + +9. + + And who that dear lov'd one may be, + Is not for vulgar eyes to see; + And why that early love was cross'd, + Thou know'st the best, I feel the most; + But few that dwell beneath the sun + Have loved so long, and loved but one. + + +10. + + I've tried another's fetters too, + With charms perchance as fair to view; + And I would fain have loved as well, + But some unconquerable spell + Forbade my bleeding breast to own + A kindred care for aught but one. + + +11. + + 'Twould soothe to take one lingering view, + And bless thee in my last adieu; + Yet wish I not those eyes to weep + For him that wanders o'er the deep; + His home, his hope, his youth are gone, [iii] + Yet still he loves, and loves but one. [iv] + + +1809. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To Mrs. Musters.' + +['MS.'] + + 'To----on Leaving England.' + +['Imit. and Transl.', p. 227.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'But friend or lover I have none'. + +['Imit. and Transl'., p. 229.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Though wheresoever my bark may run, + I love but thee, I love but one.' + +['Imit. and Transl.', p. 230.] + + 'The land recedes his Bark is gone, + Yet still he loves and laves but one.' + +[MS.] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Yet far away he loves but one.' + +[MS.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS; + +A SATIRE. + +BY + +LORD BYRON. + + + + "I had rather be a kitten, and cry, mew! + Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers." + + SHAKESPEARE. + + + "Such shameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true, + There are as mad, abandon'd Critics, too." + + POPE. + + + + + + +PREFACE [1] + + +All my friends, learned and unlearned, have urged me not to publish this +Satire with my name. If I were to be "turned from the career of my +humour by quibbles quick, and paper bullets of the brain" I should have +complied with their counsel. But I am not to be terrified by abuse, or +bullied by reviewers, with or without arms. I can safely say that I have +attacked none 'personally', who did not commence on the offensive. An +Author's works are public property: he who purchases may judge, and +publish his opinion if he pleases; and the Authors I have endeavoured to +commemorate may do by me as I have done by them. I dare say they will +succeed better in condemning my scribblings, than in mending their own. +But my object is not to prove that I can write well, but, if 'possible', +to make others write better. + +As the Poem has met with far more success than I expected, I have +endeavoured in this Edition to make some additions and alterations, to +render it more worthy of public perusal. + + +In the First Edition of this Satire, published anonymously, fourteen +lines on the subject of Bowles's Pope were written by, and inserted at +the request of, an ingenious friend of mine, [2] who has now in the +press a volume of Poetry. In the present Edition they are erased, and +some of my own substituted in their stead; my only reason for this being +that which I conceive would operate with any other person in the same +manner,--a determination not to publish with my name any production, +which was not entirely and exclusively my own composition. + +With [3] regard to the real talents of many of the poetical persons +whose performances are mentioned or alluded to in the following pages, +it is presumed by the Author that there can be little difference of +opinion in the Public at large; though, like other sectaries, each has +his separate tabernacle of proselytes, by whom his abilities are +over-rated, his faults overlooked, and his metrical canons received +without scruple and without consideration. But the unquestionable +possession of considerable genius by several of the writers here +censured renders their mental prostitution more to be regretted. +Imbecility may be pitied, or, at worst, laughed at and forgotten; +perverted powers demand the most decided reprehension. No one can wish +more than the Author that some known and able writer had undertaken +their exposure; but Mr. Gifford has devoted himself to Massinger, and, +in the absence of the regular physician, a country practitioner may, in +cases of absolute necessity, be allowed to prescribe his nostrum to +prevent the extension of so deplorable an epidemic, provided there be no +quackery in his treatment of the malady. A caustic is here offered; as +it is to be feared nothing short of actual cautery can recover the +numerous patients afflicted with the present prevalent and distressing +rabies for rhyming.--As to the' Edinburgh Reviewers', it would indeed +require an Hercules to crush the Hydra; but if the Author succeeds in +merely "bruising one of the heads of the serpent" though his own hand +should suffer in the encounter, he will be amply satisfied. + + +[Footnote 1: The Preface, as it is here printed, was prefixed to the +Second, Third, and Fourth Editions of 'English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers'. The preface to the First Edition began with the words, "With +regard to the real talents," etc. The text of the poem follows that of +the suppressed Fifth Edition, which passed under Byron's own +supervision, and was to have been issued in 1812. From that Edition the +Preface was altogether excluded. + +In an annotated copy of the Fourth Edition, of 1811, underneath the +note, "This preface was written for the Second Edition, and printed with +it. The noble author had left this country previous to the publication +of that Edition, and is not yet returned," Byron wrote, in 1816, "He is, +and gone again."--MS. Notes from this volume, which is now in Mr. +Murray's possession, are marked--B., 1816.] + +[Footnote 2: John Cam Hobhouse.] + +[Footnote 3: Preface to the First Edition.] + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. + + +The article upon 'Hours of Idleness' "which Lord Brougham ... after +denying it for thirty years, confessed that he had written" ('Notes from +a Diary', by Sir M. E. Grant Duff, 1897, ii. 189), was published in the +'Edinburgh Review' of January, 1808. 'English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers' did not appear till March, 1809. The article gave the +opportunity for the publication of the satire, but only in part provoked +its composition. Years later, Byron had not forgotten its effect on his +mind. On April 26, 1821, he wrote to Shelley: "I recollect the effect on +me of the Edinburgh on my first poem: it was rage and resistance and +redress: but not despondency nor despair." And on the same date to +Murray: "I know by experience that a savage review is hemlock to a +sucking author; and the one on me (which produced the 'English Bards', +etc.) knocked me down, but I got up again," etc. It must, however, be +remembered that Byron had his weapons ready for an attack before he used +them in defence. In a letter to Miss Pigot, dated October 26, 1807, he +says that "he has written one poem of 380 lines to be published in a few +weeks with notes. The poem ... is a Satire." It was entitled 'British +Bards', and finally numbered 520 lines. With a view to publication, or +for his own convenience, it was put up in type and printed in quarto +sheets. A single copy, which he kept for corrections and additions, was +preserved by Dallas, and is now in the British Museum. After the review +appeared, he enlarged and recast the 'British Bards', and in March, +1809, the Satire was published anonymously. Byron was at no pains to +conceal the authorship of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', and, +before starting on his Pilgrimage, he had prepared a second and enlarged +edition, which came out in October, 1809, with his name prefixed. Two +more editions were called for in his absence, and on his return he +revised and printed a fifth, when he suddenly resolved to suppress the +work. On his homeward voyage he expressed, in a letter to Dallas, June +28, 1811, his regret at having written the Satire. A year later he +became intimate, among others, with Lord and Lady Holland, whom he had +assailed on the supposition that they were the instigators of the +article in the 'Edinburgh Review', and on being told by Rogers that they +wished the Satire to be withdrawn, he gave orders to his publisher, +Cawthorn, to burn the whole impression. A few copies escaped the flames. +One of two copies retained by Dallas, which afterwards belonged to +Murray, and is now in his grandson's possession, was the foundation of +the text of 1831, and of all subsequent issues. Another copy which +belonged to Dallas is retained in the British Museum. + +Towards the close of the last century there had been an outburst of +satirical poems, written in the style of the 'Dunciad' and its offspring +the 'Rosciad', Of these, Gifford's 'Baviad' and 'Maviad' (1794-5), and +T. J. Mathias' 'Pursuits of Literature' (1794-7), were the direct +progenitors of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', The 'Rolliad' +(1794), the 'Children of Apollo' (circ. 1794), Canning's 'New Morality' +(1798), and Wolcot's coarse but virile lampoons, must also be reckoned +among Byron's earlier models. The ministry of "All the Talents" gave +rise to a fresh batch of political 'jeux d'esprits', and in 1807, when +Byron was still at Cambridge, the air was full of these ephemera. To +name only a few, 'All the Talents', by Polypus (Eaton Stannard Barrett), +was answered by 'All the Blocks, an antidote to All the Talents', by +Flagellum (W. H. Ireland); 'Elijah's Mantle, a tribute to the memory of +the R. H. William Pitt', by James Sayer, the caricaturist, provoked +'Melville's Mantle, being a Parody on ... Elijah's Mantle'. 'The +Simpliciad, A Satirico-Didactic Poem', and Lady Anne Hamilton's 'Epics +of the Ton', are also of the same period. One and all have perished, but +Byron read them, and in a greater or less degree they supplied the +impulse to write in the fashion of the day. + +'British Bards' would have lived, but, unquestionably, the spur of the +article, a year's delay, and, above all, the advice and criticism of his +friend Hodgson, who was at work on his 'Gentle Alterative for the +Reviewers', 1809 (for further details, see vol. i., 'Letters', Letter +102, 'note' 1), produced the brilliant success of the enlarged satire. +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers' was recognized at once as a work +of genius. It has intercepted the popularity of its great predecessors, +who are often quoted, but seldom read. It is still a popular poem, and +appeals with fresh delight to readers who know the names of many of the +"bards" only because Byron mentions them, and count others whom he +ridicules among the greatest poets of the century. + + + + + +ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. [1] + + + + Still [2] must I hear?--shall hoarse [3] FITZGERALD bawl + His creaking couplets in a tavern hall, + And I not sing, lest, haply, Scotch Reviews + Should dub me scribbler, and denounce my _Muse?_ + Prepare for rhyme--I'll publish, right or wrong: + Fools are my theme, let Satire be my song. [i] + + Oh! Nature's noblest gift--my grey goose-quill! + Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, + Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen, + That mighty instrument of little men! 10 + The pen! foredoomed to aid the mental throes + Of brains that labour, big with Verse or Prose; + Though Nymphs forsake, and Critics may deride, + The Lover's solace, and the Author's pride. + What Wits! what Poets dost thou daily raise! + How frequent is thy use, how small thy praise! + Condemned at length to be forgotten quite, + With all the pages which 'twas thine to write. + But thou, at least, mine own especial pen! [ii] + Once laid aside, but now assumed again, 20 + Our task complete, like Hamet's [4] shall be free; + Though spurned by others, yet beloved by me: + Then let us soar to-day; no common theme, + No Eastern vision, no distempered dream [5] + Inspires--our path, though full of thorns, is plain; + Smooth be the verse, and easy be the strain. + + When Vice triumphant holds her sov'reign sway, + Obey'd by all who nought beside obey; [iii] + When Folly, frequent harbinger of crime, + Bedecks her cap with bells of every Clime; [iv] 30 + When knaves and fools combined o'er all prevail, + And weigh their Justice in a Golden Scale; [v] + E'en then the boldest start from public sneers, + Afraid of Shame, unknown to other fears, + More darkly sin, by Satire kept in awe, + And shrink from Ridicule, though not from Law. + + Such is the force of Wit! I but not belong + To me the arrows of satiric song; + The royal vices of our age demand + A keener weapon, and a mightier hand. [vi] 40 + Still there are follies, e'en for me to chase, + And yield at least amusement in the race: + Laugh when I laugh, I seek no other fame, + The cry is up, and scribblers are my game: + Speed, Pegasus!--ye strains of great and small, + Ode! Epic! Elegy!--have at you all! + I, too, can scrawl, and once upon a time + I poured along the town a flood of rhyme, + A schoolboy freak, unworthy praise or blame; + I printed--older children do the same. 50 + 'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print; + A Book's a Book, altho' there's nothing in't. + Not that a Title's sounding charm can save [vii] + Or scrawl or scribbler from an equal grave: + This LAMB [6] must own, since his patrician name + Failed to preserve the spurious Farce from shame. [7] + No matter, GEORGE continues still to write, [8] + Tho' now the name is veiled from public sight. + Moved by the great example, I pursue + The self-same road, but make my own review: 60 + Not seek great JEFFREY'S, yet like him will be + Self-constituted Judge of Poesy. + + A man must serve his time to every trade + Save Censure--Critics all are ready made. + Take hackneyed jokes from MILLER, [9] got by rote, + With just enough of learning to misquote; + A man well skilled to find, or forge a fault; + A turn for punning--call it Attic salt; + To JEFFREY go, be silent and discreet, + His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet: 70 + Fear not to lie,'twill seem a _sharper_ hit; [viii] + Shrink not from blasphemy, 'twill pass for wit; + Care not for feeling--pass your proper jest, + And stand a Critic, hated yet caress'd. + + And shall we own such judgment? no--as soon + Seek roses in December--ice in June; + Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff, + Believe a woman or an epitaph, + Or any other thing that's false, before + You trust in Critics, who themselves are sore; 80 + Or yield one single thought to be misled + By JEFFREY'S heart, or LAMB'S Boeotian head. [10] + To these young tyrants, by themselves misplaced, + Combined usurpers on the Throne of Taste; + To these, when Authors bend in humble awe, + And hail their voice as Truth, their word as Law; + While these are Censors, 'twould be sin to spare; [11] + While such are Critics, why should I forbear? + But yet, so near all modern worthies run, + 'Tis doubtful whom to seek, or whom to shun; 90 + Nor know we when to spare, or where to strike, + Our Bards and Censors are so much alike. + Then should you ask me, [12] why I venture o'er + The path which POPE and GIFFORD [13] trod before; + If not yet sickened, you can still proceed; + Go on; my rhyme will tell you as you read. + "But hold!" exclaims a friend,--"here's some neglect: + This--that--and t'other line seem incorrect." + What then? the self-same blunder Pope has got, + And careless Dryden--"Aye, but Pye has not:"-- 100 + Indeed!--'tis granted, faith!--but what care I? + Better to err with POPE, than shine with PYE. [14] + + Time was, ere yet in these degenerate days [15] + Ignoble themes obtained mistaken praise, + When Sense and Wit with Poesy allied, + No fabled Graces, flourished side by side, + From the same fount their inspiration drew, + And, reared by Taste, bloomed fairer as they grew. + Then, in this happy Isle, a POPE'S pure strain + Sought the rapt soul to charm, nor sought in vain; 110 + A polished nation's praise aspired to claim, + And raised the people's, as the poet's fame. + Like him great DRYDEN poured the tide of song, + In stream less smooth, indeed, yet doubly strong. + Then CONGREVE'S scenes could cheer, or OTWAY'S melt; [16] + For Nature then an English audience felt-- + But why these names, or greater still, retrace, + When all to feebler Bards resign their place? + Yet to such times our lingering looks are cast, + When taste and reason with those times are past. 120 + Now look around, and turn each trifling page, + Survey the precious works that please the age; + This truth at least let Satire's self allow, + No dearth of Bards can be complained of now. [ix] + The loaded Press beneath her labour groans, [x] + And Printers' devils shake their weary bones; + While SOUTHEY'S Epics cram the creaking shelves, [xi] + And LITTLE'S Lyrics shine in hot-pressed twelves. [17] + Thus saith the _Preacher_: "Nought beneath the sun + Is new," [18] yet still from change to change we run. 130 + What varied wonders tempt us as they pass! + The Cow-pox, Tractors, Galvanism, and Gas, [19] + In turns appear, to make the vulgar stare, + Till the swoln bubble bursts--and all is air! + Nor less new schools of Poetry arise, + Where dull pretenders grapple for the prize: + O'er Taste awhile these Pseudo-bards prevail; [xii] + Each country Book-club bows the knee to Baal, + And, hurling lawful Genius from the throne, + Erects a shrine and idol of its own; [xiii] 140 + Some leaden calf--but whom it matters not, + From soaring SOUTHEY, down to groveling STOTT. [20] + + Behold! in various throngs the scribbling crew, + For notice eager, pass in long review: + Each spurs his jaded Pegasus apace, + And Rhyme and Blank maintain an equal race; + Sonnets on sonnets crowd, and ode on ode; + And Tales of Terror [21] jostle on the road; + Immeasurable measures move along; + For simpering Folly loves a varied song, 150 + To strange, mysterious Dulness still the friend, + Admires the strain she cannot comprehend. + Thus Lays of Minstrels [22]--may they be the last!-- + On half-strung harps whine mournful to the blast. + While mountain spirits prate to river sprites, + That dames may listen to the sound at nights; + And goblin brats, of Gilpin Horner's [23] brood + Decoy young Border-nobles through the wood, + And skip at every step, Lord knows how high, + And frighten foolish babes, the Lord knows why; 160 + While high-born ladies in their magic cell, + Forbidding Knights to read who cannot spell, + Despatch a courier to a wizard's grave, + And fight with honest men to shield a knave. + + Next view in state, proud prancing on his roan, + The golden-crested haughty Marmion, + Now forging scrolls, now foremost in the fight, + Not quite a Felon, yet but half a Knight. [xiv] + The gibbet or the field prepared to grace; + A mighty mixture of the great and base. 170 + And think'st thou, SCOTT! by vain conceit perchance, + On public taste to foist thy stale romance, + Though MURRAY with his MILLER may combine + To yield thy muse just half-a-crown per line? [24] + No! when the sons of song descend to trade, + Their bays are sear, their former laurels fade, + Let such forego the poet's sacred name, + Who rack their brains for lucre, not for fame: + Still for stern Mammon may they toil in vain! [25] + And sadly gaze on Gold they cannot gain! 180 + Such be their meed, such still the just reward [xv] + Of prostituted Muse and hireling bard! + For this we spurn Apollo's venal son, + And bid a long "good night to Marmion." [26] + + These are the themes that claim our plaudits now; + These are the Bards to whom the Muse must bow; + While MILTON, DRYDEN, POPE, alike forgot, + Resign their hallowed Bays to WALTER SCOTT. + + The time has been, when yet the Muse was young, + When HOMER swept the lyre, and MARO sung, 190 + An Epic scarce ten centuries could claim, + While awe-struck nations hailed the magic name: + The work of each immortal Bard appears + The single wonder of a thousand years. [27] + Empires have mouldered from the face of earth, + Tongues have expired with those who gave them birth, + Without the glory such a strain can give, + As even in ruin bids the language live. + Not so with us, though minor Bards, content, [xvi] + On one great work a life of labour spent: 200 + With eagle pinion soaring to the skies, + Behold the Ballad-monger SOUTHEY rise! + To him let CAMOENS, MILTON, TASSO yield, + Whose annual strains, like armies, take the field. + First in the ranks see Joan of Arc advance, + The scourge of England and the boast of France! + Though burnt by wicked BEDFORD for a witch, + Behold her statue placed in Glory's niche; + Her fetters burst, and just released from prison, + A virgin Phoenix from her ashes risen. 210 + Next see tremendous Thalaba come on, [28] + Arabia's monstrous, wild, and wond'rous son; + Domdaniel's dread destroyer, who o'erthrew + More mad magicians than the world e'er knew. + Immortal Hero! all thy foes o'ercome, + For ever reign--the rival of Tom Thumb! [29] + Since startled Metre fled before thy face, + Well wert thou doomed the last of all thy race! + Well might triumphant Genii bear thee hence, + Illustrious conqueror of common sense! 220 + Now, last and greatest, Madoc spreads his sails, + Cacique in Mexico, [30] and Prince in Wales; + Tells us strange tales, as other travellers do, + More old than Mandeville's, and not so true. + Oh, SOUTHEY! SOUTHEY! [31] cease thy varied song! + A bard may chaunt too often and too long: + As thou art strong in verse, in mercy, spare! + A fourth, alas! were more than we could bear. + But if, in spite of all the world can say, + Thou still wilt verseward plod thy weary way; 230 + If still in Berkeley-Ballads most uncivil, + Thou wilt devote old women to the devil, [32] + The babe unborn thy dread intent may rue: + "God help thee," SOUTHEY, [33] and thy readers too. + + Next comes the dull disciple of thy school, [34] + That mild apostate from poetic rule, + The simple WORDSWORTH, framer of a lay + As soft as evening in his favourite May, + Who warns his friend "to shake off toil and trouble, + And quit his books, for fear of growing double;" [35] 240 + Who, both by precept and example, shows + That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose; + Convincing all, by demonstration plain, + Poetic souls delight in prose insane; + And Christmas stories tortured into rhyme + Contain the essence of the true sublime. + Thus, when he tells the tale of Betty Foy, + The idiot mother of "an idiot Boy;" + A moon-struck, silly lad, who lost his way, + And, like his bard, confounded night with day [36] 250 + So close on each pathetic part he dwells, + And each adventure so sublimely tells, + That all who view the "idiot in his glory" + Conceive the Bard the hero of the story. + + Shall gentle COLERIDGE pass unnoticed here, [37] + To turgid ode and tumid stanza dear? + Though themes of innocence amuse him best, + Yet still Obscurity's a welcome guest. + If Inspiration should her aid refuse + To him who takes a Pixy for a muse, [38] 260 + Yet none in lofty numbers can surpass + The bard who soars to elegize an ass: + So well the subject suits his noble mind, [xvii] + He brays, the Laureate of the long-eared kind. [xviii] + + Oh! wonder-working LEWIS! [39] Monk, or Bard, + Who fain would make Parnassus a church-yard! [xix] + Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy brow, + Thy Muse a Sprite, Apollo's sexton thou! + Whether on ancient tombs thou tak'st thy stand, + By gibb'ring spectres hailed, thy kindred band; 270 + Or tracest chaste descriptions on thy page, + To please the females of our modest age; + All hail, M.P.! [40] from whose infernal brain + Thin-sheeted phantoms glide, a grisly train; + At whose command "grim women" throng in crowds, + And kings of fire, of water, and of clouds, + With "small grey men,"--"wild yagers," and what not, + To crown with honour thee and WALTER SCOTT: + Again, all hail! if tales like thine may please, + St. Luke alone can vanquish the disease: 280 + Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell, + And in thy skull discern a deeper Hell. + + Who in soft guise, surrounded by a choir + Of virgins melting, not to Vesta's fire, + With sparkling eyes, and cheek by passion flushed + Strikes his wild lyre, whilst listening dames are hushed? + 'Tis LITTLE! young Catullus of his day, + As sweet, but as immoral, in his Lay! + Grieved to condemn, the Muse must still be just, + Nor spare melodious advocates of lust. 290 + Pure is the flame which o'er her altar burns; + From grosser incense with disgust she turns + Yet kind to youth, this expiation o'er, + She bids thee "mend thy line, and sin no more." [xx] + + For thee, translator of the tinsel song, + To whom such glittering ornaments belong, + Hibernian STRANGFORD! with thine eyes of blue, [41] + And boasted locks of red or auburn hue, + Whose plaintive strain each love-sick Miss admires, + And o'er harmonious fustian half expires, [xxi] 300 + Learn, if thou canst, to yield thine author's sense, + Nor vend thy sonnets on a false pretence. + Think'st thou to gain thy verse a higher place, + By dressing Camoens [42] in a suit of lace? + Mend, STRANGFORD! mend thy morals and thy taste; + Be warm, but pure; be amorous, but be chaste: + Cease to deceive; thy pilfered harp restore, + Nor teach the Lusian Bard to copy MOORE. + + Behold--Ye Tarts!--one moment spare the text! [xxii]-- + HAYLEY'S last work, and worst--until his next; 310 + Whether he spin poor couplets into plays, + Or damn the dead with purgatorial praise, [43] + His style in youth or age is still the same, + For ever feeble and for ever tame. + Triumphant first see "Temper's Triumphs" shine! + At least I'm sure they triumphed over mine. + Of "Music's Triumphs," all who read may swear + That luckless Music never triumph'd there. [44] + + Moravians, rise! bestow some meet reward [45] + On dull devotion--Lo! the Sabbath Bard, 320 + Sepulchral GRAHAME, [46] pours his notes sublime + In mangled prose, nor e'en aspires to rhyme; + Breaks into blank the Gospel of St. Luke, [xxiii] + And boldly pilfers from the Pentateuch; + And, undisturbed by conscientious qualms, + Perverts the Prophets, and purloins the Psalms. + + Hail, Sympathy! thy soft idea brings" [xxiv] + A thousand visions of a thousand things, + And shows, still whimpering thro' threescore of years, [xxv] + The maudlin prince of mournful sonneteers. 330 + And art thou not their prince, harmonious Bowles! [47] + Thou first, great oracle of tender souls? + Whether them sing'st with equal ease, and grief, [xxvi] + The fall of empires, or a yellow leaf; + Whether thy muse most lamentably tells + What merry sounds proceed from Oxford bells, [xxvii] + Or, still in bells delighting, finds a friend + In every chime that jingled from Ostend; + Ah! how much juster were thy Muse's hap, + If to thy bells thou would'st but add a cap! [xxviii] 340 + Delightful BOWLES! still blessing and still blest, + All love thy strain, but children like it best. + 'Tis thine, with gentle LITTLE'S moral song, + To soothe the mania of the amorous throng! + With thee our nursery damsels shed their tears, + Ere Miss as yet completes her infant years: + But in her teens thy whining powers are vain; + She quits poor BOWLES for LITTLE'S purer strain. + Now to soft themes thou scornest to confine [xxix] + The lofty numbers of a harp like thine; 350 + "Awake a louder and a loftier strain," [48] + Such as none heard before, or will again! + Where all discoveries jumbled from the flood, + Since first the leaky ark reposed in mud, + By more or less, are sung in every book, + From Captain Noah down to Captain Cook. + Nor this alone--but, pausing on the road, + The Bard sighs forth a gentle episode, [xxx] [49] + And gravely tells--attend, each beauteous Miss!-- + When first Madeira trembled to a kiss. 360 + Bowles! in thy memory let this precept dwell, + Stick to thy Sonnets, Man!--at least they sell. + But if some new-born whim, or larger bribe, + Prompt thy crude brain, and claim thee for a scribe: + If 'chance some bard, though once by dunces feared, + Now, prone in dust, can only be revered; + If Pope, whose fame and genius, from the first, [xxxi] + Have foiled the best of critics, needs the worst, + Do thou essay: each fault, each failing scan; + The first of poets was, alas! but man. 370 + Rake from each ancient dunghill ev'ry pearl, + Consult Lord Fanny, and confide in CURLL; [50] + Let all the scandals of a former age + Perch on thy pen, and flutter o'er thy page; + Affect a candour which thou canst not feel, + Clothe envy in a garb of honest zeal; + Write, as if St. John's soul could still inspire, + And do from hate what MALLET [51] did for hire. + Oh! hadst thou lived in that congenial time, + To rave with DENNIS, and with RALPH to rhyme; [52] 380 + Thronged with the rest around his living head, + Not raised thy hoof against the lion dead, + A meet reward had crowned thy glorious gains, + And linked thee to the Dunciad for thy pains. [53] + + Another Epic! Who inflicts again + More books of blank upon the sons of men? + Boeotian COTTLE, rich Bristowa's boast, + Imports old stories from the Cambrian coast, + And sends his goods to market--all alive! + Lines forty thousand, Cantos twenty-five! 390 + Fresh fish from Hippocrene! [54] who'll buy? who'll buy? + The precious bargain's cheap--in faith, not I. + Your turtle-feeder's verse must needs be flat, [xxxii] + Though Bristol bloat him with the verdant fat; + If Commerce fills the purse, she clogs the brain, + And AMOS COTTLE strikes the Lyre in vain. + In him an author's luckless lot behold! + Condemned to make the books which once he sold. + Oh, AMOS COTTLE!--Phoebus! what a name + To fill the speaking-trump of future fame!-- 400 + Oh, AMOS COTTLE! for a moment think + What meagre profits spring from pen and ink! + When thus devoted to poetic dreams, + Who will peruse thy prostituted reams? + Oh! pen perverted! paper misapplied! + Had COTTLE [55] still adorned the counter's side, + Bent o'er the desk, or, born to useful toils, + Been taught to make the paper which he soils, + Ploughed, delved, or plied the oar with lusty limb, + He had not sung of Wales, nor I of him. 410 + + As Sisyphus against the infernal steep + Rolls the huge rock whose motions ne'er may sleep, + So up thy hill, ambrosial Richmond! heaves + Dull MAURICE [56] all his granite weight of leaves: + Smooth, solid monuments of mental pain! + The petrifactions of a plodding brain, + That, ere they reach the top, fall lumbering back again. + + With broken lyre and cheek serenely pale, + Lo! sad Alcaeus wanders down the vale; + Though fair they rose, and might have bloomed at last, 420 + His hopes have perished by the northern blast: + Nipped in the bud by Caledonian gales, + His blossoms wither as the blast prevails! + O'er his lost works let _classic_ SHEFFIELD weep; + May no rude hand disturb their early sleep! [57] + + Yet say! why should the Bard, at once, resign [xxxiii] + His claim to favour from the sacred Nine? + For ever startled by the mingled howl + Of Northern Wolves, that still in darkness prowl; + A coward Brood, which mangle as they prey, 430 + By hellish instinct, all that cross their way; + Aged or young, the living or the dead," [xxxiv] + No mercy find-these harpies must be fed. + Why do the injured unresisting yield + The calm possession of their native field? + Why tamely thus before their fangs retreat, + Nor hunt the blood-hounds back to Arthur's Seat? [58] + + Health to immortal JEFFREY! once, in name, + England could boast a judge almost the same; [59] + In soul so like, so merciful, yet just, 440 + Some think that Satan has resigned his trust, + And given the Spirit to the world again, + To sentence Letters, as he sentenced men. + With hand less mighty, but with heart as black, + With voice as willing to decree the rack; + Bred in the Courts betimes, though all that law + As yet hath taught him is to find a flaw,-- + Since well instructed in the patriot school + To rail at party, though a party tool-- + Who knows? if chance his patrons should restore 450 + Back to the sway they forfeited before, + His scribbling toils some recompense may meet, + And raise this Daniel to the Judgment-Seat. [60] + Let JEFFREY'S shade indulge the pious hope, + And greeting thus, present him with a rope: + "Heir to my virtues! man of equal mind! + Skilled to condemn as to traduce mankind, + This cord receive! for thee reserved with care, + To wield in judgment, and at length to wear." + + Health to great JEFFREY! Heaven preserve his life, 460 + To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife, + And guard it sacred in its future wars, + Since authors sometimes seek the field of Mars! + Can none remember that eventful day, [xxxv] [61] + That ever-glorious, almost fatal fray, + When LITTLE'S leadless pistol met his eye, [62] + And Bow-street Myrmidons stood laughing by? + Oh, day disastrous! on her firm-set rock, + Dunedin's castle felt a secret shock; + Dark rolled the sympathetic waves of Forth, 470 + Low groaned the startled whirlwinds of the north; + TWEED ruffled half his waves to form a tear, + The other half pursued his calm career; [63] + ARTHUR'S steep summit nodded to its base, + The surly Tolbooth scarcely kept her place. + The Tolbooth felt--for marble sometimes can, + On such occasions, feel as much as man-- + The Tolbooth felt defrauded of his charms, + If JEFFREY died, except within her arms: [64] + Nay last, not least, on that portentous morn, 480 + The sixteenth story, where himself was born, + His patrimonial garret, fell to ground, + And pale Edina shuddered at the sound: + Strewed were the streets around with milk-white reams, + Flowed all the Canongate with inky streams; + This of his candour seemed the sable dew, + That of his valour showed the bloodless hue; + And all with justice deemed the two combined + The mingled emblems of his mighty mind. + But Caledonia's goddess hovered o'er 490 + The field, and saved him from the wrath of Moore; + From either pistol snatched the vengeful lead, + And straight restored it to her favourite's head; + That head, with greater than magnetic power, + Caught it, as Danaee caught the golden shower, + And, though the thickening dross will scarce refine, + Augments its ore, and is itself a mine. + "My son," she cried, "ne'er thirst for gore again, + Resign the pistol and resume the pen; + O'er politics and poesy preside, 500 + Boast of thy country, and Britannia's guide! + For long as Albion's heedless sons submit, + Or Scottish taste decides on English wit, + So long shall last thine unmolested reign, + Nor any dare to take thy name in vain. + Behold, a chosen band shall aid thy plan, + And own thee chieftain of the critic clan. + First in the oat-fed phalanx [65] shall be seen + The travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen. [66] + HERBERT shall wield THOR'S hammer, [67] and sometimes 510 + In gratitude, thou'lt praise his rugged rhymes. + Smug SYDNEY [68] too thy bitter page shall seek, + And classic HALLAM, [69] much renowned for Greek; + SCOTT may perchance his name and influence lend, + And paltry PILLANS [70] shall traduce his friend; + While gay Thalia's luckless votary, LAMB, [xxxvi] [71] + Damned like the Devil--Devil-like will damn. + Known be thy name! unbounded be thy sway! + Thy HOLLAND'S banquets shall each toil repay! + While grateful Britain yields the praise she owes 520 + To HOLLAND'S hirelings and to Learning's foes. + Yet mark one caution ere thy next Review + Spread its light wings of Saffron and of Blue, + Beware lest blundering BROUGHAM [72] destroy the sale, + Turn Beef to Bannocks, Cauliflowers to Kail." + Thus having said, the kilted Goddess kist + Her son, and vanished in a Scottish mist. [73] + + Then prosper, JEFFREY! pertest of the train [74] + Whom Scotland pampers with her fiery grain! + Whatever blessing waits a genuine Scot, 530 + In double portion swells thy glorious lot; + For thee Edina culls her evening sweets, + And showers their odours on thy candid sheets, + Whose Hue and Fragrance to thy work adhere-- + This scents its pages, and that gilds its rear. [75] + Lo! blushing Itch, coy nymph, enamoured grown, + Forsakes the rest, and cleaves to thee alone, + And, too unjust to other Pictish men, + Enjoys thy person, and inspires thy pen! + + Illustrious HOLLAND! hard would be his lot, 540 + His hirelings mentioned, and himself forgot! [76] + HOLLAND, with HENRY PETTY [77] at his back, + The whipper-in and huntsman of the pack. + Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House, + Where Scotchmen feed, and Critics may carouse! + Long, long beneath that hospitable roof [xxxvii] + Shall Grub-street dine, while duns are kept aloof. + See honest HALLAM [78] lay aside his fork, + Resume his pen, review his Lordship's work, + And, grateful for the dainties on his plate, [xxxviii] 550 + Declare his landlord can at least translate! [79] + Dunedin! view thy children with delight, + They write for food--and feed because they write: [xxxix] + And lest, when heated with the unusual grape, + Some glowing thoughts should to the press escape, + And tinge with red the female reader's cheek, + My lady skims the cream of each critique; + Breathes o'er the page her purity of soul, + Reforms each error, and refines the whole. [80] + + Now to the Drama turn--Oh! motley sight! 560 + What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite: + Puns, and a Prince within a barrel pent, [xl] [81] + And Dibdin's nonsense yield complete content. [82] + Though now, thank Heaven! the Rosciomania's o'er. [83] + And full-grown actors are endured once more; + Yet what avail their vain attempts to please, + While British critics suffer scenes like these; + While REYNOLDS vents his "'dammes!'" "poohs!" and + "zounds!" [xli] [84] + And common-place and common sense confounds? + While KENNEY'S [85] "World"--ah! where is KENNEY'S wit? [xlii]-- 570 + Tires the sad gallery, lulls the listless Pit; + And BEAUMONT'S pilfered Caratach affords + A tragedy complete in all but words? [xliii] + Who but must mourn, while these are all the rage + The degradation of our vaunted stage? + Heavens! is all sense of shame and talent gone? + Have we no living Bard of merit?--none? + Awake, GEORGE COLMAN! [86] CUMBERLAND, awake![87] + Ring the alarum bell! let folly quake! + Oh! SHERIDAN! if aught can move thy pen, 580 + Let Comedy assume her throne again; [xliv] + Abjure the mummery of German schools; + Leave new Pizarros to translating fools; [88] + Give, as thy last memorial to the age, + One classic drama, and reform the stage. + Gods! o'er those boards shall Folly rear her head, + Where GARRICK trod, and SIDDONS lives to tread? [xlv] [89] + On those shall Farce display buffoonery's mask, + And HOOK conceal his heroes in a cask? [90] + Shall sapient managers new scenes produce 590 + From CHERRY, [91] SKEFFINGTON, [92] and Mother GOOSE? [xlvi] [93] + While SHAKESPEARE, OTWAY, MASSINGER, forgot, + On stalls must moulder, or in closets rot? + Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim + The rival candidates for Attic fame! + In grim array though LEWIS' spectres rise, + Still SKEFFINGTON and GOOSE divide the prize. + And sure 'great' Skeffington must claim our praise, + For skirtless coats and skeletons of plays + Renowned alike; whose genius ne'er confines 600 + Her flight to garnish Greenwood's gay designs; [xlvii] [94] + Nor sleeps with "Sleeping Beauties," but anon + In five facetious acts comes thundering on. + While poor John Bull, bewildered with the scene, + Stares, wondering what the devil it can mean; + But as some hands applaud, a venal few! + Rather than sleep, why John applauds it too. + + Such are we now. Ah! wherefore should we turn + To what our fathers were, unless to mourn? + Degenerate Britons! are ye dead to shame, 610 + Or, kind to dulness, do you fear to blame? + Well may the nobles of our present race + Watch each distortion of a NALDI'S face; + Well may they smile on Italy's buffoons, + And worship CATALANI's pantaloons, [95] + Since their own Drama yields no fairer trace + Of wit than puns, of humour than grimace. [96] + + Then let Ausonia, skill'd in every art + To soften manners, but corrupt the heart, + Pour her exotic follies o'er the town, 620 + To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down: + Let wedded strumpets languish o'er DESHAYES, + And bless the promise which his form displays; + While Gayton bounds before th' enraptured looks + Of hoary Marquises, and stripling Dukes: + Let high-born lechers eye the lively Presle + Twirl her light limbs, that spurn the needless veil; + Let Angiolini bare her breast of snow, + Wave the white arm, and point the pliant toe; + Collini trill her love-inspiring song, 630 + Strain her fair neck, and charm the listening throng! + Whet [97] not your scythe, Suppressors of our Vice! + Reforming Saints! too delicately nice! + By whose decrees, our sinful souls to save, + No Sunday tankards foam, no barbers shave; + And beer undrawn, and beards unmown, display + Your holy reverence for the Sabbath-day. + + Or hail at once the patron and the pile + Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle! [98] + Where yon proud palace, Fashion's hallow'd fane, 640 + Spreads wide her portals for the motley train, + Behold the new Petronius [99] of the day, [xlviii] + Our arbiter of pleasure and of play! + There the hired eunuch, the Hesperian choir, + The melting lute, the soft lascivious lyre, + The song from Italy, the step from France, + The midnight orgy, and the mazy dance, + The smile of beauty, and the flush of wine, + For fops, fools, gamesters, knaves, and Lords combine: + Each to his humour--Comus all allows; 650 + Champaign, dice, music, or your neighbour's spouse. + Talk not to us, ye starving sons of trade! + Of piteous ruin, which ourselves have made; + In Plenty's sunshine Fortune's minions bask, + Nor think of Poverty, except "en masque," [100] + When for the night some lately titled ass + Appears the beggar which his grandsire was, + The curtain dropped, the gay Burletta o'er, + The audience take their turn upon the floor: + Now round the room the circling dow'gers sweep, 660 + Now in loose waltz the thin-clad daughters leap; + The first in lengthened line majestic swim, + The last display the free unfettered limb! + Those for Hibernia's lusty sons repair + With art the charms which Nature could not spare; + These after husbands wing their eager flight, + Nor leave much mystery for the nuptial night. + + Oh! blest retreats of infamy and ease, + Where, all forgotten but the power to please, + Each maid may give a loose to genial thought, 670 + Each swain may teach new systems, or be taught: + There the blithe youngster, just returned from Spain, + Cuts the light pack, or calls the rattling main; + The jovial Caster's set, and seven's the Nick, + Or--done!--a thousand on the coming trick! + If, mad with loss, existence 'gins to tire, + And all your hope or wish is to expire, + Here's POWELL'S [101] pistol ready for your life, + And, kinder still, two PAGETS for your wife: [xlix] + Fit consummation of an earthly race 680 + Begun in folly, ended in disgrace, + While none but menials o'er the bed of death, + Wash thy red wounds, or watch thy wavering breath; + Traduced by liars, and forgot by all, + The mangled victim of a drunken brawl, + To live like CLODIUS, [102] and like FALKLAND fall.[103] + + Truth! rouse some genuine Bard, and guide his hand + To drive this pestilence from out the land. + E'en I--least thinking of a thoughtless throng, + Just skilled to know the right and choose the wrong, 690 + Freed at that age when Reason's shield is lost, + To fight my course through Passion's countless host, [104] + Whom every path of Pleasure's flow'ry way + Has lured in turn, and all have led astray-- + E'en I must raise my voice, e'en I must feel + Such scenes, such men, destroy the public weal: + Altho' some kind, censorious friend will say, + "What art thou better, meddling fool, [105] than they?" + And every Brother Rake will smile to see + That miracle, a Moralist in me. 700 + No matter--when some Bard in virtue strong, + Gifford perchance, shall raise the chastening song, + Then sleep my pen for ever! and my voice + Be only heard to hail him, and rejoice, + Rejoice, and yield my feeble praise, though I + May feel the lash that Virtue must apply. + + As for the smaller fry, who swarm in shoals + From silly HAFIZ up to simple BOWLES, [106] + Why should we call them from their dark abode, + In Broad St. Giles's or Tottenham-Road? 710 + Or (since some men of fashion nobly dare + To scrawl in verse) from Bond-street or the Square? [l] + If things of Ton their harmless lays indite, + Most wisely doomed to shun the public sight, + What harm? in spite of every critic elf, + Sir T. may read his stanzas to himself; + MILES ANDREWS [107] still his strength in couplets try, + And live in prologues, though his dramas die. + Lords too are Bards: such things at times befall, + And 'tis some praise in Peers to write at all. 720 + Yet, did or Taste or Reason sway the times, + Ah! who would take their titles with their rhymes? [108] + ROSCOMMON! [109] SHEFFIELD! [110] with your spirits fled, [111] + No future laurels deck a noble head; + No Muse will cheer, with renovating smile, + The paralytic puling of CARLISLE. [li] [112] + The puny schoolboy and his early lay + Men pardon, if his follies pass away; + But who forgives the Senior's ceaseless verse, + Whose hairs grow hoary as his rhymes grow worse? 730 + What heterogeneous honours deck the Peer! + Lord, rhymester, petit-maitre, pamphleteer! [113] + So dull in youth, so drivelling in his age, + His scenes alone had damned our sinking stage; + But Managers for once cried, "Hold, enough!" + Nor drugged their audience with the tragic stuff. + Yet at their judgment let his Lordship laugh, [lii] + And case his volumes in congenial calf; + Yes! doff that covering, where Morocco shines, + And hang a calf-skin on those recreant lines. [114] 740 + + With you, ye Druids! rich in native lead, + Who daily scribble for your daily bread: + With you I war not: GIFFORD'S heavy hand + Has crushed, without remorse, your numerous band. + On "All the Talents" vent your venal spleen; [115] + Want is your plea, let Pity be your screen. + Let Monodies on Fox regale your crew, + And Melville's Mantle [116] prove a Blanket too! + One common Lethe waits each hapless Bard, + And, peace be with you! 'tis your best reward. 750 + Such damning fame; as Dunciads only give [liii] + Could bid your lines beyond a morning live; + But now at once your fleeting labours close, + With names of greater note in blest repose. + Far be't from me unkindly to upbraid + The lovely ROSA'S prose in masquerade, + Whose strains, the faithful echoes of her mind, + Leave wondering comprehension far behind. [117] + Though Crusca's bards no more our journals fill, [118] + Some stragglers skirmish round the columns still; 760 + Last of the howling host which once was Bell's, [liv] + Matilda snivels yet, and Hafiz yells; + And Merry's [119] metaphors appear anew, + Chained to the signature of O. P. Q. [120] + When some brisk youth, the tenant of a stall, + Employs a pen less pointed than his awl, + Leaves his snug shop, forsakes his store of shoes, + St. Crispin quits, and cobbles for the Muse, + Heavens! how the vulgar stare! how crowds applaud! + How ladies read, and Literati laud! [121] 770 + If chance some wicked wag should pass his jest, + 'Tis sheer ill-nature--don't the world know best? + Genius must guide when wits admire the rhyme, + And CAPEL LOFFT [122] declares 'tis quite sublime. + Hear, then, ye happy sons of needless trade! + Swains! quit the plough, resign the useless spade! + Lo! BURNS and BLOOMFIELD, nay, a greater far, + GIFFORD was born beneath an adverse star, + Forsook the labours of a servile state, + Stemmed the rude storm, and triumphed over Fate: 780 + Then why no more? if Phoebus smiled on you, + BLOOMFIELD! why not on brother Nathan too? [123] + Him too the Mania, not the Muse, has seized; + Not inspiration, but a mind diseased: + And now no Boor can seek his last abode, + No common be inclosed without an ode. + Oh! since increased refinement deigns to smile + On Britain's sons, and bless our genial Isle, + Let Poesy go forth, pervade the whole, + Alike the rustic, and mechanic soul! 790 + Ye tuneful cobblers! still your notes prolong, + Compose at once a slipper and a song; + So shall the fair your handywork peruse, + Your sonnets sure shall please--perhaps your shoes. + May Moorland weavers [124] boast Pindaric skill, + And tailors' lays be longer than their bill! + While punctual beaux reward the grateful notes, + And pay for poems--when they pay for coats. + + To the famed throng now paid the tribute due, [lv] + Neglected Genius! let me turn to you. 800 + Come forth, oh CAMPBELL! give thy talents scope; + Who dares aspire if thou must cease to hope? + And thou, melodious ROGERS! rise at last, + Recall the pleasing memory of the past; [125] + Arise! let blest remembrance still inspire, + And strike to wonted tones thy hallowed lyre; + Restore Apollo to his vacant throne, + Assert thy country's honour and thine own. + What! must deserted Poesy still weep + Where her last hopes with pious COWPER sleep? 810 + Unless, perchance, from his cold bier she turns, + To deck the turf that wraps her minstrel, BURNS! + No! though contempt hath marked the spurious brood, + The race who rhyme from folly, or for food, + Yet still some genuine sons 'tis hers to boast, + Who, least affecting, still affect the most: [lvi] + Feel as they write, and write but as they feel-- + Bear witness GIFFORD, [126] SOTHEBY, [127] MACNEIL. [128] + "Why slumbers GIFFORD?" once was asked in vain; + Why slumbers GIFFORD? let us ask again. [129] 820 + Are there no follies for his pen to purge? + Are there no fools whose backs demand the scourge? + Are there no sins for Satire's Bard to greet? + Stalks not gigantic Vice in every street? + Shall Peers or Princes tread pollution's path, + And 'scape alike the Laws and Muse's wrath? + Nor blaze with guilty glare through future time, + Eternal beacons of consummate crime? + Arouse thee, GIFFORD! be thy promise claimed, + Make bad men better, or at least ashamed. 830 + + Unhappy WHITE! [130] while life was in its spring, + And thy young Muse just waved her joyous wing, + The Spoiler swept that soaring Lyre away, [lvii] [131] + Which else had sounded an immortal lay. + Oh! what a noble heart was here undone, + When Science' self destroyed her favourite son! + Yes, she too much indulged thy fond pursuit, + She sowed the seeds, but Death has reaped the fruit. + 'Twas thine own Genius gave the final blow, + And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low: 840 + So the struck Eagle, stretched upon the plain, + No more through rolling clouds to soar again, + Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, + And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart; + Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel + He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel; + While the same plumage that had warmed his nest + Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast. + + There be who say, in these enlightened days, + That splendid lies are all the poet's praise; 850 + That strained Invention, ever on the wing, + Alone impels the modern Bard to sing: + Tis true, that all who rhyme--nay, all who write, + Shrink from that fatal word to Genius--Trite; + Yet Truth sometimes will lend her noblest fires, + And decorate the verse herself inspires: + This fact in Virtue's name let CRABBE [132] attest; + Though Nature's sternest Painter, yet the best. + + And here let SHEE [133] and Genius find a place, + Whose pen and pencil yield an equal grace; 860 + To guide whose hand the sister Arts combine, + And trace the Poet's or the Painter's line; + Whose magic touch can bid the canvas glow, + Or pour the easy rhyme's harmonious flow; + While honours, doubly merited, attend [lviii] + The Poet's rival, but the Painter's friend. + + Blest is the man who dares approach the bower + Where dwelt the Muses at their natal hour; + Whose steps have pressed, whose eye has marked afar, + The clime that nursed the sons of song and war, 870 + The scenes which Glory still must hover o'er, + Her place of birth, her own Achaian shore. + But doubly blest is he whose heart expands + With hallowed feelings for those classic lands; + Who rends the veil of ages long gone by, + And views their remnants with a poet's eye! + WRIGHT! [134] 'twas thy happy lot at once to view + Those shores of glory, and to sing them too; + And sure no common Muse inspired thy pen + To hail the land of Gods and Godlike men. 880 + + And you, associate Bards! [135] who snatched to light [lvix] + Those gems too long withheld from modern sight; + Whose mingling taste combined to cull the wreath + While Attic flowers Aonian odours breathe, + And all their renovated fragrance flung, + To grace the beauties of your native tongue; + Now let those minds, that nobly could transfuse + The glorious Spirit of the Grecian Muse, + Though soft the echo, scorn a borrowed tone: [lx] + Resign Achaia's lyre, and strike your own. 890 + + Let these, or such as these, with just applause, [lxi] + Restore the Muse's violated laws; + But not in flimsy DARWIN'S [136] pompous chime, [lxii] + That mighty master of unmeaning rhyme, + Whose gilded cymbals, more adorned than clear, + The eye delighted, but fatigued the ear, + In show the simple lyre could once surpass, + But now, worn down, appear in native brass; + While all his train of hovering sylphs around + Evaporate in similes and sound: 900 + Him let them shun, with him let tinsel die: + False glare attracts, but more offends the eye. [137] + + Yet let them not to vulgar WORDSWORTH [138] stoop, + The meanest object of the lowly group, + Whose verse, of all but childish prattle void, + Seems blessed harmony to LAMB and LLOYD: [139] + Let them--but hold, my Muse, nor dare to teach + A strain far, far beyond thy humble reach: + The native genius with their being given + Will point the path, and peal their notes to heaven. 910 + + And thou, too, SCOTT! [140] resign to minstrels rude + The wilder Slogan of a Border feud: + Let others spin their meagre lines for hire; + Enough for Genius, if itself inspire! + Let SOUTHEY sing, altho' his teeming muse, [lxiii] + Prolific every spring, be too profuse; + Let simple WORDSWORTH [141] chime his childish verse, + And brother COLERIDGE lull the babe at nurse [lxiv] + Let Spectre-mongering LEWIS aim, at most, [lxv] + To rouse the Galleries, or to raise a ghost; 920 + Let MOORE still sigh; let STRANGFORD steal from MOORE, [lxvi] + And swear that CAMOENS sang such notes of yore; + Let HAYLEY hobble on, MONTGOMERY rave, + And godly GRAHAME chant a stupid stave; + Let sonneteering BOWLES [142] his strains refine, + And whine and whimper to the fourteenth line; + Let STOTT, CARLISLE, [143] MATILDA, and the rest + Of Grub Street, and of Grosvenor Place the best, + Scrawl on, 'till death release us from the strain, + Or Common Sense assert her rights again; 930 + But Thou, with powers that mock the aid of praise, + Should'st leave to humbler Bards ignoble lays: + Thy country's voice, the voice of all the Nine, + Demand a hallowed harp--that harp is thine. + Say! will not Caledonia's annals yield + The glorious record of some nobler field, + Than the vile foray of a plundering clan, + Whose proudest deeds disgrace the name of man? + Or Marmion's acts of darkness, fitter food + For SHERWOOD'S outlaw tales of ROBIN HOOD? [lxvii] 940 + Scotland! still proudly claim thy native Bard, + And be thy praise his first, his best reward! + Yet not with thee alone his name should live, + But own the vast renown a world can give; + Be known, perchance, when Albion is no more, + And tell the tale of what she was before; + To future times her faded fame recall, + And save her glory, though his country fall. + + Yet what avails the sanguine Poet's hope, + To conquer ages, and with time to cope? 950 + New eras spread their wings, new nations rise, + And other Victors fill th' applauding skies; [144] + A few brief generations fleet along, + Whose sons forget the Poet and his song: + E'en now, what once-loved Minstrels scarce may claim + The transient mention of a dubious name! + When Fame's loud trump hath blown its noblest blast, + Though long the sound, the echo sleeps at last; + And glory, like the Phoenix [145] midst her fires, + Exhales her odours, blazes, and expires. 960 + + Shall hoary Granta call her sable sons, + Expert in science, more expert at puns? + Shall these approach the Muse? ah, no! she flies, + Even from the tempting ore of Seaton's prize; [lxviii] + Though Printers condescend the press to soil + With rhyme by HOARE, [146] and epic blank by HOYLE: [lxix] [147] + Not him whose page, if still upheld by whist, + Requires no sacred theme to bid us list. [148] + Ye! who in Granta's honours would surpass, + Must mount her Pegasus, a full-grown ass; 970 + A foal well worthy of her ancient Dam, + Whose Helicon [149] is duller than her Cam. [lxx] + + There CLARKE, [150] still striving piteously "to please," [lxxi] + Forgetting doggerel leads not to degrees, + A would-be satirist, a hired Buffoon, + A monthly scribbler of some low Lampoon, [151] + Condemned to drudge, the meanest of the mean, + And furbish falsehoods for a magazine, + Devotes to scandal his congenial mind; + Himself a living libel on mankind. 980 + + Oh! dark asylum of a Vandal race! [152] + At once the boast of learning, and disgrace! + So lost to Phoebus, that nor Hodgson's [153] verse + Can make thee better, nor poor Hewson's [154] worse. [lxxii] + But where fair Isis rolls her purer wave, + The partial Muse delighted loves to lave; + On her green banks a greener wreath she wove, [lxxiii] + To crown the Bards that haunt her classic grove; + Where RICHARDS wakes a genuine poet's fires, + And modern Britons glory in their Sires. [155] [lxxiv] 990 + + For me, who, thus unasked, have dared to tell + My country, what her sons should know too well, [lxxv] + Zeal for her honour bade me here engage [lxxvi] + The host of idiots that infest her age; + No just applause her honoured name shall lose, + As first in freedom, dearest to the Muse. + Oh! would thy bards but emulate thy fame, + And rise more worthy, Albion, of thy name! + What Athens was in science, Rome in power, + What Tyre appeared in her meridian hour, 1000 + 'Tis thine at once, fair Albion! to have been-- + Earth's chief Dictatress, Ocean's lovely Queen: [lxxvii] + But Rome decayed, and Athens strewed the plain, + And Tyre's proud piers lie shattered in the main; + Like these, thy strength may sink, in ruin hurled, [lxxviii] + And Britain fall, the bulwark of the world. + But let me cease, and dread Cassandra's fate, + With warning ever scoffed at, till too late; + To themes less lofty still my lay confine, + And urge thy Bards to gain a name like thine. [156] 1010 + + Then, hapless Britain! be thy rulers blest, + The senate's oracles, the people's jest! + Still hear thy motley orators dispense + The flowers of rhetoric, though not of sense, + While CANNING'S colleagues hate him for his wit, + And old dame PORTLAND [157] fills the place of PITT. + + Yet once again, adieu! ere this the sail + That wafts me hence is shivering in the gale; + And Afric's coast and Calpe's adverse height, [158] + And Stamboul's minarets must greet my sight: 1020 + Thence shall I stray through Beauty's native clime, [159] + Where Kaff [160] is clad in rocks, and crowned with snows sublime. + But should I back return, no tempting press [lxxix] + Shall drag my Journal from the desk's recess; + Let coxcombs, printing as they come from far, + Snatch his own wreath of Ridicule from Carr; + Let ABERDEEN and ELGIN [161] still pursue + The shade of fame through regions of Virtu; + Waste useless thousands on their Phidian freaks, + Misshapen monuments and maimed antiques; 1030 + And make their grand saloons a general mart + For all the mutilated blocks of art: + Of Dardan tours let Dilettanti tell, + I leave topography to rapid [162] GELL; [163] + And, quite content, no more shall interpose + To stun the public ear--at least with Prose. [lxxx] + + Thus far I've held my undisturbed career, + Prepared for rancour, steeled 'gainst selfish fear; + This thing of rhyme I ne'er disdained to own-- + Though not obtrusive, yet not quite unknown: 1040 + My voice was heard again, though not so loud, + My page, though nameless, never disavowed; + And now at once I tear the veil away:-- + Cheer on the pack! the Quarry stands at bay, + Unscared by all the din of MELBOURNE house, [164] + By LAMB'S resentment, or by HOLLAND'S spouse, + By JEFFREY'S harmless pistol, HALLAM'S rage, + Edina's brawny sons and brimstone page. + Our men in buckram shall have blows enough, + And feel they too are "penetrable stuff:" 1050 + And though I hope not hence unscathed to go, + Who conquers me shall find a stubborn foe. + The time hath been, when no harsh sound would fall + From lips that now may seem imbued with gall; + Nor fools nor follies tempt me to despise + The meanest thing that crawled beneath my eyes: + But now, so callous grown, so changed since youth, + I've learned to think, and sternly speak the truth; + Learned to deride the critic's starch decree, + And break him on the wheel he meant for me; 1060 + To spurn the rod a scribbler bids me kiss, + Nor care if courts and crowds applaud or hiss: + Nay more, though all my rival rhymesters frown, + I too can hunt a Poetaster down; + And, armed in proof, the gauntlet cast at once + To Scotch marauder, and to Southern dunce. + Thus much I've dared; if my incondite lay [lxxx] + Hath wronged these righteous times, let others say: + This, let the world, which knows not how to spare, + Yet rarely blames unjustly, now declare. [165] 1070 + + + +[Footnote 1: "The 'binding' of this volume is considerably too valuable +for the contents. Nothing but the consideration of its being the +property of another, prevents me from consigning this miserable record +of misplaced anger and indiscriminate acrimony to the flames."--B., +1816.] + + +[Footnote 2: IMITATION. + + "Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam, + Vexatus toties, rauci Theseide Codri?" + + JUVENAL, 'Satire I'.l. 1.] + + +[Footnote 3: "'Hoarse Fitzgerald'.--"Right enough; but why notice such +a mountebank?"--B., 1816. + +Mr. Fitzgerald, facetiously termed by Cobbett the "Small Beer Poet," +inflicts his annual tribute of verse on the Literary Fund: not content +with writing, he spouts in person, after the company have imbibed a +reasonable quantity of bad port, to enable them to sustain the +operation. + +[William Thomas Fitzgerald (circ. 1759-1829) played the part of +unofficial poet laureate. His loyal recitations were reported by the +newspapers. He published, 'inter alia', 'Nelson's Triumph' (1798), +'Tears of Hibernia, dispelled by the Union' (1802), and 'Nelson's Tomb' +(1806). He owes his fame to the first line of 'English Bards', and the +famous parody in 'Rejected Addresses'. The following 'jeux desprits' +were transcribed by R. C. Dallas on a blank leaf of a copy of the Fifth +Edition:-- + +"Written on a copy of 'English Bards' at the 'Alfred' by W. T. +Fitzgerald, Esq.-- + + + I find Lord Byron scorns my Muse, + Our Fates are ill agreed; + The Verse is safe, I can't abuse + Those lines, I never read. + + +Signed W. T. F." + +Answer written on the same page by Lord Byron-- + + + "What's writ on me," cries Fitz, "I never read"! + What's writ by thee, dear Fitz, none will, indeed. + The case stands simply thus, then, honest Fitz, + Thou and thine enemies are fairly quits; + Or rather would be, if for time to come, + They luckily were 'deaf', or thou wert dumb; + But to their pens while scribblers add their tongues. + The Waiter only can escape their lungs. [A]] + +{Sub-Footnote 0.1: Compare 'Hints from Horace', l. 808, 'note' 1.} + + +[Footnote 4: Cid Hamet Benengeli promises repose to his pen, in the last +chapter of 'Don Quixote'. Oh! that our voluminous gentry would follow +the example of Cid Hamet Benengeli!] + +[Footnote 5: "This must have been written in the spirit of prophecy." +(B., 1816.)] + + +[Footnote 6: "He's a very good fellow; and, except his mother and +sister, the best of the set, to my mind."--B., 1816. [William +(1779-1848) and George (1784-1834) Lamb, sons of Sir Peniston Lamb +(Viscount Melbourne, 1828), by Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Ralph +Milbanke, were Lady Byron's first cousins. William married, in 1805, +Lady Caroline Ponsonby, the writer of 'Glenarvon'. George, who was one +of the early contributors to the 'Edinburgh Review', married in 1809 +Caroline Rosalie Adelaide St. Jules. At the time of the separation, Lady +Caroline Lamb and Mrs. George Lamb warmly espoused Lady Byron's cause, +Lady Melbourne and her daughter Lady Cowper (afterwards Lady Palmerston) +were rather against than for Lady Byron. William Lamb was discreetly +silent, and George Lamb declaimed against Lady Byron, calling her a +d----d fool. Hence Lord Byron's praises of George. Cf. line 517 of +'English Bards'.] + + +[Footnote 7: This ingenuous youth is mentioned more particularly, with +his production, in another place. ('Vide post', l. 516.) + +"Spurious Brat" [see variant ii. p. 300], that is the farce; the +ingenuous youth who begat it is mentioned more particularly with his +offspring in another place. ['Note. MS. M.'] [The farce 'Whistle for It' +was performed two or three times at Covent Garden Theatre in 1807.] + +[Footnote 8: In the 'Edinburgh Review'.] + +[Footnote 9: The proverbial "Joe" Miller, an actor by profession +(1684-1738), was a man of no education, and is said to have been unable +to read. His reputation rests mainly on the book of jests compiled after +his death, and attributed to him by John Mottley. (First Edition. T. +Read. 1739.)] + + +[Footnote 10: Messrs. Jeffrey and Lamb are the alpha and omega, the +first and last of the 'Edinburgh Review'; the others are mentioned +hereafter. + +[The MS. Note is as follows:--"Of the young gentlemen who write in the +'E.R.', I have now named the alpha and omega, the first and the last, +the best and the worst. The intermediate members are designated with due +honour hereafter."] + +"This was not just. Neither the heart nor the head of these gentlemen +are at all what they are here represented. At the time this was written, +I was personally unacquainted with either."--B., 1816. + +[Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850) founded the 'Edinburgh Review' in +conjunction with Sydney Smith, Brougham, and Francis Horner, in 1802. In +1803 he succeeded Smith as editor, and conducted the 'Review' till 1829. +Independence of publishers and high pay to contributors ("Ten guineas a +sheet," writes Southey to Scott, June, 1807, "instead of seven pounds +for the 'Annual'," 'Life and Corr'., iii. 125) distinguished the new +journal from the first. Jeffrey was called to the Scottish bar in 1794, +and as an advocate was especially successful with juries. He was +constantly employed, and won fame and fortune. In 1829 he was elected +Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, and the following year, when the Whigs +came into office, he became Lord Advocate. He sat as M.P. twice for +Malton (1830-1832), and, afterwards, for Edinburgh. In 1834 he was +appointed a Judge of the Court of Sessions, when he took the title of +Lord Jeffrey. Byron had attacked Jeffrey in British Bards before his +'Hours of Idleness' had been cut up by the 'Edinburgh', and when the +article appeared (Jan. 1808), under the mistaken impression that he was +the author, denounced him at large (ll. 460-528) in the first edition of +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. None the less, the great critic +did not fail to do ample justice to the poet's mature work, and won from +him repeated acknowledgments of his kindness and generosity. (See +'Edinburgh Review', vol. xxii. p. 416, and Byron's comment in his +'Diary' for March 20,1814; 'Life', p. 232. See, too, 'Hints from +Horace', ll. 589-626; and 'Don Juan', canto x. st. 11-16, and canto xii. +st. 16. See also Bagehot's 'Literary Studies', vol. i. article I.)] + + +[Footnote 11: IMITATION. + + "Stulta est dementia, cum tot ubique + ------occurras periturae parcere chartae." + +JUVENAL, 'Sat. I.' ll. 17, 18.] + + +[Footnote 12: IMITATION. + + "Cur tamen hoc potius libeat decurrere campo, + Per quem magnus equos Auruncae flexit alumnus, + Si vacat, et placidi rationem admittitis, edam." + +JUVENAL, 'Sat. I'. ll. 19-21.] + + +[Footnote 13: William Gifford (1756-1826), a self-taught scholar, first +a ploughboy, then boy on board a Brixham coaster, afterwards shoemaker's +apprentice, was sent by friends to Exeter College, Oxford (1779-81). In +the 'Baviad' (1794) and the 'Maeviad' (1795) he attacked many of the +smaller writers of the day, who were either silly, like the Della +Cruscan School, or discreditable, like Williams, who wrote as "Anthony +Pasquin." In his 'Epistle to Peter Pindar' (1800) he laboured to expose +the true character of John Wolcot. As editor of the 'Anti-Jacobin, or +Weekly Examiner' (November, 1797, to July, 1798), he supported the +political views of Canning and his friends. As editor of the 'Quarterly +Review', from its foundation (February, 1809) to his resignation in +September, 1824, he soon rose to literary eminence by his sound sense +and adherence to the best models, though his judgments were sometimes +narrow-minded and warped by political prejudice. His editions of +'Massinger' (1805), which superseded that of Monck Mason and Davies +(1765), of 'Ben Jonson' (1816), of 'Ford' (1827), are valuable. To his +translation of 'Juvenal' (1802) is prefixed his autobiography. His +translation of 'Persius' appeared in 1821. To Gifford, Byron usually +paid the utmost deference. "Any suggestion of yours, even if it were +conveyed," he writes to him, in 1813, "in the less tender text of the +'Baviad', or a Monck Mason note to Massinger, would be obeyed." See also +his letter (September 20, 1821, 'Life', p.531): "I know no praise which +would compensate me in my own mind for his censure." Byron was attracted +to Gifford, partly by his devotion to the classical models of +literature, partly by the outspoken frankness of his literary criticism, +partly also, perhaps, by his physical deformity.] + + +[Footnote 14: Henry James Pye (1745-1813), M.P. for Berkshire, and +afterwards Police Magistrate for Westminster, held the office of poet +laureate from 1790 till his death in 1813, succeeding Thomas Warton, and +succeeded by Southey. He published 'Farringdon Hill' in 1774, The +'Progress of Refinement' in 1783, and a translation of Burger's 'Lenore' +in 1795. His name recurs in the 'Vision of Judgment', stanza xcii. Lines +97-102 were inserted in the Fifth Edition.] + + +[Footnote 15: The first edition of the Satire opened with this line; and +Byron's original intention was to prefix the following argument, first +published in 'Recollections', by R. C. Dallas (1824):-- + + "ARGUMENT. + + "The poet considereth times past, and their poesy--makes a sudden + transition to times present--is incensed against book-makers--revileth + Walter Scott for cupidity and ballad-mongering, with notable remarks + on Master Southey--complaineth that Master Southey had inflicted three + poems, epic and otherwise, on the public--inveigheth against William + Wordsworth, but laudeth Mister Coleridge and his elegy on a young + ass--is disposed to vituperate Mr. Lewis--and greatly rebuketh Thomas + Little (the late) and Lord Strangford--recommendeth Mr. Hayley to turn + his attention to prose--and exhorteth the Moravians to glorify Mr. + Grahame--sympathiseth with the Rev. [William Bowles]--and deploreth + the melancholy fate of James Montgomery--breaketh out into invective + against the Edinburgh Reviewers--calleth them hard names, harpies and + the like--apostrophiseth Jeffrey, and prophesieth.--Episode of Jeffrey + and Moore, their jeopardy and deliverance; portents on the morn of the + combat; the Tweed, Tolbooth, Firth of Forth [and Arthur's Seat], + severally shocked; descent of a goddess to save Jeffrey; incorporation + of the bullets with his sinciput and occiput.--Edinburgh Reviews 'en + masse'.--Lord Aberdeen, Herbert, Scott, Hallam, Pillans, Lambe, + Sydney Smith, Brougham, etc.--Lord Holland applauded for dinners and + translations.--The Drama; Skeffington, Hook, Reynolds, Kenney, Cherry, + etc.--Sheridan, Colman, and Cumberland called upon [requested, MS.] to + write.--Return to poesy--scribblers of all sorts--lords sometimes + rhyme; much better not--Hafiz, Rosa Matilda, and X.Y.Z.--Rogers, + Campbell, Gifford, etc. true poets--Translators of the Greek + Anthology--Crabbe--Darwin's style--Cambridge--Seatonian + Prize--Smythe--Hodgson--Oxford--Richards--Poetaloquitur--Conclusion."] + + + +[Footnote 16: Lines 115, 116, were a MS. addition to the printed text of +'British Bards'. An alternative version has been pencilled on the +margin:-- + + "Otway and Congreve mimic scenes had wove + And Waller tuned his Lyre to mighty Love."] + + + +[Footnote 17: Thomas Little was the name under which Moore's early poems +were published, 'The Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little, Esq.' +(1801). "Twelves" refers to the "duodecimo." Sheets, after printing, are +pressed between cold or hot rollers, to impart smoothness of "surface." +Hot rolling is the more expensive process.] + + +[Footnote 18: Eccles. chapter i. verse 9.] + + +[Footnote 19: At first sight Byron appears to refer to the lighting of +streets by gas, especially as the first shop lighted with it was that of +Lardner & Co., at the corner of the Albany (June, 1805), and as lamps +were on view at the premises of the Gas Light and Coke Company in Pall +Mall from 1808 onwards. But it is almost certain that he alludes to the +"sublimating gas" of Dr. Beddoes, which his assistant, Davy, mentions in +his 'Researches' (1800) as nitrous oxide, and which was used by Southey +and Coleridge. The same four "wonders" of medical science are depicted +in Gillray's caricatures, November, 1801, and May and June, 1802, and +are satirized in Christopher Caustic's 'Terrible Tractoration! A +Poetical Petition against Galvanising Trumpery and the Perkinistit +Institution' (in 4 cantos, 1803). + +Against vaccination, or cow-pox, a brisk war was still being carried on. +Gillray has a likeness of Jenner vaccinating patients. + +Metallic "Tractors" were a remedy much advertised at the beginning of +the century by an American quack, Benjamin Charles Perkins, founder of +the Perkinean Institution in London, as a "cure for all Disorders, Red +Noses, Gouty Toes, Windy Bowels, Broken Legs, Hump Backs." + +In Galvanism several experiments, conducted by Professor Aldini, nephew +of Galvani, are described in the 'Morning Post' for Jan. 6th, Feb. 6th, +and Jan. 22nd, 1803. The latter were made on the body of Forster the +murderer. + +For the allusion to Gas, compare 'Terrible Tractoration', canto 1-- + + "Beddoes (bless the good doctor) has + Sent me a bag full of his gas, + Which snuff'd the nose up, makes wit brighter, + And eke a dunce an airy writer."] + + +[Footnote 20: Stott, better known in the 'Morning Post' by the name of +Hafiz. This personage is at present the most profound explorer of the +bathos. I remember, when the reigning family left Portugal, a special +Ode of Master Stott's, beginning thus:--('Stott loquitur quoad +Hibernia')-- + + "Princely offspring of Braganza, + Erin greets thee with a stanza," etc. + +Also a Sonnet to Rats, well worthy of the subject, and a most thundering +Ode, commencing as follows:-- + + "Oh! for a Lay! loud as the surge + That lashes Lapland's sounding shore." + +Lord have mercy on us! the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" was nothing to +this. [The lines "Princely Offspring," headed "Extemporaneous Verse on +the expulsion of the Prince Regent from Portugal by Gallic Tyranny," +were published in the 'Morning Post', Dec. 30, 1807. (See 'post', l. +708, and 'note'.)] ] + + +[Footnote 21: See p. 317, note 1.] + + +[Footnote 22: See the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," 'passim'. Never was +any plan so incongruous and absurd as the groundwork of this production. +The entrance of Thunder and Lightning prologuising to Bayes' tragedy +[('vide The Rehearsal'), 'British Bards'], unfortunately takes away the +merit of originality from the dialogue between Messieurs the Spirits of +Flood and Fell in the first canto. Then we have the amiable William of +Deloraine, "a stark moss-trooper," videlicet, a happy compound of +poacher, sheep-stealer, and highwayman. The propriety of his magical +lady's injunction not to read can only be equalled by his candid +acknowledgment of his independence of the trammels of spelling, +although, to use his own elegant phrase, "'twas his neckverse at +Harribee," 'i. e.' the gallows. + +The biography of Gilpin Horner, and the marvellous pedestrian page, who +travelled twice as fast as his master's horse, without the aid of +seven-leagued boots, are 'chefs d'oeuvre' in the improvement of taste. +For incident we have the invisible, but by no means sparing box on the +ear bestowed on the page, and the entrance of a Knight and Charger into +the castle, under the very natural disguise of a wain of hay. Marmion, +the hero of the latter romance, is exactly what William of Deloraine +would have been, had he been able to read and write. The poem was +manufactured for Messrs. CONSTABLE, MURRAY, and MILLER, worshipful +Booksellers, in consideration of the receipt of a sum of money; and +truly, considering the inspiration, it is a very creditable production. +If Mr. SCOTT will write for hire, let him do his best for his +paymasters, but not disgrace his genius, which is undoubtedly great, by +a repetition of Black-Letter Ballad imitations. + +[Constable paid Scott a thousand pounds for 'Marmion', and + + "offered one fourth of the copyright to Mr. Miller of Albemarle + Street, and one fourth to Mr. Murray of Fleet Street (see line 173). + Both publishers eagerly accepted the proposal." + ... + "A severe and unjust review of 'Marmion' by Jeffrey appeared in [the + 'Edinburgh Review' for April] 1808, accusing Scott of a mercenary + spirit in writing for money. ... Scott was much nettled by these + observations." + +('Memoirs of John Murray', i. 76, 95). In his diary of 1813 Byron wrote +of Scott, + + "He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most 'English' of + Bards." + +'Life', p. 206.]] + + + +[Footnote 23: It was the suggestion of the Countess of Dalkeith, that +Scott should write a ballad on the old border legend of 'Gilpin Horner', +which first gave shape to the poet's ideas, and led to the 'Lay of the +Last Minstrel'.] + + +[Footnote 24: In his strictures on Scott and Southey, Byron takes his +lead from Lady Anne Hamilton's (1766-1846, daughter of Archibald, ninth +Duke of Hamilton, and Lady-in-waiting to Caroline of Brunswick) 'Epics +of the Ton' (1807), a work which has not shared the dubious celebrity of +her 'Secret Memories of the Court', etc. (1832). Compare the following +lines (p. 9):-- + + "Then still might Southey sing his crazy Joan, + Or feign a Welshman o'er the Atlantic flown, + Or tell of Thalaba the wondrous matter, + Or with clown Wordsworth, chatter, chatter, chatter. + * * * * * + Good-natured Scott rehearse, in well-paid lays, + The marv'lous chiefs and elves of other days." + +(For Scott's reference to "my share of flagellation among my betters," +and an explicit statement that he had remonstrated with Jeffrey against +the "offensive criticism" of 'Hours of Idleness', because he thought it +treated with undue severity, see Introduction to 'Marmion', 1830.)]] + + + +[Footnote 25: Lines 179, 180, in the Fifth Edition, were substituted for +variant i. p. 312.--'Leigh Hunt's annotated Copy of the Fourth Edition'.] + + +[Footnote 26: "Good night to Marmion"--the pathetic and also prophetic +exclamation of Henry Blount, Esquire, on the death of honest Marmion.] + + +[Footnote 27: As the 'Odyssey' is so closely connected with the story of +the 'Iliad', they may almost be classed as one grand historical poem. In +alluding to Milton and Tasso, we consider the 'Paradise Lost' and +'Gerusalemme Liberata' as their standard efforts; since neither the +'Jerusalem Conquered' of the Italian, nor the 'Paradise Regained' of the +English bard, obtained a proportionate celebrity to their former poems. +Query: Which of Mr. Southey's will survive?] + + +[Footnote 28: 'Thalaba', Mr. Southey's second poem, is written in +defiance of precedent and poetry. Mr. S. wished to produce something +novel, and succeeded to a miracle. 'Joan of Arc' was marvellous enough, +but 'Thalaba' was one of those poems "which," in the word of PORSON, +"will be read when Homer and Virgil are forgotten, but--<i<not till +then'." ["Of 'Thalaba" the wild and wondrous song"--Proem to 'Madoc', +Southey's 'Poetical Works' (1838), vol. v. 'Joan of Arc' was published +in 1796, 'Thalaba the Destroyer' in 1801, and 'Madoc' in 1805.] + + +[Footnote 29: The hero of Fielding's farce, 'The Tragedy of Tragedies', +'or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great', first played in 1730 at +the Haymarket.] + + +[Footnote 30: Southey's 'Madoc' is divided into two parts--Part I., +"Madoc in Wales;" Part II., "Madoc in Aztlan." The word "cacique" +("Cacique or cazique... a native chief or 'prince' of the aborigines in +the West Indies:" 'New Engl. Dict'., Art. "Cacique") occurs in the +translations of Spanish writers quoted by Southey in his notes, but not +in the text of the poem.] + + +[Footnote 31: We beg Mr. Southey's pardon: "Madoc disdains the degraded +title of Epic." See his Preface. ["It assumes not the degraded title of +Epic."--Preface to 'Madoc' (1805), Southey's 'Poetical Works' (1838), +vol. v. p. xxi.] Why is Epic degraded? and by whom? Certainly the late +Romaunts of Masters Cottle, Laureat Pye, Ogilvy, Hole,[A] and gentle +Mistress Cowley, have not exalted the Epic Muse; but, as Mr. SOUTHEY'S +poem "disdains the appellation," allow us to ask--has he substituted +anything better in its stead? or must he be content to rival Sir RICHARD +BLACKMORE in the quantity as well as quality of his verse? + +[Sub-Footnote A: For "Hole," the 'MS'. and 'British Bards' read "Sir J. +B. Burgess; Cumberland."] ] + + +[Footnote 32: See 'The Old Woman of Berkeley', a ballad by Mr. Southey, +wherein an aged gentlewoman is carried away by Beelzebub, on a "high +trotting horse."] + +[Footnote 33: The last line, "God help thee," is an evident plagiarism +from the 'Anti-Jacobin' to Mr. Southey, on his Dactylics:-- + + "God help thee, silly one!" + +'Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin', p. 23.] + + +[Footnote 34: In the annotated copy of the Fourth Edition Byron has +drawn a line down the margin of the passage on Wordsworth, lines +236-248, and adds the word "Unjust." The first four lines on Coleridge +(lines 255-258) are also marked "Unjust." The recantation is, no doubt, +intended to apply to both passages from beginning to end. +"'Unjust'."--B., 1816. (See also Byron's letter to S. T. Coleridge, +March 31, 1815.)] + + +[Footnote 35: 'Lyrical Ballads', p. 4.--"The Tables Turned," Stanza 1. + + "Up, up, my friend, and clear your looks, + Why all this toil and trouble? + Up, up, my friend, and quit your books, + Or surely you'll grow double."] + + +[Footnote 36: Mr. W. in his preface labours hard to prove, that prose +and verse are much the same; and certainly his precepts and practice are +strictly conformable:-- + + "And thus to Betty's questions he + Made answer, like a traveller bold. + 'The cock did crow, to-whoo, to-whoo, + And the sun did shine so cold.'" + +'Lyrical Ballads', p. 179. [Compare 'The Simpliciad', II. 295-305, and +'note'.]] + + + +[Footnote 37: "He has not published for some years."--'British Bards'. +(A marginal note in pencil.) [Coleridge's 'Poems' (3rd edit.) appeared +in 1803; the first number of 'The Friend' on June 1, 1809.]] + + +[Footnote 38: COLERIDGE'S 'Poems', p. 11, "Songs of the Pixies," 'i. e.' +Devonshire Fairies; p. 42, we have "Lines to a Young Lady;" and, p. 52, +"Lines to a Young Ass." [Compare 'The Simpliciad', ll. 211, 213-- + + "Then in despite of scornful Folly's pother, + Ask him to live with you and hail him brother."]] + + + +[Footnote 39: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), known as "Monk" Lewis, +was the son of a rich Jamaica planter. During a six months' visit to +Weimar (1792-3), when he was introduced to Goethe, he applied himself to +the study of German literature, especially novels and the drama. In 1794 +he was appointed 'attache' to the Embassy at the Hague, and in the +course of ten weeks wrote 'Ambrosio, or The Monk', which was published +in 1795. In 1798 he made the acquaintance of Scott, and procured his +promise of co-operation in his contemplated 'Tales of Terror'. In the +same year he published the 'Castle Spectre' (first played at Drury Lane, +Dec. 14, 1797), in which, to quote the postscript "To the Reader," he +meant (but Sheridan interposed) "to have exhibited a whole regiment of +Ghosts." 'Tales of Terror' were printed at Weybridge in 1801, and two or +three editions of 'Tales of Wonder', to which Byron refers, came out in +the same year. Lewis borrowed so freely from all sources that the +collection was called "Tales of Plunder." In the first edition (two +vols., printed by W. Bulmer for the author, 1801) the first eighteen +poems, with the exception of 'The Fire King' (xii.) by Walter Scott, are +by Lewis, either original or translated. Scott also contributed +'Glenfinlas, The Eve of St. John, Frederick and Alice, The Wild Huntsmen +(Der Wilde Jaeger). Southey contributed six poems, including 'The Old +Woman of Berkeley' (xxiv.). 'The Little Grey Man' (xix.) is by H. +Bunbury. The second volume is made up from Burns, Gray, Parnell, Glover, +Percy's 'Reliques', and other sources. + +A second edition, published in 1801, which consists of thirty-two +ballads (Southey's are not included), advertises "'Tales of Terror' +printed uniform with this edition of 'Tales of Wonder'." 'Romantic +Tales', in four volumes, appeared in 1808. Of his other works, 'The +Captive, A Monodrama', was played in 1803; the 'Bravo of Venice, A +Translation from the German', in 1804; and 'Timour the Tartar' in 1811. +His 'Journal of a West Indian Proprietor' was not published till 1834. +He sat as M.P. for Hindon (1796-1802). + +He had been a favourite in society before Byron appeared on the scene, +but there is no record of any intimacy or acquaintance before 1813. When +Byron was living at Geneva, Lewis visited the Maison Diodati in August, +1816, on which occasion he "translated to him Goethe's 'Faust' by word +of mouth," and drew up a codicil to his will, witnessed by Byron, +Shelley, and Polidori, which contained certain humane provisions for the +well-being of the negroes on his Jamaica estates. He also visited him at +'La Mira' in August, 1817. Byron wrote of him after his death: "He was a +good man, and a clever one, but he was a bore, a damned bore--one may +say. But I liked him." + +To judge from his letters to his mother and other evidence (Scott's +testimony, for instance), he was a kindly, well-intentioned man, but +lacking in humour. When his father condemned the indecency of the +'Monk', he assured him "that he had not the slightest idea that what he +was then writing could injure the principles of any human being." "He +was," said Byron, "too great a bore to lie," and the plea is evidently +offered in good faith. As a writer, he is memorable chiefly for his +sponsorship of German literature. Scott said of him that he had the +finest ear for rhythm he ever met with--finer than Byron's; and +Coleridge, in a letter to Wordsworth, Jan., 1798 ('Letters of S. T. C.' +(1895), i. 237), and again in 'Table Talk' for March 20, 1834, commends +his verses. Certainly his ballad of "Crazy Jane," once so famous that +ladies took to wearing "Crazy Jane" hats, is of the nature of poetry. +(See 'Life', 349, 362, 491, etc.; 'Life and Correspondence' of M. G. +Lewis (1839), i. 158, etc.; 'Life of Scott', by J. G. Lockhart (1842), +pp. 80-83, 94.)] ] + + +[Footnote 40: "For every one knows little Matt's an M.P."--See a poem to +Mr. Lewis, in 'The Statesman', supposed to be written by Mr. Jekyll. + +[Joseph Jekyll (d. 1837) was celebrated for his witticisms and metrical +'jeux d'esprit' which he contributed to the 'Morning Chronicle' and the +'Evening Statesman'. His election as M.P. for Calne in 1787, at the +nomination of Lord Lansdowne, gave rise to 'Jekyll, A Political Eclogue' +(see 'The Rottiad' (1799), pp. 219-224). He was a favourite with the +Prince Regent, at whose instance he was appointed a Master in Chancery +in 1815.]] + + +[Footnote 41: The reader, who may wish for an explanation of this, may +refer to "Strangford's Camoens," p. 127, note to p. 56, or to the last +page of the 'Edinburgh Review' of Strangford's Camoens. + +[Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, sixth Viscount Strangford (1780-1855), +published 'Translations from the Portuguese by Luis de Camoens' in 1803. +The note to which Byron refers is on the canzonet 'Naoe sei quem +assella', "Thou hast an eye of tender blue." It runs thus: + + "Locks of auburn and eyes of blue have ever been dear to the sons of + song.... Sterne even considers them as indicative of qualities the + most amiable.... The Translator does not wish to deem ... this + unfounded. He is, however, aware of the danger to which such a + confession exposes him--but he flies for protection to the temple of + AUREA VENUS." + +It may be added that Byron's own locks were auburn, and his eyes a +greyish-blue.]] + + +[Footnote 42: It is also to be remarked, that the things given to the +public as poems of Camoens are no more to be found in the original +Portuguese, than in the Song of Solomon.] + + +[Footnote 43: See his various Biographies of defunct Painters, etc. +[William Hayley (1745-1820) published 'The Triumphs of Temper' in 1781, +and 'The Triumph of Music' in 1804. His biography of Milton appeared in +1796, of Cowper in 1803-4, of Romney in 1809. He had produced, among +other plays, 'The Happy Prescription' and 'The Two Connoisseurs' in +1784. In 1808 he would be regarded as out of date, "hobbling on" behind +younger rivals in the race (see E.B., I. 923). For his life and works, +see Southey's article in the 'Quarterly Review' (vol. xxxi. p. 263). The +appeal to "tarts" to "spare the text," is possibly an echo of 'The +Dunciad', i. 155, 156-- + + "Of these twelve volumes, twelve of amplest size, + Redeemed from topers and defrauded pies." + +The meaning of the appeal is fixed by such a passage as this from 'The +Blues', where the company discuss Wordsworth's appointment to a +Collectorship of Stamps-- + + "'Inkle'. + I shall think of him oft when I buy a new hat; + There his works will appear. + + "'Lady Bluemount'. + Sir, they reach to the Ganges. + + "'Inkle'. + I sha'n't go so far. I can have them at Grange's." + +Grange's was a well-known pastry-cook's in Piccadilly. In Pierce Egan's +'Life in London' (ed. 1821), p. 70, 'note' 1, the author writes, "As I +sincerely hope that this work will shrink from the touch of a +pastry-cook, and also avoid the foul uses of a trunk-maker ... I feel +induced now to describe, for the benefit of posterity, the pedigree of a +Dandy in 1820."] + + +[Footnote 44: Hayley's two most notorious verse productions are +'Triumphs of Temper' and 'The Triumph of Music'. He has also written +much Comedy in rhyme, Epistles, etc., etc. As he is rather an elegant +writer of notes and biography, let us recommend POPE'S advice to +WYCHERLEY to Mr. H.'s consideration, viz., "to convert poetry into +prose," which may be easily done by taking away the final syllable of +each couplet.] + + +[Footnote 45: Lines 319-326 do not form part of the original 'MS'. A +slip of paper which contains a fair copy of the lines in Byron's +handwriting has been, with other fragments, bound up with Dallas's copy +of 'British Bards'. In the 'MS'. this place is taken by a passage and +its pendant note, which Byron omitted at the request of Dallas, who was +a friend of Pratt's:-- + + + "In verse most stale, unprofitable, flat-- + Come, let us change the scene, and ''glean'' with Pratt; + In him an author's luckless lot behold, + Condemned to make the books which once he sold: + Degraded man! again resume thy trade-- + The votaries of the Muse are ill repaid, + Though daily puffs once more invite to buy + A new edition of thy 'Sympathy.'" + + +"Mr. Pratt, once a Bath bookseller, now a London author, has written as +much, to as little purpose, as any of his scribbling contemporaries. Mr. +P.'s 'Sympathy' is in rhyme; but his prose productions are the most +voluminous." + +Samuel Jackson Pratt (1749-1814), actor, itinerant lecturer, poet of the +Cruscan school, tragedian, and novelist, published a large number of +volumes. His 'Gleanings' in England, Holland, Wales, and Westphalia +attained some reputation. His 'Sympathy; a Poem' (1788) passed through +several editions. His pseudonym was Courtney Melmoth. He was a patron of +the cobbler-poet, Blacket] ] + + +[Footnote 46: Mr. Grahame has poured forth two volumes of Cant, under +the name of 'Sabbath Walks' and 'Biblical Pictures'. [James Grahame +(1765-1811), a lawyer, who subsequently took Holy Orders. 'The Sabbath', +a poem, was published anonymously in 1804; and to a second edition were +added 'Sabbath Walks'. 'Biblical Pictures' appeared in 1807.] + + +[Footnote 47: The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles (1768-1850). His edition of +Pope's 'Works', in ten vols., which stirred Byron's gall, appeared in +1807. The 'Fall of Empires', Tyre, Carthage, etc., is the subject of +part of the third book of 'The Spirit of Discovery by Sea' (1805). Lines +"To a Withered Leaf," are, perhaps, of later date; but the "sear +tresses" and "shivering leaves" of "Autumn's gradual gloom" are familiar +images in his earlier poems. Byron's senior by twenty years, he was +destined to outlive him by more than a quarter of a century; but when +'English Bards, etc.', was in progress, he was little more than +middle-aged, and the "three score years" must have been written in the +spirit of prophecy. As it chanced, the last word rested with him, and it +was a generous one. Addressing Moore, in 1824, he says ('Childe Harold's +Last Pilgrimage')-- + + + "So Harold ends, in Greece, his pilgrimage! + There fitly ending--in that land renown'd, + Whose mighty Genius lives in Glory's page,-- + He on the Muses' consecrated ground, + Sinking to rest, while his young brows are bound + With their unfading wreath!" + + +Among his poems are a "Sonnet to Oxford," and "Stanzas on hearing the +Bells of Ostend."] + + + +[Footnote 48: "Awake a louder," etc., is the first line in BOWLES'S +'Spirit of Discovery': a very spirited and pretty dwarf Epic. Among +other exquisite lines we have the following:-- + + ----"A kiss + Stole on the list'ning silence, never yet + Here heard; they trembled even as if the power," etc., etc. + + +That is, the woods of Madeira trembled to a kiss; very much astonished, +as well they might be, at such a phenomenon. + + "Mis-quoted and misunderstood by me; but not intentionally. It was not + the 'woods,' but the people in them who trembled--why, Heaven only + knows--unless they were overheard making this prodigious smack."-B., + 1816.] + + + +[Footnote 49: The episode above alluded to is the story of "Robert a +Machin" and "Anna d'Arfet," a pair of constant lovers, who performed the +kiss above mentioned, that startled the woods of Madeira. [See Byron's +letter to Murray, Feb. 7, 1821, "On Bowies' Strictures," 'Life', p. +688.]] + + +[Footnote 50: CURLL is one of the Heroes of the 'Dunciad', and was a +bookseller. Lord Fanny is the poetical name of Lord HERVEY, author of +'Lines to the Imitator of Horace'.] + + +[Footnote 51: Lord BOLINGBROKE hired MALLET to traduce POPE after his +decease, because the poet had retained some copies of a work by Lord +Bolingbroke--the "Patriot King,"--which that splendid, but malignant +genius had ordered to be destroyed.] + + +[Footnote 52: Dennis the critic, and Ralph the rhymester:-- + + "Silence, ye Wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, + Making Night hideous: answer him, ye owls!" + DUNCIAD. + +[Book III. II. 165, 166, Pope wrote, "And makes night," etc.]] + + + +[Footnote 53: See Bowles's late edition of Pope's works, for which he +received three hundred pounds. [Twelve hundred guineas.--'British +Bards'.] Thus Mr. B. has experienced how much easier it is to profit by +the reputation of another, than to elevate his own. ["Too savage all +this on Bowles," wrote Byron, in 1816, but he afterwards returned to his +original sentiments. "Although," he says (Feb. 7, 1821), "I regret +having published 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', the part which I +regret the least is that which regards Mr. Bowles, with reference to +Pope. Whilst I was writing that publication, in 1807 and 1808, Mr. +Hobhouse was desirous that I should express our mutual opinion of Pope, +and of Mr. Bowles's edition of his works. As I had completed my outline, +and felt lazy, I requested that 'he' would do so. He did it. His +fourteen lines on Bowles's Pope are in the first edition of 'English +Bards', and are quite as severe, and much more poetical, than my own, in +the second. On reprinting the work, as I put my name to it, I omitted +Mr. Hobhouse's lines, by which the work gained less than Mr. Bowles.... +I am grieved to say that, in reading over those lines, I repent of their +having so far fallen short of what I meant to express upon the subject +of his edition of Pope's works" ('Life', pp. 688, 689). The lines +supplied by Hobhouse are here subjoined:-- + + "Stick to thy sonnets, man!--at least they sell. + Or take the only path that open lies + For modern worthies who would hope to rise: + Fix on some well-known name, and, bit by bit, + Pare off the merits of his worth and wit: + On each alike employ the critic's knife, + And when a comment fails, prefix a life; + Hint certain failings, faults before unknown, + Review forgotten lies, and add your own; + Let no disease, let no misfortune 'scape, + And print, if luckily deformed, his shape: + Thus shall the world, quite undeceived at last, + Cleave to their present wits, and quit their past; + Bards once revered no more with favour view, + But give their modern sonneteers their due; + Thus with the dead may living merit cope, + Thus Bowles may triumph o'er the shade of Pope."]] + + + +[Footnote 54: + + "'Helicon' is a mountain, and not a fish-pond. It should have been + 'Hippocrene.'"--B., 1816. + +[The correction was made in the Fifth Edition.]] + + + +[Footnote 55: Mr. Cottle, Amos, Joseph, I don't know which, but one or +both, once sellers of books they did not write, and now writers of books +they do not sell, have published a pair of Epics--'Alfred' (poor Alfred! +Pye has been at him too!)--'Alfred' and the 'Fall of Cambria'. + + "All right. I saw some letters of this fellow (Jh. Cottle) to an + unfortunate poetess, whose productions, which the poor woman by no + means thought vainly of, he attacked so roughly and bitterly, that I + could hardly regret assailing him, even were it unjust, which it is + not--for verily he is an ass."--B., 1816. + +[Compare 'Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin'-- + + "And Cottle, not he whom that Alfred made famous, + But Joseph of Bristol, the brother of Amos." + +The identity of the brothers Cottle appears to have been a matter +beneath the notice both of the authors of the 'Anti-Jacobin' and of +Byron. Amos Cottle, who died in 1800 (see Lamb's Letter to Coleridge of +Oct. 9, 1800; 'Letters of C. Lamb', 1888, i. 140), was the author of a +'Translation of the Edda of Soemund', published in 1797. Joseph Cottle, +'inter alia', published 'Alfred' in 1801, and 'The Fall of Cambria', +1807. An 'Expostulatory Epistle', in which Joseph avenges Amos and +solemnly castigates the author of 'Don Juan', was issued in 1819 (see +Lamb's Letter to Cottle, Nov. 5, 1819), and was reprinted in the Memoir +of Amos Cottle, inserted in his brother's 'Early Recollections of +Coleridge' (London, 1837, i. 119). The "unfortunate poetess" was, +probably, Ann Yearsley, the Bristol milk-woman. Wordsworth, too (see +'Recollections of the Table-Talk of S. Rogers', 1856, p. 235), dissuaded +her from publishing her poems. Roughness and bitterness were not among +Cottle's faults or foibles, and it is possible that Byron misconceived +the purport of the correspondence.]] + + + +[Footnote 56: Mr. Maurice hath manufactured the component parts of a +ponderous quarto, upon the beauties of "Richmond Hill," and the +like:--it also takes in a charming view of Turnham Green, Hammersmith, +Brentford, Old and New, and the parts adjacent. [The Rev. Thomas Maurice +(1754-1824) had this at least in common with Byron--that his 'History of +Ancient and Modern Hindostan' was severely attacked in the 'Edinburgh +Review'. He published a vindication of his work in 1805. He must have +confined his dulness to his poems ('Richmond Hill' (1807), etc.), for +his 'Memoirs' (1819) are amusing, and, though otherwise blameless, he +left behind him the reputation of an "indiscriminate enjoyment" of +literary and other society. Lady Anne Hamilton alludes to him in 'Epics +of the Ton' (1807), p. 165-- + + "Or warmed like Maurice by Museum fire, + From Ganges dragged a hurdy-gurdy lyre." + +He was assistant keeper of MSS. at the British Museum from 1799 till his +death.]] + + + +[Footnote 57: Poor MONTGOMERY, though praised by every English Review, +has been bitterly reviled by the 'Edinburgh'. After all, the Bard of +Sheffield is a man of considerable genius. His 'Wanderer of Switzerland' +is worth a thousand 'Lyrical Ballads', and at least fifty 'Degraded +Epics'. + +[James Montgomery (1771-1854) was born in Ayrshire, but settled at +Sheffield, where he edited a newspaper, the 'Iris', a radical print, +which brought him into conflict with the authorities. His early poems +were held up to ridicule in the 'Edinburgh Review' by Jeffrey, in Jan. +1807. It was probably the following passage which provoked Byron's note: +"When every day is bringing forth some new work from the pen of Scott, +Campbell,... Wordsworth, and Southey, it is natural to feel some disgust +at the undistinguishing voracity which can swallow down these... verses +to a pillow." The 'Wanderer of Switzerland', which Byron said he +preferred to the 'Lyrical Ballads', was published in 1806. The allusion +in line 419 is to the first stanza of 'The Lyre'-- + + "Where the roving rill meand'red + Down the green, retiring vale, + Poor, forlorn Alaecus wandered, + Pale with thoughts--serenely pale." + +He is remembered chiefly as the writer of some admirable hymns. ('Vide +ante', p. 107, "Answer to a Beautiful Poem," and 'note'.)] + + + +[Footnote 58: Arthur's Seat; the hill which overhangs Edinburgh.] + + +[Footnote 59: Lines 439-527 are not in the 'MS.' The first draft of the +passage on Jeffrey, which appears to have found a place in 'British +Bards' and to have been afterwards cut out, runs as follows:-- + + + "Who has not heard in this enlightened age, + When all can criticise the historic page, + Who has not heard in James's Bigot Reign + Of Jefferies! monarch of the scourge, and chain, + Jefferies the wretch whose pestilential breath, + Like the dread Simoom, winged the shaft of Death; + The old, the young to Fate remorseless gave + Nor spared one victim from the common grave? + + "Such was the Judge of James's iron time, + When Law was Murder, Mercy was a crime, + Till from his throne by weary millions hurled + The Despot roamed in Exile through the world. + + "Years have rolled on;--in all the lists of Shame, + Who now can parallel a Jefferies' name? + With hand less mighty, but with heart as black + With voice as willing to decree the Rack, + With tongue envenomed, with intentions foul + The same in name and character and soul." + + +The first four lines of the above, which have been erased, are to be +found on p. 16 of 'British Bards.' Pages 17, 18, are wanting, and quarto +proofs of lines 438-527 have been inserted. Lines 528-539 appear for the +first time in the Fifth Edition.]] + + +[Footnote 60: "Too ferocious--this is mere insanity."--B., 1816. [The +comment applies to lines 432-453.]] + + +[Footnote 61: "All this is bad, because personal."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 62: In 1806, Messrs. Jeffrey and Moore met at Chalk Farm. The +duel was prevented by the interference of the Magistracy; and on +examination, the balls of the pistols were found to have evaporated. +This incident gave occasion to much waggery in the daily prints. [The +first four editions read, "the balls of the pistols, like the courage of +the combatants."] + +[The following disclaimer to the foregoing note appears in the MS. in +Leigh Hunt's copy of the Fourth Edition, 1811. It was first printed in +the Fifth Edition:--] + + "I am informed that Mr. Moore published at the time a disavowal of the + statements in the newspapers, as far as regarded himself; and, in + justice to him, I mention this circumstance. As I never heard of it + before, I cannot state the particulars, and was only made acquainted + with the fact very lately. November 4, 1811." + +[As a matter of fact, it was Jeffrey's pistol that was found to be +leadless.]] + + +[Footnote 63: The Tweed here behaved with proper decorum; it would have +been highly reprehensible in the English half of the river to have shown +the smallest symptom of apprehension.] + + +[Footnote 64: This display of sympathy on the part of the Tolbooth (the +principal prison in Edinburgh), which truly seems to have been most +affected on this occasion, is much to be commended. It was to be +apprehended, that the many unhappy criminals executed in the front might +have rendered the Edifice more callous. She is said to be of the softer +sex, because her delicacy of feeling on this day was truly feminine, +though, like most feminine impulses, perhaps a little selfish.] + + +[Footnote 65: Line 508. For "oat-fed phalanx," the Quarto Proof and +Editions 1-4 read "ranks illustrious." The correction is made in +'MS'. in the Annotated Edition. It was suggested that the motto of +the 'Edinburgh Review' should have been, "Musam tenui meditamur +avena."] + + +[Footnote 66: His Lordship has been much abroad, is a member of the +Athenian Society, and reviewer of Gell's 'Topography of Troy'. [George +Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), published in 1822 'An +Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture'. His +grandfather purchased Gight, the property which Mrs. Byron had sold to +pay her husband's debts. This may have been an additional reason for the +introduction of his name.]] + + +[Footnote 67: Mr. Herbert is a translator of Icelandic and other poetry. +One of the principal pieces is a 'Song on the Recovery of Thor's +Hammer': the translation is a pleasant chant in the vulgar tongue, and +endeth thus:-- + + + "Instead of money and rings, I wot, + The hammer's bruises were her lot. + Thus Odin's son his hammer got." + + +[William Herbert (1778-1847), son of the first Earl of Carnarvon, edited +'Musae Etonenses' in 1795, whilst he was still at school. He was one of +the earliest contributors to the 'Edinburgh Review'. At the time when +Byron was writing his satire, he was M.P. for Hampshire, but in 1814 he +took Orders. He was appointed Dean of Manchester in 1840, and +republished his poetical works, and among them his Icelandic +Translations or 'Horae Scandicae (Miscellaneous Works', 2 vols.), in +1842.]] + + +[Footnote 68: The Rev. SYDNEY SMITH, the reputed Author of 'Peter +Plymley's Letters', and sundry criticisms. [Sydney Smith (1771-1845), +the "witty Canon of St. Paul's," was one of the founders, and for a +short time (1802) the editor, of the 'Edinburgh Review'. His 'Letters on +the Catholicks, from Peter Plymley to his brother Abraham', appeared in +1807-8.] + + +[Footnote 69: Mr. HALLAM reviewed PAYNE KNIGHT'S "Taste," and was +exceedingly severe on some Greek verses therein. It was not discovered +that the lines were Pindar's till the press rendered it impossible to +cancel the critique, which still stands an everlasting monument of +Hallam's ingenuity.--['Note added to Second Edition': + + Hallam is incensed because he is falsely accused, seeing that he never + dineth at Holland House. If this be true, I am sorry--not for having + said so, but on his account, as I understand his Lordship's feasts are + preferable to his compositions. If he did not review Lord HOLLAND'S + performance, I am glad; because it must have been painful to read, and + irksome to praise it. If Mr. HALLAM will tell me who did review it, + the real name shall find a place in the text; provided, nevertheless, + the said name be of two orthodox musical syllables, and will come into + the verse: till then, HALLAM must stand for want of a better.] + +[Henry Hallam (1777-1859), author of 'Europe during the Middle Ages', +1808, etc. + + "This," said Byron, "is the style in which history ought to be + written, if it is wished to impress it on the memory" + +('Lady Blessington's Conversations with Lord Byron', 1834, p. 213). The +article in question was written by Dr. John Allen, Lord Holland's +domestic physician, and Byron was misled by the similarity of sound in +the two names (see H. C. Robinson's 'Diary', i. 277), or repeated what +Hodgson had told him (see Introduction, and Letter 102, 'note' i). + +For a disproof that Hallam wrote the article, see 'Gent. Mag'., 1830, +pt. i. p. 389; and for an allusion to the mistake in the review, compare +'All the Talents', p. 96, and 'note'. + + "Spare me not 'Chronicles' and 'Sunday News', + Spare me not 'Pamphleteers' and 'Scotch Reviews'" + +"The best literary joke I recollect is its [the 'Edin. Rev'.] attempting +to prove some of the Grecian Pindar rank non sense, supposing it to have +been written by Mr. P. Knight."] + + +[Footnote 70: Pillans is a [private, 'MS'.] tutor at Eton. [James +Pillans (1778-1864), Rector of the High School, and Professor of +Humanity in the University, Edinburgh. Byron probably assumed that the +review of Hodgson's 'Translation of Juvenal', in the 'Edinburgh Review', +April, 1808, was by him.]] + + +Footnote 71: The Honourable G. Lambe reviewed "BERESFORD'S Miseries," +and is moreover Author of a farce enacted with much applause at the +Priory, Stanmore; and damned with great expedition at the late theatre, +Covent Garden. It was entitled 'Whistle for It'. [See note, 'supra', on +line 57.] His review of James Beresford's 'Miseries of Human Life; or +the Last Groans of Timothy Testy and Samuel Sensitive', appeared in the +'Edinburgh Review 'for Oct. 1806.] + + +[Footnote: 72: Mr. Brougham, in No. XXV. of the 'Edinburgh Review', +throughout the article concerning Don Pedro de Cevallos, has displayed +more politics than policy; many of the worthy burgesses of Edinburgh +being so incensed at the infamous principles it evinces, as to have +withdrawn their subscriptions.--[Here followed, in the First Edition: +"The name of this personage is pronounced Broom in the south, but the +truly northern and 'musical' pronunciation is BROUGH-AM, in two +syllables;" but for this, Byron substituted in the Second Edition: "It +seems that Mr. Brougham is not a Pict, as I supposed, but a Borderer, +and his name is pronounced Broom, from Trent to Tay:--so be it." + +The title of the work was "Exposition of the Practices and Machinations +which led to the usurpation of the Crown of Spain, and the means adopted +by the Emperor of the French to carry it into execution," by Don Pedro +Cevallos. The article, which appeared in Oct. 1808, was the joint +composition of Jeffrey and Brougham, and proved a turning-point in the +political development of the 'Review'.]] + + +[Footnote 73: I ought to apologise to the worthy Deities for introducing +a new Goddess with short petticoats to their notice: but, alas! what was +to be done? I could not say Caledonia's Genius, it being well known +there is no genius to be found from Clackmannan to Caithness; yet +without supernatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved? The national +"Kelpies" are too unpoetical, and the "Brownies" and "gude neighbours" +(spirits of a good disposition) refused to extricate him. A Goddess, +therefore, has been called for the purpose; and great ought to be the +gratitude of Jeffrey, seeing it is the only communication he ever held, +or is likely to hold, with anything heavenly.] + +[Footnote 74: Lines 528-539 appeared for the first time in the Fifth +Edition.] + + +[Footnote 75: See the colour of the back binding of the 'Edinburgh +Review'.] + +[Footnote 76: "Bad enough, and on mistaken grounds too."--B., 1816. [The +comment applies to the whole passage on Lord Holland.] + +[Henry Richard Vassall, third Lord Holland (1773-1840), to whom Byron +dedicated the 'Bride of Abydos' (1813). His 'Life of Lope de Vega' (see +note 4) was published in 1806, and 'Three Comedies from the Spanish', in +1807.]] + + +[Footnote 77: Henry Petty (1780-1863) succeeded his brother as third +Marquis of Lansdowne in 1809. He was a regular attendant at the social +and political gatherings of his relative, Lord Holland; and as Holland +House was regarded as one of the main rallying-points of the Whig party +and of the Edinburgh Reviewers, the words, "whipper-in and hunts-man," +probably refer to their exertions in this respect.] + + +[Footnote 78: See note 1, p. 337. (Footnote 69--Text Ed.)] + + +[Footnote 79: Lord Holland has translated some specimens of Lope de +Vega, inserted in his life of the author. Both are bepraised by his +'disinterested' guests.] + + +[Footnote 80: Certain it is, her ladyship is suspected of having +displayed her matchless wit in the 'Edinburgh Review'. However that may +be, we know from good authority, that the manuscripts are submitted to +her perusal--no doubt, for correction.] + + +[Footnote 81: In the melo-drama of 'Tekeli', that heroic prince is clapt +into a barrel on the stage; a new asylum for distressed heroes.--[In the +'MS'. and 'British Bards' the note stands thus:--"In the melodrama of +'Tekeli', that heroic prince is clapt into a barrel on the stage, and +Count Everard in the fortress hides himself in a green-house built +expressly for the occasion. 'Tis a pity that Theodore Hook, who is +really a man of talent, should confine his genius to such paltry +productions as 'The Fortress, Music Mad', etc. etc." Theodore Hook +(1788-1841) produced 'Tekeli' in 1806. 'Fortress' and 'Music Mad' were +played in 1807. He had written some eight or ten popular plays before he +was twenty-one.]] + + +[Footnote 82: 'Vide post', 1. 591, note 3.] + + +[Footnote 83: William Henry West Betty (1791-1874) ("the Young Roscius") +made his first appearance on the London stage as Selim, disguised as +Achmet, in 'Barbarossa', Dec. 1, 1804, and his last, as a boy actor, in +'Tancred', and Captain Flash in 'Miss in her Teens', Mar. 17, 1806, but +acted in the provinces till 1808. So great was the excitement on the +occasion of his 'debut', that the military were held in readiness to +assist in keeping order. Having made a large fortune, he finally retired +from the stage in 1824, and passed the last fifty years of his life in +retirement, surviving his fame by more than half a century.] + + +[Footnote 84: All these are favourite expressions of Mr. Reynolds, and +prominent in his comedies, living and defunct. [Frederick Reynolds +(1764-1841) produced nearly one hundred plays, one of the most +successful of which was 'The Caravan, or the Driver and his Dog'. The +text alludes to his endeavour to introduce the language of ordinary life +on the stage. Compare 'The Children of Apollo', p. 9-- + + "But in his diction Reynolds grossly errs; + For whether the love hero smiles or mourns, + 'Tis oh! and ah! and ah! and oh! by turns."]] + + + +[Footnote 85: James Kenney (1780-1849). Among his very numerous plays, +the most successful were 'Raising the Wind' (1803), and 'Sweethearts and +Wives' (1823). 'The World' was brought out at Covent Garden, March 30, +1808, and had a considerable run. He was intimate with Charles and Mary +Lamb (see 'Letters of Charles Lamb', ii. 16, 44).] + + +[Footnote 85a: Mr. T. Sheridan, the new Manager of Drury Lane theatre, +stripped the Tragedy of 'Bonduca' ['Caratach' in the original 'MS'.] of +the dialogue, and exhibited the scenes as the spectacle of 'Caractacus'. +Was this worthy of his sire? or of himself? [Thomas Sheridan +(1775-1817), most famous as the son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and +father of Lady Dufferin, Mrs. Norton, and the Duchess of Somerset, was +author of several plays. His 'Bonduca' was played at Covent Garden, May +3, 1808. The following answer to a real or fictitious correspondent, in +the 'European Magazine' for May, 1808, is an indication of contemporary +opinion: "The Fishwoman's letter to the author of 'Caractacus' on the +art of gutting is inadmissible." For anecdotes of Thomas Sheridan, see +Angelo's 'Reminiscences', 1828, ii. 170-175. See, too, 'Epics of the +Ton', p. 264.]] + + +[Footnote 86: George Colman, the younger (1762-1836), wrote numerous +dramas, several of which, 'e.g. The Iron Chest' (1796), 'John Bull' +(1803), 'The Heir-at-Law' (1808), have been popular with more than one +generation of playgoers. An amusing companion, and a favourite at Court, +he was appointed Lieutenant of the Yeomen of the Guard, and examiner of +plays by Royal favour, but his reckless mode of life kept him always in +difficulties. 'John Bull' is referred to in 'Hints from Horace', line +166.]] + + +[Footnote 87: Richard Cumberland (1732-1811), the original of Sir +Fretful Plagiary in 'The Critic', a man of varied abilities, wrote +poetry, plays, novels, classical translations, and works of religious +controversy. He was successively Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, +secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and secretary to the Board +of Trade. His best known plays are 'The West Indian, The Wheels of +Fortune', and 'The Jew'. He published his 'Memoirs' in 1806-7.]] + + +[Footnote 88: Sheridan's translation of 'Pizarro', by Kotzebue, was +first played at Drury Lane, 1799. Southey wrote of it, "It is impossible +to sink below 'Pizarro'. Kotzebue's play might have passed for the worst +possible if Sheridan had not proved the possibility of making it worse" +(Southey's 'Letters', i. 87). Gifford alludes to it in a note to 'The +Maeviad' as "the translation so maliciously attributed to Sheridan."] + + +[Footnote 89: In all editions, previous to the fifth, it was, "Kemble +lives to tread." Byron used to say, that, of actors, "Cooke was the most +natural, Kemble the most supernatural, Kean the medium between the two; +but that Mrs. Siddons was worth them all put together." Such effect, +however, had Kean's acting on his mind, that once, on seeing him play +Sir Giles Overreach, he was seized with a fit.] + + +[Footnote 90: See 'supra', line 562.] + + +[Footnote 91: Andrew Cherry (1762-1812) acted many parts in Ireland and +in the provinces, and for a few years appeared at Drury Lane. He was +popular in Dublin, where he was known as "Little Cherry." He was painted +as Lazarillo in Jephson's 'Two Strings to Your Bow'. He wrote 'The +Travellers' (1806), 'Peter the Great' (1807), and other plays.]] + + + +[Footnote 92: Mr. [now Sir Lumley] Skeffington is the illustrious author +of 'The Sleeping Beauty;' and some comedies, particularly 'Maids and +Bachelors: Baccalaurii' baculo magis quam lauro digni. + +[Lumley St. George (afterwards Sir Lumley) Skeffington (1768-1850). +Besides the plays mentioned in the note, he wrote 'The Maid of Honour' +(1803) and 'The Mysterious Bride' (1808). 'Amatory Verses, by Tom +Shuffleton of the Middle Temple' (1815), are attributed to his pen. They +are prefaced by a dedicatory letter to Byron, which includes a coarse +but clever skit in the style of 'English Bards'. "Great Skeffington" was +a great dandy. According to Capt. Gronow ('Reminiscences', i. 63), "he +used to paint his face so that he looked like a French toy; he dressed +'a la Robespierre', and practised all the follies;... was remarkable for +his politeness and courtly manners... You always knew of his approach by +an 'avant courier' of sweet smell." His play 'The Sleeping Beauty' had a +considerable vogue.]] + + + +[Footnote 93: Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), natural son of Charles +Dibdin the elder, made his first appearance on the stage at the age of +four, playing Cupid to Mrs. Siddons' Venus at the Shakespearian Jubilee +in 1775. One of his best known pieces is 'The Jew and the Doctor' +(1798). His pantomime, 'Mother Goose', in which Grimaldi took a part, +was played at Covent Garden in 1807, and is said to have brought the +management L20,000.] + + +[Footnote 94: Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury Lane +theatre--as such, Mr. Skeffington is much indebted to him.] + + +[Footnote 95: Naldi and Catalani require little notice; for the visage +of the one, and the salary of the other, will enable us long to +recollect these amusing vagabonds. Besides, we are still black and blue +from the squeeze on the first night of the Lady's appearance in +trousers. [Guiseppe Naldi (1770-1820) made his 'debut' on the London +stage at the King's Theatre in April, 1806. In conjunction with Catalani +and Braham, he gave concerts at Willis' Rooms. Angelica Catalani (circ. +1785-1849), a famous soprano, Italian by birth and training, made her +'debut' at Venice in 1795. She remained in England for eight years +(1806-14). Her first appearance in England was at the King's Theatre, in +Portogallo's 'Semiramide,' in 1806. Her large salary was one of the +causes which provoked the O. P. (Old Prices) Riots in December, 1809, at +Covent Garden. Praed says of his 'Ball Room Belle'-- + + "She warbled Handel: it was grand; + She made the Catalani jealous."] + + +[Footnote 96: Moore says that the following twenty lines were struck off +one night after Lord Byron's return from the Opera, and sent the next +morning to the printer. The date of the letter to Dallas, with which the +lines were enclosed, suggests that the representation which provoked the +outburst was that of 'I Villegiatori Rezzani,' at the King's Theatre, +February 21, 1809. The first piece, in which Naldi and Catalani were the +principal singers, was followed by d'Egville's musical extravaganza, +'Don Quichotte, on les Noces de Gamache.' In the 'corps de ballet' were +Deshayes, for many years master of the 'ballet' at the King's Theatre; +Miss Gayton, who had played a Sylph at Drury Lane as early as 1806 (she +was married, March 18, 1809, to the Rev. William Murray, brother of Sir +James Pulteney, Bart.--'Morning Chronicle,' December 30, 1810), and +Mademoiselle Angiolini, "elegant of figure, 'petite', but finely formed, +with the manner of Vestris." Mademoiselle Presle does not seem to have +taken part in 'Don Quichotte;' but she was well known as 'premiere +danseuse' in 'La Belle Laitiere, La Fete Chinoise,' and other ballets.]] + + +[Footnote 97: For "whet" Editions 1-5 read "raise." Lines 632-637 are +marked "good" in the Annotated Fourth Edition.] + + + +[Footnote 98: To prevent any blunder, such as mistaking a street for a +man, I beg leave to state, that it is the institution, and not the Duke +of that name, which is here alluded to. + +A gentleman, with whom I am slightly acquainted, lost in the Argyle +Rooms several thousand pounds at Backgammon.[A] It is but justice to the +manager in this instance to say, that some degree of disapprobation was +manifested: but why are the implements of gaming allowed in a place +devoted to the society of both sexes? A pleasant thing for the wives and +daughters of those who are blessed or cursed with such connections, to +hear the Billiard-Balls rattling in one room, and the dice in another! +That this is the case I myself can testify, as a late unworthy member of +an Institution which materially affects the morals of the higher orders, +while the lower may not even move to the sound of a tabor and fiddle, +without a chance of indictment for riotous behaviour. [The Argyle +Institution, founded by Colonel Greville, flourished many years before +the Argyll Rooms were built by Nash in 1818. This mention of Greville's +name caused him to demand an explanation from Byron, but the matter was +amicably settled by Moore and G. F. Leckie, who acted on behalf of the +disputants (see 'Life', pp. 160, 161).]] + +[Sub-Footnote A: "True. It was Billy Way who lost the money. I knew him, +and was a subscriber to the Argyle at the time of this event."--B., +1816.] + + + +[Footnote 99: Petronius, "Arbiter elegantiarum" to Nero, "and a very +pretty fellow in his day," as Mr. Congreve's "Old Bachelor" saith of +Hannibal.] + + +[Footnote 100: "We are authorised to state that Mr. Greville, who has a +small party at his private assembly rooms at the Argyle, will receive +from 10 to 12 [p.m.] masks who have Mrs. Chichester's Institution +tickets.--Morning Post, June 7, 1809.] + + +[Footnote 101: See note on line 686, infra.] + + +[Footnote 102: 'Clodius'--"Mutato nomine de te Fabula narratur."--['MS'] +[The allusion is to the well-known incidents of his intrigue with +Pompeia, Caesar's wife, and his sacrilegious intrusion into the mysteries +of the Bona Dea. The Romans had a proverb, "Clodius accuset Moechos?" +(Juv., 'Sat.' ii. 27). That "Steenie" should lecture on the "turpitude +of incontinence!" ('The Fortunes of Nigel,' cap. xxxii.)]] + + +[Footnote 103: I knew the late Lord Falkland well. On Sunday night I +beheld him presiding at his own table, in all the honest pride of +hospitality; on Wednesday morning, at three o'clock, I saw stretched +before me all that remained of courage, feeling, and a host of passions. +He was a gallant and successful officer: his faults were the faults of a +sailor--as such, Britons will forgive them. ["His behaviour on the field +was worthy of a better fate, and his conduct on the bed of death evinced +all the firmness of a man without the farce of repentance--I say the +farce of repentance, for death-bed repentance is a farce, and as little +serviceable to the soul at such a moment as the surgeon to the body, +though both may be useful if taken in time. Some hireling in the papers +forged a tale about an agonized voice, etc. On mentioning the +circumstance to Mr. Heaviside, he exclaimed, 'Good God! what absurdity +to talk in this manner of one who died like a lion!'--he did +more."--'MS'] He died like a brave man in a better cause; for had he +fallen in like manner on the deck of the frigate to which he was just +appointed, his last moments would have been held up by his countrymen as +an example to succeeding heroes. + +[Charles John Carey, ninth Viscount Falkland, died from a wound received +in a duel with Mr. A. Powell on Feb. 28, 1809. (See Byron's letter to +his mother, March 6, 1809.) The story of "the agonized voice" may be +traced to a paragraph in the 'Morning Post,' March 2, 1809: "Lord +Falkland, after hearing the surgeon's opinion, said with a faltering +voice and as intelligibly as the agonized state of his body and mind +permitted, "I acquit Mr. Powell of all blame; in this transaction I +alone am culpable.'"]] + + +[Footnote 104: "Yes: and a precious chase they led me."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 105: "'Fool' enough, certainly, then, and no wiser +since."--B., 1816.] + +[Footnote 106: What would be the sentiments of the Persian Anacreon, +HAFIZ, could he rise from his splendid sepulchre at Sheeraz (where he +reposes with FERDOUSI and SADI, the Oriental Homer and Catullus), and +behold his name assumed by one STOTT of DROMORE, the most impudent and +execrable of literary poachers for the Daily Prints?] + + +[Footnote 107: Miles Peter Andrews (d. 1824) was the owner of large +powder-mills at Dartford. He was M.P. for Bewdley. He held a good social +position, but his intimate friends were actors and playwrights. His +'Better Late than Never' (which Reynolds and Topham helped him to write) +was played for the first time at Drury Lane, October 17, 1790, with +Kemble as Saville, and Mrs. Jordan as Augusta. He is mentioned in 'The +Baviad', l. 10; and in a note Gifford satirizes his prologue to +'Lorenzo', and describes him as an "industrious paragraph-monger."]] + + +[Footnote 108: In a manuscript fragment, bound in the same volume as +'British Bards', we find these lines:-- + + "In these, our times, with daily wonders big, + A Lettered peer is like a lettered pig; + Both know their Alphabet, but who, from thence, + Infers that peers or pigs have manly sense? + Still less that such should woo the graceful nine; + Parnassus was not made for lords and swine."] + + +[Footnote 109: Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon (1634-1685), +author of many translations and minor poems, endeavoured (circ. 1663) to +found an English literary academy.] + + +[Footnote 110: John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave (1658), Marquis of +Normanby (1694), Duke of Buckingham (1703) (1649-1721), wrote an 'Essay +upon Poetry', and several other works.] + + +[Footnote 111: Lines 727-740 were added after 'British Bards' had been +printed, and are included in the First Edition, but the appearance in +'British Bards' of lines 723-726 and 741-746, which have been cut out +from Mr. Murray's MS., forms one of many proofs as to the identity of +the text of the 'MS'. and the printed Quarto.]] + + +[Footnote 112: Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, K.G. (1748-1825), +Viceroy of Ireland, 1780-1782, and Privy Seal, etc., published +'Tragedies and Poems', 1801. He was Byron's first cousin once removed, +and his guardian. 'Poems Original and Translated,' were dedicated to +Lord Carlisle, and, as an erased MS. addition to 'British Bards' +testifies, he was to have been excepted from the roll of titled +poetasters-- + + "Ah, who would take their titles from their rhymes? + On 'one' alone Apollo deigns to smile, + And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle." + +Before, however, the revised Satire was sent to the press, Carlisle +ignored his cousin's request to introduce him on taking his seat in the +House of Lords, and, to avenge the slight, eighteen lines of castigation +supplanted the flattering couplet. Lord Carlisle suffered from a nervous +disorder, and Byron was informed that some readers had scented an +allusion in the words "paralytic puling." "I thank Heaven," he +exclaimed, "I did not know it; and would not, could not, if I had. I +must naturally be the last person to be pointed on defects or maladies." + +In 1814 he consulted Rogers on the chance of conciliating Carlisle, and +in 'Childe Harold', iii. 29, he laments the loss of the "young and +gallant Howard" (Carlisle's youngest son) at Waterloo, and admits that +"he did his sire some wrong." But, according to Medwin ('Conversations', +1824, p. 362), who prints an excellent parody on Carlisle's lines +addressed to Lady Holland in 1822, in which he urges her to decline the +legacy of Napoleon's snuff-box, Byron made fun of his "noble relative" +to the end of the chapter ('vide post', p. 370, 'note' 2).]] + + + +[Footnote 113: The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an +eighteen-penny pamphlet on the state of the Stage, and offers his plan +for building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his Lordship will be +permitted to bring forward anything for the Stage--except his own +tragedies. [This pamphlet was entitled 'Thoughts upon the present +condition of the stage, and upon the construction of a new Theatre', +anon. 1808.] + +Line 732. None of the earlier editions, including the fifth and Murray, +1831, insert "and" between "petit-maitre" and "pamphleteer." No doubt +Byron sounded the final syllable of "maitre," 'anglice' "mailer."]] + + + +[Footnote 114: + + "Doff that lion's hide, + And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs." + + SHAKESPEARE, 'King John.' + +Lord Carlisle's works, most resplendently bound, form a conspicuous +ornament to his book-shelves:-- + + "The rest is all but [only, MS.] leather and prunella." + +"Wrong also--the provocation was not sufficient to justify such +acerbity."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 115: 'All the Blocks, or an Antidote to "All the Talents"' by +Flagellum (W. H. Ireland), London, 1807: 'The Groan of the Talents, or +Private Sentiments on Public Occasions,' 1807; "Gr--vile Agonistes, 'A +Dramatic Poem, 1807,' etc., etc."] + + +[Footnote 116: "MELVILLE'S Mantle," a parody on 'Elijah's Mantle,' a +poem. ['Elijah's Mantle, being verses occasioned by the death of that +illustrious statesman, the Right Hon. W. Pitt.' Dedicated to the Right +Rev. the Lord Bishop of Lincoln (1807), was written by James Sayer. +'Melville's Mantle, being a Parody on the poem entitled "Elijah's +Mantle"' was published by Budd, 1807. 'A Monody on the death of the R. +H. C. J. Fox,' by Richard Payne Knight, was printed for J. Payne, +1806-7. Another "Monody," 'Lines written on returning from the Funeral +of the R. H. C. J. Fox, Friday Oct'. 10, 1806, addressed to Lord +Holland, was by M. G. Lewis, and there were others.]] + + + +[Footnote 117: This lovely little Jessica, the daughter of the noted Jew +King, seems to be a follower of the Della Crusca school, and has +published two volumes of very respectable absurdities in rhyme, as times +go; besides sundry novels in the style of the first edition of 'The +Monk.' + +"She since married the 'Morning Post'--an exceeding good match; and is +now dead--which is better."--B., 1816. [The last seven words are in +pencil, and, possibly, by another hand. The novelist "Rosa," the +daughter of "Jew King," the lordly money-lender who lived in Clarges +Street, and drove a yellow chariot, may possibly be confounded with +"Rosa Matilda," Mrs. Byrne (Gronow, 'Rem.' (1889), i. 132-136). (See +note 1, p. 358.)] + + + +[Footnote 118: Lines 759, 760 were added for the first time in the +Fourth Edition.] + + +[Footnote 119: Lines 756-764, with variant ii., refer to the Della +Cruscan school, attacked by Gifford in 'The Baviad' and 'The Maeviad.' +Robert Merry (1755-1798), together with Mrs. Piozzi, Bertie Greatheed, +William Parsons, and some Italian friends, formed a literary society +called the 'Oziosi' at Florence, where they published 'The Arno +Miscellany' (1784) and 'The Florence Miscellany' (1785), consisting of +verses in which the authors "say kind things of each other" (Preface to +'The Florence Miscellany,' by Mrs. Piozzi). In 1787 Merry, who had +become a member of the Della Cruscan Academy at Florence, returned to +London, and wrote in the 'World' (then edited by Captain Topham) a +sonnet on "Love," under the signature of "Della Crusca." He was answered +by Mrs. Hannah Cowley, 'nee' Parkhouse (1743-1809), famous as the +authoress of 'The Belles Stratagem' (acted at Covent Garden in 1782), in +a sonnet called "The Pen," signed "Anna Matilda." The poetical +correspondence which followed was published in 'The British Album' +(1789, 2 vols.) by John Bell. Other writers connected with the Della +Cruscan school were "Perdita" Robinson, 'nee' Darby (1758-1800), who +published 'The Mistletoe' (1800) under the pseudonym "Laura Maria," and +to whom Merry addressed a poem quoted by Gifford in 'The Baviad' ('note' +to line 284); Charlotte Dacre, who married Byrne, Robinson's successor +as editor of the 'Morning Post,' wrote under the pseudonym of "Rosa +Matilda," and published poems ('Hours of Solitude,' 1805) and numerous +novels ('Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer's,' 1805; 'Zofloya;' 'The +Libertine,' etc.); and "Hafiz" (Robert Stott, of the 'Morning Post'). Of +these writers, "Della Crusca" Merry, and "Laura Maria" Robinson, were +dead; "Anna Matilda" Cowley, "Hafiz" Stott, and "Rosa Matilda" Dacre +were still living. John Bell (1745-1831), the publisher of 'The British +Album,' was also one of the proprietors of the 'Morning Post,' the +'Oracle,' and the 'World,' in all of which the Della Cruscans wrote. His +"Owls and Nightingales" are explained by a reference to 'The Baviad' (l. +284), where Gifford pretends to mistake the nightingale, to which Merry +("Arno") addressed some lines, for an owl. "On looking again, I find the +owl to be a nightingale!--N'importe."]] + + +[Footnote 120: These are the signatures of various worthies who figure +in the poetical departments of the newspapers.] + + + +[Footnote 121: "This was meant for poor Blackett, who was then +patronised by A. I. B." (Lady Byron); "but 'that' I did not know, or +this would not have been written, at least I think not."--B., 1816. + +[Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), said by Southey ('Letters,' i. 172) to +possess "force and rapidity," and to be endowed with "more powers than +Robert Bloomfield, and an intellect of higher pitch," was the son of a +labourer, and by trade a cobbler. He was brought into notice by S. J. +Pratt (who published Blacket's 'Remains' in 1811), and was befriended by +the Milbanke family. Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron, wrote (Sept. +2, 1809), "Seaham is at present the residence of a poet, by name Joseph +Blacket, one of the Burns-like and Dermody kind, whose genius is his +sole possession. I was yesterday in his company for the first time, and +was much pleased with his manners and conversation. He is extremely +diffident, his deportment is mild, and his countenance animated +melancholy and of a satirical turn. His poems certainly display a +superior genius and an enlarged mind...." Blacket died on the Seaham +estate in Sept., 1810, at the age of twenty-three. (See Byron's letter +to Dallas, June 28, 1811; his 'Epitaph for Joseph Blackett;' and 'Hints +from Horace,' l. 734.)]] + + + +[Footnote 122: Capel Lofft, Esq., the Maecenas of shoemakers, and +Preface-writer-General to distressed versemen; a kind of gratis +Accoucheur to those who wish to be delivered of rhyme, but do not know +how to bring it forth. + +[Capel Lofft (1751-1824), jurist, poet, critic, and horticulturist, +honoured himself by his kindly patronage of Robert Bloomfield +(1766-1823), who was born at Honington, near Lofft's estate of Throston, +Suffolk. Robert Bloomfield was brought up by his elder brothers-- +Nathaniel a tailor, and George a shoemaker. It was in the latter's +workshop that he composed 'The Farmer's Boy,' which was published (1798) +with the help of Lofft. He also wrote 'Rural Tales' (1802), 'Good +Tidings; or News from the Farm '(1804), 'The Banks of the Wye' (1811), +etc. (See 'Hints from Horace,' line 734, notes 1 and 2.)]] + + + +[Footnote 123: See Nathaniel Bloomfield's ode, elegy, or whatever he or +any one else chooses to call it, on the enclosures of "Honington Green." +[Nathaniel Bloomfield, as a matter of fact, called it a ballad.--'Poems' +(1803).]] + + +[Footnote 124: Vide 'Recollections of a Weaver in the Moorlands of +Staffordshire'. [The exact title is 'The Moorland Bard; or Poetical +Recollections of a Weaver', etc. 2 vols., 1807. The author was T. +Bakewell, who also wrote 'A Domestic Guide to Insanity', 1805.]] + + +[Footnote 125: It would be superfluous to recall to the mind of the +reader the authors of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and 'The Pleasures of +Hope', the most beautiful didactic poems in our language, if we except +Pope's 'Essay on Man': but so many poetasters have started up, that even +the names of Campbell and Rogers are become strange.--[Beneath this note +Byron scribbled, in 1816,-- + + "Pretty Miss Jaqueline + Had a nose aquiline, + And would assert rude + Things of Miss Gertrude, + While Mr. Marmion + Led a great army on, + Making Kehama look + Like a fierce Mameluke." + +"I have been reading," he says, in 1813, "'Memory' again, and 'Hope' +together, and retain all my preference of the former. His elegance is +really wonderful--there is no such a thing as a vulgar line in his +book." In the annotations of 1816, Byron remarks, "Rogers has not +fulfilled the promise of his first poems, but has still very great +merit."] + + +[Footnote 126: GIFFORD, author of the 'Baviad' and 'Maeviad', the first +satires of the day, and translator of Juvenal, [and one (though not the +best) of the translators of Juvenal.--'British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote 127: SOTHEBY, translator of WIELAND'S 'Oberon' and Virgil's +'Georgics', and author of 'Saul', an epic poem. [William Sotheby +(1757-1833) began life as a cavalry officer, but being a man of fortune, +sold out of the army and devoted himself to literature, and to the +patronage of men of letters. His translation of the 'Oberon' appeared in +1798, and of the 'Georgics' in 1800. 'Saul' was published in 1807. When +Byron was in Venice, he conceived a dislike to Sotheby, in the belief +that he had made an anonymous attack on some of his works; but, later, +his verdict was, "a good man, rhymes well (if not wisely); but is a +bore" ('Diary', 1821; 'Works', p. 509, note). He is "the solemn antique +man of rhyme" ('Beppo', st. lxiii.), and the "Botherby" of 'The Blues'; +and in 'Don Juan', Canto I. st. cxvi., we read-- + + "Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby's house + His Pegasus nor anything that's his."]] + + +[Footnote 128: MACNEIL, whose poems are deservedly popular, particularly +"SCOTLAND'S Scaith," and the "Waes of War," of which ten thousand copies +were sold in one month. [Hector Macneil (1746-1816) wrote in defence of +slavery in Jamaica, and was the author of several poems: 'Scotland's +Skaith, or the History of Will and Jean' (1795), 'The Waes of War, or +the Upshot of the History of Will and Jean' (1796), etc., etc.]] + + +[Footnote 129: Mr. GIFFORD promised publicly that the 'Baviad' and +'Maeviad' should not be his last original works: let him remember, "Mox +in reluctantes dracones." [Cf. 'New Morality,' lines 29-42.]] + + + +[Footnote 130: Henry Kirke White died at Cambridge, in October 1806, in +consequence of too much exertion in the pursuit of studies that would +have matured a mind which disease and poverty could not impair, and +which Death itself destroyed rather than subdued. His poems abound in +such beauties as must impress the reader with the liveliest regret that +so short a period was allotted to talents, which would have dignified +even the sacred functions he was destined to assume. + +[H. K. White (1785-1806) published 'Clifton Grove' and other poems in +1803. Two volumes of his 'Remains,' consisting of poems, letters, etc., +with a life by Southey, were issued in 1808. His tendency to epilepsy +was increased by over-work at Cambridge. He once remarked to a friend +that "were he to paint a picture of Fame, crowning a distinguished +undergraduate after the Senate house examination, he would represent her +as concealing a Death's head under a mask of Beauty" ('Life of H. K. +W.', by Southey, i. 45). By "the soaring lyre, which else had sounded an +immortal lay," Byron, perhaps, refers to the unfinished 'Christiad,' +which, says Southey, "Henry had most at heart."]] + + + +[Footnote 131: Lines 832-834, as they stand in the text, were inserted +in MS. in both the Annotated Copies of the Fourth Edition.]] + + +[Footnote 132: "I consider Crabbe and Coleridge as the first of these +times, in point of power and genius."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 133: Mr. Shee, author of 'Rhymes on Art' and 'Elements of +Art'. [Sir Martin Archer Shee (1770-1850) was President of the Royal +Academy (1830-45). His 'Rhymes on Art' (1805) and 'Elements of Art' +(1809), a poem in six cantos, will hardly be regarded as worthy of +Byron's praise, which was probably quite genuine. He also wrote a novel, +'Harry Calverley', and other works.]] + + +[Footnote 134: Mr. Wright, late Consul-General for the Seven Islands, is +author of a very beautiful poem, just published: it is entitled 'Horae +Ionicae', and is descriptive of the isles and the adjacent coast of +Greece. [Walter Rodwell Wright was afterwards President of the Court of +Appeal in Malta, where he died in 1826. 'Horae Ionicae, a Poem descriptive +of the Ionian Islands, and Part of the Adjacent Coast of Greece', was +published in 1809. He is mentioned in one of Byron's long notes to +'Childe Harold', canto ii., dated Franciscan Convent, Mar. 17, 1811.]] + + +[Footnote 135: The translators of the Anthology have since published +separate poems, which evince genius that only requires opportunity to +attain eminence. [The Rev. Robert Bland (1779-1825) published, in 1806, +'Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology, with Tales and +Miscellaneous Poems'. In these he was assisted (see 'Life of the Rev. +Francis Hodgson', vol. i. pp. 226-260) by Denman (afterwards Chief +Justice), by Hodgson himself, and, above all, by John Herman Merivale +(1779-1844), who subsequently, in 1813, was joint editor with him of +'Collections from the Greek Anthology', etc.]] + + +[Footnote 136: Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the grandfather of Charles +Robert Darwin. Coleridge describes his poetry as "nothing but a +succession of landscapes or paintings. It arrests the attention too +often, and so prevents the rapidity necessary to pathos."--'Anima +Poetae', 1895, p. 5. His chief works are 'The Botanic Garden' (1789-92) +and 'The Temple of Nature' (1803). Byron's censure of 'The Botanic +Garden' is inconsistent with his principles, for Darwin's verse was +strictly modelled on the lines of Pope and his followers. But the 'Loves +of the Triangles' had laughed away the 'Loves of the Plants'.]] + + +[Footnote 137: The neglect of 'The Botanic Garden' is some proof of +returning taste. The scenery is its sole recommendation.] + +[Footnote 138: This was not Byron's mature opinion, nor had he so +expressed himself in the review of Wordsworth's 'Poems' which he +contributed to 'Crosby's Magazine' in 1807 ('Life', p. 669). His scorn +was, in part, provoked by indignities offered to Pope and Dryden, and, +in part, assumed because one Lake poet called up the rest; and it was +good sport to flout and jibe at the "Fraternity." That the day would +come when the message of Wordsworth would reach his ears and awaken his +enthusiasm, he could not, of course, foresee (see 'Childe Harold', canto +iii. stanzas 72, 'et seqq.').]] + + +[Footnote 139: Messrs. Lamb and Lloyd, the most ignoble followers of +Southey and Co. [Charles Lloyd (1775-1839) resided for some months under +Coleridge's roof, first in Bristol, and afterwards at Nether Stowey +(1796-1797). He published, in 1796, a folio edition of his 'Poems on the +Death of Priscilla Farmer', in which a sonnet by Coleridge and a poem of +Lamb's were included. Lamb and Lloyd contributed several pieces to the +second edition of Coleridge's Poems, published in 1797; and in 1798 they +brought out a joint volume of their own composition, named 'Poems in +Blank Verse'. 'Edmund Oliver', a novel, appeared also in 1798. An +estrangement between Coleridge and Lloyd resulted in a quarrel with +Lamb, and a drawing together of Lamb, Lloyd, and Southey. But Byron +probably had in his mind nothing more than the lines in the +'Anti-Jacobin', where Lamb and Lloyd are classed with Coleridge and +Southey as advocates of French socialism:-- + + "Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co., + Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux." + +In later life Byron expressed a very different opinion of Lamb's +literary merits. (See the preface to 'Werner', now first published.)]] + + +[Footnote 140: By the bye, I hope that in Mr. Scott's next poem, his +hero or heroine will be less addicted to "Gramarye," and more to +Grammar, than the Lady of the Lay and her Bravo, William of Deloraine.] + + +[Footnote 141: "Unjust."--B., 1816. [In 'Frost at Midnight', first +published in 1798, Coleridge twice mentions his "Cradled infant."]] + + +[Footnote 142: The Rev. W. L. Bowles ('vide ante', p. 323, note 2), +published, in 1789, 'Fourteen Sonnets written chiefly on Picturesque +Spots during a Journey'.]] + + +[Footnote 143: It may be asked, why I have censured the Earl of +CARLISLE, my guardian and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of +puerile poems a few years ago?--The guardianship was nominal, at least +as far as I have been able to discover; the relationship I cannot help, +and am very sorry for it; but as his Lordship seemed to forget it on a +very essential occasion to me, I shall not burden my memory with the +recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the +unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I see no reason why they +should act as a preventive, when the author, noble or ignoble, has, for +a series of years, beguiled a "discerning public" (as the advertisements +have it) with divers reams of most orthodox, imperial nonsense. Besides, +I do not step aside to vituperate the earl: no--his works come fairly in +review with those of other Patrician Literati. If, before I escaped from +my teens, I said anything in favour of his Lordship's paper books, it +was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others +than my own judgment, and I seize the first opportunity of pronouncing +my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be +under obligations to Lord CARLISLE: if so, I shall be most particularly +happy to learn what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly +appreciated and publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an +opinion on his printed things, I am prepared to support, if necessary, +by quotations from Elegies, Eulogies, Odes, Episodes, and certain +facetious and dainty tragedies bearing his name and mark:-- + + "What can ennoble knaves, or 'fools', or cowards? + Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards." + +So says Pope. Amen!--"Much too savage, whatever the foundation might +be."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 144: Line 952. 'Note'-- + + "Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora." + + (VIRGIL.)] + + +[Footnote 145: + + "The devil take that 'Phoenix'! How came it there?" + +--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 146: The Rev. Charles James Hoare (1781-1865), a close friend +of the leaders of the Evangelical party, gained the Seatonian Prize at +Cambridge in 1807 with his poem on the 'Shipwreck of St. Paul'.] + + +[Footnote 147: Edmund Hoyle, the father of the modern game of whist, +lived from 1672 to 1769. The Rev. Charles Hoyle, his "poetical +namesake," was, like Hoare, a Seatonian prizeman, and wrote an epic in +thirteen books on the 'Exodus'.] + + + +[Footnote 148: The 'Games of Hoyle', well known to the votaries of +Whist, Chess, etc., are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his +poetical namesake ["illustrious Synonime" in 'MS.' and 'British Bards'], +whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertisement, all the +"Plagues of Egypt."] + + +[Footnote 149: Here, as in line 391, "Fresh fish from Helicon," etc., +Byron confounds Helicon and Hippocrene.]] + + + +[Footnote 150: This person, who has lately betrayed the most rabid +symptoms of confirmed authorship, is writer of a poem denominated 'The +Art of Pleasing', as "Lucus a non lucendo," containing little +pleasantry, and less poetry. He also acts as ["lies as" in 'MS.'] +monthly stipendiary and collector of calumnies for the 'Satirist'. If +this unfortunate young man would exchange the magazines for the +mathematics, and endeavour to take a decent degree in his university, it +might eventually prove more serviceable than his present salary.] + +[Note.--An unfortunate young person of Emanuel College, Cambridge, +ycleped Hewson Clarke, has lately manifested the most rabid symptoms of +confirmed Authorship. His Disorder commenced some years ago, and the +'Newcastle Herald' teemed with his precocious essays, to the great +edification of the Burgesses of Newcastle, Morpeth, and the parts +adjacent even unto Berwick upon Tweed. These have since been abundantly +scurrilous upon the [town] of Newcastle, his native spot, Mr. Mathias +and Anacreon Moore. What these men had done to offend Mr. Hewson Clarke +is not known, but surely the town in whose markets he had sold meat, and +in whose weekly journal he had written prose deserved better treatment. +Mr. H.C. should recollect the proverb "'tis a villainous bird that +defiles his own nest." He now writes in the 'Satirist'. We recommend the +young man to abandon the magazines for mathematics, and to believe that +a high degree at Cambridge will be more advantageous, as well as +profitable in the end, than his present precarious gleanings.] + +[Hewson Clarke (1787-circ. 1832) was entered at Emmanuel Coll. Camb. +circ. 1806 (see 'Postscript'). He had to leave the University without +taking a degree, and migrated to London, where he devoted his not +inconsiderable talents to contributions to the 'Satirist', the +'Scourge', etc. He also wrote: 'An Impartial History of the Naval, etc., +Events of Europe ... from the French Revolution ... to the Conclusion of +a General Peace' (1815); and a continuation of Hume's 'History of +England', 2 vols. (1832). + +The 'Satirist', a monthly magazine illustrated with coloured cartoons, +was issued 1808-1814. 'Hours of Idleness' was reviewed Jan. 1808 (i. +77-81). "The Diary of a Cantab" (June, 1808, ii. 368) contains some +verses of "Lord B----n to his Bear. To the tune of Lachin y gair." The +last verse runs thus:-- + + "But when with the ardour of Love I am burning, + I feel for thy torments, I feel for thy care; + And weep for thy bondage, so truly discerning + What's felt by a 'Lord', may be felt by a 'Bear'." + +In August, 1808 (iii. 78-86), there is a critique on 'Poems Original and +Translated', in which the bear plays many parts. The writer "is without +his bear and is himself muzzled," etc. Towards the close of the article +a solemn sentence is passed on the author for his disregard of the +advice of parents, tutors, friends; "but," adds the reviewer, "in the +paltry volume before us we think we observe some proof that the still +small voice of conscience will be heard in the cool of the day. Even now +the gay, the gallant, the accomplished bear-leader is not happy," etc. +Hence the castigation of "the sizar of Emmanuel College."] + + +[Footnote 151: + + "Right enough: this was well deserved, and well laid on." + +(B., 1816.)] + + + +[Footnote 152: + + "Into Cambridgeshire the Emperor Probus transported a considerable + body of Vandals." + +(Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall', ii. 83.) There is no reason to doubt the +truth of this assertion; the breed is still in high perfection. + +We see no reason to doubt the truth of this statement, as a large stock +of the same breed are to be found there at this day.--'British Bards'. + +[Lines 981-984 do not occur in the 'MS'. Lines 981, 982, are inserted in +MS. in 'British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote 153: This gentleman's name requires no praise: the man who +[has surpassed Dryden and Gifford as a Translator.--'MS. British Bards'] +in translation displays unquestionable genius may be well expected to +excel in original composition, of which, it is to be hoped, we shall +soon see a splendid specimen. [Francis Hodgson (1781-1852) was Byron's +lifelong friend. His 'Juvenal' appeared in 1807; 'Lady Jane Grey and +other Poems', in 1809; 'Sir Edgar, a Tale', in 1810. For other works and +details, see 'Life of the Rev. Francis Hodgson', by the Rev. James T. +Hodgson (1878).]] + + +[Footnote 154: Hewson Clarke, 'Esq'., as it is written.] + + +[Footnote 155: 'The Aboriginal Britons', an excellent ["most excellent" +in 'MS.'] poem, by Richards. [The Rev. George Richards, D.D. +(1769-1835), a Fellow of Oriel, and afterwards Rector of St. +Martin's-in-the-Fields. 'The Aboriginal Britons', a prize poem, was +published in 1792, and was followed by 'The Songs of the Aboriginal +Bards of Britain' (1792), and various other prose and poetical works.]] + + +[Footnote: 156. With this verse the satire originally ended.] + + +[Footnote 157: A friend of mine being asked, why his Grace of Portland +was likened to an old woman? replied, "he supposed it was because he was +past bearing." (Even Homer was a punster--a solitary pun.)--['MS'.] His +Grace is now gathered to his grandmothers, where he sleeps as sound as +ever; but even his sleep was better than his colleagues' waking. 1811. +[William Henry Cavendish, third Duke of Portland (1738-1809), Prime +Minister in 1807, on the downfall of the Ministry of "All the Talents," +till his death in 1809, was, as the wits said, "a convenient block to +hang Whigs on," but was not, even in his vigour, a man of much +intellectual capacity. When Byron meditated a tour to India in 1808, +Portland declined to write on his behalf to the Directors of the East +India Company, and couched his refusal in terms which Byron fancied to +be offensive.]] + + + +[Footnote 158: "Saw it August, 1809."--B., 1816. [The following notes +were omitted from the Fifth Edition:-- + + "Calpe is the ancient name of Gibraltar. Saw it August, 1809.--B., + 1816. + + "Stamboul is the Turkish word for Constantinople. Was there the summer + 1810." + + To "Mount Caucasus," he adds, "Saw the distant ridge of,--1810, 1811"]] + + + +[Footnote 159: Georgia.] + + +[Footnote 160: Mount Caucasus.] + + +[Footnote 161: Lord Elgin would fain persuade us that all the figures, +with and without noses, in his stoneshop, are the work of Phidias! +"Credat Judaeus!" [R. Payne Knight, in his introduction to 'Specimens of +Ancient Sculpture', published 1809, by the Dilettanti Society, throws a +doubt on the Phidian workmanship of the "Elgin" marbles. See the +Introduction to 'The Curse of Minerva'.]] + + +[Footnote 162: [Sir William Gell (1777-1836) published the 'Topography +of Troy' (1804), the 'Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca' (1807), and +the 'Itinerary of Greece' (1808). Byron reviewed the two last works in +the 'Monthly Review' (August, 1811), ('Life', pp. 670, 676). Fresh from +the scenes, he speaks with authority. "With Homer in his pocket and Gell +on his sumpter-mule, the Odysseus tourist may now make a very classical +and delightful excursion." The epithet in the original MS. was +"coxcomb," but becoming acquainted with Gell while the satire was in the +press, Byron changed it to "classic." In the fifth edition he altered it +to "rapid," and appended this note:--"'Rapid,' indeed! He topographised +and typographised King Priam's dominions in three days! I called him +'classic' before I saw the Troad, but since have learned better than to +tack to his name what don't belong to it."]] + + + +[Footnote 163: Mr. Gell's 'Topography of Troy and Ithaca' cannot fail to +ensure the approbation of every man possessed of classical taste, as +well for the information Mr. Gell conveys to the mind of the reader, as +for the ability and research the respective works display. + + "'Troy and Ithaca.' Visited both in 1810, 1811."--B., 1816. + "'Ithaca' passed first in 1809."--B., 1816. + + "Since seeing the plain of Troy, my opinions are somewhat changed as + to the above note. Cell's survey was hasty and superficial."--B., + 1816.] + + + +[Footnote 164: + + "Singular enough, and 'din' enough, God knows." + + (B., 1816).] + + + +[Footnote 165: + + "The greater part of this satire I most sincerely wish had never been + written-not only on account of the injustice of much of the critical, + and some of the personal part of it--but the tone and temper are such + as I cannot approve." + +BYRON. July 14, 1816. 'Diodati, Geneva'.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Truth be my theme, and Censure guide my song.' + +['MS. M.'] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'But thou, at least, mine own especial quill + Dipt in the dew drops from Parnassus' hill, + Shalt ever honoured and regarded be, + By more beside no doubt, yet still by me.' + +['MS. M.'] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'And men through life her willing slaves obey.' + +['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Unfolds her motley store to suit the time.'-- + +['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'When Justice halts and Right begins to fail.' + +['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'A mortal weapon'. + +['MS. M.'] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Yet Titles sounding lineage cannot save + Or scrawl or scribbler from an equal grave, + Lamb had his farce but that Patrician name + Failed to preserve the spurious brat from shame.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'a lucky hit.' + +['Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'No dearth of rhyme.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'The Press oppressed.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'While Southey's Epics load.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'O'er taste awhile these Infidels prevail.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'Erect and hail an idol of their own.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'Not quite a footpad-----.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'Low may they sink to merited contempt.' + +['British Bards'.]] + + 'And Scorn reimmerate the mean attempt!'-- + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions']] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + '--though lesser bards content--' + +['British Bards'] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + 'How well the subject.' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.'-- + +['British Bards, First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xix: + + 'Who fain would'st.' + +['British Bards, First to Fifth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + 'Mend thy life, and sin no more.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote xxi: + + 'And o'er harmonious nonsense.' + +['MS. First Edition.']] + + +[Footnote xxii: + + 'In many marble-covered volumes view + Hayley, in vain attempting something new, + Whether he spin his comedies in rhyme, + Or scrawls as Wood and Barclay [A] walk, 'gainst Time.' + +['MS. British Bards', and 'First to Fourth Editions.'] + +[Sub-Footnote A: Captain Robert Barclay (1779-1854) of Ury, +agriculturalist and pedestrian, came of a family noted for physical +strength and endurance. Byron saw him win his walk against Wood at +Newmarket. (See Angelo's 'Reminiscences' (1837), vol. ii. pp. 37-44.) In +July, 1809, Barclay completed his task of walking a thousand miles in a +thousand hours, at the rate of one mile in each and every hour. (See, +too, for an account of Barclay, 'The Eccentric Review' (1812), i. +133-150.)]] + + + +[Footnote xxiii: + + 'Breaks into mawkish lines each holy Book'. + +['MS. First Edition'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxiv: + + 'Thy "Sympathy" that'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxv: + + 'And shows dissolved in sympathetic tears'. + '----in thine own melting tears.--' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvi: + + 'Whether in sighing winds them seek'st relief + Or Consolation in a yellow leaf.--' + +['MS. first to Fourth Editions.'] ] + + +[Footnote xxvii: + + 'What pretty sounds.' + +['British Bards.'] ] + + +[Footnote xxviii: + + 'Thou fain woulds't----' + +['British Bards.'] ] + + +[Footnote xxix: + + 'But to soft themes'. + +['British Bards, First Edition'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxx: + + 'The Bard has wove'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxxi: + + 'If Pope, since mortal, not untaught to err + Again demand a dull biographer'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxii: + + 'Too much in Turtle Bristol's sons delight + Too much in Bowls of Rack prolong the night.--' + +['MS. Second to Fourth Editions'.] + + 'Too much o'er Bowls.' + +['Second and Third Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxiii: + + 'And yet why'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxxiv: + + 'Or old or young'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxxv: + + --'yes, I'm sure all may.' + +['Quarto Proof Sheet'] + + + +[Footnote xxxvi: + + 'While Cloacina's holy pontiff Lambe [3] + As he himself was damned shall try to damn'. + +['British Bards'.] + +[Sub-Footnote A. We have heard of persons who "when the Bagpipe sings in +the nose cannot contain their urine for affection," but Mr. L. carries +it a step further than Shakespeare's diuretic amateurs, being notorious +at school and college for his inability to contain--anything. We do not +know to what "Pipe" to attribute this additional effect, but the fact is +uncontrovertible.--['Note' to Quarto Proof bound up with 'British +Bards'.]] + + + +[Footnote xxxvii: + + 'Lo! long beneath'--. + +['British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxviii: + + 'And grateful to the founder of the feast + Declare his landlord can translate at least'.-- + +['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxix: + + '--are fed because they write.' + +['British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote xl: + + 'Princes in Barrels, Counts in arbours pent.-- + +[MS. British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote xli: + +'His "damme, poohs."' + +['MS. First Edition.']] + + +[Footnote xlii: + + 'While Kenny's World just suffered to proceed + Proclaims the audience very kind indeed'.-- + +['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xliii: + + 'Resume her throne again'.-- + +['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xliv:-- + + 'and Kemble lives to tread'.-- + +['British Bards. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xlv: + + 'St. George [A] and Goody Goose divide the prize.'-- + +[MS. alternative in British Bards.] + +[Sub-Footnote A: We need not inform the reader that we do not allude to +the Champion of England who slew the Dragon. Our St. George is content +to draw status with a very different kind of animal.--[Pencil note to +'British Bards'.]]] + + +[Footnote xlvi: + + 'Its humble flight to splendid Pantomimes'. + +['British Bards. MS']] + + +[Footnote xlvii: + + 'Behold the new Petronius of the times + The skilful Arbiter of modern crimes.' + +['MS.'] + + +[Footnote xlviii: + + '----a Paget for your wife.' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xlix: + + 'From Grosvenor Place or Square'. + +['MS. British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote l: + + 'On one alone Apollo deigns to smile + And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle.' + +['MS. Addition to British Bards.'] + + 'Nor e'en a hackneyed Muse will deign to smile + On minor Byron, or mature Carlisle.' + +[First Edition.] + + +[Footnote li: + + 'Yet at their fiat----' + 'Yet at their nausea----.' + +['MS. Addition to British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote lii: + + 'Such sneering fame.' + +['British Bards'] + + +[Footnote liii: + + 'Though Bell has lost his nightingales and owls, + Matilda snivels still and Hafiz howls, + And Crusca's spirit rising from the dead + Revives in Laura, Quiz, and X. Y. Z.'-- + +['British Bards. First to Third Editions', 1810.]] + + +[Footnote liv: + + 'None since the past have claimed the tribute due'. + +['British Bards. MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lv: + + 'From Albion's cliffs to Caledonia's coast. + Some few who know to write as well as feel'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lvi: + + 'The spoiler came; and all thy promise fair + Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there.--' + +['First to Fourth Editions']] + + +[Footnote lvii: + + 'On him may meritorious honours tend + While doubly mingling,'. + +['MS. erased'.]] + + +Footnote lviii: + + 'And you united Bards'. + +['MS. Addition to British Bards'.] + + 'And you ye nameless'. + +['MS. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lvix: + + 'Translation's servile work at length disown + And quit Achaia's Muse to court your own'. + +['MS. Addition to British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote lx: + + 'Let these arise and anxious of applause'. + +['British Bards. MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lxi: + + 'But not in heavy'. + +['British Bards. MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lxii: + + 'Let prurient Southey cease'. + +['MS. British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote lxiii: + + 'still the babe at nurse'. + +['MS'.] + +'Let Lewis jilt our nurseries with alarm + With tales that oft disgust and never charm'. + + +[Footnote lxiv: + + 'But thou with powers--' + +['MS. British Bards'.]] + + + +[Footnote lxv: + + 'Let MOORE be lewd; let STRANGFORD steal from MOORE'. + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote lxvi: + + 'For outlawed Sherwood's tales.' + +['MS. Brit. Bards. Eds.' 1-4.] + + +[Footnote lxvii: + + 'And even spurns the great Seatonian prize.--' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions' (a correction in the Annotated Copy).]] + + +[Footnote lxviii: + + 'With odes by Smyth [A] and epic songs by Hoyle, + Hoyle whose learn'd page, if still upheld by whist + Required no sacred theme to bid us list.--' + +['MS. British Bards.'] + +[Sub-Footnote A: William Smyth (1766-1849). Professor of Modern History +at Cambridge, published his 'English Lyrics' (in 1806), and several +other works.] + + + +[Footnote lxix: + + 'Yet hold--as when by Heaven's supreme behest, + If found, ten righteous had preserved the Rest + In Sodom's fated town--for Granta's name + Let Hodgson's Genius plead and save her fame + But where fair Isis, etc.' + +['MS.' and 'British Bards.']] + + +[Footnote lxx: + + 'See Clarke still striving piteously to please + Forgets that Doggrel leads not to degrees.--' + +['MS. Fragment' bound up with 'British Bards'.] + + +[Footnote lxxi: + + 'So sunk in dullness and so lost in shame + That Smythe and Hodgson scarce redeem thy fame.--' + +['MS. Addition to British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxii: + + '----is wove.--' + +[MS. British Bards' and 'First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxiii: + + 'And modern Britons justly praise their sires.'-- + +['MS. British Bards' and 'First to Fourth Editions]] + + +[Footnote lxxiv: + + '--what her sons must know too well.' + +['British Bards]] + + +[Footnote lxxv: + + 'Zeal for her honour no malignant Rage, + Has bade me spurn the follies of the age.--' + +['MS. British Bards'. First Edition]] + + +[Footnote lxxvi: + + '--Ocean's lonely Queen.' + +['British Bards']] + + '--Ocean's mighty Queen.' + +['First to Fourth Editions']] + + +[Footnote: lxxvii. + + 'Like these thy cliffs may sink in ruin hurled + The last white ramparts of a falling world'.-- + +['British Bards MS.']] + + +[Footnote: lxxviii. + + 'But should I back return, no lettered rage + Shall drag my common-place book on the stage: + Let vain Valentia [A] rival luckless Carr, + And equal him whose work he sought to mar.--' + +['Second to Fourth Editions'.] + +[Sub-Footnote: A. Lord Valentia (whose tremendous travels are +forthcoming with due decorations, graphical, topographical, +typographical) deposed, on Sir John Carr's unlucky suit, that Mr. +Dubois's satire prevented his purchase of 'The Stranger' in +Ireland.--Oh, fie, my lord! has your lordship no more feeling for a +fellow-tourist?--but "two of a trade," they say, etc. [George Annesley, +Viscount Valentia (1769-1844), published, in 1809, 'Voyages and Travels +to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt in the Years +1802-6'. Byron calls him "vain" Valentia, because his "accounts of +ceremonies attending his lordship's interviews with several of the petty +princes" suggest the thought "that his principal errand to India was to +measure certain rank in the British peerage against the gradations of +Asiatic royalty."--'Eclectic Review', August, 1809. In August, 1808, Sir +John Carr, author of numerous 'Travels', brought an unsuccessful action +for damages against Messrs. Hood and Sharpe, the publishers of the +parody of his works by Edward Dubois,--'My Pocket Book: or Hints for a +Ryghte Merrie and Conceitede Tour, in 4to, to be called "The Stranger in +Ireland in 1805,"' By a Knight Errant, and dedicated to the papermakers. +(See Letter to Hodgson, August 6, 1809, and suppressed stanza (stanza +Ixxxvii.) of the first canto of 'Childe Harold'.)]] + + +[Footnote lxxix: + + 'To stun mankind, with Poesy or Prose'. + +['Second to Fourth Editions'.] + + +[Footnote lxxx: + + 'Thus much I've dared to do, how far my lay'.-- + + +['First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + + + + + +POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION. + + +I have been informed, since the present edition went to the press, that +my trusty and well-beloved cousins, the Edinburgh Reviewers, are +preparing a most vehement critique on my poor, gentle, 'unresisting' +Muse, whom they have already so be-deviled with their ungodly ribaldry; + + + "Tantaene animis coelestibus Irae!" + + +I suppose I must say of JEFFREY as Sir ANDREW AGUECHEEK saith, "an I had +known he was so cunning of fence, I had seen him damned ere I had fought +him." What a pity it is that I shall be beyond the Bosphorus before the +next number has passed the Tweed! But I yet hope to light my pipe with +it in Persia. [1] + +My Northern friends have accused me, with justice, of personality +towards their great literary Anthropophagus, Jeffery; but what else was +to be done with him and his dirty pack, who feed by "lying and +slandering," and slake their thirst by "evil speaking"? I have adduced +facts already well known, and of JEFFREY's mind I have stated my free +opinion, nor has he thence sustained any injury:--what scavenger was +ever soiled by being pelted with mud? It may be said that I quit England +because I have censured there "persons of honour and wit about town;" +but I am coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my +return. Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving +England are very different from fears, literary or personal: those who +do not, may one day be convinced. Since the publication of this thing, +my name has not been concealed; I have been mostly in London, ready to +answer for my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry +cartels; but, alas! "the age of chivalry is over," or, in the vulgar +tongue, there is no spirit now-a-days. + +There is a youth ycleped Hewson Clarke (subaudi 'esquire'), a sizer of +Emanuel College, and, I believe, a denizen of Berwick-upon-Tweed, whom I +have introduced in these pages to much better company than he has been +accustomed to meet; he is, notwithstanding, a very sad dog, and for no +reason that I can discover, except a personal quarrel with a bear, kept +by me at Cambridge to sit for a fellowship, and whom the jealousy of his +Trinity contemporaries prevented from success, has been abusing me, and, +what is worse, the defenceless innocent above mentioned, in the +'Satirist' for one year and some months. I am utterly unconscious of +having given him any provocation; indeed, I am guiltless of having heard +his name, till coupled with the 'Satirist'. He has therefore no reason +to complain, and I dare say that, like Sir Fretful Plagiary, he is +rather 'pleased' than otherwise. I have now mentioned all who have done +me the honour to notice me and mine, that is, my bear and my book, +except the editor of the 'Satirist', who, it seems, is a gentleman--God +wot! I wish he could impart a little of his gentility to his subordinate +scribblers. I hear that Mr. JERNINGHAM[1] is about to take up the +cudgels for his Maecenas, Lord Carlisle. I hope not: he was one of the +few, who, in the very short intercourse I had with him, treated me with +kindness when a boy; and whatever he may say or do, "pour on, I will +endure." I have nothing further to add, save a general note of +thanksgiving to readers, purchasers, and publishers, and, in the words +of SCOTT, I wish + + + "To all and each a fair good night, + And rosy dreams and slumbers light." + + + +[Footnote 1: The article never appeared, and Lord Byron, in the 'Hints +from Horace', taunted Jeffrey with a silence which seemed to indicate +that the critic was beaten from the field.] + + +[Footnote 2: Edward Jerningham (1727-1812), third son of Sir George +Jerningham, Bart., was an indefatigable versifier. Between the +publication of his first poem, 'The Nunnery', in 1766, and his last, +'The Old Bard's Farewell', in 1812, he sent to the press no less than +thirty separate compositions. As a contributor to the 'British Album', +Gifford handled him roughly in the 'Baviad' (lines 21, 22); and Mathias, +in a note to 'Pursuits of Literature', brackets him with Payne Knight as +"ecrivain du commun et poete vulgaire." He was a dandy with a literary +turn, who throughout a long life knew every one who was worth knowing. +Some of his letters have recently been published (see 'Jerningham +Letters', two vols., 1896).] + + + + + + + +HINTS FROM HORACE: [i] + + +BEING AN ALLUSION IN ENGLISH VERSE TO THE EPISTLE +"AD PISONES, DE ARTE POETICA," +AND INTENDED AS A SEQUEL TO "ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS." + + + ----"Ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum + Reddere quae ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi." + + HOR. 'De Arte Poet'., II. 304 and 305. + + + "Rhymes are difficult things--they are stubborn things, Sir." + + FIELDING'S 'Amelia', Vol. iii. Book; and Chap. v. + + + +[Footnote i: + + Hints from Horace (Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 12, 1811); being an + Imitation in English Verse from the Epistle, etc. + +[MS, M.] + + Hints from Horace: being a Partial Imitation, in English Verse, of the + Epistle 'Ad Pisones, De Arte Poetica'; and intended as a sequel to + 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. + + Athens, Franciscan Convent, March 12, 1811. + +['Proof b'.]] + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO HINTS FROM HORACE + + + +Three MSS. of 'Hints from Horace' are extant, two in the possession of +Lord Lovelace (MSS. L. a and b), and a third in the possession of Mr. +Murray ('MS. M'.). + +Proofs of lines 173-272 and 1-272 ('Proofs a, b'), are among the Egerton +MSS. in the British Museum. They were purchased from the Rev. Alexander +Dallas, January 12, 1867, and are, doubtless, fragments of the proofs +set up in type for Cawthorn in 1811. They are in "book-form," and show +that the volume was intended to be uniform with the Fifth Edition of +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', of 1811. The text corresponds +closely but not exactly with that adopted by Murray in 1831, and does +not embody the variants of the several MSS. It is probable that complete +proofs were in Moore's possession at the time when he included the +selections from the 'Hints' in his 'Letters and Journals', pp. 263-269, +and that the text of the entire poem as published in 1831 was derived +from this source. Selections, numbering in all 156 lines, had already +appeared in 'Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron', by R. C. Dallas, +1824, pp. 104-113. Byron, estimating the merit by the difficulty of the +performance, rated the 'Hints from Horace' extravagantly high. He only +forbore to publish them after the success of 'Childe Harold', because he +felt, as he states, that he should be "heaping coals of fire upon his +head" if he were in his hour of triumph to put forth a sequel to a +lampoon provoked by failure. Nine years afterwards, when he resolved to +print the work with some omissions, he gravely maintained that it +excelled the productions of his mature genius. "As far," he said, "as +versification goes, it is good; and on looking back at what I wrote +about that period, I am astonished to see how little I have trained on. +I wrote better then than now; but that comes of my having fallen into +the atrocious bad taste of the times" [September 23, 1820]. The opinion +of J. C. Hobhouse that the 'Hints' would require "a good deal of +slashing" to adapt them to the passing hour, and other considerations, +again led Byron to suspend the publication. Authors are frequently bad +judges of their own works, but of all the literary hallucinations upon +record there are none which exceed the mistaken preferences of Lord +Byron. Shortly after the appearance of 'The Corsair' he fancied that +'English Bards' was still his masterpiece; when all his greatest works +had been produced, he contended that his translation from Pulci was his +"grand performance,--the best thing he ever did in his life;" and +throughout the whole of his literary career he regarded these 'Hints +from Horace' with a special and unchanging fondness. + + + + +HINTS FROM HORACE + + +ATHENS: CAPUCHIN CONVENT, March. 12, 1811. [i] + + + Who would not laugh, if Lawrence [1], hired to grace [ii] + His costly canvas with each flattered face, + Abused his art, till Nature, with a blush, + Saw cits grow Centaurs underneath his brush? + Or, should some limner join, for show or sale, + A Maid of Honour to a Mermaid's tail? [iii] + Or low Dubost [2]--as once the world has seen-- + Degrade God's creatures in his graphic spleen? + Not all that forced politeness, which defends + Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends. 10 + Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems [iv] + The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams, + Displays a crowd of figures incomplete, + Poetic Nightmares, without head or feet. + + Poets and painters, as all artists know, [v] + May shoot a little with a lengthened bow; + We claim this mutual mercy for our task, + And grant in turn the pardon which we ask; + But make not monsters spring from gentle dams-- + Birds breed not vipers, tigers nurse not lambs. 20 + + A laboured, long Exordium, sometimes tends + (Like patriot speeches) but to paltry ends; [vi] + And nonsense in a lofty note goes down, + As Pertness passes with a legal gown: [vii] + Thus many a Bard describes in pompous strain [viii] + The clear brook babbling through the goodly plain: + The groves of Granta, and her Gothic halls, + King's Coll-Cam's stream-stained windows, and old walls: + Or, in adventurous numbers, neatly aims + To paint a rainbow, or the river Thames. [3] 30 + + You sketch a tree, and so perhaps may shine [ix]-- + But daub a shipwreck like an alehouse sign; + You plan a _vase_--it dwindles to a _pot_; + Then glide down Grub-street--fasting and forgot: + Laughed into Lethe by some quaint Review, + Whose wit is never troublesome till--true. + + In fine, to whatsoever you aspire, + Let it at least be simple and entire. + + The greater portion of the rhyming tribe [x] + (Give ear, my friend, for thou hast been a scribe) 40 + Are led astray by some peculiar lure. [xi] + I labour to be brief--become obscure; + One falls while following Elegance too fast; + Another soars, inflated with Bombast; + Too low a third crawls on, afraid to fly, + He spins his subject to Satiety; + Absurdly varying, he at last engraves + Fish in the woods, and boars beneath the waves! [xii] + + Unless your care's exact, your judgment nice, + The flight from Folly leads but into Vice; 50 + None are complete, all wanting in some part, + Like certain tailors, limited in art. + For galligaskins Slowshears is your man [xiii] + But coats must claim another artisan. [4] + Now this to me, I own, seems much the same + As Vulcan's feet to bear Apollo's frame; + Or, with a fair complexion, to expose + Black eyes, black ringlets, but--a bottle nose! + + Dear Authors! suit your topics to your strength, + And ponder well your subject, and its length; 60 + Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware + What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear. + But lucid Order, and Wit's siren voice, [xiv] + Await the Poet, skilful in his choice; + With native Eloquence he soars along, + Grace in his thoughts, and Music in his song. + + Let Judgment teach him wisely to combine + With future parts the now omitted line: + This shall the Author choose, or that reject, + Precise in style, and cautious to select; 70 + Nor slight applause will candid pens afford + To him who furnishes a wanting word. [xv] + Then fear not, if 'tis needful, to produce + Some term unknown, or obsolete in use, + (As Pitt has furnished us a word or two, [5] + Which Lexicographers declined to do;) + So you indeed, with care,--(but be content + To take this license rarely)--may invent. + New words find credit in these latter days, + If neatly grafted on a Gallic phrase; [xvi] 80 + What Chaucer, Spenser did, we scarce refuse + To Dryden's or to Pope's maturer Muse. + If you can add a little, say why not, + As well as William Pitt, and Walter Scott? + Since they, by force of rhyme and force of lungs, [xvii] + Enriched our Island's ill-united tongues; + 'Tis then--and shall be--lawful to present + Reform in writing, as in Parliament. + + As forests shed their foliage by degrees, + So fade expressions which in season please; 90 + And we and ours, alas! are due to Fate, + And works and words but dwindle to a date. + Though as a Monarch nods, and Commerce calls, [xviii] + Impetuous rivers stagnate in canals; + Though swamps subdued, and marshes drained, sustain [xix] + The heavy ploughshare and the yellow grain, + And rising ports along the busy shore + Protect the vessel from old Ocean's roar, + All, all, must perish; but, surviving last, + The love of Letters half preserves the past. 100 + True, some decay, yet not a few revive; [xx] [6] + Though those shall sink, which now appear to thrive, + As Custom arbitrates, whose shifting sway [xxi] + Our life and language must alike obey. + + The immortal wars which Gods and Angels wage, + Are they not shown in Milton's sacred page? + His strain will teach what numbers best belong + To themes celestial told in Epic song. [xxii] + + The slow, sad stanza will correctly paint + The Lover's anguish, or the Friend's complaint. 110 + But which deserves the Laurel--Rhyme or Blank? [xxiii] + Which holds on Helicon the higher rank? + Let squabbling critics by themselves dispute + This point, as puzzling as a Chancery suit. + + Satiric rhyme first sprang from selfish spleen. + You doubt--see Dryden, Pope, St. Patrick's Dean. [7] + Blank verse is now, with one consent, allied + To Tragedy, and rarely quits her side. + Though mad Almanzor [8] rhymed in Dryden's days, + No sing-song Hero rants in modern plays; 120 + Whilst modest Comedy her verse foregoes + For jest and 'pun' [9] in very middling prose. + Not that our Bens or Beaumonts show the worse, + Or lose one point, because they wrote in verse. + But so Thalia pleases to appear, [xxiv] + Poor Virgin! damned some twenty times a year! + + Whate'er the scene, let this advice have weight:-- + Adapt your language to your Hero's state. + At times Melpomene forgets to groan, + And brisk Thalia takes a serious tone; 130 + Nor unregarded will the act pass by + Where angry Townly [10] "lifts his voice on high." + Again, our Shakespeare limits verse to Kings, + When common prose will serve for common things; + And lively Hal resigns heroic ire, [xxv]-- + To "hollaing Hotspur" [11] and his sceptred sire. [xxvi] + + 'Tis not enough, ye Bards, with all your art, + To polish poems; they must touch the heart: + Where'er the scene be laid, whate'er the song, + Still let it bear the hearer's soul along; 140 + Command your audience or to smile or weep, + Whiche'er may please you--anything but sleep. + The Poet claims our tears; but, by his leave, + Before I shed them, let me see 'him' grieve. + + If banished Romeo feigned nor sigh nor tear, + Lulled by his languor, I could sleep or sneer. [xxvii] + Sad words, no doubt, become a serious face, + And men look angry in the proper place. + At double meanings folks seem wondrous sly, + And Sentiment prescribes a pensive eye; 150 + For Nature formed at first the inward man, + And actors copy Nature--when they can. + She bids the beating heart with rapture bound, + Raised to the Stars, or levelled with the ground; + And for Expression's aid, 'tis said, or sung, [xxviii] + She gave our mind's interpreter--the tongue, + Who, worn with use, of late would fain dispense + (At least in theatres) with common sense; + O'erwhelm with sound the Boxes, Gallery, Pit, + And raise a laugh with anything--but Wit. 160 + + To skilful writers it will much import, + Whence spring their scenes, from common life or Court; + Whether they seek applause by smile or tear, + To draw a Lying Valet, [12] or a Lear, [13] + A sage, or rakish youngster wild from school, + A wandering Peregrine, or plain John Bull; + All persons please when Nature's voice prevails, + Scottish or Irish, born in Wilts or Wales. + + Or follow common fame, or forge a plot; [xxix] + Who cares if mimic heroes lived or not! 170 + One precept serves to regulate the scene: + Make it appear as if it _might_ have _been_. + + If some Drawcansir [14] you aspire to draw, + Present him raving, and above all law: + If female furies in your scheme are planned, + Macbeth's fierce dame is ready to your hand; + For tears and treachery, for good and evil, + Constance, King Richard, Hamlet, and the Devil! + But if a new design you dare essay, + And freely wander from the beaten way, 180 + True to your characters, till all be past, + Preserve consistency from first to last. + + Tis hard [15] to venture where our betters fail, [xxx] + Or lend fresh interest to a twice-told tale; + And yet, perchance,'tis wiser to prefer + A hackneyed plot, than choose a new, and err; + Yet copy not too closely, but record, + More justly, thought for thought than word for word; + Nor trace your Prototype through narrow ways, + But only follow where he merits praise. 190 + + For you, young Bard! whom luckless fate may lead [16] + To tremble on the nod of all who read, + Ere your first score of cantos Time unrolls, [xxxi] + Beware--for God's sake, don't begin like Bowles! + "Awake a louder and a loftier strain," [17]-- + And pray, what follows from his boiling brain?-- + He sinks to Southey's level in a trice, + Whose Epic Mountains never fail in mice! + Not so of yore awoke your mighty Sire + The tempered warblings of his master-lyre; 200 + Soft as the gentler breathing of the lute, + "Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit" + He speaks, but, as his subject swells along, + Earth, Heaven, and Hades echo with the song."[xxxii] + Still to the "midst of things" he hastens on, + As if we witnessed all already done; [xxxiii] + Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean + To raise the subject, or adorn the scene; + Gives, as each page improves upon the sight, + Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness--light; 210 + And truth and fiction with such art compounds, + We know not where to fix their several bounds. + + If you would please the Public, deign to hear + What soothes the many-headed monster's ear: [xxxiv] + If your heart triumph when the hands of all + Applaud in thunder at the curtain's fall, + Deserve those plaudits--study Nature's page, + And sketch the striking traits of every age; + While varying Man and varying years unfold + Life's little tale, so oft, so vainly told; 220 + Observe his simple childhood's dawning days, + His pranks, his prate, his playmates, and his plays: + Till time at length the mannish tyro weans, + And prurient vice outstrips his tardy teens! [xxxv] + + Behold him Freshman! forced no more to groan [xxxvi] + O'er Virgil's [18] devilish verses and his own; + Prayers are too tedious, Lectures too abstruse, + He flies from Tavell's frown to "Fordham's Mews;" + (Unlucky Tavell! [19] doomed to daily cares [xxxvii] + By pugilistic pupils, and by bears,) 230 + Fines, Tutors, tasks, Conventions threat in vain, + Before hounds, hunters, and Newmarket Plain. + Rough with his elders, with his equals rash, + Civil to sharpers, prodigal of cash; + Constant to nought--save hazard and a whore, [xxxviii] + Yet cursing both--for both have made him sore: + Unread (unless since books beguile disease, + The P----x becomes his passage to Degrees); + Fooled, pillaged, dunned, he wastes his terms away, [xxxix] + And unexpelled, perhaps, retires M.A.; 240 + Master of Arts! as _hells_ and _clubs_ [20] proclaim, [xl] + Where scarce a blackleg bears a brighter name! + + Launched into life, extinct his early fire, + He apes the selfish prudence of his Sire; + Marries for money, chooses friends for rank, + Buys land, and shrewdly trusts not to the Bank; + Sits in the Senate; gets a son and heir; + Sends him to Harrow--for himself was there. + Mute, though he votes, unless when called to cheer, + His son's so sharp--he'll see the dog a Peer! 250 + + Manhood declines--Age palsies every limb; + He quits the scene--or else the scene quits him; + Scrapes wealth, o'er each departing penny grieves, [xli] + And Avarice seizes all Ambition leaves; + Counts cent per cent, and smiles, or vainly frets, + O'er hoards diminished by young Hopeful's debts; + Weighs well and wisely what to sell or buy, + Complete in all life's lessons--but to die; + Peevish and spiteful, doting, hard to please, + Commending every time, save times like these; 260 + Crazed, querulous, forsaken, half forgot, + Expires unwept--is buried--Let him rot! + + But from the Drama let me not digress, + Nor spare my precepts, though they please you less. [xlii] + Though Woman weep, and hardest hearts are stirred, [xliii] + When what is done is rather seen than heard, + Yet many deeds preserved in History's page + Are better told than acted on the stage; + The ear sustains what shocks the timid eye, + And Horror thus subsides to Sympathy, 270 + True Briton all beside, I here am French-- + Bloodshed 'tis surely better to retrench: + The gladiatorial gore we teach to flow + In tragic scenes disgusts though but in show; + We hate the carnage while we see the trick, + And find small sympathy in being sick. + Not on the stage the regicide Macbeth + Appals an audience with a Monarch's death; [xliv] + To gaze when sable Hubert threats to sear + Young Arthur's eyes, can _ours_ or _Nature_ bear? 280 + A haltered heroine [21] Johnson sought to slay-- + We saved Irene, but half damned the play, + And (Heaven be praised!) our tolerating times + Stint Metamorphoses to Pantomimes; + And Lewis' [22] self, with all his sprites, would quake + To change Earl Osmond's negro to a snake! + Because, in scenes exciting joy or grief, + We loathe the action which exceeds belief: + And yet, God knows! what may not authors do, + Whose Postscripts prate of dyeing "heroines blue"? [23] 290 + + Above all things, _Dan_ Poet, if you can, + Eke out your acts, I pray, with mortal man, + Nor call a ghost, unless some cursed scrape [xlv] + Must open ten trap-doors for your escape. + Of all the monstrous things I'd fain forbid, + I loathe an Opera worse than Dennis did; [24] + Where good and evil persons, right or wrong, + Rage, love, and aught but moralise--in song. + Hail, last memorial of our foreign friends, [xlvi] + Which Gaul allows, and still Hesperia lends! 300 + Napoleon's edicts no embargo lay + On whores--spies--singers--wisely shipped away. + Our giant Capital, whose squares are spread [xlvii] + Where rustics earned, and now may beg, their bread, + In all iniquity is grown so nice, + It scorns amusements which are not of price. + Hence the pert shopkeeper, whose throbbing ear + Aches with orchestras which he pays to hear, [xlviii] + Whom shame, not sympathy, forbids to snore, + His anguish doubling by his own "encore;" [xlix] 310 + Squeezed in "Fop's Alley," [25] jostled by the beaux, + Teased with his hat, and trembling for his toes; + Scarce wrestles through the night, nor tastes of ease, + Till the dropped curtain gives a glad release: + Why this, and more, he suffers--can ye guess?-- + Because it costs him dear, and makes him dress! [26] + + So prosper eunuchs from Etruscan schools; + Give us but fiddlers, and they're sure of fools! + Ere scenes were played by many a reverend clerk, [l] [27] + (What harm, if David danced before the ark?) [li] 320 + In Christmas revels, simple country folks + Were pleased with morrice-mumm'ry and coarse jokes. + Improving years, with things no longer known, + Produced blithe Punch and merry Madame Joan, + Who still frisk on with feats so lewdly low, [lii] + 'Tis strange Benvolio [28] suffers such a show; + Suppressing peer! to whom each vice gives place, [liii] + Oaths, boxing, begging--all, save rout and race. + + Farce followed Comedy, and reached her prime, + In ever-laughing Foote's fantastic time: [29] 330 + Mad wag! who pardoned none, nor spared the best, + And turned some very serious things to jest. + Nor Church nor State escaped his public sneers, + Arms nor the Gown--Priests--Lawyers--Volunteers: + "Alas, poor Yorick!" now for ever mute! + Whoever loves a laugh must sigh for Foote. + + We smile, perforce, when histrionic scenes + Ape the swoln dialogue of Kings and Queens, + When "Crononhotonthologos must die," [30] + And Arthur struts in mimic majesty. 340 + + Moschus! with whom once more I hope to sit, [liv] + And smile at folly, if we can't at wit; + Yes, Friend! for thee I'll quit my cynic cell, + And bear Swift's motto, "Vive la bagatelle!" + Which charmed our days in each AEgean clime, + As oft at home, with revelry and rhyme. + Then may Euphrosyne, who sped the past, + Soothe thy Life's scenes, nor leave thee in the last; + But find in thine--like pagan Plato's bed, [lv] [31] + Some merry Manuscript of Mimes, when dead. 350 + + Now to the Drama let us bend our eyes, + Where fettered by whig Walpole low she lies; [32] + Corruption foiled her, for she feared her glance; + Decorum left her for an Opera dance! + Yet Chesterfield, [33] whose polished pen inveighs + 'Gainst laughter, fought for freedom to our Plays; + Unchecked by Megrims of patrician brains, + And damning Dulness of Lord Chamberlains. + Repeal that act! again let Humour roam + Wild o'er the stage--we've time for tears at home; 360 + Let Archer [34] plant the horns on Sullen's brows, + And Estifania gull her "Copper" [35] spouse; + The moral's scant--but that may be excused, + Men go not to be lectured, but amused. + He whom our plays dispose to Good or Ill + Must wear a head in want of Willis' skill; [36] + Aye, but Macheath's example--psha!--no more! + It formed no thieves--the thief was formed before; [37] + And spite of puritans and Collier's curse, [lvi] + Plays make mankind no better, and no worse. [38] 370 + Then spare our stage, ye methodistic men! + Nor burn damned Drury if it rise again. [39] + But why to brain-scorched bigots thus appeal? + Can heavenly Mercy dwell with earthly Zeal? + For times of fire and faggot let them hope! + Times dear alike to puritan or Pope. + As pious Calvin saw Servetus blaze, + So would new sects on newer victims gaze. + E'en now the songs of Solyma begin; + Faith cants, perplexed apologist of Sin! 380 + While the Lord's servant chastens whom he loves, + And Simeon kicks, [40] where Baxter only "shoves."[41] + + Whom Nature guides, so writes, that every dunce [lvii], + Enraptured, thinks to do the same at once; + But after inky thumbs and bitten nails [lviii], + And twenty scattered quires, the coxcomb fails. + + Let Pastoral be dumb; for who can hope + To match the youthful eclogues of our Pope? + Yet his and Philips' [42] faults, of different kind, + For Art too rude, for Nature too refined, [lix] 390 + Instruct how hard the medium 'tis to hit + 'Twixt too much polish and too coarse a wit. + + A vulgar scribbler, certes, stands disgraced + In this nice age, when all aspire to taste; + The dirty language, and the noisome jest, + Which pleased in Swift of yore, we now detest; + Proscribed not only in the world polite [lx], + But even too nasty for a City Knight! + + Peace to Swift's faults! his wit hath made them pass, + Unmatched by all, save matchless Hudibras! 400 + Whose author is perhaps the first we meet, + Who from our couplet lopped two final feet; + Nor less in merit than the longer line, + This measure moves a favourite of the Nine. + Though at first view eight feet may seem in vain + Formed, save in Ode, to bear a serious strain [lxi], + Yet Scott has shown our wondering isle of late + This measure shrinks not from a theme of weight, + And, varied skilfully, surpasses far + Heroic rhyme, but most in Love and War, 410 + Whose fluctuations, tender or sublime, + Are curbed too much by long-recurring rhyme. + + But many a skilful judge abhors to see, + What few admire--irregularity. + This some vouchsafe to pardon; but 'tis hard + When such a word contents a British Bard. + + And must the Bard his glowing thoughts confine, [lxii] + Lest Censure hover o'er some faulty line? + Remove whate'er a critic may suspect, + To gain the paltry suffrage of "Correct"? 420 + Or prune the spirit of each daring phrase, + To fly from Error, not to merit Praise? + + Ye, who seek finished models, never cease [lxiii], + By day and night, to read the works of Greece. + But our good Fathers never bent their brains + To heathen Greek, content with native strains. + The few who read a page, or used a pen, + Were satisfied with Chaucer and old Ben; + The jokes and numbers suited to their taste + Were quaint and careless, anything but chaste; 430 + Yet, whether right or wrong the ancient rules, + It will not do to call our Fathers fools! + Though you and I, who eruditely know + To separate the elegant and low, + Can also, when a hobbling line appears, + Detect with fingers--in default of ears. + + In sooth I do not know, or greatly care + To learn, who our first English strollers were; + Or if, till roofs received the vagrant art, + Our Muse, like that of Thespis, kept a cart; 440 + But this is certain, since our Shakespeare's days, + There's pomp enough--if little else--in plays; + Nor will Melpomene ascend her Throne [lxiv] + Without high heels, white plume, and Bristol stone. + + Old Comedies still meet with much applause, + Though too licentious for dramatic laws; + At least, we moderns, wisely, 'tis confest, + Curtail, or silence, the lascivious jest [lxv]. + + Whate'er their follies, and their faults beside, + Our enterprising Bards pass nought untried; 450 + Nor do they merit slight applause who choose + An English subject for an English Muse, + And leave to minds which never dare invent + French flippancy and German sentiment. + Where is that living language which could claim + Poetic more, as philosophic, fame, + If all our Bards, more patient of delay, + Would stop, like Pope, to polish by the way? [43] + + Lords of the quill, whose critical assaults + O'erthrow whole quartos with their quires of faults [lxvi], 460 + Who soon detect, and mark where'er we fail, + And prove our marble with too nice a nail! + Democritus himself was not so bad; + He only 'thought'--but 'you' would make us--mad! + + But truth to say, most rhymers rarely guard + Against that ridicule they deem so hard; + In person negligent, they wear, from sloth, + Beards of a week, and nails of annual growth; + Reside in garrets, fly from those they meet, + And walk in alleys rather than the street. 470 + + With little rhyme, less reason, if you please, + The name of Poet may be got with ease, + So that not tuns of helleboric juice [lxvii] + Shall ever turn your head to any use; + Write but like Wordsworth--live beside a lake, + And keep your bushy locks a year from Blake; [44] + Then print your book, once more return to town, + And boys shall hunt your Bardship up and down. [45] + Am I not wise, if such some poets' plight, + To purge in spring--like Bayes [46]--before I write? 480 + If this precaution softened not my bile, + I know no scribbler with a madder style; + But since (perhaps my feelings are too nice) + I cannot purchase Fame at such a price, + I'll labour gratis as a grinders' wheel, [lxviii] + And, blunt myself, give edge to other's steel, + Nor write at all, unless to teach the art + To those rehearsing for the Poet's part; + From Horace show the pleasing paths of song, [lxix], + And from my own example--what is wrong. 490 + + Though modern practice sometimes differs quite, + 'Tis just as well to think before you write; + Let every book that suits your theme be read, + So shall you trace it to the fountain-head. + + He who has learned the duty which he owes + To friends and country, and to pardon foes; + Who models his deportment as may best + Accord with Brother, Sire, or Stranger-guest; + Who takes our Laws and Worship as they are, + Nor roars reform for Senate, Church, and Bar; 500 + In practice, rather than loud precept, wise, + Bids not his tongue, but heart, philosophize: + Such is the man the Poet should rehearse, + As joint exemplar of his life and verse. + + Sometimes a sprightly wit, and tale well told, + Without much grace, or weight, or art, will hold + A longer empire o'er the public mind + Than sounding trifles, empty, though refined. + + Unhappy Greece! thy sons of ancient days + The Muse may celebrate with perfect praise, 510 + Whose generous children narrowed not their hearts + With Commerce, given alone to Arms and Arts. [lxx] + Our boys (save those whom public schools compel + To "Long and Short" before they're taught to spell) + From frugal fathers soon imbibe by rote, + "A penny saved, my lad, 's a penny got." + Babe of a city birth! from sixpence take [lxxi] + The third, how much will the remainder make?-- + "A groat."--"Ah, bravo! Dick hath done the sum! [lxxii] + He'll swell my fifty thousand to a Plum." [47] 520 + + They whose young souls receive this rust betimes, + 'Tis clear, are fit for anything but rhymes; + And Locke will tell you, that the father's right + Who hides all verses from his children's sight; + For Poets (says this Sage [48], and many more,) + Make sad mechanics with their lyric lore: [lxxiii] + And Delphi now, however rich of old, + Discovers little silver, and less gold, + Because Parnassus, though a Mount divine, + Is poor as Irus, [49] or an Irish mine. [lxxiv] [50] 530 + + Two objects always should the Poet move, + Or one or both,--to please or to improve. + Whate'er you teach, be brief, if you design + For our remembrance your didactic line; + Redundance places Memory on the rack, + For brains may be o'erloaded, like the back. [lxxv] + + Fiction does best when taught to look like Truth, + And fairy fables bubble none but youth: + Expect no credit for too wondrous tales, + Since Jonas only springs alive from Whales! 540 + + Young men with aught but Elegance dispense; + Maturer years require a little Sense. + To end at once:--that Bard for all is fit [lxxvi] + Who mingles well instruction with his wit; + For him Reviews shall smile; for him o'erflow + The patronage of Paternoster-row; + His book, with Longman's liberal aid, shall pass + (Who ne'er despises books that bring him brass); + Through three long weeks the taste of London lead, + And cross St. George's Channel and the Tweed. 550 + + But every thing has faults, nor is't unknown + That harps and fiddles often lose their tone, + And wayward voices, at their owner's call, + With all his best endeavours, only squall; + Dogs blink their covey, flints withhold the spark, + And double-barrels (damn them!) miss their mark. [lxxvii] [51] + + Where frequent beauties strike the reader's view, + We must not quarrel for a blot or two; + But pardon equally to books or men, + The slips of Human Nature, and the Pen. 560 + Yet if an author, spite of foe or friend, + Despises all advice too much to mend, + But ever twangs the same discordant string, + Give him no quarter, howsoe'er he sing. + Let Havard's [52] fate o'ertake him, who, for once, + Produced a play too dashing for a dunce: + At first none deemed it his; but when his name + Announced the fact--what then?--it lost its fame. + Though all deplore when Milton deigns to doze, [lxxviii] + In a long work 'tis fair to steal repose. 570 + + As Pictures, so shall Poems be; some stand + The critic eye, and please when near at hand; [lxxix] + But others at a distance strike the sight; + This seeks the shade, but that demands the light, + Nor dreads the connoisseur's fastidious view, + But, ten times scrutinised, is ten times new. + + Parnassian pilgrims! ye whom chance, or choice, [lxxx] + Hath led to listen to the Muse's voice, + Receive this counsel, and be timely wise; + Few reach the Summit which before you lies. 580 + Our Church and State, our Courts and Camps, concede + Reward to very moderate heads indeed! + In these plain common sense will travel far; + All are not Erskines who mislead the Bar: [lxxxi] [53] + But Poesy between the best and worst + No medium knows; you must be last or first; + For middling Poets' miserable volumes + Are damned alike by Gods, and Men, and Columns. [lxxxii] + Again, my Jeffrey--as that sound inspires, [54] + How wakes my bosom to its wonted fires! 590 + Fires, such as gentle Caledonians feel + When Southrons writhe upon their critic wheel, + Or mild Eclectics, [55] when some, worse than Turks, + Would rob poor Faith to decorate "Good Works." + Such are the genial feelings them canst claim-- + My Falcon flies not at ignoble game. + Mightiest of all Dunedin's beasts of chase! + For thee my Pegasus would mend his pace. + Arise, my Jeffrey! or my inkless pen + Shall never blunt its edge on meaner men; 600 + Till thee or thine mine evil eye discerns, + "Alas! I cannot strike at wretched kernes." [56] + Inhuman Saxon! wilt thou then resign + A Muse and heart by choice so wholly thine? + Dear d--d contemner of my schoolboy songs, + Hast thou no vengeance for my Manhood's wrongs? + If unprovoked thou once could bid me bleed, + Hast thou no weapon for my daring deed? + What! not a word!--and am I then so low? + Wilt thou forbear, who never spared a foe? 610 + Hast thou no wrath, or wish to give it vent? + No wit for Nobles, Dunces by descent? + No jest on "minors," quibbles on a name, [57] + Nor one facetious paragraph of blame? + Is it for this on Ilion I have stood, + And thought of Homer less than Holyrood? + On shore of Euxine or AEgean sea, + My hate, untravelled, fondly turned to thee. + Ah! let me cease! in vain my bosom burns, + From Corydon unkind Alexis turns: [58] 620 + Thy rhymes are vain; thy Jeffrey then forego, + Nor woo that anger which he will not show. + What then?--Edina starves some lanker son, + To write an article thou canst not shun; + Some less fastidious Scotchman shall be found, + As bold in Billingsgate, though less renowned. + + As if at table some discordant dish, [59] + Should shock our optics, such as frogs for fish; + As oil in lieu of butter men decry, + And poppies please not in a modern pie; [lxxxiii] 630 + If all such mixtures then be half a crime, + We must have Excellence to relish rhyme. + Mere roast and boiled no Epicure invites; + Thus Poetry disgusts, or else delights. + + Who shoot not flying rarely touch a gun: + Will he who swims not to the river run? + And men unpractised in exchanging knocks + Must go to Jackson [60] ere they dare to box. + Whate'er the weapon, cudgel, fist, or foil, + None reach expertness without years of toil; 640 + But fifty dunces can, with perfect ease, + Tag twenty thousand couplets, when they please. + Why not?--shall I, thus qualified to sit + For rotten boroughs, never show my wit? + Shall I, whose fathers with the "Quorum" sate, [lxxxiv] + And lived in freedom on a fair estate; + Who left me heir, with stables, kennels, packs, [lxxxv] + To 'all' their income, and to--'twice' its tax; + Whose form and pedigree have scarce a fault, + Shall I, I say, suppress my Attic Salt? 650 + + Thus think "the Mob of Gentlemen;" but you, + Besides all this, must have some Genius too. + Be this your sober judgment, and a rule, + And print not piping hot from Southey's school, + Who (ere another Thalaba appears), + I trust, will spare us for at least nine years. + And hark'ye, Southey! [61] pray--but don't be vexed-- + Burn all your last three works--and half the next. + But why this vain advice? once published, books + Can never be recalled--from pastry-cooks! [lxxxvi] 660 + Though "Madoc," with "Pucelle," [62] instead of Punk, + May travel back to Quito--on a trunk! [63] + + Orpheus, we learn from Ovid and Lempriere, + Led all wild beasts but Women by the ear; + And had he fiddled at the present hour, + We'd seen the Lions waltzing in the Tower; [64] + And old Amphion, such were minstrels then, + Had built St. Paul's without the aid of Wren. + Verse too was Justice, and the Bards of Greece + Did more than constables to keep the peace; 670 + Abolished cuckoldom with much applause, + Called county meetings, and enforced the laws, + Cut down crown influence with reforming scythes, + And served the Church--without demanding tithes; + And hence, throughout all Hellas and the East, + Each Poet was a Prophet and a Priest, + Whose old-established Board of Joint Controls [65] + Included kingdoms in the cure of souls. + + Next rose the martial Homer, Epic's prince, + And Fighting's been in fashion ever since; 680 + And old Tyrtaeus, when the Spartans warred, + (A limping leader, but a lofty bard) [lxxxvii] + Though walled Ithome had resisted long, + Reduced the fortress by the force of song. + + When Oracles prevailed, in times of old, + In song alone Apollo's will was told. [lxxxviii] + Then if your verse is what all verse should be, + And Gods were not ashamed on't, why should we? + + The Muse, like mortal females, may be wooed; [66] + In turns she'll seem a Paphian, or a prude; 690 + Fierce as a bride when first she feels affright, + Mild as the same upon the second night; + Wild as the wife of Alderman or Peer, + Now for His Grace, and now a grenadier! + Her eyes beseem, her heart belies, her zone-- + Ice in a crowd--and Lava when alone. + + If Verse be studied with some show of Art. + Kind Nature always will perform her part; + Though without Genius, and a native vein + Of wit, we loathe an artificial strain, 700 + Yet Art and Nature joined will win the prize, + Unless they act like us and our allies. + + The youth who trains to ride, or run a race, + Must bear privations with unruffled face, + Be called to labour when he thinks to dine, + And, harder still, leave wenching and his wine. + Ladies who sing, at least who sing at sight, + Have followed Music through her farthest flight; [lxxxix] + But rhymers tell you neither more nor less, + "I've got a pretty poem for the Press;" 710 + And that's enough; then write and print so fast;-- + If Satan take the hindmost, who'd be last? + They storm the Types, they publish, one and all, [xc] [67] + They leap the counter, and they leave the stall. + Provincial Maidens, men of high command, + Yea! Baronets have inked the bloody hand! + Cash cannot quell them; Pollio played this prank, [xci] + (Then Phoebus first found credit in a Bank!) + Not all the living only, but the dead, + Fool on, as fluent as an Orpheus' Head; [68] 720 + Damned all their days, they posthumously thrive, + Dug up from dust, though buried when alive! + Reviews record this epidemic crime, + Those Books of Martyrs to the rage for rhyme. + Alas! woe worth the scribbler! often seen + In Morning Post, or Monthly Magazine. + There lurk his earlier lays; but soon, hot pressed, [xcii] + Behold a Quarto!--Tarts must tell the rest. + Then leave, ye wise, the Lyre's precarious chords + To muse-mad baronets, or madder lords, [cxiii] 730 + Or country Crispins, now grown somewhat stale, + Twin Doric minstrels, drunk with Doric ale! + Hark to those notes, narcotically soft! + The Cobbler-Laureats [69] sing to Capel Lofft! [70] + Till, lo! that modern Midas, as he hears, [xciv] + Adds an ell growth to his egregious ears! [xcv] + There lives one Druid, who prepares in time [71] + 'Gainst future feuds his poor revenge of rhyme; + Racks his dull Memory, and his duller Muse, + To publish faults which Friendship should excuse. 740 + If Friendship's nothing, Self-regard might teach + More polished usage of his parts of speech. + But what is shame, or what is aught to him? [xcvi] + He vents his spleen, or gratifies his whim. + Some fancied slight has roused his lurking hate, + Some folly crossed, some jest, or some debate; + Up to his den Sir Scribbler hies, and soon + The gathered gall is voided in Lampoon. + Perhaps at some pert speech you've dared to frown, + Perhaps your Poem may have pleased the Town: 750 + If so, alas! 'tis nature in the man-- + May Heaven forgive you, for he never can! + Then be it so; and may his withering Bays + Bloom fresh in satire, though they fade in praise + While his lost songs no more shall steep and stink + The dullest, fattest weeds on Lethe's brink, + But springing upwards from the sluggish mould, + Be (what they never were before) be--sold! + Should some rich Bard (but such a monster now, [72] + In modern Physics, we can scarce allow), [xcvii] 760 + Should some pretending scribbler of the Court, + Some rhyming Peer--there's plenty of the sort--[xcviii] [73] + All but one poor dependent priest withdrawn, + (Ah! too regardless of his Chaplain's yawn!) + Condemn the unlucky Curate to recite + Their last dramatic work by candle-light, + How would the preacher turn each rueful leaf, + Dull as his sermons, but not half so brief! + Yet, since 'tis promised at the Rector's death, + He'll risk no living for a little breath. 770 + Then spouts and foams, and cries at every line, + (The Lord forgive him!) "Bravo! Grand! Divine!" + Hoarse with those praises (which, by Flatt'ry fed, [xcix] + Dependence barters for her bitter bread), + He strides and stamps along with creaking boot; + Till the floor echoes his emphatic foot, + Then sits again, then rolls his pious eye, [c] + As when the dying vicar will not die! + Nor feels, forsooth, emotion at his heart;-- + But all Dissemblers overact their part. 780 + + Ye, who aspire to "build the lofty rhyme," [74] + Believe not all who laud your false "sublime;" + But if some friend shall hear your work, and say, + "Expunge that stanza, lop that line away," + And, after fruitless efforts, you return + Without amendment, and he answers, "Burn!" + That instant throw your paper in the fire, + Ask not his thoughts, or follow his desire; + But (if true Bard!) you scorn to condescend, [ci] + And will not alter what you can't defend, 790 + If you will breed this Bastard of your Brains, [75] + We'll have no words--I've only lost my pains. + + Yet, if you only prize your favourite thought, + As critics kindly do, and authors ought; + If your cool friend annoy you now and then, + And cross whole pages with his plaguy pen; + No matter, throw your ornaments aside,-- + Better let him than all the world deride. + Give light to passages too much in shade, + Nor let a doubt obscure one verse you've made; 800 + Your friend's a "Johnson," not to leave one word, + However trifling, which may seem absurd; + Such erring trifles lead to serious ills, + And furnish food for critics, or their quills. [76] + + As the Scotch fiddle, with its touching tune, + Or the sad influence of the angry Moon, + All men avoid bad writers' ready tongues, + As yawning waiters fly [77] Fitzscribble's lungs; [cii] + Yet on he mouths--ten minutes--tedious each [ciii] [78] + As Prelate's homily, or placeman's speech; 810 + Long as the last years of a lingering lease, + When Riot pauses until Rents increase. + While such a minstrel, muttering fustian, strays + O'er hedge and ditch, through unfrequented ways, + If by some chance he walks into a well, + And shouts for succour with stentorian yell, + "A rope! help, Christians, as ye hope for grace!" + Nor woman, man, nor child will stir a pace; + For there his carcass he might freely fling, [civ] + From frenzy, or the humour of the thing. 820 + Though this has happened to more Bards than one; + I'll tell you Budgell's story,--and have done. + + Budgell, a rogue and rhymester, for no good, + (Unless his case be much misunderstood) + When teased with creditors' continual claims, + "To die like Cato," [79] leapt into the Thames! + And therefore be it lawful through the town + For any Bard to poison, hang, or drown. + Who saves the intended Suicide receives + Small thanks from him who loathes the life he leaves; [cv] 830 + And, sooth to say, mad poets must not lose + The Glory of that death they freely choose. + + Nor is it certain that some sorts of verse [cvi] + Prick not the Poet's conscience as a curse; + Dosed [80] with vile drams on Sunday he was found, + Or got a child on consecrated ground! + And hence is haunted with a rhyming rage-- + Feared like a bear just bursting from his cage. + If free, all fly his versifying fit, + Fatal at once to Simpleton or Wit: 840 + But 'him', unhappy! whom he seizes,--'him' + He flays with Recitation limb by limb; + Probes to the quick where'er he makes his breach, + And gorges like a Lawyer--or a Leech. + + + +[The last page of 'MS. M.' is dated-- + + BYRON, + + Capuchin Convent, + + Athens. 'March 14th, 1811'. + +The following memorandum, in Byron's handwriting, is also inscribed on +the last page: + + "722 lines, and 4 inserted after and now counted, in all 726.--B. + + "Since this several lines are added.--B. June 14th, 1811. + + "Copied fair at Malta, May 3rd, 1811.--B." + + BYRON, + + 'March 11th and 12th', + Athens. 1811. + +['MS. L. (a)'.] + + + BYRON, 'March 14th, 1811.' + Athens, Capuchin Convent. + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + + + + +[Footnote 1: Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) succeeded West as P.R.A. in +1820. Benjamin West (1738-1820) had been elected P.R.A. in 1792, on the +death of Sir Joshua Reynolds.] + + +[Footnote 2: In an English newspaper, which finds its way abroad +wherever there are Englishmen, I read an account of this dirty dauber's +caricature of Mr. H---as a "beast," and the consequent action, etc. The +circumstance is, probably, too well known to require further comment. +[Thomas Hope (1770-1831) was celebrated for his collections of pictures, +sculpture, and _bric-a-brac_. He was the author of _Anastasius, or +Memoirs of a Greek, etc_., which was attributed to Byron, and, according +to Lady Blessington, excited his envy. "Low Dubost" was a French +painter, who, in revenge for some fancied injustice, caricatured Hope +and his wife as Beauty and the Beast. An exhibition of the sketch is +said to have brought in from twenty to thirty pounds a week. A brother +of Mrs. Hope (Louisa Beresford, daughter of Lord Decies, Archbishop of +Tuam) mutilated the picture, and, an action having been brought, was +ordered to pay a nominal sum of five pounds. Dubost's academy portrait +of Mrs. Hope did not please Peter Pindar. + + "In Mistress Hope, Monsieur Dubost! + Thy Genius yieldeth up the Ghost." + +_Works_ (1812), v. 372.]] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "While pure Description held the place of Sense."-- + +Pope, _Prol. to the Sat.,_ L. 148. + + + "While Mr. Sol decked out all so glorious + Shines like a Beau in his Birthday Embroidery." + +[Fielding, _Tom Thumb_, act i. sc. I.]--[_MS. M._] + +"_Fas est et ab Hoste doceri._" In the 7th Art. of the 31st No. of the +_Edinburgh Review_ (vol. xvi. Ap. 1810) the "Observations" of an Oxford +Tutor are compared to "Children's Cradles" (page 181), then to a +"Barndoor fowl flying" (page 182), then the man himself to "a +Coach-horse on the Trottoir" (page 185) etc., etc., with a variety of +other conundrums all tending to prove that the ingenuity of comparison +increases in proportion to the dissimilarity between the things +compared.--[_MS. L. (b) erased._]] + + +[Footnote 4: Mere common mortals were commonly content with one Taylor +and with one bill, but the more particular gentlemen found it impossible +to confide their lower garments to the makers of their body clothes. I +speak of the beginning of 1809: what reform may have since taken place I +neither know, nor desire to know.--[_MSS. L. (b), M_.]] + + +[Footnote 5: Mr. Pitt was liberal in his additions to our Parliamentary +tongue; as may be seen in many publications, particularly the 'Edinburgh +Review'. + +[The reference may be to financial terms, such as sinking fund (a phrase +not introduced by Pitt), the English equivalent of 'caisse +d'amortissement', or income tax ('impot sur le revenu'), or to actual +French words such as 'chouannerie, projet', etc. But Pitt's "additions" +are unnoticed by Frere and other reporters and critics of his speeches. +For a satirical description of Pitt's words, "which are finer and longer +than can be conceived," see 'Rolliad', 1799; 'Political Miscellanies', +p. 421; and 'Political Eclogues', p. 195. + + "And Billy best of all things loves--a trope." + +Compare, too, Peter Pindar, "To Sylvanus Urban," 'Works' (1812), ii. 259. + + "Lycurgus Pitt whose penetrating eyes + Behold the fount of Freedom in excise, + Whose 'patriot' logic possibly maintains + The 'identity' of 'liberty' and 'chains'."]] + + +[Footnote 6: Old ballads, old plays, and old women's stories, are at +present in as much request as old wine or new speeches. In fact, this is +the millennium of black letter: thanks to our Hebers, Webers, and +Scotts! + +[Richard Heber (1773-1833), book-collector and man of letters, was +half-brother of the Bishop of Calcutta. He edited, 'inter alia', +'Specimens of the Early English Poets', by George Ellis, 3 vols., London: +1811. + +W. H. Weber (1783-1818), a German by birth, was employed by Sir Walter +Scott as an amanuensis and "searcher." He edited, in 1810, 'Metrical +Romances of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries', a work described by +Southey ('Letters', ii. 308) as "admirably edited, exceedingly curious, +and after my own heart." He also published editions of Ford, and +Beaumont and Fletcher, which were adversely criticized by Gifford. For +an account of his relations to Scott and of his melancholy end, see +Lockhart's 'Life of Scott' (1871), p. 251.]] + + +[Footnote 7: 'Mac Flecknoe', the 'Dunciad', and all Swift's lampooning +ballads. Whatever their other works may be, these originated in personal +feelings, and angry retort on unworthy rivals; and though the ability of +these satires elevates the poetical, their poignancy detracts from the +personal character of the writers.] + + +[Footnote 8: 'Almanzor: or the Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards', a +Tragedy by John Dryden. The bombastic character of the hero was severely +criticized in Dryden's own time, and was defended by him thus: + + "'Tis said that Almanzor is no perfect pattern of heroic virtue, that + he is a contemner of kings, and that he is made to perform + impossibilities. I must therefore avow, in the first place, from + whence I took the character. The first image I had of him was from the + Achilles of Homer: the next from Tasso's Rinaldo, and the third from + the Artaban of Mons. Calprenede.... He talks extravagantly in his + passion, but if I would take the trouble to quote from Ben Jonson's + Cethegus, I could easily show you that the rhodomontades of Almanzor + are neither so irrational as his nor so impossible to be put in + execution." + +'An Essay on Heroic Plays. Works of John Dryden' (1821), iv. 23-25.] + + +[Footnote 9: With all the vulgar applause and critical abhorrence of +puns, they have Aristotle on their side; who permits them to orators, +and gives them consequence by a grave disquisition. + +["Cicero also," says Addison, "has sprinkled several of his works with +them; and in his book on Oratory, quotes abundance of sayings as pieces +of wit, which, upon examination, prove arrant puns."--'Essay on Wit, +Works' (1888), ii. 354.]] + + +[Footnote 10: In Vanbrugh and Gibber's comedy of The Provoked Husband, +first played at Drury Lane, January 10, 1728.]] + + +[Footnote 11: + + "And in his ear I'll holla--Mortimer!" + +['I Henry IV'., act i. sc. 3.]] + + +[Footnote 12: Garrick's 'Lying Valet' was played for the first time at +Goodman's Fields, November 30, 1741.] + +["Peregrine" is a character in George Colman's 'John Bull', or 'An +Englishman's Fire-Side', Covent Garden. March 5, 1803.] ] + + +[Footnote 13: I have Johnson's authority for making Lear a +monosyllable-- + + "Perhaps where Lear rav'd or Hamlet died + On flying cars new sorcerers may ride." + + ["Perhaps where Lear has rav'd, and Hamlet dy'd." + +Prologue to 'Irene. Johnson's Works' (1806), i. 168.] +and (if it need be mentioned) the 'authority' of the epigram on Barry +and Garrick.--[Note 'erased, Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote 14: + + "'Johnson'. Pray, Mr. Bayes, who is that Drawcansir? + + 'Bayes'. Why, Sir, a great [fierce] hero, that frights his mistress, + snubs up kings, baffles armies, and does what he will, without regard + to numbers, good sense, or justice [good manners, justice, or + numbers]." + +'The Rehearsal', act iv. sc. I. + +'The Rehearsal', by George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham +(1627-1688), appeared in 1671. Sprat and others are said to have shared +the authorship. So popular was the play that "Drawcansir" passed into a +synonime for a braggadocio. It is believed that "Bayes" (that is, of +course, "laureate") was meant for a caricature of Dryden: "he himself +complains bitterly that it was so." (See 'Lives of the Poets' (1890), i. +386; and Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' (1876), p. 235, and 'note'.)]] + + +[Footnote 15: + + "Difficile est proprie communia dicere; tuque + Rectius Iliacum carmen deducis in actus, + Quam si proferres ignota indictaque primus." + +HOR: 'DE ARTE POET': 128-130. + +Mons. Dacier, Mons. de Sevigne, Boileau, and others, have left their +dispute on the meaning of this sentence in a tract considerably longer +than the poem of Horace. It is printed at the close of the eleventh +volume of Madame de Sevigne's Letters, edited by Grouvelle, Paris, 1806. +Presuming that all who can construe may venture an opinion on such +subjects, particularly as so many who _can't_ have taken the same +liberty, I should have held "my farthing candle" as awkwardly as +another, had not my respect for the wits of Louis 14th's Augustan +"Siecle" induced me to subjoin these illustrious authorities. I +therefore offer: + +firstly Boileau: "Il est difficile de trailer des sujets qui sont a la +portee de tout le monde d'une maniere qui vous les rende propres, ce qui +s'appelle s'approprier un sujet par le tour qu'on y donne." + +2dly, Batteux: "Mais il est bien difficile de donner des traits propres +et individuels aux etres purement possibles." + +3dly, Dacier: "Il est difficile de traiter convenablement ces caracteres +que tout le monde peut inventer." + +Mr. Sevigne's opinion and translation, consisting of some thirty pages, +I omit, particularly as Mr. Grouvelle observes, "La chose est bien +remarquable, aucune de ces diverses interpretations ne parait etre la +veritable." But, by way of comfort, it seems, fifty years afterwards, +"Le lumineux Dumarsais" made his appearance, to set Horace on his legs +again, "dissiper tous les nuages, et concilier tous les dissentiments;" +and I suppose some fifty years hence, somebody, still more luminous, +will doubtless start up and demolish Dumarsais and his system on this +weighty affair, as if he were no better than Ptolemy or Copernicus and +comments of no more consequence than astronomical calculations. I am +happy to say, "la longueur de la dissertation" of Mr. D. prevents Mr. G. +from saying any more on the matter. A better poet than Boileau, and at +least as good a scholar as Mr. de Sevigne, has said, + + "A little learning is a dangerous thing." + +And by the above extract, it appears that a good deal may be rendered as +useless to the Proprietors. + +[Byron chose the words in question, Difficile,' etc., as a motto for the +first five cantos of 'Don Juan'] + + +[Footnote 16: About two years ago a young man named Townsend was +announced by Mr. Cumberland, in a review (since deceased) [the 'London +Review'], as being engaged in an epic poem to be entitled "Armageddon." +The plan and specimen promise much; but I hope neither to offend Mr. +Townsend, nor his friends, by recommending to his attention the lines of +Horace to which these rhymes allude. If Mr. Townsend succeeds in his +undertaking, as there is reason to hope, how much will the world be +indebted to Mr. Cumberland for bringing him before the public! But, till +that eventful day arrives, it may be doubted whether the premature +display of his plan (sublime as the ideas confessedly are) has not,--by +raising expectation too high, or diminishing curiosity, by developing +his argument,--rather incurred the hazard of injuring Mr. Townsend's +future prospects. Mr. Cumberland (whose talents I shall not depreciate +by the humble tribute of my praise) and Mr. Townsend must not suppose me +actuated by unworthy motives in this suggestion. I wish the author all +the success he can wish himself, and shall be truly happy to see epic +poetry weighed up from the bathos where it lies sunken with Southey, +Cottle, Cowley (Mrs. or Abraham), Ogilvy, Wilkie, Pye, and all the "dull +of past and present days." Even if he is not a 'Milton', he may be +better than 'Blackmore'; if not a 'Homer', an 'Antimachus'. I should +deem myself presumptuous, as a young man, in offering advice, were it +not addressed to one still younger. Mr. Townsend has the greatest +difficulties to encounter; but in conquering them he will find +employment; in having conquered them, his reward. I know too well "the +scribbler's scoff, the critic's contumely;" and I am afraid time will +teach Mr. Townsend to know them better. Those who succeed, and those who +do not, must bear this alike, and it is hard to say which have most of +it. I trust that Mr. Townsend's share will be from 'envy'; he will soon +know mankind well enough not to attribute this expression to malice. +[This note was written [at Athens] before the author was apprised of Mr. +Cumberland's death [in May, 1811].--'MS'. (See Byron's letter to Dallas, +August 27, 1811.) The Rev. George Townsend (1788-1857) published 'Poems' +in 1810, and eight books of his 'Armageddon' in 1815. They met with the +fate which Byron had predicted. In later life he compiled numerous works +of scriptural exegesis. He was a Canon of Durham from 1825 till his +death.]] + + +[Footnote 17: The first line of 'A Spirit of Discovery by Sea', by the +Rev. W. Lisle Bowles, first published in 1805.] + + +[Footnote 18: Harvey, the 'circulator' of the 'circulation' of the +blood, used to fling away Virgil in his ecstasy of admiration and say, +"the book had a devil." Now such a character as I am copying would +probably fling it away also, but rather wish that "the devil had the +book;" not from dislike to the poet, but a well-founded horror of +hexameters. Indeed, the public school penance of "Long and Short" is +enough to beget an antipathy to poetry for the residue of a man's life, +and, perhaps, so far may be an advantage.] + + +[Footnote 19: + + "'Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem'." + +I dare say Mr. Tavell (to whom I mean no affront) will understand me; +and it is no matter whether any one else does or no.--To the above +events, "'quaeque ipse miserrima vidi, et quorum pars magna fui'," all +'times' and 'terms' bear testimony. [The Rev. G.F. Tavell was a fellow +and tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, during Byron's residence, and +owed this notice to the "zeal with which he protested against his +juvenile vagaries." During a part of his residence at Trinity, Byron +kept a tame bear in his rooms in Neville's Court. (See 'English Bards', +l. 973, 'note', and postscript to the Second Edition, 'ante', p. 383. See +also letter to Miss Pigot, October 26, 1807.) + +The following copy of a bill (no date) tells its own story:-- + + The Honble. Lord Byron. + + To John Clarke. + + To Bread & Milk for the Bear deliv'd.} L 1 9 7 + to Haladay ... ... ... } + + Cambridge Reve. A Clarke.]] + + + +[Footnote 20: "Hell," a gaming-house so called, where you risk little, +and are cheated a good deal. "Club," a pleasant purgatory, where you +lose more, and are not supposed to be cheated at all.] + + +[Footnote 21: + + "Irene had to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck; but + the audience cried out ['Murder!'] 'Murder!' and she was obliged to go + off the stage alive." + +'Boswell's Johnson' [1876, p. 60]. + +[Irene (first played February 6, 1749) for the future was put to death +behind the scenes. The strangling her, contrary to Horace's rule, 'coram +populo', was suggested by Garrick. (See Davies' 'Life of Garrick' +(1808), i. 157.)]] + + + [Footnote 22: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818). ('Vide English Bards, + etc'., l. 265, n. 8.) The character of Hassan, "my misanthropic negro," + as Lewis called him, was said by the critics of the day to have been + borrowed from Zanga in Young's 'Revenge'. Lewis, in his "Address to the + Reader," quoted by Byron (in 'note' 3), defends the originality of the + conception.] + + +[Footnote 23: In the postscript to _The Castle Spectre_, Mr. Lewis tells +us, that though blacks were unknown in England at the period of his +action, yet he has made the anachronism to set off the scene: and if he +could have produced the effect "by making his heroine blue,"--I quote +him--"blue he would have made her!" [_The Castle Spectre_, by M.G. +Lewis, Esq., M.P., London, 1798, page 102.]] + + +[Footnote 24: In 1706 John Dennis, the critic (1657-1734), wrote an +'Essay on the Operas after the Italian manner, which are about to be +established on the English Stage'; to show that they were more immoral +than the most licentious play.] + + +[Footnote 25: One of the gangways in the Opera House, where the young +men of fashion used to assemble. (See letter to Murray, Nov. 9, 1820; +_Life_, p. 62.)] + + +[Footnote 26: In the year 1808, happening at the opera to tread on the +toes of a very well-dressed man, I turned round to apologize, when, to +my utter astonishment, I recognized the face of the porter of the very +hotel where I then lodged in Albemarle Street. So here was a gentleman +who ran every morning forty errands for half a crown, throwing away half +a guinea at night, besides the expense of his habiliments, and the hire +of his "Chapeau de Bras."--[_MS. L. (a)_.]] + + +[Footnote 27: The first theatrical representations, entitled "Mysteries +and Moralities," were generally enacted at Christmas, by monks (as the +only persons who could read), and latterly by the clergy and students of +the universities. The dramatis personae were usually Adam, Pater +Coelestis, Faith, Vice, and sometimes an angel or two; but these were +eventually superseded by 'Gammer Gurton's Needle'.--'Vide' Warton's +'History of English Poetry [passim]'.--['MSS. M., L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote 28: 'Benvolio' [Lord Grosvenor, 'MS. L'. ('b')] does not bet; +but every man who maintains racehorses is a promoter of all the +concomitant evils of the turf. Avoiding to bet is a little pharisaical. +Is it an exculpation? I think not. I never yet heard a bawd praised for +chastity, because 'she herself' did not commit fornication. + +[Robert, second Earl Grosvenor (1767-1845), was created Marquis of +Westminster in 1831. Like his father, Gifford's patron, the first Earl +Grosvenor, he was a breeder of racehorses, and a patron of the turf. As +Lord Belgrave, he brought forward a motion for the suppression of Sunday +newspapers, June 11, 1799, denouncing them in a violent speech. The +motion was lost; but many years after, in a speech delivered in the +House of Lords, January 2, 1807, he returned to the charge. (See 'Parl. +Hist'., 34. 1006, 1010; and 'Parl. Deb'., 8. 286.) (For a skit on Lord +Belgrave's sabbatarian views, see Peter Pindar, 'Works' (1812), iv. +519.)]] + + +[Footnote 29: Samuel Foote (1720-1777), actor and playwright. His solo +entertainments, in 'The Dish of Tea, An Auction of Pictures', 1747-8 +(see his comedy 'Taste'), were the precursors of 'Mathews at Home', and +a long line of successors. His farces and curtain-pieces were often +"spiced-up" with more or less malicious character-sketches of living +persons. Among his better known pieces are 'The Minor' (1760), +ridiculing Whitefield and the Methodists, and 'The Mayor of Garratt' +(1763), in which he played the part of Sturgeon (Byron used this piece, +for an illustration in his speech on the Frame-workers Bill, February +27, 1812). 'The Lyar', first played at Covent Garden, January 12, 1762, +was the latest to hold the stage. It was reproduced at the Opera Comique +in 1877.] + + +[Footnote 30: Henry Carey, poet and musician (d. 1743), a natural son of +George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, was the author of +_Chrononhotonthologos_, "the most tragical tragedy ever yet tragedised +by any company of tragedians," which was first played at the Haymarket, +February 22, 1734. The well-known lines, "Go, call a coach, and let a +coach be called," etc., which Scott prefixed to the first chapter of +_The Antiquary_, are from the last scene, in which Bombardinion fights +with and kills the King Chrononhotonthologos. But his one achievement +was _Sally in our Alley_, of which he wrote both the words and the +music. The authorship of "God Save the King" has been attributed to him, +probably under a misapprehension.] + + +[Footnote 31: Under Plato's pillow a volume of the 'Mimes' of Sophron +was found the day he died.--'Vide' Barthelemi, De Pauw, or Diogenes +Laertius, [Lib. iii. p. 168--Chouet 1595] if agreeable. De Pauw calls it +a jest-book. Cumberland, in his 'Observer', terms it moral, like the +sayings of Publius Syrus.] + + +[Footnote 32: In 1737 the manager of Goodman's Fields Theatre having +brought Sir Robert Walpole a farce called 'The Golden Rump', the +minister detained the copy. He then made extracts of the most offensive +passages, read them to the house, and brought in a bill to limit the +number of playhouses and to subject all dramatic writings to the +inspection of the Lord Chamberlain. Horace Walpole ascribed 'The Golden +Rump' to Fielding, and said that he had found an imperfect copy of the +play among his father's papers. But this has been questioned. (See 'A +Book of the Play', by Dutton Cook (1881), p. 27.)]] + + +[Footnote 33: His speech on the Licensing Act [in which he opposed the +Bill], is reckoned one of his most eloquent efforts. + +[The following sentences have been extracted from the speech which was +delivered:-- + + "The bill is not only an encroachment upon liberty, it is likewise an + encroachment on property. Wit, my lords, is a sort of property; it is + the property of those who have it, and too often the only property + they have to depend on... + + "Those gentlemen who have any such property are all, I hope, our + friends; do not let us subject them to any unnecessary or arbitrary + restraint... + + "The stage and the press, my lord, are two of our out-sentries; if we + remove them, if we hoodwink them, if we throw them into fetters, the + enemy may surprise us. Therefore I must now look upon the bill before + us as a step for introducing arbitrary power into this kingdom." + +Lord Chesterfield's sentiments with regard to laughter are contained in +an apophthegm, repeated more than once in his correspondence: "The +vulgar laugh aloud, but never smile; on the contrary, people of fashion +often smile, but seldom or never laugh aloud."--'Chesterfield's Letters +to his Godson', Oxford, 1890, p. 27.]] + + +[Footnote 34: Archer and Squire Sullen are characters in Farquhar's +play (1678-1707), 'The Beaux' Stratagem', March 8, 1707.]] + + +[Footnote 35: Michael Perez, the "Copper Captain," in [Fletcher's] +'Rule a Wife and Have a Wife' [licensed October 19, 1624].] + + +[Footnote 36: The Rev. Dr. Francis Willis died in 1807, in the 90th year +of his age. He attended George III. in his first attack of madness in +1788. The power of his eye on other persons is illustrated by a story +related by Frederick Reynolds ('Life and Times', ii. 23), who describes +how Edmund Burke quailed under his look. His son, John Willis, was +entrusted with the entire charge of the king in 1811. Compare Shelley's +'Peter Bell the Third', part vi.-- + + "Let him shave his head: + Where's Dr. Willis?" + +(See, too, 'Bland-Burges Papers' (1885), pp. 113-115, and 'Life of +George IV'., by Percy Fitzgerald (1881), ii. 18.)]] + + +[Footnote 37: Dr. Johnson was of the like opinion. + + "Highwaymen and housebreakers," he says, in his Life of Gay, "seldom + frequent the playhouse, or mingle in any elegant diversion; nor is it + possible for any one to imagine that he may rob with safety, because + he sees Macheath reprieved upon the stage." + +'Lives of the Poets', by Samuel Johnson (1890), ii. 266. It was +asserted, on the other hand, by Sir John Fielding, the Bow-street +magistrate, that on every run of the piece, 'The Beggar's Opera', an +increased number of highwaymen were brought to his office; and so strong +was his conviction, that in 1772 he remonstrated against the performance +with the managers of both the houses.] + + +[Footnote 38: Jerry Collier's controversy with Congreve, etc., on the +subject of the drama, is too well known to require further comment. + +[Jeremy Collier (1650-1756), non-juring bishop and divine. The occasion +of his controversy with Congreve was the publication of his 'Short View +of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage' (1697-8). +Congreve, who had been attacked by name, replied in a tract entitled +'Amendments upon Mr. Collier's false and imperfect citations from the' +OLD BATCHELEUR, etc.]] + + +[Footnote 39: A few months after lines 370-381 were added to 'The +Hints', in September, 1812, Byron, at the request of Lord Holland, wrote +the address delivered on the opening of the theatre, which had been +rebuilt after the fire of February 24, 1809. He subsequently joined the +Committee of Management] + + +[Footnote 40: Mr. Simeon is the very bully of beliefs, and castigator of +"good works." He is ably supported by John Stickles, a labourer in the +same vineyard:--but I say no more, for, according to Johnny in full +congregation,'"No hopes for them as laughs."' + +[The Rev. Charles Simeon (1758-1836) was the leader of the evangelical +movement in Cambridge. The reference may be to the rigour with which he +repelled a charge brought against him by Dr. Edwards, the Master of +Sidney Sussex, that a sermon which he had preached in November, 1809, +savoured of antinomianism. It may be noted that a friend (the Rev. W. +Parish), to whom he submitted the MS. of a rejoinder to Pearson's +'Cautions, etc.', advised him to print it, "especially if you should +rather keep down a lash or two which might irritate." Simeon was +naturally irascible, and, in reply to a friend who had mildly reproved +him for some display of temper, signed himself, in humorous penitence, +"Charles proud and irritable." (See 'Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Mr. +Simeon', by Rev. W. Carus (1847), pp. 195, 282, etc.)]] + + +[Footnote 41: 'Baxter's Shove to heavy-a--d Christians', the veritable +title of a book once in good repute, and likely enough to be so again. + +["Baxter" is a slip of the pen. The tract or sermon, 'An Effectual Shove +to the heavy-arse Christian', was, according to the title-page, written +by William Bunyan, minister of the gospel in South Wales, and "printed +for the author" in London in 1768.]] + + +[Footnote 42: Ambrose Philips (1675?-1749) published his 'Epistle to the +Earl of Dorset' and his 'Pastorals' in 1709. It is said that Pope +attacked him in his satires in consequence of an article in the +'Guardian', in which the 'Pastorals' were unduly extolled. His verses, +addressed to the children of his patron, Lord Carteret, were parodied by +Henry Carey, in 'Namby Pamby, or a Panegyric on the New +Versification'.] + + +[Footnote 43: See letters to Murray, Sept. 15, 1817; Jan. 25, 1819; Mar. +29, 1820; Nov. 4, 1820; etc. See also the two 'Letters' against Bowles, +written at Ravenna, Feb. 7 and Mar. 21, 1821, in which Byron's +enthusiastic reverence for Pope is the dominant note.] + + +[Footnote 44: As famous a tonsor as Licinus himself, and better paid +[and may be like him a senator, one day or other: no disparagement to +the High Court of Parliament.--'MS.L.(b)'], and may, like him, be one +day a senator, having a better qualification than one half of the heads +he crops, viz.--Independence. + +[According to the Scholiast, Cassar made his barber Licinus a senator, +"quod odisset Pompeium." Blake (see Letter to Murray, Nov. 9, 1820) was, +presumably, Benjamin Blake, a perfumer, who lived at 46, Park Street, +Grosvenor Square.]] + + +[Footnote 45: There was some foundation for this. When Wordsworth and +his sister Dorothy called on Daniel Stuart, editor of the 'Courier', at +his fine new house in Harley Street, the butler would not admit them +further than the hall, and was not a little taken aback when he +witnessed the deference shown to these strangely-attired figures by his +master.--Personal Reminiscence of the late Miss Stuart, of 106, Harley +Street.] + + +[Footnote 46: + + "'Bayes'. If I am to write familiar things, as sonnets to Armida, and + the like, I make use of stewed prunes only; but when I have a grand + design in hand, I ever take physic and let blood; for when you would + have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights of fancy, you must + have a care of the pensive part. In fine, you must purge." + +'Rehearsal', act ii. sc. 1. + +This passage is instanced by Johnson as a proof that "Bayes" was a +caricature of Dryden. + + "Bayes, when he is to write, is blooded and purged; this, as Lamotte + relates, ... was the real practice of the poet." + +'Lives of the Poets' 1890), i. 388.]] + + +[Footnote 47: Cant term for L100,000.] + + +[Footnote 48: I have not the original by me, but the Italian translation +runs as follows:-- + + "E una cosa a mio credere molto stravagante, che un Padre desideri, o + permetta, che suo figliuolo coltivi e perfezioni questo talento." + +A little further on: + + "Si trovano di rado nel Parnaso le miniere d' oro e d' argento," + +'Educazione dei Fanciulli del Signer Locke' (Venice, 1782), ii. 87. + + ["If the child have a poetic vein, it is to me the strangest thing in + the world, that the father should desire or suffer it to be cherished + or improved."--"It is very seldom seen, that any one discovers mines + of gold or silver on Parnassus." + +'Some Thoughts concerning Education', by John Locke (1880), p. 152.]] + + +[Footnote 49: "Iro pauperior:" a proverb: this is the same beggar who +boxed with Ulysses for a pound of kid's fry, which he lost and half a +dozen teeth besides. (See 'Odyssey', xviii. 98.)] + + +[Footnote 50: The Irish gold mine in Wicklow, which yields just ore +enough to swear by, or gild a bad guinea.] + + +[Footnote 51: As Mr. Pope took the liberty of damning Homer, to whom he +was under great obligations--"'And Homer (damn him!) calls'"--it may be +presumed that anybody or anything may be damned in verse by poetical +licence [I shall suppose one may damn anything else in verse with +impunity.--'MS. L. (b)']; and, in case of accident, I beg leave to plead +so illustrious a precedent.] + + +[Footnote 52: For the story of Billy Havard's tragedy, see Davies's +'Life of Garrick'. I believe it is 'Regulus', or 'Charles the First' +[Lincoln's Inn Fields, March 1, 1737]. The moment it was known to be his +the theatre thinned, and the book-seller refused to give the customary +sum for the copyright. [See 'Life of Garrick', by Thomas Davies (1808), +ii. 205.] + + +[Footnote 53: Thomas Erskine (third son of the fifth Earl of Buchan) +afterwards Lord Erskine (1750-1823), Lord Chancellor (1806-7), an +eloquent orator, a supremely great advocate, was, by comparison, a +failure as a judge. His power over a jury, "his little twelvers," as he +would sometimes address them, was practically unlimited. (See +'Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers' (1856), p. 126.)]] + + +[Footnote 54: Lines 589-626 are not in the 'Murray MS'., nor in either +of the 'Lovelace MSS'.]] + + +[Footnote 55: To the Eclectic or Christian Reviewers I have to return +thanks for the fervour of that charity which, in 1809, induced them to +express a hope that a thing then published by me might lead to certain +consequences, which, although natural enough, surely came but rashly +from reverend lips. I refer them to their own pages, where they +congratulated themselves on the prospect of a tilt between Mr. Jeffrey +and myself, from which some great good was to accrue, provided one or +both were knocked on the head. Having survived two years and a half +those "Elegies" which they were kindly preparing to review, I have no +peculiar gusto to give them "so joyful a trouble," except, indeed, "upon +compulsion, Hal;" but if, as David says in 'The Rivals', it should come +to "bloody sword and gun fighting," we "won't run, will we, Sir Lucius?" +[Byron, writing at Athens, away from his books, misquotes 'The Rivals'. +The words, "Sir Lucius, we--we--we--we won't run," are spoken by Acres, +not by David.] I do not know what I had done to these Eclectic +gentlemen: my works are their lawful perquisite, to be hewn in pieces +like Agag, if it seem meet unto them: but why they should be in such a +hurry to kill off their author, I am ignorant. "The race is not always +to the swift, nor the battle to the strong:" and now, as these +Christians have "smote me on one cheek," I hold them up the other; and, +in return for their good wishes, give them an opportunity of repeating +them. Had any other set of men expressed such sentiments, I should have +smiled, and left them to the "recording angel;" but from the pharisees +of Christianity decency might be expected. I can assure these brethren, +that, publican and sinner as I am, I would not have treated "mine +enemy's dog thus." To show them the superiority of my brotherly love, if +ever the Reverend Messrs. Simeon or Ramsden should be engaged in such a +conflict as that in which they requested me to fall, I hope they may +escape with being "winged" only, and that Heaviside may be at hand to +extract the ball. + + ["If, however, the noble Lord and the learned advocate have the + courage requisite to sustain their mutual insults, we shall probably + soon hear the explosions of another kind of 'paper' war, after the + fashion of the ever-memorable duel which the latter is said to have + fought, or seemed to fight, with 'Little' Moore. We confess there is + sufficient provocation, if not in the critique, at least in the + satire, to urge a 'man of honour' to defy his assailant to mortal + combat, and perhaps to warrant a man of law to 'declare' war in + Westminster Hall. Of this we shall no doubt hear more in due time" + +('Eclectic Review', May, 1809). Byron pretends to believe that the +"Christian" Reviewers, actuated by stern zeal for piety, were making +mischief in sober earnest. "Heaviside" (see last line of Byron's note) +was the surgeon in attendance at the duel between Lord Falkland and Mr. +A. Powell. (See 'English Bards', 1. 686, note 2.)]] + + +[Footnote 56: _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 7.] + + +[Footnote 57: See the critique of the 'Edinburgh Review' on 'Hours of +Idleness', January, 1808.] + + +[Footnote 58: "Invenies alium, si te hic fastidit, Alexin."] + + +[Footnote 59: Here 'MS. L.' (a) recommences.] + + +[Footnote 60: John Jackson (1769-1845), better known as "Gentleman" +Jackson, was champion of England from 1795 to 1803. His three fights +were against Fewterel (1788), George Ingleston, nicknamed "the Brewer" +(1789), and Mendoza (1795). In 1803 he retired from the ring. His rooms +at 13, Bond Street, became the head-quarters of the Pugilistic Club. +(See Pierce Egan's 'Life in London', pp. 252-254, where the rooms are +described, and a drawing of them by Cruikshank is given.) Jackson's +character stood high. + + "From the highest to the lowest person in the Sporting World, his + 'decision' is law." + +He was Byron's guest at Cambridge, Newstead, and Brighton; received from +him many letters; and is described by him, in a note to 'Don Juan' (xi. +19), as: + + "my old friend and corporeal pastor and master."] + + +[Footnote 61: Mr. Southey has lately tied another canister to his tail +in 'The Curse of Kehama', maugre the neglect of 'Madoc', etc., and has +in one instance had a wonderful effect. A literary friend of mine, +walking out one lovely evening last summer, on the eleventh bridge of +the Paddington canal, was alarmed by the cry of "one in jeopardy:" he +rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on +butter-milk in an adjacent paddock), procured three rakes, one eel-spear +and a landing net, and at last ('horresco referens') pulled out--his own +publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large +quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on inquiry, to +have been Mr. Southey's last work. Its "alacrity of sinking" was so +great, that it has never since been heard of; though some maintain that +it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry premises, +Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict +of "'Felo de bibliopola'" against a "quarto unknown;" and circumstantial +evidence being since strong against 'The Curse of Kehama' (of which the +above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers +next session, in Grub-street--Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de +Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of +Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve +jurors. The judges are Pye, Bowles, and the bell-man of St. Sepulchre's. + +The same advocates, pro and con, will be employed as are now engaged in +Sir F. Burdett's celebrated cause in the Scotch courts. The public +anxiously await the result, and all 'live' publishers will be subpoenaed +as witnesses.--But Mr. Southey has published 'The Curse of Kehama',--an +inviting title to quibblers. By the bye, it is a good deal beneath Scott +and Campbell, and not much above Southey, to allow the booby Ballantyne +to entitle them, in the 'Edinburgh Annual Register' (of which, by the +bye, Southey is editor) "the grand poetical triumvirate of the day." +But, on second thoughts, it can be no great degree of praise to be the +one-eyed leaders of the blind, though they might as well keep to +themselves "Scott's thirty thousand copies sold," which must sadly +discomfort poor Southey's unsaleables. Poor Southey, it should seem, is +the "Lepidus" of this poetical triumvirate. I am only surprised to see +him in such good company. + + + "Such things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, + But wonder how the devil 'he' came there." + +The trio are well defined in the sixth proposition of Euclid:-- + + "Because, in the triangles D B C, A C B; D B is equal to A C; and B C + common to both; the two sides D B, B C, are equal to the two A C, C B, + each to each, and the angle D B C is equal to the angle A C B: + therefore, the base D C is equal to the base A B, and the triangle D B + C (Mr. Southey) is equal to the triangle A C B, the less to the + greater, which is absurd" etc. + +The editor of the 'Edinburgh Register' will find the rest of the theorem +hard by his stabling; he has only to cross the river; 'tis the first +turnpike t' other side 'Pons Asinorum.'[A] + +['The Curse of Kehama', by Robert Southey, was published 1810; +'Arthur, or The Northern Enchantment', by the Rev. Richard Hole, in 1789; +'Alfred', by Joseph Cottle, in 1801; +'Davideis`', by Abraham Cowley, in 1656; +'Richard the First', by Sir James Bland Surges, in 1801; +'Exodiad', by Sir J. Bland Surges and R. Cumberland, in 1808; +'Exodus', by Charles Hoyle, in 1802; +'Epigoniad', by W. Wilkie, D.D., in 1757; +'Calvary', by R. Cumberland, in 1792; +'Fall of Cambria', by Joseph Cottle, in 1809; +'Siege of Acre', by Hannah Cowley, in 1801; +'The Vision of Don Roderick', by Sir Walter Scott, in 1811; +'Tom Thumb the Great', by Henry Fielding, in 1730. + +The 'Courier' of July 16, 1811, reports in full the first stage of the +case Sir F. Burdett 'v.' William Scott ('vide supra'), which was brought +before Lord Meadowbank as ordinary in the outer court. Jeffrey was +counsel for the pursuer, who sought to recover a sum of L5000 lent under +a bond. For the defence it was alleged that the money had been entrusted +for a particular purpose, namely, the maintenance of an infant. Jeffrey +denied the existence of any such claim, and maintained that whatever was +scandalous or calumnious in the defence was absolutely untrue. The case, +which was not included in the Scottish Law Reports, was probably settled +out of court. Evidently the judge held that on technical grounds an +action did not lie. Burdett's enemies were not slow in turning the +scandal to account. (See a contemporary pamphlet, 'Adultery and +Patriotism', London, 1811.)] ] + + [Sub-Footnote A: This Latin has sorely puzzled the University of + Edinburgh. Ballantyne said it meant the "Bridge of Berwick," but + Southey claimed it as half English; Scott swore it was the "Brig o' + Stirling:" he had just passed two King James's and a dozen Douglasses + over it. At last it was decided by Jeffrey, that it meant nothing more + nor less than the "counter of Archy Constable's shop."] + + + +[Footnote 62: Voltaire's 'Pucelle' is not quite so immaculate as Mr. +Southey's 'Joan of Arc', and yet I am afraid the Frenchman has both more +truth and poetry too on his side--(they rarely go together)--than our +patriotic minstrel, whose first essay was in praise of a fanatical +French strumpet, whose title of witch would be correct with the change +of the first letter.] + + +[Footnote 63: Like Sir Bland Burges's 'Richard'; the tenth book of +which I read at Malta, on a trunk of Eyre's, 19, Cockspur-street. +If this be doubted, I shall buy a portmanteau to quote from. + +[Sir James Bland Burges (1752-1824), who assumed, in 1821, the name of +Lamb, married, as his first wife, the Hon. Elizabeth Noel, daughter of +Lord Wentworth, and younger sister of Byron's mother-in-law, Lady +Milbanke. He was called to the bar in 1777, and in the same year was +appointed a Commissioner in Bankruptcy. In 1787 he was returned M.P. for +the borough of Helleston; and from 1789 to 1795 held office as +Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In 1795, at the instance of his +chief, Lord Grenville, he vacated his post, and by way of compensation +was created a baronet with a sinecure post as Knight-Marshal of the +Royal Household. Thenceforth he devoted himself to literature. In 1796 +he wrote the 'Birth and Triumph of Love', by way of letter-press to some +elegant designs of the Princess Elizabeth. (For 'Richard the First' and +the 'Exodiad', see note, p. 436.) His plays, 'Riches and Tricks for +Travellers', appeared in 1810, and there were other works. In spite of +Wordsworth's testimony (Wordsworth signed, but Coleridge dictated and no +doubt composed, the letter: see 'Thomas Poole and His Friends', ii. 27) +"to a pure and unmixed vein of native English" in 'Richard the First +(Bland-Burges Papers', 1885, p. 308), Burges as a poet awaits +rediscovery. His diaries, portions of which were published in 1885, are +lively and instructive. He has been immortalized in Person's +Macaronics-- + + "Poetis nos laetamur tribus, + Pye, Petro Pindar, parvo Pybus. + Si ulterius ire pergis, + Adde his Sir James Bland Burges!"] + + +[Footnote 64: [Charles Lamb, in "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years +Ago" (_Prose Works_, 1836, ii. 30), records his repeated visits, as a +Blue Coat boy, "to the Lions in the Tower--to whose levee, by courtesy +immemorial, we had a prescriptive title to admission."] + + +[Footnote 65: Lines 677, 678 are not in 'MS. L. (a)'.] + + +[Footnote 66: Lines 689-696 are not in 'MS. L. (a)' or 'MS. L. (b)'.] + + +[Footnote 67: 'MS. L.' ('a' and 'b') continue at line 758.] + + +[Footnote 68: + + "Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice revulsum, + Gurgite cum medio portans OEagrius Hebrus, + Volveret Eurydicen vox ipsa, et frigida lingua; + Ah, miseram Eurydicen! anima fugiente vocabat; + Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae." + +'Georgic', iv. 523-527.] + + +[Footnote 69: I beg Nathaniel's pardon: he is not a cobbler; 'it' is a +'tailor', but begged Capel Lofft to sink the profession in his preface +to two pair of panta--psha!--of cantos, which he wished the public to +try on; but the sieve of a patron let it out, and so far saved the +expense of an advertisement to his country customers--Merry's +"Moorfields whine" was nothing to all this. The "Delia Cruscans" were +people of some education, and no profession; but these Arcadians +("Arcades ambo"--bumpkins both) send out their native nonsense without +the smallest alloy, and leave all the shoes and small-clothes in the +parish unrepaired, to patch up Elegies on Enclosures, and Paeans to +Gunpowder. Sitting on a shop-board, they describe the fields of battle, +when the only blood they ever saw was shed from the finger; and an +"Essay on War" is produced by the ninth part of a "poet;" + + "And own that 'nine' such poets made a Tate." + +Did Nathan ever read that line of Pope? and if he did, why not take it +as his motto? + +['An Essay on War; Honington Green, a Ballad ... an Elegy and other +Poems,' was published in 1803.]] + + +[Footnote 70: This well-meaning gentleman has spoiled some excellent +shoemakers, and been accessory to the poetical undoing of many of the +industrious poor. Nathaniel Bloomfield and his brother Bobby have set +all Somersetshire singing; nor has the malady confined itself to one +county. Pratt too (who once was wiser) has caught the contagion of +patronage, and decoyed a poor fellow named Blackett into poetry; but he +died during the operation, leaving one child and two volumes of +"Remains" utterly destitute. The girl, if she don't take a poetical +twist, and come forth as a shoemaking Sappho, may do well; but the +"tragedies" are as ricketty as if they had been the offspring of an Earl +or a Seatonian prize poet. The patrons of this poor lad are certainly +answerable for his end; and it ought to be an indictable offence. But +this is the least they have done: for, by a refinement of barbarity, +they have made the (late) man posthumously ridiculous, by printing what +he would have had sense enough never to print himself. Certes these +rakers of "Remains" come under the statute against "resurrection men." +What does it signify whether a poor dear dead dunce is to be stuck up in +Surgeons' or in Stationers' Hall? Is it so bad to unearth his bones as +his blunders? Is it not better to gibbet his body on a heath, than his +soul in an octavo? "We know what we are, but we know not what we may +be;" and it is to be hoped we never shall know, if a man who has passed +through life with a sort of eclat is to find himself a mountebank on the +other side of Styx, and made, like poor Joe Blackett, the laughing-stock +of purgatory. The plea of publication is to provide for the child; now, +might not some of this 'Sutor ultra Crepidaitis' friends and seducers +have done a decent action without inveigling Pratt into biography? And +then his inscription split into so many modicums!--"To the Duchess of +Somuch, the Right Hon. So-and-So, and Mrs. and Miss Somebody, these +volumes are," etc. etc.--why, this is doling out the "soft milk of +dedication" in gills,--there is but a quart, and he divides it among a +dozen. Why, Pratt, hadst thou not a puff left? Dost thou think six +families of distinction can share this in quiet? There is a child, a +book, and a dedication: send the girl to her grace, the volumes to the +grocer, and the dedication to the devil. + +[For Robert Bloomfield, see 'English Bards', ll. 774-786, and note 2. +For Joseph Blacket, see 'English Bards', ll. 765-770, and note 1. +Blacket's 'Remains', with Life by Pratt, appeared in 1811. The work was +dedicated "To Her Grace the Duchess of Leeds, Lady Milbanke and Family, +Benevolent Patrons of the Author," etc.]] + + +[Footnote 71: Lines 737-758 are not in either of the three original MSS. +of 'Hints from Horace', and were probably written in the autumn of 1811. +They appear among a sheet of "alterations to 'English Bards, and S. +Reviewers', continued with additions" ('MSS. L.'}, drawn up for the +fifth edition, and they are inserted on a separate sheet in 'MS. M.' A +second sheet ('MSS. L.') of "scraps of rhyme ... principally additions +and corrections for 'English Bards', etc." (for the fifth edition), some +of which are dated 1810, does not give the whole passage, but includes +the following variants (erased) of lines 753-756:-- + +(i.) + + "Then let thy ponderous quarto steep and stink, + The dullest fattest weed on Lethe's brink. + Down with that volume to the depths of hell! + Oblivion seems rewarding it too well." + +(ii.) + + "Yet then thy quarto still may," etc. + + +A "Druid" (see 'English Bards', line 741) was Byron's name for a +scribbler who wrote for his living. In 'MS. M.', "scribbler" has been +erased, and "Druid" substituted. It is doubtful to whom the passage, in +its final shape, was intended to apply, but it is possible that the +erased lines, in which "ponderous quarto" stands for "lost songs," were +aimed at Southey (see 'ante', line 657, 'note' 1).] + + + +[Footnote 72: 'MS. L. (a)' recommences at line 758.] + + +[Footnote 73: Here will Mr. Gifford allow me to introduce once more to +his notice the sole survivor, the "ultimus Romanorum," the last of the +Cruscanti--"Edwin" the "profound" by our Lady of Punishment! here he is, +as lively as in the days of "well said Baviad the Correct." I thought +Fitzgerald had been the tail of poesy; but, alas! he is only the +penultimate. + + +A FAMILIAR EPISTLE TO THE EDITOR OF THE "MORNING CHRONICLE." + + "What reams of paper, floods of ink," + Do some men spoil, who never think! + And so perhaps you'll say of me, + In which your readers may agree. + Still I write on, and tell you why; + Nothing's so bad, you can't deny, + But may instruct or entertain + Without the risk of giving pain, etc., etc. + + +ON SOME MODERN QUACKS AND REFORMISTS. + + In tracing of the human mind + Through all its various courses, + Though strange, 'tis true, we often find + It knows not its resources: + + And men through life assume a part + For which no talents they possess, + Yet wonder that, with all their art, + They meet no better with success, etc., etc.] + + +['A Familiar Epistle, etc.', by T. Vaughan, Esq., was published in the +'Morning Chronicle', October 7, 1811. Gifford, in the 'Baviad' (l. 350), +speaks of "Edwin's mewlings," and in a note names "Edwin" as the +"profound Mr. T. Vaughan." 'Love's Metamorphoses', by T. Vaughan, was +played at Drury Lane, April 15, 1776. He also wrote 'The Hotel, or +Double Valet', November 26, 1776, which Jephson rewrote under the title +of 'The Servant with Two Masters.' Compare 'Children of Apollo', p. 49:-- + + "Jephson, who has no humour of his own, + Thinks it no crime to borrow from the town; + The farce (almost forgot) of 'The Hotel' + Or 'Double Valet' seems to answer well. + This and his own make 'Two Strings to his Bow'."]] + + + +[Footnote 74: See Milton's 'Lycidas'.] + + +[Footnote 75: Minerva being the first by Jupiter's head-piece, and a +variety of equally unaccountable parturitions upon earth, such as Madoc, +etc. etc.] + + +[Footnote 76: + + "A crust for the critics." + +'Bayes, in "the Rehearsal"' [act ii. sc. 2]. + + +[Footnote 77: And the "waiters" are the only fortunate people who can +"fly" from them; all the rest, viz. the sad subscribers to the "Literary +Fund," being compelled, by courtesy, to sit out the recitation without a +hope of exclaiming, "Sic" (that is, by choking Fitz. with bad wine, or +worse poetry) "me servavit Apollo!" + +[See 'English Bards', line 1 and 'note' 3.]] + + +[Footnote 78: Lines 813-816 not in 'MS. L. (a)' or 'MS. L. (b)'.] + + +[Footnote 79: On his table were found these words:--"What Cato did, and +Addison approved, cannot be wrong." But Addison did not "approve;" and +if he had, it would not have mended the matter. He had invited his +daughter on the same water-party; but Miss Budgell, by some accident, +escaped this last paternal attention. Thus fell the sycophant of +"Atticus," and the enemy of Pope! + +[Eustace Budgell (1686-1737), a friend and relative of Addison's, "leapt +into the Thames" to escape the dishonour which attached to him in +connection with Dr. Tindal's will, and the immediate pressure of money +difficulties. He was, more or less, insane. + + "We talked (says Boswell) of a man's drowning himself. I put the case + of Eustace Budgell. + + 'Suppose, sir,' said I, 'that a man is absolutely sure that, if he + lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the + consequence of which will be utter disgrace, and expulsion from + society?' + + JOHNSON. 'Then, sir, let him go abroad to a distant country; let him + go to some place where he is 'not' known. Don't let him go to the + devil, where he 'is' known.'" + +Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' (1886), p. 281.]] + + +[Footnote 80: If "dosed with," etc. be censured as low, I beg leave to +refer to the original for something still lower; and if any reader will +translate "Minxerit in patrios cineres," etc. into a decent couplet, I +will insert said couplet in lieu of the present.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + ATHENS, 'March 2nd, 1811'. + +['MS. L.' (a).] + + ATHENS, 'March 12th, 1811'. + +['MS. L. (i), MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'If [A] West or Lawrence, (take whichever you will) + Sons of the Brush, supreme in graphic skill, + Should clap a human head-piece on a mare, + How would our Exhibition's loungers stare! + Or should some dashing limner set to sale + My Lady's likeness with a Mermaid's tail.' + +['MS. L.' (a).] + + + 'The features finished, should superbly deck + My Lady's likeness with a Filly's neck; + Or should some limner mad or maudlin group + A Mermaid's tail and Maid of Honour's Hoop.' + +['MS. L. '(b).] ] + + [Sub-Footnote A: I have been obliged to dive into the "Bathos" for the + simile, as I could not find a description of these Painters' merits + above ground. + + "Si liceat parvis + Componere magna"-- + + "Like London's column pointing to the skies + Like a 'tall Bully', lifts its head and lies" + + I was in hopes might bear me out, if the monument be like a Bully. + West's glory may be reduced by the scale of comparison. If not, let me + have recourse to 'Tom Thumb the Great' [Fielding's farce, first + played 1730] to keep my simile in countenance.--['MS. L. (b) erased]] + + + +[Footnote iii: After line 6, the following lines (erased) were inserted:-- + + 'Or patch a Mammoth up with wings and limbs, + And fins of aught that flies or walks or swims'. + +['MS. M'.] + +Another variant ran-- + + 'Or paint (astray from Truth and Nature led) + A Judge with wings, a Statesman with a Head'! + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Believe me, Hobhouse'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'as we scribblers'. + +['MSS. L'. ('a' and 'b'), 'MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Like Wardle's'[A] 'speeches'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + [Sub-Footnote A: [Gwyllim Lloyd Wardle (1762-1834), who served in + Ireland in 1798, as Colonel of the Welsh Fusiliers, known as "Wynne's + lambs," was M.P. for Okehampton 1807-12. In January, 1809, he brought + forward a motion for a parliamentary investigation into the exercise + of military patronage by the Duke of York, and the supposed influence + of the Duke's mistress, Mary Anne Clarke.]] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'As pertness lurks beneath a legal gown. + And nonsense in a lofty note goes down'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + +or, + + 'Which covers all things like a Prelate's gown'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + or, + + 'Which wraps presumption'. + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'As when the poet to description yields + Of waters gliding through the goodly fields; + The Groves of Granta and her Gothic Halls, + Oxford and Christchurch, London and St. Pauls, + Or with a ruder flight he feebly aims + To paint a rainbow or the River Thames. + Perhaps you draw a fir tree or a beech, + But then a landscape is beyond your reach; + Or, if that allegory please you not, + Take this--you'ld form a vase, but make a pot'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'Although you sketch a tree which Taste endures, + Your ill-daubed Shipwreck shocks the Connoisseurs.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'The greater portion of the men of rhyme + Parents and children or their Sires sublime'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'But change the malady they strive to cure'. + +['MS. L. (a').]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'Fish in the woods and wild-boars in the waves'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'For Coat and waistcoat Slowshears is your man, + But Breeches claim another Artisan; + Now this to me I own seems much the same + As one leg perfect and the other lame'. + +['MSS. M., L. (a').] + + 'Sweitzer is your man'. + +[MS. M. 'erased'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: + +'Him who hath sense to make a skilful choice +Nor lucid Order, nor the Siren Voice +Of Eloquence shall shun, and Wit and Grace +(Or I'm deceived) shall aid him in the Race: +These too will teach him to defer or join +To future parts the now omitted line: +This shall the Author like or that reject, +Sparing in words and cautious to select: +Nor slight applause will candid pens afford +To him who well compounds a wanting word, +And if, by chance, 'tis needful to produce +Some term long laid and obsolete in use'.-- + +['MSS. M., L'. ('a' and 'b'). 'The last line partly erased.'] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'The dextrous Coiner of a' wanting 'word'.-- + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + 'Adroitly grafted.' + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + 'Since they enriched our language in their time + In modern speeches or Black letter rhyme.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'Though at a Monarch's nod, and Traffic's call + Reluctant rivers deviate to Canal'. + +['MSS. M., L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + +[Footnote xix: + + 'marshes dried, sustain'. + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + 'Thus--future years dead volumes shall revive'. + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xxi: + + 'As Custom fluctuates whose Iron Sway + Though ever changing Mortals must obey'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xxii: + + 'To mark the Majesty of Epic song'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote xxiii: + + 'But which is preferable rhyme or blank + Which holds in poesy'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + +[Footnote xxiv: + + --'ventures to appear.--' + +['MS. Corr. in Proof b, British Museum'.] + + +[Footnote xxv: + + 'And Harry Monmouth, till the scenes require, + Resigns heroics to his sceptred Sire.' + +['MS. L'. (a).]] + + +[Footnote xxvi: + + 'To "hollaing Hotspur" and the sceptred sire.'-- + +['MS. Corr. in Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvii: + + 'Dull as an Opera, I should sleep or sneer.' + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xxviii: + + 'And for Emotion's aid 'tis said and sung'. + +['MS. L, (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxix: + + 'or form a plot'. + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xxx: + + 'Whate'er the critic says or poet sings + 'Tis no slight task to write on common things'. + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote xxxi: + + 'Ere o'er our heads your Muse's Thunder rolls.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxii: + + 'Earth, Heaven and Hell, are shaken with the Song.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + + +[Footnote xxxiii: + + 'Through deeds we know not, though already done,' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxiv: + + 'What soothes the people's, Peer's, and Critic's ear.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxv: + + 'And Vice buds forth developed with his Teens.' + +[MS. M.]] + + +[Footnote xxxvi: + + 'The beardless Tyro freed at length from school. + +[MSS. L. (b), M. erased'.] + + 'And blushing Birch disdains all College rule. + +[MS. M. erased'.] + + 'And dreaded Birch. + +[MS. L.' (a' and 'b').]] + + +[Footnote xxxvii: + + 'Unlucky Tavell! damned to daily cares + By pugilistic Freshmen, and by Bears.' + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxviii: + + 'Ready to quit whatever he loved before, + Constant to nought, save hazard and a whore.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxix: + + 'The better years of youth he wastes away.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xl: + + 'Master of Arts, as all the Clubs proclaim.' + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote xli: + + 'Scrapes wealth, o'er Grandam's endless jointure grieves.' + +['MS. erased'.] + + 'O'er Grandam's mortgage, or young hopeful's debts.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + 'O'er Uncle's mortgage.' + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlii: + + 'Your plot is told or acted more or less.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xliii: + + 'To greater sympathy our feelings rise + When what is done is done before our eyes.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xliv: + + 'Appalls an audience with the work of Death-- + To gaze when Hubert simply threats to sere.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlv: + + 'Nor call a Ghost, unless some cursed hitch + Requires a trapdoor Goblin or a Witch.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlvi: + + 'This comes from Commerce with our foreign friends + These are the precious fruits Ausonia sends.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlvii: + + 'Our Giant Capital where streets still spread + Where once our simpler sins were bred.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] + + 'Our fields where once the rustic earned his bread.' + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlviii: + + 'Aches with the Orchestra he pays to hear. + +[MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xlix: + + 'Scarce kept awake by roaring out encore.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote l: + + 'Ere theatres were built and reverend clerks + Wrote plays as some old book remarks.' + +[MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote li: + + 'Who did what Vestris--yet, at least,--cannot, + And cut his kingly capers "Sans culotte."' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote lii: + + 'Who yet squeaks on nor fears to be forgot + If good Earl Grosvenor supersede them not'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + 'Who still frisk on with feats so vastly low + 'Tis strange Earl Grosvenor suffers such a show'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote liii: + + 'Suppressing Peer! to whom all vice gives place, + Save Gambling--for his Lordship loves a Race'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote liv: + + 'Hobhouse, since we have roved through Eastern climes, + While all the AEgean echoed to our rhymes, + And bound to Momus by some pagan spell + Laughed, sang and quaffed to "Vive la Bagatelle!'"-- + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + 'Hobhouse, with whom once more I hope to sit + And smile at what our Stage retails for wit. + Since few, I know, enjoy a laugh so well + Sardonic slave to "Vive la Bagatelle" + So that in your's like Pagan Plato's bed + They'll find some book of Epigrams when dead'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lv: + + 'My wayward Spirit weakly yields to gloom, + But thine will waft thee lightly to the Tomb, + So that in thine, like Pagan Plato's, bed + They'll find some Manuscript of Mimes, when dead'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote lvi: + + 'And spite of Methodism and Collier's curse'. + +['MS. M'.] + + 'He who's seduced by plays must be a fool' + + 'If boys want teaching let them stay at school'. + +[MS. L. (a).]] + + +[Footnote lvii: + + 'Whom Nature guides so writes that he who sees + Enraptured thinks to do the same with ease'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote lviii: + + 'But after toil-inked thumbs and bitten nails + Scratched head, ten quires--the easy scribbler fails'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + +[Footnote lix: + + 'The one too rustic, t'other too refined'. + +['MS. L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + +[Footnotes lx: + + 'Offensive most to men with house and land + Possessed of Pedigree and bloody hand'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +Footnote lxi: + + 'Composed for any but the lightest strain'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +Footnote lxii: + + 'And must I then my'-- + +['MS.L'. ('a').] + + +[Footnote lxiii: + + 'Ye who require Improvement'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxiv: + + 'And Tragedy, whatever stuff he spoke + Now wants high heels, long sword and velvet cloak'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a') 'erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lxv: + + 'Curtail or silence the offensive jest'. + +['MS. M'.] + + 'Curtail the personal or smutty jest'. + +['MS. L'. ('a') 'erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lxvi: + + 'Overthrow whole books with all their hosts of faults'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnotes lxvii: + + 'So that not Hellebore with all its juice'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxviii: + + 'I'll act instead of whetstone--blunted, but + Of use to make another's razor cut'. + +['MS. L.' ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxix: + + 'From Horace show the better arts of song'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxx: + + 'To Trade, but gave their hours to arms and arts'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + 'With traffic'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lxxi: + + 'Babe of old Thelusson' [A]----. + +['MS. L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + [Sub-Footnote A: [Peter Isaac Thellusson, banker (died July 21, 1797), + by his will directed that his property should accumulate for the + benefit of the unborn heir of an unborn grandson. The will was, + finally, upheld, but, meanwhile, on July 28, 1800, an act (39 and 40 + Geo. III.c.98) was passed limiting such executory devises.]] + + +[Footnote lxxii: + + 'A groat--ah bravo! Dick's the boy for sums + He'll swell my fifty thousand into plums'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxxiii: + + 'Are idle dogs and (damn them!) always poor'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + + +[Footnote lxxiv: + + 'Unlike Potosi holds no silver mine'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + +'Keeps back his ingots like'} +'Is rather costive--like' } 'an Irish Mine'. +'Is no Potosi, but' } + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lxxv: + + 'Write but recite not, e'en Apollo's song + Mouthed in a mortal ear would seem too long, + Long as the last year of a lingering lease, + When Revel pauses until Rents increase'. + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxvi: + + 'To finish all'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').] + + 'That Bard the mask will fit'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lxxvii: + + 'Revenge defeats its object in the dark + And pistols (courage bullies!) miss their mark.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] + + And pistols (courage duellists!) miss their mark. + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxviii: + + 'Though much displeased.' + +['MS. L. (a and b)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxix: + + 'The scrutiny.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxx: + + 'Oh ye aspiring youths whom fate or choice.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxxi: + + 'All are not Erskines who adorn the bar.' + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxxii: + + 'With very middling verses to offend + The Devil and Jeffrey grant but to a friend.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] + + 'Though what "Gods, men, and columns" interdict, + The Devil and Jeffrey [A] pardon--in a Pict.' + +['MS. M.']] + + [Sub-Footnote A: "The Devil and Jeffrey are here placed antithetically + to gods and men, such being their usual position, and their due + one--according to the facetious saying, 'If God won't take you, the + Devil must;' and I am sure no one durst object to his taking the + poetry, which, rejected by Horace, is accepted by Jeffrey. That these + gentlemen are in some cases kinder,--the one to countrymen, and the + other from his odd propensity to prefer evil to good,--than the 'gods, + men, and columns' of Horace, may be seen by a reference to the review + of Campbell's 'Gertrude of Wyoming'; and in No. 31 of the 'Edinburgh + Review' (given to me the other day by the captain of an English + frigate off Salamis), there is a similar concession to the mediocrity + of Jamie Graham's 'British Georgics'. It is fortunate for Campbell, + that his fame neither depends on his last poem, nor the puff of the + 'Edinburgh Review'. The catalogues of our English are also less + fastidious than the pillars of the Roman librarians. A word more with + the author of 'Gertrude of Wyoming'. At the end of a poem, and even of + a couplet, we have generally 'that unmeaning thing we call a thought;' + so Mr. Campbell concludes with a thought in such a manner as to fulfil + the whole of Pope's prescription, and be as 'unmeaning' as the best of + his brethren:-- + + 'Because I may not 'stain' with grief + The death-song of an Indian chief.' + + "When I was in the fifth form, I carried to my master the translation + of a chorus in Prometheus, wherein was a pestilent expression about + 'staining a voice,' which met with no quarter. Little did I think that + Mr. Campbell would have adopted my fifth form 'sublime'--at least in + so conspicuous a situation. 'Sorrow' has been 'dry' (in proverbs), and + 'wet' (in sonnets), this many a day; and now it ''stains',' and stains + a sound, of all feasible things! To be sure, death-songs might have + been stained with that same grief to very good purpose, if Outalissi + had clapped down his stanzas on wholesome paper for the 'Edinburgh + Evening Post', or any other given hyperborean gazette; or if the said + Outalissi had been troubled with the slightest second sight of his own + notes embodied on the last proof of an overcharged quarto; but as he + is supposed to have been an improvisatore on this occasion, and + probably to the last tune he ever chanted in this world, it would have + done him no discredit to have made his exit with a mouthful of common + sense. Talking of ''staining'' (as Caleb Quotem says) 'puts me in + mind' of a certain couplet, which Mr. Campbell will find in a writer + for whom he, and his school, have no small contempt:-- + + 'E'en copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, + The last and greatest art--the art to 'blot'!'" + +['MS. M'.]] + + + +[Footnote lxxxiii: + + 'And mustard rarely pleases in a pie.' + +['MS. L. '(a).]] + + +[Footnote lxxxiv: + + 'At the Sessions'. + +['MS. L.' (b), 'in pencil'.] ] + + +[Footnote lxxxv: Lines 647-650-- + + Whose character contains no glaring fault... + Shall I, I say. + +[MS. L. (a).]] + + +[Footnote lxxxvi: After 660-- + + 'But why this hint-what author e'er could stop + His poems' progress in a Grocers shop.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] ] + + +[Footnote lxxxvii: + + 'As lame as I am, but a better bard.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote lxxxviii: + + 'Apollo's song the fate of men foretold.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote lxxxix: + + 'Have studied with a Master day and night'. + +['MS. L. (a, b).']] + + +[Footnote xc: + + 'They storm Bolt Court, they publish one and all'.-- + +['MS. M. erased.']] + + +[Footnote xci: + + 'Rogers played this prank'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xcii: + + 'There see their sonnets first--but Spring--hot prest + Beholds a Quarto--Tarts must tell the Rest.' + +['MS. M. erased.']] + + +[Footnote xciii: + + 'To fuddled Esquires or to flippant Lords.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xciv: + + 'Till lo! that modern Midas of the swains-- + Feels his ears lengthen--with the lengthening strains'.-- + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote xcv: + + 'Adds a week's growth to his enormous ears'. + +['MS. M. erased.']] + + +[Footnote xcvi: + + 'But what are these? Benefits might bind + Some decent ties about a manly mind'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xcvii: + + 'Our modern sceptics can no more allow.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote xcviii: + + 'Some rhyming peer--Carlisle or Carysfort.'[A] + +['MS. M.']] + + [Sub-Footnote A: [To variant ii. (p. 444) (this footnote) is subjoined + this note: + + "Of 'John Joshua, Earl of Carysfort,' I know nothing at present, but + from an advertisement in an old newspaper of certain Poems and + Tragedies by his Lordship, which I saw by accident in the Morea. + Being a rhymer himself, he will forgive the liberty I take with his + name, seeing, as he must, how very commodious it is at the close of + that couplet; and as for what follows and goes before, let him place + it to the account of the other Thane; since I cannot, under these + circumstances, augur pro or con the contents of his 'foolscap crown + octavos.'" + + [John Joshua Proby, first Earl of Carysfort, was joint + postmaster-general in 1805, envoy to Berlin in 1806, and ambassador to + Petersburgh in 1807. Besides his poems ('Dramatic and Miscellaneous + Works', 1810), he published two pamphlets (1780,1783), to show the + necessity of universal suffrage and short parliaments. He died in + 1828.]] + + +[Footnote xcix: + + 'Hoarse with bepraising, and half choaked with lies, + Sweat on his brow and tear drops in his eyes.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote c: + + 'Then sits again, then shakes his piteous head + As if the Vicar were already dead.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote ci: + + 'But if you're too conceited to amend.' + +['MS. L. (a).]'] + + +[Footnote cii: + + 'On pain of suffering from their pen or tongues.' + +['MS. M. erased.'] + + '--fly Fitzgerald's lungs.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote ciii: + + 'Ah when Bards mouth! how sympathetic Time + Stagnates, and Hours stand still to hear their rhyme.' + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote civ: + + 'Besides how know ye? that he did not fling + Himself there--for the humour of the thing.' + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote cv: + + 'Small thanks, unwelcome life he quickly leaves; + And raving poets--really should not lose.' + +['MS. M'.] + + +[Footnote cvi: + + 'Nor is it clearly understood that verse + Has not been given the poet for a curse; + Perhaps he sent the parson's pig to pound, + Or got a child on consecrated ground; + But, be this as it may, his rhyming rage + Exceeds a Bear who strives to break his cage. + If free, all fly his versifying fit; + The young, the old, the simpleton and wit.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CURSE OF MINERVA. + + + + + --"Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas + Immolat, et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit." + + _Aeneid_, lib. xii, 947, 948. + + + +NOTE I. + +In 'The Malediction of Minerva (New Monthly Magazine', vol. iii. p. 240) +additional footnotes are appended + +(1) to line 106, recording the obliteration of Lord Elgin's name, "which +had been inscribed on a pillar of one of the principal temples," while +that of Lady Elgin had been left untouched; and + +(2) to line 196, giving quotations from pp. 158, 269, 419 of Eustace's +'Classical Tour in Italy'. + +After line 130, which reads, "And well I know within that murky land" +('i.e'. Caledonia), the following apology for a hiatus was inserted: + + "Here follows in the original certain lines which the editor has + exercised his discretion by suppressing; inasmuch as they comprise + national reflections which the bard's justifiable indignation has made + him pour forth against a people which, if not universally of an + amiable, is generally of a respectable character, and deserves not in + this case to be censured 'en masse' for the faults of an + individual." + + +NOTE II. + +The text of 'The Curse of Minerva' is based on that of the quarto +printed by T. Davison in 1813. With the exception of the variants, as +noted, the text corresponds with the MS. in the possession of Lord +Stanhope. Doubtless it represents Byron's final revision. The text of an +edition of 'The Curse, etc'., Philadelphia, 1815, 8vo [printed by De +Silver and Co.], was followed by Galignani (third edit., 1818, etc.). +The same text is followed, but not invariably, in the selections printed +by Hone in 1816 (111 lines); Wilson, 1818 (112 lines); and Knight and +Lacy, 1824 (111 lines). It exhibits the following variants from the +quarto of 1813:-- + + Line. Variant. + + 56.----'lands and main.' + 81. 'Her helm was deep indented and her lance.' + 94. 'Seek'st thou the cause? O mortal, look around.' + 102. 'That Hadrian----' + 116. 'The last base brute----' + 143. 'Ten thousand schemes of petulance and pride.' + 152. '----victors o'er the grave.' + 162. '----Time shall tell the rest.' + 199. 'Loath'd throughout life--scarce pardon'd in the dust.' + 203. 'Erostratus and Elgin, etc.' + 206. '----viler than the first. + 222. 'Shall shake your usurpation to its base.' + 233. 'While Lusitania----' + 273. 'Then in the Senates----' + 290. '----decorate his fall.' + + +The following variants may also be noted:-- + + + Line. Variant. Publisher + + 1. 'Slow sinks now lovely, etc.' Hone + + 110. 'The Gothic monarch and the British----.' Wilson + '----and his fit compeer.' + + 131. 'And well I know within that murky land. + ... + Dispatched her reckoning children far and wide. Hone + + And well I know, albeit afar, the land, + Where starving Avarice keeps her chosen band; + Or sends their hungry numbers eager forth. + ... + And aye accursed, etc.' Wilson + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO _THE CURSE OF MINERVA_ + + +'The Curse of Minerva', which was written at Athens, and is dated March +17, 1811, remained unpublished, as a whole, in this country, during +Byron's life-time. The arrangement which had been made with Cawthorn, to +bring out a fifth edition of 'English Bards', included the issue of a +separate volume, containing 'Hints from Horace' and 'The Curse of +Minerva;' and, as Moore intimates, it was the withdrawal of the latter, +in deference to the wishes of Lord Elgin or his connections, which led +to the suppression of the other satires. + +The quarto edition of The 'Curse of Minerva', printed by T. Davison in +1812, was probably set up at the same time as Murray's quarto edition of +'Childe Harold', and reserved for private circulation. With or without +Byron's consent, the poem as a whole was published in Philadelphia by De +Silver and Co., 1815, 8vo (for variants, see p. 453, 'note'). In a letter +to Murray, March 6, 1816, he says that he "disowns" 'The Curse, etc.', +"as stolen and published in a miserable and villainous copy in the +magazine." The reference is to 'The Malediction of Minerva, or The +Athenian Marble-Market', which appeared in the 'New Monthly Magazine' +for April, 1818, vol. iii. 240. It numbers 111 lines, and is signed +"Steropes" (The Lightner, a Cyclops). The text of the magazine, with the +same additional footnotes, but under the title of 'The Curse', etc., was +republished in the eighth edition of 'Poems on His Domestic +Circumstances', W. Hone, London, 1816, 8vo, and, thenceforth, in other +piratical issues. Whatever may have been his feelings or intentions in +1812, four years later Byron was well aware that 'The Curse of Minerva' +would not increase his reputation as a poet, while the object of his +satire--the exposure and denunciation of Lord Elgin--had been +accomplished by the scathing stanzas (canto ii. 10-15), with their +accompanying note, in 'Childe Harold'. "Disown" it as he might, his +words were past recall, and both indictments stand in his name. + +Byron was prejudiced against Elgin before he started on his tour. He +had, perhaps, glanced at the splendid folio, 'Specimens of Ancient +Sculpture', which was issued by the Dilettanti Society in 1809. Payne +Knight wrote the preface, in which he maintains that the friezes and +metopes of the Parthenon were not the actual work of Phidias, "but ... +architectural studies ... probably by workmen scarcely ranked among +artists." So judged the leader of the 'cognoscenti', and, in accordance +with his views, Elgin and Aberdeen are held up to ridicule in 'English +Bards' (second edition, October, 1809, 1. 1007, and 'note') as credulous +and extravagant collectors of "maimed antiques." It was, however, not +till the first visit to Athens (December, 1809-March, 1810), when he saw +with his own eyes the "ravages of barbarous and antiquarian despoilers" +(Lord Broughton's 'Travels in Albania', 1858, i. 259), that contempt +gave way to indignation, and his wrath found vent in the pages of +'Childe Harold'. + +Byron cared as little for ancient buildings as he did for the +authorities, or for patriotic enterprise, but he was stirred to the +quick by the marks of fresh and, as he was led to believe, wanton injury +to "Athena's poor remains." The southern side of the half-wrecked +Parthenon had been deprived of its remaining metopes, which had suffered +far less from the weather than the other sides which are still in the +building; all that remained of the frieze had been stripped from the +three sides of the cella, and the eastern pediment had been despoiled of +its diminished and mutilated, but still splendid, group of figures; and, +though five or six years had gone by, the blank spaces between the +triglyphs must have revealed their recent exposure to the light, and the +shattered edges of the cornice, which here and there had been raised and +demolished to permit the dislodgment of the metopes, must have caught +the eye as they sparkled in the sun. Nor had the removal and deportation +of friezes and statues come to an end. The firman which Dr. Hunt, the +chaplain to the embassy, had obtained in 1801, which empowered Elgin and +his agents to take away 'qualche pezzi di pietra', still ran, and Don +Tita Lusieri, the Italian artist, who remained in Elgin's service, was +still, like the 'canes venatici' (Americane, "smell-dogs") employed by +Verres in Sicily (see 'Childe Harold', canto ii. st. 12, 'note'), +finding fresh relics, and still bewailing to sympathetic travellers the +hard fate which compelled him to despoil the temples 'malgre lui'. The +feelings of the inhabitants themselves were not much in question, but +their opinions were quoted for and against the removal of the marbles. +Elgin's secretary and prime agent, W.R. Hamilton, testifies, from +personal knowledge, that, "so far from exciting any unpleasant +sensations, the people seemed to feel it as the means of bringing +foreigners into the country, and of having money spent there" ('Memoir +on the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece', 1811). On the other hand, +the traveller, Edward Daniel Clarke, with whom Byron corresponded (see +'Childe Harold', canto ii. st. 12, 'note'), speaks of the attachment of +the Turks to the Parthenon, and their religious veneration for the +building as a mosque, and tells a pathetic story of the grief of the +Disdar when "a metope was lowered, and the adjacent masonry scattered +its white fragments with thundering noise among the ruins" ('Travels in +Various Countries', part ii, sect. ii, p. 483). + +Other travellers of less authority than Clarke--Dodwell, for instance, +who visited the Parthenon before it had been dismantled, and, +afterwards, was present at the removal of metopes; and Hughes, who came +after Byron (autumn, 1813)--make use of such phrases as "shattered +desolation," "wanton devastation and avidity of plunder." Even +Michaelis, the great archaeologist, who denounces 'The Curse of Minerva' +as a "'libellous' poem," and affirms "that only blind passion could +doubt that Lord Elgin's act was an act of preservation," admits that +"the removal of several metopes and of the statue from the Erechtheion +had severely injured the surrounding architecture" ('Ancient Marbles in +Great Britain', by A. Michaelis, translated by C.A.M. Fennell, 1882, p. +135). Highly coloured and emotional as some of these phrases may be, +they explain, if they do not justify, the 'saeva indignatio' of Byron's +satire. + +It is almost, if not quite, unnecessary to state the facts on the other +side. History regards Lord Elgin as a disinterested official, who at +personal loss (at least thirty-five thousand pounds on his own showing), +and in spite of opposition and disparagement, secured for his own +country and the furtherance of art the perishable fragments of Phidian +workmanship, which, but for his intervention, might have perished +altogether. If they had eluded the clutches of Turkish mason and Greek +dealer in antiquities--if, by some happy chance, they had escaped the +ravages of war, the gradual but gradually increasing assaults of rain +and frost would have already left their effacing scars on the "Elgin +marbles." As it is, the progress of decay has been arrested, and all the +world is the gainer. Byron was neither a prophet nor an archaeologist, +and time and knowledge have put him in the wrong. But in 1810 the gaps +in the entablature of the Parthenon were new, the Phidian marbles were +huddled in a "damp dirty penthouse" in Park Lane (see 'Life of Haydon', +i. 84), and the logic of events had not justified a sad necessity. + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CURSE OF MINERVA. + + + Pallas te hoc Vulnere Pallas + Immolat et poenam scelerato ex Sanguine Sumit. + + + +ATHENS: CAPUCHIN CONVENT, _March_ 17, 1811. + + + + + Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, [1] + Along Morea's hills the setting Sun; + Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, + But one unclouded blaze of living light; + O'er the hushed deep the yellow beam he throws, [i] + Gilds the green wave that trembles as it glows; + On old AEgina's rock and Hydra's isle [2] + The God of gladness sheds his parting smile; + O'er his own regions lingering loves to shine, + Though there his altars are no more divine. [ii] 10 + Descending fast, the mountain-shadows kiss + Thy glorious Gulf, unconquered Salamis! + Their azure arches through the long expanse, [iii] + More deeply purpled, meet his mellowing glance, + And tenderest tints, along their summits driven, + Mark his gay course, and own the hues of Heaven; + Till, darkly shaded from the land and deep, + Behind his Delphian rock he sinks to sleep. [iv] + + On such an eve his palest beam he cast + When, Athens! here thy Wisest looked his last. 20 + How watched thy better sons his farewell ray, + That closed their murdered Sage's [3] latest day! + Not yet--not yet--Sol pauses on the hill, + The precious hour of parting lingers still; + But sad his light to agonizing eyes, + And dark the mountain's once delightful dyes; + Gloom o'er the lovely land he seemed to pour, + The land where Phoebus never frowned before; + But ere he sunk below Cithaeron's head, + The cup of Woe was quaffed--the Spirit fled; 30 + The soul of Him that scorned to fear or fly, [v] + Who lived and died as none can live or die. + + But lo! from high Hymettus to the plain + The Queen of Night asserts her silent reign; [vi] [4] + No murky vapour, herald of the storm, [vii] + Hides her fair face, or girds her glowing form; + With cornice glimmering as the moonbeams play, + There the white column greets her grateful ray, + And bright around, with quivering beams beset, + Her emblem sparkles o'er the Minaret; 40 + The groves of olive scattered dark and wide, + Where meek Cephisus sheds his scanty tide, + The cypress saddening by the sacred mosque, + The gleaming turret of the gay kiosk, [5] + And sad and sombre 'mid the holy calm, + Near Theseus' fane, yon solitary palm; + All, tinged with varied hues, arrest the eye; + And dull were his that passed them heedless by. [6] + Again the AEgean, heard no more afar, + Lulls his chafed breast from elemental war: 50 + Again his waves in milder tints unfold + Their long expanse of sapphire and of gold, + Mixed with the shades of many a distant isle + That frown, where gentler Ocean deigns to smile. [viii] + + As thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane, + I marked the beauties of the land and main, + Alone, and friendless, on the magic shore, + Whose arts and arms but live in poets' lore; + Oft as the matchless dome I turned to scan, + Sacred to Gods, but not secure from Man, 60 + The Past returned, the Present seemed to cease, + And Glory knew no clime beyond her Greece! + + Hour rolled along, and Dian's orb on high + Had gained the centre of her softest sky; + And yet unwearied still my footsteps trod + O'er the vain shrine of many a vanished God: [ix] + But chiefly, Pallas! thine, when Hecate's glare + Checked by thy columns, fell more sadly fair + O'er the chill marble, where the startling tread + Thrills the lone heart like echoes from the dead. 70 + Long had I mused, and treasured every trace + The wreck of Greece recorded of her race, + When, lo! a giant-form before me strode, + And Pallas hailed me in her own Abode! + + Yes,'twas Minerva's self; but, ah! how changed, + Since o'er the Dardan field in arms she ranged! + Not such as erst, by her divine command, + Her form appeared from Phidias' plastic hand: + Gone were the terrors of her awful brow, + Her idle AEgis bore no Gorgon now; 80 + Her helm was dinted, and the broken lance + Seemed weak and shaftless e'en to mortal glance; + The Olive Branch, which still she deigned to clasp, + Shrunk from her touch, and withered in her grasp; + And, ah! though still the brightest of the sky, + Celestial tears bedimmed her large blue eye; + Round the rent casque her owlet circled slow, + And mourned his mistress with a shriek of woe! + + "Mortal!"--'twas thus she spake--"that blush of shame + Proclaims thee Briton, once a noble name; 90 + First of the mighty, foremost of the free, [x] + Now honoured 'less' by all, and 'least' by me: + Chief of thy foes shall Pallas still be found. + Seek'st thou the cause of loathing!--look around. + Lo! here, despite of war and wasting fire, + I saw successive Tyrannies expire; + 'Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth, [xi] + Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both. + Survey this vacant, violated fane; + Recount the relics torn that yet remain: 100 + 'These' Cecrops placed, 'this' Pericles adorned, [7] + 'That' Adrian reared when drooping Science mourned. + What more I owe let Gratitude attest-- + Know, Alaric and Elgin did the rest. + That all may learn from whence the plunderer came, + The insulted wall sustains his hated name: [8] + For Elgin's fame thus grateful Pallas pleads, + Below, his name--above, behold his deeds! + Be ever hailed with equal honour here + The Gothic monarch and the Pictish peer: [xii] 110 + Arms gave the first his right, the last had none, + But basely stole what less barbarians won. + So when the Lion quits his fell repast, + Next prowls the Wolf, the filthy Jackal last: [xiii] + Flesh, limbs, and blood the former make their own, + The last poor brute securely gnaws the bone. + Yet still the Gods are just, and crimes are crossed: + See here what Elgin won, and what he lost! + Another name with _his_ pollutes my shrine: + Behold where Dian's beams disdain to shine! 120 + Some retribution still might Pallas claim, + When Venus half avenged Minerva's shame." [9] + + She ceased awhile, and thus I dared reply, + To soothe the vengeance kindling in her eye: + "Daughter of Jove! in Britain's injured name, [xiv] + A true-born Briton may the deed disclaim. + Frown not on England; England owns him not: + Athena, no! thy plunderer was a Scot. + Ask'st thou the difference? From fair Phyles' towers + Survey Boeotia;--Caledonia's ours. 130 + And well I know within that bastard land [10] + Hath Wisdom's goddess never held command; + A barren soil, where Nature's germs, confined + To stern sterility, can stint the mind; + Whose thistle well betrays the niggard earth, + Emblem of all to whom the Land gives birth; + Each genial influence nurtured to resist; + A land of meanness, sophistry, and mist. [xv] + Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain + Dilutes with drivel every drizzly brain, 140 + Till, burst at length, each wat'ry head o'erflows, + Foul as their soil, and frigid as their snows: + Then thousand schemes of petulance and pride + Despatch her scheming children far and wide; + Some East, some West, some--everywhere but North! + In quest of lawless gain, they issue forth. + And thus--accursed be the day and year! + She sent a Pict to play the felon here. + Yet Caledonia claims some native worth, [11] + As dull Boeotia gave a Pindar birth; 150 + So may her few, the lettered and the brave, + Bound to no clime, and victors of the grave, + Shake off the sordid dust of such a land, + And shine like children of a happier strand; + As once, of yore, in some obnoxious place, + Ten names (if found) had saved a wretched race." + + "Mortal!" the blue-eyed maid resumed, "once more + Bear back my mandate to thy native shore. [12] + Though fallen, alas! this vengeance yet is mine, + To turn my counsels far from lands like thine. 160 + Hear then in silence Pallas' stern behest; + Hear and believe, for Time will tell the rest. + + "First on the head of him who did this deed + My curse shall light,--on him and all his seed: + Without one spark of intellectual fire, + Be all the sons as senseless as the sire: + If one with wit the parent brood disgrace, + Believe him bastard of a brighter race: + Still with his hireling artists let him prate, + And Folly's praise repay for Wisdom's hate; 170 + Long of their Patron's gusto let them tell, + Whose noblest, _native_ gusto is--to sell: + To sell, and make--may shame record the day!-- + The State--Receiver of his pilfered prey. + Meantime, the flattering, feeble dotard, West, + Europe's worst dauber, and poor Britain's best, + With palsied hand shall turn each model o'er, + And own himself an infant of fourscore. [13] + Be all the Bruisers culled from all St. Giles', + That Art and Nature may compare their styles; [xvi] 180 + While brawny brutes in stupid wonder stare, + And marvel at his Lordship's 'stone shop' there. [14] + Round the thronged gate shall sauntering coxcombs creep + To lounge and lucubrate, to prate and peep; + While many a languid maid, with longing sigh, + On giant statues casts the curious eye; + The room with transient glance appears to skim, + Yet marks the mighty back and length of limb; + Mourns o'er the difference of _now_ and _then_; + Exclaims, 'These Greeks indeed were proper men!' 190 + Draws slight comparisons of 'these' with 'those', [xvii] + And envies Lais all her Attic beaux. + When shall a modern maid have swains like these? [xviii] + Alas! Sir Harry is no Hercules! + And last of all, amidst the gaping crew, + Some calm spectator, as he takes his view, + In silent indignation mixed with grief, + Admires the plunder, but abhors the thief. + Oh, loathed in life, nor pardoned in the dust, + May Hate pursue his sacrilegious lust! 200 + Linked with the fool that fired the Ephesian dome, + Shall vengeance follow far beyond the tomb, [15] + And Eratostratus [16] and Elgin shine + In many a branding page and burning line; + Alike reserved for aye to stand accursed, + Perchance the second blacker than the first. + + "So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, + Fixed statue on the pedestal of Scorn; + Though not for him alone revenge shall wait, + But fits thy country for her coming fate: 210 + Hers were the deeds that taught her lawless son + To do what oft Britannia's self had done. + Look to the Baltic--blazing from afar, + Your old Ally yet mourns perfidious war. [17] + Not to such deeds did Pallas lend her aid, + Or break the compact which herself had made; + Far from such counsels, from the faithless field + She fled--but left behind her Gorgon shield; + A fatal gift that turned your friends to stone, + And left lost Albion hated and alone. 220 + + "Look to the East, [18] where Ganges' swarthy race + Shall shake your tyrant empire to its base; + Lo! there Rebellion rears her ghastly head, + And glares the Nemesis of native dead; + Till Indus rolls a deep purpureal flood, + And claims his long arrear of northern blood. + So may ye perish!--Pallas, when she gave + Your free-born rights, forbade ye to enslave. + + "Look on your Spain!--she clasps the hand she hates, + But boldly clasps, and thrusts you from her gates. 230 + Bear witness, bright Barossa! [19] thou canst tell + Whose were the sons that bravely fought and fell. + But Lusitania, kind and dear ally, + Can spare a few to fight, and sometimes fly. + Oh glorious field! by Famine fiercely won, + The Gaul retires for once, and all is done! + But when did Pallas teach, that one retreat + Retrieved three long Olympiads of defeat? + + "Look last at home--ye love not to look there + On the grim smile of comfortless despair: 240 + Your city saddens: loud though Revel howls, + Here Famine faints, and yonder Rapine prowls. + See all alike of more or less bereft; + No misers tremble when there's nothing left. + 'Blest paper credit;' [20] who shall dare to sing? + It clogs like lead Corruption's weary wing. + Yet Pallas pluck'd each Premier by the ear, + Who Gods and men alike disdained to hear; + But one, repentant o'er a bankrupt state, + On Pallas calls,--but calls, alas! too late: 250 + Then raves for'----'; to that Mentor bends, + Though he and Pallas never yet were friends. + Him senates hear, whom never yet they heard, + Contemptuous once, and now no less absurd. + So, once of yore, each reasonable frog, + Swore faith and fealty to his sovereign 'log.' + Thus hailed your rulers their patrician clod, + As Egypt chose an onion [21] for a God. + + "Now fare ye well! enjoy your little hour; + Go, grasp the shadow of your vanished power; 260 + Gloss o'er the failure of each fondest scheme; + Your strength a name, your bloated wealth a dream. + Gone is that Gold, the marvel of mankind. + And Pirates barter all that's left behind. [22] + No more the hirelings, purchased near and far, + Crowd to the ranks of mercenary war. + The idle merchant on the useless quay + Droops o'er the bales no bark may bear away; + Or, back returning, sees rejected stores + Rot piecemeal on his own encumbered shores: 270 + The starved mechanic breaks his rusting loom, + And desperate mans him 'gainst the coming doom. + Then in the Senates of your sinking state + Show me the man whose counsels may have weight. + Vain is each voice where tones could once command; + E'en factions cease to charm a factious land: + Yet jarring sects convulse a sister Isle, + And light with maddening hands the mutual pile. + + "'Tis done, 'tis past--since Pallas warns in vain; + The Furies seize her abdicated reign: 280 + Wide o'er the realm they wave their kindling brands, + And wring her vitals with their fiery hands. + But one convulsive struggle still remains, [xix] + And Gaul shall weep ere Albion wear her chains, + The bannered pomp of war, the glittering files, [xx] + O'er whose gay trappings stern Bellona smiles; + The brazen trump, the spirit-stirring drum, + That bid the foe defiance ere they come; + The hero bounding at his country's call, + The glorious death that consecrates his fall, 290 + Swell the young heart with visionary charms. + And bid it antedate the joys of arms. + But know, a lesson you may yet be taught, + With death alone are laurels cheaply bought; + Not in the conflict Havoc seeks delight, + His day of mercy is the day of fight. + But when the field is fought, the battle won, + Though drenched with gore, his woes are but begun: + His deeper deeds as yet ye know by name; + The slaughtered peasant and the ravished dame, 300 + The rifled mansion and the foe-reaped field, + Ill suit with souls at home, untaught to yield. + Say with what eye along the distant down + Would flying burghers mark the blazing town? + How view the column of ascending flames + Shake his red shadow o'er the startled Thames? + Nay, frown not, Albion! for the torch was thine + That lit such pyres from Tagus to the Rhine: + Now should they burst on thy devoted coast, + Go, ask thy bosom who deserves them most? 310 + The law of Heaven and Earth is life for life, + And she who raised, in vain regrets, the strife." + + + +[Footnote 1: The lines (1-54) with which the Satire begins, down to "As +thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane," first appeared (1814) as the +opening stanza of the Third Canto of 'The Corsair'. At that time the +publication of 'The Curse of Minerva' had been abandoned. (See Byron's +'note' to 'The Corsair', Canto III. st. i. line i.)] + + +[Footnote 2: Idra; 'The Corsair', III. st. i. line 7. Hydra, or Hydrea, +is an island on the east coast of the Peloponnese, between the gulfs of +Nauplia and AEgina. As an "isle of Greece" it had almost no history +until the War of Independence, when its chief town became a "city of +refuge" for the inhabitants of the Morea and Northern Greece. Byron was, +perhaps, the first poet to give it a name in song.] + + +[Footnote 3: Socrates drank the hemlock a short time before sunset (the +hour of execution), notwithstanding the entreaties of his disciples to +wait till the sun went down.] + + +[Footnote 4: The twilight in Greece is much shorter than in our own +country; the days in winter are longer, but in summer of less duration.] + + +[Footnote 5: The kiosk is a Turkish summer-house; the palm is without +the present walls of Athens, not far from the temple of Theseus, between +which and the tree the wall intervenes. Cephisus' stream is indeed +scanty, and Ilissus has no stream at all.] + + +[Footnote 6: + + "The Temple of Theseus is the most perfect ancient edifice in the + world. In this fabric, the most enduring stability, and a simplicity + of design peculiarly striking, are united with the highest elegance + and accuracy of workmanship." + +'Travels in Albania, etc.', by Lord Broughton (1858), i. 259.] + + +[Footnote 7: This is spoken of the city in general, and not of the +Acropolis in particular. The temple of Jupiter Olympius, by some +supposed the Pantheon, was finished by Hadrian; sixteen columns are +standing, of the most beautiful marble and architecture.] + + +[Footnote 8: The following lines, of which the first two were written on +the original 'MS'., are in Byron's handwriting:-- + + +"Aspice quos Scoto Pallas concedit honores; + Subter stat nomen, facta superque vide. +Scote miser! quamvis nocuisti Palladis aedi, + Infandum facinus vindicat ipsa Venus. +Pygmalion statuam pro sponsa arsisse refertur; + Tu statuam rapias, Scote, sed uxor abest." + + +Compare 'Horace in London', by the authors of 'Rejected Addresses' +(James and Horace Smith), London, 1813, ode xv., "The Parthenon," +"'Pastor quum traheret per freta navibus'." + + +"And Hymen shall thy nuptial hopes consume, + Unless, like fond Pygmalion, thou canst wed +Statues thy hand could never give to bloom. + In wifeless wedlock shall thy life be led, +No marriage joys to bless thy solitary bed." + +[Lord Elgin's first marriage with Mary, daughter of William Hamilton +Nisbet, was dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1808.]] + + + +[Footnote 9: His lordship's name, and that of one who no longer bears +it, are carved conspicuously on the Parthenon; above, in a part not far +distant, are the torn remnants of the bassorelievos, destroyed in a vain +attempt to remove them. + +[On the Erechtheum there was deeply cut in a plaster wall the words-- + + "QUOD NON FECERUNT GOTI, + HOC FECERUNT SCOTI."]] + + +[Footnote 10: "Irish bastards," according to Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan. +["A wild Irish soldier in the Prussian Army," in Macklin's +'Love-a-la-Mode' (first played December 12, 1759).]] + + +[Footnote 11: Lines 149-156 not in original 'MS'.] + + +[Footnote 12: Compare 'Horace in London', ode xv:-- + + "All who behold my mutilated pile, + Shall brand its ravages with classic rage; + And soon a titled bard from Britain's isle + Thy country's praise and suffrage shall engage, + And fire with Athens' wrongs an angry age."] + + +[Footnote 13: Mr. West, on seeing the "Elgin Collection," (I suppose we +shall hear of the "Abershaw" and "Jack Shephard" collection) declared +himself a "mere tyro" in art. + +[Compare Letters of Benjamin West to the Earl of Elgin, February 6, +1809, March 20, 1811, published in W.R. Hamilton's 'Memorandum', 1811.]] + + +[Footnote 14: Poor Crib was sadly puzzled when the marbles were first +exhibited at Elgin House; he asked if it was not "a stone shop?"--He was +right; it 'is' a shop.] + + +[Footnote 15: Lines 202-265 are not in the MS.] + + +[Footnote 16: Herostratus or Eratostratus fired the temple of Artemis on +the same night that Alexander the Great was born. (See Plut., +'Alex'., 3, etc.)] + + +[Footnote 17: The affair of Copenhagen. Copenhagen was bombarded by sea +by Admiral Lord Gambier (1756-1833), and by land by General Lord +Cathcart (1755-1843), September 2-8, 1807. The citadel was given up to +the English, and the Danes surrendered their fleet, with all the naval +stores, and their arsenals and dockyards. The expedition was "promptly +and secretly equipped" by the British Government "with an activity and +celerity," says Koch ('Hist. of Europe', p. 214), "such as they had +never displayed in sending aid to their allies," with a view to +anticipate the seizure and appropriation of the Danish fleet by Napoleon +and Alexander (Green's 'Hist. English People' (1875), p. 799).]] + + +[Footnote 18: "The East" is brought within range of Minerva's curse, +'symmetriae causa', and it is hard to say to which "rebellion" she +refers. A choice lies between the mutiny which broke out in 1809, during +Sir George Barlow's presidency of Madras, among the officers of the +Company's service, and which at one time threatened the continuance of +British sway in India; and later troubles, in 1810, arising from the +Pindari hordes, who laid waste the villages of Central India and +Hindostan, and from the Pathans, who invaded Berar under Ameer Khan. But +here, as in lines 245-258 ('vide infra', p. 470, 'note' i), Byron is +taking toll of a note to 'Epics of the Ton', pp. 246, 247, which +enlarges on the mutiny of native soldiers which took place at Vellore in +1806, where several "European officers and a considerable portion of the +69th Regiment were massacred," in consequence of "an injudicious order +with respect to the dress of the Sepoys."--Gleig's 'History of the +British Empire in India' (1835), iii. 233, 'note'.]] + + +[Footnote 19: The victory of "bright Barossa," March 5, 1811, was +achieved by the sudden determination--"an inspiration rather than a +resolution," says Napier--of the British commander, General Graham +(Thomas, Lord Lynedoch, 1750-1843), to counter-march his troops, and +force the eminence known as the Cerro de Puerco, or hill of Barosa, +which had fallen into the hands of the French under Ruffin. Graham was +at this time second in command to the Spanish Captain-general, La Pena, +and at his orders, but under the impression that the hill would be +guarded by the Spanish troops, was making his way to a neighbouring +height. Meantime La Pena had withdrawn the corps of battle to a +distance, and left the hill covered with baggage and imperfectly +protected. Graham recaptured Barosa, and repulsed the French with heavy +loss, in an hour and a half. Napier affirms that La Pena "looked idly +on, neither sending his cavalry nor his horse artillery to the +assistance of his ally;" and testifies "that no stroke in aid of the +British was struck by a Spanish sabre that day." + +"Famine" may have raised the devil in the English troops, but it +prevented them from following up the victory. A further charge against +the Spaniards was that, after Barosa had been won, the English were left +for hours without food, and, as they had marched through the night +before they came into action, they could only look on while the French +made good their retreat. + +Two companies of the 20th Portuguese formed part of the British +contingent, and took part in the engagement. The year before, at Busaco +(September 27, 1810), the Portuguese had displayed signal bravery; but +at Gebora (February 19, 1811) "Madden's Portuguese, regardless of his +example and reproaches, shamefully turned their backs" (Napier's +'History of the Peninsular War' (1890), iii. 26, 98, 102-107).] + + + +[Footnote 20: + + "Blest paper credit! last and best supply, + That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly." + + (POPE.) + +[In February, 1811, a select committee of the House of Commons "on +commercial credit" recommended an advance of L6,000,000 to manufacturers +who were suffering from over-speculation. "Did they not know," asked +Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, March 21, "that they were adding +to the mass of paper at this moment in existence a sum of L6,000,000, as +if there was not paper enough already in the country, in order to +protect their commerce and manufactures from destruction?" Nevertheless, +the measure passed. The year before (February 19, 1810), a committee +which had sat under the presidency of Francis Horner, to inquire into +the cause of the high price of gold bullion (gold was worth L4. 10s. an +ounce), returned (June 10) a report urging the resumption of cash +payment at the end of two years. + +It has been suggested to the editor that the asterisks ('----') in line +251 (which are not filled up in Lord Stanhope's MS. of 'The Curse of +Minerva') stand for "Horner," and that Byron, writing at Athens in +March, 1811, was under the impression that Perceval would adopt sound +views on the currency question, and was not aware that he was strongly +anti-bullionist. On that supposition the two premiers are Portland and +Perceval, Horner is the Mentor, and Perceval (line 257) the "patrician +clod." To what extent Byron was 'au courant' with home politics when he +wrote the lines, it is impossible to say, and without such knowledge +some doubt must rest on any interpretation of the passage. But of its +genesis there is no doubt. Lady Ann Hamilton, in her estimate of Lord +Henry Petty, in 'Epics of the Ton' (p. 139), has something to say on +budget "figures"-- + + "Those imps which make the senses reel, and zounds! + Mistake a cypher for a thousand pounds;" + +and her note-writer comments thus: "It somewhat hurts the feelings to +see a minister stand up in his place, and after a very pretty exordium +to the budget, take up a bundle of papers from the table, gaze at the +incomprehensible calculations before him, stammer out a few confused +numbers, and then, with a rueful face, look over his shoulder to +V--ns--rt for assistance. How often have I grieved to see unhappy +A--d--g--n in this lamentable predicament!" Again, on Thellusson being +raised to the peerage as Lord Rendlesham, she asks-- + + "Say, shall we bend to titles thus bestowed, + And like the Egyptians, hail the calf a god? + With toads, asps, onions, ornament the shrine, + And reptiles own and pot-herbs things divine?" + +It is evident that Byron, uninspired by Pallas, turned to the 'Epics of +the Ton' for "copy," but whether he left a blank on purpose because +"Vansittart" (to whom Perceval did turn) would not scan, or, misled by +old newspapers, would have written "Horner," must remain a mystery.]] + + + +[Footnote 21: See the portrait of Spencer Perceval in the National +Portrait Gallery.] + + +[Footnote 22: The Deal and Dover traffickers in specie.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'O'er the blue ocean way his'. + +['MS.'][A]] + + [Sub-Footnote A: The only MS. of 'The Curse of Minerva' which the + editor has seen, is in the possession of the Earl of Stanhope. A + second MS., formerly in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle, is + believed to have perished in a fire which broke out at Clumber in + 1879.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Nor yet forbears each long-abandoned shrine'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Their 'varying azure mingled with the sky + Beneath his rays assumes a deeper dye'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Behind his Delphian cliff'----. + +['Corsair', III. st. i. l. 18.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'The soul of him who'----. + +['Corsair, III. st. i. 1. 31.']] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'silver reign'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'How sweet and Silent, not a passing cloud + Hides her fair face with intervening shroud'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'seems to smile', + +['Corsair', III. st. i. 1. 54.]] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'Sad shrine'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'Welcome to slaves, and foremost'. + +['MS'.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'Ah, Athens! scarce escaped from Turk and Goth, + Hell sends a paltry Scotchman worse than both.' + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'British peer'. + +['MS'.] ] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'Sneaking Jackal'. + +['MS'.] ] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'guilty name'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'A land of liars, mountebanks, and Mist'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + 'That Art may measure old and modern styles'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + 'shy comparisons'. + +['MS'.] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'In sooth the Nymph 'twere no slight task to please + Since young Sir Harry, etc.' + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xix: + + 'Fallen is each dear bought friend on Foreign Coast + Or leagued to add you to the world you lost'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + '----'the glittering file + The martial sounds that animate the while'. + +['MS'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO 'THE WALTZ' + + +Byron spent the autumn of 1812 "by the waters of Cheltenham," and, +besides writing to order his 'Song of Drury Lane' (the address spoken at +the opening of the theatre, Oct. 10, 1812), he put in hand a 'Satire on +Waltzing'. It was published anonymously in the following spring; but, +possibly, because it was somewhat coolly received, he told Murray (April +21, 1813) "to contradict the report that he was the author of a certain +malicious publication on waltzing." In his memoranda "chiefly with +reference to my Byron," Moore notes "Byron's hatred of waltzing," and +records a passage of arms between "the lame boy" and Mary Chaworth, +which arose from her "dancing with some person who was unknown to her." +Then, and always, he must have experienced the bitter sense of exclusion +from active amusements; but it is a hasty assumption that Byron only +denounced waltzing because he was unable to waltz himself. To modern +sentiment, on the moral side, waltzing is unassailable; but the first +impressions of spectators, to whom it was a novelty, were distinctly +unfavourable. + +In a letter from Germany (May 17, 1799) Coleridge describes a dance +round the maypole at Ruebeland. + + "The dances were reels and the waltzes, but chiefly the latter; this + dance is in the higher circles sufficiently voluptuous, but here the + motions of it were 'far' more faithful interpreters of the passions." + +A year later, H.C. Robinson, writing from Frankfort in 1800 ('Diary and +Letters', i. 76), says, "The dancing is unlike anything you ever saw. +You must have heard of it under the name of waltzing, that is rolling +and turning, though the rolling is not horizontal but perpendicular. Yet +Werther, after describing his first waltz with Charlotte, says, and I +say so too, 'I felt that if I were married my wife should waltz (or +roll) with no one but myself.'" Ten years later, Gillray publishes a +caricature of the waltz, as a French dance, which he styles, "Le bon +Genre." It is not a pretty picture. By degrees, however, and with some +reluctance, society yielded to the fascinations of the stranger. + + "My cousin Hartington," writes Lady Caroline Lamb, in 1812 ('Memoirs + of Viscount Melbourne', by W.T. McCullagh Torrens, i. 105), "wanted to + have waltzes and quadrilles; and at Devonshire House it could not be + allowed, so we had them in the great drawing-room at Whitehall. All + the 'bon ton' assembled there continually. There was nothing so + fashionable." + +"No event," says Thomas Raikes ('Personal Reminiscences', p. 284), ever +produced so great a sensation in English society as the introduction of +the German waltz.... Old and young returned to school, and the mornings +were now absorbed at home in practising the figures of a French +quadrille or whirling a chair round the room to learn the step and +measure of the German waltz. The anti-waltzing party took the alarm, +cried it down; mothers forbad it, and every ballroom became a scene of +feud and contention. The foreigners were not idle in forming their +'eleves'; Baron Tripp, Neumann, St. Aldegonde, etc., persevered in spite +of all prejudices which were marshalled against them. It was not, +however, till Byron's "malicious publication" had been issued and +forgotten that the new dance received full recognition. "When," Raikes +concludes, "the Emperor Alexander was seen waltzing round the room at +Almack's with his tight uniform and numerous decorations," or [Gronow, +'Recollections', 1860, pp. 32, 33] "Lord Palmerston might have been seen +describing an infinite number of circles with Madame de Lieven," insular +prejudices gave way, and waltzing became general. + + + + + + + + +THE WALTZ: + +AN APOSTROPHIC HYMN. + +BY HORACE HORNEM, ESQ. + + + + + "Qualis in Eurotae ripis, aut per juga Cynthi, + Exercet DIANA choros." + + + VIRGIL, 'AEn'. i. 502. + + + + "Such on Eurotas's banks, or Cynthus's height, + Diana seems: and so she charms the sight, + When in the dance the graceful goddess leads + The quire of nymphs, and overtops their heads." + + + DRYDEN'S _Virgil_. + + + + +NOTE. + +The title-page of the first edition (4to.) of _The Waltz_ bears the +imprint: + +London: +Printed by S. Gosnell, +Little Queen Street, Holborn. +For Sherwood, Neely and Jones, +Paternoster Row. 1813. +(Price Three Shillings.) + + +Successive Revises had run as follows:-- + +i. London: Printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street, Piccadilly. By S. +Gosnell, Little Queen Street. 1813. + +ii. Cambridge: Printed by G. Maitland. For John Murray, etc. + +iii. Cambridge: Printed by G. Maitland. For Sherwood, Neely and Jones, +Paternoster Row. 1813. + +For the Bibliography of _The Waltz_, see vol. vi. of the present issue. + + + + +TO THE PUBLISHER. + +SIR, + +I am a country Gentleman of a midland county. I might have been a +Parliament-man for a certain borough; having had the offer of as many +votes as General T. at the general election in 1812. [1] But I was all +for domestic happiness; as, fifteen years ago, on a visit to London, I +married a middle-aged Maid of Honour. We lived happily at Hornem Hall +till last Season, when my wife and I were invited by the Countess of +Waltzaway (a distant relation of my Spouse) to pass the winter in town. +Thinking no harm, and our Girls being come to a marriageable (or, as +they call it, 'marketable') age, and having besides a Chancery suit +inveterately entailed upon the family estate, we came up in our old +chariot,--of which, by the bye, my wife grew so ashamed in less than a +week, that I was obliged to buy a second-hand barouche, of which I might +mount the box, Mrs. H. says, if I could drive, but never see the +inside--that place being reserved for the Honourable Augustus Tiptoe, +her partner-general and Opera-knight. Hearing great praises of Mrs. H.'s +dancing (she was famous for birthnight minuets in the latter end of the +last century), I unbooted, and went to a ball at the Countess's, +expecting to see a country dance, or, at most, Cotillons, reels, and all +the old paces to the newest tunes, But, judge of my surprise, on +arriving, to see poor dear Mrs. Hornem with her arms half round the +loins of a huge hussar-looking gentleman I never set eyes on before; and +his, to say truth, rather more than half round her waist, turning round, +and round, to a d----d see-saw up-and-down sort of tune, that reminded +me of the "Black Joke," only more "'affettuoso'"[1] till it made me +quite giddy with wondering they were not so. By and by they stopped a +bit, and I thought they would sit or fall down:--but no; with Mrs. H.'s +hand on his shoulder, "'Quam familiariter'"[2] (as Terence said, when I +was at school,) they walked about a minute, and then at it again, like +two cock-chafers spitted on the same bodkin. I asked what all this +meant, when, with a loud laugh, a child no older than our Wilhelmina (a +name I never heard but in the 'Vicar of Wakefield', though her mother +would call her after the Princess of Swappenbach,) said, "L--d! Mr. +Hornem, can't you see they're valtzing?" or waltzing (I forget which); +and then up she got, and her mother and sister, and away they went, and +round-abouted it till supper-time. Now that I know what it is, I like it +of all things, and so does Mrs. H. (though I have broken my shins, and +four times overturned Mrs. Hornem's maid, in practising the preliminary +steps in a morning). Indeed, so much do I like it, that having a turn +for rhyme, tastily displayed in some election ballads, and songs in +honour of all the victories (but till lately I have had little practice +in that way), I sat down, and with the aid of William Fitzgerald, Esq., +and a few hints from Dr. Busby, (whose recitations I attend, and am +monstrous fond of Master Busby's manner of delivering his father's late +successful "Drury Lane Address,")[1] I composed the following hymn, +wherewithal to make my sentiments known to the Public; whom, +nevertheless, I heartily despise, as well as the critics. + +I am, Sir, yours, etc., etc. + +HORACE HORNEM. + + +[Footnote 1: State of the poll (last day) 5. + +[General Tarleton (1754-1833) contested Liverpool in October, 1812. For +three days the poll stood at five, and on the last day, eleven. Canning +and Gascoigne were the successful candidates.]] + + +[Footnote 2: More expressive.--[_MS_.] + +[Footnote 3: My Latin is all forgotten, if a man can be said to have +forgotten what he never remembered; but I bought my title-page motto of +a Catholic priest for a three-shilling bank token, after much haggling +for the even sixpence. I grudged the money to a papist, being all for +the memory of Perceval and "No popery," and quite regretting the +downfall of the pope, because we can't burn him any more.--[Revise No. +2.] ] + + +[Footnote 4: See 'Rejected Addresses'.] + + + + + +THE WALTZ + + + + Muse of the many-twinkling feet! [1] whose charms + Are now extended up from legs to arms; + Terpsichore!--too long misdeemed a maid-- + Reproachful term--bestowed but to upbraid-- + Henceforth in all the bronze of brightness shine, [i] + The least a Vestal of the Virgin Nine. + Far be from thee and thine the name of Prude: + Mocked yet triumphant; sneered at, unsubdued; + Thy legs must move to conquer as they fly, + If but thy coats are reasonably high! 10 + Thy breast--if bare enough--requires no shield; + Dance forth--_sans armour_ thou shalt take the field + And own--impregnable to _most_ assaults, + Thy not too lawfully begotten "Waltz." + + Hail, nimble Nymph! to whom the young hussar, [2] + The whiskered votary of Waltz and War, + His night devotes, despite of spur and boots; + A sight unmatched since Orpheus and his brutes: + Hail, spirit-stirring Waltz!--beneath whose banners + A modern hero fought for modish manners; 20 + On Hounslow's heath to rival Wellesley's [3] fame, + Cocked, fired, and missed his man--but gained his aim; + Hail, moving muse! to whom the fair one's breast + Gives all it can, and bids us take the rest. + Oh! for the flow of Busby, [4] or of Fitz, + The latter's loyalty, the former's wits, + To "energise the object I pursue," + And give both Belial and his Dance their due! [ii] + + Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine + (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine), 30 + Long be thine import from all duty free, + And Hock itself be less esteemed than thee; + In some few qualities alike--for Hock + Improves our cellar--_thou_ our living stock. + The head to Hock belongs--thy subtler art + Intoxicates alone the heedless heart: + Through the full veins thy gentler poison swims, + And wakes to Wantonness the willing limbs. + + Oh, Germany! how much to thee we owe, + As heaven-born Pitt can testify below, 40 + Ere cursed Confederation made thee France's, + And only left us thy d--d debts and dances! [5] + Of subsidies and Hanover bereft, + We bless thee still--George the Third is left! + Of kings the best--and last, not least in worth, + For graciously begetting George the Fourth. + To Germany, and Highnesses serene, + Who owe us millions--don't we owe the Queen? + To Germany, what owe we not besides? + So oft bestowing Brunswickers and brides; 50 + Who paid for vulgar, with her royal blood, + Drawn from the stem of each Teutonic stud: + Who sent us--so be pardoned all her faults-- + A dozen dukes, some kings, a Queen--and Waltz. + + But peace to her--her Emperor and Diet, + Though now transferred to Buonaparte's "fiat!" + Back to my theme--O muse of Motion! say, + How first to Albion found thy Waltz her way? + + Borne on the breath of Hyperborean gales, + From Hamburg's port (while Hamburg yet had _mails_), 60 + Ere yet unlucky Fame--compelled to creep + To snowy Gottenburg-was chilled to sleep; + Or, starting from her slumbers, deigned arise, + Heligoland! to stock thy mart with lies; [iii] + While unburnt Moscow [6] yet had news to send, + Nor owed her fiery Exit to a friend, + She came--Waltz came--and with her certain sets + Of true despatches, and as true Gazettes; + Then flamed of Austerlitz the blest despatch, [7] + Which _Moniteur_ nor _Morning Post_ can match 70 + And--almost crushed beneath the glorious news-- + Ten plays, and forty tales of Kotzebue's; [8] + One envoy's letters, six composer's airs, + And loads from Frankfort and from Leipsic fairs: + Meiners' four volumes upon Womankind, [9] + Like Lapland witches to ensure a wind; + Brunck's heaviest tome for ballast, [10] and, to back it, + Of Heyne, [11] such as should not sink the packet. [iv] + + Fraught with this cargo--and her fairest freight, + Delightful Waltz, on tiptoe for a Mate, 80 + The welcome vessel reached the genial strand, + And round her flocked the daughters of the land. + Not decent David, when, before the ark, + His grand _Pas-seul_ excited some remark; + Not love-lorn Quixote, when his Sancho thought + The knight's _Fandango_ friskier than it ought; + Not soft Herodias, when, with winning tread, + Her nimble feet danced off another's head; + Not Cleopatra on her Galley's Deck, + Displayed so much of _leg_ or more of _neck_, 90 + Than Thou, ambrosial Waltz, when first the Moon + Beheld thee twirling to a Saxon tune! + + To You, ye husbands of ten years! whose brows + Ache with the annual tributes of a spouse; + To you of nine years less, who only bear + The budding sprouts of those that you _shall_ wear, + With added ornaments around them rolled + Of native brass, or law-awarded gold; + To You, ye Matrons, ever on the watch + To mar a son's, or make a daughter's match; 100 + To You, ye children of--whom chance accords-- + _Always_ the Ladies, and _sometimes_ their Lords; + To You, ye single gentlemen, who seek + Torments for life, or pleasures for a week; + As Love or Hymen your endeavours guide, + To gain your own, or snatch another's bride;-- + To one and all the lovely Stranger came, + And every Ball-room echoes with her name. + + Endearing Waltz!--to thy more melting tune + Bow Irish Jig, and ancient Rigadoon. [12] 110 + Scotch reels, avaunt! and Country-dance forego + Your future claims to each fantastic toe! + Waltz--Waltz alone--both legs and arms demands, + Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands; + Hands which may freely range in public sight + Where ne'er before--but--pray "put out the light." + Methinks the glare of yonder chandelier + Shines much too far--or I am much too near; + And true, though strange--Waltz whispers this remark, + "My slippery steps are safest in the dark!" 120 + But here the Muse with due decorum halts, + And lends her longest petticoat to "Waltz." + + Observant Travellers of every time! + Ye Quartos published upon every clime! + 0 say, shall dull _Romaika's_ heavy round, + _Fandango's_ wriggle, or _Bolero's_ bound; + Can Egypt's _Almas_ [13]--tantalising group-- + Columbia's caperers to the warlike Whoop-- + Can aught from cold Kamschatka to Cape Horn + With Waltz compare, or after Waltz be born? 130 + Ah, no! from Morier's pages down to Galt's, [14] + Each tourist pens a paragraph for "Waltz." + + Shades of those Belles whose reign began of yore, + With George the Third's--and ended long before!-- + Though in your daughters' daughters yet you thrive, [v] + Burst from your lead, and be yourselves alive! + Back to the Ball-room speed your spectred host, + Fool's Paradise is dull to that you lost. [vi] + No treacherous powder bids Conjecture quake; + No stiff-starched stays make meddling fingers ache; [vii] 140 + (Transferred to those ambiguous things that ape + Goats in their visage, [15] women in their shape;) + No damsel faints when rather closely pressed, + But more caressing seems when most caressed; + Superfluous Hartshorn, and reviving Salts, + Both banished by the sovereign cordial "Waltz." + + Seductive Waltz!--though on thy native shore + Even Werter's self proclaimed thee half a whore; + Werter--to decent vice though much inclined, + Yet warm, not wanton; dazzled, but not blind-- 150 + Though gentle Genlis, [16] in her strife with Stael, + Would even proscribe thee from a Paris ball; + The fashion hails--from Countesses to Queens, + And maids and valets waltz behind the scenes; + Wide and more wide thy witching circle spreads, + And turns--if nothing else--at least our _heads_; + With thee even clumsy cits attempt to bounce, + And cockney's practise what they can't pronounce. + Gods! how the glorious theme my strain exalts, + And Rhyme finds partner Rhyme in praise of "Waltz!" 160 + Blest was the time Waltz chose for her _debut_! + The Court, the Regent, like herself were new; [17] + New face for friends, for foes some new rewards; + New ornaments for black-and royal Guards; [viii] + New laws to hang the rogues that roared for bread; + New coins (most new) [18] to follow those that fled; + New victories--nor can we prize them less, + Though Jenky [19] wonders at his own success; + New wars, because the old succeed so well, + That most survivors envy those who fell; 170 + New mistresses--no, old--and yet 'tis true, + Though they be _old_, the _thing_ is something new; + Each new, quite new--(except some ancient tricks), [20] + New white-sticks--gold-sticks--broom-sticks--_all new sticks_! + With vests or ribands--decked alike in hue, + New troopers strut, new turncoats blush in blue: + So saith the Muse: my----, [21] what say you? + Such was the time when Waltz might best maintain + Her new preferments in this novel reign; + Such was the time, nor ever yet was such; 180 + Hoops are _ more_, and petticoats _not much_; + Morals and Minuets, Virtue and her stays, + And tell-tale powder--all have had their days. + The Ball begins--the honours of the house + First duly done by daughter or by spouse, + Some Potentate--or royal or serene-- + With Kent's gay grace, or sapient Gloster's mien, [ix] + Leads forth the ready dame, whose rising flush + Might once have been mistaken for a blush. + From where the garb just leaves the bosom free, 190 + That spot where hearts [22] were once supposed to be; + Round all the confines of the yielded waist, + The strangest hand may wander undisplaced: + The lady's in return may grasp as much + As princely paunches offer to her touch. + Pleased round the chalky floor how well they trip + One hand reposing on the royal hip! [23] + The other to the shoulder no less royal + Ascending with affection truly loyal! + Thus front to front the partners move or stand, 200 + The foot may rest, but none withdraw the hand; + And all in turn may follow in their rank, + The Earl of--Asterisk--and Lady--Blank; + Sir--Such-a-one--with those of fashion's host, [x] [24] + For whose blest surnames--vide "Morning Post." + (Or if for that impartial print too late, + Search Doctors' Commons six months from my date)-- + Thus all and each, in movement swift or slow, + The genial contact gently undergo; + Till some might marvel, with the modest Turk, 210 + If "nothing follows all this palming work?" [25] + True, honest Mirza!--you may trust my rhyme-- + Something does follow at a fitter time; + The breast thus publicly resigned to man, + In private may resist him--if it can. + + O ye who loved our Grandmothers of yore, + Fitzpatrick, [26] Sheridan, and many more! + And thou, my Prince! whose sovereign taste and will [xi] + It is to love the lovely beldames still! + Thou Ghost of Queensberry! [27] whose judging Sprite 220 + Satan may spare to peep a single night, + Pronounce--if ever in your days of bliss + Asmodeus struck so bright a stroke as this; + To teach the young ideas how to rise, + Flush in the cheek, and languish in the eyes; + Rush to the heart, and lighten through the frame, + With half-told wish, and ill-dissembled flame, + For prurient Nature still will storm the breast-- + _Who_, tempted thus, can answer for the rest? + + But ye--who never felt a single thought 230 + For what our Morals are to be, or ought; + Who wisely wish the charms you view to reap, + Say--would you make those beauties quite so cheap? + Hot from the hands promiscuously applied, + Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side, + Where were the rapture then to clasp the form + From this lewd grasp and lawless contact warm? [xii] + At once Love's most endearing thought resign, + To press the hand so pressed by none but thine; + To gaze upon that eye which never met 240 + Another's ardent look without regret; + Approach the lip which all, without restraint, + Come near enough--if not to touch--to taint; + If such thou lovest--love her then no more, + Or give--like her--caresses to a score; + Her Mind with these is gone, and with it go + The little left behind it to bestow. + + Voluptuous Waltz! and dare I thus blaspheme? + Thy bard forgot thy praises were his theme. + Terpsichore forgive!--at every Ball 250 + My wife _now_ waltzes--and my daughters _shall_; + _My_ son--(or stop--'tis needless to inquire-- + These little accidents should ne'er transpire; + Some ages hence our genealogic tree [xiii] + Will wear as green a bough for him as me)-- + Waltzing shall rear, to make our name amends + Grandsons for me--in heirs to all his friends. + + + +[Footnote 1: "Glance their many-twinkling feet."--GRAY.] + + +[Footnote 2: Lines 15-28 do not appear in the MS., but ten lines +(omitting lines 21-24) were inserted in Proof No. 1.] + + +[Footnote 3: To rival Lord Wellesley's, or his nephew's, as the reader +pleases:--the one gained a pretty woman, whom he deserved, by fighting +for; and the other has been fighting in the Peninsula many a long day, +"by Shrewsbury clock," without gaining anything in 'that' country but +the title of "the Great Lord," and "the Lord;" which savours of +profanation, having been hitherto applied only to that Being to whom +"'Te Deums'" for carnage are the rankest blasphemy.--It is to be +presumed the general will one day return to his Sabine farm: there + + "To tame the genius of the stubborn plain, + 'Almost as quickly' as he conquer'd Spain!" + +The Lord Peterborough conquered continents in a summer; we do more--we +contrive both to conquer and lose them in a shorter season. If the +"great Lord's" 'Cincinnatian' progress in agriculture be no speedier +than the proportional average of time in Pope's couplet, it will, +according to the farmer's proverb, be "ploughing with dogs." + +By the bye--one of this illustrious person's new titles is forgotten--it +is, however, worth remembering--"'Salvador del mundo!" credite, +posteri'! If this be the appellation annexed by the inhabitants of the +Peninsula to the name of a 'man' who has not yet saved them--query--are +they worth saving, even in this world? for, according to the mildest +modifications of any Christian creed, those three words make the odds +much against them in the next--"Saviour of the world," quotha!--it were +to be wished that he, or any one else, could save a corner of it--his +country. Yet this stupid misnomer, although it shows the near connection +between superstition and impiety, so far has its use, that it proves +there can be little to dread from those Catholics (inquisitorial +Catholics too) who can confer such an appellation on a 'Protestant'. I +suppose next year he will be entitled the "Virgin Mary;" if so, Lord +George Gordon himself would have nothing to object to such liberal +bastards of our Lady of Babylon. + +[William Pole-Wellesley (1785?-1857), afterwards fourth Lord Mornington, +a nephew of the great Duke of Wellington, married, in March, 1812, +Catharine, daughter and heiress of Sir Tylney Long, Bart. On his +marriage he added his wife's double surname to his own, and, thereby, +gave the wits their chance. In 'Rejected Addresses' Fitzgerald is made +to exclaim-- + + "Bless every man possess'd of aught to give, + Long may Long-Tilney-Wellesley-Long-Pole live." + +The principals in the duel to which Byron alludes were Wellesley-Pole +and Lord Kilworth. The occasion of the quarrel was a misconception of +some expression of Pole's at an assembly at Lady Hawarden's (August 6, +1811). A meeting took place on Wimbledon Common (August 9), at which the +seconds intervened, and everything was "amicably adjusted." Some days +later a letter appeared in the 'Morning Post' (August 14, 1811), signed +"Kilworth," to the effect that an apology had been offered and accepted. +This led to a second meeting on Hounslow Heath (August 15), when shots +were exchanged. Again the seconds intervened, and, after more +explanations, matters were finally arranged. A 'jeu d'esprit' which +appeared in the 'Morning Chronicle' (August 16, 1811) connects the +"mortal fracas" with Pole's prowess in waltzing at a fete at Wanstead +House, near Hackney, where, when the heiress had been wooed and won, his +guests used to dine at midnight after the opera. + + "Mid the tumult of waltzing and wild Irish reels, + A prime dancer, I'm sure to get at her-- + And by Love's graceful movements to trip up her heels, + Is the Long and the short of the matter."] + + + +[Footnote 4: Thomas Busby, Mus. Doc. (1755-1838), musical composer, and +author of 'A New and Complete Musical Dictionary', 1801, etc. He was +also a versifier. As early as 1785 he published 'The Age of Genius, A +Satire'; and, after he had ceased to compose music for the stage, +brought out a translation of Lucretius, which had long been in MS. His +"rejected address" on the reopening of Drury Lane Theatre, would have +been recited by his son (October 15), but the gallery refused to hear it +out. On the next night (October 16) "Master" Busby was more successful. +Byron's parody of Busby's address, which began with the line, "When +energising objects men pursue," is headed, "Parenthetical Address. By +Dr. Plagiary."] + + +[Footnote 5: The Confederation of the Rhine (1803-1813), by which the +courts of Wuertemberg and Bavaria, together with some lesser +principalities, detached themselves from the Germanic Body, and accepted +the immediate protection of France.] + + + +[Footnote 6: The patriotic arson of our amiable allies cannot be +sufficiently commended--nor subscribed for. Amongst other details +omitted in the various [A] despatches of our eloquent ambassador, he did +not state (being too much occupied with the exploits of Colonel C----, +in swimming rivers frozen, and galloping over roads impassable,) that +one entire province perished by famine in the most melancholy manner, as +follows:--In General Rostopchin's consummate conflagration, the +consumption of tallow and train oil was so great, that the market was +inadequate to the demand: and thus one hundred and thirty-three thousand +persons were starved to death, by being reduced to wholesome diet! the +lamp-lighters of London have since subscribed a pint (of oil) a piece, +and the tallow-chandlers have unanimously voted a quantity of best +moulds (four to the pound), to the relief of the surviving +Scythians;--the scarcity will soon, by such exertions, and a proper +attention to the 'quality' rather than the quantity of provision, be +totally alleviated. It is said, in return, that the untouched Ukraine +has subscribed sixty thousand beeves for a day's meal to our suffering +manufacturers. + +[Hamburg fell to Napoleon's forces in 1810, and thence-forward the mails +from the north of Europe were despatched from Anholt, or Gothenberg, or +Heligoland. In 1811 an attempt to enforce the conscription resulted in +the emigration of numbers of young men of suitable age for military +service. The unfortunate city was deprived of mails and males at the +same time. Heligoland, which was taken by the British in 1807, and +turned into a depot for the importation of smuggled goods to French +territory, afforded a meeting-place for British and continental traders. +Mails from Heligoland detailed rumours of what was taking place at the +centres of war; but the newspapers occasionally threw doubts on the +information obtained from this source. Lord Cathcart's despatch, dated +November 23, appeared in the 'Gazette' December 16, 1812. The paragraph +which appealed to Byron's sense of humour is as follows: "The expedition +of Colonel Chernichef ('sic') [the Czar's aide-de-camp] was a continued +and extraordinary exertion, he having marched seven hundred wersts +('sic') in five days, and swam several rivers."] + + [Sub-Footnote A: Veracious despatches.--['MS. M'.] ] + + +[Footnote 7: Austerlitz was fought on Dec. 2, 1805. On Dec. 20 the +'Morning Chronicle' published a communication from a correspondent, +giving the substance of Napoleon's "Proclamation to the Army," issued on +the evening after the battle, which had reached Bourrienne, the French +minister at Hamburg. "An army," ran the proclamation, "of 100,000 men, +which was commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been in +less than four hours either cut off or dispersed." It was an official +note of this "blest despatch," forwarded by courier to Bath, which +brought "the heavy news" to Pitt, and, it is believed, hastened his +death.] + + +[Footnote 8: August Frederick Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819), whom +Coleridge appraised as "the German Beaumont and Fletcher without their +poetic powers," and Carlyle as "a bundle of dyed rags," wrote over a +hundred plays, publishing twenty within a few years. + +An adaptation of 'Misanthropy and Repentance' as 'The Stranger', +Sheridan's 'Pizarro', and Lewis' 'Castle Spectre' are well-known +instances of his powerful influence on English dramatists. + + "The Present," writes Sara Coleridge, in a note to one of her father's + letters, "will ever have her special votaries in the world of letters, + who collect into their focus, by a kind of burning-glass, the feelings + of the day. Amongst such Kotzebue holds a high rank. Those 'dyed rags' + of his once formed gorgeous banners, and flaunted in the eyes of + refined companies from London to Madrid, from Paris to + Moscow." + +Coleridge's 'Biographia Literaria' (1847), ii. 227.] + + +[Footnote 9: A translation of Christopher Meiner's 'History of the +Female Sex', in four volumes, was published in London in 1808. Lapland +wizards, not witches, were said to raise storms by knotting pieces of +string, which they exposed to the wind.] + + +[Footnote 10: Richard Franz Philippe Brunck (1729-1803). His editions of +the 'Anthologia Graeca', and of the Greek dramatists are among his best +known works. Compare Sheridan's doggerel-- + + "Huge leaves of that great commentator, old Brunck, + Perhaps is the paper that lined my poor 'Trunk'."] + + +[Footnote 11: Christian Gottlob Heyne (1729-1812) published editions of +'Virgil' (1767-1775), 'Pindar' (1773), and 'Opuscula Academica', in six +vols. (1785-1812).] + + +[Footnote 12: A lively dance for one couple, characterized by a peculiar +jumping step. It probably originated in Provence.] + + +[Footnote 13: Dancing girls--who do for hire what Waltz doth gratis. + +[The Romaika is a modern Greek dance, characterized by serpentining +figures and handkerchief-throwing among the dancers. The Fandango +(Spaniards use the word "seguidilla") was of Moorish origin. The Bolero +was brought from Provence, circ. 1780. + + "The Bolero intoxicates, the Fandango +inflames" + +('Hist. of Dancing', by G. Vuillier-Heinemann, 1898).]] + + +[Footnote 14: For Morier, see note to line 211. Galt has a paragraph +descriptive of the waltzing Dervishes ('Voyages and Travels' (1812), +p.190).] + + +[Footnote 15: It cannot be complained now, as in the Lady Baussiere's +time, of the "Sieur de la Croix," that there be "no whiskers;" but how +far these are indications of valour in the field, or elsewhere, may +still be questionable. Much may be, and hath been;[A] avouched on both +sides. In the olden time philosophers had whiskers, and soldiers +none--Scipio himself was shaven--Hannibal thought his one eye handsome +enough without a beard; but Adrian, the emperor, wore a beard (having +warts on his chin, which neither the Empress Sabina nor even the +courtiers could abide)--Turenne had whiskers, Marlborough +none--Buonaparte is unwhiskered, the Regent whiskered; "'argal'" +greatness of mind and whiskers may or may not go together; but certainly +the different occurrences, since the growth of the last mentioned, go +further in behalf of whiskers than the anathema of Anselm did +'against' long hair in the reign of Henry I.--Formerly, 'red' +was a favourite colour. See Lodowick Barrey's comedy of 'Ram +Alley', 1661; Act I. Scene I. + + 'Taffeta'. Now for a wager--What coloured beard comes next by the + window? + + 'Adriana'. A black man's, I think. + + 'Taffeta'. I think not so: I think a 'red', for that is most in + fashion. + +There is "nothing new under the sun:" but 'red', then a 'favourite', has +now subsided into a favourite's colour. [This is, doubtless, an allusion +to Lord Yarmouth, whose fiery whiskers gained him the nickname of "Red +Herrings."] + + [Sub-Footnote A: The paragraph "Much may be" down to "reign of Henry + I." was added in Revise 1, and the remainder of the note in Revise 2.]] + + + +[Footnote 16: Madame Genlis (Stephanie Felicite Ducrest, Marquise de +Sillery), commenting on the waltz, writes, + + "As a foreigner, I shall not take the liberty to censure this kind of + dance; but this I can say, that it appears intolerable to German + writers of superior merits who are not accused of severity of + manners," + +and by way of example instances M. Jacobi, who affirms that "Werther +('Sorrows of Werther', Letter ix.), the lover of Charlotte, swears that, +were he to perish for it, never should a girl for whom he entertained +any affection, and on whom he had honourable views, dance the waltz with +any other man besides himself."--'Selections from the Works of Madame de +Genlis' (1806), p. 65. + +Compare, too, "Faulkland" on country-dances in 'The Rivals', act ii. sc. +I, + + "Country-dances! jigs and reels! ... A minuet I could have forgiven + ... Zounds! had she made one in a cotillon--I believe I could have + forgiven even that--but to be monkey-led for a night! to run the + gauntlet through a string of amorous palming puppies ... Oh, Jack, + there never can be but one man in the world whom a truly modest and + delicate woman ought to pair with in a country-dance; and even then, + the rest of the couples should be her great-uncles and aunts!"] + + + +[Footnote 17: An anachronism--Waltz and the battle of Austerlitz are +before said to have opened the ball together; the bard means (if he +means anything), Waltz was not so much in vogue till the Regent attained +the acme of his popularity. Waltz, the comet, whiskers, and the new +government, illuminated heaven and earth, in all their glory, much about +the same time: of these the comet only has disappeared; the other three +continue to astonish us still.--'Printers Devil'. + +[As the 'Printer's Devil' intimates, the various novelties of the age of +"Waltz" are somewhat loosely enumerated. The Comet, which signalized +1811, the year of the restricted Regency, had disappeared before the +Prince and his satellites burst into full blaze in 1812. It was (see +'Historical Record of the Life Guards', 1835, p.177) in 1812 that the +Prince Regent commanded the following alterations to be made in the +equipments of the regiment of Life Guards: "Cocked hats with feathers to +be discontinued, and brass helmets with black horsehair crests +substituted. Long coats, trimmed with gold lace across the front. Shirts +and cuffs to be replaced by short coatees," etc., etc. In the same +branch of the service, whiskers were already in vogue. The "new laws" +were those embodied in the "Frame-work Bill," which Byron denounced in +his speech in the House of Lords, Feb. 27, 1812. Formerly the breaking +of frames had been treated "as a minor felony, punishable by +transportation for fourteen years," and the object of the bill was to +make such offences capital. The bill passed into law on March 5, and as +a result we read ('Annual Register', 1812, pp. 38, 39) that on May 24 a +special commission for the rioters of Cheshire was opened by Judge +Dallas at Chester. "His lordship passed the awful sentence of death upon +sixteen, and in a most impressioned address, held out not the smallest +hope of mercy." Of these five 'only' were hanged. + +Owing to the scarcity of silver coinage, the Bank of England was +empowered to issue bank-tokens for various sums (Mr. Hornem bought his +motto for 'The Waltz' with a three-shilling bank-token; see 'note' to +Preface) which came into circulation on July 9, 1811. The "new +ninepences" which were said to be forthcoming never passed into +circulation at all. A single "pattern" coin (on the obverse, 'Bank +Token, Ninepence, 1812') is preserved in the British Museum (see +privately printed 'Catalogue', by W. Boyne (1866), p.11). The "new +victories" were the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo (Jan. 17), the capture of +Badajoz (April 7), and the Battle of Salamanca (July 12, 1812). By way +of "new wars," the President of the United States declared war with +Great Britain on June 18, and Great Britain with the United States, Oct. +13, 1812. As to "new mistresses," for a reference to "'Our' Sultan's" +"she-promotions" of "those only plump and sage, Who've reached the +regulation age," see 'Intercepted Letters, or the Twopenny Post-bag', by +Thomas Brown the Younger, 1813, and for "gold sticks," etc., see +"Promotions" in the 'Annual Register' for March, 1812, in which a long +list of Household appointments is duly recorded.]] + + +[Footnote 18: Amongst others a new ninepence--a creditable coin now +forthcoming, worth a pound, in paper, at the fairest calculation.] + + +[Footnote 19: Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool, was +Secretary at War and for the Colonies from 1809 to 1812, in Spencer +Perceval's administration, and, on the assassination of the premier, +undertook the government. Both as Secretary at War and as Prime Minister +his chief efforts were devoted to the support of Wellington in the +Peninsula.] + + +[Footnote 20: "Oh that 'right' should thus overcome 'might!'" Who does +not remember the "delicate investigation" in the 'Merry Wives of +Windsor'?-- + + 'Ford'. Pray you, come near; if I suspect without cause, why then make + sport at me; then let me be your jest; I deserve it. How now? whither + bear you this? + + 'Mrs. Ford'. What have you to do whither they bear it?--You were best + meddle with buck-washing." + +[Act iii. sc. 3.] + + +[Footnote 21: The gentle, or ferocious, reader may fill up the blank as +he pleases--there are several dissyllabic names at 'his' service (being +already in the Regent's): it would not be fair to back any peculiar +initial against the alphabet, as every month will add to the list now +entered for the sweep-stakes;--a distinguished consonant is said to be +the favourite, much against the wishes of the 'knowing ones'.--['Revise'] + +[In the Revise the line, which is not in the MS., ran, "So saith the +Muse; my M----what say you?" The name intended to be supplied is +"Moira." + +On Perceval's death (May 11 1812), Lord Liverpool became Prime Minister, +but was unable to carry on the government. Accordingly the Prince Regent +desired the Marquis Wellesley and Canning to approach Lords Grey and +Grenville with regard to the formation of a coalition ministry. They +were unsuccessful, and as a next step Lord Moira (Francis Rawdon, first +Marquis of Hastings, 1754-1826) was empowered to make overtures in the +same quarter. The Whig Lords stipulated that the regulation of the +Household should rest with ministers, and to this Moira would not +consent, possibly because the Prince's favourite, Lord Yarmouth, was +Vice-Chamberlain. Negotiations were again broken off, and on June 9 +Liverpool began his long term of office as Prime Minister. + + "I sate," writes Byron, "in the debate or rather discussion in the + House of Lords on that question (the second negotiation) immediately + behind Moira, who, while Grey was speaking, turned round to me + repeatedly, and asked me whether I agreed with him. It was an awkward + question to me, who had not heard both sides. Moira kept repeating to + me, 'It is 'not' so; it is so and so,'" etc. + +(Letter to W. Bankes (undated), 'Life', p. 162). Hence the question, "My +Moira, what say you?"] + + +[Footnote 22: + + "We have changed all that," says the Mock Doctor--'tis all + gone--Asmodeus knows where. After all, it is of no great importance + how women's hearts are disposed of; they have nature's privilege to + distribute them as absurdly as possible. But there are also some men + with hearts so thoroughly bad, as to remind us of those phenomena + often mentioned in natural history; viz. a mass of solid stone--only + to be opened by force--and when divided, you discover a _toad_ in the + centre, lively, and with the reputation of being venomous." + +[In the MS. the last sentence stood: "In this country there is _one man_ +with a heart so thoroughly bad that it reminds us of those unaccountable +petrifactions often mentioned in natural history," etc. The couplet-- + + "Such things we know are neither rich nor rare, + But wonder how the Devil they got there," + +which was affixed to the note, was subsequently erased.]] + + + +[Footnote 23: Compare Sheridan's lines on waltzing, which Moore +heard him "repeat in a drawing-room"-- + + "With tranquil step, and timid downcast glance, + Behold the well-pair'd couple now advance. + In such sweet posture our first parents moved, + While, hand in hand, through Eden's bower they roved. + Ere yet the devil, with promise fine and false, + Turned their poor heads, and taught them how to waltz. + One hand grasps hers, the other holds her hip. + ... + For so the law's laid down by Baron Trip."] + + +[Footnote 24: Lines 204-207 are not in the MS., but were added in a +revise.] + + +[Footnote 25: In Turkey a pertinent--here an impertinent and superfluous +question--literally put, as in the text, by a Persian to Morier, on +seeing a Waltz in Pera. [See 'A Journey through Persia', etc. By James +Morier, London (1812), p. 365.] + + +[Footnote 26: Richard Fitzpatrick (1747-1813), second son of John, first +Earl of Ossory, served in the first American War at the battles of +Brandywine and Germanstown. He sat as M.P. for Tavistock for +thirty-three years. The chosen friend and companion of Fox, he was a +prominent member of the opposition during the close of the eighteenth +century. In the ministry of "All the Talents" he was Secretary at War. +He dabbled in literature, was one of the authors of the 'Rolliad', and +in 1775 published 'Dorinda: A Town Eclogue'. He was noted for his social +gifts, and in recognition, it is said, of his "fine manners and polite +address," inherited a handsome annuity from the Duke of Queensberry. +Byron associates him with Sheridan as 'un homme galant' and leader of +'ton' of the past generation.] + + +[Footnote 27: William Douglas, third Earl of March and fourth Duke of +Queensberry (1724-1810), otherwise "old Q.," was conspicuous as a +"blood" and evil liver from youth to extreme old age. He was a patron of +the turf, a connoisseur of Italian Opera, and 'surtout' an inveterate +libertine. As a Whig, he held office in the Household during North's +Coalition Ministry, but throughout George the Third's first illness in +1788, displayed such indecent partisanship with the Prince of Wales, +that, when the king recovered, he lost his post. His dukedom died with +him, and his immense fortune was divided between the heirs to his other +titles and his friends. Lord Yarmouth, whose wife, Maria Fagniani, he +believed to be his natural daughter, was one of the principal legatees.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Henceforth with due unblushing brightness shine'. + +['MS. M'.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'And weave a couplet worthy them and you.' + +['Proof'.] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'To make Heligoland the mart for lies'. + +['MS. M'.] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'As much of Heyne as should not sink the packet'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'Who in your daughters' daughters yet survive + Like Banquo's spirit be yourselves alive.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Elysium's ill exchanged for that you lost'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'No stiff-starched stays make meddling lovers ache'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'New caps and Jackets for the royal Guards'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'With K--t's gay grace, or silly-Billy's mien'. + +['MS. M.'] + + 'With K--t's gay grace, or G--r's booby mien'. + +['MS. erased'.] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'Sir--Such a one--with Mrs.--Miss So-so'. + +['Revise'.]] + + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'And thou my Prince whose undisputed will'. + +[MS. M.]] + + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'From this abominable contact warm'. + +['MS. M.']] + + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'Some generations hence our Pedigree + Will never look the worse for him or me.' + +['MS, erased'.]] + + + + + + + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + +LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, +STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1, by Byron + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYRON'S POETICAL WORKS, VOL. 1 *** + +This file should be named 7bpt110.txt or 7bpt110.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7bpt111.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7bpt110a.txt + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 + +Author: Byron + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8861] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 15, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYRON'S POETICAL WORKS, VOL. 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +LORD BYRON. + + + + + + + +A NEW, REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION, +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + +POETRY, VOLUME 1. + + + +EDITED BY + +ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M.A. + + +1898 + + + + +PREFACE TO THE POEMS. + + +The text of the present issue of Lord Byron's Poetical Works is based on +that of 'The Works of Lord Byron', in six volumes, 12mo, which was +published by John Murray in 1831. That edition followed the text of the +successive issues of plays and poems which appeared in the author's +lifetime, and were subject to his own revision, or that of Gifford and +other accredited readers. A more or less thorough collation of the +printed volumes with the MSS. which were at Moore's disposal, yielded a +number of variorum readings which have appeared in subsequent editions +published by John Murray. Fresh collations of the text of individual +poems with the original MSS. have been made from time to time, with the +result that the text of the latest edition (one-vol. 8vo, 1891) includes +some emendations, and has been supplemented by additional variants. +Textual errors of more or less importance, which had crept into the +numerous editions which succeeded the seventeen-volume edition of 1832, +were in some instances corrected, but in others passed over. For the +purposes of the present edition the printed text has been collated with +all the MSS. which passed through Moore's hands, and, also, for the +first time, with MSS. of the following plays and poems, viz. 'English +Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'; 'Childe Harold', Canto IV.; 'Don Juan', +Cantos VI.-XVI.; 'Werner'; 'The Deformed Transformed'; 'Lara'; +'Parisina'; 'The Prophecy of Dante'; 'The Vision of Judgment'; 'The Age +of Bronze'; 'The Island'. The only works of any importance which have +been printed directly from the text of the first edition, without +reference to the MSS., are the following, which appeared in 'The +Liberal' (1822-23), viz.: 'Heaven and Earth', 'The Blues', and 'Morgante +Maggiore'. + +A new and, it is believed, an improved punctuation has been adopted. In +this respect Byron did not profess to prepare his MSS. for the press, +and the punctuation, for which Gifford is mainly responsible, has been +reconsidered with reference solely to the meaning and interpretation of +the sentences as they occur. + +In the 'Hours of Idleness and Other Early Poems', the typography of the +first four editions, as a rule, has been preserved. A uniform typography +in accordance with modern use has been adopted for all poems of later +date. Variants, being the readings of one or more MSS. or of successive +editions, are printed in italics [as footnotes. text Ed] immediately +below the text. They are marked by Roman numerals. Words and lines +through which the author has drawn his pen in the MSS. or Revises are +marked 'MS. erased'. + +Poems and plays are given, so far as possible, in chronological order. +'Childe Harold' and 'Don Juan', which were written and published in +parts, are printed continuously; and minor poems, including the first +four satires, have been arranged in groups according to the date of +composition. Epigrams and 'jeux d'esprit' have been placed together, in +chronological order, towards the end of the sixth volume. A Bibliography +of the poems will immediately precede the Index at the close of the +sixth volume. + +The edition contains at least thirty hitherto unpublished poems, +including fifteen stanzas of the unfinished seventeenth canto of 'Don +Juan', and a considerable fragment of the third part of 'The Deformed +Transformed'. The eleven unpublished poems from MSS. preserved at +Newstead, which appear in the first volume, are of slight if any +literary value, but they reflect with singular clearness and sincerity +the temper and aspirations of the tumultuous and moody stripling to whom +"the numbers came," but who wisely abstained from printing them himself. + +Byron's notes, of which many are published for the first time, and +editorial notes, enclosed in brackets, are printed immediately below the +variorum readings. The editorial notes are designed solely to supply the +reader with references to passages in other works illustrative of the +text, or to interpret expressions and allusions which lapse of time may +have rendered obscure. + +Much of the knowledge requisite for this purpose is to be found in the +articles of the 'Dictionary of National Biography', to which the fullest +acknowledgments are due; and much has been arrived at after long +research, involving a minute examination of the literature, the +magazines, and often the newspapers of the period. + +Inasmuch as the poems and plays have been before the public for more +than three quarters of a century, it has not been thought necessary to +burden the notes with the eulogies and apologies of the great poets and +critics who were Byron's contemporaries, and regarded his writings, both +for good and evil, for praise and blame, from a different standpoint +from ours. Perhaps, even yet, the time has not come for a definite and +positive appreciation of his genius. The tide of feeling and opinion +must ebb and flow many times before his rank and station among the poets +of all time will be finally adjudged. The splendour of his reputation, +which dazzled his own countrymen, and, for the first time, attracted the +attention of a contemporary European audience to an English writer, has +faded, and belongs to history; but the poet's work remains, inviting a +more intimate and a more extended scrutiny than it has hitherto received +in this country. The reader who cares to make himself acquainted with +the method of Byron's workmanship, to unravel his allusions, and to +follow the tenour of his verse, will, it is hoped, find some assistance +in these volumes. + +I beg to record my especial thanks to the Earl of Lovelace for the use +of MSS. of his grandfather's poems, including unpublished fragments; for +permission to reproduce portraits in his possession; and for valuable +information and direction in the construction of some of the notes. + +My grateful acknowledgments are due to Dr. Garnett, C.B., Dr. A. H. +Murray, Mr. R. E. Graves, and other officials of the British Museum, for +invaluable assistance in preparing the notes, and in compiling a +bibliography of the poems. + +I have also to thank Mr. Leslie Stephen and others for important hints +and suggestions with regard to the interpretation of some obscure +passages in 'Hints from Horace'. + +In correcting the proofs for the press, I have had the advantage of the +skill and knowledge of my friend Mr. Frank E. Taylor, of Chertsey, to +whom my thanks are due. + +On behalf of the Publisher, I beg to acknowledge with gratitude the +kindness of the Lady Dorchester, the Earl Stanhope, Lord Glenesk and Sir +Theodore Martin, K.C.B., for permission to examine MSS. in their +possession; and of Mrs. Chaworth Musters, for permission to reproduce +her miniature of Miss Chaworth, and for other favours. He desires also +to acknowledge the generous assistance of Mr. and Miss Webb, of Newstead +Abbey, in permitting the publication of MS. poems, and in making +transcripts for the press. + +I need hardly add that, throughout the progress of the work, the advice +and direct assistance of Mr. John Murray and Mr. R. E. Prothero have +been always within my reach. They have my cordial thanks. + +ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE. + + + +[facsimile of title page:] + + +POEMS ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS. + + + Virginibus Puerisque Canto. + + (Hor. Lib, 3. 'Ode 1'.) + + + +The only Apology necessary to be adduced, in extenuation of any errors +in the following collection, is, that the Author has not yet completed +his nineteenth year. + +December 23,1806. + + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE TO 'HOURS OF IDLENESS AND OTHER EARLY POEMS'. + +There were four distinct issues of Byron's Juvenilia. The first +collection, entitled 'Fugitive Pieces', was printed in quarto by S. and +J. Ridge of Newark. Two of the poems, "The Tear" and the "Reply to Some +Verses of J. M. B. Pigot, Esq.," were signed "BYRON;" but the volume +itself, which is without a title-page, was anonymous. It numbers +sixty-six pages, and consists of thirty-eight distinct pieces. The last +piece, "Imitated from Catullus. To Anna," is dated November 16, 1806. +The whole of this issue, with the exception of two or three copies, was +destroyed. An imperfect copy, lacking pp. 17-20 and pp. 58-66, is +preserved at Newstead. A perfect copy, which had been retained by the +Rev. J. T. Becher, at whose instance the issue was suppressed, was +preserved by his family (see 'Life', by Karl Elze, 1872, p. 450), and is +now in the possession of Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B. A facsimile reprint +of this unique volume, limited to one hundred copies, was issued, for +private circulation only, from the Chiswick Press in 1886. + +Of the thirty-eight 'Fugitive Pieces', two poems, viz. "To Caroline" and +"To Mary," together with the last six stanzas of the lines, "To Miss E. +P. [To Eliza]," have never been republished in any edition of Byron's +Poetical Works. + +A second edition, small octavo, of 'Fugitive Pieces', entitled 'Poems on +Various Occasions', was printed by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and +distributed in January, 1807. This volume was issued anonymously. It +numbers 144 pages, and consists of a reproduction of thirty-six +'Fugitive Pieces', and of twelve hitherto unprinted poems--forty-eight +in all. For references to the distribution of this issue--limited, says +Moore, to one hundred copies--see letters to Mr. Pigot and the Earl of +Clare, dated January 16, February 6, 1807, and undated letters of the +same period to Mr. William Bankes and Mr. Falkner ('Life', pp. 41, 42). +The annotated copy of 'Poems on Various Occasions', referred to in the +present edition, is in the British Museum. + +Early in the summer (June--July) of 1807, a volume, small octavo, named +'Hours of Idleness'--a title henceforth associated with Byron's early +poems--was printed and published by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and was +sold by the following London booksellers: Crosby and Co.; Longman, +Hurst, Rees, and Orme; F. and C. Rivington; and J, Mawman. The full +title is, 'Hours of Idleness; a Series of Poems Original and +Translated'. By George Gordon, Lord Byron, a Minor. It numbers 187 +pages, and consists of thirty-nine poems. Of these, nineteen belonged to +the original 'Fugitive Pieces', eight had first appeared in 'Poems on +Various Occasions', and twelve were published for the first time. The +"Fragment of a Translation from the 9th Book of Virgil's Æneid" +('sic'), numbering sixteen lines, reappears as "The Episode of Nisus and +Euryalus, A Paraphrase from the Æneid, Lib. 9," numbering 406 lines. + +The final collection, also in small octavo, bearing the title 'Poems +Original and Translated', by George Gordon, Lord Byron, second edition, +was printed and published in 1808 by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and sold +by the same London booksellers as 'Hours of Idleness'. It numbers 174 +pages, and consists of seventeen of the original 'Fugitive Pieces', four +of those first published in 'Poems on Various Occasions', a reprint of +the twelve poems first published in 'Hours of Idleness', and five poems +which now appeared for the first time--thirty-eight poems in all. +Neither the title nor the contents of this so-called second edition +corresponds exactly with the previous issue. + +Of the thirty-eight 'Fugitive Pieces' which constitute the suppressed +quarto, only seventeen appear in all three subsequent issues. Of the +twelve additions to 'Poems on Various Occasions', four were excluded +from 'Hours of Idleness', and four more from 'Poems Original and +Translated'. + +The collection of minor poems entitled 'Hours of Idleness', which has +been included in every edition of Byron's Poetical Works issued by John +Murray since 1831, consists of seventy pieces, being the aggregate of +the poems published in the three issues, 'Poems on Various Occasions', +'Hours of Idleness', and 'Poems Original and Translated', together with +five other poems of the same period derived from other sources. + +In the present issue a general heading, "Hours of Idleness, and other +Early Poems," has been applied to the entire collection of Early Poems, +1802-1809. The quarto has been reprinted (excepting the lines "To Mary," +which Byron himself deliberately suppressed) in its entirety, and in the +original order. The successive additions to the 'Poems on Various +Occasions', 'Hours of Idleness', and 'Poems Original and Translated', +follow in order of publication. The remainder of the series, viz. poems +first published in Moore's 'Life and Journals of Lord Byron' (1830); +poems hitherto unpublished; poems first published in the 'Works of Lord +Byron' (1832), and poems contributed to J. C. Hobhouse's 'Imitations and +Translations' (1809), have been arranged in chronological order. (For an +important contribution to the bibliography of the quarto of 1806, and of +the other issues of Byron's Juvenilia, see papers by Mr. R. Edgcumbe, +Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., and others, in the 'Athenaeum', 1885, vol. +ii. pp. 731-733, 769; and 1886, vol. i. p. 101, etc. For a collation of +the contents of the four first issues and of certain large-paper copies +of 'Hours of Idleness', etc., see 'The Bibliography of the Poetical +Works of Lord Byron', vol. vi. of the present edition.) + + +[text of facsimile pages of two different editions mentioned above:] + +HOURS OF IDLENESS, + +A SERIES OF POEMS, +ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED, + +BY GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, + +A MINOR. + + +[Greek: Maet ar me mal ainee maete ti neichei.] + + HOMER. Iliad, 10. + + +Virginibus puerisque Canto. + + HORACE. + + +He whistled as he went for want of thought. + + DRYDEN. + + + +NEMARK: + +Printed and sold by S. and J. RIDGE; + +SOLD ALSO BY B CROSBY AND CO. STATIONER'S COURT; +LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW; +F. AND C. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; +AND J. MAWMAN, IN THE POULTRY; +LONDON. +1807 + + + + + + + +POEMS +ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED +BY +GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, + + +[Greek: Maet ar me mal ainee maete ti neichei.] + +HOMER, Iliad, 10. + + +He whistled as he went for want of thought. + +DRYDEN. + + + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE TO ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. + + +The MS. ('MS. M.') of the first draft of Byron's "Satire" (see Letter to +Pigot, October 26, 1807) is now in Mr. Murray's possession. It is +written on folio sheets paged 6-25, 28-41, and numbers 360 lines. +Mutilations on pages 12, 13, 34, 35 account for the absence of ten +additional lines. + +After the publication of the January number of 'The Edinburgh Review' +for 1808 (containing the critique on 'Hours of Idleness'), which was +delayed till the end of February, Byron added a beginning and an ending +to the original draft. The MSS. of these additions, which number ninety +lines, are written on quarto sheets, and have been bound up with the +folios. (Lines 1-16 are missing.) The poem, which with these and other +additions had run up to 560 lines, was printed in book form (probably by +Ridge of Newark), under the title of 'British Bards, A Satire'. "This +Poem," writes Byron ['MSS. M.'], "was begun in October, 1807, in London, +and at different intervals composed from that period till September, +1808, when it was completed at Newstead Abbey.--B., 1808." A date, 1808, +is affixed to the last line. Only one copy is extant, that which was +purchased, in 1867, from the executors of R.C. Dallas, by the Trustees +of the British Museum. Even this copy has been mutilated. Pages 17, 18, +which must have contained the first version of the attack on Jeffrey +(see 'English Bards', p. 332, line 439, 'note' 2), have been torn out, +and quarto proof-sheets in smaller type of lines 438-527, "Hail to +immortal Jeffrey," etc., together with a quarto proof-sheet, in the same +type as 'British Bards', containing lines 540-559, "Illustrious +Holland," etc., have been inserted. Hobhouse's lines (first edition, +lines 247-262), which are not in the original draft, are included in +'British Bards'. The insertion of the proofs increased the printed +matter to 584 lines. After the completion of this revised version of +'British Bards', additions continued to be made. Marginal corrections +and MS. fragments, bound up with 'British Bards', together with +forty-four lines (lines 723-726, 819-858) which do not occur in MS. M., +make up with the printed matter the 696 lines which were published in +March, 1809, under the title of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. +The folio and quarto sheets in Mr. Murray's possession ('MS. M.') may be +regarded as the MS. of 'British Bards; British Bards' (there are a few +alterations, e.g. the substitution of lines 319-326, "Moravians, arise," +etc., for the eight lines on Pratt, which are to be found in the folio +MS., and are printed in 'British Bards'), with its accompanying MS. +fragments, as the foundation of the text of the first edition of +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. + +Between the first edition, published in March, and the second edition in +October, 1809, the difference is even greater than between the first +edition and 'British Bards'. The Preface was enlarged, and a postscript +affixed to the text of the poem. Hobhouse's lines (first edition, +247-262) were omitted, and the following additional passages inserted, +viz.: (i.) lines 1-96, "Still must I hear," etc.; (ii.) lines 129-142, +"Thus saith the Preacher," etc.; (iii.) lines 363-417, "But if some +new-born whim," etc.; (iv.) lines 638-706, "Or hail at once," etc.; (v.) +lines 765-798, "When some brisk youth," etc.; (vi.) lines 859-880, "And +here let Shee," etc.; (vii.) lines 949-960, "Yet what avails," etc.; +(viii.) lines 973-980, "There, Clarke," etc.; (ix.) lines 1011-1070, +"Then hapless Britain," etc. These additions number 370 lines, and, +together with the 680 lines of the first edition (reduced from 696 by +the omission of Hobhouse's contribution), make up the 1050 lines of the +second and third editions, and the doubtful fourth edition of 1810. Of +these additions, Nos. i., ii., iii., iv., vi., viii., ix. exist in MS., +and are bound up with the folio MS. now in Mr. Murray's possession. + +The third edition, which is, generally, dated 1810, is a replica of the +second edition. + +The first issue of the fourth edition, which appeared in 1810, is +identical with the second and third editions. A second issue of the +fourth edition, dated 1811, must have passed under Byron's own +supervision. Lines 723, 724 are added, and lines 725, 726 are materially +altered. The fourth edition of 1811 numbers 1052 lines. + +The suppressed fifth edition, numbering 1070 lines (the copy in the +British Museum has the title-page of the fourth edition; a second copy, +in Mr. Murray's possession, has no title-page), varies from the fourth +edition of 1811 by the addition of lines 97-102 and 528-539, and by some +twenty-nine emendations of the text. Eighteen of these emendations were +made by Byron in a copy of the fourth edition which belonged to Leigh +Hunt. On another copy, in Mr. Murray's possession, Byron made nine +emendations, of which six are identical with those in the Hunt copy, and +three appear for the first time. It was in the latter volume that he +inscribed his after-thoughts, which are dated "B. 1816." + +For a complete collation of the five editions of 'English Bards, and +Scotch Reviewers', and textual emendations in the two annotated volumes, +and for a note on genuine and spurious copies of the first and other +editions, see 'The Bibliography of the Poetical Works of Lord Byron', +vol. vi. + + +[Facsimile of title-page of first edition, including Byron's signature. +To view this and other facsimiles, and the other illustrations mentioned in +this text, see the html edition. text Ed.] + + + + + +ENGLISH BARDS, + +AND + +Scotch Reviewers. + + +A SATIRE. + + + + + I had rather be a kitten, and cry, mew! + Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + + Such shameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true, + There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too. + + POPE. + + + + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +HOURS OF IDLENESS, AND OTHER EARLY POEMS. + + + + FUGITIVE PIECES. + + Preface to the Poems + Bibliographical Note to "Hours of Idleness and Other Early Poems" + Bibliographical Note to "English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers" + On Leaving Newstead Abbey + To E---- + On the Death of a Young Lady, Cousin to the Author, and very dear to + Him + To D---- + To Caroline + To Caroline [second poem] + To Emma + Fragments of School Exercises: From the "Prometheus Vinctus" of + Æschylus + Lines written in "Letters of an Italian Nun and an English + Gentleman, by J.J. Rousseau: Founded on Facts" + Answer to the Foregoing, Addressed to Miss---- + On a Change of Masters at a Great Public School + Epitaph on a Beloved Friend + Adrian's Address to his Soul when Dying + A Fragment + To Caroline [third poem] + To Caroline [fourth poem] + On a Distant View of the Village and School of Harrow on the Hill, + 1806 + Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination + To Mary, on Receiving Her Picture + On the Death of Mr. Fox + To a Lady who Presented to the Author a Lock of Hair Braided with + his own, and appointed a Night in December to meet him in the + Garden + To a Beautiful Quaker + To Lesbia! + To Woman + An Occasional Prologue, Delivered by the Author Previous to the + Performance of "The Wheel of Fortune" at a Private Theatre + To Eliza + The Tear + Reply to some Verses of J.M.B. Pigot, Esq., on the Cruelty of his + Mistress + Granta. A Medley + To the Sighing Strephon + The Cornelian + To M---- + Lines Addressed to a Young Lady. [As the Author was discharging his + Pistols in a Garden, Two Ladies passing near the spot were alarmed + by the sound of a Bullet hissing near them, to one of whom the + following stanzas were addressed the next morning] + Translation from Catullus. 'Ad Lesbiam' + Translation of the Epitaph on Virgil and Tibullus, by Domitius Marsus + Imitation of Tibullus. 'Sulpicia ad Cerinthum' + Translation from Catullus. 'Lugete Veneres Cupidinesque' + Imitated from Catullus. To Ellen + + + POEMS ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS. + To M.S.G. + Stanzas to a Lady, with the Poems of Camoëns + To M.S.G. [second poem] + Translation from Horace. 'Justum et tenacem', etc. + The First Kiss of Love + Childish Recollections + Answer to a Beautiful Poem, Written by Montgomery, Author of "The + Wanderer in Switzerland," etc., entitled "The Common Lot" + Love's Last Adieu + Lines Addressed to the Rev. J.T. Becher, on his advising the Author + to mix more with Society + Answer to some Elegant Verses sent by a Friend to the Author, + complaining that one of his descriptions was rather too warmly + drawn + Elegy on Newstead Abbey + + + HOURS OF IDLENESS. + To George, Earl Delawarr + Damætas + To Marion + Oscar of Alva + Translation from Anacreon. Ode I + From Anacreon. Ode 3 + The Episode of Nisus and Euryalus. A Paraphrase from the 'Æneid', + Lib. 9 + Translation from the 'Medea' of Euripides [L. 627-660] + Lachin y Gair + To Romance + The Death of Calmar and Orla + To Edward Noel Long, Esq. + To a Lady + + + POEMS ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED. + When I Roved a Young Highlander + To the Duke of Dorset + To the Earl of Clare + I would I were a Careless Child + Lines Written beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow + + + EARLY POEMS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. + Fragment, Written Shortly after the Marriage of Miss Chaworth. First + published in Moore's 'Letters and Journals of Lord Byron', 1830, + i. 56 + Remembrance. First published in 'Works of Lord Byron', 1832, vii. + 152 + To a Lady Who Presented the Author with the Velvet Band which bound + her Tresses. 'Works', 1832, vii. 151 + To a Knot of Ungenerous Critics. 'MS. Newstead' + Soliloquy of a Bard in the Country. 'MS. Newstead' + L'Amitié est L'Amour sans Ailes. 'Works', 1832, vii. 161 + The Prayer of Nature. 'Letters and Journals', 1830, i. 106 + Translation from Anacreon. Ode 5. 'MS. Newstead' + [Ossian's Address to the Sun in "Carthon."] 'MS. Newstead' + [Pignus Amoris.] 'MS. Newstead' + [A Woman's Hair.] 'Works', 1832, vii. 151 + Stanzas to Jessy. 'Monthly Literary Recreations', July, 1807 + The Adieu. 'Works', 1832, vii. 195 + To----. 'MS. Newstead' + On the Eyes of Miss A----H----. 'MS. Newstead' + To a Vain Lady. 'Works', 1832, vii. 199 + To Anne. 'Works', 1832, vii. 201 + Egotism. A Letter to J.T. Becher. 'MS. Newstead' + To Anne. 'Works', 1832, vii. 202 + To the Author of a Sonnet Beginning, "'Sad is my verse,' you say, + 'and yet no tear.'" 'Works', 1832, vii. 202 + On Finding a Fan. 'Works', 1832, 203 + Farewell to the Muse. 'Works', 1832, vii. 203 + To an Oak at Newstead. 'Works', 1832, vii. 206 + On Revisiting Harrow. 'Letters and Journals', i. 102 + To my Son. 'Letters and Journals', i. 104 + Queries to Casuists. 'MS. Newstead' + Song. Breeze of the Night. 'MS. Lovelace' + To Harriet. 'MS. Newstead' + There was a Time, I need not name. 'Imitations and Translations', + 1809, p. 200 + And wilt Thou weep when I am low? 'Imitations and Translations', + 1809, p. 202 + Remind me not, Remind me not. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, + p. 197 + To a Youthful Friend. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, p. 185 + Lines Inscribed upon a Cup Formed from a Skull. First published, + 'Childe Harold', Cantos i., ii. (Seventh Edition), 1814 + Well! Thou art Happy. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, p. 192 + Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog. 'Imitations and + Translations', 1809, p. 190 + To a Lady, On Being asked my reason for quitting England in the + Spring. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, p. 195 + Fill the Goblet Again. A Song. 'Imitations and Translations', 1809, + p. 204 + Stanzas to a Lady, on Leaving England. 'Imitations and + Translations', 1809, p. 227 + + + ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS + + HINTS FROM HORACE + + THE CURSE OF MINERVA + + THE WALTZ + + + + + + + + + +HOURS OF IDLENESS + +AND OTHER EARLY POEMS. + + + +ON LEAVING NEWSTEAD ABBEY. [i] + + Why dost thou build the hall, Son of the winged days? Thou lookest + from thy tower to-day: yet a few years, and the blast of the desart + comes: it howls in thy empty court.-OSSIAN. [1] + + +I. + + Through thy battlements, Newstead, [2] the hollow winds whistle: [ii] + Thou, the hall of my Fathers, art gone to decay; + In thy once smiling garden, the hemlock and thistle + Have choak'd up the rose, which late bloom'd in the way. + + +2. + + Of the mail-cover'd Barons, who, proudly, to battle, [iii] + Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain, [3] + The escutcheon and shield, which with ev'ry blast rattle, + Are the only sad vestiges now that remain. + + +3. + + No more doth old Robert, with harp-stringing numbers, + Raise a flame, in the breast, for the war-laurell'd wreath; + Near Askalon's towers, John of Horistan [4] slumbers, + Unnerv'd is the hand of his minstrel, by death. + + +4. + + Paul and Hubert too sleep in the valley of Cressy; + For the safety of Edward and England they fell: + My Fathers! the tears of your country redress ye: + How you fought! how you died! still her annals can tell. + + +5. + + On Marston, [5] with Rupert, [6] 'gainst traitors contending, + Four brothers enrich'd, with their blood, the bleak field; + For the rights of a monarch their country defending, [iv] + Till death their attachment to royalty seal'd. [7] + + +6. + + Shades of heroes, farewell! your descendant departing + From the seat of his ancestors, bids you adieu! [v] + Abroad, or at home, your remembrance imparting + New courage, he'll think upon glory and you. + + +7. + + Though a tear dim his eye at this sad separation, [vi] + 'Tis nature, not fear, that excites his regret; [vii] + Far distant he goes, with the same emulation, + The fame of his Fathers he ne'er can forget. [viii] + + +8. + + That fame, and that memory, still will he cherish; [ix] + He vows that he ne'er will disgrace your renown: + Like you will he live, or like you will he perish; + When decay'd, may he mingle his dust with your own! + + +1803. + + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in _Hours of Idleness_.] + +[Footnote 2: The priory of Newstead, or de Novo Loco, in Sherwood, was +founded about the year 1170, by Henry II. On the dissolution of the +monasteries it was granted (in 1540) by Henry VIII. to "Sir John Byron +the Little, with the great beard." His portrait is still preserved at +Newstead.] + +[Footnote 3: No record of any crusading ancestors in the Byron family +can be found. Moore conjectures that the legend was suggested by some +groups of heads on the old panel-work at Newstead, which appear to +represent Christian soldiers and Saracens, and were, most probably, put +up before the Abbey came into the possession of the family.] + +[Footnote 4: Horistan Castle, in _Derbyshire_, an ancient seat of the +B--R--N family [4to]. (Horiston.--4to.)] + +[Footnote 5: The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles +I. were defeated.] + +[Footnote 6: Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He +afterwards commanded the Fleet, in the reign of Charles II.] + +[Footnote 7: Sir Nicholas Byron, the great-grandson of Sir John Byron +the Little, distinguished himself in the Civil Wars. He is described by +Clarendon (_Hist, of the Rebellion_, 1807, i. 216) as "a person of great +affability and dexterity, as well as martial knowledge." He was Governor +of Carlisle, and afterwards Governor of Chester. His nephew and +heir-at-law, Sir John Byron, of Clayton, K.B. (1599-1652), was raised to +the peerage as Baron Byron of Rochdale, after the Battle of Newbury, +October 26, 1643. He held successively the posts of Lieutenant of the +Tower, Governor of Chester, and, after the expulsion of the Royal Family +from England, Governor to the Duke of York. He died childless, and was +succeeded by his brother Richard, the second lord, from whom the poet +was descended. Five younger brothers, as Richard's monument in the +chancel of Hucknall Torkard Church records, "faithfully served King +Charles the First in the Civil Wars, suffered much for their loyalty, +and lost all their present fortunes." (See _Life of Lord Byron_, by Karl +Elze: Appendix, Note (A), p. 436.)] + + +[Footnote i: 'On Leaving N ... ST ... D.'--[4to] 'On Leaving + Newstead.'--('P. on V. Occasions.')] + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Through the cracks in these battlements loud the winds whistle + For the hall of my fathers is gone to decay; + And in yon once gay garden the hemlock and thistle + Have choak'd up the rose, which late bloom'd in the way'. + + [4to]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Of the barons of old, who once proudly to battle'. + + [4to]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'For Charles the Martyr their country defending'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote v: 'Bids ye adieu!' [4to]] + +[Footnote vi: 'Though a tear dims.' [4to]] + +[Footnote vii: ''Tis nature, not fear, which commands his regret'. + [4to]] + +[Footnote viii: 'In the grave he alone can his fathers forget'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ix: 'Your fame, and your memory, still will he cherish'. + [4to]] + + + + + + + + +TO E---[1] + + + Let Folly smile, to view the names + Of thee and me, in Friendship twin'd; + Yet Virtue will have greater claims + To love, than rank with vice combin'd. + + And though unequal is _thy_ fate, + Since title deck'd my higher birth; + Yet envy not this gaudy state, + _Thine_ is the pride of modest worth. + + Our _souls_ at least congenial meet, + Nor can _thy_ lot _my_ rank disgrace; + Our intercourse is not less sweet, + Since worth of rank supplies the place. + + +_November_, 1802. + + + +[Footnote 1: E---was, according to Moore, a boy of Byron's own age, the + son of one of the tenants at Newstead.] + + + + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY, [1] + COUSIN TO THE AUTHOR, AND VERY DEAR TO HIM. + + +1. + + Hush'd are the winds, and still the evening gloom, + Not e'en a zephyr wanders through the grove, + Whilst I return to view my Margaret's tomb, + And scatter flowers on the dust I love. + + +2. + + Within this narrow cell reclines her clay, + That clay, where once such animation beam'd; + The King of Terrors seiz'd her as his prey; + Not worth, nor beauty, have her life redeem'd. + + +3. + + Oh! could that King of Terrors pity feel, + Or Heaven reverse the dread decree of fate, + Not here the mourner would his grief reveal, + Not here the Muse her virtues would relate. + + +4. + + But wherefore weep? Her matchless spirit soars + Beyond where splendid shines the orb of day; + And weeping angels lead her to those bowers, + Where endless pleasures virtuous deeds repay. + + +5. + + And shall presumptuous mortals Heaven arraign! + And, madly, Godlike Providence accuse! + Ah! no, far fly from me attempts so vain;-- + I'll ne'er submission to my God refuse. + + +6. + + Yet is remembrance of those virtues dear, + Yet fresh the memory of that beauteous face; + Still they call forth my warm affection's tear, + Still in my heart retain their wonted place. [i] + + + +1802. + + +[Footnote 1: The author claims the indulgence of the reader more for +this piece than, perhaps, any other in the collection; but as it was +written at an earlier period than the rest (being composed at the age of +fourteen), and his first essay, he preferred submitting it to the +indulgence of his friends in its present state, to making either +addition or alteration.--[4to] + + "My first dash into poetry was as early as 1800. It was the ebullition + of a passion for--my first cousin, Margaret Parker (daughter and + granddaughter of the two Admirals Parker), one of the most beautiful + of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the verse; but it would be + difficult for me to forget her--her dark eyes--her long + eye-lashes--her completely Greek cast of face and figure! I was then + about twelve--she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year + or two afterwards, in consequence of a fall, which injured her spine, + and induced consumption ... I knew nothing of her illness, being at + Harrow and in the country till she was gone. Some years after, I made + an attempt at an elegy--a very dull one."--_Byron Diary_, 1821; + _Life_, p. 17. + +[Margaret Parker was the sister of Sir Peter Parker, whose death at +Baltimore, in 1814, Byron celebrated in the "Elegiac Stanzas," which +were first published in the poems attached to the seventh edition of +_Childe Harold_.] + + +[Footnote i: _Such sorrow brings me honour, not disgrace_. [4to]] + + + + + +TO D---[1] + + +1. + + In thee, I fondly hop'd to clasp + A friend, whom death alone could sever; + Till envy, with malignant grasp, [i] + Detach'd thee from my breast for ever. + + +2. + + True, she has forc'd thee from my _breast_, + Yet, in my _heart_, thou keep'st thy seat; [ii] + There, there, thine image still must rest, + Until that heart shall cease to beat. + + +3. + + And, when the grave restores her dead, + When life again to dust is given, + On _thy dear_ breast I'll lay my head-- + Without _thee! where_ would be _my Heaven?_ + + +February, 1803. + + + +[Footnote 1: George John, 5th Earl Delawarr (1791-1869). (See _note_ 2, +p. 100; see also lines "To George, Earl Delawarr," pp. 126-128.)] + +[Footnote i: + + _But envy with malignant grasp, + Has torn thee from my breast for ever. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: _But in my heart_. [4to]] + + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [i] + + +1. + + Think'st thou I saw thy beauteous eyes, + Suffus'd in tears, implore to stay; + And heard _unmov'd_ thy plenteous sighs, + Which said far more than words can say? [ii] + + +2. + + Though keen the grief _thy_ tears exprest, [iii] + When love and hope lay _both_ o'erthrown; + Yet still, my girl, _this_ bleeding breast + Throbb'd, with deep sorrow, as _thine own_. + + +3. + + But, when our cheeks with anguish glow'd, + When _thy_ sweet lips were join'd to mine; + The tears that from _my_ eyelids flow'd + Were lost in those which fell from _thine_. + + +4. + + Thou could'st not feel my burning cheek, + _Thy_ gushing tears had quench'd its flame, + And, as thy tongue essay'd to speak, + In _sighs alone_ it breath'd my name. + + +5. + + And yet, my girl, we weep in vain, + In vain our fate in sighs deplore; + Remembrance only can remain, + But _that_, will make us weep the more. + + +6. + + Again, thou best belov'd, adieu! + Ah! if thou canst, o'ercome regret, + Nor let thy mind past joys review, + Our only _hope_ is, to _forget_! + + +1805. + + +[Footnote i: _To_----. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: _than words could say_. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _Though deep the grief_. [4to]] + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [1] + + +1. + + You say you love, and yet your eye + No symptom of that love conveys, + You say you love, yet know not why, + Your cheek no sign of love betrays. + + +2. + + Ah! did that breast with ardour glow, + With me alone it joy could know, + Or feel with me the listless woe, + Which racks my heart when far from thee. + + +3. + + Whene'er we meet my blushes rise, + And mantle through my purpled cheek, + But yet no blush to mine replies, + Nor e'en your eyes your love bespeak. + + +4. + + Your voice alone declares your flame, + And though so sweet it breathes my name, + Our passions still are not the same; + Alas! you cannot love like me. + + +5. + + For e'en your lip seems steep'd in snow, + And though so oft it meets my kiss, + It burns with no responsive glow, + Nor melts like mine in dewy bliss. + + +6. + + Ah! what are words to love like _mine_, + Though uttered by a voice like thine, + I still in murmurs must repine, + And think that love can ne'er be _true_, + + +7. + + Which meets me with no joyous sign, + Without a sigh which bids adieu; + How different is my love from thine, + How keen my grief when leaving you. + + +8. + + Your image fills my anxious breast, + Till day declines adown the West, + And when at night, I sink to rest, + In dreams your fancied form I view. + + +9. + + 'Tis then your breast, no longer cold, + With equal ardour seems to burn, + While close your arms around me fold, + Your lips my kiss with warmth return. + + +10. + + Ah! would these joyous moments last; + Vain HOPE! the gay delusion's past, + That voice!--ah! no, 'tis but the blast, + Which echoes through the neighbouring grove. + + +11. + + But when _awake_, your lips I seek, + And clasp enraptur'd all your charms, + So chill's the pressure of your cheek, + I fold a statue in my arms. + + +12. + + If thus, when to my heart embrac'd, + No pleasure in your eyes is trac'd, + You may be prudent, fair, and _chaste_, + But ah! my girl, you _do not love_. + + +[Footnote 1: These lines, which appear in the Quarto, were never +republished.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO EMMA. [1] + + + 1. + + Since now the hour is come at last, + When you must quit your anxious lover; + Since now, our dream of bliss is past, + One pang, my girl, and all is over. + + + 2. + + Alas! that pang will be severe, + Which bids us part to meet no more; + Which tears me far from _one_ so dear, + _Departing_ for a distant shore. + + + 3. + + Well! we have pass'd some happy hours, + And joy will mingle with our tears; + When thinking on these ancient towers, + The shelter of our infant years; + + + 4. + + Where from this Gothic casement's height, + We view'd the lake, the park, the dell, + And still, though tears obstruct our sight, + We lingering look a last farewell, + + + 5. + + O'er fields through which we us'd to run, + And spend the hours in childish play; + O'er shades where, when our race was done, + Reposing on my breast you lay; + + + 6. + + Whilst I, admiring, too remiss, + Forgot to scare the hovering flies, + Yet envied every fly the kiss, + It dar'd to give your slumbering eyes: + + + 7. + + See still the little painted _bark_, + In which I row'd you o'er the lake; + See there, high waving o'er the park, + The _elm_ I clamber'd for your sake. + + + 8. + + These times are past, our joys are gone, + You leave me, leave this happy vale; + These scenes, I must retrace alone; + Without thee, what will they avail? + + + 9. + + Who can conceive, who has not prov'd, + The anguish of a last embrace? + When, torn from all you fondly lov'd, + You bid a long adieu to peace. + + + 10. + + _This_ is the deepest of our woes, + For _this_ these tears our cheeks bedew; + This is of love the final close, + Oh, God! the fondest, _last_ adieu! + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: To Maria--[4to]] + + + + + + + + +FRAGMENTS OF SCHOOL EXERCISES: + FROM THE "PROMETHEUS VINCTUS" OF AESCHYLUS, + +[Greek: Maedam o panta nem_on, K.T.L_] [1] + + + Great Jove! to whose Almighty Throne + Both Gods and mortals homage pay, + Ne'er may my soul thy power disown, + Thy dread behests ne'er disobey. + Oft shall the sacred victim fall, + In sea-girt Ocean's mossy hall; + My voice shall raise no impious strain, + 'Gainst him who rules the sky and azure main. + + ... + + How different now thy joyless fate, + Since first Hesione thy bride, + When plac'd aloft in godlike state, + The blushing beauty by thy side, + Thou sat'st, while reverend Ocean smil'd, + And mirthful strains the hours beguil'd; + The Nymphs and Tritons danc'd around, + Nor yet thy doom was fix'd, nor Jove relentless frown'd, [2] + + +HARROW, December 1, 1804. + + +[Footnote 1: The Greek heading does not appear in the Quarto, nor in the +three first Editions.] + +[Footnote 2: "My first Harrow verses (that is, English, as exercises), a +translation of a chorus from the 'Prometheus' of Æschylus, were received +by Dr. Drury, my grand patron (our headmaster), but coolly. No one had, +at that time, the least notion that I should subside into +poetry."--'Life', p. 20. The lines are not a translation but a loose +adaptation or paraphrase of part of a chorus of the 'Prometheus +Vinctus', I, 528, 'sq.'] + + + + + +LINES + +WRITTEN IN "LETTERS OF AN ITALIAN NUN AND AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, +BY J. J. ROUSSEAU; [1] FOUNDED ON FACTS." + + + "Away, away,--your flattering arts + May now betray some simpler hearts; + And _you_ will _smile_ at their believing, + And _they_ shall _weep_ at your deceiving." + + +[Footnote 1: A second edition of this work, of which the title is, +_Letters, etc., translated from the French of Jean Jacques Rousseau_, +was published in London, in 1784. It is, probably, a literary forgery.] + + + + +ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING, [i] ADDRESSED TO MISS----. + + + Dear simple girl, those flattering arts, + (From which thou'dst guard frail female hearts,)[ii] + Exist but in imagination, + Mere phantoms of thine own creation; [iii] + For he who views that witching grace, + That perfect form, that lovely face, + With eyes admiring, oh! believe me, + He never wishes to deceive thee: + Once in thy polish'd mirror glance [iv] + Thou'lt there descry that elegance + Which from our sex demands such praises, + But envy in the other raises.-- + Then he who tells thee of thy beauty, [v] + Believe me, only does his duty: + Ah! fly not from the candid youth; + It is not flattery,--'tis truth. [vi] + +July, 1804. + + +[Footnote i: _Answer to the above._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote ii: _From which you'd._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote iii: + + _Mere phantoms of your own creation; + For he who sees_. [4to]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + _Once let you at your mirror glance + You'll there descry that elegance,_ [4to]] + + +[Footnote v: + + _Then he who tells you of your beauty._ [4to]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + _It is not flattery, but truth_. [4to]] + + + + + + + + +ON A CHANGE OF MASTERS AT A GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOL. [1] + + + Where are those honours, IDA! once your own, + When Probus fill'd your magisterial throne? + As ancient Rome, fast falling to disgrace, + Hail'd a Barbarian in her Cæsar's place, + So you, degenerate, share as hard a fate, + And seat _Pomposus_ where your _Probus_ sate. + Of narrow brain, yet of a narrower soul, [i] + Pomposus holds you in his harsh controul; + Pomposus, by no social virtue sway'd, + With florid jargon, and with vain parade; + With noisy nonsense, and new-fangled rules, + (Such as were ne'er before enforc'd in schools.) [ii] + Mistaking _pedantry_ for _learning's_ laws, + He governs, sanction'd but by self-applause; + With him the same dire fate, attending Rome, + Ill-fated Ida! soon must stamp your doom: + Like her o'erthrown, for ever lost to fame, + No trace of science left you, but the name, + +HARROW, July, 1805. + + +[Footnote 1: In March, 1805, Dr. Drury, the Probus of the piece, +retired from the Head-mastership of Harrow School, and was succeeded by +Dr. Butler, the Pomposus. "Dr. Drury," said Byron, in one of his +note-books, "was the best, the kindest (and yet strict, too) friend I +ever had; and I look upon him still as a father." Out of affection to +his late preceptor, Byron advocated the election of Mark Drury to the +vacant post, and hence his dislike of the successful candidate. He was +reconciled to Dr. Butler before departing for Greece, in 1809, and in +his diary he says, "I treated him rebelliously, and have been sorry ever +since." (See allusions in and notes to "Childish Recollections," pp. +84-106, and especially note I, p. 88, notes I and 2, p. 89, and note I, +p. 91.)] ] + + +[Footnote i: + +----_but of a narrower soul_.--[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Such as were ne'er before beheld in schools._--[4to]] + + + + + + + +EPITAPH ON A BELOVED FRIEND.[1] + +[Greek: Astaer prin men elampes eni tsuoisin hepsos.] + +[Plato's Epitaph (Epig. Græc., Jacobs, 1826, p. 309), +quoted by Diog. Laertins.] + + + Oh, Friend! for ever lov'd, for ever dear! [i] + What fruitless tears have bathed thy honour'd bier! + What sighs re-echo'd to thy parting breath, + Whilst thou wast struggling in the pangs of death! + Could tears retard the tyrant in his course; + Could sighs avert his dart's relentless force; + Could youth and virtue claim a short delay, + Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey; + Thou still hadst liv'd to bless my aching sight, + Thy comrade's honour and thy friend's delight. + If yet thy gentle spirit hover nigh + The spot where now thy mouldering ashes lie, + Here wilt thou read, recorded on my heart, + A grief too deep to trust the sculptor's art. + No marble marks thy couch of lowly sleep, + But living statues there are seen to weep; + Affliction's semblance bends not o'er thy tomb, + Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom. + What though thy sire lament his failing line, + A father's sorrows cannot equal mine! + Though none, like thee, his dying hour will cheer, + Yet other offspring soothe his anguish here: + But, who with me shall hold thy former place? + Thine image, what new friendship can efface? + Ah, none!--a father's tears will cease to flow, + Time will assuage an infant brother's woe; + To all, save one, is consolation known, + While solitary Friendship sighs alone. + +HARROW, 1803. [2] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Oh Boy! for ever loved, for ever dear! + What fruitless tears have wash'd thy honour'd bier; + What sighs re-echoed to thy parting breath, + Whilst thou wert struggling in the pangs of death. + Could tears have turn'd the tyrant in his course, + Could sighs have checked his dart's relentless force; [iii] + Could youth and virtue claim a short delay, + Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey, + Thou still had'st liv'd to bless my aching sight, + Thy comrade's honour, and thy friend's delight: + Though low thy lot since in a cottage born, + No titles did thy humble name adorn, + To me, far dearer, was thy artless love, + Than all the joys, wealth, fame, and friends could prove. + For thee alone I liv'd, or wish'd to live, + (Oh God! if impious, this rash word forgive,) + Heart-broken now, I wait an equal doom, + Content to join thee in thy turf-clad tomb; + Where this frail form compos'd in endless rest, + I'll make my last, cold, pillow on thy breast; + That breast where oft in life, I've laid my head, + Will yet receive me mouldering with the dead; + This life resign'd, without one parting sigh, + Together in one bed of earth we'll lie! + Together share the fate to mortals given, + Together mix our dust, and hope for Heaven._ + +HARROW, 1803.--[4to. _P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote 1: The heading which appears in the Quarto and _P. on V. +Occasions_ was subsequently changed to "Epitaph on a Friend." The motto +was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'. The epigram which Bergk leaves +under Plato's name was translated by Shelley ('Poems', 1895, iii. +361)-- + + + "Thou wert the morning star + Among the living, + Ere thy fair light had fled; + Now having died, thou art as + Hesperus, giving + New splendour to the dead." + +There is an echo of the Greek distich in Byron's exquisite line, "The +Morning-Star of Memory." + +The words, "Southwell, March 17," are added, in a lady's hand, on p. 9 +of the annotated copy of P. 'on' V. 'Occasions' in the British Museum. +The conjecture that the "'beloved' friend," who is of humble origin, is +identical with "E----" of the verses on p. 4, remains uncertain.] + + +[Footnote ii: + _have bath'd thy honoured bier._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + _Could tears retard,_ [_P. on V. Occasions._] + _Could sighs avert._ [_P. on V. Occasions._] ] + + + + + + + +ADRIAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL WHEN DYING. + + + Animula! vagula, Blandula, + Hospes, comesque corporis, + Quæ nunc abibis in Loca-- + Pallidula, rigida, nudula, + Nec, ut soles, dabis Jocos? + + +TRANSLATION. + + + Ah! gentle, fleeting, wav'ring Sprite, + Friend and associate of this clay! + To what unknown region borne, + Wilt thou, now, wing thy distant flight? + No more with wonted humour gay, + But pallid, cheerless, and forlorn. + +1806. + + + + + + + +A FRAGMENT. [1] + + When, to their airy hall, my Fathers' voice + Shall call my spirit, joyful in their choice; + When, pois'd upon the gale, my form shall ride, + Or, dark in mist, descend the mountain's side; + Oh! may my shade behold no sculptur'd urns, + To mark the spot where earth to earth returns! + No lengthen'd scroll, no praise-encumber'd stone; [i] + My _epitaph_ shall be my name alone: [2] + If _that_ with honour fail to crown my clay, [ii] + Oh! may no other fame my deeds repay! + _That_, only _that_, shall single out the spot; + By that remember'd, or with that forgot. [iii] + +1803. + + +[Footnote 1: There is no heading in the Quarto.] + +[Footnote 2: In his will, drawn up in 1811, Byron gave directions that +"no inscription, save his name and age, should be written on his tomb." +June, 1819, he wrote to Murray: "Some of the epitaphs at the Certosa +cemetery, at Ferrara, pleased me more than the more splendid monuments +at Bologna; for instance, 'Martini Luigi Implora pace.' Can anything be +more full of pathos? I hope whoever may survive me will see those two +words, and no more, put over me."--'Life', pp. 131, 398.] + + +[Footnote: i. + + 'No lengthen'd scroll of virtue and renown.' + +[4to. P. on V. Occ.]] + + +[Footnote: ii. + + 'If that with honour fails,' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote: iii. + + 'But that remember'd, or fore'er forgot'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [1] + + +1. + + Oh! when shall the grave hide for ever my sorrow? + Oh! when shall my soul wing her flight from this clay? + The present is hell! and the coming to-morrow + But brings, with new torture, the curse of to-day. + + +2. + + From my eye flows no tear, from my lips flow no curses, [i] + I blast not the fiends who have hurl'd me from bliss; + For poor is the soul which, bewailing, rehearses + Its querulous grief, when in anguish like this-- + + +3. + + Was my eye, 'stead of tears, with red fury flakes bright'ning, + Would my lips breathe a flame which no stream could assuage, + On our foes should my glance launch in vengeance its lightning, + With transport my tongue give a loose to its rage. + + +4. + + But now tears and curses, alike unavailing, + Would add to the souls of our tyrants delight; + Could they view us our sad separation bewailing, + Their merciless hearts would rejoice at the sight. + + +5. + + Yet, still, though we bend with a feign'd resignation, + Life beams not for us with one ray that can cheer; + Love and Hope upon earth bring no more consolation, + In the grave is our hope, for in life is our fear. + + +6. + + Oh! when, my ador'd, in the tomb will they place me, + Since, in life, love and friendship for ever are fled? + If again in the mansion of death I embrace thee, + Perhaps they will leave unmolested--the dead. + + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: [To------.--[4to].]] + +[Footnote i: 'fall no curses'.--[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + +TO CAROLINE. [1] + + +1. + + When I hear you express an affection so warm, + Ne'er think, my belov'd, that I do not believe; + For your lip would the soul of suspicion disarm, + And your eye beams a ray which can never deceive. + + +2. + + Yet still, this fond bosom regrets, while adoring, + That love, like the leaf, must fall into the sear, + That Age will come on, when Remembrance, deploring, + Contemplates the scenes of her youth, with a tear; + + +3. + + That the time must arrive, when, no longer retaining + Their auburn, those locks must wave thin to the breeze, + When a few silver hairs of those tresses remaining, + Prove nature a prey to decay and disease. + + +4. + + Tis this, my belov'd, which spreads gloom o'er my features, + Though I ne'er shall presume to arraign the decree + Which God has proclaim'd as the fate of his creatures, + In the death which one day will deprive you of me. [i] + + +5. + + Mistake not, sweet sceptic, the cause of emotion, [ii] + No doubt can the mind of your lover invade; + He worships each look with such faithful devotion, + A smile can enchant, or a tear can dissuade. + + +6. + + But as death, my belov'd, soon or late shall o'ertake us, + And our breasts, which alive with such sympathy glow, + Will sleep in the grave, till the blast shall awake us, + When calling the dead, in Earth's bosom laid low. + + +7. + + Oh! then let us drain, while we may, draughts of pleasure, + Which from passion, like ours, must unceasingly flow; [iii] + Let us pass round the cup of Love's bliss in full measure, + And quaff the contents as our nectar below. + + + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: [There is no heading in the Quarto.]] + +[Footnote i: _will deprive me of thee_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote ii: + + _No jargon of priests o'er our union was mutter'd, + To rivet the fetters of husband and wife; + By our lips, by our hearts, were our vows alone utter'd, + To perform them, in full, would ask more than a life_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _will unceasingly flow_.--[4to]] + + + + + + + + +ON A DISTANT VIEW OF THE VILLAGE AND SCHOOL OF HARROW ON THE HILL, 1806. + + + Oh! mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos.[1] + + VIRGIL. + + +1. + + Ye scenes of my childhood, whose lov'd recollection + Embitters the present, compar'd with the past; + Where science first dawn'd on the powers of reflection, + And friendships were form'd, too romantic to last; [2] + +2. + + Where fancy, yet, joys to retrace the resemblance + Of comrades, in friendship and mischief allied; [3] + How welcome to me your ne'er fading remembrance, [i] + Which rests in the bosom, though hope is deny'd! + + +3. + + Again I revisit the hills where we sported, + The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought; [4] + The school where, loud warn'd by the bell, we resorted, + To pore o'er the precepts by Pedagogues taught. + + +4. + + Again I behold where for hours I have ponder'd, + As reclining, at eve, on yon tombstone [5] I lay; + Or round the steep brow of the churchyard I wander'd, + To catch the last gleam of the sun's setting ray. + + +5. + + I once more view the room, with spectators surrounded, + Where, as Zanga, [6] I trod on Alonzo o'erthrown; + While, to swell my young pride, such applauses resounded, + I fancied that Mossop [7] himself was outshone. + + +6. + + Or, as Lear, I pour'd forth the deep imprecation, + By my daughters, of kingdom and reason depriv'd; + Till, fir'd by loud plaudits and self-adulation, + I regarded myself as a _Garrick_ reviv'd. [ii] + + +7. + + Ye dreams of my boyhood, how much I regret you! + Unfaded your memory dwells in my breast; [iii] + Though sad and deserted, I ne'er can forget you: + Your pleasures may still be in fancy possest. + + +8. + + To Ida full oft may remembrance restore me, [iv] + While Fate shall the shades of the future unroll! + Since Darkness o'ershadows the prospect before me, + More dear is the beam of the past to my soul! + + +9. + + But if, through the course of the years which await me, + Some new scene of pleasure should open to view, + I will say, while with rapture the thought shall elate me, + "Oh! such were the days which my infancy knew." [8] + + +1806. + + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote 2: + + "My school-friendships were with me _passions_ (for I was always + violent), but I do not know that there is one which has endured (to be + sure, some have been cut short by death) till now." + +'Diary', 1821; 'Life', p. 21.] + + +[Footnote 3: Byron was at first placed in the house of Mr. Henry +Drury, but in 1803 was removed to that of Mr. Evans. + + "The reason why Lord Byron wishes for the change, arises from the + repeated complaints of Mr. Henry Drury respecting his inattention to + business, and his propensity to make others laugh and disregard their + employment as much as himself." + +Dr. Joseph Drury to Mr. John Hanson.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "At Harrow I fought my way very fairly. I think I lost but one battle + out of seven." + +'Diary', 1821; 'Life', p. 21.] + + + +[Footnote 5: A tomb in the churchyard at Harrow was so well known to be +his favourite resting-place, that the boys called it "Byron's Tomb:" and +here, they say, he used to sit for hours, wrapt up in thought.--'Life', +p. 26.] + +[Footnote 6: For the display of his declamatory powers, on the +speech-days, he selected always the most vehement passages; such as the +speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, and Lear's address to the +storm.--'Life', p. 20, 'note'; and 'post', p. 103, 'var'. i.] + +[Footnote 7: Henry Mossop (1729-1773), a contemporary of Garrick, famous +for his performance of "Zanga" in Young's tragedy of 'The Revenge'.] + +[Footnote 8: Stanzas 8 and 9 first appeared in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote i: + 'How welcome once more'. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'I consider'd myself'. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'As your memory beams through this agonized breast; + Thus sad and deserted, I n'er can forget you, + Though this heart throbs to bursting by anguish possest. + + [4to] + + Your memory beams through this agonized breast.-- + +[P. on V. Occasions.'] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'I thought this poor brain, fever'd even to madness, + Of tears as of reason for ever was drain'd; + But the drops which now flow down _this_ bosom of sadness, + Convince me the springs have some moisture retain'd'. + + 'Sweet scenes of my childhood! your blest recollection, + Has wrung from these eyelids, to weeping long dead, + In torrents, the tears of my warmest affection, + The last and the fondest, I ever shall shed'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.] + + + + + + + + + +THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY A COLLEGE EXAMINATION. + + + High in the midst, surrounded by his peers, + Magnus [1] his ample front sublime uprears: [i] + Plac'd on his chair of state, he seems a God, + While Sophs [2] and Freshmen tremble at his nod; + As all around sit wrapt in speechless gloom, [ii] + _His_ voice, in thunder, shakes the sounding dome; + Denouncing dire reproach to luckless fools, + Unskill'd to plod in mathematic rules. + + Happy the youth! in Euclid's axioms tried, + Though little vers'd in any art beside; 10 + Who, scarcely skill'd an English line to pen, [iii] + Scans Attic metres with a critic's ken. + + What! though he knows not how his fathers bled, + When civil discord pil'd the fields with dead, + When Edward bade his conquering bands advance, + Or Henry trampled on the crest of France: + Though marvelling at the name of _Magna Charta_, + Yet well he recollects the _laws_ of _Sparta_; + Can tell, what edicts sage _Lycurgus_ made, + While _Blackstone's_ on the _shelf_, _neglected_ laid; 20 + Of _Grecian dramas_ vaunts the deathless fame, + Of _Avon's bard_, rememb'ring scarce the name. + + Such is the youth whose scientific pate + Class-honours, medals, fellowships, await; + Or even, perhaps, the _declamation_ prize, + If to such glorious height, he lifts his eyes. + But lo! no _common_ orator can hope + The envied silver cup within his scope: + Not that our _heads_ much eloquence require, + Th' ATHENIAN'S [3] glowing style, or TULLY'S fire. 30 + A _manner_ clear or warm is useless, since [iv] + We do not try by _speaking_ to _convince_; + Be other _orators_ of pleasing _proud_,-- + We speak to _please_ ourselves, not _move_ the crowd: + Our gravity prefers the _muttering_ tone, + A proper mixture of the _squeak_ and _groan_: + No borrow'd _grace_ of _action_ must be seen, + The slightest motion would displease the _Dean_; + Whilst every staring Graduate would prate, + Against what--_he_ could never imitate. 40 + + The man, who hopes t' obtain the promis'd cup, + Must in one _posture_ stand, and _ne'er look up_; + Nor _stop_, but rattle over _every_ word-- + No matter _what_, so it can _not_ be heard: + Thus let him hurry on, nor think to rest: + Who speaks the _fastest's_ sure to speak the _best_; + Who utters most within the shortest space, + May, safely, hope to win the _wordy race_. + + The Sons of _Science_ these, who, thus repaid, + Linger in ease in Granta's sluggish shade; 50 + Where on Cam's sedgy banks, supine, they lie, + Unknown, unhonour'd live--unwept for die: + Dull as the pictures, which adorn their halls, + They think all learning fix'd within their walls: + In manners rude, in foolish forms precise, + All modern arts affecting to despise; + Yet prizing _Bentley's, Brunck's_, or _Porson's_ [4] note, [v] + More than the _verse on which the critic wrote_: + Vain as their honours, heavy as their Ale, [5] + Sad as their wit, and tedious as their tale; 60 + To friendship dead, though not untaught to feel, + When Self and Church demand a Bigot zeal. + With eager haste they court the lord of power, [vi] + (Whether 'tis PITT or PETTY [6] rules the hour;) + To _him_, with suppliant smiles, they bend the head, + While distant mitres to their eyes are spread; [vii] + But should a storm o'erwhelm him with disgrace, + They'd fly to seek the next, who fill'd his place. + _Such_ are the men who learning's treasures guard! + _Such_ is their _practice_, such is their _reward_! 70 + This _much_, at least, we may presume to say-- + The premium can't exceed the _price_ they _pay_. [viii] + + 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: + + No reflection is here intended against the person mentioned under the + name of Magnus. He is merely represented as performing an unavoidable + function of his office. Indeed, such an attempt could only recoil upon + myself; as that gentleman is now as much distinguished by his + eloquence, and the dignified propriety with which he fills his + situation, as he was in his younger days for wit and conviviality. + +[Dr. William Lort Mansel (1753-1820) was, in 1798, appointed Master of +Trinity College, by Pitt. He obtained the bishopric of Bristol, through +the influence of his pupil, Spencer Perceval, in 1808. He died in 1820.] + + +[Footnote 2: Undergraduates of the second and third year.] + +[Footnote 3: Demosthenes.] + +[Footnote 4: The present Greek professor at Trinity College, Cambridge; +a man whose powers of mind and writings may, perhaps, justify their +preference. [Richard Porson (1759-1808). For Byron's description of him, +see letter to Murray, of February 20, 1818. Byron says ('Diary', +December 17, 18, 1813) that he wrote the 'Devil's Drive' in imitation of +Porson's 'Devil's Walk'. This was a common misapprehension at the time. +The 'Devil's Thoughts' was the joint composition of Coleridge and +Southey, but it was generally attributed to Porson, who took no trouble +to disclaim it. It was originally published in the 'Morning Post', Sept. +6, 1799, and Stuart, the editor, said that it raised the circulation of +the paper for several days after. (See Coleridge's Poems (1893), pp. +147, 621.)] + +[Footnote 5: Lines 59-62 are not in the Quarto. They first appeared in +'Poems Original and Translated'] + +[Footnote 6: Since this was written, Lord Henry Petty has lost his +place, and subsequently (I had almost said consequently) the honour of +representing the University. A fact so glaring requires no comment. +(Lord Henry Petty, M.P. for the University of Cambridge, was Chancellor +of the Exchequer in 1805; but in 1807 he lost his seat. In 1809 he +succeeded his brother as Marquis of Lansdowne. He died in 1863.)] + + +[Footnote i: 'M--us--l.--'[4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'Whilst all around.'--[4to]] + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Who with scarse sense to pen an English letter, + Yet with precision scans an Attis metre.' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'The manner of the speech is nothing, since', + +[4to. 'P, on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'Celebrated critics'. + +[4to. 'Three first Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'They court the tool of power'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'While mitres, prebends'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + The 'reward's' scarce equal to the 'price' they pay. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO MARY, + +ON RECEIVING HER PICTURE. [1] + + +1. + + This faint resemblance of thy charms, + (Though strong as mortal art could give,) + My constant heart of fear disarms, + Revives my hopes, and bids me live. + + +2. + + Here, I can trace the locks of gold + Which round thy snowy forehead wave; + The cheeks which sprung from Beauty's mould, + The lips, which made me 'Beauty's' slave. + + +3. + + Here I can trace--ah, no! that eye, + Whose azure floats in liquid fire, + Must all the painter's art defy, + And bid him from the task retire. + + +4. + + Here, I behold its beauteous hue; + But where's the beam so sweetly straying, [i.] + Which gave a lustre to its blue, + Like Luna o'er the ocean playing? + + +5. + + Sweet copy! far more dear to me, + Lifeless, unfeeling as thou art, + Than all the living forms could be, + Save her who plac'd thee next my heart. + + +6. + + She plac'd it, sad, with needless fear, + Lest time might shake my wavering soul, + Unconscious that her image there + Held every sense in fast controul. + + +7. + + Thro' hours, thro' years, thro' time,'twill cheer-- + My hope, in gloomy moments, raise; + In life's last conflict 'twill appear, + And meet my fond, expiring gaze. + + +[Footnote 1: This "Mary" is not to be confounded with the heiress of +Annesley, or "Mary" of Aberdeen. She was of humble station in life. +Byron used to show a lock of her light golden hair, as well as her +picture, among his friends. (See 'Life', p. 41, 'note'.)] + +[Footnote i.: + + 'But Where's the beam of soft desire? + Which gave a lustre to its blue, + Love, only love, could e'er inspire.--' + +[4to. 'P. on V, Occasions]] + + + + + + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF MR. FOX,[1] + +THE FOLLOWING ILLIBERAL IMPROMPTU APPEARED IN THE "MORNING POST." + + + "Our Nation's foes lament on _Fox's_ death, + But bless the hour, when PITT resign'd his breath: + These feelings wide, let Sense and Truth unclue, + We give the palm, where Justice points its due." + + + + +TO WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THESE PIECES SENT THE FOLLOWING REPLY [i] +FOR INSERTION IN THE "MORNING CHRONICLE." + + + Oh, factious viper! whose envenom'd tooth + Would mangle, still, the dead, perverting truth; [ii] + What, though our "nation's foes" lament the fate, + With generous feeling, of the good and great; + Shall dastard tongues essay to blast the name [iii] + Of him, whose meed exists in endless fame? + When PITT expir'd in plenitude of power, + Though ill success obscur'd his dying hour, + Pity her dewy wings before him spread, + For noble spirits "war not with the dead:" + His friends in tears, a last sad requiem gave, + As all his errors slumber'd in the grave; [iv] + He sunk, an Atlas bending "'neath the weight" [v] + Of cares o'erwhelming our conflicting state. + When, lo! a Hercules, in Fox, appear'd, + Who for a time the ruin'd fabric rear'd: + He, too, is fall'n, who Britain's loss supplied, [vi] + With him, our fast reviving hopes have died; + Not one great people, only, raise his urn, + All Europe's far-extended regions mourn. + "These feelings wide, let Sense and Truth undue, + To give the palm where Justice points its due;" [vii] + Yet, let not canker'd Calumny assail, [viii] + Or round her statesman wind her gloomy veil. + FOX! o'er whose corse a mourning world must weep, + Whose dear remains in honour'd marble sleep; + For whom, at last, e'en hostile nations groan, + While friends and foes, alike, his talents own.--[ix] + Fox! shall, in Britain's future annals, shine, + Nor e'en to PITT, the patriot's 'palm' resign; + Which Envy, wearing Candour's sacred mask, + For PITT, and PITT alone, has dar'd to ask. [x] + +(Southwell, Oct., 1806. [1]) + + +[Footnote 1: The stanza on the death of Fox appeared in the _Morning +Post_, September 26, 1806.] + +[Footnote 2: This MS. is preserved at Newstead.] + +[Footnote i: + + _The subjoined Reply._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Would mangle, still, the dead, in spite of truth._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _Shall, therefore, dastard tongues assail the name + Of him, whose virtues claim eternal fame?_ + +[4to] ] + +[Footnote iv: _And all his errors._--[4to] ] + +[Footnote v: +_He died, an Atlas bending 'neath the weight +Of cares oppressing our unhappy state. +But lo! another Hercules appeared._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote vi: + +_He too is dead who still our England propp'd +With him our fast reviving hopes have dropp'd._ + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote vii: _And give the palm._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote viii: + + _But let not canker'd Calumny assail + And round.-- + +[4to] ] + + +[Footnote ix: _And friends and foes._ [4to] ] + +[Footnote x: '--would dare to ask.' [410]] + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY WHO PRESENTED TO THE AUTHOR A LOCK OF HAIR BRAIDED WITH HIS +OWN, AND APPOINTED A NIGHT IN DECEMBER TO MEET HIM IN THE GARDEN. [1] + + These locks, which fondly thus entwine, + In firmer chains our hearts confine, + Than all th' unmeaning protestations + Which swell with nonsense, love orations. + Our love is fix'd, I think we've prov'd it; + Nor time, nor place, nor art have mov'd it; + Then wherefore should we sigh and whine, + With groundless jealousy repine; + With silly whims, and fancies frantic, + Merely to make our love romantic? + Why should you weep, like _Lydia Languish_, + And fret with self-created anguish? + Or doom the lover you have chosen, + On winter nights to sigh half frozen; + In leafless shades, to sue for pardon, + Only because the scene's a garden? + For gardens seem, by one consent, + (Since Shakespeare set the precedent; + Since Juliet first declar'd her passion) + To form the place of assignation. + Oh! would some modern muse inspire, + And seat her by a _sea-coal_ fire; + Or had the bard at Christmas written, + And laid the scene of love in Britain; + He surely, in commiseration, + Had chang'd the place of declaration. + In Italy, I've no objection, + Warm nights are proper for reflection; + But here our climate is so rigid, + That love itself, is rather frigid: + Think on our chilly situation, + And curb this rage for imitation. + Then let us meet, as oft we've done, + Beneath the influence of the sun; + Or, if at midnight I must meet you, + Within your mansion let me greet you: [i.] + 'There', we can love for hours together, + Much better, in such snowy weather, + Than plac'd in all th' Arcadian groves, + That ever witness'd rural loves; + 'Then', if my passion fail to please, [ii.] + Next night I'll be content to freeze; + No more I'll give a loose to laughter, + But curse my fate, for ever after. [2] + + +[Footnote 1: These lines are addressed to the same Mary referred to in +the lines beginning, "This faint resemblance of thy charms." ('Vide +ante', p. 32.)] + +[Footnote 2: In the above little piece the author has been accused by +some 'candid readers' of introducing the name of a lady [Julia +Leacroft] from whom he was some hundred miles distant at the time this +was written; and poor Juliet, who has slept so long in "the tomb of all +the Capulets," has been converted, with a trifling alteration of her +name, into an English damsel, walking in a garden of their own creation, +during the month of 'December', in a village where the author never +passed a winter. Such has been the candour of some ingenious critics. We +would advise these 'liberal' commentators on taste and arbiters of +decorum to read 'Shakespeare'. + +Having heard that a very severe and indelicate censure has been passed +on the above poem, I beg leave to reply in a quotation from an admired +work, 'Carr's Stranger in France'.--"As we were contemplating a +painting on a large scale, in which, among other figures, is the +uncovered whole length of a warrior, a prudish-looking lady, who seemed +to have touched the age of desperation, after having attentively +surveyed it through her glass, observed to her party that there was a +great deal of indecorum in that picture. Madame S. shrewdly whispered in +my ear 'that the indecorum was in the remark.'"--[Ed. 1803, cap. xvi, p. +171. Compare the note on verses addressed "To a Knot of Ungenerous +Critics," p. 213.]] + +[Footnote i: + + 'Oh! let me in your chamber greet you.' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'There if my passion' + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions]] + + + + + + + + + +TO A BEAUTIFUL QUAKER. [1] + + + Sweet girl! though only once we met, + That meeting I shall ne'er forget; + And though we ne'er may meet again, + Remembrance will thy form retain; + I would not say, "I love," but still, + My senses struggle with my will: + In vain to drive thee from my breast, + My thoughts are more and more represt; + In vain I check the rising sighs, + Another to the last replies: + Perhaps, this is not love, but yet, + Our meeting I can ne'er forget. + + What, though we never silence broke, + Our eyes a sweeter language spoke; + The tongue in flattering falsehood deals, + And tells a tale it never feels: + Deceit, the guilty lips impart, + And hush the mandates of the heart; + But soul's interpreters, the eyes, + Spurn such restraint, and scorn disguise. + As thus our glances oft convers'd, + And all our bosoms felt rehears'd, + No _spirit_, from within, reprov'd us, + Say rather, "'twas the _spirit mov'd_ us." + Though, what they utter'd, I repress, + Yet I conceive thou'lt partly guess; + For as on thee, my memory ponders, + Perchance to me, thine also wanders. + This, for myself, at least, I'll say, + Thy form appears through night, through day; + Awake, with it my fancy teems, + In sleep, it smiles in fleeting dreams; + The vision charms the hours away, + And bids me curse Aurora's ray + For breaking slumbers of delight, + Which make me wish for endless night. + Since, oh! whate'er my future fate, + Shall joy or woe my steps await; + Tempted by love, by storms beset, + Thine image, I can ne'er forget. + + Alas! again no more we meet, + No more our former looks repeat; + Then, let me breathe this parting prayer, + The dictate of my bosom's care: + "May Heaven so guard my lovely quaker, + That anguish never can o'ertake her; + That peace and virtue ne'er forsake her, + But bliss be aye her heart's partaker! + Oh! may the happy mortal, fated [i] + To be, by dearest ties, related, + For _her_, each hour, _new joys_ discover, [ii] + And lose the husband in the lover! + May that fair bosom never know + What 'tis to feel the restless woe, + Which stings the soul, with vain regret, + Of him, who never can forget!" + + 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: + + _Whom the author saw at Harrowgate_. + +Annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 64 (British Museum).] + + +[Footnote i: +The Quarto inserts the following lines:-- + + _"No jealous passion shall invade, + No envy that pure heart pervade;" + For he that revels in such charms, + Can never seek another's arms._] + + +[Footnote ii: + + new joy _discover_. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + +TO LESBIA! [i] [1] + + + +1. + + LESBIA! since far from you I've rang'd, [ii] + Our souls with fond affection glow not; + You say, 'tis I, not you, have chang'd, + I'd tell you why,--but yet I know not. + + +2. + + Your polish'd brow no cares have crost; + And Lesbia! we are not much older, [iii] + Since, trembling, first my heart I lost, + Or told my love, with hope grown bolder. + + +3. + + Sixteen was then our utmost age, + Two years have lingering pass'd away, love! + And now new thoughts our minds engage, + At least, I feel disposed to stray, love! + + +4. + + "Tis _I_ that am alone to blame, + _I_, that am guilty of love's treason; + Since your sweet breast is still the same, + Caprice must be my only reason. + + +5. + + I do not, love! suspect your truth, + With jealous doubt my bosom heaves not; + Warm was the passion of my youth, + One trace of dark deceit it leaves not. + + +6. + + No, no, my flame was not pretended; + For, oh! I lov'd you most sincerely; + And though our dream at last is ended + My bosom still esteems you dearly. + + +7. + + No more we meet in yonder bowers; + Absence has made me prone to roving; [iv] + But older, firmer _hearts_ than ours + Have found monotony in loving. + + +8. + + Your cheek's soft bloom is unimpair'd, + New beauties, still, are daily bright'ning, + Your eye, for conquest beams prepar'd, [v] + The forge of love's resistless lightning. + + +9. + + Arm'd thus, to make their bosoms bleed, + Many will throng, to sigh like me, love! + More constant they may prove, indeed; + Fonder, alas! they ne'er can be, love! + + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: "The lady's name was Julia Leacroft" ('Note by Miss E. +Pigot'). The word "Julia" (?) is added, in a lady's hand, in the +annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 52 (British Museum)] + +[Footnote i: 'To Julia'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'Julia since'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: 'And Julia'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: + + _Perhaps my soul's too pure for roving_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote v: + + _Your eye for conquest comes prepar'd_. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + +TO WOMAN. + + + Woman! experience might have told me [i] + That all must love thee, who behold thee: + Surely experience might have taught + Thy firmest promises are nought; [ii] + But, plac'd in all thy charms before me, + All I forget, but to _adore_ thee. + Oh memory! thou choicest blessing, + When join'd with hope, when still possessing; [iii] + But how much curst by every lover + When hope is fled, and passion's over. + Woman, that fair and fond deceiver, + How prompt are striplings to believe her! + How throbs the pulse, when first we view + The eye that rolls in glossy blue, + Or sparkles black, or mildly throws + A beam from under hazel brows! + How quick we credit every oath, + And hear her plight the willing troth! + Fondly we hope 'twill last for ay, + When, lo! she changes in a day. + This record will for ever stand,' + "Woman, thy vows are trac'd in sand." [1] [iv] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Surely, experience_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _A woman's promises are naught_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote iii: Here follows, in the Quarto, an additional couplet:-- + + _Thou whisperest, as our hearts are beating, + "What oft we've done, we're still repeating_,"] + + +[Footnote iv: + + _This Record will for ever stand + That Woman's vows are writ in sand_. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote 1: The last line is almost a literal translation from a +Spanish proverb. + +(The last line is not "almost a literal translation from a Spanish +proverb," but an adaptation of part of a stanza from the 'Diana' of +Jorge de Montemajor-- + + "Mirà, el Amor, lo que ordena; + Que os viene a hazer creer + Cosas dichas por muger, + Y escriptas en el arena." + +Southey, in his 'Letters from Spain', 1797, pp. 87-91, gives a specimen +of the 'Diana', and renders the lines in question thus-- + + "And Love beheld us from his secret stand, + And mark'd his triumph, laughing, to behold me, + To see me trust a writing traced in sand, + To see me credit what a woman told me." + +Byron, who at this time had little or no knowledge of Spanish +literature, seems to have been struck with Southey's paraphrase, and +compressed the quatrain into an epigram.] + + + + + + + + + +AN OCCASIONAL PROLOGUE, + +DELIVERED BY THE AUTHOR PREVIOUS TO THE PERFORMANCE OF "THE WHEEL OF +FORTUNE" AT A PRIVATE THEATRE. [1] + + + Since the refinement of this polish'd age + Has swept immoral raillery from the stage; + Since taste has now expung'd licentious wit, + Which stamp'd disgrace on all an author writ; + Since, now, to please with purer scenes we seek, + Nor dare to call the blush from Beauty's cheek; + Oh! let the modest Muse some pity claim, + And meet indulgence--though she find not fame. + Still, not for _her_ alone, we wish respect, [i] + _Others_ appear more conscious of defect: + To-night no _vet'ran Roscii_ you behold, + In all the arts of scenic action old; + No COOKE, no KEMBLE, can salute you here, + No SIDDONS draw the sympathetic tear; + To-night you throng to witness the _début_ + Of embryo Actors, to the Drama new: + Here, then, our almost unfledg'd wings we try; + Clip not our _pinions_, ere the _birds can fly_: + Failing in this our first attempt to soar, + Drooping, alas! we fall to rise no more. + Not one poor trembler, only, fear betrays, + Who hopes, yet almost dreads to meet your praise; + But all our Dramatis Personæ wait, + In fond suspense this crisis of their fate. + No venal views our progress can retard, + Your generous plaudits are our sole reward; + For these, each _Hero_ all his power displays, [ii] + Each timid _Heroine_ shrinks before your gaze: + Surely the last will some protection find? [iii] + None, to the softer sex, can prove unkind: + While Youth and Beauty form the female shield, [iv] + The sternest Censor to the fair must yield. [v] + Yet, should our feeble efforts nought avail, + Should, _after all_, our best endeavours fail; + Still, let some mercy in your bosoms live, + And, if you can't applaud, at least _forgive_. + + + +[Footnote 1. "I enacted Penruddock, in 'The Wheel of Fortune', and +Tristram Fickle, in the farce of 'The Weathercock', for three nights, in +some private theatricals at Southwell, in 1806, with great applause. The +occasional prologue for our volunteer play was also of my +composition."--'Diary; Life', p. 38. The prologue was written by him, +between stages, on his way from Harrogate. On getting into the carriage +at Chesterfield, he said to his companion, "Now, Pigot, I'll spin a +prologue for our play;" and before they reached Mansfield he had +completed his task,--interrupting only once his rhyming reverie, to ask +the proper pronunciation of the French word 'début'; and, on being told +it, exclaiming, "Aye, that will do for rhyme to ''new'.'"--'Life', p. +39. "The Prologue was spoken by G. Wylde, Esq."--Note by Miss E. PIGOT.] + +[Footnote i. _But not for her alone_.--[4to] + +[Footnote ii: _For them each Hero_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _Surely these last_.--[4to]] + +[Footnote iv: _Whilst Youth_.--[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + +[Footnote v: _The sternest critic_.--[4to]] + + + + + + + + + + +TO ELIZA. [i] + + +1. + + Eliza! [1] what fools are the Mussulman sect, + Who, to woman, deny the soul's future existence; + Could they see thee, Eliza! they'd own their defect, + And this doctrine would meet with a general resistance. [ii] + + +2. + + Had their Prophet possess'd half an atom of sense, [iii] + He ne'er would have _woman_ from Paradise driven; + Instead of his _Houris_, a flimsy pretence, [iv] + With _woman alone_ he had peopled his Heaven. + + +3. + + Yet, still, to increase your calamities more, [v] + Not content with depriving your bodies of spirit, + He allots one poor husband to share amongst four! [vi]-- + With _souls_ you'd dispense; but, this last, who could bear it? + + +4. + + His religion to please neither party is made; + On _husbands_ 'tis _hard_, to the wives most uncivil; + Still I can't contradict, [vii] what so oft has been said, + "Though women are angels, yet wedlock's the devil." + + +5. + + This terrible truth, even Scripture has told, [2] + Ye Benedicks! hear me, and listen with rapture; + If a glimpse of redemption you wish to behold, + Of ST. MATT.--read the second and twentieth chapter. + + +6. + + 'Tis surely enough upon earth to be vex'd, + With wives who eternal confusion are spreading; + "But in Heaven" (so runs the Evangelists' Text) + "We neither have giving in marriage, or wedding." + + +7. + + From this we suppose, (as indeed well we may,) + That should Saints after death, with their spouses put up more, + And wives, as in life, aim at absolute sway, + All Heaven would ring with the conjugal uproar. + + +8. + + Distraction and Discord would follow in course, + Nor MATTHEW, nor MARK, nor ST. PAUL, can deny it, + The only expedient is general divorce, + To prevent universal disturbance and riot. + + +9. + + But though husband and wife, shall at length be disjoin'd, + Yet woman and man ne'er were meant to dissever, + Our chains once dissolv'd, and our hearts unconfin'd, + We'll love without bonds, but we'll love you for ever. + + +10. + + Though souls are denied you by fools and by rakes, + Should you own it yourselves, I would even then doubt you, + Your nature so much of _celestial_ partakes, + The Garden of Eden would wither without you. + + +Southwell, _October_ 9, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The letters "E. B. P." are added, in a lady's hand, in the +annotated copy of _P. on V. Occasions_, p. 26 (_British Museum_). The +initials stand for Miss Elizabeth Pigot.] + +[Footnote 2: Stanzas 5-10, which appear in the Quarto, were never +reprinted.] + +[Footnote i: + + _To Miss E. P._ [4to] + _To Miss_---. [_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Did they know but yourself they would bend with respect, + And this doctrine must meet_---. + +[_MS. Newstead_.]] + + +[Footnote iii: _But an atom of sense_. [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: _But instead of his_ Houris. [4to]] + +[Footnote v: _But still to increase_. [4to]] + +[Footnote vi: _He allots but one husband. [4to]] + +[Footnote vii: _But I can't---._ [4to]] + + + + + + + + + + + +THE TEAR. + + + + O lachrymarum fons, tenero sacros + Ducentium ortus ex animo; quater + Felix! in imo qui scatentem + Pectore te, pia Nympha, sensit. [1] + + GRAY, 'Alcaic Fragment'. + + + +1. + + When Friendship or Love + Our sympathies move; + When Truth, in a glance, should appear, + The lips may beguile, + With a dimple or smile, + But the test of affection's a _Tear_. + + +2. + + Too oft is a smile + But the hypocrite's wile, + To mask detestation, or fear; + Give me the soft sigh, + Whilst the soul-telling eye + Is dimm'd, for a time, with a _Tear_. + + +3. + + Mild Charity's glow, + To us mortals below, + Shows the soul from barbarity clear; + Compassion will melt, + Where this virtue is felt, + And its dew is diffused in a _Tear_. + + +4. + + The man, doom'd to sail + With the blast of the gale, + Through billows Atlantic to steer, + As he bends o'er the wave + Which may soon be his grave, + The green sparkles bright with a _Tear_. + + +5. + + The Soldier braves death + For a fanciful wreath + In Glory's romantic career; + But he raises the foe + When in battle laid low, + And bathes every wound with a _Tear_. + + +6. + + If, with high-bounding pride,[i] + He return to his bride! + Renouncing the gore-crimson'd spear; + All his toils are repaid + When, embracing the maid, + From her eyelid he kisses the _Tear_. + + +7. + + Sweet scene of my youth! [2] + Seat of Friendship and Truth, + Where Love chas'd each fast-fleeting year; + Loth to leave thee, I mourn'd, + For a last look I turn'd, + But thy spire was scarce seen through a _Tear_. + + +8. + + Though my vows I can pour, + To my Mary no more, [3] + My Mary, to Love once so dear, + In the shade of her bow'r, + I remember the hour, + She rewarded those vows with a _Tear_. + + +9. + + By another possest, + May she live ever blest! + Her name still my heart must revere: + With a sigh I resign, + What I once thought was mine, + And forgive her deceit with a _Tear_. + + +10. + + Ye friends of my heart, + Ere from you I depart, + This hope to my breast is most near: + If again we shall meet, + In this rural retreat, + May we _meet_, as we _part_, with a _Tear_. + + +11. + + When my soul wings her flight + To the regions of night, + And my corse shall recline on its bier; [ii] + As ye pass by the tomb, + Where my ashes consume, + Oh! moisten their dust with a _Tear_. + + +12. + + May no marble bestow + The splendour of woe, + Which the children of Vanity rear; + No fiction of fame + Shall blazon my name, + All I ask, all I wish, is a _Tear_. + + +October 26, 1806. [iii] + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote 2: Harrow.] + +[Footnote 3: Miss Chaworth was married in 1805.] + +[Footnote i: + + _When with high-bounding pride, + He returns_----. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _And my body shall sleep on its bier_. + +[4to. _P. on V. Occasions_.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + BYRON, October 26, 1806. + +[4to]] + + + + + + + + + +REPLY TO SOME VERSES OF J. M. B. PIGOT, ESQ., +ON THE CRUELTY OF HIS MISTRESS. [1] + + +1. + + Why, Pigot, complain + Of this damsel's disdain, + Why thus in despair do you fret? + For months you may try, + Yet, believe me, a _sigh_ [i] + Will never obtain a _coquette_. + + +2. + + Would you teach her to love? + For a time seem to rove; + At first she may _frown_ in a _pet;_ + But leave her awhile, + She shortly will smile, + And then you may _kiss_ your _coquette_. + + +3. + + For such are the airs + Of these fanciful fairs, + They think all our _homage_ a _debt_: + Yet a partial neglect [ii] + Soon takes an effect, + And humbles the proudest _coquette_. + + +4. + + Dissemble your pain, + And lengthen your chain, + And seem her _hauteur_ to _regret;_ [iii] + If again you shall sigh, + She no more will deny, + That _yours_ is the rosy _coquette_. + + +5. + + If still, from false pride, [iv] + Your pangs she deride, + This whimsical virgin forget; + Some _other_ admire, + Who will _melt_ with your _fire_, + And laugh at the _little coquette_. + + +6. + + For _me_, I adore + Some _twenty_ or more, + And love them most dearly; but yet, + Though my heart they enthral, + I'd abandon them all, + Did they act like your blooming _coquette_. + + +7. + + No longer repine, + Adopt this design, [v] + And break through her slight-woven net! + Away with despair, + No longer forbear + To fly from the captious _coquette_. + + +8. + + Then quit her, my friend! + Your bosom defend, + Ere quite with her snares you're beset: + Lest your deep-wounded heart, + When incens'd by the smart, + Should lead you to _curse_ the _coquette_. + + +October 27, 1806. [vi] + + +[Footnote 1: The letters "C. B. F. J. B. M." are added, in a lady's +hand, in the annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 14 (British +Museum).] + +[Footnote i: _But believe me_. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: _But a partial_. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: _Nor seem_. [4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + +[Footnote iv: _But if from false pride._ [4to]] + +[Footnote v: _But form this design._ [4to]] + +[Footnote vi: BYRON, October 27, 1806. [4to] + + + + + + + + + + + + +GRANTA. A MEDLEY. + +[Greek: Argureais logchaisi machou kai panta krataese_o.] [1] + +(Reply of the Pythian Oracle to Philip of Macedon.) + + +1. + + Oh! could LE SAGE'S [2] demon's gift + Be realis'd at my desire, + This night my trembling form he'd lift + To place it on St. Mary's spire. [i] + + +2. + + Then would, unroof'd, old Granta's halls, + Pedantic inmates full display; + _Fellows_ who dream on _lawn_ or _stalls_, + The price of venal votes to pay. [ii] + + +3. + + Then would I view each rival wight, + PETTY and PALMERSTON survey; + Who canvass there, with all their might, [iii] + Against the next elective day. [3] + + +4. + + Lo! candidates and voters lie [iv] + All lull'd in sleep, a goodly number! + A race renown'd for piety, + Whose conscience won't disturb their slumber. + + +5. + + Lord H---[4] indeed, may not demur; + Fellows are sage, reflecting men: + They know preferment can occur, + But very seldom,--_now_ and _then_. + + +6. + + They know the Chancellor has got + Some pretty livings in disposal: + Each hopes that _one_ may be his _lot_, + And, therefore, smiles on his proposal. [v] + + +7. + + Now from the soporific scene [vi] + I'll turn mine eye, as night grows later, + To view, unheeded and unseen, [vii] + The studious sons of Alma Mater. + + +8. + + There, in apartments small and damp, + The candidate for college prizes, + Sits poring by the midnight lamp; + Goes late to bed, yet early rises. [viii] + +9. + + He surely well deserves to gain them, + With all the honours of his college, [ix] + Who, striving hardly to obtain them, + Thus seeks unprofitable knowledge: + + +10. + + Who sacrifices hours of rest, + To scan precisely metres Attic; + Or agitates his anxious breast, [x] + In solving problems mathematic: + + +11. + + Who reads false quantities in Seale, [5] + Or puzzles o'er the deep triangle; + Depriv'd of many a wholesome meal; [xi] + In _barbarous Latin_ [6] doom'd to wrangle: + + +12. + + Renouncing every pleasing page, + From authors of historic use; + Preferring to the letter'd sage, + The square of the hypothenuse. [7] + + +13. + + Still, harmless are these occupations, [xii] + That hurt none but the hapless student, + Compar'd with other recreations, + Which bring together the imprudent; + + +14. + + Whose daring revels shock the sight, + When vice and infamy combine, + When Drunkenness and dice invite, [xiii] + As every sense is steep'd in wine. + + +15. + + Not so the methodistic crew, + Who plans of reformation lay: + In humble attitude they sue, + And for the sins of others pray: + + +16. + + Forgetting that their pride of spirit, + Their exultation in their trial, [xiv] + Detracts most largely from the merit + Of all their boasted self-denial. + + +17. + + 'Tis morn:--from these I turn my sight: + What scene is this which meets the eye? + A numerous crowd array'd in white, [8] + Across the green in numbers fly. + + +18. + + Loud rings in air the chapel bell; + 'Tis hush'd:--what sounds are these I hear? + The organ's soft celestial swell + Rolls deeply on the listening ear. + + +19. + + To this is join'd the sacred song, + The royal minstrel's hallow'd strain; + Though _he_ who hears the _music_ long, [xv] + Will _never_ wish to _hear again_. + + +20. + + Our choir would scarcely be excus'd, + E'en as a band of raw beginners; + All mercy, now, must be refus'd [xvi] + To such a set of croaking sinners. + + +21. + + If David, when his toils were ended, + Had heard these blockheads sing before him, + To us his psalms had ne'er descended,-- + In furious mood he would have tore 'em. + + +22. + + The luckless Israelites, when taken + By some inhuman tyrant's order, + Were ask'd to sing, by joy forsaken, + On Babylonian river's border. + + +23. + + Oh! had they sung in notes like these [xvii] + Inspir'd by stratagem or fear, + They might have set their hearts at ease, + The devil a soul had stay'd to hear. + + +24. + + But if I scribble longer now, [xviii] + The deuce a soul will _stay to read_; + My pen is blunt, my ink is low; + 'Tis almost time to _stop_, _indeed_. + + +25. + + Therefore, farewell, old _Granta's_ spires! + No more, like _Cleofas_, I fly; + No more thy theme my Muse inspires: + The reader's tir'd, and so am I. + + +October 28, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'. + + "Fight with silver spears" ('i.e'. with bribes), "and them shall + prevail in all things."] + + +[Footnote 2: The 'Diable Boiteux' of Le Sage, where Asmodeus, the demon, +places Don Cleofas on an elevated situation, and unroofs the houses for +inspection. [Don Cleofas, clinging to the cloak of Asmodeus, is carried +through the air to the summit of S. Salvador.] + +[Footnote 3: On the death of Pitt, in January, 1806, Lord Henry Petty +beat Lord Palmerston in the contest for the representation of the +University of Cambridge in Parliament.] + +[Footnote 4: Probably Lord Henry Petty. See variant iii.] + +[Footnote 5: Scale's publication on Greek Metres displays considerable +talent and ingenuity, but, as might be expected in so difficult a work, +is not remarkable for accuracy. ('An Analysis of the Greek Metres; for +the use of students at the University of Cambridge'. By John Barlow +Seale (1764), 8vo. A fifth edition was issued in 1807.)] + +[Footnote 6. The Latin of the schools is of the 'canine species', and +not very intelligible.] + +[Footnote 7: The discovery of Pythagoras, that the square of the +hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides of a +right-angled triangle.] + +[Footnote 8: On a saint's day the students wear surplices in chapel.] + + + + + +[Footnote i: 'And place it'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'The price of hireling'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: 'Who canvass now'. [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: + + + 'One on his power and place depends, + The other on--the Lord knows what! + Each to some eloquence pretends, + But neither will convince by that. + + The first, indeed, may not demur; + Fellows are sage reflecting men, + And know'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + +[Footnote v: + + 'And therefore smiles at his'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Now from Corruption's shameless scene'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote vii: 'And view unseen'. [4to]] + +[Footnote viii: 'and early rises'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ix: 'And all the' [4to]] + +[Footnote x: 'And agitates'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xi: 'And robs himself of many a meal'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xii: + + 'But harmless are these occupations + Which'. + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'When Drunkenness and dice unite. + And every sense'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: 'And exultation'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xv: 'But he'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xvi: 'But mercy'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xvii: 'But had they sung'. [4to]] + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'But if I write much longer now'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE SIGHING STREPHON. [1] + + +1. + + Your pardon, my friend, + If my rhymes did offend, + Your pardon, a thousand times o'er; + From friendship I strove, + Your pangs to remove, + But, I swear, I will do so no more. + + +2. + + Since your _beautiful_ maid, + Your flame has repaid, + No more I your folly regret; + She's now most divine, + And I bow at the shrine, + Of this quickly reformèd coquette. + + +3. + + Yet still, I must own, [i] + I should never have known, + From _your verses_, what else she deserv'd; + Your pain seem'd so great, + I pitied your fate, + As your fair was so dev'lish reserv'd. + + +4. + + Since the balm-breathing kiss [ii] + Of this magical Miss, + Can such wonderful transports produce; [iii] + Since the _"world you forget, + When your lips once have met,"_ + My counsel will get but abuse. + + +5. + + You say, "When I rove," + "I know nothing of love;" + Tis true, I am given to range; + If I rightly remember, + _I've lov'd_ a good number; [iv] + Yet there's pleasure, at least, in a change. + + +6. + + I will not advance, [v] + By the rules of romance, + To humour a whimsical fair; + Though a smile may delight, + Yet a _frown_ will _affright,_ [vi] + Or drive me to dreadful despair. + + +7. + + While my blood is thus warm, + I ne'er shall reform, + To mix in the Platonists' school; + Of this I am sure, + Was my Passion so pure, + Thy _Mistress_ would think me a fool. [vii] + + +8 [viii] + + And if I should shun, + Every _woman_ for _one,_ + Whose _image_ must fill my whole breast; + Whom I must _prefer,_ + And _sigh_ but for _her,_ + What an _insult_ 'twould be to the _rest!_ + + +9. + + Now Strephon, good-bye; + I cannot deny, + Your _passion_ appears most _absurd;_ + Such _love_ as you plead, + Is _pure_ love, indeed, + For it _only_ consists in the _word_. + + +[Footnote 1: The letters "J. M. B. P." are added, in a lady's hand, in +the annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions', p. 17 (British Museum).] + + +[Footnote i: 'But still'. [4to]] + +[Footnote ii: 'But since the chaste kiss.' [4to]] + +[Footnote iii: 'Such wonderful.' [4to]] + +[Footnote iv: + + 'I've kiss'd a good number. + But-----' + +[4to]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'I ne'er will advance.' + +[4to]] + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Yet a frown won't affright.' + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'My mistress must think me.' + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'Though the kisses are sweet, + Which voluptuously meet, + Of kissing I ne'er was so fond, + As to make me forget, + Though our lips oft have met, + That still there was something beyond.' + +[4to] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CORNELIAN. [1] + + +1. + + No specious splendour of this stone + Endears it to my memory ever; + With lustre _only once_ it shone, + And blushes modest as the giver. [i] + + +2. + + Some, who can sneer at friendship's ties, + Have, for my weakness, oft reprov'd me; + Yet still the simple gift I prize, + For I am sure, the giver lov'd me. + + +3. + + He offer'd it with downcast look, + As _fearful_ that I might refuse it; + I told him, when the gift I took, + My _only fear_ should be, to lose it. + + +4. + + This pledge attentively I view'd, + And _sparkling_ as I held it near, + Methought one drop the stone bedew'd, + And, ever since, _I've lov'd a tear._ + + +5. + + Still, to adorn his humble youth, + Nor wealth nor birth their treasures yield; + But he, who seeks the flowers of truth, + Must quit the garden, for the field. + + +6. + + 'Tis not the plant uprear'd in sloth, + Which beauty shews, and sheds perfume; + The flowers, which yield the most of both, + In Nature's wild luxuriance bloom. + + +7. + + Had Fortune aided Nature's care, + For once forgetting to be blind, + _His_ would have been an ample share, + If well proportioned to his mind. + + +8. + + But had the Goddess clearly seen, + His form had fix'd her fickle breast; + _Her_ countless hoards would _his_ have been, + And none remain'd to give the rest. + + + +[Footnote 1: The cornelian was a present from his friend Edleston, a +Cambridge chorister, afterwards a clerk in a mercantile house in London. +Edleston died of consumption, May 11, 1811. (See letter from Byron to +Miss Pigot, October 28, 1811.) Their acquaintance began by Byron saving +him from drowning. (MS. note by the Rev. W. Harness.)] + +[Footnote i: 'But blushes modest'. [4to]] + + + + + + +TO M----[i] + + +1. + + Oh! did those eyes, instead of fire, + With bright, but mild affection shine: + Though they might kindle less desire, + Love, more than mortal, would be thine. + + +2. + + For thou art form'd so heavenly fair, + _Howe'er_ those orbs _may_ wildly beam, + We must _admire,_ but still despair; + That fatal glance forbids esteem. + + +3. + + When Nature stamp'd thy beauteous birth, + So much perfection in thee shone, + She fear'd that, too divine for earth, + The skies might claim thee for their own. + + +4. + + Therefore, to guard her dearest work, + Lest angels might dispute the prize, + She bade a secret lightning lurk, + Within those once celestial eyes. + + +5. + + These might the boldest Sylph appall, + When gleaming with meridian blaze; + Thy beauty must enrapture all; + But who can dare thine ardent gaze? + + +6. + + 'Tis said that Berenice's hair, + In stars adorns the vault of heaven; + But they would ne'er permit _thee_ there, + _Thou_ wouldst so far outshine the seven. + + +7. + + For did those eyes as planets roll, + Thy sister-lights would scarce appear: + E'en suns, which systems now controul, + Would twinkle dimly through their sphere. [1] + + +Friday, November 7, 1806 + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, + Having some business, do intreat her eyes + To twinkle in their spheres till they return." + +Shakespeare.] + + +[Footnote i: 'To A----'. [4to] ] + + + + + + + + + + + +LINES ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY.[1] + + +[As the author was discharging his Pistols in a Garden, Two Ladies +passing near the spot were alarmed by the sound of a Bullet hissing near +them, to one of whom the following stanzas were addressed the next +morning.] [2] + + +1. + + Doubtless, sweet girl! the hissing lead, + Wafting destruction o'er thy charms [i] + And hurtling o'er [3] thy lovely head, + Has fill'd that breast with fond alarms. + + +2. + + Surely some envious Demon's force, + Vex'd to behold such beauty here, + Impell'd the bullet's viewless course, + Diverted from its first career. + + +3. + + Yes! in that nearly fatal hour, + The ball obey'd some hell-born guide; + But Heaven, with interposing power, + In pity turn'd the death aside. + + +4. + + Yet, as perchance one trembling tear + Upon that thrilling bosom fell; + Which _I_, th' unconscious cause of fear, + Extracted from its glistening cell;-- + + +5. + + Say, what dire penance can atone + For such an outrage, done to thee? + Arraign'd before thy beauty's throne, + What punishment wilt thou decree? + + +6. + + Might I perform the Judge's part, + The sentence I should scarce deplore; + It only would restore a heart, + Which but belong'd to _thee_ before. + + +7. + + The least atonement I can make + Is to become no longer free; + Henceforth, I breathe but for thy sake, + Thou shalt be _all in all_ to me. + + +8. + + But thou, perhaps, may'st now reject + Such expiation of my guilt; + Come then--some other mode elect? + Let it be death--or what thou wilt. + + +9. + + Choose, then, relentless! and I swear + Nought shall thy dread decree prevent; + Yet hold--one little word forbear! + Let it be aught but banishment. + + + +[Footnote 1: This title first appeared in "Contents" to 'P. on V. +Occasions'.] + +[Footnote 2: The occurrence took place at Southwell, and the beautiful +lady to whom the lines were addressed was Miss Houson, who is also +commemorated in the verses "To a Vain Lady" and "To Anne." She was the +daughter of the Rev. Henry Houson of Southwell, and married the Rev. +Luke Jackson. She died on Christmas Day, 1821, and her monument may be +seen in Hucknall Torkard Church.] + +[Footnote 3: This word is used by Gray in his poem to the Fatal +Sisters:-- + + "Iron-sleet of arrowy shower + Hurtles in the darken'd air."] + + +[Footnote i: 'near thy charms'. [4to. 'P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +TRANSLATION FROM CATULLUS. + +AD LESBIAM. + + + Equal to Jove that youth must be-- + _Greater_ than Jove he seems to me-- + Who, free from Jealousy's alarms, + Securely views thy matchless charms; + That cheek, which ever dimpling glows, + That mouth, from whence such music flows, + To him, alike, are always known, + Reserv'd for him, and him alone. + Ah! Lesbia! though 'tis death to me, + I cannot choose but look on thee; + But, at the sight, my senses fly, + I needs must gaze, but, gazing, die; + Whilst trembling with a thousand fears, + Parch'd to the throat my tongue adheres, + My pulse beats quick, my breath heaves short, + My limbs deny their slight support; + Cold dews my pallid face o'erspread, + With deadly languor droops my head, + My ears with tingling echoes ring, + And Life itself is on the wing; + My eyes refuse the cheering light, + Their orbs are veil'd in starless night: + Such pangs my nature sinks beneath, + And feels a temporary death. + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION OF THE EPITAPH ON VIRGIL +AND TIBULLUS, BY DOMITIUS MARSUS. + + + He who, sublime, in epic numbers roll'd, + And he who struck the softer lyre of Love, + By Death's _unequal_[1] hand alike controul'd, + Fit comrades in Elysian regions move! + + +[Footnote: 1. The hand of Death is said to be unjust or unequal, as +Virgil was considerably older than Tibullus at his decease.] + + + + + + + + + +IMITATION OF TIBULLUS. + +SULPICIA AD CERINTHUM (LIB. QUART.). + + + Cruel Cerinthus! does the fell disease [i] + Which racks my breast your fickle bosom please? + Alas! I wish'd but to o'ercome the pain, + That I might live for Love and you again; + But, now, I scarcely shall bewail my fate: + By Death alone I can avoid your hate. + + +[Footnote i: + + 'does this fell disease'. + +[4to. 'P. on V. Occasions.] + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM CATULLUS. + +LUGETE VENERES CUPIDINESQUE (CARM. III.) [i] + + + Ye Cupids, droop each little head, + Nor let your wings with joy be spread, + My Lesbia's favourite bird is dead, + Whom dearer than her eyes she lov'd: [ii] + For he was gentle, and so true, + Obedient to her call he flew, + No fear, no wild alarm he knew, + But lightly o'er her bosom mov'd: + + And softly fluttering here and there, + He never sought to cleave the air, + He chirrup'd oft, and, free from care, [iii] + Tun'd to her ear his grateful strain. + Now having pass'd the gloomy bourn, [iv] + From whence he never can return, + His death, and Lesbia's grief I mourn, + Who sighs, alas! but sighs in vain. + + Oh! curst be thou, devouring grave! + Whose jaws eternal victims crave, + From whom no earthly power can save, + For thou hast ta'en the bird away: + From thee my Lesbia's eyes o'erflow, + Her swollen cheeks with weeping glow; + Thou art the cause of all her woe, + Receptacle of life's decay. + + +[Footnote i: + + _Luctus De Morte Passeris_. + +[4to. _P. on V. Occasions_.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: _Which dearer_. [4to] ] + +[Footnote iii: _But chirrup'd_. [4to] ] + +[Footnote iv: _But now he's pass'd_. [4to] ] + + + + + + +IMITATED FROM CATULLUS. [1] + +TO ELLEN. [i] + + + Oh! might I kiss those eyes of fire, + A million scarce would quench desire; + Still would I steep my lips in bliss, + And dwell an age on every kiss; + Nor then my soul should sated be, + Still would I kiss and cling to thee: + Nought should my kiss from thine dissever, + Still would we kiss and kiss for ever; + E'en though the numbers did exceed [ii] + The yellow harvest's countless seed; + To part would be a vain endeavour: + Could I desist?--ah! never--never. + +November 16, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: From a note in Byron's copy of Catullus (now in the +possession of Mr. Murray), it is evident that these lines are based on +Carm. xlviii., 'Mellitos oculos tuos, Juventi'.] + + +[Footnote i: 'To Anna'. [4to] ] + +[Footnote ii: 'E'en though the number'. [4to. 'Three first Editions'.]] + + + + + * * * * * * * * + + +POEMS ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS + + + + +TO M. S. G. + + +1. + + Whene'er I view those lips of thine, + Their hue invites my fervent kiss; + Yet, I forego that bliss divine, + Alas! it were--unhallow'd bliss. + + +2. + + Whene'er I dream of that pure breast, + How could I dwell upon its snows! + Yet, is the daring wish represt, + For that,--would banish its repose. + + +3. + + A glance from thy soul-searching eye + Can raise with hope, depress with fear; + Yet, I conceal my love,--and why? + I would not force a painful tear. + + +4. + + I ne'er have told my love, yet thou + Hast seen my ardent flame too well; + And shall I plead my passion now, + To make thy bosom's heaven a hell? + + +5. + + No! for thou never canst be mine, + United by the priest's decree: + By any ties but those divine, + Mine, my belov'd, thou ne'er shalt be. + + +6. + + Then let the secret fire consume, + Let it consume, thou shalt not know: + With joy I court a certain doom, + Rather than spread its guilty glow. + + +7. + + I will not ease my tortur'd heart, + By driving dove-ey'd peace from thine; + Rather than such a sting impart, + Each thought presumptuous I resign. + + +8. + + Yes! yield those lips, for which I'd brave + More than I here shall dare to tell; + Thy innocence and mine to save,-- + I bid thee now a last farewell. + + +9. + + Yes! yield that breast, to seek despair + And hope no more thy soft embrace; + Which to obtain, my soul would dare, + All, all reproach, but thy disgrace. + + +10. + + At least from guilt shall thou be free, + No matron shall thy shame reprove; + Though cureless pangs may prey on me, + No martyr shall thou be to love. + + + + + + + +STANZAS TO A LADY, WITH THE POEMS OF CAMOËNS. [1] + + +1. + + This votive pledge of fond esteem, + Perhaps, dear girl! for me thou'lt prize; + It sings of Love's enchanting dream, + A theme we never can despise. + + +2. + + Who blames it but the envious fool, + The old and disappointed maid? + Or pupil of the prudish school, + In single sorrow doom'd to fade? + + +3. + + Then read, dear Girl! with feeling read, + For thou wilt ne'er be one of those; + To thee, in vain, I shall not plead + In pity for the Poet's woes. + + +4. + + He was, in sooth, a genuine Bard; + His was no faint, fictitious flame: + Like his, may Love be thy reward, + But not thy hapless fate the same. + + +[Footnote: 1. Lord Strangford's 'Poems from the Portuguese by Luis de +Camoëns' and "Little's" Poems are mentioned by Moore as having been +Byron's favourite study at this time ('Life', P--39).] + + + + + + + + + +TO M. S. G. [1] + + +1. + + When I dream that you love me, you'll surely forgive; + Extend not your anger to sleep; + For in visions alone your affection can live,-- + I rise, and it leaves me to weep. + + +2. + + Then, Morpheus! envelop my faculties fast, + Shed o'er me your languor benign; + Should the dream of to-night but resemble the last, + What rapture celestial is mine! + + +3. + + They tell us that slumber, the sister of death, + Mortality's emblem is given; + To fate how I long to resign my frail breath, + If this be a foretaste of Heaven! + + +4. + + Ah! frown not, sweet Lady, unbend your soft brow, + Nor deem me too happy in this; + If I sin in my dream, I atone for it now, + Thus doom'd, but to gaze upon bliss. + + +5. + + Though in visions, sweet Lady, perhaps you may smile, + Oh! think not my penance deficient! + When dreams of your presence my slumbers beguile, + To awake, will be torture sufficient. + + + +[Footnote 1: "C. G. B. to E. P." 'MS. Newstead'.] + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM HORACE. + + + Justum et tenacem propositi virum. + + HOR. 'Odes', iii. 3. I. + + +1. + + The man of firm and noble soul + No factious clamours can controul; + No threat'ning tyrant's darkling brow + Can swerve him from his just intent: + Gales the warring waves which plough, + By Auster on the billows spent, + To curb the Adriatic main, +Would awe his fix'd determined mind in vain. + + +2. + + Aye, and the red right arm of Jove, + Hurtling his lightnings from above, + With all his terrors there unfurl'd, + He would, unmov'd, unaw'd, behold; + The flames of an expiring world, + Again in crashing chaos roll'd, + In vast promiscuous ruin hurl'd, + Might light his glorious funeral pile: +Still dauntless 'midst the wreck of earth he'd smile. + + + + + + + + + +THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE. + + +[Greek: + + Ha barbitos de chordais + Er_ota mounon aechei. [1] + +ANACREON ['Ode' 1]. + + +1. + + Away with your fictions of flimsy romance, + Those tissues of falsehood which Folly has wove; [i] + Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance, + Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love. + + +2. + + Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with fantasy glow, [ii] + Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove; + From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow, [iii] + Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love. + + +3. + + If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse, + Or the Nine be dispos'd from your service to rove, + Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the Muse, + And try the effect, of the first kiss of love. + + +4. + + I hate you, ye cold compositions of art, + Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove; + I court the effusions that spring from the heart, + Which throbs, with delight, to the first kiss of love. [iv] + + +5. + + Your shepherds, your flocks, those fantastical themes, [v] + Perhaps may amuse, yet they never can move: + Arcadia displays but a region of dreams; [vi] + What are visions like these, to the first kiss of love? + + +6. + + Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth, [vii] + From Adam, till now, has with wretchedness strove; + Some portion of Paradise still is on earth, + And Eden revives, in the first kiss of love. + + +7. + + When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past-- + For years fleet away with the wings of the dove-- + The dearest remembrance will still be the last, + Our sweetest memorial, the first kiss of love. + + +December 23, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Moriah [A] those air dreams and types has o'er wove, + ['MS. Newstead'.] + 'Those tissues of fancy Moriah has wove, + +'['P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + + [Sub-Footnote A: Moriah is the "Goddess of Folly."] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Ye rhymers, who sing as if seated on snow.--' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'With what blest inspiration.--' + +['MS. P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Which glows with delight at'. + +['MS'.]] + +[Footnote v: + + 'Your shepherds, your pipes'. + +['MS. P. on V. Occasions'.]] + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Arcadia yields but a legion of dreams'. + +['MS'.] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'that man from his birth'. + +['MS. P. on V. Occasions'.] + + + + + + + + + +CHILDISH RECOLLECTIONS. [1] + + + "I cannot but remember such things were, + And were most dear to me." + + 'Macbeth' [2] + + ["That were most precious to me." + + 'Macbeth', act iv, sc. 3.] + + + + When slow Disease, with all her host of Pains, [i] + Chills the warm tide, which flows along the veins; + When Health, affrighted, spreads her rosy wing, + And flies with every changing gale of spring; + Not to the aching frame alone confin'd, + Unyielding pangs assail the drooping mind: + What grisly forms, the spectre-train of woe, + Bid shuddering Nature shrink beneath the blow, + With Resignation wage relentless strife, + While Hope retires appall'd, and clings to life. 10 + Yet less the pang when, through the tedious hour, + Remembrance sheds around her genial power, + Calls back the vanish'd days to rapture given, + When Love was bliss, and Beauty form'd our heaven; + Or, dear to youth, pourtrays each childish scene, + Those fairy bowers, where all in turn have been. + As when, through clouds that pour the summer storm, + The orb of day unveils his distant form, + Gilds with faint beams the crystal dews of rain + And dimly twinkles o'er the watery plain; 20 + Thus, while the future dark and cheerless gleams, + The Sun of Memory, glowing through my dreams, + Though sunk the radiance of his former blaze, + To scenes far distant points his paler rays, + Still rules my senses with unbounded sway, + The past confounding with the present day. + + Oft does my heart indulge the rising thought, + Which still recurs, unlook'd for and unsought; + My soul to Fancy's fond suggestion yields, + And roams romantic o'er her airy fields. 30 + Scenes of my youth, develop'd, crowd to view, + To which I long have bade a last adieu! + Seats of delight, inspiring youthful themes; + Friends lost to me, for aye, except in dreams; + Some, who in marble prematurely sleep, + Whose forms I now remember, but to weep; + Some, who yet urge the same scholastic course + Of early science, future fame the source; + Who, still contending in the studious race, + In quick rotation, fill the senior place! 40 + These, with a thousand visions, now unite, + To dazzle, though they please, my aching sight. [3] + + IDA! blest spot, where Science holds her reign, + How joyous, once, I join'd thy youthful train! + Bright, in idea, gleams thy lofty spire, + Again, I mingle with thy playful quire; + Our tricks of mischief, [4] every childish game, + Unchang'd by time or distance, seem the same; + Through winding paths, along the glade I trace + The social smile of every welcome face; 50 + My wonted haunts, my scenes of joy or woe, + Each early boyish friend, or youthful foe, + Our feuds dissolv'd, but not my friendship past,-- + I bless the former, and forgive the last. + Hours of my youth! when, nurtur'd in my breast, + To Love a stranger, Friendship made me blest,-- + Friendship, the dear peculiar bond of youth, + When every artless bosom throbs with truth; + Untaught by worldly wisdom how to feign, + And check each impulse with prudential rein; 60 + When, all we feel, our honest souls disclose, + In love to friends, in open hate to foes; + No varnish'd tales the lips of youth repeat, + No dear-bought knowledge purchased by deceit; + Hypocrisy, the gift of lengthen'd years, + Matured by age, the garb of Prudence wears: [ii] + When, now, the Boy is ripen'd into Man, + His careful Sire chalks forth some wary plan; + Instructs his Son from Candour's path to shrink, + Smoothly to speak, and cautiously to think; 70 + Still to assent, and never to deny-- + A patron's praise can well reward the lie: + And who, when Fortune's warning voice is heard, + Would lose his opening prospects for a word? + Although, against that word, his heart rebel, + And Truth, indignant, all his bosom swell. + + Away with themes like this! not mine the task, + From flattering friends to tear the hateful mask; + Let keener bards delight in Satire's sting, + My Fancy soars not on Detraction's wing: 80 + Once, and but once, she aim'd a deadly blow, + To hurl Defiance on a secret Foe; + But when that foe, from feeling or from shame, + The cause unknown, yet still to me the same, + Warn'd by some friendly hint, perchance, retir'd, + With this submission all her rage expired. + From dreaded pangs that feeble Foe to save, + She hush'd her young resentment, and forgave. + Or, if my Muse a Pedant's portrait drew, + POMPOSUS' [5] virtues are but known to few: 90 + I never fear'd the young usurper's nod, + And he who wields must, sometimes, feel the rod. + If since on Granta's failings, known to all + Who share the converse of a college hall, + She sometimes trifled in a lighter strain, + 'Tis past, and thus she will not sin again: + Soon must her early song for ever cease, + And, all may rail, when I shall rest in peace. + + Here, first remember'd be the joyous band, + Who hail'd me chief, [6] obedient to command; 100 + Who join'd with me, in every boyish sport, + Their first adviser, and their last resort; + Nor shrunk beneath the upstart pedant's frown, [iii] + Or all the sable glories of his gown; [iv] + Who, thus, transplanted from his father's school, + Unfit to govern, ignorant of rule-- + Succeeded him, whom all unite to praise, + The dear preceptor of my early days, + PROBUS, [7] the pride of science, and the boast-- + To IDA now, alas! for ever lost! 110 + With him, for years, we search'd the classic page, [v] + And fear'd the Master, though we lov'd the Sage: + Retir'd at last, his small yet peaceful seat + From learning's labour is the blest retreat. + POMPOSUS fills his magisterial chair; + POMPOSUS governs,--but, my Muse, forbear: + Contempt, in silence, be the pedant's lot, [vi] + His name and precepts be alike forgot; + No more his mention shall my verse degrade,-- + To him my tribute is already paid. [8] 120 + + High, through those elms with hoary branches crown'd [9] + Fair IDA'S bower adorns the landscape round; + There Science, from her favour'd seat, surveys + The vale where rural Nature claims her praise; + To her awhile resigns her youthful train, + Who move in joy, and dance along the plain; + In scatter'd groups, each favour'd haunt pursue, + Repeat old pastimes, and discover new; + Flush'd with his rays, beneath the noontide Sun, + In rival bands, between the wickets run, 130 + Drive o'er the sward the ball with active force, + Or chase with nimble feet its rapid course. + But these with slower steps direct their way, + Where Brent's cool waves in limpid currents stray, + While yonder few search out some green retreat, + And arbours shade them from the summer heat: + Others, again, a pert and lively crew, + Some rough and thoughtless stranger plac'd in view, + With frolic quaint their antic jests expose, + And tease the grumbling rustic as he goes; 140 + Nor rest with this, but many a passing fray + Tradition treasures for a future day: + "'Twas here the gather'd swains for vengeance fought, + And here we earn'd the conquest dearly bought: + Here have we fled before superior might, + And here renew'd the wild tumultuous fight." + While thus our souls with early passions swell, + In lingering tones resounds the distant bell; + Th' allotted hour of daily sport is o'er, + And Learning beckons from her temple's door. 150 + No splendid tablets grace her simple hall, + But ruder records fill the dusky wall: + There, deeply carv'd, behold! each Tyro's name + Secures its owner's academic fame; + Here mingling view the names of Sire and Son, + The one long grav'd, the other just begun: + These shall survive alike when Son and Sire, + Beneath one common stroke of fate expire; [10] + Perhaps, their last memorial these alone, + Denied, in death, a monumental stone, 160 + Whilst to the gale in mournful cadence wave + The sighing weeds, that hide their nameless grave. + And, here, my name, and many an early friend's, + Along the wall in lengthen'd line extends. + Though, still, our deeds amuse the youthful race, + Who tread our steps, and fill our former place, + Who young obeyed their lords in silent awe, + Whose nod commanded, and whose voice was law; + And now, in turn, possess the reins of power, + To rule, the little Tyrants of an hour; 170 + Though sometimes, with the Tales of ancient day, + They pass the dreary Winter's eve away; + "And, thus, our former rulers stemm'd the tide, + And, thus, they dealt the combat, side by side; + Just in this place, the mouldering walls they scaled, + Nor bolts, nor bars, against their strength avail'd; + Here PROBUS came, the rising fray to quell, + And, here, he falter'd forth his last farewell; + And, here, one night abroad they dared to roam, + While bold POMPOSUS bravely staid at home;" 180 + While thus they speak, the hour must soon arrive, + When names of these, like ours, alone survive: + Yet a few years, one general wreck will whelm + The faint remembrance of our fairy realm. + + Dear honest race! though now we meet no more, + One last long look on what we were before-- + Our first kind greetings, and our last adieu-- + Drew tears from eyes unus'd to weep with you. + Through splendid circles, Fashion's gaudy world, + Where Folly's glaring standard waves unfurl'd, 190 + I plung'd to drown in noise my fond regret, + And all I sought or hop'd was to forget: + Vain wish! if, chance, some well-remember'd face, + Some old companion of my early race, + Advanc'd to claim his friend with honest joy, + My eyes, my heart, proclaim'd me still a boy; + The glittering scene, the fluttering groups around, + Were quite forgotten when my friend was found; + The smiles of Beauty, (for, alas! I've known + What 'tis to bend before Love's mighty throne;) 200 + The smiles of Beauty, though those smiles were dear, + Could hardly charm me, when that friend was near: + My thoughts bewilder'd in the fond surprise, + The woods of IDA danc'd before my eyes; + I saw the sprightly wand'rers pour along, + I saw, and join'd again the joyous throng; + Panting, again I trac'd her lofty grove, + And Friendship's feelings triumph'd over Love. + + Yet, why should I alone with such delight + Retrace the circuit of my former flight? 210 + Is there no cause beyond the common claim, + Endear'd to all in childhood's very name? + Ah! sure some stronger impulse vibrates here, + Which whispers friendship will be doubly dear + To one, who thus for kindred hearts must roam, + And seek abroad, the love denied at home. + Those hearts, dear IDA, have I found in thee, + A home, a world, a paradise to me. + Stern Death forbade my orphan youth to share + The tender guidance of a Father's care; 220 + Can Rank, or e'en a Guardian's name supply + The love, which glistens in a Father's eye? + For this, can Wealth, or Title's sound atone, + Made, by a Parent's early loss, my own? + What Brother springs a Brother's love to seek? + What Sister's gentle kiss has prest my cheek? + For me, how dull the vacant moments rise, + To no fond bosom link'd by kindred ties! + Oft, in the progress of some fleeting dream, + Fraternal smiles, collected round me seem; 230 + While still the visions to my heart are prest, + The voice of Love will murmur in my rest: + I hear--I wake--and in the sound rejoice! + I hear again,--but, ah! no Brother's voice. + A Hermit, 'midst of crowds, I fain must stray + Alone, though thousand pilgrims fill the way; + While these a thousand kindred wreaths entwine, + I cannot call one single blossom mine: + What then remains? in solitude to groan, + To mix in friendship, or to sigh alone? 240 + Thus, must I cling to some endearing hand, + And none more dear, than IDA'S social band. + + Alonzo! [11] best and dearest of my friends, [vii] + Thy name ennobles him, who thus commends: + From this fond tribute thou canst gain no praise; + The praise is his, who now that tribute pays. + Oh! in the promise of thy early youth, + If Hope anticipate the words of Truth! + Some loftier bard shall sing thy glorious name, + To build his own, upon thy deathless fame: [viii] 250 + Friend of my heart, and foremost of the list + Of those with whom I lived supremely blest; + Oft have we drain'd the font of ancient lore, + Though drinking deeply, thirsting still the more; + Yet, when Confinement's lingering hour was done, + Our sports, our studies, and our souls were one: + Together we impell'd the flying ball, + Together waited in our tutor's hall; + Together join'd in cricket's manly toil, + Or shar'd the produce of the river's spoil; 260 + Or plunging from the green declining shore, + Our pliant limbs the buoyant billows bore: [ix] + In every element, unchang'd, the same, + All, all that brothers should be, but the name. + + Nor, yet, are you forgot, my jocund Boy! + DAVUS, [12] the harbinger of childish joy; + For ever foremost in the ranks of fun, + The laughing herald of the harmless pun; + Yet, with a breast of such materials made, + Anxious to please, of pleasing half afraid; 270 + Candid and liberal, with a heart of steel + In Danger's path, though not untaught to feel. + Still, I remember, in the factious strife, + The rustic's musket aim'd against my life: [13] + High pois'd in air the massy weapon hung, + A cry of horror burst from every tongue: + Whilst I, in combat with another foe, + Fought on, unconscious of th' impending blow; + Your arm, brave Boy, arrested his career-- + Forward you sprung, insensible to fear; 280 + Disarm'd, and baffled by your conquering hand, + The grovelling Savage roll'd upon the sand: + An act like this, can simple thanks repay? [x] + Or all the labours of a grateful lay? + Oh no! whene'er my breast forgets the deed, + That instant, DAVUS, it deserves to bleed. + + LYCUS! [14] on me thy claims are justly great: + Thy milder virtues could my Muse relate, + To thee, alone, unrivall'd, would belong + The feeble efforts of my lengthen'd song. [xi] 290 + Well canst thou boast, to lead in senates fit, + A Spartan firmness, with Athenian wit: + Though yet, in embryo, these perfections shine, + LYCUS! thy father's fame [15] will soon be thine. + Where Learning nurtures the superior mind, + What may we hope, from genius thus refin'd; + When Time, at length, matures thy growing years, + How wilt thou tower, above thy fellow peers! + Prudence and sense, a spirit bold and free, + With Honour's soul, united beam in thee. 300 + + Shall fair EURYALUS,[16] pass by unsung? + From ancient lineage, not unworthy, sprung: + What, though one sad dissension bade us part, + That name is yet embalm'd within my heart, + Yet, at the mention, does that heart rebound, + And palpitate, responsive to the sound; + Envy dissolved our ties, and not our will: + We once were friends,--I'll think, we are so still. + A form unmatch'd in Nature's partial mould, + A heart untainted, we, in thee, behold: 310 + Yet, not the Senate's thunder thou shall wield, + Nor seek for glory, in the tented field: + To minds of ruder texture, these be given-- + Thy soul shall nearer soar its native heaven. + Haply, in polish'd courts might be thy seat, + But, that thy tongue could never forge deceit: + The courtier's supple bow, and sneering smile, + The flow of compliment, the slippery wile, + Would make that breast, with indignation, burn, + And, all the glittering snares, to tempt thee, spurn. 320 + Domestic happiness will stamp thy fate; + Sacred to love, unclouded e'er by hate; + The world admire thee, and thy friends adore;-- + Ambition's slave, alone, would toil for more. [xii] + + Now last, but nearest, of the social band, + See honest, open, generous CLEON [17] stand; + With scarce one speck, to cloud the pleasing scene, + No vice degrades that purest soul serene. + On the same day, our studious race begun, + On the same day, our studious race was run; 330 + Thus, side by side, we pass'd our first career, + Thus, side by side, we strove for many a year: + At last, concluded our scholastic life, + We neither conquer'd in the classic strife: + As Speakers, [18] each supports an equal name, [xiii] + And crowds allow to both a partial fame: + To soothe a youthful Rival's early pride, + Though Cleon's candour would the palm divide, + Yet Candour's self compels me now to own, + Justice awards it to my Friend alone. 340 + + Oh! Friends regretted, Scenes for ever dear, + Remembrance hails you with her warmest tear! + Drooping, she bends o'er pensive Fancy's urn, + To trace the hours, which never can return; + Yet, with the retrospection loves to dwell, [xiv] + And soothe the sorrows of her last farewell! + Yet greets the triumph of my boyish mind, + As infant laurels round my head were twin'd; + When PROBUS' praise repaid my lyric song, + Or plac'd me higher in the studious throng; 350 + Or when my first harangue receiv'd applause, [19] + His sage instruction the primeval cause, + What gratitude, to him, my soul possest, + While hope of dawning honours fill'd my breast! [xv] + For all my humble fame, to him alone, + The praise is due, who made that fame my own. + Oh! could I soar above these feeble lays, + These young effusions of my early days, + To him my Muse her noblest strain would give, + The song might perish, but the theme might live. [xvi] 360 + Yet, why for him the needless verse essay? + His honour'd name requires no vain display: + By every son of grateful IDA blest, + It finds an echo in each youthful breast; + A fame beyond the glories of the proud, + Or all the plaudits of the venal crowd. + + IDA! not yet exhausted is the theme, + Nor clos'd the progress of my youthful dream. + How many a friend deserves the grateful strain! + What scenes of childhood still unsung remain! 370 + Yet let me hush this echo of the past, + This parting song, the dearest and the last; + And brood in secret o'er those hours of joy, + To me a silent and a sweet employ, + While, future hope and fear alike unknown, + I think with pleasure on the past alone; + Yes, to the past alone, my heart confine, + And chase the phantom of what once was mine. + + IDA! still o'er thy hills in joy preside, + And proudly steer through Time's eventful tide: 380 + Still may thy blooming Sons thy name revere, + Smile in thy bower, but quit thee with a tear;-- + That tear, perhaps, the fondest which will flow, + O'er their last scene of happiness below: + Tell me, ye hoary few, who glide along, + The feeble Veterans of some former throng, + Whose friends, like Autumn leaves by tempests whirl'd, + Are swept for ever from this busy world; + Revolve the fleeting moments of your youth, + While Care has yet withheld her venom'd tooth; [xvii] 390 + Say, if Remembrance days like these endears, + Beyond the rapture of succeeding years? + Say, can Ambition's fever'd dream bestow + So sweet a balm to soothe your hours of woe? + Can Treasures hoarded for some thankless Son, + Can Royal Smiles, or Wreaths by slaughter won, + Can Stars or Ermine, Man's maturer Toys, + (For glittering baubles are not left to Boys,) + Recall one scene so much belov'd to view, + As those where Youth her garland twin'd for you? 400 + Ah, no! amid the gloomy calm of age + You turn with faltering hand life's varied page, + Peruse the record of your days on earth, + Unsullied only where it marks your birth; + Still, lingering, pause above each chequer'd leaf, + And blot with Tears the sable lines of Grief; + Where Passion o'er the theme her mantle threw, + Or weeping Virtue sigh'd a faint adieu; + But bless the scroll which fairer words adorn, + Trac'd by the rosy finger of the Morn; 410 + When Friendship bow'd before the shrine of truth, + And Love, without his pinion, [20] smil'd on Youth. + + +[Footnote 1: The words, "that schoolboy thing," etc. (see letter to H. +Drury, Jan. 8, 1808), evidently apply, not as Moore intimates, +to this period, but to the lines "On a Change of Masters," +etc., July, 1805 (see letter to W. Bankes, March 6, 1807).] + +[Footnote 2: The motto was prefixed in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + +[Footnote 3: Lines 43-98 were added in 'Hours of Idleness'] + +[Footnote 4: Newton Hanson relates that on one occasion he accompanied +his father to Harrow on Speech Day to see his brother Hargreaves Hanson +and Byron. + + "On our arrival at Harrow, we set out in search of Hargreaves and + Byron, but the latter was not at his tutor's. Three or four lads, + hearing my father's inquiries, set off at full speed to find him. They + soon discovered him, and, laughing most heartily, called out, 'Hallo, + Byron! here's a gentleman wants you.' And what do you think? He had + got on Drury's hat. I can still remember the arch cock of Byron's eye + at the hat and then at my father, and the fun and merriment it caused + him and all of us whilst, during the day, he was perambulating the + highways and byeways of Ida with the hat on. 'Harrow Speech Day and + the Governor's Hat' was one of the standing rallying-points for Lord + Byron ever after." + + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Butler, then Head-master of Harrow. Had Byron +published another edition of these poems, it was his intention +to replace these four lines by the four which follow:-- + + "'If once my muse a harsher portrait drew, + Warm with her wrongs, and deemed the likeness true, + By cooler judgment taught, her fault she owns,-- + With noble minds a fault confess'd, atones'." + +['MS. M.'] + +See also allusion in letter to Mr. Henry Drury, June 25, 1809. +--Moore's 'Note'.] + + +[Footnote 6: On the retirement of Dr. Drury, three candidates for the +vacant chair presented themselves--Messrs. Drury, Evans, and Butler. On +the first movement to which this contest gave rise in the school, young +Wildman was at the head of the party for Mark Drury, while Byron held +himself aloof from any. Anxious, however, to have him as an ally, one of +the Drury faction said to Wildman, "Byron, I know, will not join, +because he does not choose to act second to any one, but, by giving up +the leadership to him, you may at once secure him." This Wildman did, +and Byron took the command.--'Life', p. 29.] + + +[Footnote 7: Dr. Drury. This most able and excellent man retired from +his situation in March, 1805, after having resided thirty-five years at +Harrow; the last twenty as head-master; an office he held with equal +honour to himself and advantage to the very extensive school over which +he presided. Panegyric would here be superfluous: it would be useless to +enumerate qualifications which were never doubted. A considerable +contest took place between three rival candidates for his vacant chair: +of this I can only say-- + + 'Si mea cum vestris valuissent vota, Pelasgi! + Non foret ambiguus tanti certaminis hares.' + +[Byron's letters from Harrow contain the same high praise of Dr. Drury. +In one, of November 2, 1804, he says, + + "There is so much of the gentleman, so much mildness, and nothing of + pedantry in his character, that I cannot help liking him, and will + remember his instructions with gratitude as long as I live." + +A week after, he adds, + + "I revere Dr. Drury. I dread offending him; not, however, through + fear, but the respect I bear him makes me unhappy when I am under his + displeasure." + +Dr. Drury has related the secret of the influence he obtained: the +glance which told him that the lad was "a wild mountain colt," told him +also that he could be "led with a silken string."]] + + +[Footnote 8: This alludes to a character printed in a former private +edition ['P. on V. Occasions'] for the perusal of some friends, which, +with many other pieces, is withheld from the present volume. To draw the +attention of the public to insignificance would be deservedly +reprobated; and another reason, though not of equal consequence, may be +given in the following couplet:-- + + "Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel? + Who breaks a Butterfly upon a wheel?" + +'Prologue to the Satires': POPE. + +['Hours of Idleness', p. 154, 'note'] +[(See the lines "On a Change of Masters at a Great Public School," +'ante', p. 16.) + +The following lines, attached to the Newstead MS. draft of +"Childish Recollections," are aimed at Pomposus:-- + + "Just half a Pedagogue, and half a Fop, + Not formed to grace the pulpit, but the Shop; + The 'Counter', not the 'Desk', should be his place, + Who deals out precepts, as if dealing Lace; + Servile in mind, from Elevation proud, + In argument, less sensible than loud, + Through half the continent, the Coxcomb's been, + And stuns you with the Wonders he has seen: + ''How' in Pompeii's vault he found the page, + Of some long lost, and long lamented Sage, + And doubtless he the Letters would have trac'd, + Had they not been by age and dust effac'd: + This single specimen will serve to shew, + The weighty lessons of this reverend Beau, + Bombast in vain would want of Genius cloke, + For feeble fires evaporate in smoke; + A Boy, o'er Boys he holds a trembling reign, + More fit than they to seek some School again."]] + + +[Footnote 9: Lines 121-243 were added in 'Hours of Idleness'.] + + +[Footnote 10: During a rebellion at Harrow, the poet prevented the +school-room from being burnt down, by pointing out to the boys the names +of their fathers and grandfathers on the walls.--(Medwin's +'Conversations' (1824), p. 85.) + +Byron elsewhere thus describes his usual course of life +while at Harrow: "always cricketing, rebelling, 'rowing', and in all +manner of mischiefs." One day he tore down the gratings from the window +of the hall; and when asked by Dr. Butler his reason for the outrage, +coolly answered, "because they darkened the room."--'Life', p. 29.] + + +[Footnote 11: "Lord Clare." (Annotated copy of 'P. on V. Occasions' +in the British Museum.) + +[Lines 243-264, as the note in Byron's handwriting explains, were +originally intended to apply to Lord Clare. In 'Hours of Idleness' +"Joannes" became "Alonzo," and the same lines were employed to celebrate +the memory of his friend the Hon. John Wingfield, of the Coldstream +Guards, brother to Richard, fourth Viscount Powerscourt. He died at +Coimbra in 1811, in his twentieth year. Byron at one time gave him the +preference over all other friends.]] + +[Footnote 12: The Rev. John Cecil Tattersall, B.A., of Christ Church, +Oxford, who died December 8, 1812, at Hall's Place, Kent, aged +twenty-three.] + +[Footnote 13: The "factious strife" was brought on by the breaking up of +school, and the dismissal of some volunteers from drill, both happening +at the same hour. The butt-end of a musket was aimed at Byron's head, +and would have felled him to the ground, but for the interposition of +Tattersall.--'Life', p. 25.] + +[Footnote 14: John Fitzgibbon, second Earl of Clare (1792-1851), +afterwards Governor of Bombay, of whom Byron said, in 1822, + + "I have always loved him better than any 'male' thing in the world." + "I never," was his language in 1821, "hear the word ''Clare'' without + a beating of the heart even 'now'; and I write it with the feelings of + 1803-4-5, ad infinitum."] + + +[Footnote 15: John Fitzgibbon, first Earl of Clare (1749-1802), became +Attorney-General and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In the latter years of +the independent Irish Parliament, he took an active part in politics in +opposition to Grattan and the national party, and was distinguished as a +powerful, if bitter, speaker. He was made Earl of Clare in 1795.] + +[Footnote 16: George John, fifth Earl of Delawarr.-- + + "I am happy enough, and comfortable here," says Byron, in a letter + from Harrow of Oct. 25, 1804. "My friends are not numerous, but + select. Among the principal, I rank Lord Delawarr, who is very + amiable, and my particular friend."-- + "Nov. 2, 1804. Lord Delawarr is considerably younger than me, but the + most good-tempered, amiable, clever fellow in the universe. To all + which he adds the quality (a good one in the eyes of women) of being + remarkably handsome. Delawarr and myself are, in a manner, connected; + for one of my forefathers, in Charles I's time, married into their + family." + +The allusion in the text to their subsequent quarrel, receives further +light from a letter which the poet addressed to Lord Clare under date, +February 6, 1807. (See, too, lines "To George, Earl Delawarr," p. 126.) +The first Lord Byron was twice married. His first wife was Cecilie, +widow of Sir Francis Bindlose, and daughter of Thomas, third Lord +Delawarr. He died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard, +the poet's ancestor. His younger brother, Sir Robert Byron, married +Lucy, another daughter of the third Lord Delawarr.] + + +[Footnote 17: Edward Noel Long, who was drowned by the foundering of a +transport on the voyage to Lisbon with his regiment, in 1809. (See lines +"To Edward Noel Long, Esq.," 'post', p. 184.)] + +[Footnote 18: This alludes to the public speeches delivered at the +school where the author was educated.] + +[Footnote 19: + + "My qualities were much more oratorical than poetical, and Dr. Drury, + my grand patron, had a great notion that I should turn out an orator + from my fluency, my turbulence, my voice, my copiousness of + declamation, and my action. I remember that my first declamation + astonished Dr. Drury into some unwonted (for he was economical of + such) and sudden compliments, before the declaimers at our first + rehearsal." + + 'Byron Diary'. + + "I certainly was much pleased with Lord Byron's attitude, gesture, and + delivery, as well as with his composition. To my surprise, he suddenly + diverged from the written composition, with a boldness and rapidity + sufficient to alarm me, lest he should fail in memory as to the + conclusion. I questioned him, why he had altered his declamation? He + declared he had made no alteration, and did not know, in speaking, + that he had deviated from it one letter. I believed him, and from a + knowledge of his temperament, am convinced that he was hurried on to + expressions and colourings more striking than what his pen had + expressed." + + DR. DRURY, 'Life', p. 20.] + + +[Footnote 20: "L'Amitié est l'Amour sans ailes," is a French proverb. +(See the lines so entitled, p. 220.)] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Hence! thou unvarying song, of varied loves, + Which youth commends, maturer age reproves; + Which every rhyming bard repeats by rote, + By thousands echo'd to the self-same note! + Tir'd of the dull, unceasing, copious strain, + My soul is panting to be free again. + Farewell! ye nymphs, propitious to my verse, + Some other Damon, will your charms rehearse; + Some other paint his pangs, in hope of bliss, + Or dwell in rapture on your nectar'd kiss. + Those beauties, grateful to my ardent sight, + No more entrance my senses in delight; + Those bosoms, form'd of animated snow, + Alike are tasteless and unfeeling now. + These to some happier lover, I resign; + The memory of those joys alone is mine. + Censure no more shall brand my humble name, + The child of passion and the fool of fame. + Weary of love, of life, devoured with spleen, + I rest a perfect Timon, not nineteen; + World! I renounce thee! all my hope's o'ercast! + One sigh I give thee, but that sigh's the last. + Friends, foes, and females, now alike, adieu! + Would I could add remembrance of you, too! + Yet though the future, dark and cheerless gleams, + The curse of memory, hovering in my dreams, + Depicts with glowing pencil all those years, + Ere yet, my cup, empoison'd, flow'd with tears, + Still rules my senses with tyrannic sway, + The past confounding with the present day. + + Alas! in vain I check the maddening thought; + It still recurs, unlook'd for and unsought: + My soul to Fancy's', etc., etc., as at line 29.--] + + +[Footnote ii: 'Cunning with age.' ['MS. Newstead'.]] + +[Footnote iii: 'Nor shrunk before.' ['Hours of Idleness'.]] + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Careless to soothe the pedant's furious frown, + Scarcely respecting his majestic gown; + By which, in vain, he gain'd a borrow'd grace, + Adding new terror to his sneering face,' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'With him for years I search'd the classic page, + Culling the treasures of the letter'd sage,' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Contempt, in silence, be the pedant's lot, + Soon shall his shallow precepts be forgot; + No more his mention shall my pen degrade-- + My tribute to his name's already paid.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] + +Another variant for a new edition ran-- + + 'Another fills his magisterial chair; + Reluctant Ida owns a stranger's care; + Oh! may like honours crown his future name: + If such his virtues, such shall be his fame.' + +['MS. M.'] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Joannes! best and dearest of my friends.' + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'Could aught inspire me with poetic fire, + For thee, alone, I'd strike the hallow'd lyre; + But, to some abler hand, the task I wave, + Whose strains immortal may outlive the grave'.-- + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'Our lusty limbs.' + +['P. on V. Occasions.'] + + '--the buoyant waters bore.' + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'Thus did you save that life I scarcely prize-- + A life unworthy such a sacrifice. + Oh! when my breast forgets the generous deed.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'For ever to possess a friend in thee, + Was bliss unhop'd, though not unsought by me; + Thy softer soul was form'd for love alone, + To ruder passions and to hate unknown; + Thy mind, in union with thy beauteous form, + Was gentle, but unfit to stem the storm; + That face, an index of celestial worth, + Proclaim'd a heart abstracted from the earth. + Oft, when depress'd with sad, foreboding gloom, + I sat reclin'd upon our favourite tomb, + I've seen those sympathetic eyes o'erflow + With kind compassion for thy comrade's woe; + Or, when less mournful subjects form'd our themes, + We tried a thousand fond romantic schemes, + Oft hast thou sworn, in friendship's soothing tone. + Whatever wish was mine, must be thine own. + The next can boast to lead in senates fit, + A Spartan firmness,--with Athenian wit; + Tho' yet, in embryo, these perfections shine, + Clarus! thy father's fame will soon be thine.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] + +A remonstrance which Lord Clare addressed to him at +school; was found among his papers (as were most of the +notes of his early favourites), and on the back of it was an +endorsement which is a fresh testimony of his affection:-- + + "This and another letter were written at Harrow, by my 'then' and, I + hope, 'ever' beloved friend, Lord Clare, when we were both schoolboys; + and sent to my study in consequence of some 'childish' + misunderstanding,--the only one which ever arose between us. It was of + short duration, and I retain this note solely for the purpose of + submitting it to his perusal, that we may smile over the recollection + of the insignificance of our first and last quarrel." + +See, also, Byron's account of his accidental meeting with Lord Clare in +Italy in 1821, as recorded in 'Detached Thoughts', Nov. 5, 1821; in +letters to Moore, March 1 and June 8, 1822; and Mme. Guiccioli's +description of his emotion on seeing Clare ('My Recollections of Lord +Byron', ed. 1869, p. 156).] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'Where is the restless fool, would wish for more?' + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'As speakers, each supports a rival name, + Though neither seeks to damn the other's fame, + Pomposus sits, unequal to decide, + With youthful candour, we the palm divide.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'Yet in the retrospection finds relief, + And revels in the luxury of grief.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'When, yet a novice in the mimic art, + I feign'd the transports of a vengeful heart; + When, as the Royal Slave, I trod the stage, + To vent in Zanga, more than mortal rage; + The praise of Probus, made me feel more proud, + Than all the plaudits of the list'ning crowd. + + Ah! vain endeavour in this childish strain + To soothe the woes of which I thus complain! + What can avail this fruitless loss of time, + To measure sorrow, in a jingling rhyme! + No social solace from a friend, is near, + And heartless strangers drop no feeling tear. + I seek not joy in Woman's sparkling eye, + The smiles of Beauty cannot check the sigh. + Adieu, thou world! thy pleasure's still a dream, + Thy virtue, but a visionary theme; + Thy years of vice, on years of folly roll, + Till grinning death assigns the destin'd goal,' + 'Where all are hastening to the dread abode, + To meet the judgment of a righteous God; + Mix'd in the concourse of a thoughtless throng, + A mourner, midst of mirth, I glide along; + A wretched, isolated, gloomy thing, + Curst by reflection's deep corroding sting; + But not that mental sting, which stabs within, + The dark avenger of unpunish'd sin; + The silent shaft, which goads the guilty wretch + Extended on a rack's untiring stretch: + Conscience that sting, that shaft to him supplies-- + His mind the rack, from which he ne'er can rise, + For me, whatever my folly, or my fear, + One cheerful comfort still is cherish'd here. + No dread internal, haunts my hours of rest, + No dreams of injured innocence infest; + Of hope, of peace, of almost all bereft, + Conscience, my last but welcome guest, is left. + Slander's empoison'd breath, may blast my name, + Envy delights to blight the buds of fame: + Deceit may chill the current of my blood, + And freeze affection's warm impassion'd flood; + Presaging horror, darken every sense, + Even here will conscience be my best defence; + My bosom feeds no "worm which ne'er can die:" + Not crimes I mourn, but happiness gone by. + Thus crawling on with many a reptile vile, + My heart is bitter, though my cheek may smile; + No more with former bliss, my heart is glad; + Hope yields to anguish and my soul is sad; + From fond regret, no future joy can save; + Remembrance slumbers only in the grave.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + 'The song might perish, but the theme must live.' + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + '----his venom'd tooth.' + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + +ANSWER TO A BEAUTIFUL POEM, WRITTEN BY MONTGOMERY, + AUTHOR OF "THE WANDERER OF SWITZERLAND," ETC., + ENTITLED "THE COMMON LOT." [1] + + +1. + + Montgomery! true, the common lot + Of mortals lies in Lethe's wave; + Yet some shall never be forgot, + Some shall exist beyond the grave. + + +2. + + "Unknown the region of his birth," + The hero [2] rolls the tide of war; + Yet not unknown his martial worth, + Which glares a meteor from afar. + + +3. + + His joy or grief, his weal or woe, + Perchance may 'scape the page of fame; + Yet nations, now unborn, will know + The record of his deathless name. + + +4. + + The Patriot's and the Poet's frame + Must share the common tomb of all: + Their glory will not sleep the same; + 'That' will arise, though Empires fall. + + +5. + + The lustre of a Beauty's eye + Assumes the ghastly stare of death; + The fair, the brave, the good must die, + And sink the yawning grave beneath. + + +6. + + Once more, the speaking eye revives, + Still beaming through the lover's strain; + For Petrarch's Laura still survives: + She died, but ne'er will die again. + + +7. + + The rolling seasons pass away, + And Time, untiring, waves his wing; + Whilst honour's laurels ne'er decay, + But bloom in fresh, unfading spring. + + +8. + + All, all must sleep in grim repose, + Collected in the silent tomb; + The old, the young, with friends and foes, + Fest'ring alike in shrouds, consume. + + +9. + + The mouldering marble lasts its day, + Yet falls at length an useless fane; + To Ruin's ruthless fangs a prey, + The wrecks of pillar'd Pride remain. + + +10. + + What, though the sculpture be destroy'd, + From dark Oblivion meant to guard; + A bright renown shall be enjoy'd, + By those, whose virtues claim reward. + + +11. + + Then do not say the common lot + Of all lies deep in Lethe's wave; + Some few who ne'er will be forgot + Shall burst the bondage of the grave. + + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: Montgomery (James), 1771-1854, poet and hymn-writer, +published: +'Prison Amusements' (1797), +'The Ocean; a Poem' (1805), +'The Wanderer of Switzerland, and other Poems' (1806), +'The West Indies, and other Poems' (1810), +'Songs of Sion' (1822), +'The Christian Psalmist' (1825), +'The Pelican Island, and other Poems' (1827), +'etc.' ('vide post'), 'English Bards', +'etc.', line 418, and 'note'.] + +[Footnote 2: No particular hero is here alluded to. The exploits of +Bayard, Nemours, Edward the Black Prince, and, in more modern times, the +fame of Marlborough, Frederick the Great, Count Saxe, Charles of Sweden, +etc., are familiar to every historical reader, but the exact places of +their birth are known to a very small proportion of their admirers.] + + + + + + + + + +LOVE'S LAST ADIEU. + +[Greek: Aeì d' aeí me pheugei.]--[Pseud.] ANACREON, [Greek: Eis chruson]. + + +1. + + The roses of Love glad the garden of life, + Though nurtur'd 'mid weeds dropping pestilent dew, + Till Time crops the leaves with unmerciful knife, + Or prunes them for ever, in Love's last adieu! + + +2. + + In vain, with endearments, we soothe the sad heart, + In vain do we vow for an age to be true; + The chance of an hour may command us to part, + Or Death disunite us, in Love's last adieu! + + +3. + + Still Hope, breathing peace, through the grief-swollen breast, [i] + Will whisper, "Our meeting we yet may renew:" + With this dream of deceit, half our sorrow's represt, + Nor taste we the poison, of Love's last adieu! + + +4. + + Oh! mark you yon pair, in the sunshine of youth, + Love twin'd round their childhood his flow'rs as they grew; + They flourish awhile, in the season of truth, + Till chill'd by the winter of Love's last adieu! + + +5. + + Sweet lady! why thus doth a tear steal its way, + Down a cheek which outrivals thy bosom in hue? + Yet why do I ask?--to distraction a prey, + Thy reason has perish'd, with Love's last adieu! + + +6. + + Oh! who is yon Misanthrope, shunning mankind? + From cities to caves of the forest he flew: + There, raving, he howls his complaint to the wind; + The mountains reverberate Love's last adieu! + + +7. + + Now Hate rules a heart which in Love's easy chains, + Once Passion's tumultuous blandishments knew; + Despair now inflames the dark tide of his veins, + He ponders, in frenzy, on Love's last adieu! + + +8. + + How he envies the wretch, with a soul wrapt in steel! + His pleasures are scarce, yet his troubles are few, + Who laughs at the pang that he never can feel, + And dreads not the anguish of Love's last adieu! + + +9. + + Youth flies, life decays, even hope is o'ercast; + No more, with Love's former devotion, we sue: + He spreads his young wing, he retires with the blast; + The shroud of affection is Love's last adieu! + + +10. + + In this life of probation, for rapture divine, + Astrea[1] declares that some penance is due; + From him, who has worshipp'd at Love's gentle shrine, + The atonement is ample, in Love's last adieu! + + +11. + + Who kneels to the God, on his altar of light + Must myrtle and cypress alternately strew: + His myrtle, an emblem of purest delight, + His cypress, the garland of Love's last adieu! + + + +[Footnote 1: The Goddess of Justice.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Still, hope-beaming peace._ + +['P. on V. Occasions.']] + + + + + + + + + +LINES. [i] + ADDRESSED TO THE REV. J. T. BECHER, [1] + ON HIS ADVISING THE AUTHOR TO MIX MORE WITH SOCIETY. + +1. + + Dear BECHER, you tell me to mix with mankind; + I cannot deny such a precept is wise; + But retirement accords with the tone of my mind: + I will not descend to a world I despise. + + +2. + + Did the Senate or Camp my exertions require, + Ambition might prompt me, at once, to go forth; + When Infancy's years of probation expire, + Perchance, I may strive to distinguish my birth. + + +3. + + The fire, in the cavern of Etna, conceal'd, + Still mantles unseen in its secret recess; + At length, in a volume terrific, reveal'd, + No torrent can quench it, no bounds can repress. + + +4. + + Oh! thus, the desire, in my bosom, for fame [i] + Bids me live, but to hope for Posterity's praise. + Could I soar with the Phoenix on pinions of flame, + With him I would wish to expire in the blaze. + + +5. + + For the life of a Fox, of a Chatham the death, + What censure, what danger, what woe would I brave! + Their lives did not end, when they yielded their breath, + Their glory illumines the gloom of their grave.[ii] + + + +6. + + Yet why should I mingle in Fashion's full herd? + Why crouch to her leaders, or cringe to her rules? + Why bend to the proud, or applaud the absurd? + Why search for delight, in the friendship of fools? + + +7. + + I have tasted the sweets, and the bitters, of love, + In friendship I early was taught to believe; + My passion the matrons of prudence reprove, + I have found that a friend may profess, yet deceive. + + +8. + + To me what is wealth?--it may pass in an hour, + If Tyrants prevail, or if Fortune should frown: + To me what is title?--the phantom of power; + To me what is fashion?--I seek but renown. + + +9. + + Deceit is a stranger, as yet, to my soul; + I, still, am unpractised to varnish the truth: + Then, why should I live in a hateful controul? + Why waste, upon folly, the days of my youth? + + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: The Rev. John Thomas Becher (1770-1848) was Vicar of +Rumpton and Midsomer Norton, Notts., and made the acquaintance of Byron +when he was living at Southwell. To him was submitted an early copy of +the 'Quarto', and on his remonstrance at the tone of some of the +verses, the whole edition (save one or two copies) was burnt. Becher +assisted in the revision of 'P. on V. Occasions', published in +1807. He was in 1818 appointed Prebendary of Southwell, and, all his +life, took an active interest and prominent part in the administration +of the poor laws and the welfare of the poor. (See Byron's letters to +him of February 26 and March 28, 1808.)] + +[Footnote i: + + 'To the Rev. J. T. Becher.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Oh! such the desire.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + '--the gloom of the grave.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + + + + + + + + +ANSWER TO SOME ELEGANT VERSES SENT BY A FRIEND TO THE AUTHOR, + COMPLAINING THAT ONE OF HIS DESCRIPTIONS + WAS RATHER TOO WARMLY DRAWN. + + + "But if any old Lady, Knight, Priest, or Physician, + Should condemn me for printing a second edition; + If good Madam Squintum my work should abuse, + May I venture to give her a smack of my muse?" + + Anstey's 'New Bath Guide', p. 169. + + + Candour compels me, BECHER! to commend + The verse, which blends the censor with the friend; + Your strong yet just reproof extorts applause + From me, the heedless and imprudent cause; [i] + For this wild error, which pervades my strain, [ii] + I sue for pardon,--must I sue in vain? + The wise sometimes from Wisdom's ways depart; + Can youth then hush the dictates of the heart? + Precepts of prudence curb, but can't controul, + The fierce emotions of the flowing soul. + When Love's delirium haunts the glowing mind, + Limping Decorum lingers far behind; + Vainly the dotard mends her prudish pace, + Outstript and vanquish'd in the mental chase. + The young, the old, have worn the chains of love; + Let those, they ne'er confined, my lay reprove; + Let those, whose souls contemn the pleasing power, + Their censures on the hapless victim shower. + Oh! how I hate the nerveless, frigid song, + The ceaseless echo of the rhyming throng, + Whose labour'd lines, in chilling numbers flow, + To paint a pang the author ne'er can know! + The artless Helicon, I boast, is youth;-- + My Lyre, the Heart--my Muse, the simple Truth. + Far be't from me the "virgin's mind" to "taint:" + Seduction's dread is here no slight restraint: + The maid whose virgin breast is void of guile, + Whose wishes dimple in a modest smile, + Whose downcast eye disdains the wanton leer, + Firm in her virtue's strength, yet not severe; + She, whom a conscious grace shall thus refine, + Will ne'er be "tainted" by a strain of mine. + But, for the nymph whose premature desires + Torment her bosom with unholy fires, + No net to snare her willing heart is spread; + She would have fallen, though she ne'er had read. + For me, I fain would please the chosen few, + Whose souls, to feeling and to nature true, + Will spare the childish verse, and not destroy + The light effusions of a heedless boy. [iii] + I seek not glory from the senseless crowd; + Of fancied laurels, I shall ne'er be proud; + Their warmest plaudits I would scarcely prize, + Their sneers or censures, I alike despise. + +November 26, 1806. + + +[Footnote i: + + _the heedless and unworthy cause._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _For this sole error._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _The light effusions of an amorous boy._ + +[_P. on V. Occasions._]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +ELEGY ON NEWSTEAD ABBEY. [1] + + + "It is the voice of years, that are gone! they roll before me, with + all their deeds." + + Ossian. [i] + + + +1. + + NEWSTEAD! fast-falling, once-resplendent dome! + Religion's shrine! repentant HENRY'S [2] pride! + Of Warriors, Monks, and Dames the cloister'd tomb, + Whose pensive shades around thy ruins glide, + + +2. + + Hail to thy pile! more honour'd in thy fall, + Than modern mansions, in their pillar'd state; + Proudly majestic frowns thy vaulted hall, + Scowling defiance on the blasts of fate. + + +3. + + No mail-clad Serfs, [3] obedient to their Lord, + In grim array, the crimson cross [4] demand; + Or gay assemble round the festive board, + Their chief's retainers, an immortal band. + + +4. + + Else might inspiring Fancy's magic eye + Retrace their progress, through the lapse of time; + Marking each ardent youth, ordain'd to die, + A votive pilgrim, in Judea's clime. + + +5. + + But not from thee, dark pile! departs the Chief; + His feudal realm in other regions lay: + In thee the wounded conscience courts relief, + Retiring from the garish blaze of day. + + +6. + + Yes! in thy gloomy cells and shades profound, + The monk abjur'd a world, he ne'er could view; + Or blood-stain'd Guilt repenting, solace found, + Or Innocence, from stern Oppression, flew. + + +7. + + A Monarch bade thee from that wild arise, + Where Sherwood's outlaws, once, were wont to prowl; + And Superstition's crimes, of various dyes, + Sought shelter in the Priest's protecting cowl. + + +8. + + Where, now, the grass exhales a murky dew, + The humid pall of life-extinguish'd clay, + In sainted fame, the sacred Fathers grew, + Nor raised their pious voices, but to pray. + + +9. + + Where, now, the bats their wavering wings extend, + Soon as the gloaming [5] spreads her waning shade;[ii] + The choir did, oft, their mingling vespers blend, + Or matin orisons to Mary [6] paid. + + +10. + + Years roll on years; to ages, ages yield; + Abbots to Abbots, in a line, succeed: + Religion's charter, their protecting shield, + Till royal sacrilege their doom decreed. + + +11. + + One holy HENRY rear'd the Gothic walls, + And bade the pious inmates rest in peace; + Another HENRY [7] the kind gift recalls, + And bids devotion's hallow'd echoes cease. + + +12. + + Vain is each threat, or supplicating prayer; + He drives them exiles from their blest abode, + To roam a dreary world, in deep despair-- + No friend, no home, no refuge, but their God. [8] + + +13. + + Hark! how the hall, resounding to the strain, + Shakes with the martial music's novel din! + The heralds of a warrior's haughty reign, + High crested banners wave thy walls within. + + +14. + + Of changing sentinels the distant hum, + The mirth of feasts, the clang of burnish'd arms, + The braying trumpet, and the hoarser drum, + Unite in concert with increas'd alarms. + + +15. + + An abbey once, a regal fortress [9] now, + Encircled by insulting rebel powers; + War's dread machines o'erhang thy threat'ning brow, + And dart destruction, in sulphureous showers. + + +16. + + Ah! vain defence! the hostile traitor's siege, + Though oft repuls'd, by guile o'ercomes the brave; + His thronging foes oppress the faithful Liege, + Rebellion's reeking standards o'er him wave. + + +17. + + Not unaveng'd the raging Baron yields; + The blood of traitors smears the purple plain; + Unconquer'd still, his falchion there he wields, + And days of glory, yet, for him remain. + + +18. + + Still, in that hour, the warrior wish'd to strew + Self-gather'd laurels on a self-sought grave; + But Charles' protecting genius hither flew, + The monarch's friend, the monarch's hope, to save. + + +19. + + Trembling, she snatch'd him [10] from th' unequal strife, + In other fields the torrent to repel; + For nobler combats, here, reserv'd his life, + To lead the band, where godlike FALKLAND [11] fell. + + +20. + + From thee, poor pile! to lawless plunder given, + While dying groans their painful requiem sound, + Far different incense, now, ascends to Heaven, + Such victims wallow on the gory ground. + + +21. + + There many a pale and ruthless Robber's corse, + Noisome and ghast, defiles thy sacred sod; + O'er mingling man, and horse commix'd with horse, + Corruption's heap, the savage spoilers trod. + + +22. + + Graves, long with rank and sighing weeds o'erspread, + Ransack'd resign, perforce, their mortal mould: + From ruffian fangs, escape not e'en the dead, + Racked from repose, in search for buried gold. + + +23. + + Hush'd is the harp, unstrung the warlike lyre, + The minstrel's palsied hand reclines in death; + No more he strikes the quivering chords with fire, + Or sings the glories of the martial wreath. [iii] + + +24. + + At length the sated murderers, gorged with prey, + Retire: the clamour of the fight is o'er; + Silence again resumes her awful sway, + And sable Horror guards the massy door. + + +25. + + Here, Desolation holds her dreary court: + What satellites declare her dismal reign! + Shrieking their dirge, ill-omen'd birds resort, + To flit their vigils, in the hoary fane. + + +26. + + Soon a new Morn's restoring beams dispel + The clouds of Anarchy from Britain's skies; + The fierce Usurper seeks his native hell, + And Nature triumphs, as the Tyrant dies. + + +27. + + With storms she welcomes his expiring groans; + Whirlwinds, responsive, greet his labouring breath; + Earth shudders, as her caves receive his bones, + Loathing [12] the offering of so dark a death. + + +28. + + The legal Ruler [13] now resumes the helm, + He guides through gentle seas, the prow of state; + Hope cheers, with wonted smiles, the peaceful realm, + And heals the bleeding wounds of wearied Hate. + + +29. + + The gloomy tenants, Newstead! of thy cells, + Howling, resign their violated nest; [iv] + Again, the Master on his tenure dwells, + Enjoy'd, from absence, with enraptured zest. + + +30. + + Vassals, within thy hospitable pale, + Loudly carousing, bless their Lord's return; + Culture, again, adorns the gladdening vale, + And matrons, once lamenting, cease to mourn. + + +31. + + A thousand songs, on tuneful echo, float, + Unwonted foliage mantles o'er the trees; + And, hark! the horns proclaim a mellow note, + The hunters' cry hangs lengthening on the breeze. + + +32. + + Beneath their coursers' hoofs the valleys shake; + What fears! what anxious hopes! attend the chase! + The dying stag seeks refuge in the lake; + Exulting shouts announce the finish'd race. + + +33. + + Ah happy days! too happy to endure! + Such simple sports our plain forefathers knew: + No splendid vices glitter'd to allure; + Their joys were many, as their cares were few. + + +34. + + From these descending, Sons to Sires succeed; + Time steals along, and Death uprears his dart; + Another Chief impels the foaming steed, + Another Crowd pursue the panting hart. + + +35. + + Newstead! what saddening change of scene is thine! + Thy yawning arch betokens slow decay; + The last and youngest of a noble line, + Now holds thy mouldering turrets in his sway. + + +36. + + Deserted now, he scans thy gray worn towers; + Thy vaults, where dead of feudal ages sleep; + Thy cloisters, pervious to the wintry showers; + These, these he views, and views them but to weep. + + +37. + + Yet are his tears no emblem of regret: + Cherish'd Affection only bids them flow; + Pride, Hope, and Love, forbid him to forget, + But warm his bosom, with impassion'd glow. + + +38. + + Yet he prefers thee, to the gilded domes, [14] + Or gewgaw grottos, of the vainly great; + Yet lingers 'mid thy damp and mossy tombs, + Nor breathes a murmur 'gainst the will of Fate. + + +39. + + Haply thy sun, emerging, yet, may shine, + Thee to irradiate with meridian ray; + Hours, splendid as the past, may still be thine, + And bless thy future, as thy former day. [v] + + + +[Footnote 1: As one poem on this subject is already printed, the author +had, originally, no intention of inserting the following. It is now +added at the particular request of some friends.] + +[Footnote 2: Henry II. founded Newstead soon after the murder of Thomas +à Becket.] + +[Footnote 3: This word is used by Walter Scott, in his poem, 'The Wild +Huntsman', as synonymous with "vassal."] + +[Footnote 4: The red cross was the badge of the Crusaders.] + +[Footnote 5: As "gloaming," the Scottish word for twilight, is far more +poetical, and has been recommended by many eminent literary men, +particularly by Dr. Moore in his Letters to Burns, I have ventured to +use it on account of its harmony.] + +[Footnote 6: The priory was dedicated to the Virgin.--['Hours of +Idleness'.]] + +[Footnote 7: At the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII. bestowed +Newstead Abbey on Sir John Byron.] + +[Footnote 8: During the lifetime of Lord Byron's predecessor in the +title there was found in the lake a large brass eagle, in the body of +which were concealed a number of ancient deeds and documents. This eagle +is supposed to have been thrown into the lake by the retreating +monks.--'Life', p. 2, note. It is now a lectern in Southwell +Minster.] + +[Footnote 9: Newstead sustained a considerable siege in the war between +Charles I. and his parliament.] + +[Footnote 10: Lord Byron and his brother Sir William held high commands +in the royal army. The former was general-in-chief in Ireland, +lieutenant of the Tower, and governor to James, Duke of York, afterwards +the unhappy James II; the latter had a principal share in many actions. +['Vide ante', p. 3, 'note' 1.]] + +[Footnote 11: Lucius Cary, Lord Viscount Falkland, the most accomplished +man of his age, was killed at the Battle of Newbury, charging in the +ranks of Lord Byron's regiment of cavalry.] + +[Footnote 12: This is an historical fact. A violent tempest occurred +immediately subsequent to the death or interment of Cromwell, which +occasioned many disputes between his partisans and the cavaliers: both +interpreted the circumstance into divine interposition; but whether as +approbation or condemnation, we leave to the casuists of that age to +decide. I have made such use of the occurrence as suited the subject of +my poem.] + +[Footnote 13: Charles II.] + +[Footnote 14: An indication of Byron's feelings towards Newstead in his +younger days will be found in his letter to his mother of March 6, +1809.] + + +[Footnote i: 'Hours of Idleness.'] + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Soon as the twilight winds a waning shade.'-- + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + '--of the laurel'd wreath.' + +['P. on V. Occasions'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Howling, forsake--.' + +['P. on V. Occasions']] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'Fortune may smile upon a future line, + And heaven restore an ever-cloudless day,' + +['P. on V. Occasions.', 'Hours of Idleness.']] + + + + + +* * * * * * * * * + + +HOURS OF IDLENESS + + + + + +TO GEORGE, EARL DELAWARR. [i] + + +1. + + Oh! yes, I will own we were dear to each other; + The friendships of childhood, though fleeting, are true; + The love which you felt was the love of a brother, + Nor less the affection I cherish'd for you. + + +2. + + But Friendship can vary her gentle dominion; + The attachment of years, in a moment expires: + Like Love, too, she moves on a swift-waving pinion, + But glows not, like Love, with unquenchable fires. + + +3. + + Full oft have we wander'd through Ida together, + And blest were the scenes of our youth, I allow: + In the spring of our life, how serene is the weather! + But Winter's rude tempests are gathering now. + + +4. + + No more with Affection shall Memory blending, + The wonted delights of our childhood retrace: + When Pride steels the bosom, the heart is unbending, + And what would be Justice appears a disgrace. + + +5. + + However, dear George, for I still must esteem you--[ii] + The few, whom I love, I can never upbraid; + The chance, which has lost, may in future redeem you, + Repentance will cancel the vow you have made. + + +6. + + I will not complain, and though chill'd is affection, + With me no corroding resentment shall live: + My bosom is calm'd by the simple reflection, + That both may be wrong, and that both should forgive. + + +7. + + You knew, that my soul, that my heart, my existence, + If danger demanded, were wholly your own; + You knew me unalter'd, by years or by distance, + Devoted to love and to friendship alone. + + +8. + + You knew,--but away with the vain retrospection! + The bond of affection no longer endures; + Too late you may droop o'er the fond recollection, + And sigh for the friend, who was formerly yours. + + +9. + + For the present, we part,--I will hope not for ever; [1] + For time and regret will restore you at last: + To forget our dissension we both should endeavour, + I ask no atonement, but days like the past. + + + +[Footnote 1: See Byron's Letter to Lord Clare of February 6, 1807, +referred to in 'note' 2, p. 100.] + +[Footnote i: + + 'To----'. + +['Hours of Idleness, Poems O. and Translated]] + + +[Footnote ii. + + 'However, dear S----'. + +['Hours of Idleness, Poems O. and Translated'.]] + + + + + + + + + +DAMÆTAS. [1] + + + In law an infant, [2] and in years a boy, + In mind a slave to every vicious joy; + From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd, + In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend; + Vers'd in hypocrisy, while yet a child; + Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild; + Woman his dupe, his heedless friend a tool; + Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school; + Damætas ran through all the maze of sin, + And found the goal, when others just begin: + Ev'n still conflicting passions shake his soul, + And bid him drain the dregs of Pleasure's bowl; + But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain, + And what was once his bliss appears his bane. + + +[Footnote 1: Moore appears to have regarded these lines as applying to +Byron himself. It is, however, very unlikely that, with all his passion +for painting himself in the darkest colours, he would have written +himself down "a hypocrite." Damætas is, probably, a satirical sketch of +a friend or acquaintance. (Compare the solemn denunciation of Lord +Falkland in 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', lines +668-686.)]] + +[Footnote 2: In law, every person is an infant who has not attained the +age of twenty-one.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO MARION. [1] + + + MARION! why that pensive brow? [i] + What disgust to life hast thou? + Change that discontented air; + Frowns become not one so fair. + 'Tis not Love disturbs thy rest, + Love's a stranger to thy breast: + _He_, in dimpling smiles, appears, + Or mourns in sweetly timid tears; + Or bends the languid eyelid down, + But _shuns_ the cold forbidding 'frown'. + Then resume thy former fire, + Some will _love_, and all admire! + While that icy aspect chills us, + Nought but cool Indiff'rence thrills us. + Would'st thou wand'ring hearts beguile, + Smile, at least, or _seem_ to _smile_; + Eyes like _thine_ were never meant + To hide their orbs in dark restraint; + Spite of all thou fain wouldst say, + Still in _truant_ beams they play. + Thy lips--but here my _modest_ Muse + Her impulse _chaste_ must needs refuse: + She _blushes, curtsies, frowns,_--in short She + Dreads lest the _Subject_ should transport me; + And flying off, in search of _Reason_, + Brings Prudence back in proper season. + _All_ I shall, therefore, say (whate'er [ii] + I think, is neither here nor there,) + Is, that such _lips_, of looks endearing, + Were form'd for _better things_ than _sneering_. + Of soothing compliments divested, + Advice at least's disinterested; + Such is my artless song to thee, + From all the flow of Flatt'ry free; + Counsel like _mine_ is as a brother's, + _My_ heart is given to some others; + That is to say, unskill'd to cozen, + It shares itself among a dozen. + + Marion, adieu! oh, pr'ythee slight not + This warning, though it may delight not; + And, lest my precepts be displeasing, [iii] + To those who think remonstrance teazing, + At once I'll tell thee our opinion, + Concerning Woman's soft Dominion: + Howe'er we gaze, with admiration, + On eyes of blue or lips carnation; + Howe'er the flowing locks attract us, + Howe'er those beauties may distract us; + Still fickle, we are prone to rove, + _These_ cannot fix our souls to love; + It is not too _severe_ a stricture, + To say they form a _pretty picture_; + But would'st thou see the secret chain, + Which binds us in your humble train, + To hail you Queens of all Creation, + Know, in a _word, 'tis Animation_. + + +BYRON, _January_ 10, 1807. + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. of this Poem is preserved at Newstead. "This was to +Harriet Maltby, afterwards Mrs. Nichols, written upon her meeting Byron, +and, 'being 'cold, silent', and 'reserved' to him,' by the advice of a +Lady with whom she was staying; quite foreign to her 'usual' manner, +which was gay, lively, and full of flirtation."--Note by Miss E. Pigot. +(See p. 130, var. ii.)] + +[Footnote a: + + 'Harriet'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote b: + + 'All I shall therefore say of these', + ('Thy pardon if my words displease'). + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote c: + + 'And lest my precepts be found fault, by + Those who approved the frown of M--lt-by'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + +OSCAR OF ALVA. [1] + + +1. + + How sweetly shines, through azure skies, + The lamp of Heaven on Lora's shore; + Where Alva's hoary turrets rise, + And hear the din of arms no more! + + +2. + + But often has yon rolling moon, + On Alva's casques of silver play'd; + And view'd, at midnight's silent noon, + Her chiefs in gleaming mail array'd: + + +3. + + And, on the crimson'd rocks beneath, + Which scowl o'er ocean's sullen flow, + Pale in the scatter'd ranks of death, + She saw the gasping warrior low; [i] + + +4. + + While many an eye, which ne'er again [ii] + Could mark the rising orb of day, + Turn'd feebly from the gory plain, + Beheld in death her fading ray. + + +5. + + Once, to those eyes the lamp of Love, + They blest her dear propitious light; + But, now, she glimmer'd from above, + A sad, funereal torch of night. + + +6. + + Faded is Alva's noble race, + And grey her towers are seen afar; + No more her heroes urge the chase, + Or roll the crimson tide of war. + + +7. + + But, who was last of Alva's clan? + Why grows the moss on Alva's stone? + Her towers resound no steps of man, + They echo to the gale alone. + + +8. + + And, when that gale is fierce and high, + A sound is heard in yonder hall; + It rises hoarsely through the sky, + And vibrates o'er the mould'ring wall. + + +9. + + Yes, when the eddying tempest sighs, + It shakes the shield of Oscar brave; + But, there, no more his banners rise, + No more his plumes of sable wave. + + +10. + + Fair shone the sun on Oscar's birth, + When Angus hail'd his eldest born; + The vassals round their chieftain's hearth + Crowd to applaud the happy morn. + + +11. + + They feast upon the mountain deer, + The Pibroch rais'd its piercing note, [2] + To gladden more their Highland cheer, + The strains in martial numbers float. + + +12. + + And they who heard the war-notes wild, + Hop'd that, one day, the Pibroch's strain + Should play before the Hero's child, + While he should lead the Tartan train. + + +13. + + Another year is quickly past, + And Angus hails another son; + His natal day is like the last, + Nor soon the jocund feast was done. + + +14. + + Taught by their sire to bend the bow, + On Alva's dusky hills of wind, + The boys in childhood chas'd the roe, + And left their hounds in speed behind. + + +15. + + But ere their years of youth are o'er, + They mingle in the ranks of war; + They lightly wheel the bright claymore, + And send the whistling arrow far. + + +16. + + Dark was the flow of Oscar's hair, + Wildly it stream'd along the gale; + But Allan's locks were bright and fair, + And pensive seem'd his cheek, and pale. + + +17. + + But Oscar own'd a hero's soul, + His dark eye shone through beams of truth; + Allan had early learn'd controul, + And smooth his words had been from youth. + + +18. + + Both, both were brave; the Saxon spear + Was shiver'd oft beneath their steel; + And Oscar's bosom scorn'd to fear, + But Oscar's bosom knew to feel; + + +19. + + While Allan's soul belied his form, + Unworthy with such charms to dwell: + Keen as the lightning of the storm, + On foes his deadly vengeance fell. + + +20. + + From high Southannon's distant tower + Arrived a young and noble dame; + With Kenneth's lands to form her dower, + Glenalvon's blue-eyed daughter came; + + +21. + + And Oscar claim'd the beauteous bride, + And Angus on his Oscar smil'd: + It soothed the father's feudal pride + Thus to obtain Glenalvon's child. + + +22. + + Hark! to the Pibroch's pleasing note, + Hark! to the swelling nuptial song, + In joyous strains the voices float, + And, still, the choral peal prolong. + + +23. + + See how the Heroes' blood-red plumes + Assembled wave in Alva's hall; + Each youth his varied plaid assumes, + Attending on their chieftain's call. + + +24. + + It is not war their aid demands, + The Pibroch plays the song of peace; + To Oscar's nuptials throng the bands + Nor yet the sounds of pleasure cease. + + +25. + + But where is Oscar? sure 'tis late: + Is this a bridegroom's ardent flame? + While thronging guests and ladies wait, + Nor Oscar nor his brother came. + + +26. + + At length young Allan join'd the bride; + "Why comes not Oscar?" Angus said: + "Is he not here?" the Youth replied; + "With me he rov'd not o'er the glade: + + +27. + + "Perchance, forgetful of the day, + 'Tis his to chase the bounding roe; + Or Ocean's waves prolong his stay: + Yet, Oscar's bark is seldom slow." + + +28. + + "Oh, no!" the anguish'd Sire rejoin'd, + "Nor chase, nor wave, my Boy delay; + Would he to Mora seem unkind? + Would aught to her impede his way? + + +29. + + "Oh, search, ye Chiefs! oh, search around! + Allan, with these, through Alva fly; + Till Oscar, till my son is found, + Haste, haste, nor dare attempt reply." + + +30. + + All is confusion--through the vale, + The name of Oscar hoarsely rings, + It rises on the murm'ring gale, + Till night expands her dusky wings. + + +31. + + It breaks the stillness of the night, + But echoes through her shades in vain; + It sounds through morning's misty light, + But Oscar comes not o'er the plain. + + +32. + + Three days, three sleepless nights, the Chief + For Oscar search'd each mountain cave; + Then hope is lost; in boundless grief, + His locks in grey-torn ringlets wave. + + +33. + + "Oscar! my son!--thou God of Heav'n, + Restore the prop of sinking age! + Or, if that hope no more is given, + Yield his assassin to my rage. + + +34. + + "Yes, on some desert rocky shore + My Oscar's whiten'd bones must lie; + Then grant, thou God! I ask no more, + With him his frantic Sire may die! + + +35. + + "Yet, he may live,--away, despair! + Be calm, my soul! he yet may live; + T' arraign my fate, my voice forbear! + O God! my impious prayer forgive. + + +36. + + "What, if he live for me no more, + I sink forgotten in the dust, + The hope of Alva's age is o'er: + Alas! can pangs like these be just?" + + +37. + + Thus did the hapless Parent mourn, + Till Time, who soothes severest woe, + Had bade serenity return, + And made the tear-drop cease to flow. + + +38. + + For, still, some latent hope surviv'd + That Oscar might once more appear; + His hope now droop'd and now revived, + Till Time had told a tedious year. + + +39. + + Days roll'd along, the orb of light + Again had run his destined race; + No Oscar bless'd his father's sight, + And sorrow left a fainter trace. + + +40. + + For youthful Allan still remain'd, + And, now, his father's only joy: + And Mora's heart was quickly gain'd, + For beauty crown'd the fair-hair'd boy. + + +41. + + She thought that Oscar low was laid, + And Allan's face was wondrous fair; + If Oscar liv'd, some other maid + Had claim'd his faithless bosom's care. + + +42. + + And Angus said, if one year more + In fruitless hope was pass'd away, + His fondest scruples should be o'er, + And he would name their nuptial day. + + +43. + + Slow roll'd the moons, but blest at last + Arriv'd the dearly destin'd morn: + The year of anxious trembling past, + What smiles the lovers' cheeks adorn! + + +44. + + Hark to the Pibroch's pleasing note! + Hark to the swelling nuptial song! + In joyous strains the voices float, + And, still, the choral peal prolong. + + +45. + + Again the clan, in festive crowd, + Throng through the gate of Alva's hall; + The sounds of mirth re-echo loud, + And all their former joy recall. + + +46. + + But who is he, whose darken'd brow + Glooms in the midst of general mirth? + Before his eyes' far fiercer glow + The blue flames curdle o'er the hearth. + + +47. + + Dark is the robe which wraps his form, + And tall his plume of gory red; + His voice is like the rising storm, + But light and trackless is his tread. + + +48. + + 'Tis noon of night, the pledge goes round, + The bridegroom's health is deeply quaff'd; + With shouts the vaulted roofs resound, + And all combine to hail the draught. + + +49. + + Sudden the stranger-chief arose, + And all the clamorous crowd are hush'd; + And Angus' cheek with wonder glows, + And Mora's tender bosom blush'd. + + +50. + + "Old man!" he cried, "this pledge is done, + Thou saw'st 'twas truly drunk by me; + It hail'd the nuptials of thy son: + Now will I claim a pledge from thee. + + +51. + + "While all around is mirth and joy, + To bless thy Allan's happy lot, + Say, hadst thou ne'er another boy? + Say, why should Oscar be forgot?" + + +52. + + "Alas!" the hapless Sire replied, + The big tear starting as he spoke, + "When Oscar left my hall, or died, + This aged heart was almost broke. + + +53. + + "Thrice has the earth revolv'd her course + Since Oscar's form has bless'd my sight; + And Allan is my last resource, + Since martial Oscar's death, or flight." + + +54. + + "'Tis well," replied the stranger stern, + And fiercely flash'd his rolling eye; + "Thy Oscar's fate, I fain would learn; + Perhaps the Hero did not die. + + +55. + + "Perchance, if those, whom most he lov'd, + Would call, thy Oscar might return; + Perchance, the chief has only rov'd; + For him thy Beltane, yet, may burn. [3] + + +56. + + "Fill high the bowl the table round, + We will not claim the pledge by stealth; + With wine let every cup be crown'd; + Pledge me departed Oscar's health." + + +57. + + "With all my soul," old Angus said, + And fill'd his goblet to the brim: + "Here's to my boy! alive or dead, + I ne'er shall find a son like him." + + +58. + + "Bravely, old man, this health has sped; + But why does Allan trembling stand? + Come, drink remembrance of the dead, + And raise thy cup with firmer hand." + + +59. + + The crimson glow of Allan's face + Was turn'd at once to ghastly hue; + The drops of death each other chace, + Adown in agonizing dew. + + +60. + + Thrice did he raise the goblet high, + And thrice his lips refused to taste; + For thrice he caught the stranger's eye + On his with deadly fury plac'd. + + +61. + + "And is it thus a brother hails + A brother's fond remembrance here? + If thus affection's strength prevails, + What might we not expect from fear?" + + +62. + + Roused by the sneer, he rais'd the bowl, + "Would Oscar now could share our mirth!" + Internal fear appall'd his soul; [i] + He said, and dash'd the cup to earth. + + +63. + + "'Tis he! I hear my murderer's voice!" + Loud shrieks a darkly gleaming Form. + "A murderer's voice!" the roof replies, + And deeply swells the bursting storm. + + +64. + + The tapers wink, the chieftains shrink, + The stranger's gone,--amidst the crew, + A Form was seen, in tartan green, + And tall the shade terrific grew. + + +65. + + His waist was bound with a broad belt round, + His plume of sable stream'd on high; + But his breast was bare, with the red wounds there, + And fix'd was the glare of his glassy eye. + + +66. + + And thrice he smil'd, with his eye so wild + On Angus bending low the knee; + And thrice he frown'd, on a Chief on the ground, + Whom shivering crowds with horror see. + + +67. + + The bolts loud roll from pole to pole, + And thunders through the welkin ring, + And the gleaming form, through the mist of the storm, + Was borne on high by the whirlwind's wing. + + +68. + + Cold was the feast, the revel ceas'd. + Who lies upon the stony floor? + Oblivion press'd old Angus' breast, [iv] + At length his life-pulse throbs once more. + + +69. + + "Away, away! let the leech essay + To pour the light on Allan's eyes:" + His sand is done,--his race is run; + Oh! never more shall Allan rise! + + +70. + + But Oscar's breast is cold as clay, + His locks are lifted by the gale; + And Allan's barbèd arrow lay + With him in dark Glentanar's vale. + + +71. + + And whence the dreadful stranger came, + Or who, no mortal wight can tell; + But no one doubts the form of flame, + For Alva's sons knew Oscar well. + + +72. + + Ambition nerv'd young Allan's hand, + Exulting demons wing'd his dart; + While Envy wav'd her burning brand, + And pour'd her venom round his heart. + + +73. + + Swift is the shaft from Allan's bow; + Whose streaming life-blood stains his side? + Dark Oscar's sable crest is low, + The dart has drunk his vital tide. + + +74. + + And Mora's eye could Allan move, + She bade his wounded pride rebel: + Alas! that eyes, which beam'd with love, + Should urge the soul to deeds of Hell. + + +75. + + Lo! see'st thou not a lonely tomb, + Which rises o'er a warrior dead? + It glimmers through the twilight gloom; + Oh! that is Allan's nuptial bed. + + +76. + + Far, distant far, the noble grave + Which held his clan's great ashes stood; + And o'er his corse no banners wave, + For they were stain'd with kindred blood. + + +77. + + What minstrel grey, what hoary bard, + Shall Allan's deeds on harp-strings raise? + The song is glory's chief reward, + But who can strike a murd'rer's praise? + + +78. + + Unstrung, untouch'd, the harp must stand, + No minstrel dare the theme awake; + Guilt would benumb his palsied hand, + His harp in shuddering chords would break. + + +79. + + No lyre of fame, no hallow'd verse, + Shall sound his glories high in air: + A dying father's bitter curse, + A brother's death-groan echoes there. + + + +[Footnote 1: The catastrophe of this tale was suggested by the story of +"Jeronymo and Lorenzo," in the first volume of Schiller's 'Armenian, or +the Ghost-Seer'. It also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third +act of 'Macbeth'.--['Der Geisterseher', Schiller's 'Werke' (1819), x. +97, 'sq'.] + +[Footnote 2: It is evident that Byron here confused the 'pibroch', the +air, with the 'bagpipe', the instrument.] + +[Footnote 3: Beltane Tree, a Highland festival on the first of May, +held near fires lighted for the occasion.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'She view'd the gasping'----. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'When many an eye which ne'er again + Could view'----. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Internal fears'----. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Old Angus prest, the earth with his breast'. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON. + + +[Greek: Thel_o legein Atpeidas, k.t.l.] [1] + + + +ODE 1. + +TO HIS LYRE. + + + + I wish to tune my quivering lyre, [i] + To deeds of fame, and notes of fire; + To echo, from its rising swell, + How heroes fought and nations fell, + When Atreus' sons advanc'd to war, + Or Tyrian Cadmus rov'd afar; + But still, to martial strains unknown, + My lyre recurs to Love alone. + Fir'd with the hope of future fame, [ii] + I seek some nobler Hero's name; + The dying chords are strung anew, + To war, to war, my harp is due: + With glowing strings, the Epic strain + To Jove's great son I raise again; + Alcides and his glorious deeds, + Beneath whose arm the Hydra bleeds; + All, all in vain; my wayward lyre + Wakes silver notes of soft Desire. + Adieu, ye Chiefs renown'd in arms! + Adieu the clang of War's alarms! [iii] + To other deeds my soul is strung, + And sweeter notes shall now be sung; + My harp shall all its powers reveal, + To tell the tale my heart must feel; + Love, Love alone, my lyre shall claim, + In songs of bliss and sighs of flame. + + +[Footnote 1: The motto does not appear in 'Hours of Idleness' or +'Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote i: 'I sought to tune'----.--['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'The chords resumed a second strain, + To Jove's great son I strike again. + Alcides and his glorious deeds, + Beneath whose arm the Hydra bleeds'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'The Trumpet's blast with these accords + To sound the clash of hostile swords-- + Be mine the softer, sweeter care + To soothe the young and virgin Fair'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +FROM ANACREON. + +[Greek: Mesonuktiois poth h_opais, k.t.l.] [1] + + +ODE 3. + + + 'Twas now the hour when Night had driven + Her car half round yon sable heaven; + Boötes, only, seem'd to roll [i] + His Arctic charge around the Pole; + While mortals, lost in gentle sleep, + Forgot to smile, or ceas'd to weep: + At this lone hour the Paphian boy, + Descending from the realms of joy, + Quick to my gate directs his course, + And knocks with all his little force; + My visions fled, alarm'd I rose,-- + "What stranger breaks my blest repose?" + "Alas!" replies the wily child + In faltering accents sweetly mild; + "A hapless Infant here I roam, + Far from my dear maternal home. + Oh! shield me from the wintry blast! + The nightly storm is pouring fast. + No prowling robber lingers here; + A wandering baby who can fear?" + I heard his seeming artless tale, [ii] + I heard his sighs upon the gale: + My breast was never pity's foe, + But felt for all the baby's woe. + I drew the bar, and by the light + Young Love, the infant, met my sight; + His bow across his shoulders flung, + And thence his fatal quiver hung + (Ah! little did I think the dart + Would rankle soon within my heart). + With care I tend my weary guest, + His little fingers chill my breast; + His glossy curls, his azure wing, + Which droop with nightly showers, I wring; + His shivering limbs the embers warm; + And now reviving from the storm, + Scarce had he felt his wonted glow, + Than swift he seized his slender bow:-- + "I fain would know, my gentle host," + He cried, "if this its strength has lost; + I fear, relax'd with midnight dews, + The strings their former aid refuse." + With poison tipt, his arrow flies, + Deep in my tortur'd heart it lies: + Then loud the joyous Urchin laugh'd:-- + "My bow can still impel the shaft: + 'Tis firmly fix'd, thy sighs reveal it; + Say, courteous host, canst thou not feel it?" + + +[Footnote 1: The motto does not appear in 'Hours of Idleness' or +'Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote i: The Newstead MS. inserts-- + + 'No Moon in silver robe was seen + Nor e'en a trembling star between'.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Touched with the seeming artless tale + Compassion's tears o'er doubt prevail; + Methought I viewed him, cold and damp, + I trimmed anew my dying lamp, + Drew back the bar--and by the light + A pinioned Infant met my sight; + His bow across his shoulders slung, + And hence a gilded quiver hung; + With care I tend my weary guest, + His shivering hands by mine are pressed: + My hearth I load with embers warm + To dry the dew drops of the storm: + Drenched by the rain of yonder sky + The strings are weak--but let us try.' + +--['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + +THE EPISODE OF NISUS AND EURYALUS. [1] + +A PARAPHRASE FROM THE "ÆNEID," LIB. 9. + + + Nisus, the guardian of the portal, stood, + Eager to gild his arms with hostile blood; + Well skill'd, in fight, the quivering lance to wield, + Or pour his arrows thro' th' embattled field: + From Ida torn, he left his sylvan cave, [i] + And sought a foreign home, a distant grave. + To watch the movements of the Daunian host, + With him Euryalus sustains the post; + No lovelier mien adorn'd the ranks of Troy, + And beardless bloom yet grac'd the gallant boy; 10 + Though few the seasons of his youthful life, + As yet a novice in the martial strife, + 'Twas his, with beauty, Valour's gifts to share-- + A soul heroic, as his form was fair: + These burn with one pure flame of generous love; + In peace, in war, united still they move; + Friendship and Glory form their joint reward; + And, now, combin'd they hold their nightly guard. [ii] + + "What God," exclaim'd the first, "instils this fire? + Or, in itself a God, what great desire? 20 + My lab'ring soul, with anxious thought oppress'd, + Abhors this station of inglorious rest; + The love of fame with this can ill accord, + Be't mine to seek for glory with my sword. + See'st thou yon camp, with torches twinkling dim, + Where drunken slumbers wrap each lazy limb? + Where confidence and ease the watch disdain, + And drowsy Silence holds her sable reign? + Then hear my thought:--In deep and sullen grief + Our troops and leaders mourn their absent chief: 30 + Now could the gifts and promised prize be thine, + (The deed, the danger, and the fame be mine,) + Were this decreed, beneath yon rising mound, + Methinks, an easy path, perchance, were found; + Which past, I speed my way to Pallas' walls, + And lead Æneas from Evander's halls." + + With equal ardour fir'd, and warlike joy, + His glowing friend address'd the Dardan boy:-- + "These deeds, my Nisus, shalt thou dare alone? + Must all the fame, the peril, be thine own? 40 + Am I by thee despis'd, and left afar, + As one unfit to share the toils of war? + Not thus his son the great Opheltes taught: + Not thus my sire in Argive combats fought; + Not thus, when Ilion fell by heavenly hate, + I track'd Æneas through the walks of fate: + Thou know'st my deeds, my breast devoid of fear, + And hostile life-drops dim my gory spear. + Here is a soul with hope immortal burns, + And _life_, ignoble _life_, for _Glory_ spurns. [iii] 50 + Fame, fame is cheaply earn'd by fleeting breath: + The price of honour, is the sleep of death." + + Then Nisus:--"Calm thy bosom's fond alarms: [iv] + Thy heart beats fiercely to the din of arms. + More dear thy worth, and valour than my own, + I swear by him, who fills Olympus' throne! + So may I triumph, as I speak the truth, + And clasp again the comrade of my youth! + But should I fall,--and he, who dares advance + Through hostile legions, must abide by chance,-- 60 + If some Rutulian arm, with adverse blow, + Should lay the friend, who ever lov'd thee, low, + Live thou--such beauties I would fain preserve-- + Thy budding years a lengthen'd term deserve; + When humbled in the dust, let some one be, + Whose gentle eyes will shed one tear for me; + Whose manly arm may snatch me back by force, + Or wealth redeem, from foes, my captive corse; + Or, if my destiny these last deny, + If, in the spoiler's power, my ashes lie; 70 + Thy pious care may raise a simple tomb, + To mark thy love, and signalise my doom. + Why should thy doating wretched mother weep + Her only boy, reclin'd in endless sleep? + Who, for thy sake, the tempest's fury dar'd, + Who, for thy sake, war's deadly peril shar'd; + Who brav'd what woman never brav'd before, + And left her native, for the Latian shore." + + "In vain you damp the ardour of my soul," + Replied Euryalus; "it scorns controul; 80 + Hence, let us haste!"--their brother guards arose, + Rous'd by their call, nor court again repose; + The pair, buoy'd up on Hope's exulting wing, + Their stations leave, and speed to seek the king. + + Now, o'er the earth a solemn stillness ran, + And lull'd alike the cares of brute and man; + Save where the Dardan leaders, nightly, hold + Alternate converse, and their plans unfold. + On one great point the council are agreed, + An instant message to their prince decreed; 90 + Each lean'd upon the lance he well could wield, + And pois'd with easy arm his ancient shield; + When Nisus and his friend their leave request, + To offer something to their high behest. + With anxious tremors, yet unaw'd by fear, [v] + The faithful pair before the throne appear; + Iulus greets them; at his kind command, + The elder, first, address'd the hoary band. + + "With patience" (thus Hyrtacides began) + "Attend, nor judge, from youth, our humble plan. 100 + Where yonder beacons half-expiring beam, + Our slumbering foes of future conquest dream, [vi] + Nor heed that we a secret path have trac'd, + Between the ocean and the portal plac'd; + Beneath the covert of the blackening smoke, + Whose shade, securely, our design will cloak! + If you, ye Chiefs, and Fortune will allow, + We'll bend our course to yonder mountain's brow, + Where Pallas' walls, at distance, meet the sight, + Seen o'er the glade, when not obscur'd by night: 110 + Then shall Æneas in his pride return, + While hostile matrons raise their offspring's urn; + And Latian spoils, and purpled heaps of dead + Shall mark the havoc of our Hero's tread; + Such is our purpose, not unknown the way, + Where yonder torrent's devious waters stray; + Oft have we seen, when hunting by the stream, + The distant spires above the valleys gleam." + + Mature in years, for sober wisdom fam'd, + Mov'd by the speech, Alethes here exclaim'd,-- 120 + "Ye parent gods! who rule the fate of Troy, + Still dwells the Dardan spirit in the boy; + When minds, like these, in striplings thus ye raise, + Yours is the godlike act, be yours the praise; + In gallant youth, my fainting hopes revive, + And Ilion's wonted glories still survive." + Then in his warm embrace the boys he press'd, + And, quivering, strain'd them to his agéd breast; + With tears the burning cheek of each bedew'd, + And, sobbing, thus his first discourse renew'd:-- 130 + "What gift, my countrymen, what martial prize, + Can we bestow, which you may not despise? + Our Deities the first best boon have given-- + Internal virtues are the gift of Heaven. + What poor rewards can bless your deeds on earth, + Doubtless await such young, exalted worth; + Æneas and Ascanius shall combine + To yield applause far, far surpassing mine." + + Iulus then:--"By all the powers above! + By those Penates, who my country love! 140 + By hoary Vesta's sacred Fane, I swear, + My hopes are all in you, ye generous pair! + Restore my father, to my grateful sight, + And all my sorrows, yield to one delight. + Nisus! two silver goblets are thine own, + Sav'd from Arisba's stately domes o'erthrown; + My sire secured them on that fatal day, + Nor left such bowls an Argive robber's prey. + Two massy tripods, also, shall be thine, + Two talents polish'd from the glittering mine; 150 + An ancient cup, which Tyrian Dido gave, + While yet our vessels press'd the Punic wave: + But when the hostile chiefs at length bow down, + When great Æneas wears Hesperia's crown, + The casque, the buckler, and the fiery steed + Which Turnus guides with more than mortal speed, + Are thine; no envious lot shall then be cast, + I pledge my word, irrevocably past: + Nay more, twelve slaves, and twice six captive dames, + To soothe thy softer hours with amorous flames, 160 + And all the realms, which now the Latins sway, + The labours of to-night shall well repay. + But thou, my generous youth, whose tender years + Are near my own, whose worth my heart reveres, + Henceforth, affection, sweetly thus begun, + Shall join our bosoms and our souls in one; + Without thy aid, no glory shall be mine, + Without thy dear advice, no great design; + Alike, through life, esteem'd, thou godlike boy, + In war my bulwark, and in peace my joy." 170 + + To him Euryalus:--"No day shall shame + The rising glories which from this I claim. + Fortune may favour, or the skies may frown, + But valour, spite of fate, obtains renown. + Yet, ere from hence our eager steps depart, + One boon I beg, the nearest to my heart: + My mother, sprung from Priam's royal line, + Like thine ennobled, hardly less divine, + Nor Troy nor king Acestes' realms restrain + Her feeble age from dangers of the main; 180 + Alone she came, all selfish fears above, [vii] + A bright example of maternal love. + Unknown, the secret enterprise I brave, + Lest grief should bend my parent to the grave; + From this alone no fond adieus I seek, + No fainting mother's lips have press'd my cheek; + By gloomy Night and thy right hand I vow, + Her parting tears would shake my purpose now: [viii] + Do thou, my prince, her failing age sustain, + In thee her much-lov'd child may live again; 190 + Her dying hours with pious conduct bless, + Assist her wants, relieve her fond distress: + So dear a hope must all my soul enflame, [ix] + To rise in glory, or to fall in fame." + Struck with a filial care so deeply felt, + In tears at once the Trojan warriors melt; + Faster than all, Iulus' eyes o'erflow! + Such love was his, and such had been his woe. + "All thou hast ask'd, receive," the Prince replied; + "Nor this alone, but many a gift beside. 200 + To cheer thy mother's years shall be my aim, + Creusa's [2] style but wanting to the dame; + Fortune an adverse wayward course may run, + But bless'd thy mother in so dear a son. + Now, by my life!--my Sire's most sacred oath-- + To thee I pledge my full, my firmest troth, + All the rewards which once to thee were vow'd, [x] + If thou should'st fall, on her shall be bestow'd." + Thus spoke the weeping Prince, then forth to view + A gleaming falchion from the sheath he drew; 210 + Lycaon's utmost skill had grac'd the steel, + For friends to envy and for foes to feel: + A tawny hide, the Moorish lion's spoil, [xi] + Slain 'midst the forest in the hunter's toil, + Mnestheus to guard the elder youth bestows, [xii] + And old Alethes' casque defends his brows; + Arm'd, thence they go, while all th' assembl'd train, + To aid their cause, implore the gods in vain. [xiii] + More than a boy, in wisdom and in grace, + Iulus holds amidst the chiefs his place: 220 + His prayer he sends; but what can prayers avail, + Lost in the murmurs of the sighing gale? [xiv] + + The trench is pass'd, and favour'd by the night, + Through sleeping foes, they wheel their wary flight. + When shall the sleep of many a foe be o'er? + Alas! some slumber, who shall wake no more! + Chariots and bridles, mix'd with arms, are seen, + And flowing flasks, and scatter'd troops between: + Bacchus and Mars, to rule the camp, combine; + A mingled Chaos this of war and wine. 230 + "Now," cries the first, "for deeds of blood prepare, + With me the conquest and the labour share: + Here lies our path; lest any hand arise, + Watch thou, while many a dreaming chieftain dies; + I'll carve our passage, through the heedless foe, + And clear thy road, with many a deadly blow." + His whispering accents then the youth repress'd, + And pierced proud Rhamnes through his panting breast: + Stretch'd at his ease, th' incautious king repos'd; + Debauch, and not fatigue, his eyes had clos'd; 240 + To Turnus dear, a prophet and a prince, + His omens more than augur's skill evince; + But he, who thus foretold the fate of all, + Could not avert his own untimely fall. + Next Remus' armour-bearer, hapless, fell, + And three unhappy slaves the carnage swell; + The charioteer along his courser's sides + Expires, the steel his sever'd neck divides; + And, last, his Lord is number'd with the dead: + Bounding convulsive, flies the gasping head; 250 + From the swol'n veins the blackening torrents pour; + Stain'd is the couch and earth with clotting gore. + Young Lamyrus and Lamus next expire, + And gay Serranus, fill'd with youthful fire; + Half the long night in childish games was pass'd; [xv] + Lull'd by the potent grape, he slept at last: + Ah! happier far, had he the morn survey'd, + And, till Aurora's dawn, his skill display'd. [xvi] + In slaughter'd folds, the keepers lost in sleep, [xvii] + His hungry fangs a lion thus may steep; 260 + 'Mid the sad flock, at dead of night he prowls, + With murder glutted, and in carnage rolls + Insatiate still, through teeming herds he roams; [xviii] + In seas of gore, the lordly tyrant foams. + + Nor less the other's deadly vengeance came, + But falls on feeble crowds without a name; + His wound unconscious Fadus scarce can feel, + Yet wakeful Rhæsus sees the threatening steel; + His coward breast behind a jar he hides, + And, vainly, in the weak defence confides; 270 + Full in his heart, the falchion search'd his veins, + The reeking weapon bears alternate stains; + Through wine and blood, commingling as they flow, + One feeble spirit seeks the shades below. + Now where Messapus dwelt they bend their way, + Whose fires emit a faint and trembling ray; + There, unconfin'd, behold each grazing steed, + Unwatch'd, unheeded, on the herbage feed: [xix] + Brave Nisus here arrests his comrade's arm, + Too flush'd with carnage, and with conquest warm: 280 + "Hence let us haste, the dangerous path is pass'd; + Full foes enough, to-night, have breath'd their last: + Soon will the Day those Eastern clouds adorn; + Now let us speed, nor tempt the rising morn." + + What silver arms, with various art emboss'd, + What bowls and mantles, in confusion toss'd, + They leave regardless! yet one glittering prize + Attracts the younger Hero's wandering eyes; + The gilded harness Rhamnes' coursers felt, + The gems which stud the monarch's golden belt: 290 + This from the pallid corse was quickly torn, + Once by a line of former chieftains worn. + Th' exulting boy the studded girdle wears, + Messapus' helm his head, in triumph, bears; + Then from the tents their cautious steps they bend, + To seek the vale, where safer paths extend. + + Just at this hour, a band of Latian horse + To Turnus' camp pursue their destin'd course: + While the slow foot their tardy march delay, + The knights, impatient, spur along the way: 300 + Three hundred mail-clad men, by Volscens led, + To Turnus with their master's promise sped: + Now they approach the trench, and view the walls, + When, on the left, a light reflection falls; + The plunder'd helmet, through the waning night, + Sheds forth a silver radiance, glancing bright; + Volscens, with question loud, the pair alarms:-- + "Stand, Stragglers! stand! why early thus in arms? + From whence? to whom?"--He meets with no reply; + Trusting the covert of the night, they fly: 310 + The thicket's depth, with hurried pace, they tread, + While round the wood the hostile squadron spread. + + With brakes entangled, scarce a path between, + Dreary and dark appears the sylvan scene: + Euryalus his heavy spoils impede, + The boughs and winding turns his steps mislead; + But Nisus scours along the forest's maze, + To where Latinus' steeds in safety graze, + Then backward o'er the plain his eyes extend, + On every side they seek his absent friend. 320 + "O God! my boy," he cries, "of me bereft, [xx] + In what impending perils art thou left!" + Listening he runs--above the waving trees, + Tumultuous voices swell the passing breeze; + The war-cry rises, thundering hoofs around + Wake the dark echoes of the trembling ground. + Again he turns--of footsteps hears the noise-- + The sound elates--the sight his hope destroys: + The hapless boy a ruffian train surround, [xxi] + While lengthening shades his weary way confound; 330 + Him, with loud shouts, the furious knights pursue, + Struggling in vain, a captive to the crew. [xxii] + What can his friend 'gainst thronging numbers dare? + Ah! must he rush, his comrade's fate to share? + What force, what aid, what stratagem essay, + Back to redeem the Latian spoiler's prey? + His life a votive ransom nobly give, + Or die with him, for whom he wish'd to live? + Poising with strength his lifted lance on high, + On Luna's orb he cast his frenzied eye:-- 340 + + "Goddess serene, transcending every star! [xxiii] + Queen of the sky, whose beams are seen afar! + By night Heaven owns thy sway, by day the grove, + When, as chaste Dian, here thou deign'st to rove; + If e'er myself, or Sire, have sought to grace + Thine altars, with the produce of the chase, + Speed, speed my dart to pierce yon vaunting crowd, + To free my friend, and scatter far the proud." + Thus having said, the hissing dart he flung; + Through parted shades the hurtling weapon sung; 350 + The thirsty point in Sulmo's entrails lay, + Transfix'd his heart, and stretch'd him on the clay: + He sobs, he dies,--the troop in wild amaze, + Unconscious whence the death, with horror gaze; + While pale they stare, thro' Tagus' temples riven, + A second shaft, with equal force is driven: + Fierce Volscens rolls around his lowering eyes; + Veil'd by the night, secure the Trojan lies. [xxiv] + Burning with wrath, he view'd his soldiers fall. + "Thou youth accurst, thy life shall pay for all!" 360 + Quick from the sheath his flaming glaive he drew, + And, raging, on the boy defenceless flew. + Nisus, no more the blackening shade conceals, + Forth, forth he starts, and all his love reveals; + Aghast, confus'd, his fears to madness rise, + And pour these accents, shrieking as he flies; + "Me, me,--your vengeance hurl on me alone; + Here sheathe the steel, my blood is all your own; + Ye starry Spheres! thou conscious Heaven! attest! + He could not--durst not--lo! the guile confest! 370 + All, all was mine,--his early fate suspend; + He only lov'd, too well, his hapless friend: + Spare, spare, ye Chiefs! from him your rage remove; + His fault was friendship, all his crime was love." + He pray'd in vain; the dark assassin's sword + Pierced the fair side, the snowy bosom gor'd; + Lowly to earth inclines his plume-clad crest, + And sanguine torrents mantle o'er his breast: + As some young rose whose blossom scents the air, + Languid in death, expires beneath the share; 380 + Or crimson poppy, sinking with the shower, + Declining gently, falls a fading flower; + Thus, sweetly drooping, bends his lovely head, + And lingering Beauty hovers round the dead. + + But fiery Nisus stems the battle's tide, + Revenge his leader, and Despair his guide; [xxv] + Volscens he seeks amidst the gathering host, + Volscens must soon appease his comrade's ghost; + Steel, flashing, pours on steel, foe crowds on foe; + Rage nerves his arm, Fate gleams in every blow; 390 + In vain beneath unnumber'd wounds he bleeds, + Nor wounds, nor death, distracted Nisus heeds; + In viewless circles wheel'd his falchion flies, + Nor quits the hero's grasp till Volscens dies; + Deep in his throat its end the weapon found, + The tyrant's soul fled groaning through the wound. [xxvi] + Thus Nisus all his fond affection prov'd-- + Dying, revenged the fate of him he lov'd; + Then on his bosom sought his wonted place, [xxvii] + And death was heavenly, in his friend's embrace! 400 + + Celestial pair! if aught my verse can claim, + Wafted on Time's broad pinion, yours is fame! [xxviii] + Ages on ages shall your fate admire, + No future day shall see your names expire, + While stands the Capitol, immortal dome! + And vanquished millions hail their Empress, Rome! + + +[Footnote 1: Lines 1-18 were first published in 'P. on V. Occasions', +under the title of "Fragment of a Translation from the 9th Book of +Virgil's 'Æneid'."] + +[Footnote 2: The mother of Iulus, lost on the night when Troy was +taken.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Him Ida sent, a hunter, now no more, + To combat foes, upon a foreign shore; + Near him, the loveliest of the Trojan band, + Did fair Euryalus, his comrade, stand; + Few are the seasons of his youthful life, + As yet a novice in the martial strife: + The Gods to him unwonted gifts impart, + A female's beatify, with a hero's heart. + +['P. on V. Occasions.'] + + From Ida torn he left his native grove, + Through distant climes, and trackless seas to rove.' + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'And now combin'd, the massy gate they guard'. + +['P. on V. Occasions'.] + + --they hold the nightly guard'. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + And Love, and Life alike the glory spurned. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + Then Nisus, "Ah, my friend--why thus suspect + Thy youthful breast admits of no defect." + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + Trembling with diffidence not awed by fear. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + The vain Rutulians lost in slumber dream. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Hither she came------. + +['Hours of Idleness.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'Her falling tears------. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'With this assurance Fate's attempts are vain; + Fearless I dare the foes of yonder plain. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'That all the gifts which once to thee were vowed. + +['MS. Newstead'.] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'A tawny skin the furious lion's spoil. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'Mnestheus presented, and the Warrior's mask + Alethes gave a doubly temper'd casque. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'To glad their journey, follow them in vain. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'Dispersed and scattered on the sighing gale. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'By Bacchus' potent draught weigh'd down at last + Half the long night in childish games was past. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + '--disportive play'd. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + By hunger prest, the keeper lull'd to sleep + In slaughter thus a Lyon's fangs may steep. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + Through teeming herds unchecked, unawed, he roams. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xix: + + Heedless of danger on the herbage feed. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + ----'of thee bereft + In what dire perils is my brother left.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxi: + + Then his lov'd boy the ruffian band surround + Entangled in the tufted Forest ground. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxii: + + 'At length a captive to the hostile crew'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxiii: + + 'The Goddess bright transcending every star'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxiv: + + 'No object meets them but the earth and skies. + He burns for vengeance, rising in his wrath-- + Then you, accursed, thy life shall pay for both; + Then from the sheath his flaming brand he drew, + And on the raging boy defenceless flew. + Nisus no more the blackening shade conceals, + Forth forth he rushed and all his love reveals; + Pale and confused his fear to madness grows, + And thus in accents mild he greets his Foes. + "On me, on me, direct your impious steel, + Let me and me alone your vengeance feel-- + Let not a stripling's blood by Chiefs be spilt, + Be mine the Death, as mine was all the guilt. + By Heaven and Hell, the powers of Earth and Air. + Yon guiltless stripling neither could nor dare: + Spare him, oh! spare by all the Gods above, + A hapless boy whose only crime was Love." + He prayed in vain; the fierce assassin's sword + Pierced the fair side, the snowy bosom gored; + Drooping to earth inclines his lovely head, + O'er his fair curls, the purpling stream is spread. + As some sweet lily, by the ploughshare broke + Languid in Death, sinks down beneath the stroke; + Or, as some poppy, bending with the shower, + Gently declining falls a waning flower'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxv: + + 'Revenge his object'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvi: + + 'The assassin's soul'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvii: + + 'Then on his breast he sought his wonted place, + And Death was lovely in his Friend's embrace'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xxviii: + + 'Yours are the fairest wreaths of endless Fame.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM THE "MEDEA" OF EURIPIDES [Ll. 627-660]. + +[Greek: Erotes hyper men agan, K.T.L.[1]] + + +1. + + When fierce conflicting passions urge + The breast, where love is wont to glow, + What mind can stem the stormy surge + Which rolls the tide of human woe? + The hope of praise, the dread of shame, + Can rouse the tortur'd breast no more; + The wild desire, the guilty flame, + Absorbs each wish it felt before. + + +2. + + But if affection gently thrills + The soul, by purer dreams possest, + The pleasing balm of mortal ills + In love can soothe the aching breast: + If thus thou comest in disguise, [i] + Fair Venus! from thy native heaven, + What heart, unfeeling, would despise + The sweetest boon the Gods have given? + + +3. + + But, never from thy golden bow, + May I beneath the shaft expire! + Whose creeping venom, sure and slow, + Awakes an all-consuming fire: + Ye racking doubts! ye jealous fears! + With others wage internal war; + Repentance! source of future tears, + From me be ever distant far! + + +4. + + May no distracting thoughts destroy + The holy calm of sacred love! + May all the hours be winged with joy, + Which hover faithful hearts above! + Fair Venus! on thy myrtle shrine + May I with some fond lover sigh! + Whose heart may mingle pure with mine, + With me to live, with me to die! + + +5. + + My native soil! belov'd before, + Now dearer, as my peaceful home, + Ne'er may I quit thy rocky shore, + A hapless banish'd wretch to roam! + This very day, this very hour, + May I resign this fleeting breath! + Nor quit my silent humble bower; + A doom, to me, far worse than death. + + +6. + + Have I not heard the exile's sigh, + And seen the exile's silent tear, + Through distant climes condemn'd to fly, + A pensive, weary wanderer here? + Ah! hapless dame! [2] no sire bewails, + No friend thy wretched fate deplores, + No kindred voice with rapture hails + Thy steps within a stranger's doors. + + +7. + + Perish the fiend! whose iron heart + To fair affection's truth unknown, + Bids her he fondly lov'd depart, + Unpitied, helpless, and alone; + Who ne'er unlocks with silver key, [3] + The milder treasures of his soul; + May such a friend be far from me, + And Ocean's storms between us roll! + + +[Footnote 1: The Greek heading does not appear in 'Hours of Idleness' or +'Poems O. and T'.] + +[Footnote 2: Medea, who accompanied Jason to Corinth, was deserted by +him for the daughter of Creon, king of that city. The chorus, from which +this is taken, here addresses Medea; though a considerable liberty is +taken with the original, by expanding the idea, as also in some other +parts of the translation.] + +[Footnote 3: The original is [Greek: katharan anoixanta klaeda +phren_on,] literally "disclosing the bright key of the mind."] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'If thus thou com'st in gentle guise'. + +['Hours of Idleness'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +LACHIN Y GAIR. [1] + + +1. + + Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses! + In you let the minions of luxury rove: + Restore me the rocks, where the snow-flake reposes, + Though still they are sacred to freedom and love: + Yet, Caledonia, belov'd are thy mountains, + Round their white summits though elements war: + Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth-flowing fountains, + I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Garr. + + +2. + + Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy, wander'd: + My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid; [2] + On chieftains, long perish'd, my memory ponder'd, + As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade; + I sought not my home, till the day's dying glory + Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star; + For fancy was cheer'd, by traditional story, + Disclos'd by the natives of dark Loch na Garr. + + +3. + + "Shades of the dead! have I not heard your voices + Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?" + Surely, the soul of the hero rejoices, + And rides on the wind, o'er his own Highland vale! + Round Loch na Garr, while the stormy mist gathers, + Winter presides in his cold icy car: + Clouds, there, encircle the forms of my Fathers; + They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch na Garr. + + +4. + + "Ill starr'd, [3] though brave, did no visions foreboding + Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause?" + Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden, [4] + Victory crown'd not your fall with applause: + Still were you happy, in death's earthy slumber, + You rest with your clan, in the caves of Braemar; [5] + The Pibroch [6] resounds, to the piper's loud number, + Your deeds, on the echoes of dark Loch na Garr. + + +5. + + Years have roll'd on, Loch na Garr, since I left you, + Years must elapse, ere I tread you again: + Nature of verdure and flowers has bereft you, + Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain: + England! thy beauties are tame and domestic, + To one who has rov'd on the mountains afar: + Oh! for the crags that are wild and majestic, + The steep, frowning glories of dark Loch na Garr. [7] + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Lachin y Gair', or, as it is pronounced in the Erse, 'Loch +na Garr', towers proudly pre-eminent in the Northern Highlands, near +Invercauld. One of our modern tourists mentions it as the highest +mountain, perhaps, in Great Britain. Be this as it may, it is certainly +one of the most sublime and picturesque amongst our "Caledonian Alps." +Its appearance is of a dusky hue, but the summit is the seat of eternal +snows. Near Lachin y Gair I spent some of the early part of my life, the +recollection of which has given birth to the following stanzas. +[Prefixed to the poem in 'Hours of Idleness' and 'Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote 2: This word is erroneously pronounced 'plad'; the proper +pronunciation (according to the Scotch) is shown by the orthography.] + +[Footnote 3: I allude here to my maternal ancestors, "the Gordons," many +of whom fought for the unfortunate Prince Charles, better known by the +name of the Pretender. This branch was nearly allied by blood, as well +as attachment, to the Stuarts. George, the second Earl of Huntley, +married the Princess Annabella Stuart, daughter of James I. of Scotland. +By her he left four sons: the third, Sir William Gordon, I have the +honour to claim as one of my progenitors.] + +[Footnote 4: Whether any perished in the Battle of Culloden, I am not +certain; but, as many fell in the insurrection, I have used the name of +the principal action, "pars pro toto."] + +[Footnote 5: A tract of the Highlands so called. There is also a Castle +of Braemar.] + +[Footnote 6: The Bagpipe.--'Hours of Idleness'. (See note, p. 133.)] + +[Footnote 7: The love of mountains to the last made Byron + + "Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face, + And Loch na Garr with Ida looked o'er Troy." + +'The Island' (1823), Canto II. stanza xii.] + + + + + + +TO ROMANCE. + + +1. + + Parent of golden dreams, Romance! + Auspicious Queen of childish joys, + Who lead'st along, in airy dance, + Thy votive train of girls and boys; + At length, in spells no longer bound, + I break the fetters of my youth; + No more I tread thy mystic round, + But leave thy realms for those of Truth. + + +2. + + And yet 'tis hard to quit the dreams + Which haunt the unsuspicious soul, + Where every nymph a goddess seems, [i] + Whose eyes through rays immortal roll; + While Fancy holds her boundless reign, + And all assume a varied hue; + When Virgins seem no longer vain, + And even Woman's smiles are true. + + +3. + + And must we own thee, but a name, + And from thy hall of clouds descend? + Nor find a Sylph in every dame, + A Pylades [1] in every friend? + But leave, at once, thy realms of air [ii] + To mingling bands of fairy elves; + Confess that woman's false as fair, + And friends have feeling for--themselves? + + +4. + + With shame, I own, I've felt thy sway; + Repentant, now thy reign is o'er; + No more thy precepts I obey, + No more on fancied pinions soar; + Fond fool! to love a sparkling eye, + And think that eye to truth was dear; + To trust a passing wanton's sigh, + And melt beneath a wanton's tear! + + +5. + + Romance! disgusted with deceit, + Far from thy motley court I fly, + Where Affectation holds her seat, + And sickly Sensibility; + Whose silly tears can never flow + For any pangs excepting thine; + Who turns aside from real woe, + To steep in dew thy gaudy shrine. + + +6. + + Now join with sable Sympathy, + With cypress crown'd, array'd in weeds, + Who heaves with thee her simple sigh, + Whose breast for every bosom bleeds; + And call thy sylvan female choir, + To mourn a Swain for ever gone, + Who once could glow with equal fire, + But bends not now before thy throne. + + +7. + + Ye genial Nymphs, whose ready tears [iii] + On all occasions swiftly flow; + Whose bosoms heave with fancied fears, + With fancied flames and phrenzy glow + Say, will you mourn my absent name, + Apostate from your gentle train? + An infant Bard, at least, may claim + From you a sympathetic strain. + + +8. + + Adieu, fond race! a long adieu! + The hour of fate is hovering nigh; + E'en now the gulf appears in view, + Where unlamented you must lie: [iv] + Oblivion's blackening lake is seen, + Convuls'd by gales you cannot weather, + Where you, and eke your gentle queen, + Alas! must perish altogether. + + +[Footnote 1: It is hardly necessary to add, that Pylades was the +companion of Orestes, and a partner in one of those friendships which, +with those of Achilles and Patroclus, Nisus and Euryalus, Damon and +Pythias, have been handed down to posterity as remarkable instances of +attachments, which in all probability never existed beyond the +imagination of the poet, or the page of an historian, or modern +novelist.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Where every girl--.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'But quit at once thy realms of air + Thy mingling--.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Auspicious bards--.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Where you are doomed in death to lie.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + +THE DEATH OF CALMAR AND ORLA. [1] + +AN IMITATION OF MACPHERSON'S "OSSIAN". [2] + + +Dear are the days of youth! Age dwells on their remembrance through the +mist of time. In the twilight he recalls the sunny hours of morn. He +lifts his spear with trembling hand. "Not thus feebly did I raise the +steel before my fathers!" Past is the race of heroes! But their fame +rises on the harp; their souls ride on the wings of the wind; they hear +the sound through the sighs of the storm, and rejoice in their hall of +clouds. Such is Calmar. The grey stone marks his narrow house. He looks +down from eddying tempests: he rolls his form in the whirlwind, and +hovers on the blast of the mountain. + +In Morven dwelt the Chief; a beam of war to Fingal. His steps in the +field were marked in blood. Lochlin's sons had fled before his angry +spear; [i] but mild was the eye of Calmar; soft was the flow of his +yellow locks: they streamed like the meteor of the night. No maid was +the sigh of his soul: his thoughts were given to friendship,--to +dark-haired Orla, destroyer of heroes! Equal were their swords in +battle; but fierce was the pride of Orla:--gentle alone to Calmar. +Together they dwelt in the cave of Oithona. + +From Lochlin, Swaran bounded o'er the blue waves. Erin's sons fell +beneath his might. Fingal roused his chiefs to combat. [ii] Their ships +cover the ocean! Their hosts throng on the green hills. They come to the +aid of Erin. + +Night rose in clouds. Darkness veils the armies. But the blazing oaks +gleam through the valley. [iii] The sons of Lochlin slept: their dreams +were of blood. They lift the spear in thought, and Fingal flies. Not so +the Host of Morven. To watch was the post of Orla. Calmar stood by his +side. Their spears were in their hands. Fingal called his chiefs: they +stood around. The king was in the midst. Grey were his locks, but strong +was the arm of the king. Age withered not his powers. "Sons of Morven," +said the hero, "to-morrow we meet the foe. But where is Cuthullin, the +shield of Erin? He rests in the halls of Tura; he knows not of our +coming. Who will speed through Lochlin, to the hero, and call the chief +to arms? The path is by the swords of foes; but many are my heroes. They +are thunderbolts of war. Speak, ye chiefs! Who will arise?" + +"Son of Trenmor! mine be the deed," said dark-haired Orla, "and mine +alone. What is death to me? I love the sleep of the mighty, but little +is the danger. The sons of Lochlin dream. I will seek car-borne +Cuthullin. If I fall, raise the song of bards; and lay me by the stream +of Lubar."--"And shalt thou fall alone?" said fair-haired Calmar. "Wilt +thou leave thy friend afar? Chief of Oithona! not feeble is my arm in +fight. Could I see thee die, and not lift the spear? No, Orla! ours has +been the chase of the roebuck, and the feast of shells; ours be the path +of danger: ours has been the cave of Oithona; ours be the narrow +dwelling on the banks of Lubar."--"Calmar," said the chief of Oithona, +"why should thy yellow locks be darkened in the dust of Erin? Let me +fall alone. My father dwells in his hall of air: he will rejoice in his +boy; but the blue-eyed Mora spreads the feast for her Son in Morven. She +listens to the steps of the hunter on the heath, and thinks it is the +tread of Calmar. Let her not say, 'Calmar has fallen by the steel of +Lochlin: he died with gloomy Orla, the chief of the dark brow.' Why +should tears dim the azure eye of Mora? Why should her voice curse Orla, +the destroyer of Calmar? Live Calmar! Live to raise my stone of moss; +live to revenge me in the blood of Lochlin. Join the song of bards above +my grave. Sweet will be the song of Death to Orla, from the voice of +Calmar. My ghost shall smile on the notes of Praise." "Orla," said the +son of Mora, "could I raise the song of Death to my friend? Could I give +his fame to the winds? No, my heart would speak in sighs: faint and +broken are the sounds of sorrow. Orla! our souls shall hear the song +together. One cloud shall be ours on high: the bards will mingle the +names of Orla and Calmar." + +They quit the circle of the Chiefs. Their steps are to the Host of +Lochlin. The dying blaze of oak dim-twinkles through the night. The +northern star points the path to Tura. Swaran, the King, rests on his +lonely hill. Here the troops are mixed: they frown in sleep; their +shields beneath their heads. Their swords gleam, at distance in heaps. +The fires are faint; their embers fail in smoke. All is hushed; but the +gale sighs on the rocks above. Lightly wheel the Heroes through the +slumbering band. Half the journey is past, when Mathon, resting on his +shield, meets the eye of Orla. It rolls in flame, and glistens through +the shade. His spear is raised on high. "Why dost thou bend thy brow, +chief of Oithona?" said fair-haired Calmar: "we are in the midst of +foes. Is this a time for delay?" "It is a time for vengeance," said Orla +of the gloomy brow. "Mathon of Lochlin sleeps: seest thou his spear? Its +point is dim with the gore of my father. The blood of Mathon shall reek +on mine: but shall I slay him sleeping, Son of Mora? No! he shall feel +his wound: my fame shall not soar on the blood of slumber. Rise, Mathon, +rise! The Son of Conna calls; thy life is his; rise to combat." Mathon +starts from sleep: but did he rise alone? No: the gathering Chiefs bound +on the plain. "Fly! Calmar, fly!" said dark-haired Orla. "Mathon is +mine. I shall die in joy: but Lochlin crowds around. Fly through the +shade of night." Orla turns. The helm of Mathon is cleft; his shield +falls from his arm: he shudders in his blood. [i] He rolls by the side +of the blazing oak. Strumon sees him fall: his wrath rises: his weapon +glitters on the head of Orla: but a spear pierced his eye. His brain +gushes through the wound, and foams on the spear of Calmar. As roll the +waves of the Ocean on two mighty barks of the North, so pour the men of +Lochlin on the Chiefs. As, breaking the surge in foam, proudly steer the +barks of the North, so rise the Chiefs of Morven on the scattered crests +of Lochlin. The din of arms came to the ear of Fingal. He strikes his +shield; his sons throng around; the people pour along the heath. Ryno +bounds in joy. Ossian stalks in his arms. Oscar shakes the spear. The +eagle wing of Fillan floats on the wind. Dreadful is the clang of death! +many are the Widows of Lochlin. Morven prevails in its strength. + +Morn glimmers on the hills: no living foe is seen; but the sleepers are +many; grim they lie on Erin. The breeze of Ocean lifts their locks; yet +they do not awake. The hawks scream above their prey. + +Whose yellow locks wave o'er the breast of a chief? Bright as the gold +of the stranger, they mingle with the dark hair of his friend. 'Tis +Calmar: he lies on the bosom of Orla. Theirs is one stream of blood. +Fierce is the look of the gloomy Orla. He breathes not; but his eye is +still a flame. It glares in death unclosed. His hand is grasped in +Calmar's; but Calmar lives! he lives, though low. "Rise," said the king, +"rise, son of Mora: 'tis mine to heal the wounds of Heroes. Calmar may +yet bound on the hills of Morven." [v] + +"Never more shall Calmar chase the deer of Morven with Orla," said the +Hero. "What were the chase to me alone? Who would share the spoils of +battle with Calmar? Orla is at rest! Rough was thy soul, Orla! yet soft +to me as the dew of morn. It glared on others in lightning: to me a +silver beam of night. Bear my sword to blue-eyed Mora; let it hang in my +empty hall. It is not pure from blood: but it could not save Orla. Lay +me with my friend: raise the song when I am dark!" + +They are laid by the stream of Lubar. Four grey stones mark the dwelling +of Orla and Calmar. When Swaran was bound, our sails rose on the blue +waves. The winds gave our barks to Morven:--the bards raised the song. + +"What Form rises on the roar of clouds? Whose dark Ghost gleams on the +red streams of tempests? His voice rolls on the thunder. 'Tis Orla, the +brown Chief of Oithona. He was unmatched in war. Peace to thy soul, +Orla! thy fame will not perish. Nor thine, Calmar! Lovely wast thou, son +of blue-eyed Mora; but not harmless was thy sword. It hangs in thy cave. +The Ghosts of Lochlin shriek around its steel. Hear thy praise, Calmar! +It dwells on the voice of the mighty. Thy name shakes on the echoes of +Morven. Then raise thy fair locks, son of Mora. Spread them on the arch +of the rainbow, and smile through the tears of the storm. [3] + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. is preserved at Newstead.] + +[Footnote 2: It may be necessary to observe, that the story, though +considerably varied in the catastrophe, is taken from "Nisus and +Euryalus," of which episode a translation is already given in the +present volume [see pp. 151-168].] + +[Footnote 3: I fear Laing's late edition has completely overthrown every +hope that Macpherson's 'Ossian' might prove the translation of a series +of poems complete in themselves; but, while the imposture is discovered, +the merit of the work remains undisputed, though not without +faults--particularly, in some parts, turgid and bombastic diction.--The +present humble imitation will be pardoned by the admirers of the +original as an attempt, however inferior, which evinces an attachment to +their favourite author. [Malcolm Laing (1762-1818) published, in 1802, a +'History of Scotland, etc.', with a dissertation "on the supposed +authenticity of Ossian's Poems," and, in 1805, a work entitled 'The +Poems of Ossian, etc., containing the Poetical Works of James +Macpherson, Esq., in Prose and Rhyme, with Notes and Illustrations'.] + +[Footnote i: + + 'Erin's sons--'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'The horn of Fingal--'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + '--the fires gleam--'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'He trembles in his blood. He rolls convulsive.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + '--the mountain of Morven.' + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + +TO EDWARD NOEL LONG, ESQ. [i] [1] + + "Nil ego contulerim jucundo sanus amico."--HORACE. + + + Dear LONG, in this sequester'd scene, [ii] + While all around in slumber lie, + The joyous days, which ours have been + Come rolling fresh on Fancy's eye; + Thus, if, amidst the gathering storm, + While clouds the darken'd noon deform, + Yon heaven assumes a varied glow, + I hail the sky's celestial bow, + Which spreads the sign of future peace, + And bids the war of tempests cease. + Ah! though the present brings but pain, + I think those days may come again; + Or if, in melancholy mood, + Some lurking envious fear intrude, [iii] + To check my bosom's fondest thought, + And interrupt the golden dream, + I crush the fiend with malice fraught, + And, still, indulge my wonted theme. + Although we ne'er again can trace, + In Granta's vale, the pedant's lore, + Nor through the groves of Ida chase + Our raptured visions, as before; + Though Youth has flown on rosy pinion, + And Manhood claims his stern dominion, + Age will not every hope destroy, + But yield some hours of sober joy. + + Yes, I will hope that Time's broad wing + Will shed around some dews of spring: + But, if his scythe must sweep the flowers + Which bloom among the fairy bowers, + Where smiling Youth delights to dwell, + And hearts with early rapture swell; + If frowning Age, with cold controul, + Confines the current of the soul, + Congeals the tear of Pity's eye, + Or checks the sympathetic sigh, + Or hears, unmov'd, Misfortune's groan + And bids me feel for self alone; + Oh! may my bosom never learn + To soothe its wonted heedless flow; [iv] + Still, still, despise the censor stern, + But ne'er forget another's woe. + Yes, as you knew me in the days, + O'er which Remembrance yet delays, [v] + Still may I rove untutor'd, wild, + And even in age, at heart a child. [vi] + + Though, now, on airy visions borne, + To you my soul is still the same. + Oft has it been my fate to mourn, [vii] + And all my former joys are tame: + But, hence! ye hours of sable hue! + Your frowns are gone, my sorrows o'er: + By every bliss my childhood knew, + I'll think upon your shade no more. + Thus, when the whirlwind's rage is past, + And caves their sullen roar enclose [viii] + We heed no more the wintry blast, + When lull'd by zephyr to repose. + Full often has my infant Muse, + Attun'd to love her languid lyre; + But, now, without a theme to choose, + The strains in stolen sighs expire. + My youthful nymphs, alas! are flown; [ix] + E----is a wife, and C----a mother, + And Carolina sighs alone, + And Mary's given to another; + And Cora's eye, which roll'd on me, + Can now no more my love recall-- + In truth, dear LONG, 'twas time to flee--[x] + For Cora's eye will shine on all. + And though the Sun, with genial rays, + His beams alike to all displays, + And every lady's eye's a _sun_, + These last should be confin'd to one. + The soul's meridian don't become her, [xi] + Whose Sun displays a general _summer_! + Thus faint is every former flame, + And Passion's self is now a name; [xii] [xiii] + As, when the ebbing flames are low, + The aid which once improv'd their light, + And bade them burn with fiercer glow, + Now quenches all their sparks in night; + Thus has it been with Passion's fires, + As many a boy and girl remembers, + While all the force of love expires, + Extinguish'd with the dying embers. + + But now, dear LONG, 'tis midnight's noon, + And clouds obscure the watery moon, + Whose beauties I shall not rehearse, + Describ'd in every stripling's verse; + For why should I the path go o'er + Which every bard has trod before? [xiv] + Yet ere yon silver lamp of night + Has thrice perform'd her stated round, + Has thrice retrac'd her path of light, + And chas'd away the gloom profound, + I trust, that we, my gentle Friend, + Shall see her rolling orbit wend, + Above the dear-lov'd peaceful seat, + Which once contain'd our youth's retreat; + And, then, with those our childhood knew, + We'll mingle in the festive crew; + While many a tale of former day + Shall wing the laughing hours away; + And all the flow of souls shall pour + The sacred intellectual shower, + Nor cease, till Luna's waning horn, + Scarce glimmers through the mist of Morn. + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. of these verses is at Newstead. Long was with Byron +at Harrow, and was the only one of his intimate friends who went up at +the same time as he did to Cambridge, where both were noted for feats of +swimming and diving. Long entered the Guards, and served in the +expedition to Copenhagen. He was drowned early in 1809, when on his way +to join the army in the Peninsula; the transport in which he sailed +being run down in the night by another of the convoy. "Long's father," +says Byron, "wrote to me to write his son's epitaph. I promised--but I +had not the heart to complete it. He was such a good, amiable being as +rarely remains long in this world; with talent and accomplishments, too, +to make him the more regretted."--'Diary', 1821; 'Life', p. 32. See also +memorandum ('Life', p. 31, col. ii.).] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To E. N. L. Esq.' + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.'] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Dear L----.' + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.'] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Some daring envious.' + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'its young romantic flow.' + + ['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'O'er which my fancy'--. + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Still may my breast to boyhood cleave, + With every early passion heave; + Still may I rove untutored, wild, + But never cease to seem a child.'-- + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Since we have met, I learnt to mourn.' + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'And caves their sullen war'--. + +['MS. Newstead.'] ] + + +[Footnote ix: + + '--thank Heaven are flown'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'In truth dear L----'. + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'The glances really don't become her'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'No more I linger on its name'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'And passion's self is but a name'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'And what's much worse than this I find + Have left their deepen'd tracks behind + Yet as yon'------. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY. [i] + + +1. + + Oh! had my Fate been join'd with thine, [1] + As once this pledge appear'd a token, + These follies had not, then, been mine, + For, then, my peace had not been broken. + + +2. + + To thee, these early faults I owe, + To thee, the wise and old reproving: + They know my sins, but do not know + 'Twas thine to break the bonds of loving. + + +3. + + For once my soul, like thine, was pure, + And all its rising fires could smother; + But, now, thy vows no more endure, + Bestow'd by thee upon another. [1] + + +4. + + Perhaps, his peace I could destroy, + And spoil the blisses that await him; + Yet let my Rival smile in joy, + For thy dear sake, I cannot hate him. + + +5. + + Ah! since thy angel form is gone, + My heart no more can rest with any; + But what it sought in thee alone, + Attempts, alas! to find in many. + + +6. + + Then, fare thee well, deceitful Maid! + 'Twere vain and fruitless to regret thee; + Nor Hope, nor Memory yield their aid, + But Pride may teach me to forget thee. + + +7. + + Yet all this giddy waste of years, + This tiresome round of palling pleasures; + These varied loves, these matrons' fears, + These thoughtless strains to Passion's measures-- + + +8. + + If thou wert mine, had all been hush'd:-- + This cheek, now pale from early riot, + With Passion's hectic ne'er had flush'd, + But bloom'd in calm domestic quiet. + + +9. + + Yes, once the rural Scene was sweet, + For Nature seem'd to smile before thee; + And once my Breast abhorr'd deceit,-- + For then it beat but to adore thee. + + +10. + + But, now, I seek for other joys-- + To think, would drive my soul to madness; + In thoughtless throngs, and empty noise, + I conquer half my Bosom's sadness. + + +11. + + Yet, even in these, a thought will steal, + In spite of every vain endeavour; + And fiends might pity what I feel-- + To know that thou art lost for ever. + + +[Footnote 1: These verses were addressed to Mrs. Chaworth Musters. +Byron wrote in 1822, + + "Our meetings were stolen ones. ... A gate leading from Mr. Chaworth's + grounds to those of my mother was the place of our interviews. The + ardour was all on my side. I was serious; she was volatile: she liked + me as a younger brother, and treated and laughed at me as a boy; she, + however, gave me her picture, and that was something to make verses + upon. Had I married her, perhaps, the whole tenour of my life would + have been different." + +Medwin's 'Conversations', 1824, p. 81.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _To------._ + +['Hours of Idleness. Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + +* * * * * * * * * + + + +POEMS ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED + + + + + +WHEN I ROVED A YOUNG HIGHLANDER. [i] + + +1. + + When I rov'd a young Highlander o'er the dark heath, + And climb'd thy steep summit, oh Morven of snow! [1] + To gaze on the torrent that thunder'd beneath, + Or the mist of the tempest that gather'd below; [2] + Untutor'd by science, a stranger to fear, + And rude as the rocks, where my infancy grew, + No feeling, save one, to my bosom was dear; + Need I say, my sweet Mary, [3] 'twas centred in you? + + +2. + + Yet it could not be Love, for I knew not the name,-- + What passion can dwell in the heart of a child? + But, still, I perceive an emotion the same + As I felt, when a boy, on the crag-cover'd wild: + One image, alone, on my bosom impress'd, + I lov'd my bleak regions, nor panted for new; + And few were my wants, for my wishes were bless'd, + And pure were my thoughts, for my soul was with you. + + +3. + + I arose with the dawn, with my dog as my guide, + From mountain to mountain I bounded along; + I breasted [4] the billows of Dee's [5] rushing tide, + And heard at a distance the Highlander's song: + At eve, on my heath-cover'd couch of repose. + No dreams, save of Mary, were spread to my view; + And warm to the skies my devotions arose, + For the first of my prayers was a blessing on you. + + +4. + + I left my bleak home, and my visions are gone; + The mountains are vanish'd, my youth is no more; + As the last of my race, I must wither alone, + And delight but in days, I have witness'd before: + Ah! splendour has rais'd, but embitter'd my lot; + More dear were the scenes which my infancy knew: + Though my hopes may have fail'd, yet they are not + forgot, + Though cold is my heart, still it lingers with you. + + +5. + + When I see some dark hill point its crest to the sky, + I think of the rocks that o'ershadow Colbleen; [6] + When I see the soft blue of a love-speaking eye, + I think of those eyes that endear'd the rude scene; + When, haply, some light-waving locks I behold, + That faintly resemble my Mary's in hue, + I think on the long flowing ringlets of gold, + The locks that were sacred to beauty, and you. + + +6. + + Yet the day may arrive, when the mountains once more + Shall rise to my sight, in their mantles of snow; + But while these soar above me, unchang'd as before, + Will Mary be there to receive me?--ah, no! + Adieu, then, ye hills, where my childhood was bred! + Thou sweet flowing Dee, to thy waters adieu! + No home in the forest shall shelter my head,-- + Ah! Mary, what home could be mine, but with you? + + +[Footnote 1: Morven, a lofty mountain in Aberdeenshire. "Gormal of snow" +is an expression frequently to be found in Ossian.] + +[Footnote 2: This will not appear extraordinary to those who have been +accustomed to the mountains. It is by no means uncommon, on attaining +the top of Ben-e-vis, Ben-y-bourd, etc., to perceive, between the summit +and the valley, clouds pouring down rain, and occasionally accompanied +by lightning, while the spectator literally looks down upon the storm, +perfectly secure from its effects.] + +[Footnote 3: Byron, in early youth, was "unco' wastefu'" of Marys. +There was his distant cousin, Mary Duff (afterwards Mrs. Robert +Cockburn), who lived not far from the "Plain-Stanes" at Aberdeen. Her +"brown, dark hair, and hazel eyes--her very dress," were long years +after "a perfect image" in his memory (_Life_, p. 9). Secondly, there +was the Mary of these stanzas, "with long-flowing ringlets of gold," the +"Highland Mary" of local tradition. She was (writes the Rev. J. Michie, +of The Manse, Dinnet) the daughter of James Robertson, of the farmhouse +of Ballatrich on Deeside, where Byron used to spend his summer holidays +(1796-98). She was of gentle birth, and through her mother, the daughter +of Captain Macdonald of Rineton, traced her descent to the Lord of the +Isles. "She died at Aberdeen, March 2, 1867, aged eighty-five years." A +third Mary (see "Lines to Mary," etc., p. 32) flits through the early +poems, evanescent but unspiritual. Last of all, there was Mary Anne +Chaworth, of Annesley (see "A Fragment," etc., p. 210; "The Adieu," st. +6, p. 239, etc.), whose marriage, in 1805, "threw him out again--alone +on a wide, wide sea" (Life, p. 85).] + +[Footnote 4: "Breasting the lofty surge" (Shakespeare).] + +[Footnote 5: The Dee is a beautiful river, which rises near Mar Lodge, +and falls into the sea at New Aberdeen.] + +[Footnote 6: Colbleen is a mountain near the verge of the Highlands, not +far from the ruins of Dee Castle.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _Song_. + +[_Poems O. and T._]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE DUKE OF DORSET. [i] [1] + + + Dorset! whose early steps with mine have stray'd, [ii] + Exploring every path of Ida's glade; + Whom, still, affection taught me to defend, + And made me less a tyrant than a friend, + Though the harsh custom of our youthful band + Bade _thee_ obey, and gave _me_ to command; [2] + Thee, on whose head a few short years will shower + The gift of riches, and the pride of power; + E'en now a name illustrious is thine own, + Renown'd in rank, not far beneath the throne. 10 + Yet, Dorset, let not this seduce thy soul [iii] + To shun fair science, or evade controul; + Though passive tutors, [3] fearful to dispraise + The titled child, whose future breath may raise, + View ducal errors with indulgent eyes, + And wink at faults they tremble to chastise. + When youthful parasites, who bend the knee + To wealth, their golden idol, not to thee,-- + And even in simple boyhood's opening dawn + Some slaves are found to flatter and to fawn,-- 20 + When these declare, "that pomp alone should wait + On one by birth predestin'd to be great; + That books were only meant for drudging fools, + That gallant spirits scorn the common rules;" + Believe them not,--they point the path to shame, + And seek to blast the honours of thy name: + Turn to the few in Ida's early throng, + Whose souls disdain not to condemn the wrong; + Or if, amidst the comrades of thy youth, + None dare to raise the sterner voice of truth, 30 + Ask thine own heart--'twill bid thee, boy, forbear! + For _well_ I know that virtue lingers there. + + Yes! I have mark'd thee many a passing day, + But now new scenes invite me far away; + Yes! I have mark'd within that generous mind + A soul, if well matur'd, to bless mankind; + Ah! though myself, by nature haughty, wild, + Whom Indiscretion hail'd her favourite child; + Though every error stamps me for her own, + And dooms my fall, I fain would fall alone; 40 + Though my proud heart no precept, now, can tame, + I love the virtues which I cannot claim. + + 'Tis not enough, with other sons of power, + To gleam the lambent meteor of an hour; + To swell some peerage page in feeble pride, + With long-drawn names that grace no page beside; + Then share with titled crowds the common lot-- + In life just gaz'd at, in the grave forgot; + While nought divides thee from the vulgar dead, + Except the dull cold stone that hides thy head, 50 + The mouldering 'scutcheon, or the Herald's roll, + That well-emblazon'd but neglected scroll, + Where Lords, unhonour'd, in the tomb may find + One spot, to leave a worthless name behind. + There sleep, unnotic'd as the gloomy vaults + That veil their dust, their follies, and their faults, + A race, with old armorial lists o'erspread, + In records destin'd never to be read. + Fain would I view thee, with prophetic eyes, + Exalted more among the good and wise; 60 + A glorious and a long career pursue, + As first in Rank, the first in Talent too: + Spurn every vice, each little meanness shun; + Not Fortune's minion, but her noblest son. + Turn to the annals of a former day; + Bright are the deeds thine earlier Sires display; + One, though a courtier, lived a man of worth, + And call'd, proud boast! the British drama forth. [4] + Another view! not less renown'd for Wit; + Alike for courts, and camps, or senates fit; 70 + Bold in the field, and favour'd by the Nine; + In every splendid part ordain'd to shine; + Far, far distinguished from the glittering throng, + The pride of Princes, and the boast of Song. [5] + Such were thy Fathers; thus preserve their name, + Not heir to titles only, but to Fame. + The hour draws nigh, a few brief days will close, + To me, this little scene of joys and woes; + Each knell of Time now warns me to resign + Shades where Hope, Peace, and Friendship all were mine: 80 + Hope, that could vary like the rainbow's hue, + And gild their pinions, as the moments flew; + Peace, that reflection never frown'd away, + By dreams of ill to cloud some future day; + Friendship, whose truth let Childhood only tell; + Alas! they love not long, who love so well. + + To these adieu! nor let me linger o'er + Scenes hail'd, as exiles hail their native shore, + Receding slowly, through the dark-blue deep, + Beheld by eyes that mourn, yet cannot weep. 90 + + Dorset, farewell! I will not ask one part [iv] + Of sad remembrance in so young a heart; + The coming morrow from thy youthful mind + Will sweep my name, nor leave a trace behind. + And, yet, perhaps, in some maturer year, + Since chance has thrown us in the self-same sphere, + Since the same senate, nay, the same debate, + May one day claim our suffrage for the state, + We hence may meet, and pass each other by + With faint regard, or cold and distant eye. 100 + For me, in future, neither friend nor foe, + A stranger to thyself, thy weal or woe-- + With thee no more again I hope to trace + The recollection of our early race; + No more, as once, in social hours rejoice, + Or hear, unless in crowds, thy well-known voice; + Still, if the wishes of a heart untaught + To veil those feelings, which, perchance, it ought, + If these,--but let me cease the lengthen'd strain,-- + Oh! if these wishes are not breath'd in vain, 110 + The Guardian Seraph who directs thy fate + Will leave thee glorious, as he found thee great. + + 1805. + + +[Footnote 1: In looking over my papers to select a few additional poems +for this second edition, I found the above lines, which I had totally +forgotten, composed in the summer of 1805, a short time previous to my +departure from H[arrow]. They were addressed to a young schoolfellow of +high rank, who had been my frequent companion in some rambles through +the neighbouring country: however, he never saw the lines, and most +probably never will. As, on a re-perusal, I found them not worse than +some other pieces in the collection, I have now published them, for the +first time, after a slight revision. [The foregoing note was prefixed to +the poem in 'Poems O. and T'. George John Frederick, 4th Duke of Dorset, +born 1793, was killed by a fall from his horse when hunting, in 1815, +while on a visit to his step-father the Earl of Whitworth, +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. (See Byron's letter to Moore, Feb. 22, +1815).]] + +[Footnote 2: At every public school the junior boys are completely +subservient to the upper forms till they attain a seat in the higher +classes. From this state of probation, very properly, no rank is exempt; +but after a certain period, they command in turn those who succeed.] + +[Footnote 3: Allow me to disclaim any personal allusions, even the most +distant. I merely mention generally what is too often the weakness of +preceptors.] + +[Footnote 4: "Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, was born in 1527. While +a student of the Inner Temple, he wrote his tragedy of 'Gorboduc', which +was played before Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall, in 1561. This tragedy, +and his contribution of the Induction and legend of the Duke of +Buckingham to the 'Mirrour for Magistraytes', compose the poetical +history of Sackville. The rest of it was political. In 1604, he was +created Earl of Dorset by James I. He died suddenly at the +council-table, in consequence of a dropsy on the brain."--'Specimens of +the British Poets', by Thomas Campbell, London, 1819, ii. 134, 'sq'.] + +[Footnote 5: Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset [1637-1706], esteemed the +most accomplished man of his day, was alike distinguished in the +voluptuous court of Charles II. and the gloomy one of William III. He +behaved with great gallantry in the sea-fight with the Dutch in 1665; on +the day previous to which he composed his celebrated song ["'To all you +Ladies now at Land'"]. His character has been drawn in the highest +colours by Dryden, Pope, Prior, and Congreve. 'Vide' Anderson's 'British +Poets', 1793, vi. 107, 108.] + + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To the Duke of D-----'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'D-r-t'-----. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + Yet D-r-t-----. + +['Poems O. and T.'] + +[Footnote iv: + + 'D--r--t farewell.' + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE EARL OF CLARE. [i] + + Tu semper amoris + Sis memor, et cari comitis ne abscedat imago. + + VAL. FLAC. 'Argonaut', iv. 36. + + +1. + + Friend of my youth! when young we rov'd, + Like striplings, mutually belov'd, + With Friendship's purest glow; + The bliss, which wing'd those rosy hours, + Was such as Pleasure seldom showers + On mortals here below. + + +2. + + The recollection seems, alone, + Dearer than all the joys I've known, + When distant far from you: + Though pain, 'tis still a pleasing pain, + To trace those days and hours again, + And sigh again, adieu! + + +3. + + My pensive mem'ry lingers o'er, + Those scenes to be enjoy'd no more, + Those scenes regretted ever; + The measure of our youth is full, + Life's evening dream is dark and dull, + And we may meet--ah! never! + + +4. + + As when one parent spring supplies + Two streams, which from one fountain rise, + Together join'd in vain; + How soon, diverging from their source, + Each, murmuring, seeks another course, + Till mingled in the Main! + + +5. + + Our vital streams of weal or woe, + Though near, alas! distinctly flow, + Nor mingle as before: + Now swift or slow, now black or clear, + Till Death's unfathom'd gulph appear, + And both shall quit the shore. + + +6. + + Our souls, my Friend! which once supplied + One wish, nor breathed a thought beside, + Now flow in different channels: + Disdaining humbler rural sports, + 'Tis yours to mix in polish'd courts, + And shine in Fashion's annals; + + +7. + + 'Tis mine to waste on love my time, + Or vent my reveries in rhyme, + Without the aid of Reason; + For Sense and Reason (critics know it) + Have quitted every amorous Poet, + Nor left a thought to seize on. + + +8. + + Poor LITTLE! sweet, melodious bard! + Of late esteem'd it monstrous hard + That he, who sang before all; + He who the lore of love expanded, + By dire Reviewers should be branded, + As void of wit and moral. [1] + + +9. + + And yet, while Beauty's praise is thine, + Harmonious favourite of the Nine! + Repine not at thy lot. + Thy soothing lays may still be read, + When Persecution's arm is dead, + And critics are forgot. + + +10. + + Still I must yield those worthies merit + Who chasten, with unsparing spirit, + Bad rhymes, and those who write them: + And though myself may be the next + By critic sarcasm to be vext, + I really will not fight them. [2] + + +11. + + Perhaps they would do quite as well + To break the rudely sounding shell + Of such a young beginner: + He who offends at pert nineteen, + Ere thirty may become, I ween, + A very harden'd sinner. + + +12. + + Now, Clare, I must return to you; [ii] + And, sure, apologies are due: + Accept, then, my concession. + In truth, dear Clare, in Fancy's flight [iii] + I soar along from left to right; + My Muse admires digression. + + +13. + + I think I said 'twould be your fate + To add one star to royal state;-- + May regal smiles attend you! + And should a noble Monarch reign, + You will not seek his smiles in vain, + If worth can recommend you. + + +14. + + Yet since in danger courts abound, + Where specious rivals glitter round, + From snares may Saints preserve you; + And grant your love or friendship ne'er + From any claim a kindred care, + But those who best deserve you! + + +15. + + Not for a moment may you stray + From Truth's secure, unerring way! + May no delights decoy! + O'er roses may your footsteps move, + Your smiles be ever smiles of love, + Your tears be tears of joy! + + +16. + + Oh! if you wish that happiness + Your coming days and years may bless, + And virtues crown your brow; + Be still as you were wont to be, + Spotless as you've been known to me,-- + Be still as you are now. [3] + + +17. + + And though some trifling share of praise, + To cheer my last declining days, + To me were doubly dear; + Whilst blessing your beloved name, + I'd _waive_ at once a _Poet's_ fame, + To _prove_ a _Prophet_ here. + + +1807. + + +[Footnote 1: These stanzas were written soon after the appearance of a +severe critique in a northern review, on a new publication of the +British Anacreon. (Byron refers to the article in the 'Edinburgh +Review', of July, 1807, on "'Epistles, Odes, and other Poems', by Thomas +Little, Esq.")] + +[Footnote 2: A bard [Moore] ('Horresco referens') defied his reviewer +[Jeffrey] to mortal combat. If this example becomes prevalent, our +Periodical Censors must be dipped in the river Styx: for what else can +secure them from the numerous host of their enraged assailants? [Cf. +'English Bards', l. 466, 'note'.]] + +[Footnote 3: + + "Of all I have ever known, Clare has always been the least altered in + everything from the excellent qualities and kind affections which + attached me to him so strongly at school. I should hardly have thought + it possible for society (or the world, as it is called) to leave a + being with so little of the leaven of bad passions. I do not speak + from personal experience only, but from all I have ever heard of him + from others, during absence and distance." + +'Detached Thoughts', Nov. 5, 1821; 'Life', p. 540.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To the Earl of-----'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Now----I must'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'In truth dear----in fancy's flight'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +I WOULD I WERE A CARELESS CHILD. [i] + + +1 + + I would I were a careless child, + Still dwelling in my Highland cave, + Or roaming through the dusky wild, + Or bounding o'er the dark blue wave; + The cumbrous pomp of Saxon [1] pride, + Accords not with the freeborn soul, + Which loves the mountain's craggy side, + And seeks the rocks where billows roll. + + +2. + + Fortune! take back these cultur'd lands, + Take back this name of splendid sound! + I hate the touch of servile hands, + I hate the slaves that cringe around: + Place me among the rocks I love, + Which sound to Ocean's wildest roar; + I ask but this--again to rove + Through scenes my youth hath known before. + + +3. + + Few are my years, and yet I feel + The World was ne'er design'd for me: + Ah! why do dark'ning shades conceal + The hour when man must cease to be? + Once I beheld a splendid dream, + A visionary scene of bliss: + Truth!--wherefore did thy hated beam + Awake me to a world like this? + + +4. + + I lov'd--but those I lov'd are gone; + Had friends--my early friends are fled: + How cheerless feels the heart alone, + When all its former hopes are dead! + Though gay companions, o'er the bowl + Dispel awhile the sense of ill; + Though Pleasure stirs the maddening soul, + The heart--the heart--is lonely still. + + +5. + + How dull! to hear the voice of those + Whom Rank or Chance, whom Wealth or Power, + Have made, though neither friends nor foes, + Associates of the festive hour. + Give me again a faithful few, + In years and feelings still the same, + And I will fly the midnight crew, + Where boist'rous Joy is but a name. + + +6. + + And Woman, lovely Woman! thou, + My hope, my comforter, my all! + How cold must be my bosom now, + When e'en thy smiles begin to pall! + Without a sigh would I resign, + This busy scene of splendid Woe, + To make that calm contentment mine, + Which Virtue knows, or seems to know. + + +7. + + Fain would I fly the haunts of men [2]-- + I seek to shun, not hate mankind; + My breast requires the sullen glen, + Whose gloom may suit a darken'd mind. + Oh! that to me the wings were given, + Which bear the turtle to her nest! + Then would I cleave the vault of Heaven, + To flee away, and be at rest. [3] + + + +[Footnote 1: Sassenach, or Saxon, a Gaelic word, signifying either +Lowland or English.] + +[Footnote 2: Shyness was a family characteristic of the Byrons. +The poet continued in later years to have a horror of being +observed by unaccustomed eyes, and in the country would, +if possible, avoid meeting strangers on the road.] + +[Footnote 3: + + "And I said, O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly + away, and be at rest." + +(Psalm iv. 6.) This verse also constitutes a part of the most beautiful +anthem in our language.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Stanzas'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + +LINES WRITTEN BENEATH AN ELM IN THE +CHURCHYARD OF HARROW. [1] [i] + + + Spot of my youth! whose hoary branches sigh, + Swept by the breeze that fans thy cloudless sky; + Where now alone I muse, who oft have trod, + With those I loved, thy soft and verdant sod; + With those who, scatter'd far, perchance deplore, + Like me, the happy scenes they knew before: + Oh! as I trace again thy winding hill, + Mine eyes admire, my heart adores thee still, + Thou drooping Elm! beneath whose boughs I lay, + And frequent mus'd the twilight hours away; + Where, as they once were wont, my limbs recline, + But, ah! without the thoughts which then were mine: + How do thy branches, moaning to the blast, + Invite the bosom to recall the past, + And seem to whisper, as they gently swell, + "Take, while thou canst, a lingering, last farewell!" + + When Fate shall chill, at length, this fever'd breast, + And calm its cares and passions into rest, + Oft have I thought, 'twould soothe my dying hour,-- + If aught may soothe, when Life resigns her power,-- + To know some humbler grave, some narrow cell, + Would hide my bosom where it lov'd to dwell; + With this fond dream, methinks 'twere sweet to die-- + And here it linger'd, here my heart might lie; + Here might I sleep where all my hopes arose, + Scene of my youth, and couch of my repose; + For ever stretch'd beneath this mantling shade, + Press'd by the turf where once my childhood play'd; + Wrapt by the soil that veils the spot I lov'd, + Mix'd with the earth o'er which my footsteps mov'd; + Blest by the tongues that charm'd my youthful ear, + Mourn'd by the few my soul acknowledged here; + Deplor'd by those in early days allied, + And unremember'd by the world beside. + +September 2, 1807. + + + +[Footnote 1: On the death of his daughter, Allegra, in April, 1822, +Byron sent her remains to be buried at Harrow, "where," he says, in a +letter to Murray, "I once hoped to have laid my own." "There is," he +wrote, May 26, "a spot in the church'yard', near the footpath, on the +brow of the hill looking towards Windsor, and a tomb under a large tree +(bearing the name of Peachie, or Peachey), where I used to sit for hours +and hours when a boy. This was my favourite spot; but as I wish to erect +a tablet to her memory, the body had better be deposited in the +'church'." No tablet was, however, erected, and Allegra sleeps in her +unmarked grave inside the church, a few feet to the right of the +entrance.] + +[Footnote i: + + 'Lines written beneath an Elm + In the Churchyard of Harrow on the Hill + September 2, 1807'. + +['Poems O. and T.']] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +FRAGMENT. + +WRITTEN SHORTLY AFTER THE MARRIAGE OF MISS CHAWORTH. [1] + +First published in +Moore's 'Letters and Journals of Lord Byron', 1830, i. 56 + + +1. + + Hills of Annesley, Bleak and Barren, + Where my thoughtless Childhood stray'd, + How the northern Tempests, warring, + Howl above thy tufted Shade! + +2. + + Now no more, the Hours beguiling, + Former favourite Haunts I see; + Now no more my Mary smiling, + Makes ye seem a Heaven to Me. + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: Miss Chaworth was married to John Musters, Esq., in August, +1805. The stanzas were first published in Moore's _Letters and Journals +of Lord Byron_, 1830, i. 56. (See, too, _The Dream_, st. ii. 1. 9.) The +original MS. (which is in the possession of Mrs. Chaworth Musters) +formerly belonged to Miss E. B. Pigot, according to whom they "were +written by Lord Byron in 1804." "We were reading Burns' _Farewell to +Ayrshire_-- + + Scenes of woe and Scenes of pleasure + Scenes that former thoughts renew + Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure + Now a sad and last adieu, etc. + +when he said, 'I like that metre; let me try it,' and taking up a +pencil, wrote those on the other side in an instant. I read them to +Moore, and at his particular request I copied them for him."-E. B. +Pigot, 1859. + +On the fly-leaf of the same volume (_Poetry of Robert Burns_, vol. iv. +Third Edition, 1802), containing the _Farewell to Ayrshire_, Byron wrote +in pencil the two stanzas "Oh! little lock of golden hue," in 1806 +(_vide post_, p. 233). + +It may be noted that the verses quoted, though included until recently +among his poems, were not written by Burns, but by Richard Gall, who +died in 1801, aged 25.] + + + + + + + + + + + +REMEMBRANCE. + + 'Tis done!--I saw it in my dreams: + No more with Hope the future beams; + My days of happiness are few: + Chill'd by Misfortune's wintry blast, + My dawn of Life is overcast; + Love, Hope, and Joy, alike adieu! + Would I could add Remembrance too! + +1806. [First published, 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY + +WHO PRESENTED THE AUTHOR WITH THE VELVET BAND WHICH BOUND HER TRESSES. + + +1. + + This Band, which bound thy yellow hair + Is mine, sweet girl! thy pledge of love; + It claims my warmest, dearest care, + Like relics left of saints above. + + +2. + + Oh! I will wear it next my heart; + 'Twill bind my soul in bonds to thee: + From me again 'twill ne'er depart, + But mingle in the grave with me. + + +3. + + The dew I gather from thy lip + Is not so dear to me as this; + _That_ I but for a moment sip, + And banquet on a transient bliss: [i] + + +4. + + _This_ will recall each youthful scene, + E'en when our lives are on the wane; + The leaves of Love will still be green + When Memory bids them bud again. + + +1806. [First published, 1832.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _on a transient kiss._ + +['MS. Newstead'.] + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A KNOT OF UNGENEROUS CRITICS. [1] + + + Rail on, Rail on, ye heartless crew! + My strains were never meant for you; + Remorseless Rancour still reveal, + And damn the verse you cannot feel. + Invoke those kindred passions' aid, + Whose baleful stings your breasts pervade; + Crush, if you can, the hopes of youth, + Trampling regardless on the Truth: + Truth's Records you consult in vain, + She will not blast her native strain; + She will assist her votary's cause, + His will at least be her applause, + Your prayer the gentle Power will spurn; + To Fiction's motley altar turn, + Who joyful in the fond address + Her favoured worshippers will bless: + And lo! she holds a magic glass, + Where Images reflected pass, + Bent on your knees the Boon receive-- + This will assist you to deceive-- + The glittering gift was made for you, + Now hold it up to public view; + Lest evil unforeseen betide, + A Mask each canker'd brow shall hide, + (Whilst Truth my sole desire is nigh, + Prepared the danger to defy,) + "There is the Maid's perverted name, + And there the Poet's guilty Flame, + Gloaming a deep phosphoric fire, + Threatening--but ere it spreads, retire. + Says Truth Up Virgins, do not fear! + The Comet rolls its Influence here; + 'Tis Scandal's Mirror you perceive, + These dazzling Meteors but deceive-- + Approach and touch--Nay do not turn + It blazes there, but will not burn."-- + At once the shivering Mirror flies, + Teeming no more with varnished Lies; + The baffled friends of Fiction start, + Too late desiring to depart-- + Truth poising high Ithuriel's spear + Bids every Fiend unmask'd appear, + The vizard tears from every face, + And dooms them to a dire disgrace. + For e'er they compass their escape, + Each takes perforce a native shape-- + The Leader of the wrathful Band, + Behold a portly Female stand! + She raves, impelled by private pique, + This mean unjust revenge to seek; + From vice to save this virtuous Age, + Thus does she vent indecent rage! + What child has she of promise fair, + Who claims a fostering Mother's care? + Whose Innocence requires defence, + Or forms at least a smooth pretence, + Thus to disturb a harmless Boy, + His humble hope, and peace annoy? + She need not fear the amorous rhyme, + Love will not tempt her future time, + For her his wings have ceased to spread, + No more he flutters round her head; + Her day's Meridian now is past, + The clouds of Age her Sun o'ercast; + To her the strain was never sent, + For feeling Souls alone 'twas meant-- + The verse she seized, unask'd, unbade, + And damn'd, ere yet the whole was read! + Yes! for one single erring verse, + Pronounced an unrelenting Curse; + Yes! at a first and transient view, + Condemned a heart she never knew.-- + Can such a verdict then decide, + Which springs from disappointed pride? + Without a wondrous share of Wit, + To judge is such a Matron fit? + The rest of the censorious throng + Who to this zealous Band belong, + To her a general homage pay, + And right or wrong her wish obey: + Why should I point my pen of steel + To break "such flies upon the wheel?" + With minds to Truth and Sense unknown, + Who dare not call their words their own. + Rail on, Rail on, ye heartless Crew! + Your Leader's grand design pursue: + Secure behind her ample shield, + Yours is the harvest of the field.-- + My path with thorns you cannot strew, + Nay more, my warmest thanks are due; + When such as you revile my Name, + Bright beams the rising Sun of Fame, + Chasing the shades of envious night, + Outshining every critic Light.-- + Such, such as you will serve to show + Each radiant tint with higher glow. + Vain is the feeble cheerless toil, + Your efforts on yourselves recoil; + Then Glory still for me you raise, + Yours is the Censure, mine the Praise. + + +BYRON, + +December 1, 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed. + +There can be little doubt that these verses were called forth by the +criticisms passed on the "Fugitive Pieces" by certain ladies of +Southwell, concerning whom, Byron wrote to Mr. Pigot (Jan. 13, 1807), on +sending him an early copy of the 'Poems', + + "That 'unlucky' poem to my poor Mary has been the cause of some + animadversion from 'ladies in years'. I have not printed it in this + collection in consequence of my being pronounced a most 'profligate + sinner', in short a ''young Moore''" + +'Life', p. 41.] + + + + + + + + + + + +SOLILOQUY OF A BARD IN THE COUNTRY. [1] + + + 'Twas now the noon of night, and all was still, + Except a hapless Rhymer and his quill. + In vain he calls each Muse in order down, + Like other females, these will sometimes frown; + He frets, be fumes, and ceasing to invoke + The Nine, in anguish'd accents thus he spoke: + Ah what avails it thus to waste my time, + To roll in Epic, or to rave in Rhyme? + What worth is some few partial readers' praise. + If ancient Virgins croaking 'censures' raise? + Where few attend, 'tis useless to indite; + Where few can read, 'tis folly sure to write; + Where none but girls and striplings dare admire, + And Critics rise in every country Squire-- + But yet this last my candid Muse admits, + When Peers are Poets, Squires may well be Wits; + When schoolboys vent their amorous flames in verse, + Matrons may sure their characters asperse; + And if a little parson joins the train, + And echos back his Patron's voice again-- + Though not delighted, yet I must forgive, + Parsons as well as other folks must live:-- + From rage he rails not, rather say from dread, + He does not speak for Virtue, but for bread; + And this we know is in his Patron's giving, + For Parsons cannot eat without a 'Living'. + The Matron knows I love the Sex too well, + Even unprovoked aggression to repel. + What though from private pique her anger grew, + And bade her blast a heart she never knew? + What though, she said, for one light heedless line, + That Wilmot's [2] verse was far more pure than mine! + In wars like these, I neither fight nor fly, + When 'dames' accuse 'tis bootless to deny; + Her's be the harvest of the martial field, + I can't attack, where Beauty forms the shield. + But when a pert Physician loudly cries, + Who hunts for scandal, and who lives by lies, + A walking register of daily news, + Train'd to invent, and skilful to abuse-- + For arts like these at bounteous tables fed, + When S----condemns a book he never read. + Declaring with a coxcomb's native air, + The 'moral's' shocking, though the 'rhymes' are fair. + Ah! must he rise unpunish'd from the feast, + Nor lash'd by vengeance into truth at least? + Such lenity were more than Man's indeed! + Those who condemn, should surely deign to read. + Yet must I spare--nor thus my pen degrade, + I quite forgot that scandal was his trade. + For food and raiment thus the coxcomb rails, + For those who fear his physic, like his _tales_. + Why should his harmless censure seem offence? + Still let him eat, although at my expense, + And join the herd to Sense and Truth unknown, + Who dare not call their very thoughts their own, + And share with these applause, a godlike bribe, + In short, do anything, except _prescribe_:-- + For though in garb of Galen he appears, + His practice is not equal to his years. + Without improvement since he first began, + A young Physician, though an ancient Man-- + Now let me cease--Physician, Parson, Dame, + Still urge your task, and if you can, defame. + The humble offerings of my Muse destroy, + And crush, oh! noble conquest! crush a Boy. + What though some silly girls have lov'd the strain, + And kindly bade me tune my Lyre again; + What though some feeling, or some partial few, + Nay, Men of Taste and Reputation too, + Have deign'd to praise the firstlings of my Muse-- + If _you_ your sanction to the theme refuse, + If _you_ your great protection still withdraw, + Whose Praise is Glory, and whose Voice is law! + Soon must I fall an unresisting foe, + A hapless victim yielding to the blow.-- + Thus Pope by Curl and Dennis was destroyed, + Thus Gray and Mason yield to furious Lloyd; [3] + From Dryden, Milbourne [4] tears the palm away, + And thus I fall, though meaner far than they. + As in the field of combat, side by side, + A Fabius and some noble Roman died. + +Dec. 1806. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed.] + +[Footnote 2: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680). His 'Poems' +were published in the year of his death.] + +[Footnote 3: Robert Lloyd (1733-1764). The following lines occur in the +first of two odes to 'Obscurity and Oblivion'--parodies of the odes of +Gray and Mason:-- + + "Heard ye the din of modern rhymers bray? + It was cool M----n and warm G----y, + Involv'd in tenfold smoke."] + + +[Footnote 4: The Rev. Luke Milbourne (died 1720) published, in 1698, his +'Notes on Dryden's Virgil', containing a venomous attack on Dryden. They +are alluded to in 'The Dunciad', and also by Dr. Johnson, who wrote +('Life of Dryden'), + + "His outrages seem to be the ebullitions of a mind agitated by + stronger resentment than bad poetry can excite."] + + + + + + + +L'AMITIÉ, EST L'AMOUR SANS AILES. [1] + + + +1. + + Why should my anxious breast repine, + Because my youth is fled? + Days of delight may still be mine; + Affection is not dead. + In tracing back the years of youth, + One firm record, one lasting truth + Celestial consolation brings; + Bear it, ye breezes, to the seat, + Where first my heart responsive beat,-- + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +2 + + Through few, but deeply chequer'd years, + What moments have been mine! + Now half obscured by clouds of tears, + Now bright in rays divine; + Howe'er my future doom be cast, + My soul, enraptured with the past, + To one idea fondly clings; + Friendship! that thought is all thine own, + Worth worlds of bliss, that thought alone-- + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +3 + + Where yonder yew-trees lightly wave + Their branches on the gale, + Unheeded heaves a simple grave, + Which tells the common tale; + Round this unconscious schoolboys stray, + Till the dull knell of childish play + From yonder studious mansion rings; + But here, whene'er my footsteps move, + My silent tears too plainly prove, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +4 + + Oh, Love! before thy glowing shrine, + My early vows were paid; + My hopes, my dreams, my heart was thine, + But these are now decay'd; + For thine are pinions like the wind, + No trace of thee remains behind, + Except, alas! thy jealous stings. + Away, away! delusive power, + Thou shall not haunt my coming hour; + Unless, indeed, without thy wings. + + +5 + + Seat of my youth! [2] thy distant spire + Recalls each scene of joy; + My bosom glows with former fire,-- + In mind again a boy. + Thy grove of elms, thy verdant hill, + Thy every path delights me still, + Each flower a double fragrance flings; + Again, as once, in converse gay, + Each dear associate seems to say, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!' + + +6. + + My Lycus! [3] wherefore dost thou weep? + Thy falling tears restrain; + Affection for a time may sleep, + But, oh, 'twill wake again. + Think, think, my friend, when next we meet, + Our long-wished interview, how sweet! + From this my hope of rapture springs; + While youthful hearts thus fondly swell, + Absence my friend, can only tell, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + + +7. + + In one, and one alone deceiv'd, + Did I my error mourn? + No--from oppressive bonds reliev'd, + I left the wretch to scorn. + I turn'd to those my childhood knew, + With feelings warm, with bosoms true, + Twin'd with my heart's according strings; + And till those vital chords shall break, + For none but these my breast shall wake + Friendship, the power deprived of wings! + + +8 + + Ye few! my soul, my life is yours, + My memory and my hope; + Your worth a lasting love insures, + Unfetter'd in its scope; + From smooth deceit and terror sprung, + With aspect fair and honey'd tongue, + Let Adulation wait on kings; + With joy elate, by snares beset, + We, we, my friends, can ne'er forget, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +9 + + Fictions and dreams inspire the bard, + Who rolls the epic song; + Friendship and truth be my reward-- + To me no bays belong; + If laurell'd Fame but dwells with lies, + Me the enchantress ever flies, + Whose heart and not whose fancy sings; + Simple and young, I dare not feign; + Mine be the rude yet heartfelt strain, + "Friendship is Love without his wings!" + + +December 29, 1806. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: The MS. is preserved at Newstead.] + +[Footnote 2: Harrow.] + +[Footnote 3: Lord Clare had written to Byron, + + "I think by your last letter that you are very much piqued with most + of your friends, and, if I am not much mistaken, a little so with me. + In one part you say, + + 'There is little or no doubt a few years or months will render us as + politely indifferent to each other, as if we had never passed a + portion of our time together.' + + Indeed, Byron, you wrong me; and I have no doubt, at least I hope, you + are wrong yourself." + +'Life', p. 25.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE PRAYER OF NATURE. [1] + + +1 + + Father of Light! great God of Heaven! + Hear'st thou the accents of despair? + Can guilt like man's be e'er forgiven? + Can vice atone for crimes by prayer? + + +2 + + Father of Light, on thee I call! + Thou see'st my soul is dark within; + Thou, who canst mark the sparrow's fall, + Avert from me the death of sin. + + +3 + + No shrine I seek, to sects unknown; + Oh, point to me the path of truth! + Thy dread Omnipotence I own; + Spare, yet amend, the faults of youth. + + +4 + + Let bigots rear a gloomy fane, + Let Superstition hail the pile, + Let priests, to spread their sable reign, + With tales of mystic rites beguile. + + +5 + + Shall man confine his Maker's sway + To Gothic domes of mouldering stone? + Thy temple is the face of day; + Earth, Ocean, Heaven thy boundless throne. + + +6 + + Shall man condemn his race to Hell, + Unless they bend in pompous form? + Tell us that all, for one who fell, + Must perish in the mingling storm? + + +7 + + Shall each pretend to reach the skies, + Yet doom his brother to expire, + Whose soul a different hope supplies, + Or doctrines less severe inspire? + + +8 + + Shall these, by creeds they can't expound, + Prepare a fancied bliss or woe? + Shall reptiles, groveling on the ground, + Their great Creator's purpose know? + + +9 + + Shall those, who live for self alone, [i] + Whose years float on in daily crime-- + Shall they, by Faith, for guilt atone, + And live beyond the bounds of Time? + + +10 + + Father! no prophet's laws I seek,-- + _Thy_ laws in Nature's works appear;-- + I own myself corrupt and weak, + Yet will I _pray_, for thou wilt hear! + + +11 + + Thou, who canst guide the wandering star, + Through trackless realms of aether's space; + Who calm'st the elemental war, + Whose hand from pole to pole I trace: + + +12 + + Thou, who in wisdom plac'd me here, + Who, when thou wilt, canst take me hence, + Ah! whilst I tread this earthly sphere, + Extend to me thy wide defence. + + +13 + + To Thee, my God, to thee I call! + Whatever weal or woe betide, + By thy command I rise or fall, + In thy protection I confide. + + +14. + + If, when this dust to dust's restor'd, + My soul shall float on airy wing, + How shall thy glorious Name ador'd + Inspire her feeble voice to sing! + + +15 + + But, if this fleeting spirit share + With clay the Grave's eternal bed, + While Life yet throbs I raise my prayer, + Though doom'd no more to quit the dead. + + +16 + + To Thee I breathe my humble strain, + Grateful for all thy mercies past, + And hope, my God, to thee again [ii] + This erring life may fly at last. + + +December 29, 1806. + + + +[Footnote 1: These stanzas were first published in Moore's 'Letters and +Journals of Lord Byron', 1830, i. 106.] + +[Footnote i: + + Shalt these who live for self alone, + Whose years fleet on in daily crime-- + Shall these by Faith for guilt atone, + Exist beyond the bounds of Time? + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + My hope, my God, in thee again + This erring life will fly at last. + +['MS. Newstead']] + + + + + + + + + + + +TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON. [1] + + +[Greek: Eis rodon.] + + +ODE 5 + + + + Mingle with the genial bowl + The Rose, the 'flow'ret' of the Soul, + The Rose and Grape together quaff'd, + How doubly sweet will be the draught! + With Roses crown our jovial brows, + While every cheek with Laughter glows; + While Smiles and Songs, with Wine incite, + To wing our moments with Delight. + Rose by far the fairest birth, + Which Spring and Nature cull from Earth-- + Rose whose sweetest perfume given, + Breathes our thoughts from Earth to Heaven. + Rose whom the Deities above, + From Jove to Hebe, dearly love, + When Cytherea's blooming Boy, + Flies lightly through the dance of Joy, + With him the Graces then combine, + And rosy wreaths their locks entwine. + Then will I sing divinely crown'd, + With dusky leaves my temples bound-- + Lyæus! in thy bowers of pleasure, + I'll wake a wildly thrilling measure. + There will my gentle Girl and I, + Along the mazes sportive fly, + Will bend before thy potent throne-- + Rose, Wine, and Beauty, all my own. + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed,] + + + + + + + + + + +OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN IN "CARTHON." [1] + + Oh! thou that roll'st above thy glorious Fire, + Round as the shield which grac'd my godlike Sire, + Whence are the beams, O Sun! thy endless blaze, + Which far eclipse each minor Glory's rays? + Forth in thy Beauty here thou deign'st to shine! + Night quits her car, the twinkling stars decline; + Pallid and cold the Moon descends to cave + Her sinking beams beneath the Western wave; + But thou still mov'st alone, of light the Source-- + Who can o'ertake thee in thy fiery course? + Oaks of the mountains fall, the rocks decay, + Weighed down with years the hills dissolve away. + A certain space to yonder Moon is given, + She rises, smiles, and then is lost in Heaven. + Ocean in sullen murmurs ebbs and flows, + But thy bright beam unchanged for ever glows! + When Earth is darkened with tempestuous skies, + When Thunder shakes the sphere and Lightning flies, + Thy face, O Sun, no rolling blasts deform, + Thou look'st from clouds and laughest at the Storm. + To Ossian, Orb of Light! thou look'st in vain, + Nor cans't thou glad his agèd eyes again, + Whether thy locks in Orient Beauty stream, + Or glimmer through the West with fainter gleam-- + But thou, perhaps, like me with age must bend; + Thy season o'er, thy days will find their end, + No more yon azure vault with rays adorn, + Lull'd in the clouds, nor hear the voice of Morn. + Exult, O Sun, in all thy youthful strength! + Age, dark unlovely Age, appears at length, + As gleams the moonbeam through the broken cloud + While mountain vapours spread their misty shroud-- + The Northern tempest howls along at last, + And wayworn strangers shrink amid the blast. + Thou rolling Sun who gild'st those rising towers, + Fair didst thou shine upon my earlier hours! + I hail'd with smiles the cheering rays of Morn, + My breast by no tumultuous Passion torn-- + Now hateful are thy beams which wake no more + The sense of joy which thrill'd my breast before; + Welcome thou cloudy veil of nightly skies, + To thy bright canopy the mourner flies: + Once bright, thy Silence lull'd my frame to rest, + And Sleep my soul with gentle visions blest; + Now wakeful Grief disdains her mild controul, + Dark is the night, but darker is my Soul. + Ye warring Winds of Heav'n your fury urge, + To me congenial sounds your wintry Dirge: + Swift as your wings my happier days have past, + Keen as your storms is Sorrow's chilling blast; + To Tempests thus expos'd my Fate has been, + Piercing like yours, like yours, alas! unseen. + +1805. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed. (See 'Ossian's Poems', London, 1819, pp. xvii. 119.)] + + + + + + + + + + +PIGNUS AMORIS. [1] + + +1 + + As by the fix'd decrees of Heaven, + 'Tis vain to hope that Joy can last; + The dearest boon that Life has given, + To me is--visions of the past. + + +2. + + For these this toy of blushing hue + I prize with zeal before unknown, + It tells me of a Friend I knew, + Who loved me for myself alone. + + +3. + + It tells me what how few can say + Though all the social tie commend; + Recorded in my heart 'twill lay, [2] + It tells me mine was once a Friend. + + +4. + + Through many a weary day gone by, + With time the gift is dearer grown; + And still I view in Memory's eye + That teardrop sparkle through my own. + + +5. + + And heartless Age perhaps will smile, + Or wonder whence those feelings sprung; + Yet let not sterner souls revile, + For Both were open, Both were young. + + +6. + + And Youth is sure the only time, + When Pleasure blends no base alloy; + When Life is blest without a crime, + And Innocence resides with Joy. + + +7 + + Let those reprove my feeble Soul, + Who laugh to scorn Affection's name; + While these impose a harsh controul, + All will forgive who feel the same. + + +8 + + Then still I wear my simple toy, + With pious care from wreck I'll save it; + And this will form a dear employ + For dear I was to him who gave it. + + +? 1806. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed.] + +[Footnote 2: For the irregular use of "lay" for "lie," compare "The +Adieu" (st. 10, 1. 4, p. 241), and the much-disputed line, "And dashest +him to earth--there let him lay" ('Childe Harold', canto iv. st. 180).] + + + + + + + +A WOMAN'S HAIR. [1] + + + Oh! little lock of golden hue + In gently waving ringlet curl'd, + By the dear head on which you grew, + I would not lose you for _a world_. + + Not though a thousand more adorn + The polished brow where once you shone, + Like rays which guild a cloudless sky [i] + Beneath Columbia's fervid zone. + +1806. + + +[Footnote 1: These lines are preserved in MS. at Newstead, with the +following memorandum in Miss Pigot's handwriting: "Copied from the +fly-leaf in a vol. of my Burns' books, which is written in pencil by +himself." They have hitherto been printed as stanzas 5 and 6 of the +lines "To a Lady," etc., p. 212.] + +[Footnote i: + + _a cloudless morn_. + +['Ed'. 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + +STANZAS TO JESSY. [1] + + +1 + + There is a mystic thread of life + So dearly wreath'd with mine alone, + That Destiny's relentless knife + At once must sever both, or none. + + +2 + + There is a Form on which these eyes + Have fondly gazed with such delight-- + By day, that Form their joy supplies, + And Dreams restore it, through the night. + + +3 + + There is a Voice whose tones inspire + Such softened feelings in my breast, [i]-- + I would not hear a Seraph Choir, + Unless that voice could join the rest. + + +4 + + There is a Face whose Blushes tell + Affection's tale upon the cheek, + But pallid at our fond farewell, + Proclaims more love than words can speak. + + +5 + + There is a Lip, which mine has prest, + But none had ever prest before; + It vowed to make me sweetly blest, + That mine alone should press it more. [ii] + + +6 + + There is a Bosom all my own, + Has pillow'd oft this aching head, + A Mouth which smiles on me alone, + An Eye, whose tears with mine are shed. + + +7 + + There are two Hearts whose movements thrill, + In unison so closely sweet, + That Pulse to Pulse responsive still + They Both must heave, or cease to beat. + + +8 + + There are two Souls, whose equal flow + In gentle stream so calmly run, + That when they part--they part?--ah no! + They cannot part--those Souls are One. + + +[GEORGE GORDON, LORD] BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: "Stanzas to Jessy" have often been printed, but were never +acknowledged by Byron, or included in any authorized edition of his +works. They are, however, unquestionably genuine. They appeared first in +'Monthly Literary Recreations' (July, 1807), a magazine published by B. +Crosby & Co., Stationers' Court. Crosby was London agent for Ridge, the +Newark bookseller, and, with Longman and others, "sold" the recently +issued 'Hours of Idleness'. The same number of 'Monthly Literary +Recreations' (for July, 1807) contains Byron's review of Wordsworth's +'Poems' (2 vols., 1807), and a highly laudatory notice of 'Hours of +Idleness'. The lines are headed "Stanzas to Jessy," and are signed +"George Gordon, Lord Byron." They were republished in 1824, by Knight +and Lacy, in vol. v. of the three supplementary volumes of the 'Works', +and again in the same year by John Bumpus and A. Griffin, in their +'Miscellaneous Poems', etc. A note which is prefixed to these issues, +"The following stanzas were addressed by Lord Byron to his Lady, a few +months before their separation," and three variants in the text, make it +unlikely that the pirating editors were acquainted with the text of the +magazine. The MS. ('British Museum', Eg. MSS. No. 2332) is signed +"George Gordon, Lord Byron," but the words "George Gordon, Lord" are in +another hand, and were probably added by Crosby. The following letter +(together with a wrapper addressed, "Mr. Crosby, Stationers' Court," and +sealed in red wax with Byron's arms and coronet) is attached to the +poem:-- + + July 21, 1807. + + SIR, + + I have sent according to my promise some Stanzas + for Literary Recreations. The insertion I leave to the option + of the Editors. They have never appeared before. I should + wish to know whether they are admitted or not, and when + the work will appear, as I am desirous of a copy. + + Etc., etc., BYRON. + + P.S.--Send your answer when convenient."] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Such thrills of Rapture'. + +[Knight and Lacy, 1824, v. 56.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'And mine, mine only'. + +[Knight and Lacy, v. 56.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ADIEU. + +WRITTEN UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THE AUTHOR WOULD SOON DIE. + + +1. + + Adieu, thou Hill! [1] where early joy + Spread roses o'er my brow; + Where Science seeks each loitering boy + With knowledge to endow. + Adieu, my youthful friends or foes, + Partners of former bliss or woes; + No more through Ida's paths we stray; + Soon must I share the gloomy cell, + Whose ever-slumbering inmates dwell + Unconscious of the day. + +2. + + Adieu, ye hoary Regal Fanes, [i] + Ye spires of Granta's vale, + Where Learning robed in sable reigns. + And Melancholy pale. + Ye comrades of the jovial hour, + Ye tenants of the classic bower, + On Cama's verdant margin plac'd, + Adieu! while memory still is mine, + For offerings on Oblivion's shrine, + These scenes must be effac'd. + + +3 + + Adieu, ye mountains of the clime + Where grew my youthful years; + Where Loch na Garr in snows sublime + His giant summit rears. + Why did my childhood wander forth + From you, ye regions of the North, + With sons of Pride to roam? + Why did I quit my Highland cave, + Marr's dusky heath, and Dee's clear wave, + To seek a Sotheron home? + + +4 + + Hall of my Sires! a long farewell-- + Yet why to thee adieu? + Thy vaults will echo back my knell, + Thy towers my tomb will view: + The faltering tongue which sung thy fall, + And former glories of thy Hall, + Forgets its wonted simple note-- + But yet the Lyre retains the strings, + And sometimes, on Æolian wings, + In dying strains may float. + + +5. + + Fields, which surround yon rustic cot, [2] + While yet I linger here, + Adieu! you are not now forgot, + To retrospection dear. + Streamlet! [3] along whose rippling surge + My youthful limbs were wont to urge, + At noontide heat, their pliant course; + Plunging with ardour from the shore, + Thy springs will lave these limbs no more, + Deprived of active force. + + +6. + + And shall I here forget the scene, + Still nearest to my breast? + Rocks rise and rivers roll between + The spot which passion blest; + Yet Mary, [4] all thy beauties seem + Fresh as in Love's bewitching dream, + To me in smiles display'd; + Till slow disease resigns his prey + To Death, the parent of decay, + Thine image cannot fade. + + +7. + + And thou, my Friend! whose gentle love + Yet thrills my bosom's chords, + How much thy friendship was above + Description's power of words! + Still near my breast thy gift [5] I wear [ii] + Which sparkled once with Feeling's tear, + Of Love the pure, the sacred gem: + Our souls were equal, and our lot + In that dear moment quite forgot; + Let Pride alone condemn! + + +8. + + All, all is dark and cheerless now! + No smile of Love's deceit + Can warm my veins with wonted glow, + Can bid Life's pulses beat: + Not e'en the hope of future fame + Can wake my faint, exhausted frame, + Or crown with fancied wreaths my head. + Mine is a short inglorious race,-- + To humble in the dust my face, + And mingle with the dead. + + +9. + + Oh Fame! thou goddess of my heart; + On him who gains thy praise, + Pointless must fall the Spectre's dart, + Consumed in Glory's blaze; + But me she beckons from the earth, + My name obscure, unmark'd my birth, + My life a short and vulgar dream: + Lost in the dull, ignoble crowd, + My hopes recline within a shroud, + My fate is Lethe's stream. + + +10. + + When I repose beneath the sod, + Unheeded in the clay, + Where once my playful footsteps trod, + Where now my head must lay, [6] + The meed of Pity will be shed + In dew-drops o'er my narrow bed, + By nightly skies, and storms alone; + No mortal eye will deign to steep + With tears the dark sepulchral deep + Which hides a name unknown. + + +11. + + Forget this world, my restless sprite, + Turn, turn thy thoughts to Heaven: + There must thou soon direct thy flight, + If errors are forgiven. + To bigots and to sects unknown, + Bow down beneath the Almighty's Throne; + To Him address thy trembling prayer: + He, who is merciful and just, + Will not reject a child of dust, + Although His meanest care. + + +12. + + Father of Light! to Thee I call; + My soul is dark within: + Thou who canst mark the sparrow's fall, + Avert the death of sin. + Thou, who canst guide the wandering star + Who calm'st the elemental war, + Whose mantle is yon boundless sky, + My thoughts, my words, my crimes forgive; + And, since I soon must cease to live, + Instruct me how to die. [iii] + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Harrow. ] + +[Footnote 2: Mrs. Pigot's Cottage.] + +[Footnote 3: The river Grete, at Southwell.] + +[Footnote 4: Mary Chaworth.] + +[Footnote 5: Compare the verses on "The Cornelian," p. 66, and +"Pignus Amoris," p. 231.] + +[Footnote 6: See note to "Pignus Amoris," st. 3, l. 3, p. 232.] + + +[Footnote i: + + '--ye regal Towers'. + +['MS. Newstead'.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'The gift I wear'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'And since I must forbear to live, + Instruct me how to die.' + +['MS. Newstead'] + + + + + + + +TO----[1] + + +1. + + Oh! well I know your subtle Sex, + Frail daughters of the wanton Eve,-- + While jealous pangs our Souls perplex, + No passion prompts you to relieve. + + +2 + + From Love, or Pity ne'er you fall, + By _you_, no mutual Flame is felt, + "Tis Vanity, which rules you all, + Desire alone which makes you melt. + + +3 + + I will not say no _souls_ are yours, + Aye, ye have Souls, and dark ones too, + Souls to contrive those smiling lures, + To snare our simple hearts for you. + + +4 + + Yet shall you never bind me fast, + Long to adore such brittle toys, + I'll rove along, from first to last, + And change whene'er my fancy cloys. + + +5 + + Oh! I should be a _baby_ fool, + To sigh the dupe of female art-- + Woman! perhaps thou hast a _Soul_, + But where have _Demons_ hid thy _Heart_? + + +January, 1807. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first time +printed.] + + + + + + + + + + + +ON THE EYES OF MISS A----H----[1] + + + Anne's Eye is liken'd to the _Sun_, + From it such Beams of Beauty fall; + And _this_ can be denied by none, + For like the _Sun_, it shines on _All_. + + Then do not admiration smother, + Or say these glances don't become her; + To _you_, or _I_, or _any other_ + Her _Sun_, displays perpetual Summer. [2] + + +January 14, 1807. + + + +[Footnote 1: Miss Anne Houson. From an autograph MS. at Newstead, +now for the first time printed.] + +[Footnote 2: Compare, for the same simile, the lines "To Edward +Noel Long, Esq.," p. 187, 'ante'.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO A VAIN LADY. [1] + + +1 + + Ah, heedless girl! why thus disclose + What ne'er was meant for other ears; + Why thus destroy thine own repose, + And dig the source of future tears? + + +2 + + Oh, thou wilt weep, imprudent maid, + While lurking envious foes will smile, + For all the follies thou hast said + Of those who spoke but to beguile. + + +3 + + Vain girl! thy lingering woes are nigh, + If thou believ'st what striplings say: + Oh, from the deep temptation fly, + Nor fall the specious spoiler's prey. + + +4 + + Dost thou repeat, in childish boast, + The words man utters to deceive? + Thy peace, thy hope, thy all is lost, + If thou canst venture to believe. + + +5 + + While now amongst thy female peers + Thou tell'st again the soothing tale, + Canst thou not mark the rising sneers + Duplicity in vain would veil? + + +6 + + These tales in secret silence hush, + Nor make thyself the public gaze: + What modest maid without a blush + Recounts a flattering coxcomb's praise? + + +7. + + Will not the laughing boy despise + Her who relates each fond conceit-- + Who, thinking Heaven is in her eyes, + Yet cannot see the slight deceit? + + +8. + + For she who takes a soft delight + These amorous nothings in revealing, + Must credit all we say or write, + While vanity prevents concealing. + + +9. + + Cease, if you prize your Beauty's reign! + No jealousy bids me reprove: + One, who is thus from nature vain, + I pity, but I cannot love. + + +January 15, 1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: To A Young Lady (Miss Anne Houson) whose vanity induced her +to repeat the compliments paid her by some young men of her +acquaintance.--'MS. Newstead_'.] + + + + + + + + + + +TO ANNE. [1] + + +1. + + Oh, Anne, your offences to me have been grievous: + I thought from my wrath no atonement could save you; + But Woman is made to command and deceive us-- + I look'd in your face, and I almost forgave you. + + +2. + + I vow'd I could ne'er for a moment respect you, + Yet thought that a day's separation was long; + When we met, I determined again to suspect you-- + Your smile soon convinced me _suspicion_ was wrong. + + +3. + + I swore, in a transport of young indignation, + With fervent contempt evermore to disdain you: + I saw you--my _anger_ became _admiration_; + And now, all my wish, all my hope's to regain you. + + +4. + + With beauty like yours, oh, how vain the contention! + Thus lowly I sue for forgiveness before you;-- + At once to conclude such a fruitless dissension, + Be false, my sweet Anne, when I cease to adore you! + + +January 16, 1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Miss Anne Houson.] + + + + + + + + + + +EGOTISM. A LETTER TO J. T. BECHER. [1] + + +[Greek: Heauton bur_on aeidei.] + + + +1. + + If Fate should seal my Death to-morrow, + (Though much _I_ hope she will _postpone_ it,) + I've held a share _Joy_ and _Sorrow_, + Enough for _Ten_; and _here_ I _own_ it. + + +2. + + I've lived, as many others live, + And yet, I think, with more enjoyment; + For could I through my days again live, + I'd pass them in the 'same' employment. + + +3. + + That 'is' to say, with 'some exception', + For though I will not make confession, + I've seen too much of man's deception + Ever again to trust profession. + + +4. + + Some sage 'Mammas' with gesture haughty, + Pronounce me quite a youthful Sinner-- + But 'Daughters' say, "although he's naughty, + You must not check a 'Young Beginner'!" + + +5. + + I've loved, and many damsels know it-- + But whom I don't intend to mention, + As 'certain stanzas' also show it, + 'Some' say 'deserving Reprehension'. + + +6. + + Some ancient Dames, of virtue fiery, + (Unless Report does much belie them,) + Have lately made a sharp Enquiry, + And much it 'grieves' me to 'deny' them. + + +7. + + Two whom I lov'd had 'eyes' of 'Blue', + To which I hope you've no objection; + The 'Rest' had eyes of 'darker Hue'-- + Each Nymph, of course, was 'all perfection'. + + +8. + + But here I'll close my 'chaste' Description, + Nor say the deeds of animosity; + For 'silence' is the best prescription, + To 'physic' idle curiosity. + + +9. + + Of 'Friends' I've known a 'goodly Hundred'-- + For finding 'one' in each acquaintance, + By 'some deceived', by others plunder'd, + 'Friendship', to me, was not 'Repentance'. + + +10. + + At 'School' I thought like other 'Children'; + Instead of 'Brains', a fine Ingredient, + 'Romance', my 'youthful Head bewildering', + To 'Sense' had made me disobedient. + + +11. + + A victim, 'nearly' from affection, + To certain 'very precious scheming', + The still remaining recollection + Has 'cured' my 'boyish soul' of 'Dreaming'. + + +12. + + By Heaven! I rather would forswear + The Earth, and all the joys reserved me, + Than dare again the 'specious Snare', + From which 'my Fate' and 'Heaven preserved' me. + + +13. + + Still I possess some Friends who love me-- + In each a much esteemed and true one; + The Wealth of Worlds shall never move me + To quit their Friendship, for a new one. + + +14. + + But Becher! you're a 'reverend pastor', + Now take it in consideration, + Whether for penance I should fast, or + Pray for my 'sins' in expiation. + + +15. + + I own myself the child of 'Folly', + But not so wicked as they make me-- + I soon must die of melancholy, + If 'Female' smiles should e'er forsake me. + + +16. + + 'Philosophers' have 'never doubted', + That 'Ladies' Lips' were made for 'kisses!' + For 'Love!' I could not live without it, + For such a 'cursed' place as 'This is'. + + +17. + + Say, Becher, I shall be forgiven! + If you don't warrant my salvation, + I must resign all 'Hopes' of 'Heaven'! + For, 'Faith', I can't withstand Temptation. + + +P.S.--These were written between one and two, after 'midnight'. I + have not 'corrected', or 'revised'. Yours, BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first +time printed.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO ANNE. [1] + + + +1 + + Oh say not, sweet Anne, that the Fates have decreed + The heart which adores you should wish to dissever; + Such Fates were to me most unkind ones indeed,-- + To bear me from Love and from Beauty for ever. + + +2. + + Your frowns, lovely girl, are the Fates which alone + Could bid me from fond admiration refrain; + By these, every hope, every wish were o'erthrown, + Till smiles should restore me to rapture again. + + +3. + + As the ivy and oak, in the forest entwin'd, + The rage of the tempest united must weather; + My love and my life were by nature design'd + To flourish alike, or to perish together. + + +4. + + Then say not, sweet Anne, that the Fates have decreed + Your lover should bid you a lasting adieu: + Till Fate can ordain that his bosom shall bleed, + His Soul, his Existence, are centred in you. + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO THE AUTHOR OF A SONNET + +BEGINNING "'SAD IS MY VERSE,' YOU SAY, 'AND YET NO TEAR.'" + + +1. + + Thy verse is "sad" enough, no doubt: + A devilish deal more sad than witty! + Why we should weep I can't find out, + Unless for _thee_ we weep in pity. + + +2. + + Yet there is one I pity more; + And much, alas! I think he needs it: + For he, I'm sure, will suffer sore, + Who, to his own misfortune, reads it. + + +3. + + Thy rhymes, without the aid of magic, + May _once_ be read--but never after: + Yet their effect's by no means tragic, + Although by far too dull for laughter. + + +4. + + But would you make our bosoms bleed, + And of no common pang complain-- + If you would make us weep indeed, + Tell us, you'll read them o'er again. + + +March 8, 1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + + + + + + + + + + +ON FINDING A FAN. [1] + + +1. + + In one who felt as once he felt, + This might, perhaps, have fann'd the flame; + But now his heart no more will melt, + Because that heart is not the same. + + +2. + + As when the ebbing flames are low, + The aid which once improved their light, + And bade them burn with fiercer glow, + Now quenches all their blaze in night. + + +3. + + Thus has it been with Passion's fires-- + As many a boy and girl remembers-- + While every hope of love expires, + Extinguish'd with the dying embers. + + +4. + + The _first_, though not a spark survive, + Some careful hand may teach to burn; + The _last_, alas! can ne'er survive; + No touch can bid its warmth return. + + +5. + + Or, if it chance to wake again, + Not always doom'd its heat to smother, + It sheds (so wayward fates ordain) + Its former warmth around another. + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Of Miss A. H. (MS. Newstead).] + + + + + + + + + + + +FAREWELL TO THE MUSE. [i.] + + +1. + + Thou Power! who hast ruled me through Infancy's days, + Young offspring of Fancy, 'tis time we should part; + Then rise on the gale this the last of my lays, + The coldest effusion which springs from my heart. + + +2. + + This bosom, responsive to rapture no more, + Shall hush thy wild notes, nor implore thee to sing; + The feelings of childhood, which taught thee to soar, + Are wafted far distant on Apathy's wing. + + +3. + + Though simple the themes of my rude flowing Lyre, + Yet even these themes are departed for ever; + No more beam the eyes which my dream could inspire, + My visions are flown, to return,--alas, never! + + +4. + + When drain'd is the nectar which gladdens the bowl, + How vain is the effort delight to prolong! + When cold is the beauty which dwelt in my soul, [ii] + What magic of Fancy can lengthen my song? + + +5. + + Can the lips sing of Love in the desert alone, + Of kisses and smiles which they now must resign? + Or dwell with delight on the hours that are flown? + Ah, no! for those hours can no longer be mine. + + +6. + + Can they speak of the friends that I lived but to love? [iii] + Ah, surely Affection ennobles the strain! + But how can my numbers in sympathy move, + When I scarcely can hope to behold them again? + + +7. + + Can I sing of the deeds which my Fathers have done, + And raise my loud harp to the fame of my Sires? + For glories like theirs, oh, how faint is my tone! + For Heroes' exploits how unequal my fires! + + +8. + + Untouch'd, then, my Lyre shall reply to the blast-- + 'Tis hush'd; and my feeble endeavours are o'er; + And those who have heard it will pardon the past, + When they know that its murmurs shall vibrate no more. + + +9. + + And soon shall its wild erring notes be forgot, + Since early affection and love is o'ercast: + Oh! blest had my Fate been, and happy my lot, + Had the first strain of love been the dearest, the last. + + +10. + + Farewell, my young Muse! since we now can ne'er meet; [iv] + If our songs have been languid, they surely are few: + Let us hope that the present at least will be sweet-- + The present--which seals our eternal Adieu. + + +1807. [First published, 1832.] + + + +[Footnote 1: + + 'Adieu to the Muse'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'When cold is the form'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + --'whom I lived but to love'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Since we never can meet'. + +['MS. Newstead'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO AN OAK AT NEWSTEAD. [1] + + +1. + + Young Oak! when I planted thee deep in the ground, + I hoped that thy days would be longer than mine; + That thy dark-waving branches would flourish around, + And ivy thy trunk with its mantle entwine. + + +2. + + Such, such was my hope, when in Infancy's years, + On the land of my Fathers I rear'd thee with pride; + They are past, and I water thy stem with my tears,-- + Thy decay, not the _weeds_ that surround thee can hide. + + +3. + + I left thee, my Oak, and, since that fatal hour, + A stranger has dwelt in the hall of my Sire; + Till Manhood shall crown me, not mine is the power, + But his, whose neglect may have bade thee expire. + + +4. + + Oh! hardy thou wert--even now little care + Might revive thy young head, and thy wounds gently + heal: + But thou wert not fated affection to share-- + For who could suppose that a Stranger would feel? + + +5. + + Ah, droop not, my Oak! lift thy head for a while; + Ere twice round yon Glory this planet shall run, + The hand of thy Master will teach thee to smile, + When Infancy's years of probation are done. + + +6. + + Oh, live then, my Oak! tow'r aloft from the weeds, + That clog thy young growth, and assist thy decay, + For still in thy bosom are Life's early seeds, + And still may thy branches their beauty display. + + +7. + + Oh! yet, if Maturity's years may be thine, + Though _I_ shall lie low in the cavern of Death, + On thy leaves yet the day-beam of ages may shine, [i] + Uninjured by Time, or the rude Winter's breath. + + +8. + + For centuries still may thy boughs lightly wave + O'er the corse of thy Lord in thy canopy laid; + While the branches thus gratefully shelter his grave, + The Chief who survives may recline in thy shade. + + +9. + + And as he, with his boys, shall revisit this spot, + He will tell them in whispers more softly to tread. + Oh! surely, by these I shall ne'er be forgot; + Remembrance still hallows the dust of the dead. + + +10. + + And here, will they say, when in Life's glowing prime, + Perhaps he has pour'd forth his young simple lay, + And here must he sleep, till the moments of Time + Are lost in the hours of Eternity's day. + + +1807. [First published 1832.] + +["Copied for Mr. Moore, Jan. 24, 1828."--Note by Miss Pigot.] + + + +[Footnote 1: There is no heading to the original MS., but on the blank +leaf at the end of the poem is written, + + "To an oak in the garden of Newstead Abbey, planted by the author in + the 9th year of [his] age; this tree at his last visit was in a state + of decay, though perhaps not irrecoverable." + +On arriving at Newstead, in 1798, Byron, then in his +eleventh year, planted an oak, and cherished the fancy, that as the tree +flourished so should he. On revisiting the abbey, he found the oak +choked up by weeds and almost destroyed;--hence these lines. Shortly +after Colonel Wildman took possession, he said to a servant, + + "Here is a fine young oak; but it must be cut down, as it grows in an + improper place." + + "I hope not, sir, "replied the man, "for it's the one that my lord was + so fond of, because he set it himself." + +_Life_, p. 50, note.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _For ages may shine_. + +[_MS. Newstead_]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ON REVISITING HARROW. [1] + + +1. + + Here once engaged the stranger's view + Young Friendship's record simply trac'd; + Few were her words,--but yet, though few, + Resentment's hand the line defac'd. + + +2. + + Deeply she cut--but not eras'd-- + The characters were still so plain, + That Friendship once return'd, and gaz'd,-- + Till Memory hail'd the words again. + + +3. + + Repentance plac'd them as before; + Forgiveness join'd her gentle name; + So fair the inscription seem'd once more, + That Friendship thought it still the same. + + +4. + + Thus might the Record now have been; + But, ah, in spite of Hope's endeavour, + Or Friendship's tears, Pride rush'd between, + And blotted out the line for ever. + + +September, 1807. + +[First published in Moore's 'Life and Letters, etc.', 1830, i. 102.] + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Some years ago, when at Harrow, a friend of the author engraved on a + particular spot the names of both, with a few additional words, as a + memorial. Afterwards, on receiving some real or imaginary injury, the + author destroyed the frail record before he left Harrow. On revisiting + the place in 1807, he wrote under it these stanzas." + +Moore's 'Life, etc.', i. 102.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO MY SON. [1] + + +1. + + Those flaxen locks, those eyes of blue + Bright as thy mother's in their hue; + Those rosy lips, whose dimples play + And smile to steal the heart away, + Recall a scene of former joy, + And touch thy father's heart, my Boy! + + +2. + + And thou canst lisp a father's name-- + Ah, William, were thine own the same,-- + No self-reproach--but, let me cease-- + My care for thee shall purchase peace; + Thy mother's shade shall smile in joy, + And pardon all the past, my Boy! + + +3. + + Her lowly grave the turf has prest, + And thou hast known a stranger's breast; + Derision sneers upon thy birth, + And yields thee scarce a name on earth; + Yet shall not these one hope destroy,-- + A Father's heart is thine, my Boy! + + +4. + + Why, let the world unfeeling frown, + Must I fond Nature's claims disown? + Ah, no--though moralists reprove, + I hail thee, dearest child of Love, + Fair cherub, pledge of youth and joy-- + A Father guards thy birth, my Boy! + + +5. + + Oh,'twill be sweet in thee to trace, + Ere Age has wrinkled o'er my face, + Ere half my glass of life is run, + At once a brother and a son; + And all my wane of years employ + In justice done to thee, my Boy! + + +6. + + Although so young thy heedless sire, + Youth will not damp parental fire; + And, wert thou still less dear to me, + While Helen's form revives in thee, + The breast, which beat to former joy, + Will ne'er desert its pledge, my Boy! + + +1807. + +[First published in Moore's 'Life and Letters, etc.', 1830, i. 104.] + + +[Footnote 1: For a reminiscence of what was, possibly, an actual event, +see 'Don Juan', canto xvi. st. 61. He told Lady Byron that he had two +natural children, whom he should provide for.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +QUERIES TO CASUISTS. [1] + + + The Moralists tell us that Loving is Sinning, + And always are prating about and about it, + But as Love of Existence itself's the beginning, + Say, what would Existence itself be without it? + + They argue the point with much furious Invective, + Though perhaps 'twere no difficult task to confute it; + But if Venus and Hymen should once prove defective, + Pray who would there be to defend or dispute it? + + +BYRON. + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. (watermark 1805) at Newstead, now for +the first time printed.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +SONG.[1] + + +1. + + Breeze of the night in gentler sighs + More softly murmur o'er the pillow; + For Slumber seals my Fanny's eyes, + And Peace must never shun her pillow. + + +2. + + Or breathe those sweet Æolian strains + Stolen from celestial spheres above, + To charm her ear while some remains, + And soothe her soul to dreams of love. + + +3. + + But Breeze of night again forbear, + In softest murmurs only sigh: + Let not a Zephyr's pinion dare + To lift those auburn locks on high. + + +4. + + Chill is thy Breath, thou breeze of night! + Oh! ruffle not those lids of Snow; + For only Morning's cheering light + May wake the beam that lurks below. + + +5. + + Blest be that lip and azure eye! + Sweet Fanny, hallowed be thy Sleep! + Those lips shall never vent a sigh, + Those eyes may never wake to weep. + +February 23rd, 1808. + + +[Footnote 1: From the MS. in the possession of the Earl of Lovelace.] + + + +TO HARRIET. [1] + + +1. + + Harriet! to see such Circumspection, [2] + In Ladies I have no objection + Concerning what they read; + An ancient Maid's a sage adviser, + Like _her_, you will be much the wiser, + In word, as well as Deed. + + +2. + + But Harriet, I don't wish to flatter, + And really think 't would make the matter + More perfect if not quite, + If other Ladies when they preach, + Would certain Damsels also teach + More cautiously to write. + + + +[Footnote 1: From an autograph MS. at Newstead, now for the first +time printed.] + +[Footnote 2: See the poem "To Marion," and 'note', p. 129. It would seem +that J. T. Becher addressed some flattering lines to Byron with +reference to a poem concerning Harriet Maltby, possibly the lines "To +Marion." The following note was attached by Miss Pigot to these stanzas, +which must have been written on another occasion:-- + + "I saw Lord B. was _flattered_ by John Becher's lines, as he read + 'Apollo', etc., with a peculiar smile and emphasis; so out of _fun_, + to vex him a little, I said, + + '_Apollo!_ He _should_ have said _Apollyon_.' + + 'Elizabeth! for Heaven's sake don't say so again! I don't + mind _you_ telling me so; but if any one _else_ got hold _of the + word_, I should never hear the end of it.' + + So I laughed at him, and dropt it, for he was _red_ with agitation."] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THERE WAS A TIME, I NEED NOT NAME. [i] [1] + + +1. + + There was a time, I need not name, + Since it will ne'er forgotten be, + When all our feelings were the same + As still my soul hath been to thee. + + +2. + + And from that hour when first thy tongue + Confess'd a love which equall'd mine, + Though many a grief my heart hath wrung, + Unknown, and thus unfelt, by thine, + + +3. + + None, none hath sunk so deep as this-- + To think how all that love hath flown; + Transient as every faithless kiss, + But transient in thy breast alone. + + +4. + + And yet my heart some solace knew, + When late I heard thy lips declare, + In accents once imagined true, + Remembrance of the days that were. + + +5. + + Yes! my adored, yet most unkind! + Though thou wilt never love again, + To me 'tis doubly sweet to find + Remembrance of that love remain. [ii] + + +6. + + Yes! 'tis a glorious thought to me, + Nor longer shall my soul repine, + Whate'er thou art or e'er shall be, + Thou hast been dearly, solely mine. + + +June 10, 1808. [First published, 1809] + + + +[Footnote 1: This copy of verses, with eight others, originally appeared +in a volume published in 1809 by J. C. Hobhouse, under the title of +_Imitations and Translations, From the Ancient and Modern Classics, +Together with Original Poems never before published_. The MS. is in the +possession of the Earl of Lovelace.] + +[Footnote i: + + _Stanzas to the Same_. + +[_Imit. and Transl._, p. 200.]] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _The memory of that love again._ + +[MS. L.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +AND WILT THOU WEEP WHEN I AM LOW? [i] + + +1. + + And wilt thou weep when I am low? + Sweet lady! speak those words again: + Yet if they grieve thee, say not so-- + I would not give that bosom pain. + + +2. + + My heart is sad, my hopes are gone, + My blood runs coldly through my breast; + And when I perish, thou alone + Wilt sigh above my place of rest. + + +3. + + And yet, methinks, a gleam of peace + Doth through my cloud of anguish shine: + And for a while my sorrows cease, + To know thy heart hath felt for mine. + + +4. + + Oh lady! blessèd be that tear-- + It falls for one who cannot weep; + Such precious drops are doubly dear [ii] + To those whose eyes no tear may steep. + + +5. + + Sweet lady! once my heart was warm + With every feeling soft as thine; + But Beauty's self hath ceased to charm + A wretch created to repine. + + +6. [iii] + + Yet wilt thou weep when I am low? + Sweet lady! speak those words again: + Yet if they grieve thee, say not so-- + I would not give that bosom pain. [1] + + +Aug. 12, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: It was in one of Byron's fits of melancholy that the +following verses were addressed to him by his friend John +Cam Hobhouse:-- + +EPISTLE TO A YOUNG NOBLEMAN IN LOVE. + + Hail! generous youth, whom glory's sacred flame +Inspires, and animates to deeds of fame; +Who feel the noble wish before you die +To raise the finger of each passer-by: +Hail! may a future age admiring view +A Falkland or a Clarendon in you. + But as your blood with dangerous passion boils, +Beware! and fly from Venus' silken toils: +Ah! let the head protect the weaker heart, +And Wisdom's Ægis turn on Beauty's dart. + + * * * * * + + But if 'tis fix'd that every lord must pair, +And you and Newstead must not want an heir, +Lose not your pains, and scour the country round, +To find a treasure that can ne'er be found! +No! take the first the town or court affords, +Trick'd out to stock a market for the lords; +By chance perhaps your luckier choice may fall +On one, though wicked, not the worst of all: + + * * * * * + +One though perhaps as any Maxwell free, +Yet scarce a copy, Claribel, of thee; +Not very ugly, and not very old, +A little pert indeed, but not a scold; +One that, in short, may help to lead a life +Not farther much from comfort than from strife; +And when she dies, and disappoints your fears, +Shall leave some joys for your declining years. + + But, as your early youth some time allows, +Nor custom yet demands you for a spouse, +Some hours of freedom may remain as yet, +For one who laughs alike at love and debt: +Then, why in haste? put off the evil day, +And snatch at youthful comforts while you may! +Pause! nor so soon the various bliss forego +That single souls, and such alone, can know: +Ah! why too early careless life resign, +Your morning slumber, and your evening wine; +Your loved companion, and his easy talk; +Your Muse, invoked in every peaceful walk? +What! can no more your scenes paternal please, +Scenes sacred long to wise, unmated ease? +The prospect lengthen'd o'er the distant down, +Lakes, meadows, rising woods, and all your own? +What! shall your Newstead, shall your cloister'd bowers, +The high o'erhanging arch and trembling towers! +Shall these, profaned with folly or with strife, +An ever fond, or ever angry wife! +Shall these no more confess a manly sway, +But changeful woman's changing whims obey? +Who may, perhaps, as varying humour calls, +Contract your cloisters and o'erthrow your walls; +Let Repton loose o'er all the ancient ground, +Change round to square, and square convert to round; +Root up the elms' and yews' too solemn gloom, +And fill with shrubberies gay and green their room; +Roll down the terrace to a gay parterre, +Where gravel'd walks and flowers alternate glare; +And quite transform, in every point complete, +Your Gothic abbey to a country seat. + + Forget the fair one, and your fate delay; +If not avert, at least defer the day, +When you beneath the female yoke shall bend, +And lose your _wit_, your _temper_, and your _friend_. [A] + + Trin. Coll. Camb., 1808.] + + +[Sub-Footnote A: In his mother's copy of Hobhouse's volume, Byron has +written with a pencil, + + "_I have lost them all, and shall WED accordingly_. 1811. B."] + + + +[Footnote i: + + Stanzas. + +[MS. L.] + + To the Same. + +[Imit. and Transl., p 202.]] + + + +[Footnote ii: + + For one whose life is torment here, + And only in the dust may sleep. + +[MS. L.]] + + +[Footnote iii: The MS. inserts-- + + Lady I will not tell my tale + For it would rend thy melting heart; + 'Twere pity sorrow should prevail + O'er one so gentle as thou art. + +[MS. L.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +REMIND ME NOT, REMIND ME NOT. [i] + + +1. + + Remind me not, remind me not, + Of those beloved, those vanish'd hours, + When all my soul was given to thee; + Hours that may never be forgot, + Till Time unnerves our vital powers, + And thou and I shall cease to be. + + +2. + + Can I forget--canst thou forget, + When playing with thy golden hair, + How quick thy fluttering heart did move? + Oh! by my soul, I see thee yet, + With eyes so languid, breast so fair, + And lips, though silent, breathing love. + + +3. + + When thus reclining on my breast, + Those eyes threw back a glance so sweet, + As half reproach'd yet rais'd desire, + And still we near and nearer prest, + And still our glowing lips would meet, + As if in kisses to expire. + + +4. + + And then those pensive eyes would close, + And bid their lids each other seek, + Veiling the azure orbs below; + While their long lashes' darken'd gloss + Seem'd stealing o'er thy brilliant cheek, + Like raven's plumage smooth'd on snow. + + +5. + + I dreamt last night our love return'd, + And, sooth to say, that very dream + Was sweeter in its phantasy, + Than if for other hearts I burn'd, + For eyes that ne'er like thine could beam + In Rapture's wild reality. + + +6. + + Then tell me not, remind me not, [ii] + Of hours which, though for ever gone, + Can still a pleasing dream restore, [iii] + Till thou and I shall be forgot, + And senseless, as the mouldering stone + Which tells that we shall be no more. + + +Aug. 13, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + _A Love Song. To----. + +[Imit. and Transl., p. 197.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Remind me not, remind me not_. + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _Must still_. + +[MS. L.] ] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A YOUTHFUL FRIEND. [i] + + +1. + + Few years have pass'd since thou and I + Were firmest friends, at least in name, + And Childhood's gay sincerity + Preserved our feelings long the same. [ii] + + +2. + + But now, like me, too well thou know'st [iii] + What trifles oft the heart recall; + And those who once have loved the most + Too soon forget they lov'd at all. [iv] + + +3. + + And such the change the heart displays, + So frail is early friendship's reign, [v] + A month's brief lapse, perhaps a day's, + Will view thy mind estrang'd again. [vi] + + +4. + + If so, it never shall be mine + To mourn the loss of such a heart; + The fault was Nature's fault, not thine, + Which made thee fickle as thou art. + + +5. + + As rolls the Ocean's changing tide, + So human feelings ebb and flow; + And who would in a breast confide + Where stormy passions ever glow? + + +6. + + It boots not that, together bred, + Our childish days were days of joy: + My spring of life has quickly fled; + Thou, too, hast ceas'd to be a boy. + + +7. + + And when we bid adieu to youth, + Slaves to the specious World's controul, + We sigh a long farewell to truth; + That World corrupts the noblest soul. + + +8. + + Ah, joyous season! when the mind [1] + Dares all things boldly but to lie; + When Thought ere spoke is unconfin'd, + And sparkles in the placid eye. + + +9. + + Not so in Man's maturer years, + When Man himself is but a tool; + When Interest sways our hopes and fears, + And all must love and hate by rule. + + +10. + + With fools in kindred vice the same, [vii] + We learn at length our faults to blend; + And those, and those alone, may claim + The prostituted name of friend. + + +11. + + Such is the common lot of man: + Can we then 'scape from folly free? + Can we reverse the general plan, + Nor be what all in turn must be? + + +12. + + No; for myself, so dark my fate + Through every turn of life hath been; + Man and the World so much I hate, + I care not when I quit the scene. + + +13. + + But thou, with spirit frail and light, + Wilt shine awhile, and pass away; + As glow-worms sparkle through the night, + But dare not stand the test of day. + + +14. + + Alas! whenever Folly calls + Where parasites and princes meet, + (For cherish'd first in royal halls, + The welcome vices kindly greet,) + + +15. + + Ev'n now thou'rt nightly seen to add + One insect to the fluttering crowd; + And still thy trifling heart is glad + To join the vain and court the proud. + + +16. + + There dost thou glide from fair to fair, + Still simpering on with eager haste, + As flies along the gay parterre, + That taint the flowers they scarcely taste. + + +17. + + But say, what nymph will prize the flame + Which seems, as marshy vapours move, + To flit along from dame to dame, + An ignis-fatuus gleam of love? + + +18. + + What friend for thee, howe'er inclin'd, + Will deign to own a kindred care? + Who will debase his manly mind, + For friendship every fool may share? + + +19. + + In time forbear; amidst the throng + No more so base a thing be seen; + No more so idly pass along; + Be something, any thing, but--mean. + + +August 20th, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Stanzas 8-9 are not in the _MS_.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To Sir W. D., on his using the expression, "Soyes constant en + amitie."' + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Twere well my friend if still with thee + Through every scene of joy and woe, + That thought could ever cherish'd be + As warm as it was wont to glow. + +[MS. L] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + _And yet like me._ + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote iv: + + _Forget they ever._ + +[MS. L. _Imit. and Transl_., p. 185.] ] + + +[Footnote v: + + _So short._ + +[MS. L.] ] + + +[Footnote vi: + + _...a day + Will send my friendship back again._ + +[MS. L.] + + +[Footnote vii: + + _Each fool whose vices are the same + Whose faults with ours may blend._ + +[_MS. L._]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +LINES INSCRIBED UPON A CUP FORMED FROM A SKULL. [1] + + + +1. + + Start not--nor deem my spirit fled: + In me behold the only skull, + From which, unlike a living head, + Whatever flows is never dull. + + +2. + + I lived, I loved, I quaff'd, like thee: + I died: let earth my bones resign; + Fill up--thou canst not injure me; + The worm hath fouler lips than thine. + + +3. + + Better to hold the sparkling grape, + Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy brood; + And circle in the goblet's shape + The drink of Gods, than reptile's food. + +4. + + Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, + In aid of others' let me shine; + And when, alas! our brains are gone, + What nobler substitute than wine? + + +5. + + Quaff while thou canst: another race, + When thou and thine, like me, are sped, + May rescue thee from earth's embrace, + And rhyme and revel with the dead. + + +6. + + Why not? since through life's little day + Our heads such sad effects produce; + Redeem'd from worms and wasting clay, + This chance is theirs, to be of use. + + +Newstead Abbey, 1808. + +[First published in the seventh edition of 'Childe Harold'.] + + +[Footnote 1: Byron gave Medwin the following account of this cup:--"The +gardener in digging [discovered] a skull that had probably belonged to +some jolly friar or monk of the abbey, about the time it was +dis-monasteried. Observing it to be of giant size, and in a perfect +state of preservation, a strange fancy seized me of having it set and +mounted as a drinking cup. I accordingly sent it to town, and it +returned with a very high polish, and of a mottled colour like +tortoiseshell."--Medwin's 'Conversations', 1824, p. 87.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +WELL! THOU ART HAPPY. [i] [1] + + +1. + + Well! thou art happy, and I feel + That I should thus be happy too; + For still my heart regards thy weal + Warmly, as it was wont to do. + + +2. + + Thy husband's blest--and 'twill impart + Some pangs to view his happier lot: [ii] + But let them pass--Oh! how my heart + Would hate him if he loved thee not! + + +3. + + When late I saw thy favourite child, + I thought my jealous heart would break; + But when the unconscious infant smil'd, + I kiss'd it for its mother's sake. + + +4. + + I kiss'd it,--and repress'd my sighs + Its father in its face to see; + But then it had its mother's eyes, + And they were all to love and me. + + +5. [iii] + + Mary, adieu! I must away: + While thou art blest I'll not repine; + But near thee I can never stay; + My heart would soon again be thine. + + +6. + + I deem'd that Time, I deem'd that Pride, + Had quench'd at length my boyish flame; + Nor knew, till seated by thy side, + My heart in all,--save hope,--the same. + + +7. + + Yet was I calm: I knew the time + My breast would thrill before thy look; + But now to tremble were a crime-- + We met,--and not a nerve was shook. + + +8. + + I saw thee gaze upon my face, + Yet meet with no confusion there: + One only feeling couldst thou trace; + The sullen calmness of despair. + + +9. + + Away! away! my early dream + Remembrance never must awake: + Oh! where is Lethe's fabled stream? + My foolish heart be still, or break. + + +November, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: These lines were written after dining at Annesley with Mr. +and Mrs. Chaworth Musters. Their daughter, born 1806, and now Mrs. +Hamond, of Westacre, Norfolk, is still (January, 1898) living.] + + +[Footnote i: + +_To Mrs.----_[erased]. + +[_MS. L._] + + _To-----_. + +[_Imit. and Transl_. Hobhouse, 1809.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + _Some pang to see my rival's lot._ + +[_MS. L._] ] + + +[Footnote iii: MS. L. inserts-- + + _Poor little pledge of mutual love, + I would not hurt a hair of thee, + Although thy birth should chance to prove + Thy parents' bliss--my misery._] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +INSCRIPTION ON THE MONUMENT OF A NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. [1] + + + When some proud son of man returns to earth, + Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth, + The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe + And storied urns record who rest below: + When all is done, upon the tomb is seen, + Not what he was, but what he should have been: + But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend, + The first to welcome, foremost to defend, + Whose honest heart is still his master's own, + Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone, + Unhonour'd falls, unnoticed all his worth-- + Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth: + While Man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven, + And claims himself a sole exclusive Heaven. + Oh Man! thou feeble tenant of an hour, + Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power, + Who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust, + Degraded mass of animated dust! + Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat, + Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit! + By nature vile, ennobled but by name, + Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame. + Ye! who perchance behold this simple urn, + Pass on--it honours none you wish to mourn: + To mark a Friend's remains these stones arise; + I never knew but one,--and here he lies. [i] + + +Newstead Abbey, October 30, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + +[Footnote 1: This monument is placed in the garden of Newstead. +A prose inscription precedes the verses:-- + + "Near this spot + Are deposited the Remains of one + Who possessed Beauty without Vanity, + Strength without Insolence, + Courage without Ferocity, + And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices. +This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery + If inscribed over human ashes, + Is but a just tribute to the Memory of + BOATSWAIN, a Dog, + Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803, + And died at Newstead Abbey, Nov. 18, 1808." + + +Byron thus announced the death of his favourite to his friend +Hodgson:--"Boatswain is dead!--he expired in a state of madness on the +18th after suffering much, yet retaining all the gentleness of his +nature to the last; never attempting to do the least injury to any one +near him. I have now lost everything except old Murray." In the will +which the poet executed in 1811, he desired to be buried in the vault +with his dog, and Joe Murray was to have the honour of making one of the +party. When the poet was on his travels, a gentleman, to whom Murray +showed the tomb, said, "Well, old boy, you will take your place here +some twenty years hence." "I don't know that, sir," replied Joe; "if I +was sure his lordship would come here I should like it well enough, but +I should not like to lie alone with the dog."--'Life', pp. 73, 131.] + + +[Footnote i: + + _I knew but one unchang'd--and here he lies.-- + +[_Imit. and Transl_., p. 191.] ] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +TO A LADY, [1] + +ON BEING ASKED MY REASON FOR QUITTING ENGLAND IN THE SPRING. [i] + + + +1. + + When Man, expell'd from Eden's bowers, + A moment linger'd near the gate, + Each scene recall'd the vanish'd hours, + And bade him curse his future fate. + + +2. + + But, wandering on through distant climes, + He learnt to bear his load of grief; + Just gave a sigh to other times, + And found in busier scenes relief. + + +3. + + Thus, Lady! will it be with me, [ii] + And I must view thy charms no more; + For, while I linger near to thee, + I sigh for all I knew before. + + +4. + + In flight I shall be surely wise, + Escaping from temptation's snare: + I cannot view my Paradise + Without the wish of dwelling there. [iii] [2] + + +December 2, 1808. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Byron had written to his mother on November 2, 1808, +announcing his intention of sailing for India in the following March. +See 'Childe Harold', canto i. st. 3. See also Letter to Hodgson, Nov. +27, 1808.] + +[Footnote 2: In an unpublished letter of Byron to----, dated within +a few days of his final departure from Italy to Greece, in +1823, he writes: + + "Miss Chaworth was two years older than myself. She married a man of + an ancient and respectable family, but her marriage was not a happier + one than my own. Her conduct, however, was irreproachable; but there + was not sympathy between their characters. I had not seen her for many + years when an occasion offered to me, January, 1814. I was upon the + point, with her consent, of paying her a visit, when my sister, who + has always had more influence over me than any one else, persuaded me + not to do it. 'For,' said she, 'if you go you will fall in love again, + and then there will be a scene; one step will lead to another, 'et + cela fera un éclat''."] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'The Farewell To a Lady.' + +['Imit. and Transl.'] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Thus Mary!' (Mrs. Musters). + +['MS'.] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Without a wish to enter there.' + +['Imit. and Transl'., p. 196.] ] + + + + + + + + +FILL THE GOBLET AGAIN. [i] + +A SONG. + + +1. + + Fill the goblet again! for I never before + Felt the glow which now gladdens my heart to its core; + Let us drink!--who would not?--since, through life's varied round, + In the goblet alone no deception is found. + + +2. + + I have tried in its turn all that life can supply; + I have bask'd in the beam of a dark rolling eye; + I have lov'd!--who has not?--but what heart can declare + That Pleasure existed while Passion was there? + + +3. + + In the days of my youth, when the heart's in its spring, + And dreams that Affection can never take wing, + I had friends!--who has not?--but what tongue will avow, + That friends, rosy wine! are so faithful as thou? + + +4. + + The heart of a mistress some boy may estrange, + Friendship shifts with the sunbeam--thou never canst change; + Thou grow'st old--who does not?--but on earth what appears, + Whose virtues, like thine, still increase with its years? + + +5. + + Yet if blest to the utmost that Love can bestow, + Should a rival bow down to our idol below, + We are jealous!--who's not?--thou hast no such alloy; + For the more that enjoy thee, the more we enjoy. + + +6. + + Then the season of youth and its vanities past, + For refuge we fly to the goblet at last; + There we find--do we not?--in the flow of the soul, + That truth, as of yore, is confined to the bowl. + + +7. + + When the box of Pandora was open'd on earth, + And Misery's triumph commenc'd over Mirth, + Hope was left,--was she not?--but the goblet we kiss, + And care not for Hope, who are certain of bliss. + + +8. + + Long life to the grape! for when summer is flown, + The age of our nectar shall gladden our own: + We must die--who shall not?--May our sins be forgiven, + And Hebe shall never be idle in Heaven. + + +[First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Song'. + +['Imit. and Transl'., p. 204.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +STANZAS TO A LADY, ON LEAVING ENGLAND. [i] + + +1. + + Tis done--and shivering in the gale + The bark unfurls her snowy sail; + And whistling o'er the bending mast, + Loud sings on high the fresh'ning blast; + And I must from this land be gone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + +2. + + But could I be what I have been, + And could I see what I have seen-- + Could I repose upon the breast + Which once my warmest wishes blest-- + I should not seek another zone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + +3. + + 'Tis long since I beheld that eye + Which gave me bliss or misery; + And I have striven, but in vain, + Never to think of it again: + For though I fly from Albion, + I still can only love but one. + + +4. + + As some lone bird, without a mate, + My weary heart is desolate; + I look around, and cannot trace + One friendly smile or welcome face, + And ev'n in crowds am still alone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + +5. + + And I will cross the whitening foam, + And I will seek a foreign home; + Till I forget a false fair face, + I ne'er shall find a resting-place; + My own dark thoughts I cannot shun, + But ever love, and love but one. + + +6. + + The poorest, veriest wretch on earth + Still finds some hospitable hearth, + Where Friendship's or Love's softer glow + May smile in joy or soothe in woe; + But friend or leman I have none, [ii] + Because I cannot love but one. + + +7. + + I go--but wheresoe'er I flee + There's not an eye will weep for me; + There's not a kind congenial heart, + Where I can claim the meanest part; + Nor thou, who hast my hopes undone, + Wilt sigh, although I love but one. + + +8. + + To think of every early scene, + Of what we are, and what we've been, + Would whelm some softer hearts with woe-- + But mine, alas! has stood the blow; + Yet still beats on as it begun, + And never truly loves but one. + + +9. + + And who that dear lov'd one may be, + Is not for vulgar eyes to see; + And why that early love was cross'd, + Thou know'st the best, I feel the most; + But few that dwell beneath the sun + Have loved so long, and loved but one. + + +10. + + I've tried another's fetters too, + With charms perchance as fair to view; + And I would fain have loved as well, + But some unconquerable spell + Forbade my bleeding breast to own + A kindred care for aught but one. + + +11. + + 'Twould soothe to take one lingering view, + And bless thee in my last adieu; + Yet wish I not those eyes to weep + For him that wanders o'er the deep; + His home, his hope, his youth are gone, [iii] + Yet still he loves, and loves but one. [iv] + + +1809. [First published, 1809.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'To Mrs. Musters.' + +['MS.'] + + 'To----on Leaving England.' + +['Imit. and Transl.', p. 227.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'But friend or lover I have none'. + +['Imit. and Transl'., p. 229.]] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Though wheresoever my bark may run, + I love but thee, I love but one.' + +['Imit. and Transl.', p. 230.] + + 'The land recedes his Bark is gone, + Yet still he loves and laves but one.' + +[MS.] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Yet far away he loves but one.' + +[MS.] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS; + +A SATIRE. + +BY + +LORD BYRON. + + + + "I had rather be a kitten, and cry, mew! + Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers." + + SHAKESPEARE. + + + "Such shameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true, + There are as mad, abandon'd Critics, too." + + POPE. + + + + + + +PREFACE [1] + + +All my friends, learned and unlearned, have urged me not to publish this +Satire with my name. If I were to be "turned from the career of my +humour by quibbles quick, and paper bullets of the brain" I should have +complied with their counsel. But I am not to be terrified by abuse, or +bullied by reviewers, with or without arms. I can safely say that I have +attacked none 'personally', who did not commence on the offensive. An +Author's works are public property: he who purchases may judge, and +publish his opinion if he pleases; and the Authors I have endeavoured to +commemorate may do by me as I have done by them. I dare say they will +succeed better in condemning my scribblings, than in mending their own. +But my object is not to prove that I can write well, but, if 'possible', +to make others write better. + +As the Poem has met with far more success than I expected, I have +endeavoured in this Edition to make some additions and alterations, to +render it more worthy of public perusal. + + +In the First Edition of this Satire, published anonymously, fourteen +lines on the subject of Bowles's Pope were written by, and inserted at +the request of, an ingenious friend of mine, [2] who has now in the +press a volume of Poetry. In the present Edition they are erased, and +some of my own substituted in their stead; my only reason for this being +that which I conceive would operate with any other person in the same +manner,--a determination not to publish with my name any production, +which was not entirely and exclusively my own composition. + +With [3] regard to the real talents of many of the poetical persons +whose performances are mentioned or alluded to in the following pages, +it is presumed by the Author that there can be little difference of +opinion in the Public at large; though, like other sectaries, each has +his separate tabernacle of proselytes, by whom his abilities are +over-rated, his faults overlooked, and his metrical canons received +without scruple and without consideration. But the unquestionable +possession of considerable genius by several of the writers here +censured renders their mental prostitution more to be regretted. +Imbecility may be pitied, or, at worst, laughed at and forgotten; +perverted powers demand the most decided reprehension. No one can wish +more than the Author that some known and able writer had undertaken +their exposure; but Mr. Gifford has devoted himself to Massinger, and, +in the absence of the regular physician, a country practitioner may, in +cases of absolute necessity, be allowed to prescribe his nostrum to +prevent the extension of so deplorable an epidemic, provided there be no +quackery in his treatment of the malady. A caustic is here offered; as +it is to be feared nothing short of actual cautery can recover the +numerous patients afflicted with the present prevalent and distressing +rabies for rhyming.--As to the' Edinburgh Reviewers', it would indeed +require an Hercules to crush the Hydra; but if the Author succeeds in +merely "bruising one of the heads of the serpent" though his own hand +should suffer in the encounter, he will be amply satisfied. + + +[Footnote 1: The Preface, as it is here printed, was prefixed to the +Second, Third, and Fourth Editions of 'English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers'. The preface to the First Edition began with the words, "With +regard to the real talents," etc. The text of the poem follows that of +the suppressed Fifth Edition, which passed under Byron's own +supervision, and was to have been issued in 1812. From that Edition the +Preface was altogether excluded. + +In an annotated copy of the Fourth Edition, of 1811, underneath the +note, "This preface was written for the Second Edition, and printed with +it. The noble author had left this country previous to the publication +of that Edition, and is not yet returned," Byron wrote, in 1816, "He is, +and gone again."--MS. Notes from this volume, which is now in Mr. +Murray's possession, are marked--B., 1816.] + +[Footnote 2: John Cam Hobhouse.] + +[Footnote 3: Preface to the First Edition.] + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. + + +The article upon 'Hours of Idleness' "which Lord Brougham ... after +denying it for thirty years, confessed that he had written" ('Notes from +a Diary', by Sir M. E. Grant Duff, 1897, ii. 189), was published in the +'Edinburgh Review' of January, 1808. 'English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers' did not appear till March, 1809. The article gave the +opportunity for the publication of the satire, but only in part provoked +its composition. Years later, Byron had not forgotten its effect on his +mind. On April 26, 1821, he wrote to Shelley: "I recollect the effect on +me of the Edinburgh on my first poem: it was rage and resistance and +redress: but not despondency nor despair." And on the same date to +Murray: "I know by experience that a savage review is hemlock to a +sucking author; and the one on me (which produced the 'English Bards', +etc.) knocked me down, but I got up again," etc. It must, however, be +remembered that Byron had his weapons ready for an attack before he used +them in defence. In a letter to Miss Pigot, dated October 26, 1807, he +says that "he has written one poem of 380 lines to be published in a few +weeks with notes. The poem ... is a Satire." It was entitled 'British +Bards', and finally numbered 520 lines. With a view to publication, or +for his own convenience, it was put up in type and printed in quarto +sheets. A single copy, which he kept for corrections and additions, was +preserved by Dallas, and is now in the British Museum. After the review +appeared, he enlarged and recast the 'British Bards', and in March, +1809, the Satire was published anonymously. Byron was at no pains to +conceal the authorship of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', and, +before starting on his Pilgrimage, he had prepared a second and enlarged +edition, which came out in October, 1809, with his name prefixed. Two +more editions were called for in his absence, and on his return he +revised and printed a fifth, when he suddenly resolved to suppress the +work. On his homeward voyage he expressed, in a letter to Dallas, June +28, 1811, his regret at having written the Satire. A year later he +became intimate, among others, with Lord and Lady Holland, whom he had +assailed on the supposition that they were the instigators of the +article in the 'Edinburgh Review', and on being told by Rogers that they +wished the Satire to be withdrawn, he gave orders to his publisher, +Cawthorn, to burn the whole impression. A few copies escaped the flames. +One of two copies retained by Dallas, which afterwards belonged to +Murray, and is now in his grandson's possession, was the foundation of +the text of 1831, and of all subsequent issues. Another copy which +belonged to Dallas is retained in the British Museum. + +Towards the close of the last century there had been an outburst of +satirical poems, written in the style of the 'Dunciad' and its offspring +the 'Rosciad', Of these, Gifford's 'Baviad' and 'Maviad' (1794-5), and +T. J. Mathias' 'Pursuits of Literature' (1794-7), were the direct +progenitors of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', The 'Rolliad' +(1794), the 'Children of Apollo' (circ. 1794), Canning's 'New Morality' +(1798), and Wolcot's coarse but virile lampoons, must also be reckoned +among Byron's earlier models. The ministry of "All the Talents" gave +rise to a fresh batch of political 'jeux d'ésprits', and in 1807, when +Byron was still at Cambridge, the air was full of these ephemera. To +name only a few, 'All the Talents', by Polypus (Eaton Stannard Barrett), +was answered by 'All the Blocks, an antidote to All the Talents', by +Flagellum (W. H. Ireland); 'Elijah's Mantle, a tribute to the memory of +the R. H. William Pitt', by James Sayer, the caricaturist, provoked +'Melville's Mantle, being a Parody on ... Elijah's Mantle'. 'The +Simpliciad, A Satirico-Didactic Poem', and Lady Anne Hamilton's 'Epics +of the Ton', are also of the same period. One and all have perished, but +Byron read them, and in a greater or less degree they supplied the +impulse to write in the fashion of the day. + +'British Bards' would have lived, but, unquestionably, the spur of the +article, a year's delay, and, above all, the advice and criticism of his +friend Hodgson, who was at work on his 'Gentle Alterative for the +Reviewers', 1809 (for further details, see vol. i., 'Letters', Letter +102, 'note' 1), produced the brilliant success of the enlarged satire. +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers' was recognized at once as a work +of genius. It has intercepted the popularity of its great predecessors, +who are often quoted, but seldom read. It is still a popular poem, and +appeals with fresh delight to readers who know the names of many of the +"bards" only because Byron mentions them, and count others whom he +ridicules among the greatest poets of the century. + + + + + +ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. [1] + + + + Still [2] must I hear?--shall hoarse [3] FITZGERALD bawl + His creaking couplets in a tavern hall, + And I not sing, lest, haply, Scotch Reviews + Should dub me scribbler, and denounce my _Muse?_ + Prepare for rhyme--I'll publish, right or wrong: + Fools are my theme, let Satire be my song. [i] + + Oh! Nature's noblest gift--my grey goose-quill! + Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, + Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen, + That mighty instrument of little men! 10 + The pen! foredoomed to aid the mental throes + Of brains that labour, big with Verse or Prose; + Though Nymphs forsake, and Critics may deride, + The Lover's solace, and the Author's pride. + What Wits! what Poets dost thou daily raise! + How frequent is thy use, how small thy praise! + Condemned at length to be forgotten quite, + With all the pages which 'twas thine to write. + But thou, at least, mine own especial pen! [ii] + Once laid aside, but now assumed again, 20 + Our task complete, like Hamet's [4] shall be free; + Though spurned by others, yet beloved by me: + Then let us soar to-day; no common theme, + No Eastern vision, no distempered dream [5] + Inspires--our path, though full of thorns, is plain; + Smooth be the verse, and easy be the strain. + + When Vice triumphant holds her sov'reign sway, + Obey'd by all who nought beside obey; [iii] + When Folly, frequent harbinger of crime, + Bedecks her cap with bells of every Clime; [iv] 30 + When knaves and fools combined o'er all prevail, + And weigh their Justice in a Golden Scale; [v] + E'en then the boldest start from public sneers, + Afraid of Shame, unknown to other fears, + More darkly sin, by Satire kept in awe, + And shrink from Ridicule, though not from Law. + + Such is the force of Wit! I but not belong + To me the arrows of satiric song; + The royal vices of our age demand + A keener weapon, and a mightier hand. [vi] 40 + Still there are follies, e'en for me to chase, + And yield at least amusement in the race: + Laugh when I laugh, I seek no other fame, + The cry is up, and scribblers are my game: + Speed, Pegasus!--ye strains of great and small, + Ode! Epic! Elegy!--have at you all! + I, too, can scrawl, and once upon a time + I poured along the town a flood of rhyme, + A schoolboy freak, unworthy praise or blame; + I printed--older children do the same. 50 + 'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print; + A Book's a Book, altho' there's nothing in't. + Not that a Title's sounding charm can save [vii] + Or scrawl or scribbler from an equal grave: + This LAMB [6] must own, since his patrician name + Failed to preserve the spurious Farce from shame. [7] + No matter, GEORGE continues still to write, [8] + Tho' now the name is veiled from public sight. + Moved by the great example, I pursue + The self-same road, but make my own review: 60 + Not seek great JEFFREY'S, yet like him will be + Self-constituted Judge of Poesy. + + A man must serve his time to every trade + Save Censure--Critics all are ready made. + Take hackneyed jokes from MILLER, [9] got by rote, + With just enough of learning to misquote; + A man well skilled to find, or forge a fault; + A turn for punning--call it Attic salt; + To JEFFREY go, be silent and discreet, + His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet: 70 + Fear not to lie,'twill seem a _sharper_ hit; [viii] + Shrink not from blasphemy, 'twill pass for wit; + Care not for feeling--pass your proper jest, + And stand a Critic, hated yet caress'd. + + And shall we own such judgment? no--as soon + Seek roses in December--ice in June; + Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff, + Believe a woman or an epitaph, + Or any other thing that's false, before + You trust in Critics, who themselves are sore; 80 + Or yield one single thought to be misled + By JEFFREY'S heart, or LAMB'S Boeotian head. [10] + To these young tyrants, by themselves misplaced, + Combined usurpers on the Throne of Taste; + To these, when Authors bend in humble awe, + And hail their voice as Truth, their word as Law; + While these are Censors, 'twould be sin to spare; [11] + While such are Critics, why should I forbear? + But yet, so near all modern worthies run, + 'Tis doubtful whom to seek, or whom to shun; 90 + Nor know we when to spare, or where to strike, + Our Bards and Censors are so much alike. + Then should you ask me, [12] why I venture o'er + The path which POPE and GIFFORD [13] trod before; + If not yet sickened, you can still proceed; + Go on; my rhyme will tell you as you read. + "But hold!" exclaims a friend,--"here's some neglect: + This--that--and t'other line seem incorrect." + What then? the self-same blunder Pope has got, + And careless Dryden--"Aye, but Pye has not:"-- 100 + Indeed!--'tis granted, faith!--but what care I? + Better to err with POPE, than shine with PYE. [14] + + Time was, ere yet in these degenerate days [15] + Ignoble themes obtained mistaken praise, + When Sense and Wit with Poesy allied, + No fabled Graces, flourished side by side, + From the same fount their inspiration drew, + And, reared by Taste, bloomed fairer as they grew. + Then, in this happy Isle, a POPE'S pure strain + Sought the rapt soul to charm, nor sought in vain; 110 + A polished nation's praise aspired to claim, + And raised the people's, as the poet's fame. + Like him great DRYDEN poured the tide of song, + In stream less smooth, indeed, yet doubly strong. + Then CONGREVE'S scenes could cheer, or OTWAY'S melt; [16] + For Nature then an English audience felt-- + But why these names, or greater still, retrace, + When all to feebler Bards resign their place? + Yet to such times our lingering looks are cast, + When taste and reason with those times are past. 120 + Now look around, and turn each trifling page, + Survey the precious works that please the age; + This truth at least let Satire's self allow, + No dearth of Bards can be complained of now. [ix] + The loaded Press beneath her labour groans, [x] + And Printers' devils shake their weary bones; + While SOUTHEY'S Epics cram the creaking shelves, [xi] + And LITTLE'S Lyrics shine in hot-pressed twelves. [17] + Thus saith the _Preacher_: "Nought beneath the sun + Is new," [18] yet still from change to change we run. 130 + What varied wonders tempt us as they pass! + The Cow-pox, Tractors, Galvanism, and Gas, [19] + In turns appear, to make the vulgar stare, + Till the swoln bubble bursts--and all is air! + Nor less new schools of Poetry arise, + Where dull pretenders grapple for the prize: + O'er Taste awhile these Pseudo-bards prevail; [xii] + Each country Book-club bows the knee to Baal, + And, hurling lawful Genius from the throne, + Erects a shrine and idol of its own; [xiii] 140 + Some leaden calf--but whom it matters not, + From soaring SOUTHEY, down to groveling STOTT. [20] + + Behold! in various throngs the scribbling crew, + For notice eager, pass in long review: + Each spurs his jaded Pegasus apace, + And Rhyme and Blank maintain an equal race; + Sonnets on sonnets crowd, and ode on ode; + And Tales of Terror [21] jostle on the road; + Immeasurable measures move along; + For simpering Folly loves a varied song, 150 + To strange, mysterious Dulness still the friend, + Admires the strain she cannot comprehend. + Thus Lays of Minstrels [22]--may they be the last!-- + On half-strung harps whine mournful to the blast. + While mountain spirits prate to river sprites, + That dames may listen to the sound at nights; + And goblin brats, of Gilpin Horner's [23] brood + Decoy young Border-nobles through the wood, + And skip at every step, Lord knows how high, + And frighten foolish babes, the Lord knows why; 160 + While high-born ladies in their magic cell, + Forbidding Knights to read who cannot spell, + Despatch a courier to a wizard's grave, + And fight with honest men to shield a knave. + + Next view in state, proud prancing on his roan, + The golden-crested haughty Marmion, + Now forging scrolls, now foremost in the fight, + Not quite a Felon, yet but half a Knight. [xiv] + The gibbet or the field prepared to grace; + A mighty mixture of the great and base. 170 + And think'st thou, SCOTT! by vain conceit perchance, + On public taste to foist thy stale romance, + Though MURRAY with his MILLER may combine + To yield thy muse just half-a-crown per line? [24] + No! when the sons of song descend to trade, + Their bays are sear, their former laurels fade, + Let such forego the poet's sacred name, + Who rack their brains for lucre, not for fame: + Still for stern Mammon may they toil in vain! [25] + And sadly gaze on Gold they cannot gain! 180 + Such be their meed, such still the just reward [xv] + Of prostituted Muse and hireling bard! + For this we spurn Apollo's venal son, + And bid a long "good night to Marmion." [26] + + These are the themes that claim our plaudits now; + These are the Bards to whom the Muse must bow; + While MILTON, DRYDEN, POPE, alike forgot, + Resign their hallowed Bays to WALTER SCOTT. + + The time has been, when yet the Muse was young, + When HOMER swept the lyre, and MARO sung, 190 + An Epic scarce ten centuries could claim, + While awe-struck nations hailed the magic name: + The work of each immortal Bard appears + The single wonder of a thousand years. [27] + Empires have mouldered from the face of earth, + Tongues have expired with those who gave them birth, + Without the glory such a strain can give, + As even in ruin bids the language live. + Not so with us, though minor Bards, content, [xvi] + On one great work a life of labour spent: 200 + With eagle pinion soaring to the skies, + Behold the Ballad-monger SOUTHEY rise! + To him let CAMOËNS, MILTON, TASSO yield, + Whose annual strains, like armies, take the field. + First in the ranks see Joan of Arc advance, + The scourge of England and the boast of France! + Though burnt by wicked BEDFORD for a witch, + Behold her statue placed in Glory's niche; + Her fetters burst, and just released from prison, + A virgin Phoenix from her ashes risen. 210 + Next see tremendous Thalaba come on, [28] + Arabia's monstrous, wild, and wond'rous son; + Domdaniel's dread destroyer, who o'erthrew + More mad magicians than the world e'er knew. + Immortal Hero! all thy foes o'ercome, + For ever reign--the rival of Tom Thumb! [29] + Since startled Metre fled before thy face, + Well wert thou doomed the last of all thy race! + Well might triumphant Genii bear thee hence, + Illustrious conqueror of common sense! 220 + Now, last and greatest, Madoc spreads his sails, + Cacique in Mexico, [30] and Prince in Wales; + Tells us strange tales, as other travellers do, + More old than Mandeville's, and not so true. + Oh, SOUTHEY! SOUTHEY! [31] cease thy varied song! + A bard may chaunt too often and too long: + As thou art strong in verse, in mercy, spare! + A fourth, alas! were more than we could bear. + But if, in spite of all the world can say, + Thou still wilt verseward plod thy weary way; 230 + If still in Berkeley-Ballads most uncivil, + Thou wilt devote old women to the devil, [32] + The babe unborn thy dread intent may rue: + "God help thee," SOUTHEY, [33] and thy readers too. + + Next comes the dull disciple of thy school, [34] + That mild apostate from poetic rule, + The simple WORDSWORTH, framer of a lay + As soft as evening in his favourite May, + Who warns his friend "to shake off toil and trouble, + And quit his books, for fear of growing double;" [35] 240 + Who, both by precept and example, shows + That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose; + Convincing all, by demonstration plain, + Poetic souls delight in prose insane; + And Christmas stories tortured into rhyme + Contain the essence of the true sublime. + Thus, when he tells the tale of Betty Foy, + The idiot mother of "an idiot Boy;" + A moon-struck, silly lad, who lost his way, + And, like his bard, confounded night with day [36] 250 + So close on each pathetic part he dwells, + And each adventure so sublimely tells, + That all who view the "idiot in his glory" + Conceive the Bard the hero of the story. + + Shall gentle COLERIDGE pass unnoticed here, [37] + To turgid ode and tumid stanza dear? + Though themes of innocence amuse him best, + Yet still Obscurity's a welcome guest. + If Inspiration should her aid refuse + To him who takes a Pixy for a muse, [38] 260 + Yet none in lofty numbers can surpass + The bard who soars to elegize an ass: + So well the subject suits his noble mind, [xvii] + He brays, the Laureate of the long-eared kind. [xviii] + + Oh! wonder-working LEWIS! [39] Monk, or Bard, + Who fain would make Parnassus a church-yard! [xix] + Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy brow, + Thy Muse a Sprite, Apollo's sexton thou! + Whether on ancient tombs thou tak'st thy stand, + By gibb'ring spectres hailed, thy kindred band; 270 + Or tracest chaste descriptions on thy page, + To please the females of our modest age; + All hail, M.P.! [40] from whose infernal brain + Thin-sheeted phantoms glide, a grisly train; + At whose command "grim women" throng in crowds, + And kings of fire, of water, and of clouds, + With "small grey men,"--"wild yagers," and what not, + To crown with honour thee and WALTER SCOTT: + Again, all hail! if tales like thine may please, + St. Luke alone can vanquish the disease: 280 + Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell, + And in thy skull discern a deeper Hell. + + Who in soft guise, surrounded by a choir + Of virgins melting, not to Vesta's fire, + With sparkling eyes, and cheek by passion flushed + Strikes his wild lyre, whilst listening dames are hushed? + 'Tis LITTLE! young Catullus of his day, + As sweet, but as immoral, in his Lay! + Grieved to condemn, the Muse must still be just, + Nor spare melodious advocates of lust. 290 + Pure is the flame which o'er her altar burns; + From grosser incense with disgust she turns + Yet kind to youth, this expiation o'er, + She bids thee "mend thy line, and sin no more." [xx] + + For thee, translator of the tinsel song, + To whom such glittering ornaments belong, + Hibernian STRANGFORD! with thine eyes of blue, [41] + And boasted locks of red or auburn hue, + Whose plaintive strain each love-sick Miss admires, + And o'er harmonious fustian half expires, [xxi] 300 + Learn, if thou canst, to yield thine author's sense, + Nor vend thy sonnets on a false pretence. + Think'st thou to gain thy verse a higher place, + By dressing Camoëns [42] in a suit of lace? + Mend, STRANGFORD! mend thy morals and thy taste; + Be warm, but pure; be amorous, but be chaste: + Cease to deceive; thy pilfered harp restore, + Nor teach the Lusian Bard to copy MOORE. + + Behold--Ye Tarts!--one moment spare the text! [xxii]-- + HAYLEY'S last work, and worst--until his next; 310 + Whether he spin poor couplets into plays, + Or damn the dead with purgatorial praise, [43] + His style in youth or age is still the same, + For ever feeble and for ever tame. + Triumphant first see "Temper's Triumphs" shine! + At least I'm sure they triumphed over mine. + Of "Music's Triumphs," all who read may swear + That luckless Music never triumph'd there. [44] + + Moravians, rise! bestow some meet reward [45] + On dull devotion--Lo! the Sabbath Bard, 320 + Sepulchral GRAHAME, [46] pours his notes sublime + In mangled prose, nor e'en aspires to rhyme; + Breaks into blank the Gospel of St. Luke, [xxiii] + And boldly pilfers from the Pentateuch; + And, undisturbed by conscientious qualms, + Perverts the Prophets, and purloins the Psalms. + + Hail, Sympathy! thy soft idea brings" [xxiv] + A thousand visions of a thousand things, + And shows, still whimpering thro' threescore of years, [xxv] + The maudlin prince of mournful sonneteers. 330 + And art thou not their prince, harmonious Bowles! [47] + Thou first, great oracle of tender souls? + Whether them sing'st with equal ease, and grief, [xxvi] + The fall of empires, or a yellow leaf; + Whether thy muse most lamentably tells + What merry sounds proceed from Oxford bells, [xxvii] + Or, still in bells delighting, finds a friend + In every chime that jingled from Ostend; + Ah! how much juster were thy Muse's hap, + If to thy bells thou would'st but add a cap! [xxviii] 340 + Delightful BOWLES! still blessing and still blest, + All love thy strain, but children like it best. + 'Tis thine, with gentle LITTLE'S moral song, + To soothe the mania of the amorous throng! + With thee our nursery damsels shed their tears, + Ere Miss as yet completes her infant years: + But in her teens thy whining powers are vain; + She quits poor BOWLES for LITTLE'S purer strain. + Now to soft themes thou scornest to confine [xxix] + The lofty numbers of a harp like thine; 350 + "Awake a louder and a loftier strain," [48] + Such as none heard before, or will again! + Where all discoveries jumbled from the flood, + Since first the leaky ark reposed in mud, + By more or less, are sung in every book, + From Captain Noah down to Captain Cook. + Nor this alone--but, pausing on the road, + The Bard sighs forth a gentle episode, [xxx] [49] + And gravely tells--attend, each beauteous Miss!-- + When first Madeira trembled to a kiss. 360 + Bowles! in thy memory let this precept dwell, + Stick to thy Sonnets, Man!--at least they sell. + But if some new-born whim, or larger bribe, + Prompt thy crude brain, and claim thee for a scribe: + If 'chance some bard, though once by dunces feared, + Now, prone in dust, can only be revered; + If Pope, whose fame and genius, from the first, [xxxi] + Have foiled the best of critics, needs the worst, + Do thou essay: each fault, each failing scan; + The first of poets was, alas! but man. 370 + Rake from each ancient dunghill ev'ry pearl, + Consult Lord Fanny, and confide in CURLL; [50] + Let all the scandals of a former age + Perch on thy pen, and flutter o'er thy page; + Affect a candour which thou canst not feel, + Clothe envy in a garb of honest zeal; + Write, as if St. John's soul could still inspire, + And do from hate what MALLET [51] did for hire. + Oh! hadst thou lived in that congenial time, + To rave with DENNIS, and with RALPH to rhyme; [52] 380 + Thronged with the rest around his living head, + Not raised thy hoof against the lion dead, + A meet reward had crowned thy glorious gains, + And linked thee to the Dunciad for thy pains. [53] + + Another Epic! Who inflicts again + More books of blank upon the sons of men? + Boeotian COTTLE, rich Bristowa's boast, + Imports old stories from the Cambrian coast, + And sends his goods to market--all alive! + Lines forty thousand, Cantos twenty-five! 390 + Fresh fish from Hippocrene! [54] who'll buy? who'll buy? + The precious bargain's cheap--in faith, not I. + Your turtle-feeder's verse must needs be flat, [xxxii] + Though Bristol bloat him with the verdant fat; + If Commerce fills the purse, she clogs the brain, + And AMOS COTTLE strikes the Lyre in vain. + In him an author's luckless lot behold! + Condemned to make the books which once he sold. + Oh, AMOS COTTLE!--Phoebus! what a name + To fill the speaking-trump of future fame!-- 400 + Oh, AMOS COTTLE! for a moment think + What meagre profits spring from pen and ink! + When thus devoted to poetic dreams, + Who will peruse thy prostituted reams? + Oh! pen perverted! paper misapplied! + Had COTTLE [55] still adorned the counter's side, + Bent o'er the desk, or, born to useful toils, + Been taught to make the paper which he soils, + Ploughed, delved, or plied the oar with lusty limb, + He had not sung of Wales, nor I of him. 410 + + As Sisyphus against the infernal steep + Rolls the huge rock whose motions ne'er may sleep, + So up thy hill, ambrosial Richmond! heaves + Dull MAURICE [56] all his granite weight of leaves: + Smooth, solid monuments of mental pain! + The petrifactions of a plodding brain, + That, ere they reach the top, fall lumbering back again. + + With broken lyre and cheek serenely pale, + Lo! sad Alcæus wanders down the vale; + Though fair they rose, and might have bloomed at last, 420 + His hopes have perished by the northern blast: + Nipped in the bud by Caledonian gales, + His blossoms wither as the blast prevails! + O'er his lost works let _classic_ SHEFFIELD weep; + May no rude hand disturb their early sleep! [57] + + Yet say! why should the Bard, at once, resign [xxxiii] + His claim to favour from the sacred Nine? + For ever startled by the mingled howl + Of Northern Wolves, that still in darkness prowl; + A coward Brood, which mangle as they prey, 430 + By hellish instinct, all that cross their way; + Aged or young, the living or the dead," [xxxiv] + No mercy find-these harpies must be fed. + Why do the injured unresisting yield + The calm possession of their native field? + Why tamely thus before their fangs retreat, + Nor hunt the blood-hounds back to Arthur's Seat? [58] + + Health to immortal JEFFREY! once, in name, + England could boast a judge almost the same; [59] + In soul so like, so merciful, yet just, 440 + Some think that Satan has resigned his trust, + And given the Spirit to the world again, + To sentence Letters, as he sentenced men. + With hand less mighty, but with heart as black, + With voice as willing to decree the rack; + Bred in the Courts betimes, though all that law + As yet hath taught him is to find a flaw,-- + Since well instructed in the patriot school + To rail at party, though a party tool-- + Who knows? if chance his patrons should restore 450 + Back to the sway they forfeited before, + His scribbling toils some recompense may meet, + And raise this Daniel to the Judgment-Seat. [60] + Let JEFFREY'S shade indulge the pious hope, + And greeting thus, present him with a rope: + "Heir to my virtues! man of equal mind! + Skilled to condemn as to traduce mankind, + This cord receive! for thee reserved with care, + To wield in judgment, and at length to wear." + + Health to great JEFFREY! Heaven preserve his life, 460 + To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife, + And guard it sacred in its future wars, + Since authors sometimes seek the field of Mars! + Can none remember that eventful day, [xxxv] [61] + That ever-glorious, almost fatal fray, + When LITTLE'S leadless pistol met his eye, [62] + And Bow-street Myrmidons stood laughing by? + Oh, day disastrous! on her firm-set rock, + Dunedin's castle felt a secret shock; + Dark rolled the sympathetic waves of Forth, 470 + Low groaned the startled whirlwinds of the north; + TWEED ruffled half his waves to form a tear, + The other half pursued his calm career; [63] + ARTHUR'S steep summit nodded to its base, + The surly Tolbooth scarcely kept her place. + The Tolbooth felt--for marble sometimes can, + On such occasions, feel as much as man-- + The Tolbooth felt defrauded of his charms, + If JEFFREY died, except within her arms: [64] + Nay last, not least, on that portentous morn, 480 + The sixteenth story, where himself was born, + His patrimonial garret, fell to ground, + And pale Edina shuddered at the sound: + Strewed were the streets around with milk-white reams, + Flowed all the Canongate with inky streams; + This of his candour seemed the sable dew, + That of his valour showed the bloodless hue; + And all with justice deemed the two combined + The mingled emblems of his mighty mind. + But Caledonia's goddess hovered o'er 490 + The field, and saved him from the wrath of Moore; + From either pistol snatched the vengeful lead, + And straight restored it to her favourite's head; + That head, with greater than magnetic power, + Caught it, as Danäe caught the golden shower, + And, though the thickening dross will scarce refine, + Augments its ore, and is itself a mine. + "My son," she cried, "ne'er thirst for gore again, + Resign the pistol and resume the pen; + O'er politics and poesy preside, 500 + Boast of thy country, and Britannia's guide! + For long as Albion's heedless sons submit, + Or Scottish taste decides on English wit, + So long shall last thine unmolested reign, + Nor any dare to take thy name in vain. + Behold, a chosen band shall aid thy plan, + And own thee chieftain of the critic clan. + First in the oat-fed phalanx [65] shall be seen + The travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen. [66] + HERBERT shall wield THOR'S hammer, [67] and sometimes 510 + In gratitude, thou'lt praise his rugged rhymes. + Smug SYDNEY [68] too thy bitter page shall seek, + And classic HALLAM, [69] much renowned for Greek; + SCOTT may perchance his name and influence lend, + And paltry PILLANS [70] shall traduce his friend; + While gay Thalia's luckless votary, LAMB, [xxxvi] [71] + Damned like the Devil--Devil-like will damn. + Known be thy name! unbounded be thy sway! + Thy HOLLAND'S banquets shall each toil repay! + While grateful Britain yields the praise she owes 520 + To HOLLAND'S hirelings and to Learning's foes. + Yet mark one caution ere thy next Review + Spread its light wings of Saffron and of Blue, + Beware lest blundering BROUGHAM [72] destroy the sale, + Turn Beef to Bannocks, Cauliflowers to Kail." + Thus having said, the kilted Goddess kist + Her son, and vanished in a Scottish mist. [73] + + Then prosper, JEFFREY! pertest of the train [74] + Whom Scotland pampers with her fiery grain! + Whatever blessing waits a genuine Scot, 530 + In double portion swells thy glorious lot; + For thee Edina culls her evening sweets, + And showers their odours on thy candid sheets, + Whose Hue and Fragrance to thy work adhere-- + This scents its pages, and that gilds its rear. [75] + Lo! blushing Itch, coy nymph, enamoured grown, + Forsakes the rest, and cleaves to thee alone, + And, too unjust to other Pictish men, + Enjoys thy person, and inspires thy pen! + + Illustrious HOLLAND! hard would be his lot, 540 + His hirelings mentioned, and himself forgot! [76] + HOLLAND, with HENRY PETTY [77] at his back, + The whipper-in and huntsman of the pack. + Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House, + Where Scotchmen feed, and Critics may carouse! + Long, long beneath that hospitable roof [xxxvii] + Shall Grub-street dine, while duns are kept aloof. + See honest HALLAM [78] lay aside his fork, + Resume his pen, review his Lordship's work, + And, grateful for the dainties on his plate, [xxxviii] 550 + Declare his landlord can at least translate! [79] + Dunedin! view thy children with delight, + They write for food--and feed because they write: [xxxix] + And lest, when heated with the unusual grape, + Some glowing thoughts should to the press escape, + And tinge with red the female reader's cheek, + My lady skims the cream of each critique; + Breathes o'er the page her purity of soul, + Reforms each error, and refines the whole. [80] + + Now to the Drama turn--Oh! motley sight! 560 + What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite: + Puns, and a Prince within a barrel pent, [xl] [81] + And Dibdin's nonsense yield complete content. [82] + Though now, thank Heaven! the Rosciomania's o'er. [83] + And full-grown actors are endured once more; + Yet what avail their vain attempts to please, + While British critics suffer scenes like these; + While REYNOLDS vents his "'dammes!'" "poohs!" and + "zounds!" [xli] [84] + And common-place and common sense confounds? + While KENNEY'S [85] "World"--ah! where is KENNEY'S wit? [xlii]-- 570 + Tires the sad gallery, lulls the listless Pit; + And BEAUMONT'S pilfered Caratach affords + A tragedy complete in all but words? [xliii] + Who but must mourn, while these are all the rage + The degradation of our vaunted stage? + Heavens! is all sense of shame and talent gone? + Have we no living Bard of merit?--none? + Awake, GEORGE COLMAN! [86] CUMBERLAND, awake![87] + Ring the alarum bell! let folly quake! + Oh! SHERIDAN! if aught can move thy pen, 580 + Let Comedy assume her throne again; [xliv] + Abjure the mummery of German schools; + Leave new Pizarros to translating fools; [88] + Give, as thy last memorial to the age, + One classic drama, and reform the stage. + Gods! o'er those boards shall Folly rear her head, + Where GARRICK trod, and SIDDONS lives to tread? [xlv] [89] + On those shall Farce display buffoonery's mask, + And HOOK conceal his heroes in a cask? [90] + Shall sapient managers new scenes produce 590 + From CHERRY, [91] SKEFFINGTON, [92] and Mother GOOSE? [xlvi] [93] + While SHAKESPEARE, OTWAY, MASSINGER, forgot, + On stalls must moulder, or in closets rot? + Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim + The rival candidates for Attic fame! + In grim array though LEWIS' spectres rise, + Still SKEFFINGTON and GOOSE divide the prize. + And sure 'great' Skeffington must claim our praise, + For skirtless coats and skeletons of plays + Renowned alike; whose genius ne'er confines 600 + Her flight to garnish Greenwood's gay designs; [xlvii] [94] + Nor sleeps with "Sleeping Beauties," but anon + In five facetious acts comes thundering on. + While poor John Bull, bewildered with the scene, + Stares, wondering what the devil it can mean; + But as some hands applaud, a venal few! + Rather than sleep, why John applauds it too. + + Such are we now. Ah! wherefore should we turn + To what our fathers were, unless to mourn? + Degenerate Britons! are ye dead to shame, 610 + Or, kind to dulness, do you fear to blame? + Well may the nobles of our present race + Watch each distortion of a NALDI'S face; + Well may they smile on Italy's buffoons, + And worship CATALANI's pantaloons, [95] + Since their own Drama yields no fairer trace + Of wit than puns, of humour than grimace. [96] + + Then let Ausonia, skill'd in every art + To soften manners, but corrupt the heart, + Pour her exotic follies o'er the town, 620 + To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down: + Let wedded strumpets languish o'er DESHAYES, + And bless the promise which his form displays; + While Gayton bounds before th' enraptured looks + Of hoary Marquises, and stripling Dukes: + Let high-born lechers eye the lively Presle + Twirl her light limbs, that spurn the needless veil; + Let Angiolini bare her breast of snow, + Wave the white arm, and point the pliant toe; + Collini trill her love-inspiring song, 630 + Strain her fair neck, and charm the listening throng! + Whet [97] not your scythe, Suppressors of our Vice! + Reforming Saints! too delicately nice! + By whose decrees, our sinful souls to save, + No Sunday tankards foam, no barbers shave; + And beer undrawn, and beards unmown, display + Your holy reverence for the Sabbath-day. + + Or hail at once the patron and the pile + Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle! [98] + Where yon proud palace, Fashion's hallow'd fane, 640 + Spreads wide her portals for the motley train, + Behold the new Petronius [99] of the day, [xlviii] + Our arbiter of pleasure and of play! + There the hired eunuch, the Hesperian choir, + The melting lute, the soft lascivious lyre, + The song from Italy, the step from France, + The midnight orgy, and the mazy dance, + The smile of beauty, and the flush of wine, + For fops, fools, gamesters, knaves, and Lords combine: + Each to his humour--Comus all allows; 650 + Champaign, dice, music, or your neighbour's spouse. + Talk not to us, ye starving sons of trade! + Of piteous ruin, which ourselves have made; + In Plenty's sunshine Fortune's minions bask, + Nor think of Poverty, except "en masque," [100] + When for the night some lately titled ass + Appears the beggar which his grandsire was, + The curtain dropped, the gay Burletta o'er, + The audience take their turn upon the floor: + Now round the room the circling dow'gers sweep, 660 + Now in loose waltz the thin-clad daughters leap; + The first in lengthened line majestic swim, + The last display the free unfettered limb! + Those for Hibernia's lusty sons repair + With art the charms which Nature could not spare; + These after husbands wing their eager flight, + Nor leave much mystery for the nuptial night. + + Oh! blest retreats of infamy and ease, + Where, all forgotten but the power to please, + Each maid may give a loose to genial thought, 670 + Each swain may teach new systems, or be taught: + There the blithe youngster, just returned from Spain, + Cuts the light pack, or calls the rattling main; + The jovial Caster's set, and seven's the Nick, + Or--done!--a thousand on the coming trick! + If, mad with loss, existence 'gins to tire, + And all your hope or wish is to expire, + Here's POWELL'S [101] pistol ready for your life, + And, kinder still, two PAGETS for your wife: [xlix] + Fit consummation of an earthly race 680 + Begun in folly, ended in disgrace, + While none but menials o'er the bed of death, + Wash thy red wounds, or watch thy wavering breath; + Traduced by liars, and forgot by all, + The mangled victim of a drunken brawl, + To live like CLODIUS, [102] and like FALKLAND fall.[103] + + Truth! rouse some genuine Bard, and guide his hand + To drive this pestilence from out the land. + E'en I--least thinking of a thoughtless throng, + Just skilled to know the right and choose the wrong, 690 + Freed at that age when Reason's shield is lost, + To fight my course through Passion's countless host, [104] + Whom every path of Pleasure's flow'ry way + Has lured in turn, and all have led astray-- + E'en I must raise my voice, e'en I must feel + Such scenes, such men, destroy the public weal: + Altho' some kind, censorious friend will say, + "What art thou better, meddling fool, [105] than they?" + And every Brother Rake will smile to see + That miracle, a Moralist in me. 700 + No matter--when some Bard in virtue strong, + Gifford perchance, shall raise the chastening song, + Then sleep my pen for ever! and my voice + Be only heard to hail him, and rejoice, + Rejoice, and yield my feeble praise, though I + May feel the lash that Virtue must apply. + + As for the smaller fry, who swarm in shoals + From silly HAFIZ up to simple BOWLES, [106] + Why should we call them from their dark abode, + In Broad St. Giles's or Tottenham-Road? 710 + Or (since some men of fashion nobly dare + To scrawl in verse) from Bond-street or the Square? [l] + If things of Ton their harmless lays indite, + Most wisely doomed to shun the public sight, + What harm? in spite of every critic elf, + Sir T. may read his stanzas to himself; + MILES ANDREWS [107] still his strength in couplets try, + And live in prologues, though his dramas die. + Lords too are Bards: such things at times befall, + And 'tis some praise in Peers to write at all. 720 + Yet, did or Taste or Reason sway the times, + Ah! who would take their titles with their rhymes? [108] + ROSCOMMON! [109] SHEFFIELD! [110] with your spirits fled, [111] + No future laurels deck a noble head; + No Muse will cheer, with renovating smile, + The paralytic puling of CARLISLE. [li] [112] + The puny schoolboy and his early lay + Men pardon, if his follies pass away; + But who forgives the Senior's ceaseless verse, + Whose hairs grow hoary as his rhymes grow worse? 730 + What heterogeneous honours deck the Peer! + Lord, rhymester, petit-maître, pamphleteer! [113] + So dull in youth, so drivelling in his age, + His scenes alone had damned our sinking stage; + But Managers for once cried, "Hold, enough!" + Nor drugged their audience with the tragic stuff. + Yet at their judgment let his Lordship laugh, [lii] + And case his volumes in congenial calf; + Yes! doff that covering, where Morocco shines, + And hang a calf-skin on those recreant lines. [114] 740 + + With you, ye Druids! rich in native lead, + Who daily scribble for your daily bread: + With you I war not: GIFFORD'S heavy hand + Has crushed, without remorse, your numerous band. + On "All the Talents" vent your venal spleen; [115] + Want is your plea, let Pity be your screen. + Let Monodies on Fox regale your crew, + And Melville's Mantle [116] prove a Blanket too! + One common Lethe waits each hapless Bard, + And, peace be with you! 'tis your best reward. 750 + Such damning fame; as Dunciads only give [liii] + Could bid your lines beyond a morning live; + But now at once your fleeting labours close, + With names of greater note in blest repose. + Far be't from me unkindly to upbraid + The lovely ROSA'S prose in masquerade, + Whose strains, the faithful echoes of her mind, + Leave wondering comprehension far behind. [117] + Though Crusca's bards no more our journals fill, [118] + Some stragglers skirmish round the columns still; 760 + Last of the howling host which once was Bell's, [liv] + Matilda snivels yet, and Hafiz yells; + And Merry's [119] metaphors appear anew, + Chained to the signature of O. P. Q. [120] + When some brisk youth, the tenant of a stall, + Employs a pen less pointed than his awl, + Leaves his snug shop, forsakes his store of shoes, + St. Crispin quits, and cobbles for the Muse, + Heavens! how the vulgar stare! how crowds applaud! + How ladies read, and Literati laud! [121] 770 + If chance some wicked wag should pass his jest, + 'Tis sheer ill-nature--don't the world know best? + Genius must guide when wits admire the rhyme, + And CAPEL LOFFT [122] declares 'tis quite sublime. + Hear, then, ye happy sons of needless trade! + Swains! quit the plough, resign the useless spade! + Lo! BURNS and BLOOMFIELD, nay, a greater far, + GIFFORD was born beneath an adverse star, + Forsook the labours of a servile state, + Stemmed the rude storm, and triumphed over Fate: 780 + Then why no more? if Phoebus smiled on you, + BLOOMFIELD! why not on brother Nathan too? [123] + Him too the Mania, not the Muse, has seized; + Not inspiration, but a mind diseased: + And now no Boor can seek his last abode, + No common be inclosed without an ode. + Oh! since increased refinement deigns to smile + On Britain's sons, and bless our genial Isle, + Let Poesy go forth, pervade the whole, + Alike the rustic, and mechanic soul! 790 + Ye tuneful cobblers! still your notes prolong, + Compose at once a slipper and a song; + So shall the fair your handywork peruse, + Your sonnets sure shall please--perhaps your shoes. + May Moorland weavers [124] boast Pindaric skill, + And tailors' lays be longer than their bill! + While punctual beaux reward the grateful notes, + And pay for poems--when they pay for coats. + + To the famed throng now paid the tribute due, [lv] + Neglected Genius! let me turn to you. 800 + Come forth, oh CAMPBELL! give thy talents scope; + Who dares aspire if thou must cease to hope? + And thou, melodious ROGERS! rise at last, + Recall the pleasing memory of the past; [125] + Arise! let blest remembrance still inspire, + And strike to wonted tones thy hallowed lyre; + Restore Apollo to his vacant throne, + Assert thy country's honour and thine own. + What! must deserted Poesy still weep + Where her last hopes with pious COWPER sleep? 810 + Unless, perchance, from his cold bier she turns, + To deck the turf that wraps her minstrel, BURNS! + No! though contempt hath marked the spurious brood, + The race who rhyme from folly, or for food, + Yet still some genuine sons 'tis hers to boast, + Who, least affecting, still affect the most: [lvi] + Feel as they write, and write but as they feel-- + Bear witness GIFFORD, [126] SOTHEBY, [127] MACNEIL. [128] + "Why slumbers GIFFORD?" once was asked in vain; + Why slumbers GIFFORD? let us ask again. [129] 820 + Are there no follies for his pen to purge? + Are there no fools whose backs demand the scourge? + Are there no sins for Satire's Bard to greet? + Stalks not gigantic Vice in every street? + Shall Peers or Princes tread pollution's path, + And 'scape alike the Laws and Muse's wrath? + Nor blaze with guilty glare through future time, + Eternal beacons of consummate crime? + Arouse thee, GIFFORD! be thy promise claimed, + Make bad men better, or at least ashamed. 830 + + Unhappy WHITE! [130] while life was in its spring, + And thy young Muse just waved her joyous wing, + The Spoiler swept that soaring Lyre away, [lvii] [131] + Which else had sounded an immortal lay. + Oh! what a noble heart was here undone, + When Science' self destroyed her favourite son! + Yes, she too much indulged thy fond pursuit, + She sowed the seeds, but Death has reaped the fruit. + 'Twas thine own Genius gave the final blow, + And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low: 840 + So the struck Eagle, stretched upon the plain, + No more through rolling clouds to soar again, + Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, + And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart; + Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel + He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel; + While the same plumage that had warmed his nest + Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast. + + There be who say, in these enlightened days, + That splendid lies are all the poet's praise; 850 + That strained Invention, ever on the wing, + Alone impels the modern Bard to sing: + Tis true, that all who rhyme--nay, all who write, + Shrink from that fatal word to Genius--Trite; + Yet Truth sometimes will lend her noblest fires, + And decorate the verse herself inspires: + This fact in Virtue's name let CRABBE [132] attest; + Though Nature's sternest Painter, yet the best. + + And here let SHEE [133] and Genius find a place, + Whose pen and pencil yield an equal grace; 860 + To guide whose hand the sister Arts combine, + And trace the Poet's or the Painter's line; + Whose magic touch can bid the canvas glow, + Or pour the easy rhyme's harmonious flow; + While honours, doubly merited, attend [lviii] + The Poet's rival, but the Painter's friend. + + Blest is the man who dares approach the bower + Where dwelt the Muses at their natal hour; + Whose steps have pressed, whose eye has marked afar, + The clime that nursed the sons of song and war, 870 + The scenes which Glory still must hover o'er, + Her place of birth, her own Achaian shore. + But doubly blest is he whose heart expands + With hallowed feelings for those classic lands; + Who rends the veil of ages long gone by, + And views their remnants with a poet's eye! + WRIGHT! [134] 'twas thy happy lot at once to view + Those shores of glory, and to sing them too; + And sure no common Muse inspired thy pen + To hail the land of Gods and Godlike men. 880 + + And you, associate Bards! [135] who snatched to light [lvix] + Those gems too long withheld from modern sight; + Whose mingling taste combined to cull the wreath + While Attic flowers Aonian odours breathe, + And all their renovated fragrance flung, + To grace the beauties of your native tongue; + Now let those minds, that nobly could transfuse + The glorious Spirit of the Grecian Muse, + Though soft the echo, scorn a borrowed tone: [lx] + Resign Achaia's lyre, and strike your own. 890 + + Let these, or such as these, with just applause, [lxi] + Restore the Muse's violated laws; + But not in flimsy DARWIN'S [136] pompous chime, [lxii] + That mighty master of unmeaning rhyme, + Whose gilded cymbals, more adorned than clear, + The eye delighted, but fatigued the ear, + In show the simple lyre could once surpass, + But now, worn down, appear in native brass; + While all his train of hovering sylphs around + Evaporate in similes and sound: 900 + Him let them shun, with him let tinsel die: + False glare attracts, but more offends the eye. [137] + + Yet let them not to vulgar WORDSWORTH [138] stoop, + The meanest object of the lowly group, + Whose verse, of all but childish prattle void, + Seems blessed harmony to LAMB and LLOYD: [139] + Let them--but hold, my Muse, nor dare to teach + A strain far, far beyond thy humble reach: + The native genius with their being given + Will point the path, and peal their notes to heaven. 910 + + And thou, too, SCOTT! [140] resign to minstrels rude + The wilder Slogan of a Border feud: + Let others spin their meagre lines for hire; + Enough for Genius, if itself inspire! + Let SOUTHEY sing, altho' his teeming muse, [lxiii] + Prolific every spring, be too profuse; + Let simple WORDSWORTH [141] chime his childish verse, + And brother COLERIDGE lull the babe at nurse [lxiv] + Let Spectre-mongering LEWIS aim, at most, [lxv] + To rouse the Galleries, or to raise a ghost; 920 + Let MOORE still sigh; let STRANGFORD steal from MOORE, [lxvi] + And swear that CAMOËNS sang such notes of yore; + Let HAYLEY hobble on, MONTGOMERY rave, + And godly GRAHAME chant a stupid stave; + Let sonneteering BOWLES [142] his strains refine, + And whine and whimper to the fourteenth line; + Let STOTT, CARLISLE, [143] MATILDA, and the rest + Of Grub Street, and of Grosvenor Place the best, + Scrawl on, 'till death release us from the strain, + Or Common Sense assert her rights again; 930 + But Thou, with powers that mock the aid of praise, + Should'st leave to humbler Bards ignoble lays: + Thy country's voice, the voice of all the Nine, + Demand a hallowed harp--that harp is thine. + Say! will not Caledonia's annals yield + The glorious record of some nobler field, + Than the vile foray of a plundering clan, + Whose proudest deeds disgrace the name of man? + Or Marmion's acts of darkness, fitter food + For SHERWOOD'S outlaw tales of ROBIN HOOD? [lxvii] 940 + Scotland! still proudly claim thy native Bard, + And be thy praise his first, his best reward! + Yet not with thee alone his name should live, + But own the vast renown a world can give; + Be known, perchance, when Albion is no more, + And tell the tale of what she was before; + To future times her faded fame recall, + And save her glory, though his country fall. + + Yet what avails the sanguine Poet's hope, + To conquer ages, and with time to cope? 950 + New eras spread their wings, new nations rise, + And other Victors fill th' applauding skies; [144] + A few brief generations fleet along, + Whose sons forget the Poet and his song: + E'en now, what once-loved Minstrels scarce may claim + The transient mention of a dubious name! + When Fame's loud trump hath blown its noblest blast, + Though long the sound, the echo sleeps at last; + And glory, like the Phoenix [145] midst her fires, + Exhales her odours, blazes, and expires. 960 + + Shall hoary Granta call her sable sons, + Expert in science, more expert at puns? + Shall these approach the Muse? ah, no! she flies, + Even from the tempting ore of Seaton's prize; [lxviii] + Though Printers condescend the press to soil + With rhyme by HOARE, [146] and epic blank by HOYLE: [lxix] [147] + Not him whose page, if still upheld by whist, + Requires no sacred theme to bid us list. [148] + Ye! who in Granta's honours would surpass, + Must mount her Pegasus, a full-grown ass; 970 + A foal well worthy of her ancient Dam, + Whose Helicon [149] is duller than her Cam. [lxx] + + There CLARKE, [150] still striving piteously "to please," [lxxi] + Forgetting doggerel leads not to degrees, + A would-be satirist, a hired Buffoon, + A monthly scribbler of some low Lampoon, [151] + Condemned to drudge, the meanest of the mean, + And furbish falsehoods for a magazine, + Devotes to scandal his congenial mind; + Himself a living libel on mankind. 980 + + Oh! dark asylum of a Vandal race! [152] + At once the boast of learning, and disgrace! + So lost to Phoebus, that nor Hodgson's [153] verse + Can make thee better, nor poor Hewson's [154] worse. [lxxii] + But where fair Isis rolls her purer wave, + The partial Muse delighted loves to lave; + On her green banks a greener wreath she wove, [lxxiii] + To crown the Bards that haunt her classic grove; + Where RICHARDS wakes a genuine poet's fires, + And modern Britons glory in their Sires. [155] [lxxiv] 990 + + For me, who, thus unasked, have dared to tell + My country, what her sons should know too well, [lxxv] + Zeal for her honour bade me here engage [lxxvi] + The host of idiots that infest her age; + No just applause her honoured name shall lose, + As first in freedom, dearest to the Muse. + Oh! would thy bards but emulate thy fame, + And rise more worthy, Albion, of thy name! + What Athens was in science, Rome in power, + What Tyre appeared in her meridian hour, 1000 + 'Tis thine at once, fair Albion! to have been-- + Earth's chief Dictatress, Ocean's lovely Queen: [lxxvii] + But Rome decayed, and Athens strewed the plain, + And Tyre's proud piers lie shattered in the main; + Like these, thy strength may sink, in ruin hurled, [lxxviii] + And Britain fall, the bulwark of the world. + But let me cease, and dread Cassandra's fate, + With warning ever scoffed at, till too late; + To themes less lofty still my lay confine, + And urge thy Bards to gain a name like thine. [156] 1010 + + Then, hapless Britain! be thy rulers blest, + The senate's oracles, the people's jest! + Still hear thy motley orators dispense + The flowers of rhetoric, though not of sense, + While CANNING'S colleagues hate him for his wit, + And old dame PORTLAND [157] fills the place of PITT. + + Yet once again, adieu! ere this the sail + That wafts me hence is shivering in the gale; + And Afric's coast and Calpe's adverse height, [158] + And Stamboul's minarets must greet my sight: 1020 + Thence shall I stray through Beauty's native clime, [159] + Where Kaff [160] is clad in rocks, and crowned with snows sublime. + But should I back return, no tempting press [lxxix] + Shall drag my Journal from the desk's recess; + Let coxcombs, printing as they come from far, + Snatch his own wreath of Ridicule from Carr; + Let ABERDEEN and ELGIN [161] still pursue + The shade of fame through regions of Virtù; + Waste useless thousands on their Phidian freaks, + Misshapen monuments and maimed antiques; 1030 + And make their grand saloons a general mart + For all the mutilated blocks of art: + Of Dardan tours let Dilettanti tell, + I leave topography to rapid [162] GELL; [163] + And, quite content, no more shall interpose + To stun the public ear--at least with Prose. [lxxx] + + Thus far I've held my undisturbed career, + Prepared for rancour, steeled 'gainst selfish fear; + This thing of rhyme I ne'er disdained to own-- + Though not obtrusive, yet not quite unknown: 1040 + My voice was heard again, though not so loud, + My page, though nameless, never disavowed; + And now at once I tear the veil away:-- + Cheer on the pack! the Quarry stands at bay, + Unscared by all the din of MELBOURNE house, [164] + By LAMB'S resentment, or by HOLLAND'S spouse, + By JEFFREY'S harmless pistol, HALLAM'S rage, + Edina's brawny sons and brimstone page. + Our men in buckram shall have blows enough, + And feel they too are "penetrable stuff:" 1050 + And though I hope not hence unscathed to go, + Who conquers me shall find a stubborn foe. + The time hath been, when no harsh sound would fall + From lips that now may seem imbued with gall; + Nor fools nor follies tempt me to despise + The meanest thing that crawled beneath my eyes: + But now, so callous grown, so changed since youth, + I've learned to think, and sternly speak the truth; + Learned to deride the critic's starch decree, + And break him on the wheel he meant for me; 1060 + To spurn the rod a scribbler bids me kiss, + Nor care if courts and crowds applaud or hiss: + Nay more, though all my rival rhymesters frown, + I too can hunt a Poetaster down; + And, armed in proof, the gauntlet cast at once + To Scotch marauder, and to Southern dunce. + Thus much I've dared; if my incondite lay [lxxx] + Hath wronged these righteous times, let others say: + This, let the world, which knows not how to spare, + Yet rarely blames unjustly, now declare. [165] 1070 + + + +[Footnote 1: "The 'binding' of this volume is considerably too valuable +for the contents. Nothing but the consideration of its being the +property of another, prevents me from consigning this miserable record +of misplaced anger and indiscriminate acrimony to the flames."--B., +1816.] + + +[Footnote 2: IMITATION. + + "Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam, + Vexatus toties, rauci Theseide Codri?" + + JUVENAL, 'Satire I'.l. 1.] + + +[Footnote 3: "'Hoarse Fitzgerald'.--"Right enough; but why notice such +a mountebank?"--B., 1816. + +Mr. Fitzgerald, facetiously termed by Cobbett the "Small Beer Poet," +inflicts his annual tribute of verse on the Literary Fund: not content +with writing, he spouts in person, after the company have imbibed a +reasonable quantity of bad port, to enable them to sustain the +operation. + +[William Thomas Fitzgerald (circ. 1759-1829) played the part of +unofficial poet laureate. His loyal recitations were reported by the +newspapers. He published, 'inter alia', 'Nelson's Triumph' (1798), +'Tears of Hibernia, dispelled by the Union' (1802), and 'Nelson's Tomb' +(1806). He owes his fame to the first line of 'English Bards', and the +famous parody in 'Rejected Addresses'. The following 'jeux désprits' +were transcribed by R. C. Dallas on a blank leaf of a copy of the Fifth +Edition:-- + +"Written on a copy of 'English Bards' at the 'Alfred' by W. T. +Fitzgerald, Esq.-- + + + I find Lord Byron scorns my Muse, + Our Fates are ill agreed; + The Verse is safe, I can't abuse + Those lines, I never read. + + +Signed W. T. F." + +Answer written on the same page by Lord Byron-- + + + "What's writ on me," cries Fitz, "I never read"! + What's writ by thee, dear Fitz, none will, indeed. + The case stands simply thus, then, honest Fitz, + Thou and thine enemies are fairly quits; + Or rather would be, if for time to come, + They luckily were 'deaf', or thou wert dumb; + But to their pens while scribblers add their tongues. + The Waiter only can escape their lungs. [A]] + +{Sub-Footnote 0.1: Compare 'Hints from Horace', l. 808, 'note' 1.} + + +[Footnote 4: Cid Hamet Benengeli promises repose to his pen, in the last +chapter of 'Don Quixote'. Oh! that our voluminous gentry would follow +the example of Cid Hamet Benengeli!] + +[Footnote 5: "This must have been written in the spirit of prophecy." +(B., 1816.)] + + +[Footnote 6: "He's a very good fellow; and, except his mother and +sister, the best of the set, to my mind."--B., 1816. [William +(1779-1848) and George (1784-1834) Lamb, sons of Sir Peniston Lamb +(Viscount Melbourne, 1828), by Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Ralph +Milbanke, were Lady Byron's first cousins. William married, in 1805, +Lady Caroline Ponsonby, the writer of 'Glenarvon'. George, who was one +of the early contributors to the 'Edinburgh Review', married in 1809 +Caroline Rosalie Adelaide St. Jules. At the time of the separation, Lady +Caroline Lamb and Mrs. George Lamb warmly espoused Lady Byron's cause, +Lady Melbourne and her daughter Lady Cowper (afterwards Lady Palmerston) +were rather against than for Lady Byron. William Lamb was discreetly +silent, and George Lamb declaimed against Lady Byron, calling her a +d----d fool. Hence Lord Byron's praises of George. Cf. line 517 of +'English Bards'.] + + +[Footnote 7: This ingenuous youth is mentioned more particularly, with +his production, in another place. ('Vide post', l. 516.) + +"Spurious Brat" [see variant ii. p. 300], that is the farce; the +ingenuous youth who begat it is mentioned more particularly with his +offspring in another place. ['Note. MS. M.'] [The farce 'Whistle for It' +was performed two or three times at Covent Garden Theatre in 1807.] + +[Footnote 8: In the 'Edinburgh Review'.] + +[Footnote 9: The proverbial "Joe" Miller, an actor by profession +(1684-1738), was a man of no education, and is said to have been unable +to read. His reputation rests mainly on the book of jests compiled after +his death, and attributed to him by John Mottley. (First Edition. T. +Read. 1739.)] + + +[Footnote 10: Messrs. Jeffrey and Lamb are the alpha and omega, the +first and last of the 'Edinburgh Review'; the others are mentioned +hereafter. + +[The MS. Note is as follows:--"Of the young gentlemen who write in the +'E.R.', I have now named the alpha and omega, the first and the last, +the best and the worst. The intermediate members are designated with due +honour hereafter."] + +"This was not just. Neither the heart nor the head of these gentlemen +are at all what they are here represented. At the time this was written, +I was personally unacquainted with either."--B., 1816. + +[Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850) founded the 'Edinburgh Review' in +conjunction with Sydney Smith, Brougham, and Francis Horner, in 1802. In +1803 he succeeded Smith as editor, and conducted the 'Review' till 1829. +Independence of publishers and high pay to contributors ("Ten guineas a +sheet," writes Southey to Scott, June, 1807, "instead of seven pounds +for the 'Annual'," 'Life and Corr'., iii. 125) distinguished the new +journal from the first. Jeffrey was called to the Scottish bar in 1794, +and as an advocate was especially successful with juries. He was +constantly employed, and won fame and fortune. In 1829 he was elected +Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, and the following year, when the Whigs +came into office, he became Lord Advocate. He sat as M.P. twice for +Malton (1830-1832), and, afterwards, for Edinburgh. In 1834 he was +appointed a Judge of the Court of Sessions, when he took the title of +Lord Jeffrey. Byron had attacked Jeffrey in British Bards before his +'Hours of Idleness' had been cut up by the 'Edinburgh', and when the +article appeared (Jan. 1808), under the mistaken impression that he was +the author, denounced him at large (ll. 460-528) in the first edition of +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. None the less, the great critic +did not fail to do ample justice to the poet's mature work, and won from +him repeated acknowledgments of his kindness and generosity. (See +'Edinburgh Review', vol. xxii. p. 416, and Byron's comment in his +'Diary' for March 20,1814; 'Life', p. 232. See, too, 'Hints from +Horace', ll. 589-626; and 'Don Juan', canto x. st. 11-16, and canto xii. +st. 16. See also Bagehot's 'Literary Studies', vol. i. article I.)] + + +[Footnote 11: IMITATION. + + "Stulta est dementia, cum tot ubique + ------occurras perituræ parcere chartæ." + +JUVENAL, 'Sat. I.' ll. 17, 18.] + + +[Footnote 12: IMITATION. + + "Cur tamen hoc potius libeat decurrere campo, + Per quem magnus equos Auruncæ flexit alumnus, + Si vacat, et placidi rationem admittitis, edam." + +JUVENAL, 'Sat. I'. ll. 19-21.] + + +[Footnote 13: William Gifford (1756-1826), a self-taught scholar, first +a ploughboy, then boy on board a Brixham coaster, afterwards shoemaker's +apprentice, was sent by friends to Exeter College, Oxford (1779-81). In +the 'Baviad' (1794) and the 'Maeviad' (1795) he attacked many of the +smaller writers of the day, who were either silly, like the Della +Cruscan School, or discreditable, like Williams, who wrote as "Anthony +Pasquin." In his 'Epistle to Peter Pindar' (1800) he laboured to expose +the true character of John Wolcot. As editor of the 'Anti-Jacobin, or +Weekly Examiner' (November, 1797, to July, 1798), he supported the +political views of Canning and his friends. As editor of the 'Quarterly +Review', from its foundation (February, 1809) to his resignation in +September, 1824, he soon rose to literary eminence by his sound sense +and adherence to the best models, though his judgments were sometimes +narrow-minded and warped by political prejudice. His editions of +'Massinger' (1805), which superseded that of Monck Mason and Davies +(1765), of 'Ben Jonson' (1816), of 'Ford' (1827), are valuable. To his +translation of 'Juvenal' (1802) is prefixed his autobiography. His +translation of 'Persius' appeared in 1821. To Gifford, Byron usually +paid the utmost deference. "Any suggestion of yours, even if it were +conveyed," he writes to him, in 1813, "in the less tender text of the +'Baviad', or a Monck Mason note to Massinger, would be obeyed." See also +his letter (September 20, 1821, 'Life', p.531): "I know no praise which +would compensate me in my own mind for his censure." Byron was attracted +to Gifford, partly by his devotion to the classical models of +literature, partly by the outspoken frankness of his literary criticism, +partly also, perhaps, by his physical deformity.] + + +[Footnote 14: Henry James Pye (1745-1813), M.P. for Berkshire, and +afterwards Police Magistrate for Westminster, held the office of poet +laureate from 1790 till his death in 1813, succeeding Thomas Warton, and +succeeded by Southey. He published 'Farringdon Hill' in 1774, The +'Progress of Refinement' in 1783, and a translation of Burger's 'Lenore' +in 1795. His name recurs in the 'Vision of Judgment', stanza xcii. Lines +97-102 were inserted in the Fifth Edition.] + + +[Footnote 15: The first edition of the Satire opened with this line; and +Byron's original intention was to prefix the following argument, first +published in 'Recollections', by R. C. Dallas (1824):-- + + "ARGUMENT. + + "The poet considereth times past, and their poesy--makes a sudden + transition to times present--is incensed against book-makers--revileth + Walter Scott for cupidity and ballad-mongering, with notable remarks + on Master Southey--complaineth that Master Southey had inflicted three + poems, epic and otherwise, on the public--inveigheth against William + Wordsworth, but laudeth Mister Coleridge and his elegy on a young + ass--is disposed to vituperate Mr. Lewis--and greatly rebuketh Thomas + Little (the late) and Lord Strangford--recommendeth Mr. Hayley to turn + his attention to prose--and exhorteth the Moravians to glorify Mr. + Grahame--sympathiseth with the Rev. [William Bowles]--and deploreth + the melancholy fate of James Montgomery--breaketh out into invective + against the Edinburgh Reviewers--calleth them hard names, harpies and + the like--apostrophiseth Jeffrey, and prophesieth.--Episode of Jeffrey + and Moore, their jeopardy and deliverance; portents on the morn of the + combat; the Tweed, Tolbooth, Firth of Forth [and Arthur's Seat], + severally shocked; descent of a goddess to save Jeffrey; incorporation + of the bullets with his sinciput and occiput.--Edinburgh Reviews 'en + masse'.--Lord Aberdeen, Herbert, Scott, Hallam, Pillans, Lambe, + Sydney Smith, Brougham, etc.--Lord Holland applauded for dinners and + translations.--The Drama; Skeffington, Hook, Reynolds, Kenney, Cherry, + etc.--Sheridan, Colman, and Cumberland called upon [requested, MS.] to + write.--Return to poesy--scribblers of all sorts--lords sometimes + rhyme; much better not--Hafiz, Rosa Matilda, and X.Y.Z.--Rogers, + Campbell, Gifford, etc. true poets--Translators of the Greek + Anthology--Crabbe--Darwin's style--Cambridge--Seatonian + Prize--Smythe--Hodgson--Oxford--Richards--Poetaloquitur--Conclusion."] + + + +[Footnote 16: Lines 115, 116, were a MS. addition to the printed text of +'British Bards'. An alternative version has been pencilled on the +margin:-- + + "Otway and Congreve mimic scenes had wove + And Waller tuned his Lyre to mighty Love."] + + + +[Footnote 17: Thomas Little was the name under which Moore's early poems +were published, 'The Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little, Esq.' +(1801). "Twelves" refers to the "duodecimo." Sheets, after printing, are +pressed between cold or hot rollers, to impart smoothness of "surface." +Hot rolling is the more expensive process.] + + +[Footnote 18: Eccles. chapter i. verse 9.] + + +[Footnote 19: At first sight Byron appears to refer to the lighting of +streets by gas, especially as the first shop lighted with it was that of +Lardner & Co., at the corner of the Albany (June, 1805), and as lamps +were on view at the premises of the Gas Light and Coke Company in Pall +Mall from 1808 onwards. But it is almost certain that he alludes to the +"sublimating gas" of Dr. Beddoes, which his assistant, Davy, mentions in +his 'Researches' (1800) as nitrous oxide, and which was used by Southey +and Coleridge. The same four "wonders" of medical science are depicted +in Gillray's caricatures, November, 1801, and May and June, 1802, and +are satirized in Christopher Caustic's 'Terrible Tractoration! A +Poetical Petition against Galvanising Trumpery and the Perkinistit +Institution' (in 4 cantos, 1803). + +Against vaccination, or cow-pox, a brisk war was still being carried on. +Gillray has a likeness of Jenner vaccinating patients. + +Metallic "Tractors" were a remedy much advertised at the beginning of +the century by an American quack, Benjamin Charles Perkins, founder of +the Perkinean Institution in London, as a "cure for all Disorders, Red +Noses, Gouty Toes, Windy Bowels, Broken Legs, Hump Backs." + +In Galvanism several experiments, conducted by Professor Aldini, nephew +of Galvani, are described in the 'Morning Post' for Jan. 6th, Feb. 6th, +and Jan. 22nd, 1803. The latter were made on the body of Forster the +murderer. + +For the allusion to Gas, compare 'Terrible Tractoration', canto 1-- + + "Beddoes (bless the good doctor) has + Sent me a bag full of his gas, + Which snuff'd the nose up, makes wit brighter, + And eke a dunce an airy writer."] + + +[Footnote 20: Stott, better known in the 'Morning Post' by the name of +Hafiz. This personage is at present the most profound explorer of the +bathos. I remember, when the reigning family left Portugal, a special +Ode of Master Stott's, beginning thus:--('Stott loquitur quoad +Hibernia')-- + + "Princely offspring of Braganza, + Erin greets thee with a stanza," etc. + +Also a Sonnet to Rats, well worthy of the subject, and a most thundering +Ode, commencing as follows:-- + + "Oh! for a Lay! loud as the surge + That lashes Lapland's sounding shore." + +Lord have mercy on us! the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" was nothing to +this. [The lines "Princely Offspring," headed "Extemporaneous Verse on +the expulsion of the Prince Regent from Portugal by Gallic Tyranny," +were published in the 'Morning Post', Dec. 30, 1807. (See 'post', l. +708, and 'note'.)] ] + + +[Footnote 21: See p. 317, note 1.] + + +[Footnote 22: See the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," 'passim'. Never was +any plan so incongruous and absurd as the groundwork of this production. +The entrance of Thunder and Lightning prologuising to Bayes' tragedy +[('vide The Rehearsal'), 'British Bards'], unfortunately takes away the +merit of originality from the dialogue between Messieurs the Spirits of +Flood and Fell in the first canto. Then we have the amiable William of +Deloraine, "a stark moss-trooper," videlicet, a happy compound of +poacher, sheep-stealer, and highwayman. The propriety of his magical +lady's injunction not to read can only be equalled by his candid +acknowledgment of his independence of the trammels of spelling, +although, to use his own elegant phrase, "'twas his neckverse at +Harribee," 'i. e.' the gallows. + +The biography of Gilpin Horner, and the marvellous pedestrian page, who +travelled twice as fast as his master's horse, without the aid of +seven-leagued boots, are 'chefs d'oeuvre' in the improvement of taste. +For incident we have the invisible, but by no means sparing box on the +ear bestowed on the page, and the entrance of a Knight and Charger into +the castle, under the very natural disguise of a wain of hay. Marmion, +the hero of the latter romance, is exactly what William of Deloraine +would have been, had he been able to read and write. The poem was +manufactured for Messrs. CONSTABLE, MURRAY, and MILLER, worshipful +Booksellers, in consideration of the receipt of a sum of money; and +truly, considering the inspiration, it is a very creditable production. +If Mr. SCOTT will write for hire, let him do his best for his +paymasters, but not disgrace his genius, which is undoubtedly great, by +a repetition of Black-Letter Ballad imitations. + +[Constable paid Scott a thousand pounds for 'Marmion', and + + "offered one fourth of the copyright to Mr. Miller of Albemarle + Street, and one fourth to Mr. Murray of Fleet Street (see line 173). + Both publishers eagerly accepted the proposal." + ... + "A severe and unjust review of 'Marmion' by Jeffrey appeared in [the + 'Edinburgh Review' for April] 1808, accusing Scott of a mercenary + spirit in writing for money. ... Scott was much nettled by these + observations." + +('Memoirs of John Murray', i. 76, 95). In his diary of 1813 Byron wrote +of Scott, + + "He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most 'English' of + Bards." + +'Life', p. 206.]] + + + +[Footnote 23: It was the suggestion of the Countess of Dalkeith, that +Scott should write a ballad on the old border legend of 'Gilpin Horner', +which first gave shape to the poet's ideas, and led to the 'Lay of the +Last Minstrel'.] + + +[Footnote 24: In his strictures on Scott and Southey, Byron takes his +lead from Lady Anne Hamilton's (1766-1846, daughter of Archibald, ninth +Duke of Hamilton, and Lady-in-waiting to Caroline of Brunswick) 'Epics +of the Ton' (1807), a work which has not shared the dubious celebrity of +her 'Secret Memories of the Court', etc. (1832). Compare the following +lines (p. 9):-- + + "Then still might Southey sing his crazy Joan, + Or feign a Welshman o'er the Atlantic flown, + Or tell of Thalaba the wondrous matter, + Or with clown Wordsworth, chatter, chatter, chatter. + * * * * * + Good-natured Scott rehearse, in well-paid lays, + The marv'lous chiefs and elves of other days." + +(For Scott's reference to "my share of flagellation among my betters," +and an explicit statement that he had remonstrated with Jeffrey against +the "offensive criticism" of 'Hours of Idleness', because he thought it +treated with undue severity, see Introduction to 'Marmion', 1830.)]] + + + +[Footnote 25: Lines 179, 180, in the Fifth Edition, were substituted for +variant i. p. 312.--'Leigh Hunt's annotated Copy of the Fourth Edition'.] + + +[Footnote 26: "Good night to Marmion"--the pathetic and also prophetic +exclamation of Henry Blount, Esquire, on the death of honest Marmion.] + + +[Footnote 27: As the 'Odyssey' is so closely connected with the story of +the 'Iliad', they may almost be classed as one grand historical poem. In +alluding to Milton and Tasso, we consider the 'Paradise Lost' and +'Gerusalemme Liberata' as their standard efforts; since neither the +'Jerusalem Conquered' of the Italian, nor the 'Paradise Regained' of the +English bard, obtained a proportionate celebrity to their former poems. +Query: Which of Mr. Southey's will survive?] + + +[Footnote 28: 'Thalaba', Mr. Southey's second poem, is written in +defiance of precedent and poetry. Mr. S. wished to produce something +novel, and succeeded to a miracle. 'Joan of Arc' was marvellous enough, +but 'Thalaba' was one of those poems "which," in the word of PORSON, +"will be read when Homer and Virgil are forgotten, but--<i<not till +then'." ["Of 'Thalaba" the wild and wondrous song"--Proem to 'Madoc', +Southey's 'Poetical Works' (1838), vol. v. 'Joan of Arc' was published +in 1796, 'Thalaba the Destroyer' in 1801, and 'Madoc' in 1805.] + + +[Footnote 29: The hero of Fielding's farce, 'The Tragedy of Tragedies', +'or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great', first played in 1730 at +the Haymarket.] + + +[Footnote 30: Southey's 'Madoc' is divided into two parts--Part I., +"Madoc in Wales;" Part II., "Madoc in Aztlan." The word "cacique" +("Cacique or cazique... a native chief or 'prince' of the aborigines in +the West Indies:" 'New Engl. Dict'., Art. "Cacique") occurs in the +translations of Spanish writers quoted by Southey in his notes, but not +in the text of the poem.] + + +[Footnote 31: We beg Mr. Southey's pardon: "Madoc disdains the degraded +title of Epic." See his Preface. ["It assumes not the degraded title of +Epic."--Preface to 'Madoc' (1805), Southey's 'Poetical Works' (1838), +vol. v. p. xxi.] Why is Epic degraded? and by whom? Certainly the late +Romaunts of Masters Cottle, Laureat Pye, Ogilvy, Hole,[A] and gentle +Mistress Cowley, have not exalted the Epic Muse; but, as Mr. SOUTHEY'S +poem "disdains the appellation," allow us to ask--has he substituted +anything better in its stead? or must he be content to rival Sir RICHARD +BLACKMORE in the quantity as well as quality of his verse? + +[Sub-Footnote A: For "Hole," the 'MS'. and 'British Bards' read "Sir J. +B. Burgess; Cumberland."] ] + + +[Footnote 32: See 'The Old Woman of Berkeley', a ballad by Mr. Southey, +wherein an aged gentlewoman is carried away by Beelzebub, on a "high +trotting horse."] + +[Footnote 33: The last line, "God help thee," is an evident plagiarism +from the 'Anti-Jacobin' to Mr. Southey, on his Dactylics:-- + + "God help thee, silly one!" + +'Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin', p. 23.] + + +[Footnote 34: In the annotated copy of the Fourth Edition Byron has +drawn a line down the margin of the passage on Wordsworth, lines +236-248, and adds the word "Unjust." The first four lines on Coleridge +(lines 255-258) are also marked "Unjust." The recantation is, no doubt, +intended to apply to both passages from beginning to end. +"'Unjust'."--B., 1816. (See also Byron's letter to S. T. Coleridge, +March 31, 1815.)] + + +[Footnote 35: 'Lyrical Ballads', p. 4.--"The Tables Turned," Stanza 1. + + "Up, up, my friend, and clear your looks, + Why all this toil and trouble? + Up, up, my friend, and quit your books, + Or surely you'll grow double."] + + +[Footnote 36: Mr. W. in his preface labours hard to prove, that prose +and verse are much the same; and certainly his precepts and practice are +strictly conformable:-- + + "And thus to Betty's questions he + Made answer, like a traveller bold. + 'The cock did crow, to-whoo, to-whoo, + And the sun did shine so cold.'" + +'Lyrical Ballads', p. 179. [Compare 'The Simpliciad', II. 295-305, and +'note'.]] + + + +[Footnote 37: "He has not published for some years."--'British Bards'. +(A marginal note in pencil.) [Coleridge's 'Poems' (3rd edit.) appeared +in 1803; the first number of 'The Friend' on June 1, 1809.]] + + +[Footnote 38: COLERIDGE'S 'Poems', p. 11, "Songs of the Pixies," 'i. e.' +Devonshire Fairies; p. 42, we have "Lines to a Young Lady;" and, p. 52, +"Lines to a Young Ass." [Compare 'The Simpliciad', ll. 211, 213-- + + "Then in despite of scornful Folly's pother, + Ask him to live with you and hail him brother."]] + + + +[Footnote 39: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), known as "Monk" Lewis, +was the son of a rich Jamaica planter. During a six months' visit to +Weimar (1792-3), when he was introduced to Goethe, he applied himself to +the study of German literature, especially novels and the drama. In 1794 +he was appointed 'attaché' to the Embassy at the Hague, and in the +course of ten weeks wrote 'Ambrosio, or The Monk', which was published +in 1795. In 1798 he made the acquaintance of Scott, and procured his +promise of co-operation in his contemplated 'Tales of Terror'. In the +same year he published the 'Castle Spectre' (first played at Drury Lane, +Dec. 14, 1797), in which, to quote the postscript "To the Reader," he +meant (but Sheridan interposed) "to have exhibited a whole regiment of +Ghosts." 'Tales of Terror' were printed at Weybridge in 1801, and two or +three editions of 'Tales of Wonder', to which Byron refers, came out in +the same year. Lewis borrowed so freely from all sources that the +collection was called "Tales of Plunder." In the first edition (two +vols., printed by W. Bulmer for the author, 1801) the first eighteen +poems, with the exception of 'The Fire King' (xii.) by Walter Scott, are +by Lewis, either original or translated. Scott also contributed +'Glenfinlas, The Eve of St. John, Frederick and Alice, The Wild Huntsmen +(Der Wilde Jäger). Southey contributed six poems, including 'The Old +Woman of Berkeley' (xxiv.). 'The Little Grey Man' (xix.) is by H. +Bunbury. The second volume is made up from Burns, Gray, Parnell, Glover, +Percy's 'Reliques', and other sources. + +A second edition, published in 1801, which consists of thirty-two +ballads (Southey's are not included), advertises "'Tales of Terror' +printed uniform with this edition of 'Tales of Wonder'." 'Romantic +Tales', in four volumes, appeared in 1808. Of his other works, 'The +Captive, A Monodrama', was played in 1803; the 'Bravo of Venice, A +Translation from the German', in 1804; and 'Timour the Tartar' in 1811. +His 'Journal of a West Indian Proprietor' was not published till 1834. +He sat as M.P. for Hindon (1796-1802). + +He had been a favourite in society before Byron appeared on the scene, +but there is no record of any intimacy or acquaintance before 1813. When +Byron was living at Geneva, Lewis visited the Maison Diodati in August, +1816, on which occasion he "translated to him Goethe's 'Faust' by word +of mouth," and drew up a codicil to his will, witnessed by Byron, +Shelley, and Polidori, which contained certain humane provisions for the +well-being of the negroes on his Jamaica estates. He also visited him at +'La Mira' in August, 1817. Byron wrote of him after his death: "He was a +good man, and a clever one, but he was a bore, a damned bore--one may +say. But I liked him." + +To judge from his letters to his mother and other evidence (Scott's +testimony, for instance), he was a kindly, well-intentioned man, but +lacking in humour. When his father condemned the indecency of the +'Monk', he assured him "that he had not the slightest idea that what he +was then writing could injure the principles of any human being." "He +was," said Byron, "too great a bore to lie," and the plea is evidently +offered in good faith. As a writer, he is memorable chiefly for his +sponsorship of German literature. Scott said of him that he had the +finest ear for rhythm he ever met with--finer than Byron's; and +Coleridge, in a letter to Wordsworth, Jan., 1798 ('Letters of S. T. C.' +(1895), i. 237), and again in 'Table Talk' for March 20, 1834, commends +his verses. Certainly his ballad of "Crazy Jane," once so famous that +ladies took to wearing "Crazy Jane" hats, is of the nature of poetry. +(See 'Life', 349, 362, 491, etc.; 'Life and Correspondence' of M. G. +Lewis (1839), i. 158, etc.; 'Life of Scott', by J. G. Lockhart (1842), +pp. 80-83, 94.)] ] + + +[Footnote 40: "For every one knows little Matt's an M.P."--See a poem to +Mr. Lewis, in 'The Statesman', supposed to be written by Mr. Jekyll. + +[Joseph Jekyll (d. 1837) was celebrated for his witticisms and metrical +'jeux d'esprit' which he contributed to the 'Morning Chronicle' and the +'Evening Statesman'. His election as M.P. for Calne in 1787, at the +nomination of Lord Lansdowne, gave rise to 'Jekyll, A Political Eclogue' +(see 'The Rottiad' (1799), pp. 219-224). He was a favourite with the +Prince Regent, at whose instance he was appointed a Master in Chancery +in 1815.]] + + +[Footnote 41: The reader, who may wish for an explanation of this, may +refer to "Strangford's Camoëns," p. 127, note to p. 56, or to the last +page of the 'Edinburgh Review' of Strangford's Camoëns. + +[Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, sixth Viscount Strangford (1780-1855), +published 'Translations from the Portuguese by Luis de Camoens' in 1803. +The note to which Byron refers is on the canzonet 'Naö sei quem +assella', "Thou hast an eye of tender blue." It runs thus: + + "Locks of auburn and eyes of blue have ever been dear to the sons of + song.... Sterne even considers them as indicative of qualities the + most amiable.... The Translator does not wish to deem ... this + unfounded. He is, however, aware of the danger to which such a + confession exposes him--but he flies for protection to the temple of + AUREA VENUS." + +It may be added that Byron's own locks were auburn, and his eyes a +greyish-blue.]] + + +[Footnote 42: It is also to be remarked, that the things given to the +public as poems of Camoëns are no more to be found in the original +Portuguese, than in the Song of Solomon.] + + +[Footnote 43: See his various Biographies of defunct Painters, etc. +[William Hayley (1745-1820) published 'The Triumphs of Temper' in 1781, +and 'The Triumph of Music' in 1804. His biography of Milton appeared in +1796, of Cowper in 1803-4, of Romney in 1809. He had produced, among +other plays, 'The Happy Prescription' and 'The Two Connoisseurs' in +1784. In 1808 he would be regarded as out of date, "hobbling on" behind +younger rivals in the race (see E.B., I. 923). For his life and works, +see Southey's article in the 'Quarterly Review' (vol. xxxi. p. 263). The +appeal to "tarts" to "spare the text," is possibly an echo of 'The +Dunciad', i. 155, 156-- + + "Of these twelve volumes, twelve of amplest size, + Redeemed from topers and defrauded pies." + +The meaning of the appeal is fixed by such a passage as this from 'The +Blues', where the company discuss Wordsworth's appointment to a +Collectorship of Stamps-- + + "'Inkle'. + I shall think of him oft when I buy a new hat; + There his works will appear. + + "'Lady Bluemount'. + Sir, they reach to the Ganges. + + "'Inkle'. + I sha'n't go so far. I can have them at Grange's." + +Grange's was a well-known pastry-cook's in Piccadilly. In Pierce Egan's +'Life in London' (ed. 1821), p. 70, 'note' 1, the author writes, "As I +sincerely hope that this work will shrink from the touch of a +pastry-cook, and also avoid the foul uses of a trunk-maker ... I feel +induced now to describe, for the benefit of posterity, the pedigree of a +Dandy in 1820."] + + +[Footnote 44: Hayley's two most notorious verse productions are +'Triumphs of Temper' and 'The Triumph of Music'. He has also written +much Comedy in rhyme, Epistles, etc., etc. As he is rather an elegant +writer of notes and biography, let us recommend POPE'S advice to +WYCHERLEY to Mr. H.'s consideration, viz., "to convert poetry into +prose," which may be easily done by taking away the final syllable of +each couplet.] + + +[Footnote 45: Lines 319-326 do not form part of the original 'MS'. A +slip of paper which contains a fair copy of the lines in Byron's +handwriting has been, with other fragments, bound up with Dallas's copy +of 'British Bards'. In the 'MS'. this place is taken by a passage and +its pendant note, which Byron omitted at the request of Dallas, who was +a friend of Pratt's:-- + + + "In verse most stale, unprofitable, flat-- + Come, let us change the scene, and ''glean'' with Pratt; + In him an author's luckless lot behold, + Condemned to make the books which once he sold: + Degraded man! again resume thy trade-- + The votaries of the Muse are ill repaid, + Though daily puffs once more invite to buy + A new edition of thy 'Sympathy.'" + + +"Mr. Pratt, once a Bath bookseller, now a London author, has written as +much, to as little purpose, as any of his scribbling contemporaries. Mr. +P.'s 'Sympathy' is in rhyme; but his prose productions are the most +voluminous." + +Samuel Jackson Pratt (1749-1814), actor, itinerant lecturer, poet of the +Cruscan school, tragedian, and novelist, published a large number of +volumes. His 'Gleanings' in England, Holland, Wales, and Westphalia +attained some reputation. His 'Sympathy; a Poem' (1788) passed through +several editions. His pseudonym was Courtney Melmoth. He was a patron of +the cobbler-poet, Blacket] ] + + +[Footnote 46: Mr. Grahame has poured forth two volumes of Cant, under +the name of 'Sabbath Walks' and 'Biblical Pictures'. [James Grahame +(1765-1811), a lawyer, who subsequently took Holy Orders. 'The Sabbath', +a poem, was published anonymously in 1804; and to a second edition were +added 'Sabbath Walks'. 'Biblical Pictures' appeared in 1807.] + + +[Footnote 47: The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles (1768-1850). His edition of +Pope's 'Works', in ten vols., which stirred Byron's gall, appeared in +1807. The 'Fall of Empires', Tyre, Carthage, etc., is the subject of +part of the third book of 'The Spirit of Discovery by Sea' (1805). Lines +"To a Withered Leaf," are, perhaps, of later date; but the "sear +tresses" and "shivering leaves" of "Autumn's gradual gloom" are familiar +images in his earlier poems. Byron's senior by twenty years, he was +destined to outlive him by more than a quarter of a century; but when +'English Bards, etc.', was in progress, he was little more than +middle-aged, and the "three score years" must have been written in the +spirit of prophecy. As it chanced, the last word rested with him, and it +was a generous one. Addressing Moore, in 1824, he says ('Childe Harold's +Last Pilgrimage')-- + + + "So Harold ends, in Greece, his pilgrimage! + There fitly ending--in that land renown'd, + Whose mighty Genius lives in Glory's page,-- + He on the Muses' consecrated ground, + Sinking to rest, while his young brows are bound + With their unfading wreath!" + + +Among his poems are a "Sonnet to Oxford," and "Stanzas on hearing the +Bells of Ostend."] + + + +[Footnote 48: "Awake a louder," etc., is the first line in BOWLES'S +'Spirit of Discovery': a very spirited and pretty dwarf Epic. Among +other exquisite lines we have the following:-- + + ----"A kiss + Stole on the list'ning silence, never yet + Here heard; they trembled even as if the power," etc., etc. + + +That is, the woods of Madeira trembled to a kiss; very much astonished, +as well they might be, at such a phenomenon. + + "Mis-quoted and misunderstood by me; but not intentionally. It was not + the 'woods,' but the people in them who trembled--why, Heaven only + knows--unless they were overheard making this prodigious smack."-B., + 1816.] + + + +[Footnote 49: The episode above alluded to is the story of "Robert à +Machin" and "Anna d'Arfet," a pair of constant lovers, who performed the +kiss above mentioned, that startled the woods of Madeira. [See Byron's +letter to Murray, Feb. 7, 1821, "On Bowies' Strictures," 'Life', p. +688.]] + + +[Footnote 50: CURLL is one of the Heroes of the 'Dunciad', and was a +bookseller. Lord Fanny is the poetical name of Lord HERVEY, author of +'Lines to the Imitator of Horace'.] + + +[Footnote 51: Lord BOLINGBROKE hired MALLET to traduce POPE after his +decease, because the poet had retained some copies of a work by Lord +Bolingbroke--the "Patriot King,"--which that splendid, but malignant +genius had ordered to be destroyed.] + + +[Footnote 52: Dennis the critic, and Ralph the rhymester:-- + + "Silence, ye Wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, + Making Night hideous: answer him, ye owls!" + DUNCIAD. + +[Book III. II. 165, 166, Pope wrote, "And makes night," etc.]] + + + +[Footnote 53: See Bowles's late edition of Pope's works, for which he +received three hundred pounds. [Twelve hundred guineas.--'British +Bards'.] Thus Mr. B. has experienced how much easier it is to profit by +the reputation of another, than to elevate his own. ["Too savage all +this on Bowles," wrote Byron, in 1816, but he afterwards returned to his +original sentiments. "Although," he says (Feb. 7, 1821), "I regret +having published 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', the part which I +regret the least is that which regards Mr. Bowles, with reference to +Pope. Whilst I was writing that publication, in 1807 and 1808, Mr. +Hobhouse was desirous that I should express our mutual opinion of Pope, +and of Mr. Bowles's edition of his works. As I had completed my outline, +and felt lazy, I requested that 'he' would do so. He did it. His +fourteen lines on Bowles's Pope are in the first edition of 'English +Bards', and are quite as severe, and much more poetical, than my own, in +the second. On reprinting the work, as I put my name to it, I omitted +Mr. Hobhouse's lines, by which the work gained less than Mr. Bowles.... +I am grieved to say that, in reading over those lines, I repent of their +having so far fallen short of what I meant to express upon the subject +of his edition of Pope's works" ('Life', pp. 688, 689). The lines +supplied by Hobhouse are here subjoined:-- + + "Stick to thy sonnets, man!--at least they sell. + Or take the only path that open lies + For modern worthies who would hope to rise: + Fix on some well-known name, and, bit by bit, + Pare off the merits of his worth and wit: + On each alike employ the critic's knife, + And when a comment fails, prefix a life; + Hint certain failings, faults before unknown, + Review forgotten lies, and add your own; + Let no disease, let no misfortune 'scape, + And print, if luckily deformed, his shape: + Thus shall the world, quite undeceived at last, + Cleave to their present wits, and quit their past; + Bards once revered no more with favour view, + But give their modern sonneteers their due; + Thus with the dead may living merit cope, + Thus Bowles may triumph o'er the shade of Pope."]] + + + +[Footnote 54: + + "'Helicon' is a mountain, and not a fish-pond. It should have been + 'Hippocrene.'"--B., 1816. + +[The correction was made in the Fifth Edition.]] + + + +[Footnote 55: Mr. Cottle, Amos, Joseph, I don't know which, but one or +both, once sellers of books they did not write, and now writers of books +they do not sell, have published a pair of Epics--'Alfred' (poor Alfred! +Pye has been at him too!)--'Alfred' and the 'Fall of Cambria'. + + "All right. I saw some letters of this fellow (Jh. Cottle) to an + unfortunate poetess, whose productions, which the poor woman by no + means thought vainly of, he attacked so roughly and bitterly, that I + could hardly regret assailing him, even were it unjust, which it is + not--for verily he is an ass."--B., 1816. + +[Compare 'Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin'-- + + "And Cottle, not he whom that Alfred made famous, + But Joseph of Bristol, the brother of Amos." + +The identity of the brothers Cottle appears to have been a matter +beneath the notice both of the authors of the 'Anti-Jacobin' and of +Byron. Amos Cottle, who died in 1800 (see Lamb's Letter to Coleridge of +Oct. 9, 1800; 'Letters of C. Lamb', 1888, i. 140), was the author of a +'Translation of the Edda of Soemund', published in 1797. Joseph Cottle, +'inter alia', published 'Alfred' in 1801, and 'The Fall of Cambria', +1807. An 'Expostulatory Epistle', in which Joseph avenges Amos and +solemnly castigates the author of 'Don Juan', was issued in 1819 (see +Lamb's Letter to Cottle, Nov. 5, 1819), and was reprinted in the Memoir +of Amos Cottle, inserted in his brother's 'Early Recollections of +Coleridge' (London, 1837, i. 119). The "unfortunate poetess" was, +probably, Ann Yearsley, the Bristol milk-woman. Wordsworth, too (see +'Recollections of the Table-Talk of S. Rogers', 1856, p. 235), dissuaded +her from publishing her poems. Roughness and bitterness were not among +Cottle's faults or foibles, and it is possible that Byron misconceived +the purport of the correspondence.]] + + + +[Footnote 56: Mr. Maurice hath manufactured the component parts of a +ponderous quarto, upon the beauties of "Richmond Hill," and the +like:--it also takes in a charming view of Turnham Green, Hammersmith, +Brentford, Old and New, and the parts adjacent. [The Rev. Thomas Maurice +(1754-1824) had this at least in common with Byron--that his 'History of +Ancient and Modern Hindostan' was severely attacked in the 'Edinburgh +Review'. He published a vindication of his work in 1805. He must have +confined his dulness to his poems ('Richmond Hill' (1807), etc.), for +his 'Memoirs' (1819) are amusing, and, though otherwise blameless, he +left behind him the reputation of an "indiscriminate enjoyment" of +literary and other society. Lady Anne Hamilton alludes to him in 'Epics +of the Ton' (1807), p. 165-- + + "Or warmed like Maurice by Museum fire, + From Ganges dragged a hurdy-gurdy lyre." + +He was assistant keeper of MSS. at the British Museum from 1799 till his +death.]] + + + +[Footnote 57: Poor MONTGOMERY, though praised by every English Review, +has been bitterly reviled by the 'Edinburgh'. After all, the Bard of +Sheffield is a man of considerable genius. His 'Wanderer of Switzerland' +is worth a thousand 'Lyrical Ballads', and at least fifty 'Degraded +Epics'. + +[James Montgomery (1771-1854) was born in Ayrshire, but settled at +Sheffield, where he edited a newspaper, the 'Iris', a radical print, +which brought him into conflict with the authorities. His early poems +were held up to ridicule in the 'Edinburgh Review' by Jeffrey, in Jan. +1807. It was probably the following passage which provoked Byron's note: +"When every day is bringing forth some new work from the pen of Scott, +Campbell,... Wordsworth, and Southey, it is natural to feel some disgust +at the undistinguishing voracity which can swallow down these... verses +to a pillow." The 'Wanderer of Switzerland', which Byron said he +preferred to the 'Lyrical Ballads', was published in 1806. The allusion +in line 419 is to the first stanza of 'The Lyre'-- + + "Where the roving rill meand'red + Down the green, retiring vale, + Poor, forlorn Alæcus wandered, + Pale with thoughts--serenely pale." + +He is remembered chiefly as the writer of some admirable hymns. ('Vide +ante', p. 107, "Answer to a Beautiful Poem," and 'note'.)] + + + +[Footnote 58: Arthur's Seat; the hill which overhangs Edinburgh.] + + +[Footnote 59: Lines 439-527 are not in the 'MS.' The first draft of the +passage on Jeffrey, which appears to have found a place in 'British +Bards' and to have been afterwards cut out, runs as follows:-- + + + "Who has not heard in this enlightened age, + When all can criticise the historic page, + Who has not heard in James's Bigot Reign + Of Jefferies! monarch of the scourge, and chain, + Jefferies the wretch whose pestilential breath, + Like the dread Simoom, winged the shaft of Death; + The old, the young to Fate remorseless gave + Nor spared one victim from the common grave? + + "Such was the Judge of James's iron time, + When Law was Murder, Mercy was a crime, + Till from his throne by weary millions hurled + The Despot roamed in Exile through the world. + + "Years have rolled on;--in all the lists of Shame, + Who now can parallel a Jefferies' name? + With hand less mighty, but with heart as black + With voice as willing to decree the Rack, + With tongue envenomed, with intentions foul + The same in name and character and soul." + + +The first four lines of the above, which have been erased, are to be +found on p. 16 of 'British Bards.' Pages 17, 18, are wanting, and quarto +proofs of lines 438-527 have been inserted. Lines 528-539 appear for the +first time in the Fifth Edition.]] + + +[Footnote 60: "Too ferocious--this is mere insanity."--B., 1816. [The +comment applies to lines 432-453.]] + + +[Footnote 61: "All this is bad, because personal."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 62: In 1806, Messrs. Jeffrey and Moore met at Chalk Farm. The +duel was prevented by the interference of the Magistracy; and on +examination, the balls of the pistols were found to have evaporated. +This incident gave occasion to much waggery in the daily prints. [The +first four editions read, "the balls of the pistols, like the courage of +the combatants."] + +[The following disclaimer to the foregoing note appears in the MS. in +Leigh Hunt's copy of the Fourth Edition, 1811. It was first printed in +the Fifth Edition:--] + + "I am informed that Mr. Moore published at the time a disavowal of the + statements in the newspapers, as far as regarded himself; and, in + justice to him, I mention this circumstance. As I never heard of it + before, I cannot state the particulars, and was only made acquainted + with the fact very lately. November 4, 1811." + +[As a matter of fact, it was Jeffrey's pistol that was found to be +leadless.]] + + +[Footnote 63: The Tweed here behaved with proper decorum; it would have +been highly reprehensible in the English half of the river to have shown +the smallest symptom of apprehension.] + + +[Footnote 64: This display of sympathy on the part of the Tolbooth (the +principal prison in Edinburgh), which truly seems to have been most +affected on this occasion, is much to be commended. It was to be +apprehended, that the many unhappy criminals executed in the front might +have rendered the Edifice more callous. She is said to be of the softer +sex, because her delicacy of feeling on this day was truly feminine, +though, like most feminine impulses, perhaps a little selfish.] + + +[Footnote 65: Line 508. For "oat-fed phalanx," the Quarto Proof and +Editions 1-4 read "ranks illustrious." The correction is made in +'MS'. in the Annotated Edition. It was suggested that the motto of +the 'Edinburgh Review' should have been, "Musam tenui meditamur +avenâ."] + + +[Footnote 66: His Lordship has been much abroad, is a member of the +Athenian Society, and reviewer of Gell's 'Topography of Troy'. [George +Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), published in 1822 'An +Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture'. His +grandfather purchased Gight, the property which Mrs. Byron had sold to +pay her husband's debts. This may have been an additional reason for the +introduction of his name.]] + + +[Footnote 67: Mr. Herbert is a translator of Icelandic and other poetry. +One of the principal pieces is a 'Song on the Recovery of Thor's +Hammer': the translation is a pleasant chant in the vulgar tongue, and +endeth thus:-- + + + "Instead of money and rings, I wot, + The hammer's bruises were her lot. + Thus Odin's son his hammer got." + + +[William Herbert (1778-1847), son of the first Earl of Carnarvon, edited +'Musæ Etonenses' in 1795, whilst he was still at school. He was one of +the earliest contributors to the 'Edinburgh Review'. At the time when +Byron was writing his satire, he was M.P. for Hampshire, but in 1814 he +took Orders. He was appointed Dean of Manchester in 1840, and +republished his poetical works, and among them his Icelandic +Translations or 'Horæ Scandicæ (Miscellaneous Works', 2 vols.), in +1842.]] + + +[Footnote 68: The Rev. SYDNEY SMITH, the reputed Author of 'Peter +Plymley's Letters', and sundry criticisms. [Sydney Smith (1771-1845), +the "witty Canon of St. Paul's," was one of the founders, and for a +short time (1802) the editor, of the 'Edinburgh Review'. His 'Letters on +the Catholicks, from Peter Plymley to his brother Abraham', appeared in +1807-8.] + + +[Footnote 69: Mr. HALLAM reviewed PAYNE KNIGHT'S "Taste," and was +exceedingly severe on some Greek verses therein. It was not discovered +that the lines were Pindar's till the press rendered it impossible to +cancel the critique, which still stands an everlasting monument of +Hallam's ingenuity.--['Note added to Second Edition': + + Hallam is incensed because he is falsely accused, seeing that he never + dineth at Holland House. If this be true, I am sorry--not for having + said so, but on his account, as I understand his Lordship's feasts are + preferable to his compositions. If he did not review Lord HOLLAND'S + performance, I am glad; because it must have been painful to read, and + irksome to praise it. If Mr. HALLAM will tell me who did review it, + the real name shall find a place in the text; provided, nevertheless, + the said name be of two orthodox musical syllables, and will come into + the verse: till then, HALLAM must stand for want of a better.] + +[Henry Hallam (1777-1859), author of 'Europe during the Middle Ages', +1808, etc. + + "This," said Byron, "is the style in which history ought to be + written, if it is wished to impress it on the memory" + +('Lady Blessington's Conversations with Lord Byron', 1834, p. 213). The +article in question was written by Dr. John Allen, Lord Holland's +domestic physician, and Byron was misled by the similarity of sound in +the two names (see H. C. Robinson's 'Diary', i. 277), or repeated what +Hodgson had told him (see Introduction, and Letter 102, 'note' i). + +For a disproof that Hallam wrote the article, see 'Gent. Mag'., 1830, +pt. i. p. 389; and for an allusion to the mistake in the review, compare +'All the Talents', p. 96, and 'note'. + + "Spare me not 'Chronicles' and 'Sunday News', + Spare me not 'Pamphleteers' and 'Scotch Reviews'" + +"The best literary joke I recollect is its [the 'Edin. Rev'.] attempting +to prove some of the Grecian Pindar rank non sense, supposing it to have +been written by Mr. P. Knight."] + + +[Footnote 70: Pillans is a [private, 'MS'.] tutor at Eton. [James +Pillans (1778-1864), Rector of the High School, and Professor of +Humanity in the University, Edinburgh. Byron probably assumed that the +review of Hodgson's 'Translation of Juvenal', in the 'Edinburgh Review', +April, 1808, was by him.]] + + +Footnote 71: The Honourable G. Lambe reviewed "BERESFORD'S Miseries," +and is moreover Author of a farce enacted with much applause at the +Priory, Stanmore; and damned with great expedition at the late theatre, +Covent Garden. It was entitled 'Whistle for It'. [See note, 'supra', on +line 57.] His review of James Beresford's 'Miseries of Human Life; or +the Last Groans of Timothy Testy and Samuel Sensitive', appeared in the +'Edinburgh Review 'for Oct. 1806.] + + +[Footnote: 72: Mr. Brougham, in No. XXV. of the 'Edinburgh Review', +throughout the article concerning Don Pedro de Cevallos, has displayed +more politics than policy; many of the worthy burgesses of Edinburgh +being so incensed at the infamous principles it evinces, as to have +withdrawn their subscriptions.--[Here followed, in the First Edition: +"The name of this personage is pronounced Broom in the south, but the +truly northern and 'musical' pronunciation is BROUGH-AM, in two +syllables;" but for this, Byron substituted in the Second Edition: "It +seems that Mr. Brougham is not a Pict, as I supposed, but a Borderer, +and his name is pronounced Broom, from Trent to Tay:--so be it." + +The title of the work was "Exposition of the Practices and Machinations +which led to the usurpation of the Crown of Spain, and the means adopted +by the Emperor of the French to carry it into execution," by Don Pedro +Cevallos. The article, which appeared in Oct. 1808, was the joint +composition of Jeffrey and Brougham, and proved a turning-point in the +political development of the 'Review'.]] + + +[Footnote 73: I ought to apologise to the worthy Deities for introducing +a new Goddess with short petticoats to their notice: but, alas! what was +to be done? I could not say Caledonia's Genius, it being well known +there is no genius to be found from Clackmannan to Caithness; yet +without supernatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved? The national +"Kelpies" are too unpoetical, and the "Brownies" and "gude neighbours" +(spirits of a good disposition) refused to extricate him. A Goddess, +therefore, has been called for the purpose; and great ought to be the +gratitude of Jeffrey, seeing it is the only communication he ever held, +or is likely to hold, with anything heavenly.] + +[Footnote 74: Lines 528-539 appeared for the first time in the Fifth +Edition.] + + +[Footnote 75: See the colour of the back binding of the 'Edinburgh +Review'.] + +[Footnote 76: "Bad enough, and on mistaken grounds too."--B., 1816. [The +comment applies to the whole passage on Lord Holland.] + +[Henry Richard Vassall, third Lord Holland (1773-1840), to whom Byron +dedicated the 'Bride of Abydos' (1813). His 'Life of Lope de Vega' (see +note 4) was published in 1806, and 'Three Comedies from the Spanish', in +1807.]] + + +[Footnote 77: Henry Petty (1780-1863) succeeded his brother as third +Marquis of Lansdowne in 1809. He was a regular attendant at the social +and political gatherings of his relative, Lord Holland; and as Holland +House was regarded as one of the main rallying-points of the Whig party +and of the Edinburgh Reviewers, the words, "whipper-in and hunts-man," +probably refer to their exertions in this respect.] + + +[Footnote 78: See note 1, p. 337. (Footnote 69--Text Ed.)] + + +[Footnote 79: Lord Holland has translated some specimens of Lope de +Vega, inserted in his life of the author. Both are bepraised by his +'disinterested' guests.] + + +[Footnote 80: Certain it is, her ladyship is suspected of having +displayed her matchless wit in the 'Edinburgh Review'. However that may +be, we know from good authority, that the manuscripts are submitted to +her perusal--no doubt, for correction.] + + +[Footnote 81: In the melo-drama of 'Tekeli', that heroic prince is clapt +into a barrel on the stage; a new asylum for distressed heroes.--[In the +'MS'. and 'British Bards' the note stands thus:--"In the melodrama of +'Tekeli', that heroic prince is clapt into a barrel on the stage, and +Count Everard in the fortress hides himself in a green-house built +expressly for the occasion. 'Tis a pity that Theodore Hook, who is +really a man of talent, should confine his genius to such paltry +productions as 'The Fortress, Music Mad', etc. etc." Theodore Hook +(1788-1841) produced 'Tekeli' in 1806. 'Fortress' and 'Music Mad' were +played in 1807. He had written some eight or ten popular plays before he +was twenty-one.]] + + +[Footnote 82: 'Vide post', 1. 591, note 3.] + + +[Footnote 83: William Henry West Betty (1791-1874) ("the Young Roscius") +made his first appearance on the London stage as Selim, disguised as +Achmet, in 'Barbarossa', Dec. 1, 1804, and his last, as a boy actor, in +'Tancred', and Captain Flash in 'Miss in her Teens', Mar. 17, 1806, but +acted in the provinces till 1808. So great was the excitement on the +occasion of his 'début', that the military were held in readiness to +assist in keeping order. Having made a large fortune, he finally retired +from the stage in 1824, and passed the last fifty years of his life in +retirement, surviving his fame by more than half a century.] + + +[Footnote 84: All these are favourite expressions of Mr. Reynolds, and +prominent in his comedies, living and defunct. [Frederick Reynolds +(1764-1841) produced nearly one hundred plays, one of the most +successful of which was 'The Caravan, or the Driver and his Dog'. The +text alludes to his endeavour to introduce the language of ordinary life +on the stage. Compare 'The Children of Apollo', p. 9-- + + "But in his diction Reynolds grossly errs; + For whether the love hero smiles or mourns, + 'Tis oh! and ah! and ah! and oh! by turns."]] + + + +[Footnote 85: James Kenney (1780-1849). Among his very numerous plays, +the most successful were 'Raising the Wind' (1803), and 'Sweethearts and +Wives' (1823). 'The World' was brought out at Covent Garden, March 30, +1808, and had a considerable run. He was intimate with Charles and Mary +Lamb (see 'Letters of Charles Lamb', ii. 16, 44).] + + +[Footnote 85a: Mr. T. Sheridan, the new Manager of Drury Lane theatre, +stripped the Tragedy of 'Bonduca' ['Caratach' in the original 'MS'.] of +the dialogue, and exhibited the scenes as the spectacle of 'Caractacus'. +Was this worthy of his sire? or of himself? [Thomas Sheridan +(1775-1817), most famous as the son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and +father of Lady Dufferin, Mrs. Norton, and the Duchess of Somerset, was +author of several plays. His 'Bonduca' was played at Covent Garden, May +3, 1808. The following answer to a real or fictitious correspondent, in +the 'European Magazine' for May, 1808, is an indication of contemporary +opinion: "The Fishwoman's letter to the author of 'Caractacus' on the +art of gutting is inadmissible." For anecdotes of Thomas Sheridan, see +Angelo's 'Reminiscences', 1828, ii. 170-175. See, too, 'Epics of the +Ton', p. 264.]] + + +[Footnote 86: George Colman, the younger (1762-1836), wrote numerous +dramas, several of which, 'e.g. The Iron Chest' (1796), 'John Bull' +(1803), 'The Heir-at-Law' (1808), have been popular with more than one +generation of playgoers. An amusing companion, and a favourite at Court, +he was appointed Lieutenant of the Yeomen of the Guard, and examiner of +plays by Royal favour, but his reckless mode of life kept him always in +difficulties. 'John Bull' is referred to in 'Hints from Horace', line +166.]] + + +[Footnote 87: Richard Cumberland (1732-1811), the original of Sir +Fretful Plagiary in 'The Critic', a man of varied abilities, wrote +poetry, plays, novels, classical translations, and works of religious +controversy. He was successively Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, +secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and secretary to the Board +of Trade. His best known plays are 'The West Indian, The Wheels of +Fortune', and 'The Jew'. He published his 'Memoirs' in 1806-7.]] + + +[Footnote 88: Sheridan's translation of 'Pizarro', by Kotzebue, was +first played at Drury Lane, 1799. Southey wrote of it, "It is impossible +to sink below 'Pizarro'. Kotzebue's play might have passed for the worst +possible if Sheridan had not proved the possibility of making it worse" +(Southey's 'Letters', i. 87). Gifford alludes to it in a note to 'The +Mæviad' as "the translation so maliciously attributed to Sheridan."] + + +[Footnote 89: In all editions, previous to the fifth, it was, "Kemble +lives to tread." Byron used to say, that, of actors, "Cooke was the most +natural, Kemble the most supernatural, Kean the medium between the two; +but that Mrs. Siddons was worth them all put together." Such effect, +however, had Kean's acting on his mind, that once, on seeing him play +Sir Giles Overreach, he was seized with a fit.] + + +[Footnote 90: See 'supra', line 562.] + + +[Footnote 91: Andrew Cherry (1762-1812) acted many parts in Ireland and +in the provinces, and for a few years appeared at Drury Lane. He was +popular in Dublin, where he was known as "Little Cherry." He was painted +as Lazarillo in Jephson's 'Two Strings to Your Bow'. He wrote 'The +Travellers' (1806), 'Peter the Great' (1807), and other plays.]] + + + +[Footnote 92: Mr. [now Sir Lumley] Skeffington is the illustrious author +of 'The Sleeping Beauty;' and some comedies, particularly 'Maids and +Bachelors: Baccalaurii' baculo magis quam lauro digni. + +[Lumley St. George (afterwards Sir Lumley) Skeffington (1768-1850). +Besides the plays mentioned in the note, he wrote 'The Maid of Honour' +(1803) and 'The Mysterious Bride' (1808). 'Amatory Verses, by Tom +Shuffleton of the Middle Temple' (1815), are attributed to his pen. They +are prefaced by a dedicatory letter to Byron, which includes a coarse +but clever skit in the style of 'English Bards'. "Great Skeffington" was +a great dandy. According to Capt. Gronow ('Reminiscences', i. 63), "he +used to paint his face so that he looked like a French toy; he dressed +'à la Robespierre', and practised all the follies;... was remarkable for +his politeness and courtly manners... You always knew of his approach by +an 'avant courier' of sweet smell." His play 'The Sleeping Beauty' had a +considerable vogue.]] + + + +[Footnote 93: Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), natural son of Charles +Dibdin the elder, made his first appearance on the stage at the age of +four, playing Cupid to Mrs. Siddons' Venus at the Shakespearian Jubilee +in 1775. One of his best known pieces is 'The Jew and the Doctor' +(1798). His pantomime, 'Mother Goose', in which Grimaldi took a part, +was played at Covent Garden in 1807, and is said to have brought the +management £20,000.] + + +[Footnote 94: Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury Lane +theatre--as such, Mr. Skeffington is much indebted to him.] + + +[Footnote 95: Naldi and Catalani require little notice; for the visage +of the one, and the salary of the other, will enable us long to +recollect these amusing vagabonds. Besides, we are still black and blue +from the squeeze on the first night of the Lady's appearance in +trousers. [Guiseppe Naldi (1770-1820) made his 'début' on the London +stage at the King's Theatre in April, 1806. In conjunction with Catalani +and Braham, he gave concerts at Willis' Rooms. Angelica Catalani (circ. +1785-1849), a famous soprano, Italian by birth and training, made her +'début' at Venice in 1795. She remained in England for eight years +(1806-14). Her first appearance in England was at the King's Theatre, in +Portogallo's 'Semiramide,' in 1806. Her large salary was one of the +causes which provoked the O. P. (Old Prices) Riots in December, 1809, at +Covent Garden. Praed says of his 'Ball Room Belle'-- + + "She warbled Handel: it was grand; + She made the Catalani jealous."] + + +[Footnote 96: Moore says that the following twenty lines were struck off +one night after Lord Byron's return from the Opera, and sent the next +morning to the printer. The date of the letter to Dallas, with which the +lines were enclosed, suggests that the representation which provoked the +outburst was that of 'I Villegiatori Rezzani,' at the King's Theatre, +February 21, 1809. The first piece, in which Naldi and Catalani were the +principal singers, was followed by d'Egville's musical extravaganza, +'Don Quichotte, on les Noces de Gamache.' In the 'corps de ballet' were +Deshayes, for many years master of the 'ballet' at the King's Theatre; +Miss Gayton, who had played a Sylph at Drury Lane as early as 1806 (she +was married, March 18, 1809, to the Rev. William Murray, brother of Sir +James Pulteney, Bart.--'Morning Chronicle,' December 30, 1810), and +Mademoiselle Angiolini, "elegant of figure, 'petite', but finely formed, +with the manner of Vestris." Mademoiselle Presle does not seem to have +taken part in 'Don Quichotte;' but she was well known as 'première +danseuse' in 'La Belle Laitière, La Fête Chinoise,' and other ballets.]] + + +[Footnote 97: For "whet" Editions 1-5 read "raise." Lines 632-637 are +marked "good" in the Annotated Fourth Edition.] + + + +[Footnote 98: To prevent any blunder, such as mistaking a street for a +man, I beg leave to state, that it is the institution, and not the Duke +of that name, which is here alluded to. + +A gentleman, with whom I am slightly acquainted, lost in the Argyle +Rooms several thousand pounds at Backgammon.[A] It is but justice to the +manager in this instance to say, that some degree of disapprobation was +manifested: but why are the implements of gaming allowed in a place +devoted to the society of both sexes? A pleasant thing for the wives and +daughters of those who are blessed or cursed with such connections, to +hear the Billiard-Balls rattling in one room, and the dice in another! +That this is the case I myself can testify, as a late unworthy member of +an Institution which materially affects the morals of the higher orders, +while the lower may not even move to the sound of a tabor and fiddle, +without a chance of indictment for riotous behaviour. [The Argyle +Institution, founded by Colonel Greville, flourished many years before +the Argyll Rooms were built by Nash in 1818. This mention of Greville's +name caused him to demand an explanation from Byron, but the matter was +amicably settled by Moore and G. F. Leckie, who acted on behalf of the +disputants (see 'Life', pp. 160, 161).]] + +[Sub-Footnote A: "True. It was Billy Way who lost the money. I knew him, +and was a subscriber to the Argyle at the time of this event."--B., +1816.] + + + +[Footnote 99: Petronius, "Arbiter elegantiarum" to Nero, "and a very +pretty fellow in his day," as Mr. Congreve's "Old Bachelor" saith of +Hannibal.] + + +[Footnote 100: "We are authorised to state that Mr. Greville, who has a +small party at his private assembly rooms at the Argyle, will receive +from 10 to 12 [p.m.] masks who have Mrs. Chichester's Institution +tickets.--Morning Post, June 7, 1809.] + + +[Footnote 101: See note on line 686, infra.] + + +[Footnote 102: 'Clodius'--"Mutato nomine de te Fabula narratur."--['MS'] +[The allusion is to the well-known incidents of his intrigue with +Pompeia, Cæsar's wife, and his sacrilegious intrusion into the mysteries +of the Bona Dea. The Romans had a proverb, "Clodius accuset Moechos?" +(Juv., 'Sat.' ii. 27). That "Steenie" should lecture on the "turpitude +of incontinence!" ('The Fortunes of Nigel,' cap. xxxii.)]] + + +[Footnote 103: I knew the late Lord Falkland well. On Sunday night I +beheld him presiding at his own table, in all the honest pride of +hospitality; on Wednesday morning, at three o'clock, I saw stretched +before me all that remained of courage, feeling, and a host of passions. +He was a gallant and successful officer: his faults were the faults of a +sailor--as such, Britons will forgive them. ["His behaviour on the field +was worthy of a better fate, and his conduct on the bed of death evinced +all the firmness of a man without the farce of repentance--I say the +farce of repentance, for death-bed repentance is a farce, and as little +serviceable to the soul at such a moment as the surgeon to the body, +though both may be useful if taken in time. Some hireling in the papers +forged a tale about an agonized voice, etc. On mentioning the +circumstance to Mr. Heaviside, he exclaimed, 'Good God! what absurdity +to talk in this manner of one who died like a lion!'--he did +more."--'MS'] He died like a brave man in a better cause; for had he +fallen in like manner on the deck of the frigate to which he was just +appointed, his last moments would have been held up by his countrymen as +an example to succeeding heroes. + +[Charles John Carey, ninth Viscount Falkland, died from a wound received +in a duel with Mr. A. Powell on Feb. 28, 1809. (See Byron's letter to +his mother, March 6, 1809.) The story of "the agonized voice" may be +traced to a paragraph in the 'Morning Post,' March 2, 1809: "Lord +Falkland, after hearing the surgeon's opinion, said with a faltering +voice and as intelligibly as the agonized state of his body and mind +permitted, "I acquit Mr. Powell of all blame; in this transaction I +alone am culpable.'"]] + + +[Footnote 104: "Yes: and a precious chase they led me."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 105: "'Fool' enough, certainly, then, and no wiser +since."--B., 1816.] + +[Footnote 106: What would be the sentiments of the Persian Anacreon, +HAFIZ, could he rise from his splendid sepulchre at Sheeraz (where he +reposes with FERDOUSI and SADI, the Oriental Homer and Catullus), and +behold his name assumed by one STOTT of DROMORE, the most impudent and +execrable of literary poachers for the Daily Prints?] + + +[Footnote 107: Miles Peter Andrews (d. 1824) was the owner of large +powder-mills at Dartford. He was M.P. for Bewdley. He held a good social +position, but his intimate friends were actors and playwrights. His +'Better Late than Never' (which Reynolds and Topham helped him to write) +was played for the first time at Drury Lane, October 17, 1790, with +Kemble as Saville, and Mrs. Jordan as Augusta. He is mentioned in 'The +Baviad', l. 10; and in a note Gifford satirizes his prologue to +'Lorenzo', and describes him as an "industrious paragraph-monger."]] + + +[Footnote 108: In a manuscript fragment, bound in the same volume as +'British Bards', we find these lines:-- + + "In these, our times, with daily wonders big, + A Lettered peer is like a lettered pig; + Both know their Alphabet, but who, from thence, + Infers that peers or pigs have manly sense? + Still less that such should woo the graceful nine; + Parnassus was not made for lords and swine."] + + +[Footnote 109: Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon (1634-1685), +author of many translations and minor poems, endeavoured (circ. 1663) to +found an English literary academy.] + + +[Footnote 110: John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave (1658), Marquis of +Normanby (1694), Duke of Buckingham (1703) (1649-1721), wrote an 'Essay +upon Poetry', and several other works.] + + +[Footnote 111: Lines 727-740 were added after 'British Bards' had been +printed, and are included in the First Edition, but the appearance in +'British Bards' of lines 723-726 and 741-746, which have been cut out +from Mr. Murray's MS., forms one of many proofs as to the identity of +the text of the 'MS'. and the printed Quarto.]] + + +[Footnote 112: Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, K.G. (1748-1825), +Viceroy of Ireland, 1780-1782, and Privy Seal, etc., published +'Tragedies and Poems', 1801. He was Byron's first cousin once removed, +and his guardian. 'Poems Original and Translated,' were dedicated to +Lord Carlisle, and, as an erased MS. addition to 'British Bards' +testifies, he was to have been excepted from the roll of titled +poetasters-- + + "Ah, who would take their titles from their rhymes? + On 'one' alone Apollo deigns to smile, + And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle." + +Before, however, the revised Satire was sent to the press, Carlisle +ignored his cousin's request to introduce him on taking his seat in the +House of Lords, and, to avenge the slight, eighteen lines of castigation +supplanted the flattering couplet. Lord Carlisle suffered from a nervous +disorder, and Byron was informed that some readers had scented an +allusion in the words "paralytic puling." "I thank Heaven," he +exclaimed, "I did not know it; and would not, could not, if I had. I +must naturally be the last person to be pointed on defects or maladies." + +In 1814 he consulted Rogers on the chance of conciliating Carlisle, and +in 'Childe Harold', iii. 29, he laments the loss of the "young and +gallant Howard" (Carlisle's youngest son) at Waterloo, and admits that +"he did his sire some wrong." But, according to Medwin ('Conversations', +1824, p. 362), who prints an excellent parody on Carlisle's lines +addressed to Lady Holland in 1822, in which he urges her to decline the +legacy of Napoleon's snuff-box, Byron made fun of his "noble relative" +to the end of the chapter ('vide post', p. 370, 'note' 2).]] + + + +[Footnote 113: The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an +eighteen-penny pamphlet on the state of the Stage, and offers his plan +for building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his Lordship will be +permitted to bring forward anything for the Stage--except his own +tragedies. [This pamphlet was entitled 'Thoughts upon the present +condition of the stage, and upon the construction of a new Theatre', +anon. 1808.] + +Line 732. None of the earlier editions, including the fifth and Murray, +1831, insert "and" between "petit-maître" and "pamphleteer." No doubt +Byron sounded the final syllable of "maître," 'anglicé' "mailer."]] + + + +[Footnote 114: + + "Doff that lion's hide, + And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs." + + SHAKESPEARE, 'King John.' + +Lord Carlisle's works, most resplendently bound, form a conspicuous +ornament to his book-shelves:-- + + "The rest is all but [only, MS.] leather and prunella." + +"Wrong also--the provocation was not sufficient to justify such +acerbity."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 115: 'All the Blocks, or an Antidote to "All the Talents"' by +Flagellum (W. H. Ireland), London, 1807: 'The Groan of the Talents, or +Private Sentiments on Public Occasions,' 1807; "Gr--vile Agonistes, 'A +Dramatic Poem, 1807,' etc., etc."] + + +[Footnote 116: "MELVILLE'S Mantle," a parody on 'Elijah's Mantle,' a +poem. ['Elijah's Mantle, being verses occasioned by the death of that +illustrious statesman, the Right Hon. W. Pitt.' Dedicated to the Right +Rev. the Lord Bishop of Lincoln (1807), was written by James Sayer. +'Melville's Mantle, being a Parody on the poem entitled "Elijah's +Mantle"' was published by Budd, 1807. 'A Monody on the death of the R. +H. C. J. Fox,' by Richard Payne Knight, was printed for J. Payne, +1806-7. Another "Monody," 'Lines written on returning from the Funeral +of the R. H. C. J. Fox, Friday Oct'. 10, 1806, addressed to Lord +Holland, was by M. G. Lewis, and there were others.]] + + + +[Footnote 117: This lovely little Jessica, the daughter of the noted Jew +King, seems to be a follower of the Della Crusca school, and has +published two volumes of very respectable absurdities in rhyme, as times +go; besides sundry novels in the style of the first edition of 'The +Monk.' + +"She since married the 'Morning Post'--an exceeding good match; and is +now dead--which is better."--B., 1816. [The last seven words are in +pencil, and, possibly, by another hand. The novelist "Rosa," the +daughter of "Jew King," the lordly money-lender who lived in Clarges +Street, and drove a yellow chariot, may possibly be confounded with +"Rosa Matilda," Mrs. Byrne (Gronow, 'Rem.' (1889), i. 132-136). (See +note 1, p. 358.)] + + + +[Footnote 118: Lines 759, 760 were added for the first time in the +Fourth Edition.] + + +[Footnote 119: Lines 756-764, with variant ii., refer to the Della +Cruscan school, attacked by Gifford in 'The Baviad' and 'The Mæviad.' +Robert Merry (1755-1798), together with Mrs. Piozzi, Bertie Greatheed, +William Parsons, and some Italian friends, formed a literary society +called the 'Oziosi' at Florence, where they published 'The Arno +Miscellany' (1784) and 'The Florence Miscellany' (1785), consisting of +verses in which the authors "say kind things of each other" (Preface to +'The Florence Miscellany,' by Mrs. Piozzi). In 1787 Merry, who had +become a member of the Della Cruscan Academy at Florence, returned to +London, and wrote in the 'World' (then edited by Captain Topham) a +sonnet on "Love," under the signature of "Della Crusca." He was answered +by Mrs. Hannah Cowley, 'née' Parkhouse (1743-1809), famous as the +authoress of 'The Belles Stratagem' (acted at Covent Garden in 1782), in +a sonnet called "The Pen," signed "Anna Matilda." The poetical +correspondence which followed was published in 'The British Album' +(1789, 2 vols.) by John Bell. Other writers connected with the Della +Cruscan school were "Perdita" Robinson, 'née' Darby (1758-1800), who +published 'The Mistletoe' (1800) under the pseudonym "Laura Maria," and +to whom Merry addressed a poem quoted by Gifford in 'The Baviad' ('note' +to line 284); Charlotte Dacre, who married Byrne, Robinson's successor +as editor of the 'Morning Post,' wrote under the pseudonym of "Rosa +Matilda," and published poems ('Hours of Solitude,' 1805) and numerous +novels ('Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer's,' 1805; 'Zofloya;' 'The +Libertine,' etc.); and "Hafiz" (Robert Stott, of the 'Morning Post'). Of +these writers, "Della Crusca" Merry, and "Laura Maria" Robinson, were +dead; "Anna Matilda" Cowley, "Hafiz" Stott, and "Rosa Matilda" Dacre +were still living. John Bell (1745-1831), the publisher of 'The British +Album,' was also one of the proprietors of the 'Morning Post,' the +'Oracle,' and the 'World,' in all of which the Della Cruscans wrote. His +"Owls and Nightingales" are explained by a reference to 'The Baviad' (l. +284), where Gifford pretends to mistake the nightingale, to which Merry +("Arno") addressed some lines, for an owl. "On looking again, I find the +owl to be a nightingale!--N'importe."]] + + +[Footnote 120: These are the signatures of various worthies who figure +in the poetical departments of the newspapers.] + + + +[Footnote 121: "This was meant for poor Blackett, who was then +patronised by A. I. B." (Lady Byron); "but 'that' I did not know, or +this would not have been written, at least I think not."--B., 1816. + +[Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), said by Southey ('Letters,' i. 172) to +possess "force and rapidity," and to be endowed with "more powers than +Robert Bloomfield, and an intellect of higher pitch," was the son of a +labourer, and by trade a cobbler. He was brought into notice by S. J. +Pratt (who published Blacket's 'Remains' in 1811), and was befriended by +the Milbanke family. Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron, wrote (Sept. +2, 1809), "Seaham is at present the residence of a poet, by name Joseph +Blacket, one of the Burns-like and Dermody kind, whose genius is his +sole possession. I was yesterday in his company for the first time, and +was much pleased with his manners and conversation. He is extremely +diffident, his deportment is mild, and his countenance animated +melancholy and of a satirical turn. His poems certainly display a +superior genius and an enlarged mind...." Blacket died on the Seaham +estate in Sept., 1810, at the age of twenty-three. (See Byron's letter +to Dallas, June 28, 1811; his 'Epitaph for Joseph Blackett;' and 'Hints +from Horace,' l. 734.)]] + + + +[Footnote 122: Capel Lofft, Esq., the Mæcenas of shoemakers, and +Preface-writer-General to distressed versemen; a kind of gratis +Accoucheur to those who wish to be delivered of rhyme, but do not know +how to bring it forth. + +[Capel Lofft (1751-1824), jurist, poet, critic, and horticulturist, +honoured himself by his kindly patronage of Robert Bloomfield +(1766-1823), who was born at Honington, near Lofft's estate of Throston, +Suffolk. Robert Bloomfield was brought up by his elder brothers-- +Nathaniel a tailor, and George a shoemaker. It was in the latter's +workshop that he composed 'The Farmer's Boy,' which was published (1798) +with the help of Lofft. He also wrote 'Rural Tales' (1802), 'Good +Tidings; or News from the Farm '(1804), 'The Banks of the Wye' (1811), +etc. (See 'Hints from Horace,' line 734, notes 1 and 2.)]] + + + +[Footnote 123: See Nathaniel Bloomfield's ode, elegy, or whatever he or +any one else chooses to call it, on the enclosures of "Honington Green." +[Nathaniel Bloomfield, as a matter of fact, called it a ballad.--'Poems' +(1803).]] + + +[Footnote 124: Vide 'Recollections of a Weaver in the Moorlands of +Staffordshire'. [The exact title is 'The Moorland Bard; or Poetical +Recollections of a Weaver', etc. 2 vols., 1807. The author was T. +Bakewell, who also wrote 'A Domestic Guide to Insanity', 1805.]] + + +[Footnote 125: It would be superfluous to recall to the mind of the +reader the authors of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and 'The Pleasures of +Hope', the most beautiful didactic poems in our language, if we except +Pope's 'Essay on Man': but so many poetasters have started up, that even +the names of Campbell and Rogers are become strange.--[Beneath this note +Byron scribbled, in 1816,-- + + "Pretty Miss Jaqueline + Had a nose aquiline, + And would assert rude + Things of Miss Gertrude, + While Mr. Marmion + Led a great army on, + Making Kehama look + Like a fierce Mameluke." + +"I have been reading," he says, in 1813, "'Memory' again, and 'Hope' +together, and retain all my preference of the former. His elegance is +really wonderful--there is no such a thing as a vulgar line in his +book." In the annotations of 1816, Byron remarks, "Rogers has not +fulfilled the promise of his first poems, but has still very great +merit."] + + +[Footnote 126: GIFFORD, author of the 'Baviad' and 'Mæviad', the first +satires of the day, and translator of Juvenal, [and one (though not the +best) of the translators of Juvenal.--'British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote 127: SOTHEBY, translator of WIELAND'S 'Oberon' and Virgil's +'Georgics', and author of 'Saul', an epic poem. [William Sotheby +(1757-1833) began life as a cavalry officer, but being a man of fortune, +sold out of the army and devoted himself to literature, and to the +patronage of men of letters. His translation of the 'Oberon' appeared in +1798, and of the 'Georgics' in 1800. 'Saul' was published in 1807. When +Byron was in Venice, he conceived a dislike to Sotheby, in the belief +that he had made an anonymous attack on some of his works; but, later, +his verdict was, "a good man, rhymes well (if not wisely); but is a +bore" ('Diary', 1821; 'Works', p. 509, note). He is "the solemn antique +man of rhyme" ('Beppo', st. lxiii.), and the "Botherby" of 'The Blues'; +and in 'Don Juan', Canto I. st. cxvi., we read-- + + "Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby's house + His Pegasus nor anything that's his."]] + + +[Footnote 128: MACNEIL, whose poems are deservedly popular, particularly +"SCOTLAND'S Scaith," and the "Waes of War," of which ten thousand copies +were sold in one month. [Hector Macneil (1746-1816) wrote in defence of +slavery in Jamaica, and was the author of several poems: 'Scotland's +Skaith, or the History of Will and Jean' (1795), 'The Waes of War, or +the Upshot of the History of Will and Jean' (1796), etc., etc.]] + + +[Footnote 129: Mr. GIFFORD promised publicly that the 'Baviad' and +'Mæviad' should not be his last original works: let him remember, "Mox +in reluctantes dracones." [Cf. 'New Morality,' lines 29-42.]] + + + +[Footnote 130: Henry Kirke White died at Cambridge, in October 1806, in +consequence of too much exertion in the pursuit of studies that would +have matured a mind which disease and poverty could not impair, and +which Death itself destroyed rather than subdued. His poems abound in +such beauties as must impress the reader with the liveliest regret that +so short a period was allotted to talents, which would have dignified +even the sacred functions he was destined to assume. + +[H. K. White (1785-1806) published 'Clifton Grove' and other poems in +1803. Two volumes of his 'Remains,' consisting of poems, letters, etc., +with a life by Southey, were issued in 1808. His tendency to epilepsy +was increased by over-work at Cambridge. He once remarked to a friend +that "were he to paint a picture of Fame, crowning a distinguished +undergraduate after the Senate house examination, he would represent her +as concealing a Death's head under a mask of Beauty" ('Life of H. K. +W.', by Southey, i. 45). By "the soaring lyre, which else had sounded an +immortal lay," Byron, perhaps, refers to the unfinished 'Christiad,' +which, says Southey, "Henry had most at heart."]] + + + +[Footnote 131: Lines 832-834, as they stand in the text, were inserted +in MS. in both the Annotated Copies of the Fourth Edition.]] + + +[Footnote 132: "I consider Crabbe and Coleridge as the first of these +times, in point of power and genius."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 133: Mr. Shee, author of 'Rhymes on Art' and 'Elements of +Art'. [Sir Martin Archer Shee (1770-1850) was President of the Royal +Academy (1830-45). His 'Rhymes on Art' (1805) and 'Elements of Art' +(1809), a poem in six cantos, will hardly be regarded as worthy of +Byron's praise, which was probably quite genuine. He also wrote a novel, +'Harry Calverley', and other works.]] + + +[Footnote 134: Mr. Wright, late Consul-General for the Seven Islands, is +author of a very beautiful poem, just published: it is entitled 'Horæ +Ionicæ', and is descriptive of the isles and the adjacent coast of +Greece. [Walter Rodwell Wright was afterwards President of the Court of +Appeal in Malta, where he died in 1826. 'Horæ Ionicæ, a Poem descriptive +of the Ionian Islands, and Part of the Adjacent Coast of Greece', was +published in 1809. He is mentioned in one of Byron's long notes to +'Childe Harold', canto ii., dated Franciscan Convent, Mar. 17, 1811.]] + + +[Footnote 135: The translators of the Anthology have since published +separate poems, which evince genius that only requires opportunity to +attain eminence. [The Rev. Robert Bland (1779-1825) published, in 1806, +'Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology, with Tales and +Miscellaneous Poems'. In these he was assisted (see 'Life of the Rev. +Francis Hodgson', vol. i. pp. 226-260) by Denman (afterwards Chief +Justice), by Hodgson himself, and, above all, by John Herman Merivale +(1779-1844), who subsequently, in 1813, was joint editor with him of +'Collections from the Greek Anthology', etc.]] + + +[Footnote 136: Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the grandfather of Charles +Robert Darwin. Coleridge describes his poetry as "nothing but a +succession of landscapes or paintings. It arrests the attention too +often, and so prevents the rapidity necessary to pathos."--'Anima +Poetæ', 1895, p. 5. His chief works are 'The Botanic Garden' (1789-92) +and 'The Temple of Nature' (1803). Byron's censure of 'The Botanic +Garden' is inconsistent with his principles, for Darwin's verse was +strictly modelled on the lines of Pope and his followers. But the 'Loves +of the Triangles' had laughed away the 'Loves of the Plants'.]] + + +[Footnote 137: The neglect of 'The Botanic Garden' is some proof of +returning taste. The scenery is its sole recommendation.] + +[Footnote 138: This was not Byron's mature opinion, nor had he so +expressed himself in the review of Wordsworth's 'Poems' which he +contributed to 'Crosby's Magazine' in 1807 ('Life', p. 669). His scorn +was, in part, provoked by indignities offered to Pope and Dryden, and, +in part, assumed because one Lake poet called up the rest; and it was +good sport to flout and jibe at the "Fraternity." That the day would +come when the message of Wordsworth would reach his ears and awaken his +enthusiasm, he could not, of course, foresee (see 'Childe Harold', canto +iii. stanzas 72, 'et seqq.').]] + + +[Footnote 139: Messrs. Lamb and Lloyd, the most ignoble followers of +Southey and Co. [Charles Lloyd (1775-1839) resided for some months under +Coleridge's roof, first in Bristol, and afterwards at Nether Stowey +(1796-1797). He published, in 1796, a folio edition of his 'Poems on the +Death of Priscilla Farmer', in which a sonnet by Coleridge and a poem of +Lamb's were included. Lamb and Lloyd contributed several pieces to the +second edition of Coleridge's Poems, published in 1797; and in 1798 they +brought out a joint volume of their own composition, named 'Poems in +Blank Verse'. 'Edmund Oliver', a novel, appeared also in 1798. An +estrangement between Coleridge and Lloyd resulted in a quarrel with +Lamb, and a drawing together of Lamb, Lloyd, and Southey. But Byron +probably had in his mind nothing more than the lines in the +'Anti-Jacobin', where Lamb and Lloyd are classed with Coleridge and +Southey as advocates of French socialism:-- + + "Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co., + Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux." + +In later life Byron expressed a very different opinion of Lamb's +literary merits. (See the preface to 'Werner', now first published.)]] + + +[Footnote 140: By the bye, I hope that in Mr. Scott's next poem, his +hero or heroine will be less addicted to "Gramarye," and more to +Grammar, than the Lady of the Lay and her Bravo, William of Deloraine.] + + +[Footnote 141: "Unjust."--B., 1816. [In 'Frost at Midnight', first +published in 1798, Coleridge twice mentions his "Cradled infant."]] + + +[Footnote 142: The Rev. W. L. Bowles ('vide ante', p. 323, note 2), +published, in 1789, 'Fourteen Sonnets written chiefly on Picturesque +Spots during a Journey'.]] + + +[Footnote 143: It may be asked, why I have censured the Earl of +CARLISLE, my guardian and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of +puerile poems a few years ago?--The guardianship was nominal, at least +as far as I have been able to discover; the relationship I cannot help, +and am very sorry for it; but as his Lordship seemed to forget it on a +very essential occasion to me, I shall not burden my memory with the +recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the +unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I see no reason why they +should act as a preventive, when the author, noble or ignoble, has, for +a series of years, beguiled a "discerning public" (as the advertisements +have it) with divers reams of most orthodox, imperial nonsense. Besides, +I do not step aside to vituperate the earl: no--his works come fairly in +review with those of other Patrician Literati. If, before I escaped from +my teens, I said anything in favour of his Lordship's paper books, it +was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others +than my own judgment, and I seize the first opportunity of pronouncing +my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be +under obligations to Lord CARLISLE: if so, I shall be most particularly +happy to learn what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly +appreciated and publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an +opinion on his printed things, I am prepared to support, if necessary, +by quotations from Elegies, Eulogies, Odes, Episodes, and certain +facetious and dainty tragedies bearing his name and mark:-- + + "What can ennoble knaves, or 'fools', or cowards? + Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards." + +So says Pope. Amen!--"Much too savage, whatever the foundation might +be."--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 144: Line 952. 'Note'-- + + "Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora." + + (VIRGIL.)] + + +[Footnote 145: + + "The devil take that 'Phoenix'! How came it there?" + +--B., 1816.] + + +[Footnote 146: The Rev. Charles James Hoare (1781-1865), a close friend +of the leaders of the Evangelical party, gained the Seatonian Prize at +Cambridge in 1807 with his poem on the 'Shipwreck of St. Paul'.] + + +[Footnote 147: Edmund Hoyle, the father of the modern game of whist, +lived from 1672 to 1769. The Rev. Charles Hoyle, his "poetical +namesake," was, like Hoare, a Seatonian prizeman, and wrote an epic in +thirteen books on the 'Exodus'.] + + + +[Footnote 148: The 'Games of Hoyle', well known to the votaries of +Whist, Chess, etc., are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his +poetical namesake ["illustrious Synonime" in 'MS.' and 'British Bards'], +whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertisement, all the +"Plagues of Egypt."] + + +[Footnote 149: Here, as in line 391, "Fresh fish from Helicon," etc., +Byron confounds Helicon and Hippocrene.]] + + + +[Footnote 150: This person, who has lately betrayed the most rabid +symptoms of confirmed authorship, is writer of a poem denominated 'The +Art of Pleasing', as "Lucus a non lucendo," containing little +pleasantry, and less poetry. He also acts as ["lies as" in 'MS.'] +monthly stipendiary and collector of calumnies for the 'Satirist'. If +this unfortunate young man would exchange the magazines for the +mathematics, and endeavour to take a decent degree in his university, it +might eventually prove more serviceable than his present salary.] + +[Note.--An unfortunate young person of Emanuel College, Cambridge, +ycleped Hewson Clarke, has lately manifested the most rabid symptoms of +confirmed Authorship. His Disorder commenced some years ago, and the +'Newcastle Herald' teemed with his precocious essays, to the great +edification of the Burgesses of Newcastle, Morpeth, and the parts +adjacent even unto Berwick upon Tweed. These have since been abundantly +scurrilous upon the [town] of Newcastle, his native spot, Mr. Mathias +and Anacreon Moore. What these men had done to offend Mr. Hewson Clarke +is not known, but surely the town in whose markets he had sold meat, and +in whose weekly journal he had written prose deserved better treatment. +Mr. H.C. should recollect the proverb "'tis a villainous bird that +defiles his own nest." He now writes in the 'Satirist'. We recommend the +young man to abandon the magazines for mathematics, and to believe that +a high degree at Cambridge will be more advantageous, as well as +profitable in the end, than his present precarious gleanings.] + +[Hewson Clarke (1787-circ. 1832) was entered at Emmanuel Coll. Camb. +circ. 1806 (see 'Postscript'). He had to leave the University without +taking a degree, and migrated to London, where he devoted his not +inconsiderable talents to contributions to the 'Satirist', the +'Scourge', etc. He also wrote: 'An Impartial History of the Naval, etc., +Events of Europe ... from the French Revolution ... to the Conclusion of +a General Peace' (1815); and a continuation of Hume's 'History of +England', 2 vols. (1832). + +The 'Satirist', a monthly magazine illustrated with coloured cartoons, +was issued 1808-1814. 'Hours of Idleness' was reviewed Jan. 1808 (i. +77-81). "The Diary of a Cantab" (June, 1808, ii. 368) contains some +verses of "Lord B----n to his Bear. To the tune of Lachin y gair." The +last verse runs thus:-- + + "But when with the ardour of Love I am burning, + I feel for thy torments, I feel for thy care; + And weep for thy bondage, so truly discerning + What's felt by a 'Lord', may be felt by a 'Bear'." + +In August, 1808 (iii. 78-86), there is a critique on 'Poems Original and +Translated', in which the bear plays many parts. The writer "is without +his bear and is himself muzzled," etc. Towards the close of the article +a solemn sentence is passed on the author for his disregard of the +advice of parents, tutors, friends; "but," adds the reviewer, "in the +paltry volume before us we think we observe some proof that the still +small voice of conscience will be heard in the cool of the day. Even now +the gay, the gallant, the accomplished bear-leader is not happy," etc. +Hence the castigation of "the sizar of Emmanuel College."] + + +[Footnote 151: + + "Right enough: this was well deserved, and well laid on." + +(B., 1816.)] + + + +[Footnote 152: + + "Into Cambridgeshire the Emperor Probus transported a considerable + body of Vandals." + +(Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall', ii. 83.) There is no reason to doubt the +truth of this assertion; the breed is still in high perfection. + +We see no reason to doubt the truth of this statement, as a large stock +of the same breed are to be found there at this day.--'British Bards'. + +[Lines 981-984 do not occur in the 'MS'. Lines 981, 982, are inserted in +MS. in 'British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote 153: This gentleman's name requires no praise: the man who +[has surpassed Dryden and Gifford as a Translator.--'MS. British Bards'] +in translation displays unquestionable genius may be well expected to +excel in original composition, of which, it is to be hoped, we shall +soon see a splendid specimen. [Francis Hodgson (1781-1852) was Byron's +lifelong friend. His 'Juvenal' appeared in 1807; 'Lady Jane Grey and +other Poems', in 1809; 'Sir Edgar, a Tale', in 1810. For other works and +details, see 'Life of the Rev. Francis Hodgson', by the Rev. James T. +Hodgson (1878).]] + + +[Footnote 154: Hewson Clarke, 'Esq'., as it is written.] + + +[Footnote 155: 'The Aboriginal Britons', an excellent ["most excellent" +in 'MS.'] poem, by Richards. [The Rev. George Richards, D.D. +(1769-1835), a Fellow of Oriel, and afterwards Rector of St. +Martin's-in-the-Fields. 'The Aboriginal Britons', a prize poem, was +published in 1792, and was followed by 'The Songs of the Aboriginal +Bards of Britain' (1792), and various other prose and poetical works.]] + + +[Footnote: 156. With this verse the satire originally ended.] + + +[Footnote 157: A friend of mine being asked, why his Grace of Portland +was likened to an old woman? replied, "he supposed it was because he was +past bearing." (Even Homer was a punster--a solitary pun.)--['MS'.] His +Grace is now gathered to his grandmothers, where he sleeps as sound as +ever; but even his sleep was better than his colleagues' waking. 1811. +[William Henry Cavendish, third Duke of Portland (1738-1809), Prime +Minister in 1807, on the downfall of the Ministry of "All the Talents," +till his death in 1809, was, as the wits said, "a convenient block to +hang Whigs on," but was not, even in his vigour, a man of much +intellectual capacity. When Byron meditated a tour to India in 1808, +Portland declined to write on his behalf to the Directors of the East +India Company, and couched his refusal in terms which Byron fancied to +be offensive.]] + + + +[Footnote 158: "Saw it August, 1809."--B., 1816. [The following notes +were omitted from the Fifth Edition:-- + + "Calpe is the ancient name of Gibraltar. Saw it August, 1809.--B., + 1816. + + "Stamboul is the Turkish word for Constantinople. Was there the summer + 1810." + + To "Mount Caucasus," he adds, "Saw the distant ridge of,--1810, 1811"]] + + + +[Footnote 159: Georgia.] + + +[Footnote 160: Mount Caucasus.] + + +[Footnote 161: Lord Elgin would fain persuade us that all the figures, +with and without noses, in his stoneshop, are the work of Phidias! +"Credat Judæus!" [R. Payne Knight, in his introduction to 'Specimens of +Ancient Sculpture', published 1809, by the Dilettanti Society, throws a +doubt on the Phidian workmanship of the "Elgin" marbles. See the +Introduction to 'The Curse of Minerva'.]] + + +[Footnote 162: [Sir William Gell (1777-1836) published the 'Topography +of Troy' (1804), the 'Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca' (1807), and +the 'Itinerary of Greece' (1808). Byron reviewed the two last works in +the 'Monthly Review' (August, 1811), ('Life', pp. 670, 676). Fresh from +the scenes, he speaks with authority. "With Homer in his pocket and Gell +on his sumpter-mule, the Odysseus tourist may now make a very classical +and delightful excursion." The epithet in the original MS. was +"coxcomb," but becoming acquainted with Gell while the satire was in the +press, Byron changed it to "classic." In the fifth edition he altered it +to "rapid," and appended this note:--"'Rapid,' indeed! He topographised +and typographised King Priam's dominions in three days! I called him +'classic' before I saw the Troad, but since have learned better than to +tack to his name what don't belong to it."]] + + + +[Footnote 163: Mr. Gell's 'Topography of Troy and Ithaca' cannot fail to +ensure the approbation of every man possessed of classical taste, as +well for the information Mr. Gell conveys to the mind of the reader, as +for the ability and research the respective works display. + + "'Troy and Ithaca.' Visited both in 1810, 1811."--B., 1816. + "'Ithaca' passed first in 1809."--B., 1816. + + "Since seeing the plain of Troy, my opinions are somewhat changed as + to the above note. Cell's survey was hasty and superficial."--B., + 1816.] + + + +[Footnote 164: + + "Singular enough, and 'din' enough, God knows." + + (B., 1816).] + + + +[Footnote 165: + + "The greater part of this satire I most sincerely wish had never been + written-not only on account of the injustice of much of the critical, + and some of the personal part of it--but the tone and temper are such + as I cannot approve." + +BYRON. July 14, 1816. 'Diodati, Geneva'.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Truth be my theme, and Censure guide my song.' + +['MS. M.'] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'But thou, at least, mine own especial quill + Dipt in the dew drops from Parnassus' hill, + Shalt ever honoured and regarded be, + By more beside no doubt, yet still by me.' + +['MS. M.'] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'And men through life her willing slaves obey.' + +['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Unfolds her motley store to suit the time.'-- + +['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'When Justice halts and Right begins to fail.' + +['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'A mortal weapon'. + +['MS. M.'] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'Yet Titles sounding lineage cannot save + Or scrawl or scribbler from an equal grave, + Lamb had his farce but that Patrician name + Failed to preserve the spurious brat from shame.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'a lucky hit.' + +['Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'No dearth of rhyme.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'The Press oppressed.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'While Southey's Epics load.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'O'er taste awhile these Infidels prevail.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'Erect and hail an idol of their own.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'Not quite a footpad-----.' + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'Low may they sink to merited contempt.' + +['British Bards'.]] + + 'And Scorn reimmerate the mean attempt!'-- + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions']] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + '--though lesser bards content--' + +['British Bards'] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + 'How well the subject.' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.'-- + +['British Bards, First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xix: + + 'Who fain would'st.' + +['British Bards, First to Fifth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + 'Mend thy life, and sin no more.' + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote xxi: + + 'And o'er harmonious nonsense.' + +['MS. First Edition.']] + + +[Footnote xxii: + + 'In many marble-covered volumes view + Hayley, in vain attempting something new, + Whether he spin his comedies in rhyme, + Or scrawls as Wood and Barclay [A] walk, 'gainst Time.' + +['MS. British Bards', and 'First to Fourth Editions.'] + +[Sub-Footnote A: Captain Robert Barclay (1779-1854) of Ury, +agriculturalist and pedestrian, came of a family noted for physical +strength and endurance. Byron saw him win his walk against Wood at +Newmarket. (See Angelo's 'Reminiscences' (1837), vol. ii. pp. 37-44.) In +July, 1809, Barclay completed his task of walking a thousand miles in a +thousand hours, at the rate of one mile in each and every hour. (See, +too, for an account of Barclay, 'The Eccentric Review' (1812), i. +133-150.)]] + + + +[Footnote xxiii: + + 'Breaks into mawkish lines each holy Book'. + +['MS. First Edition'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxiv: + + 'Thy "Sympathy" that'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxv: + + 'And shows dissolved in sympathetic tears'. + '----in thine own melting tears.--' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvi: + + 'Whether in sighing winds them seek'st relief + Or Consolation in a yellow leaf.--' + +['MS. first to Fourth Editions.'] ] + + +[Footnote xxvii: + + 'What pretty sounds.' + +['British Bards.'] ] + + +[Footnote xxviii: + + 'Thou fain woulds't----' + +['British Bards.'] ] + + +[Footnote xxix: + + 'But to soft themes'. + +['British Bards, First Edition'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxx: + + 'The Bard has wove'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxxi: + + 'If Pope, since mortal, not untaught to err + Again demand a dull biographer'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxii: + + 'Too much in Turtle Bristol's sons delight + Too much in Bowls of Rack prolong the night.--' + +['MS. Second to Fourth Editions'.] + + 'Too much o'er Bowls.' + +['Second and Third Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxiii: + + 'And yet why'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxxiv: + + 'Or old or young'. + +['British Bards'.] ] + + +[Footnote xxxv: + + --'yes, I'm sure all may.' + +['Quarto Proof Sheet'] + + + +[Footnote xxxvi: + + 'While Cloacina's holy pontiff Lambe [3] + As he himself was damned shall try to damn'. + +['British Bards'.] + +[Sub-Footnote A. We have heard of persons who "when the Bagpipe sings in +the nose cannot contain their urine for affection," but Mr. L. carries +it a step further than Shakespeare's diuretic amateurs, being notorious +at school and college for his inability to contain--anything. We do not +know to what "Pipe" to attribute this additional effect, but the fact is +uncontrovertible.--['Note' to Quarto Proof bound up with 'British +Bards'.]] + + + +[Footnote xxxvii: + + 'Lo! long beneath'--. + +['British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxviii: + + 'And grateful to the founder of the feast + Declare his landlord can translate at least'.-- + +['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxix: + + '--are fed because they write.' + +['British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote xl: + + 'Princes in Barrels, Counts in arbours pent.-- + +[MS. British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote xli: + +'His "damme, poohs."' + +['MS. First Edition.']] + + +[Footnote xlii: + + 'While Kenny's World just suffered to proceed + Proclaims the audience very kind indeed'.-- + +['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote xliii: + + 'Resume her throne again'.-- + +['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xliv:-- + + 'and Kemble lives to tread'.-- + +['British Bards. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xlv: + + 'St. George [A] and Goody Goose divide the prize.'-- + +[MS. alternative in British Bards.] + +[Sub-Footnote A: We need not inform the reader that we do not allude to +the Champion of England who slew the Dragon. Our St. George is content +to draw status with a very different kind of animal.--[Pencil note to +'British Bards'.]]] + + +[Footnote xlvi: + + 'Its humble flight to splendid Pantomimes'. + +['British Bards. MS']] + + +[Footnote xlvii: + + 'Behold the new Petronius of the times + The skilful Arbiter of modern crimes.' + +['MS.'] + + +[Footnote xlviii: + + '----a Paget for your wife.' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions.']] + + +[Footnote xlix: + + 'From Grosvenor Place or Square'. + +['MS. British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote l: + + 'On one alone Apollo deigns to smile + And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle.' + +['MS. Addition to British Bards.'] + + 'Nor e'en a hackneyed Muse will deign to smile + On minor Byron, or mature Carlisle.' + +[First Edition.] + + +[Footnote li: + + 'Yet at their fiat----' + 'Yet at their nausea----.' + +['MS. Addition to British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote lii: + + 'Such sneering fame.' + +['British Bards'] + + +[Footnote liii: + + 'Though Bell has lost his nightingales and owls, + Matilda snivels still and Hafiz howls, + And Crusca's spirit rising from the dead + Revives in Laura, Quiz, and X. Y. Z.'-- + +['British Bards. First to Third Editions', 1810.]] + + +[Footnote liv: + + 'None since the past have claimed the tribute due'. + +['British Bards. MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lv: + + 'From Albion's cliffs to Caledonia's coast. + Some few who know to write as well as feel'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lvi: + + 'The spoiler came; and all thy promise fair + Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there.--' + +['First to Fourth Editions']] + + +[Footnote lvii: + + 'On him may meritorious honours tend + While doubly mingling,'. + +['MS. erased'.]] + + +Footnote lviii: + + 'And you united Bards'. + +['MS. Addition to British Bards'.] + + 'And you ye nameless'. + +['MS. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lvix: + + 'Translation's servile work at length disown + And quit Achaia's Muse to court your own'. + +['MS. Addition to British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote lx: + + 'Let these arise and anxious of applause'. + +['British Bards. MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lxi: + + 'But not in heavy'. + +['British Bards. MS'.]] + + +[Footnote lxii: + + 'Let prurient Southey cease'. + +['MS. British Bards'.]] + + +[Footnote lxiii: + + 'still the babe at nurse'. + +['MS'.] + +'Let Lewis jilt our nurseries with alarm + With tales that oft disgust and never charm'. + + +[Footnote lxiv: + + 'But thou with powers--' + +['MS. British Bards'.]] + + + +[Footnote lxv: + + 'Let MOORE be lewd; let STRANGFORD steal from MOORE'. + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote lxvi: + + 'For outlawed Sherwood's tales.' + +['MS. Brit. Bards. Eds.' 1-4.] + + +[Footnote lxvii: + + 'And even spurns the great Seatonian prize.--' + +['MS. First to Fourth Editions' (a correction in the Annotated Copy).]] + + +[Footnote lxviii: + + 'With odes by Smyth [A] and epic songs by Hoyle, + Hoyle whose learn'd page, if still upheld by whist + Required no sacred theme to bid us list.--' + +['MS. British Bards.'] + +[Sub-Footnote A: William Smyth (1766-1849). Professor of Modern History +at Cambridge, published his 'English Lyrics' (in 1806), and several +other works.] + + + +[Footnote lxix: + + 'Yet hold--as when by Heaven's supreme behest, + If found, ten righteous had preserved the Rest + In Sodom's fated town--for Granta's name + Let Hodgson's Genius plead and save her fame + But where fair Isis, etc.' + +['MS.' and 'British Bards.']] + + +[Footnote lxx: + + 'See Clarke still striving piteously to please + Forgets that Doggrel leads not to degrees.--' + +['MS. Fragment' bound up with 'British Bards'.] + + +[Footnote lxxi: + + 'So sunk in dullness and so lost in shame + That Smythe and Hodgson scarce redeem thy fame.--' + +['MS. Addition to British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxii: + + '----is wove.--' + +[MS. British Bards' and 'First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxiii: + + 'And modern Britons justly praise their sires.'-- + +['MS. British Bards' and 'First to Fourth Editions]] + + +[Footnote lxxiv: + + '--what her sons must know too well.' + +['British Bards]] + + +[Footnote lxxv: + + 'Zeal for her honour no malignant Rage, + Has bade me spurn the follies of the age.--' + +['MS. British Bards'. First Edition]] + + +[Footnote lxxvi: + + '--Ocean's lonely Queen.' + +['British Bards']] + + '--Ocean's mighty Queen.' + +['First to Fourth Editions']] + + +[Footnote: lxxvii. + + 'Like these thy cliffs may sink in ruin hurled + The last white ramparts of a falling world'.-- + +['British Bards MS.']] + + +[Footnote: lxxviii. + + 'But should I back return, no lettered rage + Shall drag my common-place book on the stage: + Let vain Valentia [A] rival luckless Carr, + And equal him whose work he sought to mar.--' + +['Second to Fourth Editions'.] + +[Sub-Footnote: A. Lord Valentia (whose tremendous travels are +forthcoming with due decorations, graphical, topographical, +typographical) deposed, on Sir John Carr's unlucky suit, that Mr. +Dubois's satire prevented his purchase of 'The Stranger' in +Ireland.--Oh, fie, my lord! has your lordship no more feeling for a +fellow-tourist?--but "two of a trade," they say, etc. [George Annesley, +Viscount Valentia (1769-1844), published, in 1809, 'Voyages and Travels +to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt in the Years +1802-6'. Byron calls him "vain" Valentia, because his "accounts of +ceremonies attending his lordship's interviews with several of the petty +princes" suggest the thought "that his principal errand to India was to +measure certain rank in the British peerage against the gradations of +Asiatic royalty."--'Eclectic Review', August, 1809. In August, 1808, Sir +John Carr, author of numerous 'Travels', brought an unsuccessful action +for damages against Messrs. Hood and Sharpe, the publishers of the +parody of his works by Edward Dubois,--'My Pocket Book: or Hints for a +Ryghte Merrie and Conceitede Tour, in 4to, to be called "The Stranger in +Ireland in 1805,"' By a Knight Errant, and dedicated to the papermakers. +(See Letter to Hodgson, August 6, 1809, and suppressed stanza (stanza +Ixxxvii.) of the first canto of 'Childe Harold'.)]] + + +[Footnote lxxix: + + 'To stun mankind, with Poesy or Prose'. + +['Second to Fourth Editions'.] + + +[Footnote lxxx: + + 'Thus much I've dared to do, how far my lay'.-- + + +['First to Fourth Editions'.]] + + + + + + +POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION. + + +I have been informed, since the present edition went to the press, that +my trusty and well-beloved cousins, the Edinburgh Reviewers, are +preparing a most vehement critique on my poor, gentle, 'unresisting' +Muse, whom they have already so be-deviled with their ungodly ribaldry; + + + "Tantæne animis coelestibus Iræ!" + + +I suppose I must say of JEFFREY as Sir ANDREW AGUECHEEK saith, "an I had +known he was so cunning of fence, I had seen him damned ere I had fought +him." What a pity it is that I shall be beyond the Bosphorus before the +next number has passed the Tweed! But I yet hope to light my pipe with +it in Persia. [1] + +My Northern friends have accused me, with justice, of personality +towards their great literary Anthropophagus, Jeffery; but what else was +to be done with him and his dirty pack, who feed by "lying and +slandering," and slake their thirst by "evil speaking"? I have adduced +facts already well known, and of JEFFREY's mind I have stated my free +opinion, nor has he thence sustained any injury:--what scavenger was +ever soiled by being pelted with mud? It may be said that I quit England +because I have censured there "persons of honour and wit about town;" +but I am coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my +return. Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving +England are very different from fears, literary or personal: those who +do not, may one day be convinced. Since the publication of this thing, +my name has not been concealed; I have been mostly in London, ready to +answer for my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry +cartels; but, alas! "the age of chivalry is over," or, in the vulgar +tongue, there is no spirit now-a-days. + +There is a youth ycleped Hewson Clarke (subaudi 'esquire'), a sizer of +Emanuel College, and, I believe, a denizen of Berwick-upon-Tweed, whom I +have introduced in these pages to much better company than he has been +accustomed to meet; he is, notwithstanding, a very sad dog, and for no +reason that I can discover, except a personal quarrel with a bear, kept +by me at Cambridge to sit for a fellowship, and whom the jealousy of his +Trinity contemporaries prevented from success, has been abusing me, and, +what is worse, the defenceless innocent above mentioned, in the +'Satirist' for one year and some months. I am utterly unconscious of +having given him any provocation; indeed, I am guiltless of having heard +his name, till coupled with the 'Satirist'. He has therefore no reason +to complain, and I dare say that, like Sir Fretful Plagiary, he is +rather 'pleased' than otherwise. I have now mentioned all who have done +me the honour to notice me and mine, that is, my bear and my book, +except the editor of the 'Satirist', who, it seems, is a gentleman--God +wot! I wish he could impart a little of his gentility to his subordinate +scribblers. I hear that Mr. JERNINGHAM[1] is about to take up the +cudgels for his Mæcenas, Lord Carlisle. I hope not: he was one of the +few, who, in the very short intercourse I had with him, treated me with +kindness when a boy; and whatever he may say or do, "pour on, I will +endure." I have nothing further to add, save a general note of +thanksgiving to readers, purchasers, and publishers, and, in the words +of SCOTT, I wish + + + "To all and each a fair good night, + And rosy dreams and slumbers light." + + + +[Footnote 1: The article never appeared, and Lord Byron, in the 'Hints +from Horace', taunted Jeffrey with a silence which seemed to indicate +that the critic was beaten from the field.] + + +[Footnote 2: Edward Jerningham (1727-1812), third son of Sir George +Jerningham, Bart., was an indefatigable versifier. Between the +publication of his first poem, 'The Nunnery', in 1766, and his last, +'The Old Bard's Farewell', in 1812, he sent to the press no less than +thirty separate compositions. As a contributor to the 'British Album', +Gifford handled him roughly in the 'Baviad' (lines 21, 22); and Mathias, +in a note to 'Pursuits of Literature', brackets him with Payne Knight as +"ecrivain du commun et poëte vulgaire." He was a dandy with a literary +turn, who throughout a long life knew every one who was worth knowing. +Some of his letters have recently been published (see 'Jerningham +Letters', two vols., 1896).] + + + + + + + +HINTS FROM HORACE: [i] + + +BEING AN ALLUSION IN ENGLISH VERSE TO THE EPISTLE +"AD PISONES, DE ARTE POETICÂ," +AND INTENDED AS A SEQUEL TO "ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS." + + + ----"Ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum + Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi." + + HOR. 'De Arte Poet'., II. 304 and 305. + + + "Rhymes are difficult things--they are stubborn things, Sir." + + FIELDING'S 'Amelia', Vol. iii. Book; and Chap. v. + + + +[Footnote i: + + Hints from Horace (Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 12, 1811); being an + Imitation in English Verse from the Epistle, etc. + +[MS, M.] + + Hints from Horace: being a Partial Imitation, in English Verse, of the + Epistle 'Ad Pisones, De Arte Poeticâ'; and intended as a sequel to + 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. + + Athens, Franciscan Convent, March 12, 1811. + +['Proof b'.]] + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO HINTS FROM HORACE + + + +Three MSS. of 'Hints from Horace' are extant, two in the possession of +Lord Lovelace (MSS. L. a and b), and a third in the possession of Mr. +Murray ('MS. M'.). + +Proofs of lines 173-272 and 1-272 ('Proofs a, b'), are among the Egerton +MSS. in the British Museum. They were purchased from the Rev. Alexander +Dallas, January 12, 1867, and are, doubtless, fragments of the proofs +set up in type for Cawthorn in 1811. They are in "book-form," and show +that the volume was intended to be uniform with the Fifth Edition of +'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', of 1811. The text corresponds +closely but not exactly with that adopted by Murray in 1831, and does +not embody the variants of the several MSS. It is probable that complete +proofs were in Moore's possession at the time when he included the +selections from the 'Hints' in his 'Letters and Journals', pp. 263-269, +and that the text of the entire poem as published in 1831 was derived +from this source. Selections, numbering in all 156 lines, had already +appeared in 'Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron', by R. C. Dallas, +1824, pp. 104-113. Byron, estimating the merit by the difficulty of the +performance, rated the 'Hints from Horace' extravagantly high. He only +forbore to publish them after the success of 'Childe Harold', because he +felt, as he states, that he should be "heaping coals of fire upon his +head" if he were in his hour of triumph to put forth a sequel to a +lampoon provoked by failure. Nine years afterwards, when he resolved to +print the work with some omissions, he gravely maintained that it +excelled the productions of his mature genius. "As far," he said, "as +versification goes, it is good; and on looking back at what I wrote +about that period, I am astonished to see how little I have trained on. +I wrote better then than now; but that comes of my having fallen into +the atrocious bad taste of the times" [September 23, 1820]. The opinion +of J. C. Hobhouse that the 'Hints' would require "a good deal of +slashing" to adapt them to the passing hour, and other considerations, +again led Byron to suspend the publication. Authors are frequently bad +judges of their own works, but of all the literary hallucinations upon +record there are none which exceed the mistaken preferences of Lord +Byron. Shortly after the appearance of 'The Corsair' he fancied that +'English Bards' was still his masterpiece; when all his greatest works +had been produced, he contended that his translation from Pulci was his +"grand performance,--the best thing he ever did in his life;" and +throughout the whole of his literary career he regarded these 'Hints +from Horace' with a special and unchanging fondness. + + + + +HINTS FROM HORACE + + +ATHENS: CAPUCHIN CONVENT, March. 12, 1811. [i] + + + Who would not laugh, if Lawrence [1], hired to grace [ii] + His costly canvas with each flattered face, + Abused his art, till Nature, with a blush, + Saw cits grow Centaurs underneath his brush? + Or, should some limner join, for show or sale, + A Maid of Honour to a Mermaid's tail? [iii] + Or low Dubost [2]--as once the world has seen-- + Degrade God's creatures in his graphic spleen? + Not all that forced politeness, which defends + Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends. 10 + Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems [iv] + The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams, + Displays a crowd of figures incomplete, + Poetic Nightmares, without head or feet. + + Poets and painters, as all artists know, [v] + May shoot a little with a lengthened bow; + We claim this mutual mercy for our task, + And grant in turn the pardon which we ask; + But make not monsters spring from gentle dams-- + Birds breed not vipers, tigers nurse not lambs. 20 + + A laboured, long Exordium, sometimes tends + (Like patriot speeches) but to paltry ends; [vi] + And nonsense in a lofty note goes down, + As Pertness passes with a legal gown: [vii] + Thus many a Bard describes in pompous strain [viii] + The clear brook babbling through the goodly plain: + The groves of Granta, and her Gothic halls, + King's Coll-Cam's stream-stained windows, and old walls: + Or, in adventurous numbers, neatly aims + To paint a rainbow, or the river Thames. [3] 30 + + You sketch a tree, and so perhaps may shine [ix]-- + But daub a shipwreck like an alehouse sign; + You plan a _vase_--it dwindles to a _pot_; + Then glide down Grub-street--fasting and forgot: + Laughed into Lethe by some quaint Review, + Whose wit is never troublesome till--true. + + In fine, to whatsoever you aspire, + Let it at least be simple and entire. + + The greater portion of the rhyming tribe [x] + (Give ear, my friend, for thou hast been a scribe) 40 + Are led astray by some peculiar lure. [xi] + I labour to be brief--become obscure; + One falls while following Elegance too fast; + Another soars, inflated with Bombast; + Too low a third crawls on, afraid to fly, + He spins his subject to Satiety; + Absurdly varying, he at last engraves + Fish in the woods, and boars beneath the waves! [xii] + + Unless your care's exact, your judgment nice, + The flight from Folly leads but into Vice; 50 + None are complete, all wanting in some part, + Like certain tailors, limited in art. + For galligaskins Slowshears is your man [xiii] + But coats must claim another artisan. [4] + Now this to me, I own, seems much the same + As Vulcan's feet to bear Apollo's frame; + Or, with a fair complexion, to expose + Black eyes, black ringlets, but--a bottle nose! + + Dear Authors! suit your topics to your strength, + And ponder well your subject, and its length; 60 + Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware + What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear. + But lucid Order, and Wit's siren voice, [xiv] + Await the Poet, skilful in his choice; + With native Eloquence he soars along, + Grace in his thoughts, and Music in his song. + + Let Judgment teach him wisely to combine + With future parts the now omitted line: + This shall the Author choose, or that reject, + Precise in style, and cautious to select; 70 + Nor slight applause will candid pens afford + To him who furnishes a wanting word. [xv] + Then fear not, if 'tis needful, to produce + Some term unknown, or obsolete in use, + (As Pitt has furnished us a word or two, [5] + Which Lexicographers declined to do;) + So you indeed, with care,--(but be content + To take this license rarely)--may invent. + New words find credit in these latter days, + If neatly grafted on a Gallic phrase; [xvi] 80 + What Chaucer, Spenser did, we scarce refuse + To Dryden's or to Pope's maturer Muse. + If you can add a little, say why not, + As well as William Pitt, and Walter Scott? + Since they, by force of rhyme and force of lungs, [xvii] + Enriched our Island's ill-united tongues; + 'Tis then--and shall be--lawful to present + Reform in writing, as in Parliament. + + As forests shed their foliage by degrees, + So fade expressions which in season please; 90 + And we and ours, alas! are due to Fate, + And works and words but dwindle to a date. + Though as a Monarch nods, and Commerce calls, [xviii] + Impetuous rivers stagnate in canals; + Though swamps subdued, and marshes drained, sustain [xix] + The heavy ploughshare and the yellow grain, + And rising ports along the busy shore + Protect the vessel from old Ocean's roar, + All, all, must perish; but, surviving last, + The love of Letters half preserves the past. 100 + True, some decay, yet not a few revive; [xx] [6] + Though those shall sink, which now appear to thrive, + As Custom arbitrates, whose shifting sway [xxi] + Our life and language must alike obey. + + The immortal wars which Gods and Angels wage, + Are they not shown in Milton's sacred page? + His strain will teach what numbers best belong + To themes celestial told in Epic song. [xxii] + + The slow, sad stanza will correctly paint + The Lover's anguish, or the Friend's complaint. 110 + But which deserves the Laurel--Rhyme or Blank? [xxiii] + Which holds on Helicon the higher rank? + Let squabbling critics by themselves dispute + This point, as puzzling as a Chancery suit. + + Satiric rhyme first sprang from selfish spleen. + You doubt--see Dryden, Pope, St. Patrick's Dean. [7] + Blank verse is now, with one consent, allied + To Tragedy, and rarely quits her side. + Though mad Almanzor [8] rhymed in Dryden's days, + No sing-song Hero rants in modern plays; 120 + Whilst modest Comedy her verse foregoes + For jest and 'pun' [9] in very middling prose. + Not that our Bens or Beaumonts show the worse, + Or lose one point, because they wrote in verse. + But so Thalia pleases to appear, [xxiv] + Poor Virgin! damned some twenty times a year! + + Whate'er the scene, let this advice have weight:-- + Adapt your language to your Hero's state. + At times Melpomene forgets to groan, + And brisk Thalia takes a serious tone; 130 + Nor unregarded will the act pass by + Where angry Townly [10] "lifts his voice on high." + Again, our Shakespeare limits verse to Kings, + When common prose will serve for common things; + And lively Hal resigns heroic ire, [xxv]-- + To "hollaing Hotspur" [11] and his sceptred sire. [xxvi] + + 'Tis not enough, ye Bards, with all your art, + To polish poems; they must touch the heart: + Where'er the scene be laid, whate'er the song, + Still let it bear the hearer's soul along; 140 + Command your audience or to smile or weep, + Whiche'er may please you--anything but sleep. + The Poet claims our tears; but, by his leave, + Before I shed them, let me see 'him' grieve. + + If banished Romeo feigned nor sigh nor tear, + Lulled by his languor, I could sleep or sneer. [xxvii] + Sad words, no doubt, become a serious face, + And men look angry in the proper place. + At double meanings folks seem wondrous sly, + And Sentiment prescribes a pensive eye; 150 + For Nature formed at first the inward man, + And actors copy Nature--when they can. + She bids the beating heart with rapture bound, + Raised to the Stars, or levelled with the ground; + And for Expression's aid, 'tis said, or sung, [xxviii] + She gave our mind's interpreter--the tongue, + Who, worn with use, of late would fain dispense + (At least in theatres) with common sense; + O'erwhelm with sound the Boxes, Gallery, Pit, + And raise a laugh with anything--but Wit. 160 + + To skilful writers it will much import, + Whence spring their scenes, from common life or Court; + Whether they seek applause by smile or tear, + To draw a Lying Valet, [12] or a Lear, [13] + A sage, or rakish youngster wild from school, + A wandering Peregrine, or plain John Bull; + All persons please when Nature's voice prevails, + Scottish or Irish, born in Wilts or Wales. + + Or follow common fame, or forge a plot; [xxix] + Who cares if mimic heroes lived or not! 170 + One precept serves to regulate the scene: + Make it appear as if it _might_ have _been_. + + If some Drawcansir [14] you aspire to draw, + Present him raving, and above all law: + If female furies in your scheme are planned, + Macbeth's fierce dame is ready to your hand; + For tears and treachery, for good and evil, + Constance, King Richard, Hamlet, and the Devil! + But if a new design you dare essay, + And freely wander from the beaten way, 180 + True to your characters, till all be past, + Preserve consistency from first to last. + + Tis hard [15] to venture where our betters fail, [xxx] + Or lend fresh interest to a twice-told tale; + And yet, perchance,'tis wiser to prefer + A hackneyed plot, than choose a new, and err; + Yet copy not too closely, but record, + More justly, thought for thought than word for word; + Nor trace your Prototype through narrow ways, + But only follow where he merits praise. 190 + + For you, young Bard! whom luckless fate may lead [16] + To tremble on the nod of all who read, + Ere your first score of cantos Time unrolls, [xxxi] + Beware--for God's sake, don't begin like Bowles! + "Awake a louder and a loftier strain," [17]-- + And pray, what follows from his boiling brain?-- + He sinks to Southey's level in a trice, + Whose Epic Mountains never fail in mice! + Not so of yore awoke your mighty Sire + The tempered warblings of his master-lyre; 200 + Soft as the gentler breathing of the lute, + "Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit" + He speaks, but, as his subject swells along, + Earth, Heaven, and Hades echo with the song."[xxxii] + Still to the "midst of things" he hastens on, + As if we witnessed all already done; [xxxiii] + Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean + To raise the subject, or adorn the scene; + Gives, as each page improves upon the sight, + Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness--light; 210 + And truth and fiction with such art compounds, + We know not where to fix their several bounds. + + If you would please the Public, deign to hear + What soothes the many-headed monster's ear: [xxxiv] + If your heart triumph when the hands of all + Applaud in thunder at the curtain's fall, + Deserve those plaudits--study Nature's page, + And sketch the striking traits of every age; + While varying Man and varying years unfold + Life's little tale, so oft, so vainly told; 220 + Observe his simple childhood's dawning days, + His pranks, his prate, his playmates, and his plays: + Till time at length the mannish tyro weans, + And prurient vice outstrips his tardy teens! [xxxv] + + Behold him Freshman! forced no more to groan [xxxvi] + O'er Virgil's [18] devilish verses and his own; + Prayers are too tedious, Lectures too abstruse, + He flies from Tavell's frown to "Fordham's Mews;" + (Unlucky Tavell! [19] doomed to daily cares [xxxvii] + By pugilistic pupils, and by bears,) 230 + Fines, Tutors, tasks, Conventions threat in vain, + Before hounds, hunters, and Newmarket Plain. + Rough with his elders, with his equals rash, + Civil to sharpers, prodigal of cash; + Constant to nought--save hazard and a whore, [xxxviii] + Yet cursing both--for both have made him sore: + Unread (unless since books beguile disease, + The P----x becomes his passage to Degrees); + Fooled, pillaged, dunned, he wastes his terms away, [xxxix] + And unexpelled, perhaps, retires M.A.; 240 + Master of Arts! as _hells_ and _clubs_ [20] proclaim, [xl] + Where scarce a blackleg bears a brighter name! + + Launched into life, extinct his early fire, + He apes the selfish prudence of his Sire; + Marries for money, chooses friends for rank, + Buys land, and shrewdly trusts not to the Bank; + Sits in the Senate; gets a son and heir; + Sends him to Harrow--for himself was there. + Mute, though he votes, unless when called to cheer, + His son's so sharp--he'll see the dog a Peer! 250 + + Manhood declines--Age palsies every limb; + He quits the scene--or else the scene quits him; + Scrapes wealth, o'er each departing penny grieves, [xli] + And Avarice seizes all Ambition leaves; + Counts cent per cent, and smiles, or vainly frets, + O'er hoards diminished by young Hopeful's debts; + Weighs well and wisely what to sell or buy, + Complete in all life's lessons--but to die; + Peevish and spiteful, doting, hard to please, + Commending every time, save times like these; 260 + Crazed, querulous, forsaken, half forgot, + Expires unwept--is buried--Let him rot! + + But from the Drama let me not digress, + Nor spare my precepts, though they please you less. [xlii] + Though Woman weep, and hardest hearts are stirred, [xliii] + When what is done is rather seen than heard, + Yet many deeds preserved in History's page + Are better told than acted on the stage; + The ear sustains what shocks the timid eye, + And Horror thus subsides to Sympathy, 270 + True Briton all beside, I here am French-- + Bloodshed 'tis surely better to retrench: + The gladiatorial gore we teach to flow + In tragic scenes disgusts though but in show; + We hate the carnage while we see the trick, + And find small sympathy in being sick. + Not on the stage the regicide Macbeth + Appals an audience with a Monarch's death; [xliv] + To gaze when sable Hubert threats to sear + Young Arthur's eyes, can _ours_ or _Nature_ bear? 280 + A haltered heroine [21] Johnson sought to slay-- + We saved Irene, but half damned the play, + And (Heaven be praised!) our tolerating times + Stint Metamorphoses to Pantomimes; + And Lewis' [22] self, with all his sprites, would quake + To change Earl Osmond's negro to a snake! + Because, in scenes exciting joy or grief, + We loathe the action which exceeds belief: + And yet, God knows! what may not authors do, + Whose Postscripts prate of dyeing "heroines blue"? [23] 290 + + Above all things, _Dan_ Poet, if you can, + Eke out your acts, I pray, with mortal man, + Nor call a ghost, unless some cursed scrape [xlv] + Must open ten trap-doors for your escape. + Of all the monstrous things I'd fain forbid, + I loathe an Opera worse than Dennis did; [24] + Where good and evil persons, right or wrong, + Rage, love, and aught but moralise--in song. + Hail, last memorial of our foreign friends, [xlvi] + Which Gaul allows, and still Hesperia lends! 300 + Napoleon's edicts no embargo lay + On whores--spies--singers--wisely shipped away. + Our giant Capital, whose squares are spread [xlvii] + Where rustics earned, and now may beg, their bread, + In all iniquity is grown so nice, + It scorns amusements which are not of price. + Hence the pert shopkeeper, whose throbbing ear + Aches with orchestras which he pays to hear, [xlviii] + Whom shame, not sympathy, forbids to snore, + His anguish doubling by his own "encore;" [xlix] 310 + Squeezed in "Fop's Alley," [25] jostled by the beaux, + Teased with his hat, and trembling for his toes; + Scarce wrestles through the night, nor tastes of ease, + Till the dropped curtain gives a glad release: + Why this, and more, he suffers--can ye guess?-- + Because it costs him dear, and makes him dress! [26] + + So prosper eunuchs from Etruscan schools; + Give us but fiddlers, and they're sure of fools! + Ere scenes were played by many a reverend clerk, [l] [27] + (What harm, if David danced before the ark?) [li] 320 + In Christmas revels, simple country folks + Were pleased with morrice-mumm'ry and coarse jokes. + Improving years, with things no longer known, + Produced blithe Punch and merry Madame Joan, + Who still frisk on with feats so lewdly low, [lii] + 'Tis strange Benvolio [28] suffers such a show; + Suppressing peer! to whom each vice gives place, [liii] + Oaths, boxing, begging--all, save rout and race. + + Farce followed Comedy, and reached her prime, + In ever-laughing Foote's fantastic time: [29] 330 + Mad wag! who pardoned none, nor spared the best, + And turned some very serious things to jest. + Nor Church nor State escaped his public sneers, + Arms nor the Gown--Priests--Lawyers--Volunteers: + "Alas, poor Yorick!" now for ever mute! + Whoever loves a laugh must sigh for Foote. + + We smile, perforce, when histrionic scenes + Ape the swoln dialogue of Kings and Queens, + When "Crononhotonthologos must die," [30] + And Arthur struts in mimic majesty. 340 + + Moschus! with whom once more I hope to sit, [liv] + And smile at folly, if we can't at wit; + Yes, Friend! for thee I'll quit my cynic cell, + And bear Swift's motto, "Vive la bagatelle!" + Which charmed our days in each Ægean clime, + As oft at home, with revelry and rhyme. + Then may Euphrosyne, who sped the past, + Soothe thy Life's scenes, nor leave thee in the last; + But find in thine--like pagan Plato's bed, [lv] [31] + Some merry Manuscript of Mimes, when dead. 350 + + Now to the Drama let us bend our eyes, + Where fettered by whig Walpole low she lies; [32] + Corruption foiled her, for she feared her glance; + Decorum left her for an Opera dance! + Yet Chesterfield, [33] whose polished pen inveighs + 'Gainst laughter, fought for freedom to our Plays; + Unchecked by Megrims of patrician brains, + And damning Dulness of Lord Chamberlains. + Repeal that act! again let Humour roam + Wild o'er the stage--we've time for tears at home; 360 + Let Archer [34] plant the horns on Sullen's brows, + And Estifania gull her "Copper" [35] spouse; + The moral's scant--but that may be excused, + Men go not to be lectured, but amused. + He whom our plays dispose to Good or Ill + Must wear a head in want of Willis' skill; [36] + Aye, but Macheath's example--psha!--no more! + It formed no thieves--the thief was formed before; [37] + And spite of puritans and Collier's curse, [lvi] + Plays make mankind no better, and no worse. [38] 370 + Then spare our stage, ye methodistic men! + Nor burn damned Drury if it rise again. [39] + But why to brain-scorched bigots thus appeal? + Can heavenly Mercy dwell with earthly Zeal? + For times of fire and faggot let them hope! + Times dear alike to puritan or Pope. + As pious Calvin saw Servetus blaze, + So would new sects on newer victims gaze. + E'en now the songs of Solyma begin; + Faith cants, perplexed apologist of Sin! 380 + While the Lord's servant chastens whom he loves, + And Simeon kicks, [40] where Baxter only "shoves."[41] + + Whom Nature guides, so writes, that every dunce [lvii], + Enraptured, thinks to do the same at once; + But after inky thumbs and bitten nails [lviii], + And twenty scattered quires, the coxcomb fails. + + Let Pastoral be dumb; for who can hope + To match the youthful eclogues of our Pope? + Yet his and Philips' [42] faults, of different kind, + For Art too rude, for Nature too refined, [lix] 390 + Instruct how hard the medium 'tis to hit + 'Twixt too much polish and too coarse a wit. + + A vulgar scribbler, certes, stands disgraced + In this nice age, when all aspire to taste; + The dirty language, and the noisome jest, + Which pleased in Swift of yore, we now detest; + Proscribed not only in the world polite [lx], + But even too nasty for a City Knight! + + Peace to Swift's faults! his wit hath made them pass, + Unmatched by all, save matchless Hudibras! 400 + Whose author is perhaps the first we meet, + Who from our couplet lopped two final feet; + Nor less in merit than the longer line, + This measure moves a favourite of the Nine. + Though at first view eight feet may seem in vain + Formed, save in Ode, to bear a serious strain [lxi], + Yet Scott has shown our wondering isle of late + This measure shrinks not from a theme of weight, + And, varied skilfully, surpasses far + Heroic rhyme, but most in Love and War, 410 + Whose fluctuations, tender or sublime, + Are curbed too much by long-recurring rhyme. + + But many a skilful judge abhors to see, + What few admire--irregularity. + This some vouchsafe to pardon; but 'tis hard + When such a word contents a British Bard. + + And must the Bard his glowing thoughts confine, [lxii] + Lest Censure hover o'er some faulty line? + Remove whate'er a critic may suspect, + To gain the paltry suffrage of "Correct"? 420 + Or prune the spirit of each daring phrase, + To fly from Error, not to merit Praise? + + Ye, who seek finished models, never cease [lxiii], + By day and night, to read the works of Greece. + But our good Fathers never bent their brains + To heathen Greek, content with native strains. + The few who read a page, or used a pen, + Were satisfied with Chaucer and old Ben; + The jokes and numbers suited to their taste + Were quaint and careless, anything but chaste; 430 + Yet, whether right or wrong the ancient rules, + It will not do to call our Fathers fools! + Though you and I, who eruditely know + To separate the elegant and low, + Can also, when a hobbling line appears, + Detect with fingers--in default of ears. + + In sooth I do not know, or greatly care + To learn, who our first English strollers were; + Or if, till roofs received the vagrant art, + Our Muse, like that of Thespis, kept a cart; 440 + But this is certain, since our Shakespeare's days, + There's pomp enough--if little else--in plays; + Nor will Melpomene ascend her Throne [lxiv] + Without high heels, white plume, and Bristol stone. + + Old Comedies still meet with much applause, + Though too licentious for dramatic laws; + At least, we moderns, wisely, 'tis confest, + Curtail, or silence, the lascivious jest [lxv]. + + Whate'er their follies, and their faults beside, + Our enterprising Bards pass nought untried; 450 + Nor do they merit slight applause who choose + An English subject for an English Muse, + And leave to minds which never dare invent + French flippancy and German sentiment. + Where is that living language which could claim + Poetic more, as philosophic, fame, + If all our Bards, more patient of delay, + Would stop, like Pope, to polish by the way? [43] + + Lords of the quill, whose critical assaults + O'erthrow whole quartos with their quires of faults [lxvi], 460 + Who soon detect, and mark where'er we fail, + And prove our marble with too nice a nail! + Democritus himself was not so bad; + He only 'thought'--but 'you' would make us--mad! + + But truth to say, most rhymers rarely guard + Against that ridicule they deem so hard; + In person negligent, they wear, from sloth, + Beards of a week, and nails of annual growth; + Reside in garrets, fly from those they meet, + And walk in alleys rather than the street. 470 + + With little rhyme, less reason, if you please, + The name of Poet may be got with ease, + So that not tuns of helleboric juice [lxvii] + Shall ever turn your head to any use; + Write but like Wordsworth--live beside a lake, + And keep your bushy locks a year from Blake; [44] + Then print your book, once more return to town, + And boys shall hunt your Bardship up and down. [45] + Am I not wise, if such some poets' plight, + To purge in spring--like Bayes [46]--before I write? 480 + If this precaution softened not my bile, + I know no scribbler with a madder style; + But since (perhaps my feelings are too nice) + I cannot purchase Fame at such a price, + I'll labour gratis as a grinders' wheel, [lxviii] + And, blunt myself, give edge to other's steel, + Nor write at all, unless to teach the art + To those rehearsing for the Poet's part; + From Horace show the pleasing paths of song, [lxix], + And from my own example--what is wrong. 490 + + Though modern practice sometimes differs quite, + 'Tis just as well to think before you write; + Let every book that suits your theme be read, + So shall you trace it to the fountain-head. + + He who has learned the duty which he owes + To friends and country, and to pardon foes; + Who models his deportment as may best + Accord with Brother, Sire, or Stranger-guest; + Who takes our Laws and Worship as they are, + Nor roars reform for Senate, Church, and Bar; 500 + In practice, rather than loud precept, wise, + Bids not his tongue, but heart, philosophize: + Such is the man the Poet should rehearse, + As joint exemplar of his life and verse. + + Sometimes a sprightly wit, and tale well told, + Without much grace, or weight, or art, will hold + A longer empire o'er the public mind + Than sounding trifles, empty, though refined. + + Unhappy Greece! thy sons of ancient days + The Muse may celebrate with perfect praise, 510 + Whose generous children narrowed not their hearts + With Commerce, given alone to Arms and Arts. [lxx] + Our boys (save those whom public schools compel + To "Long and Short" before they're taught to spell) + From frugal fathers soon imbibe by rote, + "A penny saved, my lad, 's a penny got." + Babe of a city birth! from sixpence take [lxxi] + The third, how much will the remainder make?-- + "A groat."--"Ah, bravo! Dick hath done the sum! [lxxii] + He'll swell my fifty thousand to a Plum." [47] 520 + + They whose young souls receive this rust betimes, + 'Tis clear, are fit for anything but rhymes; + And Locke will tell you, that the father's right + Who hides all verses from his children's sight; + For Poets (says this Sage [48], and many more,) + Make sad mechanics with their lyric lore: [lxxiii] + And Delphi now, however rich of old, + Discovers little silver, and less gold, + Because Parnassus, though a Mount divine, + Is poor as Irus, [49] or an Irish mine. [lxxiv] [50] 530 + + Two objects always should the Poet move, + Or one or both,--to please or to improve. + Whate'er you teach, be brief, if you design + For our remembrance your didactic line; + Redundance places Memory on the rack, + For brains may be o'erloaded, like the back. [lxxv] + + Fiction does best when taught to look like Truth, + And fairy fables bubble none but youth: + Expect no credit for too wondrous tales, + Since Jonas only springs alive from Whales! 540 + + Young men with aught but Elegance dispense; + Maturer years require a little Sense. + To end at once:--that Bard for all is fit [lxxvi] + Who mingles well instruction with his wit; + For him Reviews shall smile; for him o'erflow + The patronage of Paternoster-row; + His book, with Longman's liberal aid, shall pass + (Who ne'er despises books that bring him brass); + Through three long weeks the taste of London lead, + And cross St. George's Channel and the Tweed. 550 + + But every thing has faults, nor is't unknown + That harps and fiddles often lose their tone, + And wayward voices, at their owner's call, + With all his best endeavours, only squall; + Dogs blink their covey, flints withhold the spark, + And double-barrels (damn them!) miss their mark. [lxxvii] [51] + + Where frequent beauties strike the reader's view, + We must not quarrel for a blot or two; + But pardon equally to books or men, + The slips of Human Nature, and the Pen. 560 + Yet if an author, spite of foe or friend, + Despises all advice too much to mend, + But ever twangs the same discordant string, + Give him no quarter, howsoe'er he sing. + Let Havard's [52] fate o'ertake him, who, for once, + Produced a play too dashing for a dunce: + At first none deemed it his; but when his name + Announced the fact--what then?--it lost its fame. + Though all deplore when Milton deigns to doze, [lxxviii] + In a long work 'tis fair to steal repose. 570 + + As Pictures, so shall Poems be; some stand + The critic eye, and please when near at hand; [lxxix] + But others at a distance strike the sight; + This seeks the shade, but that demands the light, + Nor dreads the connoisseur's fastidious view, + But, ten times scrutinised, is ten times new. + + Parnassian pilgrims! ye whom chance, or choice, [lxxx] + Hath led to listen to the Muse's voice, + Receive this counsel, and be timely wise; + Few reach the Summit which before you lies. 580 + Our Church and State, our Courts and Camps, concede + Reward to very moderate heads indeed! + In these plain common sense will travel far; + All are not Erskines who mislead the Bar: [lxxxi] [53] + But Poesy between the best and worst + No medium knows; you must be last or first; + For middling Poets' miserable volumes + Are damned alike by Gods, and Men, and Columns. [lxxxii] + Again, my Jeffrey--as that sound inspires, [54] + How wakes my bosom to its wonted fires! 590 + Fires, such as gentle Caledonians feel + When Southrons writhe upon their critic wheel, + Or mild Eclectics, [55] when some, worse than Turks, + Would rob poor Faith to decorate "Good Works." + Such are the genial feelings them canst claim-- + My Falcon flies not at ignoble game. + Mightiest of all Dunedin's beasts of chase! + For thee my Pegasus would mend his pace. + Arise, my Jeffrey! or my inkless pen + Shall never blunt its edge on meaner men; 600 + Till thee or thine mine evil eye discerns, + "Alas! I cannot strike at wretched kernes." [56] + Inhuman Saxon! wilt thou then resign + A Muse and heart by choice so wholly thine? + Dear d--d contemner of my schoolboy songs, + Hast thou no vengeance for my Manhood's wrongs? + If unprovoked thou once could bid me bleed, + Hast thou no weapon for my daring deed? + What! not a word!--and am I then so low? + Wilt thou forbear, who never spared a foe? 610 + Hast thou no wrath, or wish to give it vent? + No wit for Nobles, Dunces by descent? + No jest on "minors," quibbles on a name, [57] + Nor one facetious paragraph of blame? + Is it for this on Ilion I have stood, + And thought of Homer less than Holyrood? + On shore of Euxine or Ægean sea, + My hate, untravelled, fondly turned to thee. + Ah! let me cease! in vain my bosom burns, + From Corydon unkind Alexis turns: [58] 620 + Thy rhymes are vain; thy Jeffrey then forego, + Nor woo that anger which he will not show. + What then?--Edina starves some lanker son, + To write an article thou canst not shun; + Some less fastidious Scotchman shall be found, + As bold in Billingsgate, though less renowned. + + As if at table some discordant dish, [59] + Should shock our optics, such as frogs for fish; + As oil in lieu of butter men decry, + And poppies please not in a modern pie; [lxxxiii] 630 + If all such mixtures then be half a crime, + We must have Excellence to relish rhyme. + Mere roast and boiled no Epicure invites; + Thus Poetry disgusts, or else delights. + + Who shoot not flying rarely touch a gun: + Will he who swims not to the river run? + And men unpractised in exchanging knocks + Must go to Jackson [60] ere they dare to box. + Whate'er the weapon, cudgel, fist, or foil, + None reach expertness without years of toil; 640 + But fifty dunces can, with perfect ease, + Tag twenty thousand couplets, when they please. + Why not?--shall I, thus qualified to sit + For rotten boroughs, never show my wit? + Shall I, whose fathers with the "Quorum" sate, [lxxxiv] + And lived in freedom on a fair estate; + Who left me heir, with stables, kennels, packs, [lxxxv] + To 'all' their income, and to--'twice' its tax; + Whose form and pedigree have scarce a fault, + Shall I, I say, suppress my Attic Salt? 650 + + Thus think "the Mob of Gentlemen;" but you, + Besides all this, must have some Genius too. + Be this your sober judgment, and a rule, + And print not piping hot from Southey's school, + Who (ere another Thalaba appears), + I trust, will spare us for at least nine years. + And hark'ye, Southey! [61] pray--but don't be vexed-- + Burn all your last three works--and half the next. + But why this vain advice? once published, books + Can never be recalled--from pastry-cooks! [lxxxvi] 660 + Though "Madoc," with "Pucelle," [62] instead of Punk, + May travel back to Quito--on a trunk! [63] + + Orpheus, we learn from Ovid and Lempriere, + Led all wild beasts but Women by the ear; + And had he fiddled at the present hour, + We'd seen the Lions waltzing in the Tower; [64] + And old Amphion, such were minstrels then, + Had built St. Paul's without the aid of Wren. + Verse too was Justice, and the Bards of Greece + Did more than constables to keep the peace; 670 + Abolished cuckoldom with much applause, + Called county meetings, and enforced the laws, + Cut down crown influence with reforming scythes, + And served the Church--without demanding tithes; + And hence, throughout all Hellas and the East, + Each Poet was a Prophet and a Priest, + Whose old-established Board of Joint Controls [65] + Included kingdoms in the cure of souls. + + Next rose the martial Homer, Epic's prince, + And Fighting's been in fashion ever since; 680 + And old Tyrtæus, when the Spartans warred, + (A limping leader, but a lofty bard) [lxxxvii] + Though walled Ithome had resisted long, + Reduced the fortress by the force of song. + + When Oracles prevailed, in times of old, + In song alone Apollo's will was told. [lxxxviii] + Then if your verse is what all verse should be, + And Gods were not ashamed on't, why should we? + + The Muse, like mortal females, may be wooed; [66] + In turns she'll seem a Paphian, or a prude; 690 + Fierce as a bride when first she feels affright, + Mild as the same upon the second night; + Wild as the wife of Alderman or Peer, + Now for His Grace, and now a grenadier! + Her eyes beseem, her heart belies, her zone-- + Ice in a crowd--and Lava when alone. + + If Verse be studied with some show of Art. + Kind Nature always will perform her part; + Though without Genius, and a native vein + Of wit, we loathe an artificial strain, 700 + Yet Art and Nature joined will win the prize, + Unless they act like us and our allies. + + The youth who trains to ride, or run a race, + Must bear privations with unruffled face, + Be called to labour when he thinks to dine, + And, harder still, leave wenching and his wine. + Ladies who sing, at least who sing at sight, + Have followed Music through her farthest flight; [lxxxix] + But rhymers tell you neither more nor less, + "I've got a pretty poem for the Press;" 710 + And that's enough; then write and print so fast;-- + If Satan take the hindmost, who'd be last? + They storm the Types, they publish, one and all, [xc] [67] + They leap the counter, and they leave the stall. + Provincial Maidens, men of high command, + Yea! Baronets have inked the bloody hand! + Cash cannot quell them; Pollio played this prank, [xci] + (Then Phoebus first found credit in a Bank!) + Not all the living only, but the dead, + Fool on, as fluent as an Orpheus' Head; [68] 720 + Damned all their days, they posthumously thrive, + Dug up from dust, though buried when alive! + Reviews record this epidemic crime, + Those Books of Martyrs to the rage for rhyme. + Alas! woe worth the scribbler! often seen + In Morning Post, or Monthly Magazine. + There lurk his earlier lays; but soon, hot pressed, [xcii] + Behold a Quarto!--Tarts must tell the rest. + Then leave, ye wise, the Lyre's precarious chords + To muse-mad baronets, or madder lords, [cxiii] 730 + Or country Crispins, now grown somewhat stale, + Twin Doric minstrels, drunk with Doric ale! + Hark to those notes, narcotically soft! + The Cobbler-Laureats [69] sing to Capel Lofft! [70] + Till, lo! that modern Midas, as he hears, [xciv] + Adds an ell growth to his egregious ears! [xcv] + There lives one Druid, who prepares in time [71] + 'Gainst future feuds his poor revenge of rhyme; + Racks his dull Memory, and his duller Muse, + To publish faults which Friendship should excuse. 740 + If Friendship's nothing, Self-regard might teach + More polished usage of his parts of speech. + But what is shame, or what is aught to him? [xcvi] + He vents his spleen, or gratifies his whim. + Some fancied slight has roused his lurking hate, + Some folly crossed, some jest, or some debate; + Up to his den Sir Scribbler hies, and soon + The gathered gall is voided in Lampoon. + Perhaps at some pert speech you've dared to frown, + Perhaps your Poem may have pleased the Town: 750 + If so, alas! 'tis nature in the man-- + May Heaven forgive you, for he never can! + Then be it so; and may his withering Bays + Bloom fresh in satire, though they fade in praise + While his lost songs no more shall steep and stink + The dullest, fattest weeds on Lethe's brink, + But springing upwards from the sluggish mould, + Be (what they never were before) be--sold! + Should some rich Bard (but such a monster now, [72] + In modern Physics, we can scarce allow), [xcvii] 760 + Should some pretending scribbler of the Court, + Some rhyming Peer--there's plenty of the sort--[xcviii] [73] + All but one poor dependent priest withdrawn, + (Ah! too regardless of his Chaplain's yawn!) + Condemn the unlucky Curate to recite + Their last dramatic work by candle-light, + How would the preacher turn each rueful leaf, + Dull as his sermons, but not half so brief! + Yet, since 'tis promised at the Rector's death, + He'll risk no living for a little breath. 770 + Then spouts and foams, and cries at every line, + (The Lord forgive him!) "Bravo! Grand! Divine!" + Hoarse with those praises (which, by Flatt'ry fed, [xcix] + Dependence barters for her bitter bread), + He strides and stamps along with creaking boot; + Till the floor echoes his emphatic foot, + Then sits again, then rolls his pious eye, [c] + As when the dying vicar will not die! + Nor feels, forsooth, emotion at his heart;-- + But all Dissemblers overact their part. 780 + + Ye, who aspire to "build the lofty rhyme," [74] + Believe not all who laud your false "sublime;" + But if some friend shall hear your work, and say, + "Expunge that stanza, lop that line away," + And, after fruitless efforts, you return + Without amendment, and he answers, "Burn!" + That instant throw your paper in the fire, + Ask not his thoughts, or follow his desire; + But (if true Bard!) you scorn to condescend, [ci] + And will not alter what you can't defend, 790 + If you will breed this Bastard of your Brains, [75] + We'll have no words--I've only lost my pains. + + Yet, if you only prize your favourite thought, + As critics kindly do, and authors ought; + If your cool friend annoy you now and then, + And cross whole pages with his plaguy pen; + No matter, throw your ornaments aside,-- + Better let him than all the world deride. + Give light to passages too much in shade, + Nor let a doubt obscure one verse you've made; 800 + Your friend's a "Johnson," not to leave one word, + However trifling, which may seem absurd; + Such erring trifles lead to serious ills, + And furnish food for critics, or their quills. [76] + + As the Scotch fiddle, with its touching tune, + Or the sad influence of the angry Moon, + All men avoid bad writers' ready tongues, + As yawning waiters fly [77] Fitzscribble's lungs; [cii] + Yet on he mouths--ten minutes--tedious each [ciii] [78] + As Prelate's homily, or placeman's speech; 810 + Long as the last years of a lingering lease, + When Riot pauses until Rents increase. + While such a minstrel, muttering fustian, strays + O'er hedge and ditch, through unfrequented ways, + If by some chance he walks into a well, + And shouts for succour with stentorian yell, + "A rope! help, Christians, as ye hope for grace!" + Nor woman, man, nor child will stir a pace; + For there his carcass he might freely fling, [civ] + From frenzy, or the humour of the thing. 820 + Though this has happened to more Bards than one; + I'll tell you Budgell's story,--and have done. + + Budgell, a rogue and rhymester, for no good, + (Unless his case be much misunderstood) + When teased with creditors' continual claims, + "To die like Cato," [79] leapt into the Thames! + And therefore be it lawful through the town + For any Bard to poison, hang, or drown. + Who saves the intended Suicide receives + Small thanks from him who loathes the life he leaves; [cv] 830 + And, sooth to say, mad poets must not lose + The Glory of that death they freely choose. + + Nor is it certain that some sorts of verse [cvi] + Prick not the Poet's conscience as a curse; + Dosed [80] with vile drams on Sunday he was found, + Or got a child on consecrated ground! + And hence is haunted with a rhyming rage-- + Feared like a bear just bursting from his cage. + If free, all fly his versifying fit, + Fatal at once to Simpleton or Wit: 840 + But 'him', unhappy! whom he seizes,--'him' + He flays with Recitation limb by limb; + Probes to the quick where'er he makes his breach, + And gorges like a Lawyer--or a Leech. + + + +[The last page of 'MS. M.' is dated-- + + BYRON, + + Capuchin Convent, + + Athens. 'March 14th, 1811'. + +The following memorandum, in Byron's handwriting, is also inscribed on +the last page: + + "722 lines, and 4 inserted after and now counted, in all 726.--B. + + "Since this several lines are added.--B. June 14th, 1811. + + "Copied fair at Malta, May 3rd, 1811.--B." + + BYRON, + + 'March 11th and 12th', + Athens. 1811. + +['MS. L. (a)'.] + + + BYRON, 'March 14th, 1811.' + Athens, Capuchin Convent. + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + + + + +[Footnote 1: Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) succeeded West as P.R.A. in +1820. Benjamin West (1738-1820) had been elected P.R.A. in 1792, on the +death of Sir Joshua Reynolds.] + + +[Footnote 2: In an English newspaper, which finds its way abroad +wherever there are Englishmen, I read an account of this dirty dauber's +caricature of Mr. H---as a "beast," and the consequent action, etc. The +circumstance is, probably, too well known to require further comment. +[Thomas Hope (1770-1831) was celebrated for his collections of pictures, +sculpture, and _bric-à-brac_. He was the author of _Anastasius, or +Memoirs of a Greek, etc_., which was attributed to Byron, and, according +to Lady Blessington, excited his envy. "Low Dubost" was a French +painter, who, in revenge for some fancied injustice, caricatured Hope +and his wife as Beauty and the Beast. An exhibition of the sketch is +said to have brought in from twenty to thirty pounds a week. A brother +of Mrs. Hope (Louisa Beresford, daughter of Lord Decies, Archbishop of +Tuam) mutilated the picture, and, an action having been brought, was +ordered to pay a nominal sum of five pounds. Dubost's academy portrait +of Mrs. Hope did not please Peter Pindar. + + "In Mistress Hope, Monsieur Dubost! + Thy Genius yieldeth up the Ghost." + +_Works_ (1812), v. 372.]] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "While pure Description held the place of Sense."-- + +Pope, _Prol. to the Sat.,_ L. 148. + + + "While Mr. Sol decked out all so glorious + Shines like a Beau in his Birthday Embroidery." + +[Fielding, _Tom Thumb_, act i. sc. I.]--[_MS. M._] + +"_Fas est et ab Hoste doceri._" In the 7th Art. of the 31st No. of the +_Edinburgh Review_ (vol. xvi. Ap. 1810) the "Observations" of an Oxford +Tutor are compared to "Children's Cradles" (page 181), then to a +"Barndoor fowl flying" (page 182), then the man himself to "a +Coach-horse on the Trottoir" (page 185) etc., etc., with a variety of +other conundrums all tending to prove that the ingenuity of comparison +increases in proportion to the dissimilarity between the things +compared.--[_MS. L. (b) erased._]] + + +[Footnote 4: Mere common mortals were commonly content with one Taylor +and with one bill, but the more particular gentlemen found it impossible +to confide their lower garments to the makers of their body clothes. I +speak of the beginning of 1809: what reform may have since taken place I +neither know, nor desire to know.--[_MSS. L. (b), M_.]] + + +[Footnote 5: Mr. Pitt was liberal in his additions to our Parliamentary +tongue; as may be seen in many publications, particularly the 'Edinburgh +Review'. + +[The reference may be to financial terms, such as sinking fund (a phrase +not introduced by Pitt), the English equivalent of 'caisse +d'amortissement', or income tax ('impôt sur le revenu'), or to actual +French words such as 'chouannerie, projet', etc. But Pitt's "additions" +are unnoticed by Frere and other reporters and critics of his speeches. +For a satirical description of Pitt's words, "which are finer and longer +than can be conceived," see 'Rolliad', 1799; 'Political Miscellanies', +p. 421; and 'Political Eclogues', p. 195. + + "And Billy best of all things loves--a trope." + +Compare, too, Peter Pindar, "To Sylvanus Urban," 'Works' (1812), ii. 259. + + "Lycurgus Pitt whose penetrating eyes + Behold the fount of Freedom in excise, + Whose 'patriot' logic possibly maintains + The 'identity' of 'liberty' and 'chains'."]] + + +[Footnote 6: Old ballads, old plays, and old women's stories, are at +present in as much request as old wine or new speeches. In fact, this is +the millennium of black letter: thanks to our Hebers, Webers, and +Scotts! + +[Richard Heber (1773-1833), book-collector and man of letters, was +half-brother of the Bishop of Calcutta. He edited, 'inter alia', +'Specimens of the Early English Poets', by George Ellis, 3 vols., London: +1811. + +W. H. Weber (1783-1818), a German by birth, was employed by Sir Walter +Scott as an amanuensis and "searcher." He edited, in 1810, 'Metrical +Romances of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries', a work described by +Southey ('Letters', ii. 308) as "admirably edited, exceedingly curious, +and after my own heart." He also published editions of Ford, and +Beaumont and Fletcher, which were adversely criticized by Gifford. For +an account of his relations to Scott and of his melancholy end, see +Lockhart's 'Life of Scott' (1871), p. 251.]] + + +[Footnote 7: 'Mac Flecknoe', the 'Dunciad', and all Swift's lampooning +ballads. Whatever their other works may be, these originated in personal +feelings, and angry retort on unworthy rivals; and though the ability of +these satires elevates the poetical, their poignancy detracts from the +personal character of the writers.] + + +[Footnote 8: 'Almanzor: or the Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards', a +Tragedy by John Dryden. The bombastic character of the hero was severely +criticized in Dryden's own time, and was defended by him thus: + + "'Tis said that Almanzor is no perfect pattern of heroic virtue, that + he is a contemner of kings, and that he is made to perform + impossibilities. I must therefore avow, in the first place, from + whence I took the character. The first image I had of him was from the + Achilles of Homer: the next from Tasso's Rinaldo, and the third from + the Artaban of Mons. Calprenède.... He talks extravagantly in his + passion, but if I would take the trouble to quote from Ben Jonson's + Cethegus, I could easily show you that the rhodomontades of Almanzor + are neither so irrational as his nor so impossible to be put in + execution." + +'An Essay on Heroic Plays. Works of John Dryden' (1821), iv. 23-25.] + + +[Footnote 9: With all the vulgar applause and critical abhorrence of +puns, they have Aristotle on their side; who permits them to orators, +and gives them consequence by a grave disquisition. + +["Cicero also," says Addison, "has sprinkled several of his works with +them; and in his book on Oratory, quotes abundance of sayings as pieces +of wit, which, upon examination, prove arrant puns."--'Essay on Wit, +Works' (1888), ii. 354.]] + + +[Footnote 10: In Vanbrugh and Gibber's comedy of The Provoked Husband, +first played at Drury Lane, January 10, 1728.]] + + +[Footnote 11: + + "And in his ear I'll holla--Mortimer!" + +['I Henry IV'., act i. sc. 3.]] + + +[Footnote 12: Garrick's 'Lying Valet' was played for the first time at +Goodman's Fields, November 30, 1741.] + +["Peregrine" is a character in George Colman's 'John Bull', or 'An +Englishman's Fire-Side', Covent Garden. March 5, 1803.] ] + + +[Footnote 13: I have Johnson's authority for making Lear a +monosyllable-- + + "Perhaps where Lear rav'd or Hamlet died + On flying cars new sorcerers may ride." + + ["Perhaps where Lear has rav'd, and Hamlet dy'd." + +Prologue to 'Irene. Johnson's Works' (1806), i. 168.] +and (if it need be mentioned) the 'authority' of the epigram on Barry +and Garrick.--[Note 'erased, Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote 14: + + "'Johnson'. Pray, Mr. Bayes, who is that Drawcansir? + + 'Bayes'. Why, Sir, a great [fierce] hero, that frights his mistress, + snubs up kings, baffles armies, and does what he will, without regard + to numbers, good sense, or justice [good manners, justice, or + numbers]." + +'The Rehearsal', act iv. sc. I. + +'The Rehearsal', by George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham +(1627-1688), appeared in 1671. Sprat and others are said to have shared +the authorship. So popular was the play that "Drawcansir" passed into a +synonime for a braggadocio. It is believed that "Bayes" (that is, of +course, "laureate") was meant for a caricature of Dryden: "he himself +complains bitterly that it was so." (See 'Lives of the Poets' (1890), i. +386; and Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' (1876), p. 235, and 'note'.)]] + + +[Footnote 15: + + "Difficile est proprie communia dicere; tuque + Rectius Iliacum carmen deducis in actus, + Quam si proferres ignota indictaque primus." + +HOR: 'DE ARTE POET': 128-130. + +Mons. Dacier, Mons. de Sévigné, Boileau, and others, have left their +dispute on the meaning of this sentence in a tract considerably longer +than the poem of Horace. It is printed at the close of the eleventh +volume of Madame de Sévigné's Letters, edited by Grouvelle, Paris, 1806. +Presuming that all who can construe may venture an opinion on such +subjects, particularly as so many who _can't_ have taken the same +liberty, I should have held "my farthing candle" as awkwardly as +another, had not my respect for the wits of Louis 14th's Augustan +"Siècle" induced me to subjoin these illustrious authorities. I +therefore offer: + +firstly Boileau: "Il est difficile de trailer des sujets qui sont à la +portée de tout le monde d'une maniere qui vous les rende propres, ce qui +s'appelle s'approprier un sujet par le tour qu'on y donne." + +2dly, Batteux: "Mais il est bien difficile de donner des traits propres +et individuels aux etres purement possibles." + +3dly, Dacier: "Il est difficile de traiter convenablement ces caractères +que tout le monde peut inventer." + +Mr. Sévigné's opinion and translation, consisting of some thirty pages, +I omit, particularly as Mr. Grouvelle observes, "La chose est bien +remarquable, aucune de ces diverses interpretations ne parait être la +veritable." But, by way of comfort, it seems, fifty years afterwards, +"Le lumineux Dumarsais" made his appearance, to set Horace on his legs +again, "dissiper tous les nuages, et concilier tous les dissentiments;" +and I suppose some fifty years hence, somebody, still more luminous, +will doubtless start up and demolish Dumarsais and his system on this +weighty affair, as if he were no better than Ptolemy or Copernicus and +comments of no more consequence than astronomical calculations. I am +happy to say, "la longueur de la dissertation" of Mr. D. prevents Mr. G. +from saying any more on the matter. A better poet than Boileau, and at +least as good a scholar as Mr. de Sévigné, has said, + + "A little learning is a dangerous thing." + +And by the above extract, it appears that a good deal may be rendered as +useless to the Proprietors. + +[Byron chose the words in question, Difficile,' etc., as a motto for the +first five cantos of 'Don Juan'] + + +[Footnote 16: About two years ago a young man named Townsend was +announced by Mr. Cumberland, in a review (since deceased) [the 'London +Review'], as being engaged in an epic poem to be entitled "Armageddon." +The plan and specimen promise much; but I hope neither to offend Mr. +Townsend, nor his friends, by recommending to his attention the lines of +Horace to which these rhymes allude. If Mr. Townsend succeeds in his +undertaking, as there is reason to hope, how much will the world be +indebted to Mr. Cumberland for bringing him before the public! But, till +that eventful day arrives, it may be doubted whether the premature +display of his plan (sublime as the ideas confessedly are) has not,--by +raising expectation too high, or diminishing curiosity, by developing +his argument,--rather incurred the hazard of injuring Mr. Townsend's +future prospects. Mr. Cumberland (whose talents I shall not depreciate +by the humble tribute of my praise) and Mr. Townsend must not suppose me +actuated by unworthy motives in this suggestion. I wish the author all +the success he can wish himself, and shall be truly happy to see epic +poetry weighed up from the bathos where it lies sunken with Southey, +Cottle, Cowley (Mrs. or Abraham), Ogilvy, Wilkie, Pye, and all the "dull +of past and present days." Even if he is not a 'Milton', he may be +better than 'Blackmore'; if not a 'Homer', an 'Antimachus'. I should +deem myself presumptuous, as a young man, in offering advice, were it +not addressed to one still younger. Mr. Townsend has the greatest +difficulties to encounter; but in conquering them he will find +employment; in having conquered them, his reward. I know too well "the +scribbler's scoff, the critic's contumely;" and I am afraid time will +teach Mr. Townsend to know them better. Those who succeed, and those who +do not, must bear this alike, and it is hard to say which have most of +it. I trust that Mr. Townsend's share will be from 'envy'; he will soon +know mankind well enough not to attribute this expression to malice. +[This note was written [at Athens] before the author was apprised of Mr. +Cumberland's death [in May, 1811].--'MS'. (See Byron's letter to Dallas, +August 27, 1811.) The Rev. George Townsend (1788-1857) published 'Poems' +in 1810, and eight books of his 'Armageddon' in 1815. They met with the +fate which Byron had predicted. In later life he compiled numerous works +of scriptural exegesis. He was a Canon of Durham from 1825 till his +death.]] + + +[Footnote 17: The first line of 'A Spirit of Discovery by Sea', by the +Rev. W. Lisle Bowles, first published in 1805.] + + +[Footnote 18: Harvey, the 'circulator' of the 'circulation' of the +blood, used to fling away Virgil in his ecstasy of admiration and say, +"the book had a devil." Now such a character as I am copying would +probably fling it away also, but rather wish that "the devil had the +book;" not from dislike to the poet, but a well-founded horror of +hexameters. Indeed, the public school penance of "Long and Short" is +enough to beget an antipathy to poetry for the residue of a man's life, +and, perhaps, so far may be an advantage.] + + +[Footnote 19: + + "'Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem'." + +I dare say Mr. Tavell (to whom I mean no affront) will understand me; +and it is no matter whether any one else does or no.--To the above +events, "'quæque ipse miserrima vidi, et quorum pars magna fui'," all +'times' and 'terms' bear testimony. [The Rev. G.F. Tavell was a fellow +and tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, during Byron's residence, and +owed this notice to the "zeal with which he protested against his +juvenile vagaries." During a part of his residence at Trinity, Byron +kept a tame bear in his rooms in Neville's Court. (See 'English Bards', +l. 973, 'note', and postscript to the Second Edition, 'ante', p. 383. See +also letter to Miss Pigot, October 26, 1807.) + +The following copy of a bill (no date) tells its own story:-- + + The Honble. Lord Byron. + + To John Clarke. + + To Bread & Milk for the Bear deliv'd.} £ 1 9 7 + to Haladay ... ... ... } + + Cambridge Reve. A Clarke.]] + + + +[Footnote 20: "Hell," a gaming-house so called, where you risk little, +and are cheated a good deal. "Club," a pleasant purgatory, where you +lose more, and are not supposed to be cheated at all.] + + +[Footnote 21: + + "Irene had to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck; but + the audience cried out ['Murder!'] 'Murder!' and she was obliged to go + off the stage alive." + +'Boswell's Johnson' [1876, p. 60]. + +[Irene (first played February 6, 1749) for the future was put to death +behind the scenes. The strangling her, contrary to Horace's rule, 'coram +populo', was suggested by Garrick. (See Davies' 'Life of Garrick' +(1808), i. 157.)]] + + + [Footnote 22: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818). ('Vide English Bards, + etc'., l. 265, n. 8.) The character of Hassan, "my misanthropic negro," + as Lewis called him, was said by the critics of the day to have been + borrowed from Zanga in Young's 'Revenge'. Lewis, in his "Address to the + Reader," quoted by Byron (in 'note' 3), defends the originality of the + conception.] + + +[Footnote 23: In the postscript to _The Castle Spectre_, Mr. Lewis tells +us, that though blacks were unknown in England at the period of his +action, yet he has made the anachronism to set off the scene: and if he +could have produced the effect "by making his heroine blue,"--I quote +him--"blue he would have made her!" [_The Castle Spectre_, by M.G. +Lewis, Esq., M.P., London, 1798, page 102.]] + + +[Footnote 24: In 1706 John Dennis, the critic (1657-1734), wrote an +'Essay on the Operas after the Italian manner, which are about to be +established on the English Stage'; to show that they were more immoral +than the most licentious play.] + + +[Footnote 25: One of the gangways in the Opera House, where the young +men of fashion used to assemble. (See letter to Murray, Nov. 9, 1820; +_Life_, p. 62.)] + + +[Footnote 26: In the year 1808, happening at the opera to tread on the +toes of a very well-dressed man, I turned round to apologize, when, to +my utter astonishment, I recognized the face of the porter of the very +hotel where I then lodged in Albemarle Street. So here was a gentleman +who ran every morning forty errands for half a crown, throwing away half +a guinea at night, besides the expense of his habiliments, and the hire +of his "Chapeau de Bras."--[_MS. L. (a)_.]] + + +[Footnote 27: The first theatrical representations, entitled "Mysteries +and Moralities," were generally enacted at Christmas, by monks (as the +only persons who could read), and latterly by the clergy and students of +the universities. The dramatis personae were usually Adam, Pater +Coelestis, Faith, Vice, and sometimes an angel or two; but these were +eventually superseded by 'Gammer Gurton's Needle'.--'Vide' Warton's +'History of English Poetry [passim]'.--['MSS. M., L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote 28: 'Benvolio' [Lord Grosvenor, 'MS. L'. ('b')] does not bet; +but every man who maintains racehorses is a promoter of all the +concomitant evils of the turf. Avoiding to bet is a little pharisaical. +Is it an exculpation? I think not. I never yet heard a bawd praised for +chastity, because 'she herself' did not commit fornication. + +[Robert, second Earl Grosvenor (1767-1845), was created Marquis of +Westminster in 1831. Like his father, Gifford's patron, the first Earl +Grosvenor, he was a breeder of racehorses, and a patron of the turf. As +Lord Belgrave, he brought forward a motion for the suppression of Sunday +newspapers, June 11, 1799, denouncing them in a violent speech. The +motion was lost; but many years after, in a speech delivered in the +House of Lords, January 2, 1807, he returned to the charge. (See 'Parl. +Hist'., 34. 1006, 1010; and 'Parl. Deb'., 8. 286.) (For a skit on Lord +Belgrave's sabbatarian views, see Peter Pindar, 'Works' (1812), iv. +519.)]] + + +[Footnote 29: Samuel Foote (1720-1777), actor and playwright. His solo +entertainments, in 'The Dish of Tea, An Auction of Pictures', 1747-8 +(see his comedy 'Taste'), were the precursors of 'Mathews at Home', and +a long line of successors. His farces and curtain-pieces were often +"spiced-up" with more or less malicious character-sketches of living +persons. Among his better known pieces are 'The Minor' (1760), +ridiculing Whitefield and the Methodists, and 'The Mayor of Garratt' +(1763), in which he played the part of Sturgeon (Byron used this piece, +for an illustration in his speech on the Frame-workers Bill, February +27, 1812). 'The Lyar', first played at Covent Garden, January 12, 1762, +was the latest to hold the stage. It was reproduced at the Opera Comique +in 1877.] + + +[Footnote 30: Henry Carey, poet and musician (d. 1743), a natural son of +George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, was the author of +_Chrononhotonthologos_, "the most tragical tragedy ever yet tragedised +by any company of tragedians," which was first played at the Haymarket, +February 22, 1734. The well-known lines, "Go, call a coach, and let a +coach be called," etc., which Scott prefixed to the first chapter of +_The Antiquary_, are from the last scene, in which Bombardinion fights +with and kills the King Chrononhotonthologos. But his one achievement +was _Sally in our Alley_, of which he wrote both the words and the +music. The authorship of "God Save the King" has been attributed to him, +probably under a misapprehension.] + + +[Footnote 31: Under Plato's pillow a volume of the 'Mimes' of Sophron +was found the day he died.--'Vide' Barthélémi, De Pauw, or Diogenes +Laërtius, [Lib. iii. p. 168--Chouet 1595] if agreeable. De Pauw calls it +a jest-book. Cumberland, in his 'Observer', terms it moral, like the +sayings of Publius Syrus.] + + +[Footnote 32: In 1737 the manager of Goodman's Fields Theatre having +brought Sir Robert Walpole a farce called 'The Golden Rump', the +minister detained the copy. He then made extracts of the most offensive +passages, read them to the house, and brought in a bill to limit the +number of playhouses and to subject all dramatic writings to the +inspection of the Lord Chamberlain. Horace Walpole ascribed 'The Golden +Rump' to Fielding, and said that he had found an imperfect copy of the +play among his father's papers. But this has been questioned. (See 'A +Book of the Play', by Dutton Cook (1881), p. 27.)]] + + +[Footnote 33: His speech on the Licensing Act [in which he opposed the +Bill], is reckoned one of his most eloquent efforts. + +[The following sentences have been extracted from the speech which was +delivered:-- + + "The bill is not only an encroachment upon liberty, it is likewise an + encroachment on property. Wit, my lords, is a sort of property; it is + the property of those who have it, and too often the only property + they have to depend on... + + "Those gentlemen who have any such property are all, I hope, our + friends; do not let us subject them to any unnecessary or arbitrary + restraint... + + "The stage and the press, my lord, are two of our out-sentries; if we + remove them, if we hoodwink them, if we throw them into fetters, the + enemy may surprise us. Therefore I must now look upon the bill before + us as a step for introducing arbitrary power into this kingdom." + +Lord Chesterfield's sentiments with regard to laughter are contained in +an apophthegm, repeated more than once in his correspondence: "The +vulgar laugh aloud, but never smile; on the contrary, people of fashion +often smile, but seldom or never laugh aloud."--'Chesterfield's Letters +to his Godson', Oxford, 1890, p. 27.]] + + +[Footnote 34: Archer and Squire Sullen are characters in Farquhar's +play (1678-1707), 'The Beaux' Stratagem', March 8, 1707.]] + + +[Footnote 35: Michael Perez, the "Copper Captain," in [Fletcher's] +'Rule a Wife and Have a Wife' [licensed October 19, 1624].] + + +[Footnote 36: The Rev. Dr. Francis Willis died in 1807, in the 90th year +of his age. He attended George III. in his first attack of madness in +1788. The power of his eye on other persons is illustrated by a story +related by Frederick Reynolds ('Life and Times', ii. 23), who describes +how Edmund Burke quailed under his look. His son, John Willis, was +entrusted with the entire charge of the king in 1811. Compare Shelley's +'Peter Bell the Third', part vi.-- + + "Let him shave his head: + Where's Dr. Willis?" + +(See, too, 'Bland-Burges Papers' (1885), pp. 113-115, and 'Life of +George IV'., by Percy Fitzgerald (1881), ii. 18.)]] + + +[Footnote 37: Dr. Johnson was of the like opinion. + + "Highwaymen and housebreakers," he says, in his Life of Gay, "seldom + frequent the playhouse, or mingle in any elegant diversion; nor is it + possible for any one to imagine that he may rob with safety, because + he sees Macheath reprieved upon the stage." + +'Lives of the Poets', by Samuel Johnson (1890), ii. 266. It was +asserted, on the other hand, by Sir John Fielding, the Bow-street +magistrate, that on every run of the piece, 'The Beggar's Opera', an +increased number of highwaymen were brought to his office; and so strong +was his conviction, that in 1772 he remonstrated against the performance +with the managers of both the houses.] + + +[Footnote 38: Jerry Collier's controversy with Congreve, etc., on the +subject of the drama, is too well known to require further comment. + +[Jeremy Collier (1650-1756), non-juring bishop and divine. The occasion +of his controversy with Congreve was the publication of his 'Short View +of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage' (1697-8). +Congreve, who had been attacked by name, replied in a tract entitled +'Amendments upon Mr. Collier's false and imperfect citations from the' +OLD BATCHELEUR, etc.]] + + +[Footnote 39: A few months after lines 370-381 were added to 'The +Hints', in September, 1812, Byron, at the request of Lord Holland, wrote +the address delivered on the opening of the theatre, which had been +rebuilt after the fire of February 24, 1809. He subsequently joined the +Committee of Management] + + +[Footnote 40: Mr. Simeon is the very bully of beliefs, and castigator of +"good works." He is ably supported by John Stickles, a labourer in the +same vineyard:--but I say no more, for, according to Johnny in full +congregation,'"No hopes for them as laughs."' + +[The Rev. Charles Simeon (1758-1836) was the leader of the evangelical +movement in Cambridge. The reference may be to the rigour with which he +repelled a charge brought against him by Dr. Edwards, the Master of +Sidney Sussex, that a sermon which he had preached in November, 1809, +savoured of antinomianism. It may be noted that a friend (the Rev. W. +Parish), to whom he submitted the MS. of a rejoinder to Pearson's +'Cautions, etc.', advised him to print it, "especially if you should +rather keep down a lash or two which might irritate." Simeon was +naturally irascible, and, in reply to a friend who had mildly reproved +him for some display of temper, signed himself, in humorous penitence, +"Charles proud and irritable." (See 'Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Mr. +Simeon', by Rev. W. Carus (1847), pp. 195, 282, etc.)]] + + +[Footnote 41: 'Baxter's Shove to heavy-a--d Christians', the veritable +title of a book once in good repute, and likely enough to be so again. + +["Baxter" is a slip of the pen. The tract or sermon, 'An Effectual Shove +to the heavy-arse Christian', was, according to the title-page, written +by William Bunyan, minister of the gospel in South Wales, and "printed +for the author" in London in 1768.]] + + +[Footnote 42: Ambrose Philips (1675?-1749) published his 'Epistle to the +Earl of Dorset' and his 'Pastorals' in 1709. It is said that Pope +attacked him in his satires in consequence of an article in the +'Guardian', in which the 'Pastorals' were unduly extolled. His verses, +addressed to the children of his patron, Lord Carteret, were parodied by +Henry Carey, in 'Namby Pamby, or a Panegyric on the New +Versification'.] + + +[Footnote 43: See letters to Murray, Sept. 15, 1817; Jan. 25, 1819; Mar. +29, 1820; Nov. 4, 1820; etc. See also the two 'Letters' against Bowles, +written at Ravenna, Feb. 7 and Mar. 21, 1821, in which Byron's +enthusiastic reverence for Pope is the dominant note.] + + +[Footnote 44: As famous a tonsor as Licinus himself, and better paid +[and may be like him a senator, one day or other: no disparagement to +the High Court of Parliament.--'MS.L.(b)'], and may, like him, be one +day a senator, having a better qualification than one half of the heads +he crops, viz.--Independence. + +[According to the Scholiast, Cassar made his barber Licinus a senator, +"quod odisset Pompeium." Blake (see Letter to Murray, Nov. 9, 1820) was, +presumably, Benjamin Blake, a perfumer, who lived at 46, Park Street, +Grosvenor Square.]] + + +[Footnote 45: There was some foundation for this. When Wordsworth and +his sister Dorothy called on Daniel Stuart, editor of the 'Courier', at +his fine new house in Harley Street, the butler would not admit them +further than the hall, and was not a little taken aback when he +witnessed the deference shown to these strangely-attired figures by his +master.--Personal Reminiscence of the late Miss Stuart, of 106, Harley +Street.] + + +[Footnote 46: + + "'Bayes'. If I am to write familiar things, as sonnets to Armida, and + the like, I make use of stewed prunes only; but when I have a grand + design in hand, I ever take physic and let blood; for when you would + have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights of fancy, you must + have a care of the pensive part. In fine, you must purge." + +'Rehearsal', act ii. sc. 1. + +This passage is instanced by Johnson as a proof that "Bayes" was a +caricature of Dryden. + + "Bayes, when he is to write, is blooded and purged; this, as Lamotte + relates, ... was the real practice of the poet." + +'Lives of the Poets' 1890), i. 388.]] + + +[Footnote 47: Cant term for £100,000.] + + +[Footnote 48: I have not the original by me, but the Italian translation +runs as follows:-- + + "E una cosa a mio credere molto stravagante, che un Padre desideri, o + permetta, che suo figliuolo coltivi e perfezioni questo talento." + +A little further on: + + "Si trovano di rado nel Parnaso le miniere d' oro e d' argento," + +'Educazione dei Fanciulli del Signer Locke' (Venice, 1782), ii. 87. + + ["If the child have a poetic vein, it is to me the strangest thing in + the world, that the father should desire or suffer it to be cherished + or improved."--"It is very seldom seen, that any one discovers mines + of gold or silver on Parnassus." + +'Some Thoughts concerning Education', by John Locke (1880), p. 152.]] + + +[Footnote 49: "Iro pauperior:" a proverb: this is the same beggar who +boxed with Ulysses for a pound of kid's fry, which he lost and half a +dozen teeth besides. (See 'Odyssey', xviii. 98.)] + + +[Footnote 50: The Irish gold mine in Wicklow, which yields just ore +enough to swear by, or gild a bad guinea.] + + +[Footnote 51: As Mr. Pope took the liberty of damning Homer, to whom he +was under great obligations--"'And Homer (damn him!) calls'"--it may be +presumed that anybody or anything may be damned in verse by poetical +licence [I shall suppose one may damn anything else in verse with +impunity.--'MS. L. (b)']; and, in case of accident, I beg leave to plead +so illustrious a precedent.] + + +[Footnote 52: For the story of Billy Havard's tragedy, see Davies's +'Life of Garrick'. I believe it is 'Regulus', or 'Charles the First' +[Lincoln's Inn Fields, March 1, 1737]. The moment it was known to be his +the theatre thinned, and the book-seller refused to give the customary +sum for the copyright. [See 'Life of Garrick', by Thomas Davies (1808), +ii. 205.] + + +[Footnote 53: Thomas Erskine (third son of the fifth Earl of Buchan) +afterwards Lord Erskine (1750-1823), Lord Chancellor (1806-7), an +eloquent orator, a supremely great advocate, was, by comparison, a +failure as a judge. His power over a jury, "his little twelvers," as he +would sometimes address them, was practically unlimited. (See +'Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers' (1856), p. 126.)]] + + +[Footnote 54: Lines 589-626 are not in the 'Murray MS'., nor in either +of the 'Lovelace MSS'.]] + + +[Footnote 55: To the Eclectic or Christian Reviewers I have to return +thanks for the fervour of that charity which, in 1809, induced them to +express a hope that a thing then published by me might lead to certain +consequences, which, although natural enough, surely came but rashly +from reverend lips. I refer them to their own pages, where they +congratulated themselves on the prospect of a tilt between Mr. Jeffrey +and myself, from which some great good was to accrue, provided one or +both were knocked on the head. Having survived two years and a half +those "Elegies" which they were kindly preparing to review, I have no +peculiar gusto to give them "so joyful a trouble," except, indeed, "upon +compulsion, Hal;" but if, as David says in 'The Rivals', it should come +to "bloody sword and gun fighting," we "won't run, will we, Sir Lucius?" +[Byron, writing at Athens, away from his books, misquotes 'The Rivals'. +The words, "Sir Lucius, we--we--we--we won't run," are spoken by Acres, +not by David.] I do not know what I had done to these Eclectic +gentlemen: my works are their lawful perquisite, to be hewn in pieces +like Agag, if it seem meet unto them: but why they should be in such a +hurry to kill off their author, I am ignorant. "The race is not always +to the swift, nor the battle to the strong:" and now, as these +Christians have "smote me on one cheek," I hold them up the other; and, +in return for their good wishes, give them an opportunity of repeating +them. Had any other set of men expressed such sentiments, I should have +smiled, and left them to the "recording angel;" but from the pharisees +of Christianity decency might be expected. I can assure these brethren, +that, publican and sinner as I am, I would not have treated "mine +enemy's dog thus." To show them the superiority of my brotherly love, if +ever the Reverend Messrs. Simeon or Ramsden should be engaged in such a +conflict as that in which they requested me to fall, I hope they may +escape with being "winged" only, and that Heaviside may be at hand to +extract the ball. + + ["If, however, the noble Lord and the learned advocate have the + courage requisite to sustain their mutual insults, we shall probably + soon hear the explosions of another kind of 'paper' war, after the + fashion of the ever-memorable duel which the latter is said to have + fought, or seemed to fight, with 'Little' Moore. We confess there is + sufficient provocation, if not in the critique, at least in the + satire, to urge a 'man of honour' to defy his assailant to mortal + combat, and perhaps to warrant a man of law to 'declare' war in + Westminster Hall. Of this we shall no doubt hear more in due time" + +('Eclectic Review', May, 1809). Byron pretends to believe that the +"Christian" Reviewers, actuated by stern zeal for piety, were making +mischief in sober earnest. "Heaviside" (see last line of Byron's note) +was the surgeon in attendance at the duel between Lord Falkland and Mr. +A. Powell. (See 'English Bards', 1. 686, note 2.)]] + + +[Footnote 56: _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 7.] + + +[Footnote 57: See the critique of the 'Edinburgh Review' on 'Hours of +Idleness', January, 1808.] + + +[Footnote 58: "Invenies alium, si te hic fastidit, Alexin."] + + +[Footnote 59: Here 'MS. L.' (a) recommences.] + + +[Footnote 60: John Jackson (1769-1845), better known as "Gentleman" +Jackson, was champion of England from 1795 to 1803. His three fights +were against Fewterel (1788), George Ingleston, nicknamed "the Brewer" +(1789), and Mendoza (1795). In 1803 he retired from the ring. His rooms +at 13, Bond Street, became the head-quarters of the Pugilistic Club. +(See Pierce Egan's 'Life in London', pp. 252-254, where the rooms are +described, and a drawing of them by Cruikshank is given.) Jackson's +character stood high. + + "From the highest to the lowest person in the Sporting World, his + 'decision' is law." + +He was Byron's guest at Cambridge, Newstead, and Brighton; received from +him many letters; and is described by him, in a note to 'Don Juan' (xi. +19), as: + + "my old friend and corporeal pastor and master."] + + +[Footnote 61: Mr. Southey has lately tied another canister to his tail +in 'The Curse of Kehama', maugre the neglect of 'Madoc', etc., and has +in one instance had a wonderful effect. A literary friend of mine, +walking out one lovely evening last summer, on the eleventh bridge of +the Paddington canal, was alarmed by the cry of "one in jeopardy:" he +rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on +butter-milk in an adjacent paddock), procured three rakes, one eel-spear +and a landing net, and at last ('horresco referens') pulled out--his own +publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large +quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on inquiry, to +have been Mr. Southey's last work. Its "alacrity of sinking" was so +great, that it has never since been heard of; though some maintain that +it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry premises, +Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict +of "'Felo de bibliopolâ'" against a "quarto unknown;" and circumstantial +evidence being since strong against 'The Curse of Kehama' (of which the +above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers +next session, in Grub-street--Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de +Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of +Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve +jurors. The judges are Pye, Bowles, and the bell-man of St. Sepulchre's. + +The same advocates, pro and con, will be employed as are now engaged in +Sir F. Burdett's celebrated cause in the Scotch courts. The public +anxiously await the result, and all 'live' publishers will be subpoenaed +as witnesses.--But Mr. Southey has published 'The Curse of Kehama',--an +inviting title to quibblers. By the bye, it is a good deal beneath Scott +and Campbell, and not much above Southey, to allow the booby Ballantyne +to entitle them, in the 'Edinburgh Annual Register' (of which, by the +bye, Southey is editor) "the grand poetical triumvirate of the day." +But, on second thoughts, it can be no great degree of praise to be the +one-eyed leaders of the blind, though they might as well keep to +themselves "Scott's thirty thousand copies sold," which must sadly +discomfort poor Southey's unsaleables. Poor Southey, it should seem, is +the "Lepidus" of this poetical triumvirate. I am only surprised to see +him in such good company. + + + "Such things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, + But wonder how the devil 'he' came there." + +The trio are well defined in the sixth proposition of Euclid:-- + + "Because, in the triangles D B C, A C B; D B is equal to A C; and B C + common to both; the two sides D B, B C, are equal to the two A C, C B, + each to each, and the angle D B C is equal to the angle A C B: + therefore, the base D C is equal to the base A B, and the triangle D B + C (Mr. Southey) is equal to the triangle A C B, the less to the + greater, which is absurd" etc. + +The editor of the 'Edinburgh Register' will find the rest of the theorem +hard by his stabling; he has only to cross the river; 'tis the first +turnpike t' other side 'Pons Asinorum.'[A] + +['The Curse of Kehama', by Robert Southey, was published 1810; +'Arthur, or The Northern Enchantment', by the Rev. Richard Hole, in 1789; +'Alfred', by Joseph Cottle, in 1801; +'Davideis`', by Abraham Cowley, in 1656; +'Richard the First', by Sir James Bland Surges, in 1801; +'Exodiad', by Sir J. Bland Surges and R. Cumberland, in 1808; +'Exodus', by Charles Hoyle, in 1802; +'Epigoniad', by W. Wilkie, D.D., in 1757; +'Calvary', by R. Cumberland, in 1792; +'Fall of Cambria', by Joseph Cottle, in 1809; +'Siege of Acre', by Hannah Cowley, in 1801; +'The Vision of Don Roderick', by Sir Walter Scott, in 1811; +'Tom Thumb the Great', by Henry Fielding, in 1730. + +The 'Courier' of July 16, 1811, reports in full the first stage of the +case Sir F. Burdett 'v.' William Scott ('vide supra'), which was brought +before Lord Meadowbank as ordinary in the outer court. Jeffrey was +counsel for the pursuer, who sought to recover a sum of £5000 lent under +a bond. For the defence it was alleged that the money had been entrusted +for a particular purpose, namely, the maintenance of an infant. Jeffrey +denied the existence of any such claim, and maintained that whatever was +scandalous or calumnious in the defence was absolutely untrue. The case, +which was not included in the Scottish Law Reports, was probably settled +out of court. Evidently the judge held that on technical grounds an +action did not lie. Burdett's enemies were not slow in turning the +scandal to account. (See a contemporary pamphlet, 'Adultery and +Patriotism', London, 1811.)] ] + + [Sub-Footnote A: This Latin has sorely puzzled the University of + Edinburgh. Ballantyne said it meant the "Bridge of Berwick," but + Southey claimed it as half English; Scott swore it was the "Brig o' + Stirling:" he had just passed two King James's and a dozen Douglasses + over it. At last it was decided by Jeffrey, that it meant nothing more + nor less than the "counter of Archy Constable's shop."] + + + +[Footnote 62: Voltaire's 'Pucelle' is not quite so immaculate as Mr. +Southey's 'Joan of Arc', and yet I am afraid the Frenchman has both more +truth and poetry too on his side--(they rarely go together)--than our +patriotic minstrel, whose first essay was in praise of a fanatical +French strumpet, whose title of witch would be correct with the change +of the first letter.] + + +[Footnote 63: Like Sir Bland Burges's 'Richard'; the tenth book of +which I read at Malta, on a trunk of Eyre's, 19, Cockspur-street. +If this be doubted, I shall buy a portmanteau to quote from. + +[Sir James Bland Burges (1752-1824), who assumed, in 1821, the name of +Lamb, married, as his first wife, the Hon. Elizabeth Noel, daughter of +Lord Wentworth, and younger sister of Byron's mother-in-law, Lady +Milbanke. He was called to the bar in 1777, and in the same year was +appointed a Commissioner in Bankruptcy. In 1787 he was returned M.P. for +the borough of Helleston; and from 1789 to 1795 held office as +Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In 1795, at the instance of his +chief, Lord Grenville, he vacated his post, and by way of compensation +was created a baronet with a sinecure post as Knight-Marshal of the +Royal Household. Thenceforth he devoted himself to literature. In 1796 +he wrote the 'Birth and Triumph of Love', by way of letter-press to some +elegant designs of the Princess Elizabeth. (For 'Richard the First' and +the 'Exodiad', see note, p. 436.) His plays, 'Riches and Tricks for +Travellers', appeared in 1810, and there were other works. In spite of +Wordsworth's testimony (Wordsworth signed, but Coleridge dictated and no +doubt composed, the letter: see 'Thomas Poole and His Friends', ii. 27) +"to a pure and unmixed vein of native English" in 'Richard the First +(Bland-Burges Papers', 1885, p. 308), Burges as a poet awaits +rediscovery. His diaries, portions of which were published in 1885, are +lively and instructive. He has been immortalized in Person's +Macaronics-- + + "Poetis nos lætamur tribus, + Pye, Petro Pindar, parvo Pybus. + Si ulterius ire pergis, + Adde his Sir James Bland Burges!"] + + +[Footnote 64: [Charles Lamb, in "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years +Ago" (_Prose Works_, 1836, ii. 30), records his repeated visits, as a +Blue Coat boy, "to the Lions in the Tower--to whose levée, by courtesy +immemorial, we had a prescriptive title to admission."] + + +[Footnote 65: Lines 677, 678 are not in 'MS. L. (a)'.] + + +[Footnote 66: Lines 689-696 are not in 'MS. L. (a)' or 'MS. L. (b)'.] + + +[Footnote 67: 'MS. L.' ('a' and 'b') continue at line 758.] + + +[Footnote 68: + + "Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice revulsum, + Gurgite cum medio portans OEagrius Hebrus, + Volveret Eurydicen vox ipsa, et frigida lingua; + Ah, miseram Eurydicen! animâ fugiente vocabat; + Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripæ." + +'Georgic', iv. 523-527.] + + +[Footnote 69: I beg Nathaniel's pardon: he is not a cobbler; 'it' is a +'tailor', but begged Capel Lofft to sink the profession in his preface +to two pair of panta--psha!--of cantos, which he wished the public to +try on; but the sieve of a patron let it out, and so far saved the +expense of an advertisement to his country customers--Merry's +"Moorfields whine" was nothing to all this. The "Delia Cruscans" were +people of some education, and no profession; but these Arcadians +("Arcades ambo"--bumpkins both) send out their native nonsense without +the smallest alloy, and leave all the shoes and small-clothes in the +parish unrepaired, to patch up Elegies on Enclosures, and Pæans to +Gunpowder. Sitting on a shop-board, they describe the fields of battle, +when the only blood they ever saw was shed from the finger; and an +"Essay on War" is produced by the ninth part of a "poet;" + + "And own that 'nine' such poets made a Tate." + +Did Nathan ever read that line of Pope? and if he did, why not take it +as his motto? + +['An Essay on War; Honington Green, a Ballad ... an Elegy and other +Poems,' was published in 1803.]] + + +[Footnote 70: This well-meaning gentleman has spoiled some excellent +shoemakers, and been accessory to the poetical undoing of many of the +industrious poor. Nathaniel Bloomfield and his brother Bobby have set +all Somersetshire singing; nor has the malady confined itself to one +county. Pratt too (who once was wiser) has caught the contagion of +patronage, and decoyed a poor fellow named Blackett into poetry; but he +died during the operation, leaving one child and two volumes of +"Remains" utterly destitute. The girl, if she don't take a poetical +twist, and come forth as a shoemaking Sappho, may do well; but the +"tragedies" are as ricketty as if they had been the offspring of an Earl +or a Seatonian prize poet. The patrons of this poor lad are certainly +answerable for his end; and it ought to be an indictable offence. But +this is the least they have done: for, by a refinement of barbarity, +they have made the (late) man posthumously ridiculous, by printing what +he would have had sense enough never to print himself. Certes these +rakers of "Remains" come under the statute against "resurrection men." +What does it signify whether a poor dear dead dunce is to be stuck up in +Surgeons' or in Stationers' Hall? Is it so bad to unearth his bones as +his blunders? Is it not better to gibbet his body on a heath, than his +soul in an octavo? "We know what we are, but we know not what we may +be;" and it is to be hoped we never shall know, if a man who has passed +through life with a sort of éclat is to find himself a mountebank on the +other side of Styx, and made, like poor Joe Blackett, the laughing-stock +of purgatory. The plea of publication is to provide for the child; now, +might not some of this 'Sutor ultra Crepidaitis' friends and seducers +have done a decent action without inveigling Pratt into biography? And +then his inscription split into so many modicums!--"To the Duchess of +Somuch, the Right Hon. So-and-So, and Mrs. and Miss Somebody, these +volumes are," etc. etc.--why, this is doling out the "soft milk of +dedication" in gills,--there is but a quart, and he divides it among a +dozen. Why, Pratt, hadst thou not a puff left? Dost thou think six +families of distinction can share this in quiet? There is a child, a +book, and a dedication: send the girl to her grace, the volumes to the +grocer, and the dedication to the devil. + +[For Robert Bloomfield, see 'English Bards', ll. 774-786, and note 2. +For Joseph Blacket, see 'English Bards', ll. 765-770, and note 1. +Blacket's 'Remains', with Life by Pratt, appeared in 1811. The work was +dedicated "To Her Grace the Duchess of Leeds, Lady Milbanke and Family, +Benevolent Patrons of the Author," etc.]] + + +[Footnote 71: Lines 737-758 are not in either of the three original MSS. +of 'Hints from Horace', and were probably written in the autumn of 1811. +They appear among a sheet of "alterations to 'English Bards, and S. +Reviewers', continued with additions" ('MSS. L.'}, drawn up for the +fifth edition, and they are inserted on a separate sheet in 'MS. M.' A +second sheet ('MSS. L.') of "scraps of rhyme ... principally additions +and corrections for 'English Bards', etc." (for the fifth edition), some +of which are dated 1810, does not give the whole passage, but includes +the following variants (erased) of lines 753-756:-- + +(i.) + + "Then let thy ponderous quarto steep and stink, + The dullest fattest weed on Lethe's brink. + Down with that volume to the depths of hell! + Oblivion seems rewarding it too well." + +(ii.) + + "Yet then thy quarto still may," etc. + + +A "Druid" (see 'English Bards', line 741) was Byron's name for a +scribbler who wrote for his living. In 'MS. M.', "scribbler" has been +erased, and "Druid" substituted. It is doubtful to whom the passage, in +its final shape, was intended to apply, but it is possible that the +erased lines, in which "ponderous quarto" stands for "lost songs," were +aimed at Southey (see 'ante', line 657, 'note' 1).] + + + +[Footnote 72: 'MS. L. (a)' recommences at line 758.] + + +[Footnote 73: Here will Mr. Gifford allow me to introduce once more to +his notice the sole survivor, the "ultimus Romanorum," the last of the +Cruscanti--"Edwin" the "profound" by our Lady of Punishment! here he is, +as lively as in the days of "well said Baviad the Correct." I thought +Fitzgerald had been the tail of poesy; but, alas! he is only the +penultimate. + + +A FAMILIAR EPISTLE TO THE EDITOR OF THE "MORNING CHRONICLE." + + "What reams of paper, floods of ink," + Do some men spoil, who never think! + And so perhaps you'll say of me, + In which your readers may agree. + Still I write on, and tell you why; + Nothing's so bad, you can't deny, + But may instruct or entertain + Without the risk of giving pain, etc., etc. + + +ON SOME MODERN QUACKS AND REFORMISTS. + + In tracing of the human mind + Through all its various courses, + Though strange, 'tis true, we often find + It knows not its resources: + + And men through life assume a part + For which no talents they possess, + Yet wonder that, with all their art, + They meet no better with success, etc., etc.] + + +['A Familiar Epistle, etc.', by T. Vaughan, Esq., was published in the +'Morning Chronicle', October 7, 1811. Gifford, in the 'Baviad' (l. 350), +speaks of "Edwin's mewlings," and in a note names "Edwin" as the +"profound Mr. T. Vaughan." 'Love's Metamorphoses', by T. Vaughan, was +played at Drury Lane, April 15, 1776. He also wrote 'The Hotel, or +Double Valet', November 26, 1776, which Jephson rewrote under the title +of 'The Servant with Two Masters.' Compare 'Children of Apollo', p. 49:-- + + "Jephson, who has no humour of his own, + Thinks it no crime to borrow from the town; + The farce (almost forgot) of 'The Hotel' + Or 'Double Valet' seems to answer well. + This and his own make 'Two Strings to his Bow'."]] + + + +[Footnote 74: See Milton's 'Lycidas'.] + + +[Footnote 75: Minerva being the first by Jupiter's head-piece, and a +variety of equally unaccountable parturitions upon earth, such as Madoc, +etc. etc.] + + +[Footnote 76: + + "A crust for the critics." + +'Bayes, in "the Rehearsal"' [act ii. sc. 2]. + + +[Footnote 77: And the "waiters" are the only fortunate people who can +"fly" from them; all the rest, viz. the sad subscribers to the "Literary +Fund," being compelled, by courtesy, to sit out the recitation without a +hope of exclaiming, "Sic" (that is, by choking Fitz. with bad wine, or +worse poetry) "me servavit Apollo!" + +[See 'English Bards', line 1 and 'note' 3.]] + + +[Footnote 78: Lines 813-816 not in 'MS. L. (a)' or 'MS. L. (b)'.] + + +[Footnote 79: On his table were found these words:--"What Cato did, and +Addison approved, cannot be wrong." But Addison did not "approve;" and +if he had, it would not have mended the matter. He had invited his +daughter on the same water-party; but Miss Budgell, by some accident, +escaped this last paternal attention. Thus fell the sycophant of +"Atticus," and the enemy of Pope! + +[Eustace Budgell (1686-1737), a friend and relative of Addison's, "leapt +into the Thames" to escape the dishonour which attached to him in +connection with Dr. Tindal's will, and the immediate pressure of money +difficulties. He was, more or less, insane. + + "We talked (says Boswell) of a man's drowning himself. I put the case + of Eustace Budgell. + + 'Suppose, sir,' said I, 'that a man is absolutely sure that, if he + lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the + consequence of which will be utter disgrace, and expulsion from + society?' + + JOHNSON. 'Then, sir, let him go abroad to a distant country; let him + go to some place where he is 'not' known. Don't let him go to the + devil, where he 'is' known.'" + +Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' (1886), p. 281.]] + + +[Footnote 80: If "dosed with," etc. be censured as low, I beg leave to +refer to the original for something still lower; and if any reader will +translate "Minxerit in patrios cineres," etc. into a decent couplet, I +will insert said couplet in lieu of the present.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + ATHENS, 'March 2nd, 1811'. + +['MS. L.' (a).] + + ATHENS, 'March 12th, 1811'. + +['MS. L. (i), MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'If [A] West or Lawrence, (take whichever you will) + Sons of the Brush, supreme in graphic skill, + Should clap a human head-piece on a mare, + How would our Exhibition's loungers stare! + Or should some dashing limner set to sale + My Lady's likeness with a Mermaid's tail.' + +['MS. L.' (a).] + + + 'The features finished, should superbly deck + My Lady's likeness with a Filly's neck; + Or should some limner mad or maudlin group + A Mermaid's tail and Maid of Honour's Hoop.' + +['MS. L. '(b).] ] + + [Sub-Footnote A: I have been obliged to dive into the "Bathos" for the + simile, as I could not find a description of these Painters' merits + above ground. + + "Si liceat parvis + Componere magna"-- + + "Like London's column pointing to the skies + Like a 'tall Bully', lifts its head and lies" + + I was in hopes might bear me out, if the monument be like a Bully. + West's glory may be reduced by the scale of comparison. If not, let me + have recourse to 'Tom Thumb the Great' [Fielding's farce, first + played 1730] to keep my simile in countenance.--['MS. L. (b) erased]] + + + +[Footnote iii: After line 6, the following lines (erased) were inserted:-- + + 'Or patch a Mammoth up with wings and limbs, + And fins of aught that flies or walks or swims'. + +['MS. M'.] + +Another variant ran-- + + 'Or paint (astray from Truth and Nature led) + A Judge with wings, a Statesman with a Head'! + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Believe me, Hobhouse'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'as we scribblers'. + +['MSS. L'. ('a' and 'b'), 'MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Like Wardle's'[A] 'speeches'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + [Sub-Footnote A: [Gwyllim Lloyd Wardle (1762-1834), who served in + Ireland in 1798, as Colonel of the Welsh Fusiliers, known as "Wynne's + lambs," was M.P. for Okehampton 1807-12. In January, 1809, he brought + forward a motion for a parliamentary investigation into the exercise + of military patronage by the Duke of York, and the supposed influence + of the Duke's mistress, Mary Anne Clarke.]] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'As pertness lurks beneath a legal gown. + And nonsense in a lofty note goes down'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + +or, + + 'Which covers all things like a Prelate's gown'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + or, + + 'Which wraps presumption'. + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'As when the poet to description yields + Of waters gliding through the goodly fields; + The Groves of Granta and her Gothic Halls, + Oxford and Christchurch, London and St. Pauls, + Or with a ruder flight he feebly aims + To paint a rainbow or the River Thames. + Perhaps you draw a fir tree or a beech, + But then a landscape is beyond your reach; + Or, if that allegory please you not, + Take this--you'ld form a vase, but make a pot'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'Although you sketch a tree which Taste endures, + Your ill-daubed Shipwreck shocks the Connoisseurs.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'The greater portion of the men of rhyme + Parents and children or their Sires sublime'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'But change the malady they strive to cure'. + +['MS. L. (a').]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'Fish in the woods and wild-boars in the waves'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'For Coat and waistcoat Slowshears is your man, + But Breeches claim another Artisan; + Now this to me I own seems much the same + As one leg perfect and the other lame'. + +['MSS. M., L. (a').] + + 'Sweitzer is your man'. + +[MS. M. 'erased'.]] + + +[Footnote xiv: + +'Him who hath sense to make a skilful choice +Nor lucid Order, nor the Siren Voice +Of Eloquence shall shun, and Wit and Grace +(Or I'm deceived) shall aid him in the Race: +These too will teach him to defer or join +To future parts the now omitted line: +This shall the Author like or that reject, +Sparing in words and cautious to select: +Nor slight applause will candid pens afford +To him who well compounds a wanting word, +And if, by chance, 'tis needful to produce +Some term long laid and obsolete in use'.-- + +['MSS. M., L'. ('a' and 'b'). 'The last line partly erased.'] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'The dextrous Coiner of a' wanting 'word'.-- + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + 'Adroitly grafted.' + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + 'Since they enriched our language in their time + In modern speeches or Black letter rhyme.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'Though at a Monarch's nod, and Traffic's call + Reluctant rivers deviate to Canal'. + +['MSS. M., L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + +[Footnote xix: + + 'marshes dried, sustain'. + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + 'Thus--future years dead volumes shall revive'. + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xxi: + + 'As Custom fluctuates whose Iron Sway + Though ever changing Mortals must obey'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xxii: + + 'To mark the Majesty of Epic song'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote xxiii: + + 'But which is preferable rhyme or blank + Which holds in poesy'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + +[Footnote xxiv: + + --'ventures to appear.--' + +['MS. Corr. in Proof b, British Museum'.] + + +[Footnote xxv: + + 'And Harry Monmouth, till the scenes require, + Resigns heroics to his sceptred Sire.' + +['MS. L'. (a).]] + + +[Footnote xxvi: + + 'To "hollaing Hotspur" and the sceptred sire.'-- + +['MS. Corr. in Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xxvii: + + 'Dull as an Opera, I should sleep or sneer.' + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote xxviii: + + 'And for Emotion's aid 'tis said and sung'. + +['MS. L, (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxix: + + 'or form a plot'. + +['Proof b, British Museum'.]] + + +[Footnote xxx: + + 'Whate'er the critic says or poet sings + 'Tis no slight task to write on common things'. + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote xxxi: + + 'Ere o'er our heads your Muse's Thunder rolls.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxii: + + 'Earth, Heaven and Hell, are shaken with the Song.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + + +[Footnote xxxiii: + + 'Through deeds we know not, though already done,' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxiv: + + 'What soothes the people's, Peer's, and Critic's ear.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxv: + + 'And Vice buds forth developed with his Teens.' + +[MS. M.]] + + +[Footnote xxxvi: + + 'The beardless Tyro freed at length from school. + +[MSS. L. (b), M. erased'.] + + 'And blushing Birch disdains all College rule. + +[MS. M. erased'.] + + 'And dreaded Birch. + +[MS. L.' (a' and 'b').]] + + +[Footnote xxxvii: + + 'Unlucky Tavell! damned to daily cares + By pugilistic Freshmen, and by Bears.' + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxviii: + + 'Ready to quit whatever he loved before, + Constant to nought, save hazard and a whore.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xxxix: + + 'The better years of youth he wastes away.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xl: + + 'Master of Arts, as all the Clubs proclaim.' + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote xli: + + 'Scrapes wealth, o'er Grandam's endless jointure grieves.' + +['MS. erased'.] + + 'O'er Grandam's mortgage, or young hopeful's debts.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + 'O'er Uncle's mortgage.' + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlii: + + 'Your plot is told or acted more or less.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xliii: + + 'To greater sympathy our feelings rise + When what is done is done before our eyes.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xliv: + + 'Appalls an audience with the work of Death-- + To gaze when Hubert simply threats to sere.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlv: + + 'Nor call a Ghost, unless some cursed hitch + Requires a trapdoor Goblin or a Witch.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlvi: + + 'This comes from Commerce with our foreign friends + These are the precious fruits Ausonia sends.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlvii: + + 'Our Giant Capital where streets still spread + Where once our simpler sins were bred.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] + + 'Our fields where once the rustic earned his bread.' + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote xlviii: + + 'Aches with the Orchestra he pays to hear. + +[MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xlix: + + 'Scarce kept awake by roaring out encore.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote l: + + 'Ere theatres were built and reverend clerks + Wrote plays as some old book remarks.' + +[MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote li: + + 'Who did what Vestris--yet, at least,--cannot, + And cut his kingly capers "Sans culotte."' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote lii: + + 'Who yet squeaks on nor fears to be forgot + If good Earl Grosvenor supersede them not'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + 'Who still frisk on with feats so vastly low + 'Tis strange Earl Grosvenor suffers such a show'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote liii: + + 'Suppressing Peer! to whom all vice gives place, + Save Gambling--for his Lordship loves a Race'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote liv: + + 'Hobhouse, since we have roved through Eastern climes, + While all the Ægean echoed to our rhymes, + And bound to Momus by some pagan spell + Laughed, sang and quaffed to "Vive la Bagatelle!'"-- + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + 'Hobhouse, with whom once more I hope to sit + And smile at what our Stage retails for wit. + Since few, I know, enjoy a laugh so well + Sardonic slave to "Vive la Bagatelle" + So that in your's like Pagan Plato's bed + They'll find some book of Epigrams when dead'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lv: + + 'My wayward Spirit weakly yields to gloom, + But thine will waft thee lightly to the Tomb, + So that in thine, like Pagan Plato's, bed + They'll find some Manuscript of Mimes, when dead'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote lvi: + + 'And spite of Methodism and Collier's curse'. + +['MS. M'.] + + 'He who's seduced by plays must be a fool' + + 'If boys want teaching let them stay at school'. + +[MS. L. (a).]] + + +[Footnote lvii: + + 'Whom Nature guides so writes that he who sees + Enraptured thinks to do the same with ease'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote lviii: + + 'But after toil-inked thumbs and bitten nails + Scratched head, ten quires--the easy scribbler fails'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + +[Footnote lix: + + 'The one too rustic, t'other too refined'. + +['MS. L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + +[Footnotes lx: + + 'Offensive most to men with house and land + Possessed of Pedigree and bloody hand'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +Footnote lxi: + + 'Composed for any but the lightest strain'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +Footnote lxii: + + 'And must I then my'-- + +['MS.L'. ('a').] + + +[Footnote lxiii: + + 'Ye who require Improvement'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxiv: + + 'And Tragedy, whatever stuff he spoke + Now wants high heels, long sword and velvet cloak'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a') 'erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lxv: + + 'Curtail or silence the offensive jest'. + +['MS. M'.] + + 'Curtail the personal or smutty jest'. + +['MS. L'. ('a') 'erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lxvi: + + 'Overthrow whole books with all their hosts of faults'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnotes lxvii: + + 'So that not Hellebore with all its juice'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxviii: + + 'I'll act instead of whetstone--blunted, but + Of use to make another's razor cut'. + +['MS. L.' ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxix: + + 'From Horace show the better arts of song'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxx: + + 'To Trade, but gave their hours to arms and arts'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + + 'With traffic'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lxxi: + + 'Babe of old Thelusson' [A]----. + +['MS. L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + [Sub-Footnote A: [Peter Isaac Thellusson, banker (died July 21, 1797), + by his will directed that his property should accumulate for the + benefit of the unborn heir of an unborn grandson. The will was, + finally, upheld, but, meanwhile, on July 28, 1800, an act (39 and 40 + Geo. III.c.98) was passed limiting such executory devises.]] + + +[Footnote lxxii: + + 'A groat--ah bravo! Dick's the boy for sums + He'll swell my fifty thousand into plums'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').]] + + +[Footnote lxxiii: + + 'Are idle dogs and (damn them!) always poor'.-- + +['MS. L'. ('a' and 'b').]] + + + +[Footnote lxxiv: + + 'Unlike Potosi holds no silver mine'. + +['MS. L'. ('a').] + +'Keeps back his ingots like'} +'Is rather costive--like' } 'an Irish Mine'. +'Is no Potosi, but' } + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lxxv: + + 'Write but recite not, e'en Apollo's song + Mouthed in a mortal ear would seem too long, + Long as the last year of a lingering lease, + When Revel pauses until Rents increase'. + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxvi: + + 'To finish all'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').] + + 'That Bard the mask will fit'. + +['MS. L'. ('b').]] + + +[Footnote lxxvii: + + 'Revenge defeats its object in the dark + And pistols (courage bullies!) miss their mark.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] + + And pistols (courage duellists!) miss their mark. + +['MS. L. (b)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxviii: + + 'Though much displeased.' + +['MS. L. (a and b)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxix: + + 'The scrutiny.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxx: + + 'Oh ye aspiring youths whom fate or choice.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxxi: + + 'All are not Erskines who adorn the bar.' + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote lxxxii: + + 'With very middling verses to offend + The Devil and Jeffrey grant but to a friend.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] + + 'Though what "Gods, men, and columns" interdict, + The Devil and Jeffrey [A] pardon--in a Pict.' + +['MS. M.']] + + [Sub-Footnote A: "The Devil and Jeffrey are here placed antithetically + to gods and men, such being their usual position, and their due + one--according to the facetious saying, 'If God won't take you, the + Devil must;' and I am sure no one durst object to his taking the + poetry, which, rejected by Horace, is accepted by Jeffrey. That these + gentlemen are in some cases kinder,--the one to countrymen, and the + other from his odd propensity to prefer evil to good,--than the 'gods, + men, and columns' of Horace, may be seen by a reference to the review + of Campbell's 'Gertrude of Wyoming'; and in No. 31 of the 'Edinburgh + Review' (given to me the other day by the captain of an English + frigate off Salamis), there is a similar concession to the mediocrity + of Jamie Graham's 'British Georgics'. It is fortunate for Campbell, + that his fame neither depends on his last poem, nor the puff of the + 'Edinburgh Review'. The catalogues of our English are also less + fastidious than the pillars of the Roman librarians. A word more with + the author of 'Gertrude of Wyoming'. At the end of a poem, and even of + a couplet, we have generally 'that unmeaning thing we call a thought;' + so Mr. Campbell concludes with a thought in such a manner as to fulfil + the whole of Pope's prescription, and be as 'unmeaning' as the best of + his brethren:-- + + 'Because I may not 'stain' with grief + The death-song of an Indian chief.' + + "When I was in the fifth form, I carried to my master the translation + of a chorus in Prometheus, wherein was a pestilent expression about + 'staining a voice,' which met with no quarter. Little did I think that + Mr. Campbell would have adopted my fifth form 'sublime'--at least in + so conspicuous a situation. 'Sorrow' has been 'dry' (in proverbs), and + 'wet' (in sonnets), this many a day; and now it ''stains',' and stains + a sound, of all feasible things! To be sure, death-songs might have + been stained with that same grief to very good purpose, if Outalissi + had clapped down his stanzas on wholesome paper for the 'Edinburgh + Evening Post', or any other given hyperborean gazette; or if the said + Outalissi had been troubled with the slightest second sight of his own + notes embodied on the last proof of an overcharged quarto; but as he + is supposed to have been an improvisatore on this occasion, and + probably to the last tune he ever chanted in this world, it would have + done him no discredit to have made his exit with a mouthful of common + sense. Talking of ''staining'' (as Caleb Quotem says) 'puts me in + mind' of a certain couplet, which Mr. Campbell will find in a writer + for whom he, and his school, have no small contempt:-- + + 'E'en copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, + The last and greatest art--the art to 'blot'!'" + +['MS. M'.]] + + + +[Footnote lxxxiii: + + 'And mustard rarely pleases in a pie.' + +['MS. L. '(a).]] + + +[Footnote lxxxiv: + + 'At the Sessions'. + +['MS. L.' (b), 'in pencil'.] ] + + +[Footnote lxxxv: Lines 647-650-- + + Whose character contains no glaring fault... + Shall I, I say. + +[MS. L. (a).]] + + +[Footnote lxxxvi: After 660-- + + 'But why this hint-what author e'er could stop + His poems' progress in a Grocers shop.' + +['MS. L. (a).'] ] + + +[Footnote lxxxvii: + + 'As lame as I am, but a better bard.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote lxxxviii: + + 'Apollo's song the fate of men foretold.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote lxxxix: + + 'Have studied with a Master day and night'. + +['MS. L. (a, b).']] + + +[Footnote xc: + + 'They storm Bolt Court, they publish one and all'.-- + +['MS. M. erased.']] + + +[Footnote xci: + + 'Rogers played this prank'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xcii: + + 'There see their sonnets first--but Spring--hot prest + Beholds a Quarto--Tarts must tell the Rest.' + +['MS. M. erased.']] + + +[Footnote xciii: + + 'To fuddled Esquires or to flippant Lords.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xciv: + + 'Till lo! that modern Midas of the swains-- + Feels his ears lengthen--with the lengthening strains'.-- + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote xcv: + + 'Adds a week's growth to his enormous ears'. + +['MS. M. erased.']] + + +[Footnote xcvi: + + 'But what are these? Benefits might bind + Some decent ties about a manly mind'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote xcvii: + + 'Our modern sceptics can no more allow.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote xcviii: + + 'Some rhyming peer--Carlisle or Carysfort.'[A] + +['MS. M.']] + + [Sub-Footnote A: [To variant ii. (p. 444) (this footnote) is subjoined + this note: + + "Of 'John Joshua, Earl of Carysfort,' I know nothing at present, but + from an advertisement in an old newspaper of certain Poems and + Tragedies by his Lordship, which I saw by accident in the Morea. + Being a rhymer himself, he will forgive the liberty I take with his + name, seeing, as he must, how very commodious it is at the close of + that couplet; and as for what follows and goes before, let him place + it to the account of the other Thane; since I cannot, under these + circumstances, augur pro or con the contents of his 'foolscap crown + octavos.'" + + [John Joshua Proby, first Earl of Carysfort, was joint + postmaster-general in 1805, envoy to Berlin in 1806, and ambassador to + Petersburgh in 1807. Besides his poems ('Dramatic and Miscellaneous + Works', 1810), he published two pamphlets (1780,1783), to show the + necessity of universal suffrage and short parliaments. He died in + 1828.]] + + +[Footnote xcix: + + 'Hoarse with bepraising, and half choaked with lies, + Sweat on his brow and tear drops in his eyes.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote c: + + 'Then sits again, then shakes his piteous head + As if the Vicar were already dead.' + +['MS. L. (a).']] + + +[Footnote ci: + + 'But if you're too conceited to amend.' + +['MS. L. (a).]'] + + +[Footnote cii: + + 'On pain of suffering from their pen or tongues.' + +['MS. M. erased.'] + + '--fly Fitzgerald's lungs.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote ciii: + + 'Ah when Bards mouth! how sympathetic Time + Stagnates, and Hours stand still to hear their rhyme.' + +['MS. M. erased'.]] + + +[Footnote civ: + + 'Besides how know ye? that he did not fling + Himself there--for the humour of the thing.' + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote cv: + + 'Small thanks, unwelcome life he quickly leaves; + And raving poets--really should not lose.' + +['MS. M'.] + + +[Footnote cvi: + + 'Nor is it clearly understood that verse + Has not been given the poet for a curse; + Perhaps he sent the parson's pig to pound, + Or got a child on consecrated ground; + But, be this as it may, his rhyming rage + Exceeds a Bear who strives to break his cage. + If free, all fly his versifying fit; + The young, the old, the simpleton and wit.' + +['MS. L. (a)'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CURSE OF MINERVA. + + + + + --"Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas + Immolat, et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit." + + _Aeneid_, lib. xii, 947, 948. + + + +NOTE I. + +In 'The Malediction of Minerva (New Monthly Magazine', vol. iii. p. 240) +additional footnotes are appended + +(1) to line 106, recording the obliteration of Lord Elgin's name, "which +had been inscribed on a pillar of one of the principal temples," while +that of Lady Elgin had been left untouched; and + +(2) to line 196, giving quotations from pp. 158, 269, 419 of Eustace's +'Classical Tour in Italy'. + +After line 130, which reads, "And well I know within that murky land" +('i.e'. Caledonia), the following apology for a hiatus was inserted: + + "Here follows in the original certain lines which the editor has + exercised his discretion by suppressing; inasmuch as they comprise + national reflections which the bard's justifiable indignation has made + him pour forth against a people which, if not universally of an + amiable, is generally of a respectable character, and deserves not in + this case to be censured 'en masse' for the faults of an + individual." + + +NOTE II. + +The text of 'The Curse of Minerva' is based on that of the quarto +printed by T. Davison in 1813. With the exception of the variants, as +noted, the text corresponds with the MS. in the possession of Lord +Stanhope. Doubtless it represents Byron's final revision. The text of an +edition of 'The Curse, etc'., Philadelphia, 1815, 8vo [printed by De +Silver and Co.], was followed by Galignani (third edit., 1818, etc.). +The same text is followed, but not invariably, in the selections printed +by Hone in 1816 (111 lines); Wilson, 1818 (112 lines); and Knight and +Lacy, 1824 (111 lines). It exhibits the following variants from the +quarto of 1813:-- + + Line. Variant. + + 56.----'lands and main.' + 81. 'Her helm was deep indented and her lance.' + 94. 'Seek'st thou the cause? O mortal, look around.' + 102. 'That Hadrian----' + 116. 'The last base brute----' + 143. 'Ten thousand schemes of petulance and pride.' + 152. '----victors o'er the grave.' + 162. '----Time shall tell the rest.' + 199. 'Loath'd throughout life--scarce pardon'd in the dust.' + 203. 'Erostratus and Elgin, etc.' + 206. '----viler than the first. + 222. 'Shall shake your usurpation to its base.' + 233. 'While Lusitania----' + 273. 'Then in the Senates----' + 290. '----decorate his fall.' + + +The following variants may also be noted:-- + + + Line. Variant. Publisher + + 1. 'Slow sinks now lovely, etc.' Hone + + 110. 'The Gothic monarch and the British----.' Wilson + '----and his fit compeer.' + + 131. 'And well I know within that murky land. + ... + Dispatched her reckoning children far and wide. Hone + + And well I know, albeit afar, the land, + Where starving Avarice keeps her chosen band; + Or sends their hungry numbers eager forth. + ... + And aye accursed, etc.' Wilson + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO _THE CURSE OF MINERVA_ + + +'The Curse of Minerva', which was written at Athens, and is dated March +17, 1811, remained unpublished, as a whole, in this country, during +Byron's life-time. The arrangement which had been made with Cawthorn, to +bring out a fifth edition of 'English Bards', included the issue of a +separate volume, containing 'Hints from Horace' and 'The Curse of +Minerva;' and, as Moore intimates, it was the withdrawal of the latter, +in deference to the wishes of Lord Elgin or his connections, which led +to the suppression of the other satires. + +The quarto edition of The 'Curse of Minerva', printed by T. Davison in +1812, was probably set up at the same time as Murray's quarto edition of +'Childe Harold', and reserved for private circulation. With or without +Byron's consent, the poem as a whole was published in Philadelphia by De +Silver and Co., 1815, 8vo (for variants, see p. 453, 'note'). In a letter +to Murray, March 6, 1816, he says that he "disowns" 'The Curse, etc.', +"as stolen and published in a miserable and villainous copy in the +magazine." The reference is to 'The Malediction of Minerva, or The +Athenian Marble-Market', which appeared in the 'New Monthly Magazine' +for April, 1818, vol. iii. 240. It numbers 111 lines, and is signed +"Steropes" (The Lightner, a Cyclops). The text of the magazine, with the +same additional footnotes, but under the title of 'The Curse', etc., was +republished in the eighth edition of 'Poems on His Domestic +Circumstances', W. Hone, London, 1816, 8vo, and, thenceforth, in other +piratical issues. Whatever may have been his feelings or intentions in +1812, four years later Byron was well aware that 'The Curse of Minerva' +would not increase his reputation as a poet, while the object of his +satire--the exposure and denunciation of Lord Elgin--had been +accomplished by the scathing stanzas (canto ii. 10-15), with their +accompanying note, in 'Childe Harold'. "Disown" it as he might, his +words were past recall, and both indictments stand in his name. + +Byron was prejudiced against Elgin before he started on his tour. He +had, perhaps, glanced at the splendid folio, 'Specimens of Ancient +Sculpture', which was issued by the Dilettanti Society in 1809. Payne +Knight wrote the preface, in which he maintains that the friezes and +metopes of the Parthenon were not the actual work of Phidias, "but ... +architectural studies ... probably by workmen scarcely ranked among +artists." So judged the leader of the 'cognoscenti', and, in accordance +with his views, Elgin and Aberdeen are held up to ridicule in 'English +Bards' (second edition, October, 1809, 1. 1007, and 'note') as credulous +and extravagant collectors of "maimed antiques." It was, however, not +till the first visit to Athens (December, 1809-March, 1810), when he saw +with his own eyes the "ravages of barbarous and antiquarian despoilers" +(Lord Broughton's 'Travels in Albania', 1858, i. 259), that contempt +gave way to indignation, and his wrath found vent in the pages of +'Childe Harold'. + +Byron cared as little for ancient buildings as he did for the +authorities, or for patriotic enterprise, but he was stirred to the +quick by the marks of fresh and, as he was led to believe, wanton injury +to "Athena's poor remains." The southern side of the half-wrecked +Parthenon had been deprived of its remaining metopes, which had suffered +far less from the weather than the other sides which are still in the +building; all that remained of the frieze had been stripped from the +three sides of the cella, and the eastern pediment had been despoiled of +its diminished and mutilated, but still splendid, group of figures; and, +though five or six years had gone by, the blank spaces between the +triglyphs must have revealed their recent exposure to the light, and the +shattered edges of the cornice, which here and there had been raised and +demolished to permit the dislodgment of the metopes, must have caught +the eye as they sparkled in the sun. Nor had the removal and deportation +of friezes and statues come to an end. The firman which Dr. Hunt, the +chaplain to the embassy, had obtained in 1801, which empowered Elgin and +his agents to take away 'qualche pezzi di pietra', still ran, and Don +Tita Lusieri, the Italian artist, who remained in Elgin's service, was +still, like the 'canes venatici' (Americané, "smell-dogs") employed by +Verres in Sicily (see 'Childe Harold', canto ii. st. 12, 'note'), +finding fresh relics, and still bewailing to sympathetic travellers the +hard fate which compelled him to despoil the temples 'malgré lui'. The +feelings of the inhabitants themselves were not much in question, but +their opinions were quoted for and against the removal of the marbles. +Elgin's secretary and prime agent, W.R. Hamilton, testifies, from +personal knowledge, that, "so far from exciting any unpleasant +sensations, the people seemed to feel it as the means of bringing +foreigners into the country, and of having money spent there" ('Memoir +on the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece', 1811). On the other hand, +the traveller, Edward Daniel Clarke, with whom Byron corresponded (see +'Childe Harold', canto ii. st. 12, 'note'), speaks of the attachment of +the Turks to the Parthenon, and their religious veneration for the +building as a mosque, and tells a pathetic story of the grief of the +Disdar when "a metope was lowered, and the adjacent masonry scattered +its white fragments with thundering noise among the ruins" ('Travels in +Various Countries', part ii, sect. ii, p. 483). + +Other travellers of less authority than Clarke--Dodwell, for instance, +who visited the Parthenon before it had been dismantled, and, +afterwards, was present at the removal of metopes; and Hughes, who came +after Byron (autumn, 1813)--make use of such phrases as "shattered +desolation," "wanton devastation and avidity of plunder." Even +Michaelis, the great archaeologist, who denounces 'The Curse of Minerva' +as a "'libellous' poem," and affirms "that only blind passion could +doubt that Lord Elgin's act was an act of preservation," admits that +"the removal of several metopes and of the statue from the Erechtheion +had severely injured the surrounding architecture" ('Ancient Marbles in +Great Britain', by A. Michaelis, translated by C.A.M. Fennell, 1882, p. +135). Highly coloured and emotional as some of these phrases may be, +they explain, if they do not justify, the 'sæva indignatio' of Byron's +satire. + +It is almost, if not quite, unnecessary to state the facts on the other +side. History regards Lord Elgin as a disinterested official, who at +personal loss (at least thirty-five thousand pounds on his own showing), +and in spite of opposition and disparagement, secured for his own +country and the furtherance of art the perishable fragments of Phidian +workmanship, which, but for his intervention, might have perished +altogether. If they had eluded the clutches of Turkish mason and Greek +dealer in antiquities--if, by some happy chance, they had escaped the +ravages of war, the gradual but gradually increasing assaults of rain +and frost would have already left their effacing scars on the "Elgin +marbles." As it is, the progress of decay has been arrested, and all the +world is the gainer. Byron was neither a prophet nor an archaeologist, +and time and knowledge have put him in the wrong. But in 1810 the gaps +in the entablature of the Parthenon were new, the Phidian marbles were +huddled in a "damp dirty penthouse" in Park Lane (see 'Life of Haydon', +i. 84), and the logic of events had not justified a sad necessity. + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CURSE OF MINERVA. + + + Pallas te hoc Vulnere Pallas + Immolat et poenam scelerato ex Sanguine Sumit. + + + +ATHENS: CAPUCHIN CONVENT, _March_ 17, 1811. + + + + + Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, [1] + Along Morea's hills the setting Sun; + Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, + But one unclouded blaze of living light; + O'er the hushed deep the yellow beam he throws, [i] + Gilds the green wave that trembles as it glows; + On old Ægina's rock and Hydra's isle [2] + The God of gladness sheds his parting smile; + O'er his own regions lingering loves to shine, + Though there his altars are no more divine. [ii] 10 + Descending fast, the mountain-shadows kiss + Thy glorious Gulf, unconquered Salamis! + Their azure arches through the long expanse, [iii] + More deeply purpled, meet his mellowing glance, + And tenderest tints, along their summits driven, + Mark his gay course, and own the hues of Heaven; + Till, darkly shaded from the land and deep, + Behind his Delphian rock he sinks to sleep. [iv] + + On such an eve his palest beam he cast + When, Athens! here thy Wisest looked his last. 20 + How watched thy better sons his farewell ray, + That closed their murdered Sage's [3] latest day! + Not yet--not yet--Sol pauses on the hill, + The precious hour of parting lingers still; + But sad his light to agonizing eyes, + And dark the mountain's once delightful dyes; + Gloom o'er the lovely land he seemed to pour, + The land where Phoebus never frowned before; + But ere he sunk below Cithaeron's head, + The cup of Woe was quaffed--the Spirit fled; 30 + The soul of Him that scorned to fear or fly, [v] + Who lived and died as none can live or die. + + But lo! from high Hymettus to the plain + The Queen of Night asserts her silent reign; [vi] [4] + No murky vapour, herald of the storm, [vii] + Hides her fair face, or girds her glowing form; + With cornice glimmering as the moonbeams play, + There the white column greets her grateful ray, + And bright around, with quivering beams beset, + Her emblem sparkles o'er the Minaret; 40 + The groves of olive scattered dark and wide, + Where meek Cephisus sheds his scanty tide, + The cypress saddening by the sacred mosque, + The gleaming turret of the gay kiosk, [5] + And sad and sombre 'mid the holy calm, + Near Theseus' fane, yon solitary palm; + All, tinged with varied hues, arrest the eye; + And dull were his that passed them heedless by. [6] + Again the Ægean, heard no more afar, + Lulls his chafed breast from elemental war: 50 + Again his waves in milder tints unfold + Their long expanse of sapphire and of gold, + Mixed with the shades of many a distant isle + That frown, where gentler Ocean deigns to smile. [viii] + + As thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane, + I marked the beauties of the land and main, + Alone, and friendless, on the magic shore, + Whose arts and arms but live in poets' lore; + Oft as the matchless dome I turned to scan, + Sacred to Gods, but not secure from Man, 60 + The Past returned, the Present seemed to cease, + And Glory knew no clime beyond her Greece! + + Hour rolled along, and Dian's orb on high + Had gained the centre of her softest sky; + And yet unwearied still my footsteps trod + O'er the vain shrine of many a vanished God: [ix] + But chiefly, Pallas! thine, when Hecate's glare + Checked by thy columns, fell more sadly fair + O'er the chill marble, where the startling tread + Thrills the lone heart like echoes from the dead. 70 + Long had I mused, and treasured every trace + The wreck of Greece recorded of her race, + When, lo! a giant-form before me strode, + And Pallas hailed me in her own Abode! + + Yes,'twas Minerva's self; but, ah! how changed, + Since o'er the Dardan field in arms she ranged! + Not such as erst, by her divine command, + Her form appeared from Phidias' plastic hand: + Gone were the terrors of her awful brow, + Her idle Ægis bore no Gorgon now; 80 + Her helm was dinted, and the broken lance + Seemed weak and shaftless e'en to mortal glance; + The Olive Branch, which still she deigned to clasp, + Shrunk from her touch, and withered in her grasp; + And, ah! though still the brightest of the sky, + Celestial tears bedimmed her large blue eye; + Round the rent casque her owlet circled slow, + And mourned his mistress with a shriek of woe! + + "Mortal!"--'twas thus she spake--"that blush of shame + Proclaims thee Briton, once a noble name; 90 + First of the mighty, foremost of the free, [x] + Now honoured 'less' by all, and 'least' by me: + Chief of thy foes shall Pallas still be found. + Seek'st thou the cause of loathing!--look around. + Lo! here, despite of war and wasting fire, + I saw successive Tyrannies expire; + 'Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth, [xi] + Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both. + Survey this vacant, violated fane; + Recount the relics torn that yet remain: 100 + 'These' Cecrops placed, 'this' Pericles adorned, [7] + 'That' Adrian reared when drooping Science mourned. + What more I owe let Gratitude attest-- + Know, Alaric and Elgin did the rest. + That all may learn from whence the plunderer came, + The insulted wall sustains his hated name: [8] + For Elgin's fame thus grateful Pallas pleads, + Below, his name--above, behold his deeds! + Be ever hailed with equal honour here + The Gothic monarch and the Pictish peer: [xii] 110 + Arms gave the first his right, the last had none, + But basely stole what less barbarians won. + So when the Lion quits his fell repast, + Next prowls the Wolf, the filthy Jackal last: [xiii] + Flesh, limbs, and blood the former make their own, + The last poor brute securely gnaws the bone. + Yet still the Gods are just, and crimes are crossed: + See here what Elgin won, and what he lost! + Another name with _his_ pollutes my shrine: + Behold where Dian's beams disdain to shine! 120 + Some retribution still might Pallas claim, + When Venus half avenged Minerva's shame." [9] + + She ceased awhile, and thus I dared reply, + To soothe the vengeance kindling in her eye: + "Daughter of Jove! in Britain's injured name, [xiv] + A true-born Briton may the deed disclaim. + Frown not on England; England owns him not: + Athena, no! thy plunderer was a Scot. + Ask'st thou the difference? From fair Phyles' towers + Survey Boeotia;--Caledonia's ours. 130 + And well I know within that bastard land [10] + Hath Wisdom's goddess never held command; + A barren soil, where Nature's germs, confined + To stern sterility, can stint the mind; + Whose thistle well betrays the niggard earth, + Emblem of all to whom the Land gives birth; + Each genial influence nurtured to resist; + A land of meanness, sophistry, and mist. [xv] + Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain + Dilutes with drivel every drizzly brain, 140 + Till, burst at length, each wat'ry head o'erflows, + Foul as their soil, and frigid as their snows: + Then thousand schemes of petulance and pride + Despatch her scheming children far and wide; + Some East, some West, some--everywhere but North! + In quest of lawless gain, they issue forth. + And thus--accursed be the day and year! + She sent a Pict to play the felon here. + Yet Caledonia claims some native worth, [11] + As dull Boeotia gave a Pindar birth; 150 + So may her few, the lettered and the brave, + Bound to no clime, and victors of the grave, + Shake off the sordid dust of such a land, + And shine like children of a happier strand; + As once, of yore, in some obnoxious place, + Ten names (if found) had saved a wretched race." + + "Mortal!" the blue-eyed maid resumed, "once more + Bear back my mandate to thy native shore. [12] + Though fallen, alas! this vengeance yet is mine, + To turn my counsels far from lands like thine. 160 + Hear then in silence Pallas' stern behest; + Hear and believe, for Time will tell the rest. + + "First on the head of him who did this deed + My curse shall light,--on him and all his seed: + Without one spark of intellectual fire, + Be all the sons as senseless as the sire: + If one with wit the parent brood disgrace, + Believe him bastard of a brighter race: + Still with his hireling artists let him prate, + And Folly's praise repay for Wisdom's hate; 170 + Long of their Patron's gusto let them tell, + Whose noblest, _native_ gusto is--to sell: + To sell, and make--may shame record the day!-- + The State--Receiver of his pilfered prey. + Meantime, the flattering, feeble dotard, West, + Europe's worst dauber, and poor Britain's best, + With palsied hand shall turn each model o'er, + And own himself an infant of fourscore. [13] + Be all the Bruisers culled from all St. Giles', + That Art and Nature may compare their styles; [xvi] 180 + While brawny brutes in stupid wonder stare, + And marvel at his Lordship's 'stone shop' there. [14] + Round the thronged gate shall sauntering coxcombs creep + To lounge and lucubrate, to prate and peep; + While many a languid maid, with longing sigh, + On giant statues casts the curious eye; + The room with transient glance appears to skim, + Yet marks the mighty back and length of limb; + Mourns o'er the difference of _now_ and _then_; + Exclaims, 'These Greeks indeed were proper men!' 190 + Draws slight comparisons of 'these' with 'those', [xvii] + And envies Laïs all her Attic beaux. + When shall a modern maid have swains like these? [xviii] + Alas! Sir Harry is no Hercules! + And last of all, amidst the gaping crew, + Some calm spectator, as he takes his view, + In silent indignation mixed with grief, + Admires the plunder, but abhors the thief. + Oh, loathed in life, nor pardoned in the dust, + May Hate pursue his sacrilegious lust! 200 + Linked with the fool that fired the Ephesian dome, + Shall vengeance follow far beyond the tomb, [15] + And Eratostratus [16] and Elgin shine + In many a branding page and burning line; + Alike reserved for aye to stand accursed, + Perchance the second blacker than the first. + + "So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, + Fixed statue on the pedestal of Scorn; + Though not for him alone revenge shall wait, + But fits thy country for her coming fate: 210 + Hers were the deeds that taught her lawless son + To do what oft Britannia's self had done. + Look to the Baltic--blazing from afar, + Your old Ally yet mourns perfidious war. [17] + Not to such deeds did Pallas lend her aid, + Or break the compact which herself had made; + Far from such counsels, from the faithless field + She fled--but left behind her Gorgon shield; + A fatal gift that turned your friends to stone, + And left lost Albion hated and alone. 220 + + "Look to the East, [18] where Ganges' swarthy race + Shall shake your tyrant empire to its base; + Lo! there Rebellion rears her ghastly head, + And glares the Nemesis of native dead; + Till Indus rolls a deep purpureal flood, + And claims his long arrear of northern blood. + So may ye perish!--Pallas, when she gave + Your free-born rights, forbade ye to enslave. + + "Look on your Spain!--she clasps the hand she hates, + But boldly clasps, and thrusts you from her gates. 230 + Bear witness, bright Barossa! [19] thou canst tell + Whose were the sons that bravely fought and fell. + But Lusitania, kind and dear ally, + Can spare a few to fight, and sometimes fly. + Oh glorious field! by Famine fiercely won, + The Gaul retires for once, and all is done! + But when did Pallas teach, that one retreat + Retrieved three long Olympiads of defeat? + + "Look last at home--ye love not to look there + On the grim smile of comfortless despair: 240 + Your city saddens: loud though Revel howls, + Here Famine faints, and yonder Rapine prowls. + See all alike of more or less bereft; + No misers tremble when there's nothing left. + 'Blest paper credit;' [20] who shall dare to sing? + It clogs like lead Corruption's weary wing. + Yet Pallas pluck'd each Premier by the ear, + Who Gods and men alike disdained to hear; + But one, repentant o'er a bankrupt state, + On Pallas calls,--but calls, alas! too late: 250 + Then raves for'----'; to that Mentor bends, + Though he and Pallas never yet were friends. + Him senates hear, whom never yet they heard, + Contemptuous once, and now no less absurd. + So, once of yore, each reasonable frog, + Swore faith and fealty to his sovereign 'log.' + Thus hailed your rulers their patrician clod, + As Egypt chose an onion [21] for a God. + + "Now fare ye well! enjoy your little hour; + Go, grasp the shadow of your vanished power; 260 + Gloss o'er the failure of each fondest scheme; + Your strength a name, your bloated wealth a dream. + Gone is that Gold, the marvel of mankind. + And Pirates barter all that's left behind. [22] + No more the hirelings, purchased near and far, + Crowd to the ranks of mercenary war. + The idle merchant on the useless quay + Droops o'er the bales no bark may bear away; + Or, back returning, sees rejected stores + Rot piecemeal on his own encumbered shores: 270 + The starved mechanic breaks his rusting loom, + And desperate mans him 'gainst the coming doom. + Then in the Senates of your sinking state + Show me the man whose counsels may have weight. + Vain is each voice where tones could once command; + E'en factions cease to charm a factious land: + Yet jarring sects convulse a sister Isle, + And light with maddening hands the mutual pile. + + "'Tis done, 'tis past--since Pallas warns in vain; + The Furies seize her abdicated reign: 280 + Wide o'er the realm they wave their kindling brands, + And wring her vitals with their fiery hands. + But one convulsive struggle still remains, [xix] + And Gaul shall weep ere Albion wear her chains, + The bannered pomp of war, the glittering files, [xx] + O'er whose gay trappings stern Bellona smiles; + The brazen trump, the spirit-stirring drum, + That bid the foe defiance ere they come; + The hero bounding at his country's call, + The glorious death that consecrates his fall, 290 + Swell the young heart with visionary charms. + And bid it antedate the joys of arms. + But know, a lesson you may yet be taught, + With death alone are laurels cheaply bought; + Not in the conflict Havoc seeks delight, + His day of mercy is the day of fight. + But when the field is fought, the battle won, + Though drenched with gore, his woes are but begun: + His deeper deeds as yet ye know by name; + The slaughtered peasant and the ravished dame, 300 + The rifled mansion and the foe-reaped field, + Ill suit with souls at home, untaught to yield. + Say with what eye along the distant down + Would flying burghers mark the blazing town? + How view the column of ascending flames + Shake his red shadow o'er the startled Thames? + Nay, frown not, Albion! for the torch was thine + That lit such pyres from Tagus to the Rhine: + Now should they burst on thy devoted coast, + Go, ask thy bosom who deserves them most? 310 + The law of Heaven and Earth is life for life, + And she who raised, in vain regrets, the strife." + + + +[Footnote 1: The lines (1-54) with which the Satire begins, down to "As +thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane," first appeared (1814) as the +opening stanza of the Third Canto of 'The Corsair'. At that time the +publication of 'The Curse of Minerva' had been abandoned. (See Byron's +'note' to 'The Corsair', Canto III. st. i. line i.)] + + +[Footnote 2: Idra; 'The Corsair', III. st. i. line 7. Hydra, or Hydrea, +is an island on the east coast of the Peloponnese, between the gulfs of +Nauplia and Ægina. As an "isle of Greece" it had almost no history +until the War of Independence, when its chief town became a "city of +refuge" for the inhabitants of the Morea and Northern Greece. Byron was, +perhaps, the first poet to give it a name in song.] + + +[Footnote 3: Socrates drank the hemlock a short time before sunset (the +hour of execution), notwithstanding the entreaties of his disciples to +wait till the sun went down.] + + +[Footnote 4: The twilight in Greece is much shorter than in our own +country; the days in winter are longer, but in summer of less duration.] + + +[Footnote 5: The kiosk is a Turkish summer-house; the palm is without +the present walls of Athens, not far from the temple of Theseus, between +which and the tree the wall intervenes. Cephisus' stream is indeed +scanty, and Ilissus has no stream at all.] + + +[Footnote 6: + + "The Temple of Theseus is the most perfect ancient edifice in the + world. In this fabric, the most enduring stability, and a simplicity + of design peculiarly striking, are united with the highest elegance + and accuracy of workmanship." + +'Travels in Albania, etc.', by Lord Broughton (1858), i. 259.] + + +[Footnote 7: This is spoken of the city in general, and not of the +Acropolis in particular. The temple of Jupiter Olympius, by some +supposed the Pantheon, was finished by Hadrian; sixteen columns are +standing, of the most beautiful marble and architecture.] + + +[Footnote 8: The following lines, of which the first two were written on +the original 'MS'., are in Byron's handwriting:-- + + +"Aspice quos Scoto Pallas concedit honores; + Subter stat nomen, facta superque vide. +Scote miser! quamvis nocuisti Palladis ædi, + Infandum facinus vindicat ipsa Venus. +Pygmalion statuam pro sponsâ arsisse refertur; + Tu statuam rapias, Scote, sed uxor abest." + + +Compare 'Horace in London', by the authors of 'Rejected Addresses' +(James and Horace Smith), London, 1813, ode xv., "The Parthenon," +"'Pastor quum traheret per freta navibus'." + + +"And Hymen shall thy nuptial hopes consume, + Unless, like fond Pygmalion, thou canst wed +Statues thy hand could never give to bloom. + In wifeless wedlock shall thy life be led, +No marriage joys to bless thy solitary bed." + +[Lord Elgin's first marriage with Mary, daughter of William Hamilton +Nisbet, was dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1808.]] + + + +[Footnote 9: His lordship's name, and that of one who no longer bears +it, are carved conspicuously on the Parthenon; above, in a part not far +distant, are the torn remnants of the bassorelievos, destroyed in a vain +attempt to remove them. + +[On the Erechtheum there was deeply cut in a plaster wall the words-- + + "QUOD NON FECERUNT GOTI, + HOC FECERUNT SCOTI."]] + + +[Footnote 10: "Irish bastards," according to Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan. +["A wild Irish soldier in the Prussian Army," in Macklin's +'Love-à-la-Mode' (first played December 12, 1759).]] + + +[Footnote 11: Lines 149-156 not in original 'MS'.] + + +[Footnote 12: Compare 'Horace in London', ode xv:-- + + "All who behold my mutilated pile, + Shall brand its ravages with classic rage; + And soon a titled bard from Britain's isle + Thy country's praise and suffrage shall engage, + And fire with Athens' wrongs an angry age."] + + +[Footnote 13: Mr. West, on seeing the "Elgin Collection," (I suppose we +shall hear of the "Abershaw" and "Jack Shephard" collection) declared +himself a "mere tyro" in art. + +[Compare Letters of Benjamin West to the Earl of Elgin, February 6, +1809, March 20, 1811, published in W.R. Hamilton's 'Memorandum', 1811.]] + + +[Footnote 14: Poor Crib was sadly puzzled when the marbles were first +exhibited at Elgin House; he asked if it was not "a stone shop?"--He was +right; it 'is' a shop.] + + +[Footnote 15: Lines 202-265 are not in the MS.] + + +[Footnote 16: Herostratus or Eratostratus fired the temple of Artemis on +the same night that Alexander the Great was born. (See Plut., +'Alex'., 3, etc.)] + + +[Footnote 17: The affair of Copenhagen. Copenhagen was bombarded by sea +by Admiral Lord Gambier (1756-1833), and by land by General Lord +Cathcart (1755-1843), September 2-8, 1807. The citadel was given up to +the English, and the Danes surrendered their fleet, with all the naval +stores, and their arsenals and dockyards. The expedition was "promptly +and secretly equipped" by the British Government "with an activity and +celerity," says Koch ('Hist. of Europe', p. 214), "such as they had +never displayed in sending aid to their allies," with a view to +anticipate the seizure and appropriation of the Danish fleet by Napoleon +and Alexander (Green's 'Hist. English People' (1875), p. 799).]] + + +[Footnote 18: "The East" is brought within range of Minerva's curse, +'symmetriae causâ', and it is hard to say to which "rebellion" she +refers. A choice lies between the mutiny which broke out in 1809, during +Sir George Barlow's presidency of Madras, among the officers of the +Company's service, and which at one time threatened the continuance of +British sway in India; and later troubles, in 1810, arising from the +Pindárí hordes, who laid waste the villages of Central India and +Hindostan, and from the Pathans, who invaded Berar under Ameer Khan. But +here, as in lines 245-258 ('vide infra', p. 470, 'note' i), Byron is +taking toll of a note to 'Epics of the Ton', pp. 246, 247, which +enlarges on the mutiny of native soldiers which took place at Vellore in +1806, where several "European officers and a considerable portion of the +69th Regiment were massacred," in consequence of "an injudicious order +with respect to the dress of the Sepoys."--Gleig's 'History of the +British Empire in India' (1835), iii. 233, 'note'.]] + + +[Footnote 19: The victory of "bright Barossa," March 5, 1811, was +achieved by the sudden determination--"an inspiration rather than a +resolution," says Napier--of the British commander, General Graham +(Thomas, Lord Lynedoch, 1750-1843), to counter-march his troops, and +force the eminence known as the Cerro de Puerco, or hill of Barosa, +which had fallen into the hands of the French under Ruffin. Graham was +at this time second in command to the Spanish Captain-general, La Peña, +and at his orders, but under the impression that the hill would be +guarded by the Spanish troops, was making his way to a neighbouring +height. Meantime La Peña had withdrawn the corps of battle to a +distance, and left the hill covered with baggage and imperfectly +protected. Graham recaptured Barosa, and repulsed the French with heavy +loss, in an hour and a half. Napier affirms that La Peña "looked idly +on, neither sending his cavalry nor his horse artillery to the +assistance of his ally;" and testifies "that no stroke in aid of the +British was struck by a Spanish sabre that day." + +"Famine" may have raised the devil in the English troops, but it +prevented them from following up the victory. A further charge against +the Spaniards was that, after Barosa had been won, the English were left +for hours without food, and, as they had marched through the night +before they came into action, they could only look on while the French +made good their retreat. + +Two companies of the 20th Portuguese formed part of the British +contingent, and took part in the engagement. The year before, at Busaco +(September 27, 1810), the Portuguese had displayed signal bravery; but +at Gebora (February 19, 1811) "Madden's Portuguese, regardless of his +example and reproaches, shamefully turned their backs" (Napier's +'History of the Peninsular War' (1890), iii. 26, 98, 102-107).] + + + +[Footnote 20: + + "Blest paper credit! last and best supply, + That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly." + + (POPE.) + +[In February, 1811, a select committee of the House of Commons "on +commercial credit" recommended an advance of £6,000,000 to manufacturers +who were suffering from over-speculation. "Did they not know," asked +Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, March 21, "that they were adding +to the mass of paper at this moment in existence a sum of £6,000,000, as +if there was not paper enough already in the country, in order to +protect their commerce and manufactures from destruction?" Nevertheless, +the measure passed. The year before (February 19, 1810), a committee +which had sat under the presidency of Francis Horner, to inquire into +the cause of the high price of gold bullion (gold was worth £4. 10s. an +ounce), returned (June 10) a report urging the resumption of cash +payment at the end of two years. + +It has been suggested to the editor that the asterisks ('----') in line +251 (which are not filled up in Lord Stanhope's MS. of 'The Curse of +Minerva') stand for "Horner," and that Byron, writing at Athens in +March, 1811, was under the impression that Perceval would adopt sound +views on the currency question, and was not aware that he was strongly +anti-bullionist. On that supposition the two premiers are Portland and +Perceval, Horner is the Mentor, and Perceval (line 257) the "patrician +clod." To what extent Byron was 'au courant' with home politics when he +wrote the lines, it is impossible to say, and without such knowledge +some doubt must rest on any interpretation of the passage. But of its +genesis there is no doubt. Lady Ann Hamilton, in her estimate of Lord +Henry Petty, in 'Epics of the Ton' (p. 139), has something to say on +budget "figures"-- + + "Those imps which make the senses reel, and zounds! + Mistake a cypher for a thousand pounds;" + +and her note-writer comments thus: "It somewhat hurts the feelings to +see a minister stand up in his place, and after a very pretty exordium +to the budget, take up a bundle of papers from the table, gaze at the +incomprehensible calculations before him, stammer out a few confused +numbers, and then, with a rueful face, look over his shoulder to +V--ns--rt for assistance. How often have I grieved to see unhappy +A--d--g--n in this lamentable predicament!" Again, on Thellusson being +raised to the peerage as Lord Rendlesham, she asks-- + + "Say, shall we bend to titles thus bestowed, + And like the Egyptians, hail the calf a god? + With toads, asps, onions, ornament the shrine, + And reptiles own and pot-herbs things divine?" + +It is evident that Byron, uninspired by Pallas, turned to the 'Epics of +the Ton' for "copy," but whether he left a blank on purpose because +"Vansittart" (to whom Perceval did turn) would not scan, or, misled by +old newspapers, would have written "Horner," must remain a mystery.]] + + + +[Footnote 21: See the portrait of Spencer Perceval in the National +Portrait Gallery.] + + +[Footnote 22: The Deal and Dover traffickers in specie.] + + +[Footnote i: + + 'O'er the blue ocean way his'. + +['MS.'][A]] + + [Sub-Footnote A: The only MS. of 'The Curse of Minerva' which the + editor has seen, is in the possession of the Earl of Stanhope. A + second MS., formerly in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle, is + believed to have perished in a fire which broke out at Clumber in + 1879.] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'Nor yet forbears each long-abandoned shrine'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'Their 'varying azure mingled with the sky + Beneath his rays assumes a deeper dye'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'Behind his Delphian cliff'----. + +['Corsair', III. st. i. l. 18.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'The soul of him who'----. + +['Corsair, III. st. i. 1. 31.']] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'silver reign'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'How sweet and Silent, not a passing cloud + Hides her fair face with intervening shroud'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'seems to smile', + +['Corsair', III. st. i. 1. 54.]] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'Sad shrine'. + +['MS.']] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'Welcome to slaves, and foremost'. + +['MS'.] ] + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'Ah, Athens! scarce escaped from Turk and Goth, + Hell sends a paltry Scotchman worse than both.' + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'British peer'. + +['MS'.] ] + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'Sneaking Jackal'. + +['MS'.] ] + + +[Footnote xiv: + + 'guilty name'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xv: + + 'A land of liars, mountebanks, and Mist'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xvi: + + 'That Art may measure old and modern styles'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xvii: + + 'shy comparisons'. + +['MS'.] + + +[Footnote xviii: + + 'In sooth the Nymph 'twere no slight task to please + Since young Sir Harry, etc.' + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xix: + + 'Fallen is each dear bought friend on Foreign Coast + Or leagued to add you to the world you lost'. + +['MS'.]] + + +[Footnote xx: + + '----'the glittering file + The martial sounds that animate the while'. + +['MS'.]] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION TO 'THE WALTZ' + + +Byron spent the autumn of 1812 "by the waters of Cheltenham," and, +besides writing to order his 'Song of Drury Lane' (the address spoken at +the opening of the theatre, Oct. 10, 1812), he put in hand a 'Satire on +Waltzing'. It was published anonymously in the following spring; but, +possibly, because it was somewhat coolly received, he told Murray (April +21, 1813) "to contradict the report that he was the author of a certain +malicious publication on waltzing." In his memoranda "chiefly with +reference to my Byron," Moore notes "Byron's hatred of waltzing," and +records a passage of arms between "the lame boy" and Mary Chaworth, +which arose from her "dancing with some person who was unknown to her." +Then, and always, he must have experienced the bitter sense of exclusion +from active amusements; but it is a hasty assumption that Byron only +denounced waltzing because he was unable to waltz himself. To modern +sentiment, on the moral side, waltzing is unassailable; but the first +impressions of spectators, to whom it was a novelty, were distinctly +unfavourable. + +In a letter from Germany (May 17, 1799) Coleridge describes a dance +round the maypole at Rübeland. + + "The dances were reels and the waltzes, but chiefly the latter; this + dance is in the higher circles sufficiently voluptuous, but here the + motions of it were 'far' more faithful interpreters of the passions." + +A year later, H.C. Robinson, writing from Frankfort in 1800 ('Diary and +Letters', i. 76), says, "The dancing is unlike anything you ever saw. +You must have heard of it under the name of waltzing, that is rolling +and turning, though the rolling is not horizontal but perpendicular. Yet +Werther, after describing his first waltz with Charlotte, says, and I +say so too, 'I felt that if I were married my wife should waltz (or +roll) with no one but myself.'" Ten years later, Gillray publishes a +caricature of the waltz, as a French dance, which he styles, "Le bon +Genre." It is not a pretty picture. By degrees, however, and with some +reluctance, society yielded to the fascinations of the stranger. + + "My cousin Hartington," writes Lady Caroline Lamb, in 1812 ('Memoirs + of Viscount Melbourne', by W.T. McCullagh Torrens, i. 105), "wanted to + have waltzes and quadrilles; and at Devonshire House it could not be + allowed, so we had them in the great drawing-room at Whitehall. All + the 'bon ton' assembled there continually. There was nothing so + fashionable." + +"No event," says Thomas Raikes ('Personal Reminiscences', p. 284), ever +produced so great a sensation in English society as the introduction of +the German waltz.... Old and young returned to school, and the mornings +were now absorbed at home in practising the figures of a French +quadrille or whirling a chair round the room to learn the step and +measure of the German waltz. The anti-waltzing party took the alarm, +cried it down; mothers forbad it, and every ballroom became a scene of +feud and contention. The foreigners were not idle in forming their +'élèves'; Baron Tripp, Neumann, St. Aldegonde, etc., persevered in spite +of all prejudices which were marshalled against them. It was not, +however, till Byron's "malicious publication" had been issued and +forgotten that the new dance received full recognition. "When," Raikes +concludes, "the Emperor Alexander was seen waltzing round the room at +Almack's with his tight uniform and numerous decorations," or [Gronow, +'Recollections', 1860, pp. 32, 33] "Lord Palmerston might have been seen +describing an infinite number of circles with Madame de Lieven," insular +prejudices gave way, and waltzing became general. + + + + + + + + +THE WALTZ: + +AN APOSTROPHIC HYMN. + +BY HORACE HORNEM, ESQ. + + + + + "Qualis in Eurotæ ripis, aut per juga Cynthi, + Exercet DIANA choros." + + + VIRGIL, 'Æn'. i. 502. + + + + "Such on Eurotas's banks, or Cynthus's height, + Diana seems: and so she charms the sight, + When in the dance the graceful goddess leads + The quire of nymphs, and overtops their heads." + + + DRYDEN'S _Virgil_. + + + + +NOTE. + +The title-page of the first edition (4to.) of _The Waltz_ bears the +imprint: + +London: +Printed by S. Gosnell, +Little Queen Street, Holborn. +For Sherwood, Neely and Jones, +Paternoster Row. 1813. +(Price Three Shillings.) + + +Successive Revises had run as follows:-- + +i. London: Printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street, Piccadilly. By S. +Gosnell, Little Queen Street. 1813. + +ii. Cambridge: Printed by G. Maitland. For John Murray, etc. + +iii. Cambridge: Printed by G. Maitland. For Sherwood, Neely and Jones, +Paternoster Row. 1813. + +For the Bibliography of _The Waltz_, see vol. vi. of the present issue. + + + + +TO THE PUBLISHER. + +SIR, + +I am a country Gentleman of a midland county. I might have been a +Parliament-man for a certain borough; having had the offer of as many +votes as General T. at the general election in 1812. [1] But I was all +for domestic happiness; as, fifteen years ago, on a visit to London, I +married a middle-aged Maid of Honour. We lived happily at Hornem Hall +till last Season, when my wife and I were invited by the Countess of +Waltzaway (a distant relation of my Spouse) to pass the winter in town. +Thinking no harm, and our Girls being come to a marriageable (or, as +they call it, 'marketable') age, and having besides a Chancery suit +inveterately entailed upon the family estate, we came up in our old +chariot,--of which, by the bye, my wife grew so ashamed in less than a +week, that I was obliged to buy a second-hand barouche, of which I might +mount the box, Mrs. H. says, if I could drive, but never see the +inside--that place being reserved for the Honourable Augustus Tiptoe, +her partner-general and Opera-knight. Hearing great praises of Mrs. H.'s +dancing (she was famous for birthnight minuets in the latter end of the +last century), I unbooted, and went to a ball at the Countess's, +expecting to see a country dance, or, at most, Cotillons, reels, and all +the old paces to the newest tunes, But, judge of my surprise, on +arriving, to see poor dear Mrs. Hornem with her arms half round the +loins of a huge hussar-looking gentleman I never set eyes on before; and +his, to say truth, rather more than half round her waist, turning round, +and round, to a d----d see-saw up-and-down sort of tune, that reminded +me of the "Black Joke," only more "'affettuoso'"[1] till it made me +quite giddy with wondering they were not so. By and by they stopped a +bit, and I thought they would sit or fall down:--but no; with Mrs. H.'s +hand on his shoulder, "'Quam familiariter'"[2] (as Terence said, when I +was at school,) they walked about a minute, and then at it again, like +two cock-chafers spitted on the same bodkin. I asked what all this +meant, when, with a loud laugh, a child no older than our Wilhelmina (a +name I never heard but in the 'Vicar of Wakefield', though her mother +would call her after the Princess of Swappenbach,) said, "L--d! Mr. +Hornem, can't you see they're valtzing?" or waltzing (I forget which); +and then up she got, and her mother and sister, and away they went, and +round-abouted it till supper-time. Now that I know what it is, I like it +of all things, and so does Mrs. H. (though I have broken my shins, and +four times overturned Mrs. Hornem's maid, in practising the preliminary +steps in a morning). Indeed, so much do I like it, that having a turn +for rhyme, tastily displayed in some election ballads, and songs in +honour of all the victories (but till lately I have had little practice +in that way), I sat down, and with the aid of William Fitzgerald, Esq., +and a few hints from Dr. Busby, (whose recitations I attend, and am +monstrous fond of Master Busby's manner of delivering his father's late +successful "Drury Lane Address,")[1] I composed the following hymn, +wherewithal to make my sentiments known to the Public; whom, +nevertheless, I heartily despise, as well as the critics. + +I am, Sir, yours, etc., etc. + +HORACE HORNEM. + + +[Footnote 1: State of the poll (last day) 5. + +[General Tarleton (1754-1833) contested Liverpool in October, 1812. For +three days the poll stood at five, and on the last day, eleven. Canning +and Gascoigne were the successful candidates.]] + + +[Footnote 2: More expressive.--[_MS_.] + +[Footnote 3: My Latin is all forgotten, if a man can be said to have +forgotten what he never remembered; but I bought my title-page motto of +a Catholic priest for a three-shilling bank token, after much haggling +for the even sixpence. I grudged the money to a papist, being all for +the memory of Perceval and "No popery," and quite regretting the +downfall of the pope, because we can't burn him any more.--[Revise No. +2.] ] + + +[Footnote 4: See 'Rejected Addresses'.] + + + + + +THE WALTZ + + + + Muse of the many-twinkling feet! [1] whose charms + Are now extended up from legs to arms; + Terpsichore!--too long misdeemed a maid-- + Reproachful term--bestowed but to upbraid-- + Henceforth in all the bronze of brightness shine, [i] + The least a Vestal of the Virgin Nine. + Far be from thee and thine the name of Prude: + Mocked yet triumphant; sneered at, unsubdued; + Thy legs must move to conquer as they fly, + If but thy coats are reasonably high! 10 + Thy breast--if bare enough--requires no shield; + Dance forth--_sans armour_ thou shalt take the field + And own--impregnable to _most_ assaults, + Thy not too lawfully begotten "Waltz." + + Hail, nimble Nymph! to whom the young hussar, [2] + The whiskered votary of Waltz and War, + His night devotes, despite of spur and boots; + A sight unmatched since Orpheus and his brutes: + Hail, spirit-stirring Waltz!--beneath whose banners + A modern hero fought for modish manners; 20 + On Hounslow's heath to rival Wellesley's [3] fame, + Cocked, fired, and missed his man--but gained his aim; + Hail, moving muse! to whom the fair one's breast + Gives all it can, and bids us take the rest. + Oh! for the flow of Busby, [4] or of Fitz, + The latter's loyalty, the former's wits, + To "energise the object I pursue," + And give both Belial and his Dance their due! [ii] + + Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine + (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine), 30 + Long be thine import from all duty free, + And Hock itself be less esteemed than thee; + In some few qualities alike--for Hock + Improves our cellar--_thou_ our living stock. + The head to Hock belongs--thy subtler art + Intoxicates alone the heedless heart: + Through the full veins thy gentler poison swims, + And wakes to Wantonness the willing limbs. + + Oh, Germany! how much to thee we owe, + As heaven-born Pitt can testify below, 40 + Ere cursed Confederation made thee France's, + And only left us thy d--d debts and dances! [5] + Of subsidies and Hanover bereft, + We bless thee still--George the Third is left! + Of kings the best--and last, not least in worth, + For graciously begetting George the Fourth. + To Germany, and Highnesses serene, + Who owe us millions--don't we owe the Queen? + To Germany, what owe we not besides? + So oft bestowing Brunswickers and brides; 50 + Who paid for vulgar, with her royal blood, + Drawn from the stem of each Teutonic stud: + Who sent us--so be pardoned all her faults-- + A dozen dukes, some kings, a Queen--and Waltz. + + But peace to her--her Emperor and Diet, + Though now transferred to Buonapartè's "fiat!" + Back to my theme--O muse of Motion! say, + How first to Albion found thy Waltz her way? + + Borne on the breath of Hyperborean gales, + From Hamburg's port (while Hamburg yet had _mails_), 60 + Ere yet unlucky Fame--compelled to creep + To snowy Gottenburg-was chilled to sleep; + Or, starting from her slumbers, deigned arise, + Heligoland! to stock thy mart with lies; [iii] + While unburnt Moscow [6] yet had news to send, + Nor owed her fiery Exit to a friend, + She came--Waltz came--and with her certain sets + Of true despatches, and as true Gazettes; + Then flamed of Austerlitz the blest despatch, [7] + Which _Moniteur_ nor _Morning Post_ can match 70 + And--almost crushed beneath the glorious news-- + Ten plays, and forty tales of Kotzebue's; [8] + One envoy's letters, six composer's airs, + And loads from Frankfort and from Leipsic fairs: + Meiners' four volumes upon Womankind, [9] + Like Lapland witches to ensure a wind; + Brunck's heaviest tome for ballast, [10] and, to back it, + Of Heynè, [11] such as should not sink the packet. [iv] + + Fraught with this cargo--and her fairest freight, + Delightful Waltz, on tiptoe for a Mate, 80 + The welcome vessel reached the genial strand, + And round her flocked the daughters of the land. + Not decent David, when, before the ark, + His grand _Pas-seul_ excited some remark; + Not love-lorn Quixote, when his Sancho thought + The knight's _Fandango_ friskier than it ought; + Not soft Herodias, when, with winning tread, + Her nimble feet danced off another's head; + Not Cleopatra on her Galley's Deck, + Displayed so much of _leg_ or more of _neck_, 90 + Than Thou, ambrosial Waltz, when first the Moon + Beheld thee twirling to a Saxon tune! + + To You, ye husbands of ten years! whose brows + Ache with the annual tributes of a spouse; + To you of nine years less, who only bear + The budding sprouts of those that you _shall_ wear, + With added ornaments around them rolled + Of native brass, or law-awarded gold; + To You, ye Matrons, ever on the watch + To mar a son's, or make a daughter's match; 100 + To You, ye children of--whom chance accords-- + _Always_ the Ladies, and _sometimes_ their Lords; + To You, ye single gentlemen, who seek + Torments for life, or pleasures for a week; + As Love or Hymen your endeavours guide, + To gain your own, or snatch another's bride;-- + To one and all the lovely Stranger came, + And every Ball-room echoes with her name. + + Endearing Waltz!--to thy more melting tune + Bow Irish Jig, and ancient Rigadoon. [12] 110 + Scotch reels, avaunt! and Country-dance forego + Your future claims to each fantastic toe! + Waltz--Waltz alone--both legs and arms demands, + Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands; + Hands which may freely range in public sight + Where ne'er before--but--pray "put out the light." + Methinks the glare of yonder chandelier + Shines much too far--or I am much too near; + And true, though strange--Waltz whispers this remark, + "My slippery steps are safest in the dark!" 120 + But here the Muse with due decorum halts, + And lends her longest petticoat to "Waltz." + + Observant Travellers of every time! + Ye Quartos published upon every clime! + 0 say, shall dull _Romaika's_ heavy round, + _Fandango's_ wriggle, or _Bolero's_ bound; + Can Egypt's _Almas_ [13]--tantalising group-- + Columbia's caperers to the warlike Whoop-- + Can aught from cold Kamschatka to Cape Horn + With Waltz compare, or after Waltz be born? 130 + Ah, no! from Morier's pages down to Galt's, [14] + Each tourist pens a paragraph for "Waltz." + + Shades of those Belles whose reign began of yore, + With George the Third's--and ended long before!-- + Though in your daughters' daughters yet you thrive, [v] + Burst from your lead, and be yourselves alive! + Back to the Ball-room speed your spectred host, + Fool's Paradise is dull to that you lost. [vi] + No treacherous powder bids Conjecture quake; + No stiff-starched stays make meddling fingers ache; [vii] 140 + (Transferred to those ambiguous things that ape + Goats in their visage, [15] women in their shape;) + No damsel faints when rather closely pressed, + But more caressing seems when most caressed; + Superfluous Hartshorn, and reviving Salts, + Both banished by the sovereign cordial "Waltz." + + Seductive Waltz!--though on thy native shore + Even Werter's self proclaimed thee half a whore; + Werter--to decent vice though much inclined, + Yet warm, not wanton; dazzled, but not blind-- 150 + Though gentle Genlis, [16] in her strife with Staël, + Would even proscribe thee from a Paris ball; + The fashion hails--from Countesses to Queens, + And maids and valets waltz behind the scenes; + Wide and more wide thy witching circle spreads, + And turns--if nothing else--at least our _heads_; + With thee even clumsy cits attempt to bounce, + And cockney's practise what they can't pronounce. + Gods! how the glorious theme my strain exalts, + And Rhyme finds partner Rhyme in praise of "Waltz!" 160 + Blest was the time Waltz chose for her _début_! + The Court, the Regent, like herself were new; [17] + New face for friends, for foes some new rewards; + New ornaments for black-and royal Guards; [viii] + New laws to hang the rogues that roared for bread; + New coins (most new) [18] to follow those that fled; + New victories--nor can we prize them less, + Though Jenky [19] wonders at his own success; + New wars, because the old succeed so well, + That most survivors envy those who fell; 170 + New mistresses--no, old--and yet 'tis true, + Though they be _old_, the _thing_ is something new; + Each new, quite new--(except some ancient tricks), [20] + New white-sticks--gold-sticks--broom-sticks--_all new sticks_! + With vests or ribands--decked alike in hue, + New troopers strut, new turncoats blush in blue: + So saith the Muse: my----, [21] what say you? + Such was the time when Waltz might best maintain + Her new preferments in this novel reign; + Such was the time, nor ever yet was such; 180 + Hoops are _ more_, and petticoats _not much_; + Morals and Minuets, Virtue and her stays, + And tell-tale powder--all have had their days. + The Ball begins--the honours of the house + First duly done by daughter or by spouse, + Some Potentate--or royal or serene-- + With Kent's gay grace, or sapient Gloster's mien, [ix] + Leads forth the ready dame, whose rising flush + Might once have been mistaken for a blush. + From where the garb just leaves the bosom free, 190 + That spot where hearts [22] were once supposed to be; + Round all the confines of the yielded waist, + The strangest hand may wander undisplaced: + The lady's in return may grasp as much + As princely paunches offer to her touch. + Pleased round the chalky floor how well they trip + One hand reposing on the royal hip! [23] + The other to the shoulder no less royal + Ascending with affection truly loyal! + Thus front to front the partners move or stand, 200 + The foot may rest, but none withdraw the hand; + And all in turn may follow in their rank, + The Earl of--Asterisk--and Lady--Blank; + Sir--Such-a-one--with those of fashion's host, [x] [24] + For whose blest surnames--vide "Morning Post." + (Or if for that impartial print too late, + Search Doctors' Commons six months from my date)-- + Thus all and each, in movement swift or slow, + The genial contact gently undergo; + Till some might marvel, with the modest Turk, 210 + If "nothing follows all this palming work?" [25] + True, honest Mirza!--you may trust my rhyme-- + Something does follow at a fitter time; + The breast thus publicly resigned to man, + In private may resist him--if it can. + + O ye who loved our Grandmothers of yore, + Fitzpatrick, [26] Sheridan, and many more! + And thou, my Prince! whose sovereign taste and will [xi] + It is to love the lovely beldames still! + Thou Ghost of Queensberry! [27] whose judging Sprite 220 + Satan may spare to peep a single night, + Pronounce--if ever in your days of bliss + Asmodeus struck so bright a stroke as this; + To teach the young ideas how to rise, + Flush in the cheek, and languish in the eyes; + Rush to the heart, and lighten through the frame, + With half-told wish, and ill-dissembled flame, + For prurient Nature still will storm the breast-- + _Who_, tempted thus, can answer for the rest? + + But ye--who never felt a single thought 230 + For what our Morals are to be, or ought; + Who wisely wish the charms you view to reap, + Say--would you make those beauties quite so cheap? + Hot from the hands promiscuously applied, + Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side, + Where were the rapture then to clasp the form + From this lewd grasp and lawless contact warm? [xii] + At once Love's most endearing thought resign, + To press the hand so pressed by none but thine; + To gaze upon that eye which never met 240 + Another's ardent look without regret; + Approach the lip which all, without restraint, + Come near enough--if not to touch--to taint; + If such thou lovest--love her then no more, + Or give--like her--caresses to a score; + Her Mind with these is gone, and with it go + The little left behind it to bestow. + + Voluptuous Waltz! and dare I thus blaspheme? + Thy bard forgot thy praises were his theme. + Terpsichore forgive!--at every Ball 250 + My wife _now_ waltzes--and my daughters _shall_; + _My_ son--(or stop--'tis needless to inquire-- + These little accidents should ne'er transpire; + Some ages hence our genealogic tree [xiii] + Will wear as green a bough for him as me)-- + Waltzing shall rear, to make our name amends + Grandsons for me--in heirs to all his friends. + + + +[Footnote 1: "Glance their many-twinkling feet."--GRAY.] + + +[Footnote 2: Lines 15-28 do not appear in the MS., but ten lines +(omitting lines 21-24) were inserted in Proof No. 1.] + + +[Footnote 3: To rival Lord Wellesley's, or his nephew's, as the reader +pleases:--the one gained a pretty woman, whom he deserved, by fighting +for; and the other has been fighting in the Peninsula many a long day, +"by Shrewsbury clock," without gaining anything in 'that' country but +the title of "the Great Lord," and "the Lord;" which savours of +profanation, having been hitherto applied only to that Being to whom +"'Te Deums'" for carnage are the rankest blasphemy.--It is to be +presumed the general will one day return to his Sabine farm: there + + "To tame the genius of the stubborn plain, + 'Almost as quickly' as he conquer'd Spain!" + +The Lord Peterborough conquered continents in a summer; we do more--we +contrive both to conquer and lose them in a shorter season. If the +"great Lord's" 'Cincinnatian' progress in agriculture be no speedier +than the proportional average of time in Pope's couplet, it will, +according to the farmer's proverb, be "ploughing with dogs." + +By the bye--one of this illustrious person's new titles is forgotten--it +is, however, worth remembering--"'Salvador del mundo!" credite, +posteri'! If this be the appellation annexed by the inhabitants of the +Peninsula to the name of a 'man' who has not yet saved them--query--are +they worth saving, even in this world? for, according to the mildest +modifications of any Christian creed, those three words make the odds +much against them in the next--"Saviour of the world," quotha!--it were +to be wished that he, or any one else, could save a corner of it--his +country. Yet this stupid misnomer, although it shows the near connection +between superstition and impiety, so far has its use, that it proves +there can be little to dread from those Catholics (inquisitorial +Catholics too) who can confer such an appellation on a 'Protestant'. I +suppose next year he will be entitled the "Virgin Mary;" if so, Lord +George Gordon himself would have nothing to object to such liberal +bastards of our Lady of Babylon. + +[William Pole-Wellesley (1785?-1857), afterwards fourth Lord Mornington, +a nephew of the great Duke of Wellington, married, in March, 1812, +Catharine, daughter and heiress of Sir Tylney Long, Bart. On his +marriage he added his wife's double surname to his own, and, thereby, +gave the wits their chance. In 'Rejected Addresses' Fitzgerald is made +to exclaim-- + + "Bless every man possess'd of aught to give, + Long may Long-Tilney-Wellesley-Long-Pole live." + +The principals in the duel to which Byron alludes were Wellesley-Pole +and Lord Kilworth. The occasion of the quarrel was a misconception of +some expression of Pole's at an assembly at Lady Hawarden's (August 6, +1811). A meeting took place on Wimbledon Common (August 9), at which the +seconds intervened, and everything was "amicably adjusted." Some days +later a letter appeared in the 'Morning Post' (August 14, 1811), signed +"Kilworth," to the effect that an apology had been offered and accepted. +This led to a second meeting on Hounslow Heath (August 15), when shots +were exchanged. Again the seconds intervened, and, after more +explanations, matters were finally arranged. A 'jeu d'esprit' which +appeared in the 'Morning Chronicle' (August 16, 1811) connects the +"mortal fracas" with Pole's prowess in waltzing at a fête at Wanstead +House, near Hackney, where, when the heiress had been wooed and won, his +guests used to dine at midnight after the opera. + + "Mid the tumult of waltzing and wild Irish reels, + A prime dancer, I'm sure to get at her-- + And by Love's graceful movements to trip up her heels, + Is the Long and the short of the matter."] + + + +[Footnote 4: Thomas Busby, Mus. Doc. (1755-1838), musical composer, and +author of 'A New and Complete Musical Dictionary', 1801, etc. He was +also a versifier. As early as 1785 he published 'The Age of Genius, A +Satire'; and, after he had ceased to compose music for the stage, +brought out a translation of Lucretius, which had long been in MS. His +"rejected address" on the reopening of Drury Lane Theatre, would have +been recited by his son (October 15), but the gallery refused to hear it +out. On the next night (October 16) "Master" Busby was more successful. +Byron's parody of Busby's address, which began with the line, "When +energising objects men pursue," is headed, "Parenthetical Address. By +Dr. Plagiary."] + + +[Footnote 5: The Confederation of the Rhine (1803-1813), by which the +courts of Würtemberg and Bavaria, together with some lesser +principalities, detached themselves from the Germanic Body, and accepted +the immediate protection of France.] + + + +[Footnote 6: The patriotic arson of our amiable allies cannot be +sufficiently commended--nor subscribed for. Amongst other details +omitted in the various [A] despatches of our eloquent ambassador, he did +not state (being too much occupied with the exploits of Colonel C----, +in swimming rivers frozen, and galloping over roads impassable,) that +one entire province perished by famine in the most melancholy manner, as +follows:--In General Rostopchin's consummate conflagration, the +consumption of tallow and train oil was so great, that the market was +inadequate to the demand: and thus one hundred and thirty-three thousand +persons were starved to death, by being reduced to wholesome diet! the +lamp-lighters of London have since subscribed a pint (of oil) a piece, +and the tallow-chandlers have unanimously voted a quantity of best +moulds (four to the pound), to the relief of the surviving +Scythians;--the scarcity will soon, by such exertions, and a proper +attention to the 'quality' rather than the quantity of provision, be +totally alleviated. It is said, in return, that the untouched Ukraine +has subscribed sixty thousand beeves for a day's meal to our suffering +manufacturers. + +[Hamburg fell to Napoleon's forces in 1810, and thence-forward the mails +from the north of Europe were despatched from Anholt, or Gothenberg, or +Heligoland. In 1811 an attempt to enforce the conscription resulted in +the emigration of numbers of young men of suitable age for military +service. The unfortunate city was deprived of mails and males at the +same time. Heligoland, which was taken by the British in 1807, and +turned into a depot for the importation of smuggled goods to French +territory, afforded a meeting-place for British and continental traders. +Mails from Heligoland detailed rumours of what was taking place at the +centres of war; but the newspapers occasionally threw doubts on the +information obtained from this source. Lord Cathcart's despatch, dated +November 23, appeared in the 'Gazette' December 16, 1812. The paragraph +which appealed to Byron's sense of humour is as follows: "The expedition +of Colonel Chernichef ('sic') [the Czar's aide-de-camp] was a continued +and extraordinary exertion, he having marched seven hundred wersts +('sic') in five days, and swam several rivers."] + + [Sub-Footnote A: Veracious despatches.--['MS. M'.] ] + + +[Footnote 7: Austerlitz was fought on Dec. 2, 1805. On Dec. 20 the +'Morning Chronicle' published a communication from a correspondent, +giving the substance of Napoleon's "Proclamation to the Army," issued on +the evening after the battle, which had reached Bourrienne, the French +minister at Hamburg. "An army," ran the proclamation, "of 100,000 men, +which was commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been in +less than four hours either cut off or dispersed." It was an official +note of this "blest despatch," forwarded by courier to Bath, which +brought "the heavy news" to Pitt, and, it is believed, hastened his +death.] + + +[Footnote 8: August Frederick Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819), whom +Coleridge appraised as "the German Beaumont and Fletcher without their +poetic powers," and Carlyle as "a bundle of dyed rags," wrote over a +hundred plays, publishing twenty within a few years. + +An adaptation of 'Misanthropy and Repentance' as 'The Stranger', +Sheridan's 'Pizarro', and Lewis' 'Castle Spectre' are well-known +instances of his powerful influence on English dramatists. + + "The Present," writes Sara Coleridge, in a note to one of her father's + letters, "will ever have her special votaries in the world of letters, + who collect into their focus, by a kind of burning-glass, the feelings + of the day. Amongst such Kotzebue holds a high rank. Those 'dyed rags' + of his once formed gorgeous banners, and flaunted in the eyes of + refined companies from London to Madrid, from Paris to + Moscow." + +Coleridge's 'Biographia Literaria' (1847), ii. 227.] + + +[Footnote 9: A translation of Christopher Meiner's 'History of the +Female Sex', in four volumes, was published in London in 1808. Lapland +wizards, not witches, were said to raise storms by knotting pieces of +string, which they exposed to the wind.] + + +[Footnote 10: Richard Franz Philippe Brunck (1729-1803). His editions of +the 'Anthologia Græca', and of the Greek dramatists are among his best +known works. Compare Sheridan's doggerel-- + + "Huge leaves of that great commentator, old Brunck, + Perhaps is the paper that lined my poor 'Trunk'."] + + +[Footnote 11: Christian Gottlob Heyne (1729-1812) published editions of +'Virgil' (1767-1775), 'Pindar' (1773), and 'Opuscula Academica', in six +vols. (1785-1812).] + + +[Footnote 12: A lively dance for one couple, characterized by a peculiar +jumping step. It probably originated in Provence.] + + +[Footnote 13: Dancing girls--who do for hire what Waltz doth gratis. + +[The Romaika is a modern Greek dance, characterized by serpentining +figures and handkerchief-throwing among the dancers. The Fandango +(Spaniards use the word "seguidilla") was of Moorish origin. The Bolero +was brought from Provence, circ. 1780. + + "The Bolero intoxicates, the Fandango +inflames" + +('Hist. of Dancing', by G. Vuillier-Heinemann, 1898).]] + + +[Footnote 14: For Morier, see note to line 211. Galt has a paragraph +descriptive of the waltzing Dervishes ('Voyages and Travels' (1812), +p.190).] + + +[Footnote 15: It cannot be complained now, as in the Lady Baussière's +time, of the "Sieur de la Croix," that there be "no whiskers;" but how +far these are indications of valour in the field, or elsewhere, may +still be questionable. Much may be, and hath been;[A] avouched on both +sides. In the olden time philosophers had whiskers, and soldiers +none--Scipio himself was shaven--Hannibal thought his one eye handsome +enough without a beard; but Adrian, the emperor, wore a beard (having +warts on his chin, which neither the Empress Sabina nor even the +courtiers could abide)--Turenne had whiskers, Marlborough +none--Buonaparte is unwhiskered, the Regent whiskered; "'argal'" +greatness of mind and whiskers may or may not go together; but certainly +the different occurrences, since the growth of the last mentioned, go +further in behalf of whiskers than the anathema of Anselm did +'against' long hair in the reign of Henry I.--Formerly, 'red' +was a favourite colour. See Lodowick Barrey's comedy of 'Ram +Alley', 1661; Act I. Scene I. + + 'Taffeta'. Now for a wager--What coloured beard comes next by the + window? + + 'Adriana'. A black man's, I think. + + 'Taffeta'. I think not so: I think a 'red', for that is most in + fashion. + +There is "nothing new under the sun:" but 'red', then a 'favourite', has +now subsided into a favourite's colour. [This is, doubtless, an allusion +to Lord Yarmouth, whose fiery whiskers gained him the nickname of "Red +Herrings."] + + [Sub-Footnote A: The paragraph "Much may be" down to "reign of Henry + I." was added in Revise 1, and the remainder of the note in Revise 2.]] + + + +[Footnote 16: Madame Genlis (Stephanie Félicité Ducrest, Marquise de +Sillery), commenting on the waltz, writes, + + "As a foreigner, I shall not take the liberty to censure this kind of + dance; but this I can say, that it appears intolerable to German + writers of superior merits who are not accused of severity of + manners," + +and by way of example instances M. Jacobi, who affirms that "Werther +('Sorrows of Werther', Letter ix.), the lover of Charlotte, swears that, +were he to perish for it, never should a girl for whom he entertained +any affection, and on whom he had honourable views, dance the waltz with +any other man besides himself."--'Selections from the Works of Madame de +Genlis' (1806), p. 65. + +Compare, too, "Faulkland" on country-dances in 'The Rivals', act ii. sc. +I, + + "Country-dances! jigs and reels! ... A minuet I could have forgiven + ... Zounds! had she made one in a cotillon--I believe I could have + forgiven even that--but to be monkey-led for a night! to run the + gauntlet through a string of amorous palming puppies ... Oh, Jack, + there never can be but one man in the world whom a truly modest and + delicate woman ought to pair with in a country-dance; and even then, + the rest of the couples should be her great-uncles and aunts!"] + + + +[Footnote 17: An anachronism--Waltz and the battle of Austerlitz are +before said to have opened the ball together; the bard means (if he +means anything), Waltz was not so much in vogue till the Regent attained +the acme of his popularity. Waltz, the comet, whiskers, and the new +government, illuminated heaven and earth, in all their glory, much about +the same time: of these the comet only has disappeared; the other three +continue to astonish us still.--'Printers Devil'. + +[As the 'Printer's Devil' intimates, the various novelties of the age of +"Waltz" are somewhat loosely enumerated. The Comet, which signalized +1811, the year of the restricted Regency, had disappeared before the +Prince and his satellites burst into full blaze in 1812. It was (see +'Historical Record of the Life Guards', 1835, p.177) in 1812 that the +Prince Regent commanded the following alterations to be made in the +equipments of the regiment of Life Guards: "Cocked hats with feathers to +be discontinued, and brass helmets with black horsehair crests +substituted. Long coats, trimmed with gold lace across the front. Shirts +and cuffs to be replaced by short coatees," etc., etc. In the same +branch of the service, whiskers were already in vogue. The "new laws" +were those embodied in the "Frame-work Bill," which Byron denounced in +his speech in the House of Lords, Feb. 27, 1812. Formerly the breaking +of frames had been treated "as a minor felony, punishable by +transportation for fourteen years," and the object of the bill was to +make such offences capital. The bill passed into law on March 5, and as +a result we read ('Annual Register', 1812, pp. 38, 39) that on May 24 a +special commission for the rioters of Cheshire was opened by Judge +Dallas at Chester. "His lordship passed the awful sentence of death upon +sixteen, and in a most impressioned address, held out not the smallest +hope of mercy." Of these five 'only' were hanged. + +Owing to the scarcity of silver coinage, the Bank of England was +empowered to issue bank-tokens for various sums (Mr. Hornem bought his +motto for 'The Waltz' with a three-shilling bank-token; see 'note' to +Preface) which came into circulation on July 9, 1811. The "new +ninepences" which were said to be forthcoming never passed into +circulation at all. A single "pattern" coin (on the obverse, 'Bank +Token, Ninepence, 1812') is preserved in the British Museum (see +privately printed 'Catalogue', by W. Boyne (1866), p.11). The "new +victories" were the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo (Jan. 17), the capture of +Badajoz (April 7), and the Battle of Salamanca (July 12, 1812). By way +of "new wars," the President of the United States declared war with +Great Britain on June 18, and Great Britain with the United States, Oct. +13, 1812. As to "new mistresses," for a reference to "'Our' Sultan's" +"she-promotions" of "those only plump and sage, Who've reached the +regulation age," see 'Intercepted Letters, or the Twopenny Post-bag', by +Thomas Brown the Younger, 1813, and for "gold sticks," etc., see +"Promotions" in the 'Annual Register' for March, 1812, in which a long +list of Household appointments is duly recorded.]] + + +[Footnote 18: Amongst others a new ninepence--a creditable coin now +forthcoming, worth a pound, in paper, at the fairest calculation.] + + +[Footnote 19: Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool, was +Secretary at War and for the Colonies from 1809 to 1812, in Spencer +Perceval's administration, and, on the assassination of the premier, +undertook the government. Both as Secretary at War and as Prime Minister +his chief efforts were devoted to the support of Wellington in the +Peninsula.] + + +[Footnote 20: "Oh that 'right' should thus overcome 'might!'" Who does +not remember the "delicate investigation" in the 'Merry Wives of +Windsor'?-- + + 'Ford'. Pray you, come near; if I suspect without cause, why then make + sport at me; then let me be your jest; I deserve it. How now? whither + bear you this? + + 'Mrs. Ford'. What have you to do whither they bear it?--You were best + meddle with buck-washing." + +[Act iii. sc. 3.] + + +[Footnote 21: The gentle, or ferocious, reader may fill up the blank as +he pleases--there are several dissyllabic names at 'his' service (being +already in the Regent's): it would not be fair to back any peculiar +initial against the alphabet, as every month will add to the list now +entered for the sweep-stakes;--a distinguished consonant is said to be +the favourite, much against the wishes of the 'knowing ones'.--['Revise'] + +[In the Revise the line, which is not in the MS., ran, "So saith the +Muse; my M----what say you?" The name intended to be supplied is +"Moira." + +On Perceval's death (May 11 1812), Lord Liverpool became Prime Minister, +but was unable to carry on the government. Accordingly the Prince Regent +desired the Marquis Wellesley and Canning to approach Lords Grey and +Grenville with regard to the formation of a coalition ministry. They +were unsuccessful, and as a next step Lord Moira (Francis Rawdon, first +Marquis of Hastings, 1754-1826) was empowered to make overtures in the +same quarter. The Whig Lords stipulated that the regulation of the +Household should rest with ministers, and to this Moira would not +consent, possibly because the Prince's favourite, Lord Yarmouth, was +Vice-Chamberlain. Negotiations were again broken off, and on June 9 +Liverpool began his long term of office as Prime Minister. + + "I sate," writes Byron, "in the debate or rather discussion in the + House of Lords on that question (the second negotiation) immediately + behind Moira, who, while Grey was speaking, turned round to me + repeatedly, and asked me whether I agreed with him. It was an awkward + question to me, who had not heard both sides. Moira kept repeating to + me, 'It is 'not' so; it is so and so,'" etc. + +(Letter to W. Bankes (undated), 'Life', p. 162). Hence the question, "My +Moira, what say you?"] + + +[Footnote 22: + + "We have changed all that," says the Mock Doctor--'tis all + gone--Asmodeus knows where. After all, it is of no great importance + how women's hearts are disposed of; they have nature's privilege to + distribute them as absurdly as possible. But there are also some men + with hearts so thoroughly bad, as to remind us of those phenomena + often mentioned in natural history; viz. a mass of solid stone--only + to be opened by force--and when divided, you discover a _toad_ in the + centre, lively, and with the reputation of being venomous." + +[In the MS. the last sentence stood: "In this country there is _one man_ +with a heart so thoroughly bad that it reminds us of those unaccountable +petrifactions often mentioned in natural history," etc. The couplet-- + + "Such things we know are neither rich nor rare, + But wonder how the Devil they got there," + +which was affixed to the note, was subsequently erased.]] + + + +[Footnote 23: Compare Sheridan's lines on waltzing, which Moore +heard him "repeat in a drawing-room"-- + + "With tranquil step, and timid downcast glance, + Behold the well-pair'd couple now advance. + In such sweet posture our first parents moved, + While, hand in hand, through Eden's bower they roved. + Ere yet the devil, with promise fine and false, + Turned their poor heads, and taught them how to waltz. + One hand grasps hers, the other holds her hip. + ... + For so the law's laid down by Baron Trip."] + + +[Footnote 24: Lines 204-207 are not in the MS., but were added in a +revise.] + + +[Footnote 25: In Turkey a pertinent--here an impertinent and superfluous +question--literally put, as in the text, by a Persian to Morier, on +seeing a Waltz in Pera. [See 'A Journey through Persia', etc. By James +Morier, London (1812), p. 365.] + + +[Footnote 26: Richard Fitzpatrick (1747-1813), second son of John, first +Earl of Ossory, served in the first American War at the battles of +Brandywine and Germanstown. He sat as M.P. for Tavistock for +thirty-three years. The chosen friend and companion of Fox, he was a +prominent member of the opposition during the close of the eighteenth +century. In the ministry of "All the Talents" he was Secretary at War. +He dabbled in literature, was one of the authors of the 'Rolliad', and +in 1775 published 'Dorinda: A Town Eclogue'. He was noted for his social +gifts, and in recognition, it is said, of his "fine manners and polite +address," inherited a handsome annuity from the Duke of Queensberry. +Byron associates him with Sheridan as 'un homme galant' and leader of +'ton' of the past generation.] + + +[Footnote 27: William Douglas, third Earl of March and fourth Duke of +Queensberry (1724-1810), otherwise "old Q.," was conspicuous as a +"blood" and evil liver from youth to extreme old age. He was a patron of +the turf, a connoisseur of Italian Opera, and 'surtout' an inveterate +libertine. As a Whig, he held office in the Household during North's +Coalition Ministry, but throughout George the Third's first illness in +1788, displayed such indecent partisanship with the Prince of Wales, +that, when the king recovered, he lost his post. His dukedom died with +him, and his immense fortune was divided between the heirs to his other +titles and his friends. Lord Yarmouth, whose wife, Maria Fagniani, he +believed to be his natural daughter, was one of the principal legatees.] + + + +[Footnote i: + + 'Henceforth with due unblushing brightness shine'. + +['MS. M'.] ] + + +[Footnote ii: + + 'And weave a couplet worthy them and you.' + +['Proof'.] ] + + +[Footnote iii: + + 'To make Heligoland the mart for lies'. + +['MS. M'.] + + +[Footnote iv: + + 'As much of Heyne as should not sink the packet'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote v: + + 'Who in your daughters' daughters yet survive + Like Banquo's spirit be yourselves alive.' + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote vi: + + 'Elysium's ill exchanged for that you lost'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote vii: + + 'No stiff-starched stays make meddling lovers ache'. + +['MS. M'.]] + + +[Footnote viii: + + 'New caps and Jackets for the royal Guards'. + +['MS. M.']] + + +[Footnote ix: + + 'With K--t's gay grace, or silly-Billy's mien'. + +['MS. M.'] + + 'With K--t's gay grace, or G--r's booby mien'. + +['MS. erased'.] + + +[Footnote x: + + 'Sir--Such a one--with Mrs.--Miss So-so'. + +['Revise'.]] + + + +[Footnote xi: + + 'And thou my Prince whose undisputed will'. + +[MS. M.]] + + + +[Footnote xii: + + 'From this abominable contact warm'. + +['MS. M.']] + + + +[Footnote xiii: + + 'Some generations hence our Pedigree + Will never look the worse for him or me.' + +['MS, erased'.]] + + + + + + + + +END OF VOL. 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